Why is my journey to the world of anime a strange tale of rules?

Following Cat Brother, who was second in line, we arrived at the switch next to the gate. Cat Brother reached out and pressed it, and the red light immediately stopped, leaving only the pale white light of the streetlights outside.

"Was this lantern already hanging there?"

The young man, nicknamed "Taoist priest," looked up at the red lanterns covered in a thick layer of dust, thought for a moment, and then asked.

"It was already hanging there when I bought this place last year. It was just a spare spot, so I didn't take it down."

Cat Brother nodded, seemingly unconcerned.

"These old lanterns have been hanging for two years in a row. They must have accumulated a lot of bad luck. Let's take them down."

The Taoist priest shook his head as he spoke, seemingly quite concerned about the matter.

Xiao Guo scouted the area several more times but found nothing, so he returned. As a scout for the "Slacking Off Gang," if he didn't find anything, then there really was nothing left.

Judging from this, it seems that tonight will only involve some scary tricks, and nothing real will come to our door.

call--

As Cat Brother was thinking this, another gust of cold wind blew by. With a rustling sound, half of the large red "福" (good fortune) character, which had been stuck to the door and was now loose, came off and swayed in the wind.

The characters on the couplets on both sides of the gate are blurred and indistinct, and the remaining characters seem to have melted and spread out.

Standing at the doorway, facing the chilling wind, Cat Brother remained silent for a while. Then, as he turned to go back inside, he noticed some details and stopped, looking at the window next to the door, at the brightly lit living room inside, and at the television playing a program.

"Has any of you turned on the TV before?"

"No, I've been guarding the door the whole time."

"I do not have."

The expected Q&A.

Although I hadn't noticed this before, it's impossible for me not to know whether the TV is on or off.

Cat Brother glanced inside again but didn't see any signs of activity. However, the TV program playing was some kind of opera. It looked like a very simple rural stage, and there seemed to be two people singing on stage. Their makeup was very exaggerated, and it was impossible to tell whether they were male or female.

I can't hear much sound. Although there's a picture on the TV, the sound doesn't seem to be coming out. It might be a change caused by something interfering with reality; I'll have to try it.

"Brother Cat, there's something here."

Before the man could make a move, Xiao Guo suddenly spoke up again.

Cat, sensing the problem in the other person's tone, turned around and found him gripping the door, gesturing to him with his eyes.

From Cat Brother's perspective, he could naturally tell that there was no one behind the half-open door.

So he slowly walked forward, went to the peephole of the door, and slowly leaned closer to look at the other side of the peephole.

Gently blink your eyes.

The man remained silent, simply watching.

He stared at the other side of the cat's eyes, at those bloodshot eyes that were fixed on him.

Then, he suddenly felt a slight coolness coming from the back of his neck.

Unlike the cold wind, it felt as if I was being caressed.

The feeling... was like someone standing behind him, gently blowing on him.

Interlude 3-65: The Crimson Moon-level Obsession [Soul-Stealing Bow] and the Sudden Anomaly

On the twelfth day after returning to the real world from the "Campus Ghost Stories," Xiong Mi gave Gao Hai a list containing the names of about a dozen members of Red Moon-level player teams. The vast majority of them were either captains or vice-captains, or very important members of their teams. Xiong Mi had provided detailed annotations, including their likes and dislikes, whether they were worth befriending, and in what situations they could offer help.

Those who make it onto Xiong Mi's list are at least Red Moon-level players who don't indiscriminately kill innocent people, won't harm other players for profit, possess certain principles, and are strong enough to not be threatened or harmed by other players of the same level. Therefore, it's worth getting to know them; they might become valuable allies in future dungeon explorations.

Most of the players listed are using nicknames; very few have given their real names. The team names corresponding to these players are also quite bizarre, such as "Deep Sea Pineapple," "Rogue Horseman," and "Undying Light-Seeker," making it hard not to suspect the identities of these people.

However, such minor issues are not important; the key is how to approach these people.

Although the decryption of Yelu Mountain Middle School and the Baidos Research Institute was ultimately successful, it also highlighted a very clear issue: as the situation inside the instance gradually became more complex, Gao Hai could hardly complete the decryption alone. He needed sufficiently excellent teammates who could help him complete various tasks under complex circumstances, assist him in gathering all the intelligence step by step to obtain all the prerequisite items for decrypting the core obsession, and only then could he solve all the problems in the final stretch.

Considering that Morihara Koji's core obsession has been taken away, and the Void has possessed Kita Ikuyo, as well as Dean Jonathan's automatic return at the end to solve the problem, although the final mission of [School Ghost Stories] can be considered as five cores, the situation that Takami's team actually faces can only be considered as two cores or at most three cores, which is not particularly complicated.

Even so, the situation in this mission was already so complex that Gao Hai was struggling to cope. And the upcoming fourth dungeon mission, Gao Hai instinctively felt, would be even more difficult, complex, and troublesome than the one at Yelu Mountain Middle School. Therefore, aside from the trustworthy girls in his already formed team, it was also worthwhile to connect with players from other teams; perhaps he could even develop a few friendly teams like the [Slacking Off Gang] or the [Red Knot Society].

However, one thing is still somewhat concerning: it seems the "Slacking Off Gang" doesn't intend to continue operating as a team with Gao Hai's group. Xiong Mi didn't elaborate, but it sounds like they've encountered some troublesome situation, making it impossible for them to find the time to cooperate with Gao Hai.

I don't know what kind of trouble it will be, but it should have nothing to do with me, right?

With this in mind, Gao Hai first wrote down the contact information of everyone on the list provided by Xiong Mi. He planned to meet with those people together with Zhen Fei and Qian Hua when they were free. In his opinion, these two girls were most suitable for external communication occasions, and in a sense, they were probably the girls Gao Hai trusted the most right now.

As for now, there is some very good news: Gao Hai and Jian Zi have finally identified the first Red Moon-level artifact among the obsessions of these fanatics.

Gao Hai decided to name this object of obsession the "Soul-Stealing Bow".

This is a large bow, about 1.5 meters long, entirely black, with black, foul blood soaking the bowstring and emitting a strong stench.

As a Crimson Moon-level artifact, this great bow automatically generates arrows upon drawing the bow. Furthermore, once aimed at a target, even if the target strays from the crosshair, the arrow will still curve to strike them. It is an artifact with extremely strong physical attack capabilities, while also possessing suppressive and sealing properties.

Yes, this artifact can suppress strange creatures similar to a suppression bomb, but its effect is much weaker; a single arrow can only suppress them for a maximum of ten minutes. Furthermore, generating the arrows requires the user's blood, and if the user loses control, it will backfire, draining the user's blood and causing them to go out of control. However, since Gao Hai decided to name this thing the "Soul-Stealing Bow," the situation is naturally not that simple.

According to Miko's observation, the truly terrifying aspect of this obsessive object lies in its ability to replicate the extraordinary power of the strange creature struck by an arrow.

Yes, if a monster is successfully struck by an arrow, a portion of its power will be absorbed by the arrow and transferred to the archer. This grants the archer a certain amount of special power while the monster is suppressed.

Considering the high energy consumption of arrows on the user and the need to expend effort to suppress the power of the monster, even Red Moon-level players would find it difficult to fire too many arrows continuously. However, with the Suppression Bullet, Gao Hai couldn't help but think of an optimized solution: [first use arrows to suppress the monster and absorb its power, then use the Suppression Bullet to extend the suppression time and eliminate the negative effects of absorbing power].

Hmm... Having multiple objects of obsession and blessings, combining different powers is indeed a pretty good way to improve.

However, although this bow has an automatic aiming function, due to the special nature of the obsession it contains, the user still needs to have a certain foundation in archery to use it, otherwise it is easy to be backfired by the power of the obsession.

According to Miko, this bow seemed to have originally belonged to a talented archery prodigy who gave up competitions due to family reasons. Miko didn't pay much attention to how the other person died to avoid revealing anything, but she still clearly saw the obsession characteristic stored on this thing. Only players whose talent was close to or exceeded that obsession in life could reduce the consumption when using this obsession item; otherwise, it would be extremely troublesome to use.

In other words, this thing can almost be considered tailor-made for Kaguya Shinomiya.

After all, among the high-ranking officials, only Kaguya herself possessed extremely strong archery skills, a genius who won first place in the national competition during junior high school. Now, after receiving new blessed power, the girl's archery has even improved further, to the point that it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that she has reached a level close to that of a deity.

"That solves the problem of one teammate's combat effectiveness."

Gao Hai was quite satisfied with this. The Bizen Osafune Xuan Guang weapon was too offensive and could easily backfire when used. This longbow, on the other hand, perfectly suited his need to enhance his teammates' strength. As for himself, although the ability to absorb the power of strange creatures was interesting, Gao Hai felt it was still somewhat inferior to the Suppression Bullet.

"Hmm, in that case, we've identified quite a few more obsession items. Distributing these to everyone seems like a troublesome matter. By the way, senpai, my mom isn't home tonight, so she didn't make me dinner. Shall we go out to eat together later?"

When they arrived at Gao Hai's house to appraise the object of obsession, Miko yawned and then raised her little hand to Gao Hai, suggesting something.

Actually, her mother had left dinner in advance, which could have been heated up in the microwave, but Jianzi wouldn't say such a thing.

"Well, of course."

Gao Hai simply nodded slightly, without giving it much thought.

The sky outside the window had darkened, and it was time for day and night to alternate. This meant that another day was coming to an end, and Gao Hai's month-long break in the real world was about to end.

Tsk, thinking about it that way, it's definitely a bit unpleasant.

"Well, it's about time now. Let's go outside and take a look. I remember there are a few newly opened restaurants nearby. Maybe there will be a good place among them."

He stood up and gestured for the girl to follow him.

Gao Hai and Jian Zi walked out of the house and onto the street, slowly making their way forward.

"Speaking of which, has the team name issue you mentioned earlier been decided yet?"

Seeing that Zi suddenly remembered something from before, he asked Gao Hai about it.

"That matter, well, to be honest, it hasn't been decided yet. Everyone hasn't come up with a consensus yet."

Gao Hai shook his head, a somewhat helpless expression on his face.

Naming their player team wasn't really important to Gao Hai; as long as it was a catchy name, that was enough. However, the girls were arguing quite a bit, so Gao Hai didn't know what to choose and simply gave up.

Among them, Chika, who was the most enthusiastic, suggested the name "Crystal Palace," believing that this name could directly express the relationship between the team members and was the most descriptive team name. However, she also received the strongest opposition. Apart from Hayasaka, who hesitated for a moment, Maki and Kaguya immediately expressed strong protests.

Kaguya suggested the name "Wheel of Time," while Maki thought "Rescue Team" would be more suitable. One focused on Takami's ability to rewind time, and the other on his key item, the Rescue Team badge. However, these two were quickly rejected because the existence of enemy players in addition to friendly players had to be considered. If the team name caused an information leak, it would defeat the purpose. Therefore, it was best to choose a name unrelated to the team's characteristics.

During the discussion about the team name, Gao Hai did not speak up to offer his ideas. Well... mainly because Chika faced too much opposition. After realizing that Maki and Kaguya both disliked quirky names, he simply gave up on his unspoken name, "Pink Furry Rabbit."

Seeing that Zi didn't say anything at the time, as she wasn't good at thinking about these things, she chose to observe the whole thing.

Hayasaka's suggestion gave everyone a moment to think. She suggested that regardless of their specific actions within the instance, Takami essentially saved one tragic person after another, so "Saviors" could be used as the team name. If that name seemed too grandiose, they could base it on their specific exploration and investigation activities within the instance, such as "Investigation Department" or "Root Investigation Team."

Although no final decision has been made yet, Gao Hai thinks that the final name will most likely be Hayasaka's proposal.

"Actually, I always felt that they were just using this naming as a joke. Once they've had their fun, they'll come up with a name that will be accepted by everyone. Anyway, I don't really care about this. As long as they don't come up with a name like 'Tall Nut' or 'JK Hunter,' I have no problem with it."

Gao Hai concluded by saying this.

{…}

Kita Ikuyo, who was floating behind, frowned and looked over when she heard this.

Aren't you a JK hunter?

Of all the girls you've dated, wasn't every single one a high school girl (JK)? You're clearly like that, yet you're too ashamed to admit it. And what does "tall nuts" mean? I don't quite understand; is this some kind of new joke?

Kita was a little confused, but she didn't show it and just continued to quietly follow Takami.

Soon, Takami and Miko found a small shop and casually had dinner. While eating, Takami even activated his sense of taste, allowing Kita, who was now only a spirit, to experience the feeling of eating. However, although Kita experienced the sensory resonance for a short while, for some reason, he soon disconnected and refused to continue the resonance.

Miko hummed a song softly, enjoying this very ordinary date with Gao Hai.

The two chatted for a while about the events of the past few days of the sports meet. Jianzi talked about her new classmates and the old classmates she had recently seen at the [Market]. Most of them only had brief memories of the mental hospital in the fourth time at Fujihana Middle School, so they were still in a state of panic. Few of them were able to calm down and accept the training at the Market to prepare for the next mission, so it was completely unknown how many of them would survive.

Gao Hai listened to Jianzi speak while nodding, occasionally chiming in with a few words or chuckling softly.

By the time they finished eating, paid the bill, and went outside, the sky was completely dark. Under the stark white streetlights, only Gao Hai and Jian Zi walked along the deserted street.

call--

A cold wind blew up the withered yellow leaves and the tattered paper coins.

Feeling a chill and a strange discomfort, Miko shrank back and subconsciously said, "It feels like the first time I went to my senior's house."

Gao Hai stopped the moment he saw the paper money, grabbed Jianzi's shoulder to signal her to stop, and looked up at the street ahead.

The dim red light radiated outwards.

The dark red "福" (good fortune) character has mostly fallen off and is fluttering in the cold wind.

The dark red door was covered with cracks, as if something was flowing out of these cracks, like wounds.

Ahead on this deserted road, where no one was around, Gao Hai saw a large, ancient-style mansion and a plaque above the gate that read "Li Family Courtyard".