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

However, the three historians didn't react much, and Chatchai even took the initiative to explain.

"To be precise, we did not achieve any communication with the monster."

"After we managed to limit the abilities of the monster, we activated the soul connected to the monster to a certain extent and communicated with that consciousness."

As Chachai spoke, he rolled up his sleeve, revealing a strange tattoo on his arm. Tangyuan, standing next to him, also pulled up his clothes, showing off a similar tattoo on one of his shoulders, while Li Xiaoxiao remained unmoved and had no intention of showing it off as well.

The special objects of obsession possessed by historians are called "divine rituals," which are extremely special objects of obsession that can achieve a near-mass production effect.

The object of obsession is essentially a set of tattoo tools, the ink of which requires the user's blood to be mixed with before it becomes effective. Players who receive the tattoo essentially possess a portion of the power granted by the object, allowing them to forcibly awaken the linked souls of non-derived spirits and thereby obtain information.

One thing many players often fail to realize is that the spirits of monsters and human souls are not the same thing. Although they are connected and bound together, they are completely different. This is quite normal, however, since few players have access to such secret information as [Divine Blood] like Gao Hai, thus knowing the origins of monsters and how they are created.

However, historians and gamers discovered this through another avenue using this tattoo item. They found that the supernatural creature and the consciousness of the deceased, the source of the creature, were separate entities. The former originated from the latter, and its power forcibly controlled the latter. Based on this, gamers believe that the creature is not the traditional image of a person's resentment turning into a malevolent spirit, but rather a monster that grows from the body based on the memories and emotions of the victim. This explains why many of the deceased who became the source of these creatures had no intention of harming anyone, yet the creatures they created caused significant harm and were completely beyond their control.

This discovery greatly excited the historians investigating the origins of the eerie creatures. They believed this characteristic revealed the nature of the eerie creatures to some extent, and that further investigation along this path might uncover the mystery of their birth. Unfortunately, other players were completely uninterested in this discovery. After all, whether the eerie creature and the victim were the same person was meaningless to players striving to survive; it didn't change the fact that those things were meant to kill them.

"We actually started exploring the [Infant Cry Village] instance long before it was officially designated. Although there wasn't much valuable information leaked from it at that time, based on our investigation, we believed that we might find clues to the root mystery of the instance and the strange creatures we've been searching for. After all, this is very likely the instance with the longest time span and the oldest history. One of our companions has special methods for investigating the age of instances, and he believes that the origin of this instance can be traced back to tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years ago, a span that is completely unmatched by other instances."

After briefly introducing his team's capabilities and discoveries, Chachai solemnly told Gao Hai and Cat Brother's teams about the contents of their investigation.

"Some things are quite complicated to explain in detail, but since you are all Red Moon level players, you should all know more or less that Red Moon level dungeons often involve beings beyond the realm of monsters, and there are some things that are not quite like monsters and are difficult to explain."

"Our people have been investigating this information. After confirming through the power of the divine ritual tattoo that the monsters might have parasitized and hatched in humans through some kind of means, we conducted a more thorough investigation and came to a conjecture, an idea that has not yet been proven. We call that idea the 'Abyss Realm,' using this term to refer to a realm that no player has been able to successfully reach so far."

"We believe that the [Sacrifice Game] may have a non-standard fourth level, a level that is actually higher than the Red Moon level, but is still displayed as a Red Moon level dungeon because it is not a standard classification. It may even be a new level dungeon that this bastard [Sacrifice Game] forcibly labels as a Dark Night level dungeon for various reasons. In such a non-standard level dungeon, the root information has already pointed to a major secret involving the origin of the monsters before the birth of the [Sacrifice Game]. Why our world has come to this point today may very well be answered in such a dungeon, or the path to the correct answer."

"As for this hypothetical fourth-tier instance that is not recognized by the [Sacrifice Game], our current leader of the historians has named it: Abyss Domain. It means 'reaching the abyss realm that humanity has not yet truly set foot in.' And that instance that we speculate exists is very likely the instance we are currently experiencing."

Chapter Sixty-Nine: The Historian's Investigative Records and the Roots of Reconstruction - Information

The historian players are searching for the gods.

Of course, these players didn't actually know what they were looking for, which is why they used terms like "Abyss Realm" to refer to the thing behind the scenes that they imagined. But Gao Hai, who had actually seen things related to it, knew very well that the players' investigation and their ultimate goal would inevitably point to beings like "gods."

The divine traces in the Red Nut Gray Hole, the divine blood in the campus ghost stories, and the so-called mountain god connecting Shirakawa Apartment and Infant Cry Village—regardless of how these things behind the dungeons are defined and understood, at least in their names they are all related to [gods]. Therefore, any attempt to explore the roots of the [Sacrifice Game] will inevitably lead to confronting beings beyond human comprehension. And compared to the mechanical, murderous creatures, how should one deal with and judge something like a god? Even Gao Hai at this point doesn't have a solution.

So it's unbelievable that these guys haven't killed themselves yet. Oh wait, the [Historians] organization has been wiped out more than once, but someone has always taken up the banner and continued the fight. If we define this organization in terms of "people," the [Historians] should have been destroyed more than a year ago. What exists now is essentially just a new player organization that agrees with the [Historians]'s ideology.

Hmph, so-called ideals and pursuits?

Thinking about how noble these players were in many ways, Gao Hai felt a pang of emotion. He knew he could never do what those who carried on the ideals of their predecessors, passing the torch fearlessly through life and death. While he genuinely admired those who disregarded life and death, Gao Hai knew he couldn't bring himself to do such a thing. His impulsive attempt to save everyone, like he did in Yeluoshan Middle School, was ultimately only possible because he was confident he could do it without sacrificing anything.

If the Black Watch needs a savior-type host, then someone like me who just wants to live a peaceful life with the girls I like is simply not qualified, right? People with convictions, like Lin Xusheng, Hirano Sosuke, or the [Historian], are probably more suitable to receive this power. Tsk tsk, I'm actually a little ashamed, but even so, I can't possibly give up the power of the Black Watch, after all, it's the only "cheat code" I can rely on.

Gao Hai, whose thoughts were slightly adrift, then thought of another problem. He realized that compared to the dungeons he had experienced, these players investigating the inner workings of dungeons, despite having gone through far more, seemed to have found nothing of real significance so far. Leaving aside Shirakawa Apartment, since Gao Hai hadn't yet uncovered its connection to Infant Cry Village, the Historian players seemed to have never encountered a heavyweight dungeon like Red Nut Gray Hole, which contained traces of the gods and campus ghost stories, and directly featured a blood pool and fragments of the abyss. Therefore, although they had investigated and confirmed a lot of information, it was mostly speculation, with little direct evidence.

Hmm... I guess these people would all be dead by now if they had gotten their hands on the real thing...

"In short, we've been paying attention to the [Infant Cry Village] instance for a long time. In fact, shortly after we deduced the [Abyss Domain] instance level, we suspected that the [Infant Cry Village] instance might belong to that level, and we've investigated this instance multiple times."

Chachai coughed lightly. After deciding to cooperate with Gao Hai's team and the Moyu Gang, he simply took out all the intelligence on his side and announced the entire progress of the investigation.

"We've made various calculations regarding the characteristics of the [Abyss Domain] dungeon. As a higher-level theoretical dungeon, it must possess certain characteristics different from the Red Moon dungeon to be described in this way. Therefore, the exact difference between the Abyss Domain and the Red Moon in the [Abyss Domain] dungeon has been a subject of our research for a long time. During the investigation, one of our squad leaders believed that the investigation should not be limited to the Red Moon dungeon, but should also include the Twilight and Dark Night dungeons. He believed that there might be some inherent connection between different dungeons, and finding this connection might lead to the hypothetical [Abyss Domain] dungeon."

As he spoke, Chachai also recounted some of the investigation process.

During that investigation, the players of the [Historian] guild entered and exited multiple Twilight and Night-level dungeons. Tangyuan, while leading several other players from the Chinese region in investigating Twilight-level dungeons, inadvertently saved the lives of many new players. For example, Tangyuan once encountered a man named Green in a dungeon. Green, despite being a 1.9-meter-tall, tattooed giant, became as servile as a dog after being frightened by a monster. Therefore, although Tangyuan helped Green with the intention of saving as many new players as possible, he later recalled being somewhat disgusted by Green's desperate fawning and obsequious behavior.

However, that's not the main point. The real point is that while experiencing several Twilight and Night-level rural dungeons, Chatchai discovered something strange. In these dungeons, there were objects that looked like statues of Guanyin (the Goddess of Mercy) granting children, but upon closer inspection, they turned out to be some kind of bizarre statue imitating a deity.

These statues hold little significance within the instances; their origins vary widely. Some are unexplained artworks purchased by victims during their lifetimes, others are family heirlooms, and still others have no traceable provenance. Because the core obsessions of these instances often lack any connection to the statues, the investigation has been slow. However, for a historian striving to uncover the intrinsic connections within the instances, the mere presence of something inexplicably present in numerous instances is enough to warrant attention.

Following this, players began a larger-scale investigation of various rural dungeons, later expanding their search to all dungeons with a Chinese background. They discovered that the strange statue could be found in at least 12% of Chinese-themed dungeons, regardless of whether they were set in ancient or modern times. Based on statistics of these dungeons, the "Historian" players found that dungeons containing such statues often dealt with issues of ancient and modern concepts and past customs, such as the sex of children, family rules, and ancestral laws.

Conversely, some dungeons have backgrounds that focus on modern issues, such as pollution and conflict in factory-themed dungeons. In these dungeons, the strange statue is nowhere to be found. It seems this statue only appears in dungeons involving "tradition," even if it appears completely unrelated to the dungeon itself.

So why does this strange statue exist in these dungeons? And if this statue exists in both the Twilight and Dark Night dungeons, which share certain commonalities, could a similar situation exist in the Red Moon dungeon?

With this in mind, the historians began searching for rural dungeons with a Chinese background, rated for the Red Moon level. However, their investigation was unsuccessful; they discovered that while the Sacrifice Game contained an astonishing number of different dungeons, there were absolutely no Red Moon level rural dungeons with a Chinese background—not a single one.

Does it truly not exist, or is it simply that the process of fixing it has not been completed?

With this in mind, the [Historians] began focusing on the unfixed Dark Night-level village dungeons. This time, they found the [Infant Cry Village] dungeon. At that time, entering this unfixed dungeon only led players to an empty village filled with various flawed, obsessive objects in different rooms. Many players trying to find loopholes were tricked at this point, forced to enter [Infant Cry Village] under the current circumstances. But the [Historians] were different; they came specifically for this dungeon.

"We believe that the biggest difference between the Abyss-level dungeon and the Red Moon-level dungeon may lie in the extent of their influence."

Chachai's tone was very serious.

"Twilight and Dark Night dungeons are confined to the outside world, and no trace can be found unless players enter them. The existence of Red Moon dungeons, to some extent, begins to break free from the control of the sacrificial game, and can leave traces in the real world and track players who know the information. As for Abyss dungeons, we believe they should go a step further. This level of dungeon may be able to directly serve as the source of other low- to mid-level dungeons, existing as a conceptual 'origin'."

"The Infant Cry Village is such a source. These statues, which somehow spread from the dungeon and appeared in other dungeons, are evidence of the power of the Infant Cry Village dungeon flowing outward. If we can find this evidence and intuitively understand its origins, perhaps we can unravel the mystery of the dungeon's birth and find a way to fundamentally destroy or understand the dungeon."

"Of course, this idea still has many flaws. At present, it is mostly just our own conjecture, without any actual evidence. So, after several explorations of the infant crying village at that time, which was not yet in a fixed stage, we made a bold attempt."

When he said this, a meaningful look appeared on his face.

“I took a statue from this instance and performed ritualistic worship on it, trying to establish a connection between the deity and the believer.”

"The attempt didn't go smoothly at first, and even carrying the statue with me didn't work. It wasn't until I dealt with a player who caused trouble by creating corpses from children and buried those children that I discovered I had established some kind of ambiguous connection with the statue. I found that I was able to use the power of the statue to soothe the lingering consciousness of the victims, allowing them to die in a state of forgetting their pain and only having peaceful emotions left."

As he spoke, Chachai took out a small statue that resembled a pendant. It was a blurry statue made of black stone. Gao Hai couldn't tell whether it looked more like a mountain god or a fox spirit, but in any case, it was more like a woman holding a child.

"Following the pursuit of this faint connection, before today, I entered the Infant Cry Village instance for the last time. During that instance exploration, I successfully made contact with something that resembled a ghost, but seemed to be different from a ghost, and obtained some clues. I recorded those clues, and now I will show them to you."

As he spoke, Chachai produced a file containing some written information. However, despite being called a file, the text lacked coherent logic and appeared to be nothing more than fragmented sentences.

But for Gao Hai, this information was already shocking enough.

[God... God shaped by faith... God born of faith... God destroyed by faith... God unrelated to faith... God who accepts faith...]

The mother was taken from her child... The mother loved her child... God chose humanity... God was forgotten... God was buried...

The mother still longed for her child... God could not completely stop her... God changed because of this... Humanity's choice... Humanity made a choice...

God makes a promise to humanity... humanity makes a promise to God... humanity chooses... humanity shapes... humanity guides the form of the origin... everything is humanity's choice...

Not yet finished... Not yet finished... Everything is still unfinished... Exile... or acceptance...

Having successfully established a special connection, Chachai recorded all the fragmented information he had obtained.

Although he could not fully understand the information, and because the connection itself underwent some unknown change, Chatchai had to sever the connection through the power of blessings and obsession objects, the recorded information was still preserved and displayed to Takahae at this moment.

The form of the root...

He was at a loss for words.

These players, who call themselves "historians," have managed to uncover information about the Root Form through their own efforts.

Although they didn't know they had found information on this topic... no, they had already deduced the existence of the Root Form before finding it, and had already established related conjectures. Compared to themselves, who could communicate with the Keeper and directly obtained the Root Form in the Campus Ghost Stories instance, did these players, without the Black Watch cheat, manage to guess and find information about the Root Form through continuous investigation and sacrifice?

If there were more players like that, if they had more time to utilize...

"It seems that this Mr. Gao can glean something from this information?"

Noticing Gao Hai's change in expression, Chachai asked in a calm voice.

"Yes, that's true. If the investigation has progressed to this point, there are some things we can discuss further."

Gao Hai nodded gently and let out a long sigh of relief.

Now that they have successfully reached this point, it's not impossible to reveal the part of the operation that I was hesitant about involving them in.

Chapter Seventy: The Object Hidden Inside the Animal and the Re-organization of the Squad

In Lijiacun, the second round of nighttime has now lasted for more than an hour.

Those ordinary players who had only ever cleared the Dark Night level dungeon and whose strength was completely insufficient to survive in this dungeon were still somewhat uneasy. Although, thanks to Gao Hai's arrangements, these players were now under the protection of [Li Family Village] and no longer needed to worry about their personal safety, dungeons were like that—if the quest couldn't be completed, there was no way to escape. And the safe zone within the Red Moon level dungeon wouldn't be permanent; if they couldn't find a way to clear it, they would still face certain death in the end.

Moreover, in such a high-difficulty dungeon, even if a solution is found, the difficulty of implementing it is unpredictable. What if the solution requires players to perform some kind of superhuman precision operation, or it directly requires sacrificing a certain number of people to escape—then it's hard to say what will happen to these low-level players.

Many players felt uneasy, harboring such thoughts. Ultimately, even a reputable Red Moon-level player group like the "Slacking Off Gang" couldn't guarantee the survival rate of lower-level players, let alone others. Based on experience, it was difficult to be optimistic about the final outcome. However, they wouldn't do anything for now. These players had experienced dungeons of varying difficulty, and even those with ideas understood the consequences of causing trouble for Red Moon-level players. Therefore, they would remain obedient for the time being.

"But that's all for now. We still need to take precautions. If these people really cause trouble for us, it will be too late to fix it then."

The historians raised questions about low-level players during the discussion.

"There's no need to worry about that. We've already taken the necessary measures. If we can successfully crack the dungeon, those low-level players can survive as long as they don't cause trouble. As for those who dare to cause trouble, we have a special screening mechanism to find and eliminate them, so we won't give them a chance to really cause problems."

The "Slacking Off" group responded immediately, stating their stance and corresponding measures, indicating that they were well-prepared.

"That aspect isn't the main point. The key is cracking the dungeon. As long as we can find the clues and intelligence we need and figure out the correct way to crack the dungeon, those people will naturally know what to do. What we need to do now is just to deter any potential crooked individuals inside and get the important business done."

Gao Hai wasn't too concerned about this matter. He still felt that everyone should focus on the important things, so he yawned and expressed his opinion.

While the three players who are historians did bring a lot of information, it was mostly theoretical. Although listening to their insights might have a pleasant "Cthulhu knowledge +1" feel, it wasn't very helpful in solving the immediate practical problems. So, in the end, it still comes down to fighting, and continuing the relentless, information-gathering frenzy.

Of course, that's not entirely true. These three players did bring some information about the dungeon that Gao Hai and the others hadn't explored before, especially regarding the [Animal] part.

Due to the side effects of the [Divine Tattoo], the monsters questioned and all related monsters become more active. To avoid being surrounded and killed, the historians had to flee the village and spend some time outside. It was during this time that the three players came into contact with the animals in the woodland area, analyzed them to some extent, and discovered some of their inherent characteristics.

"Rather than animals, they are more like a kind of 'cage' constructed from fresh flesh and blood. The animals appear normal on the surface and you can feel their life force, but in reality, it's just because the flesh and blood that serve as their 'shell' are active and disruptive, thus deceiving the players' senses."

"We couldn't find out what was inside their bodies. Some of the auxiliary obsessives went out of control before we even tried to dissect the animals, so we didn't try at the time, which is quite a regret now."

"It's quite curious, though. The number of animals in this instance far exceeds the normal range, yet the villagers don't seem to dare to deal with them. This suggests that these animals might be something truly terrifying. Unfortunately... if it weren't for those paper figures that suddenly appeared and interfered with our operation, we might have been able to get some clues from those animals. But those things came too fast and there were too many of them, so we had no choice but to run."

As they talked, both Chachai and Tangyuan showed expressions of deep regret. It seemed they hadn't considered at all whether dissecting those animals would reveal anything that could instantly kill them—maybe some kind of contaminant. Well, maybe even if they did see something that caused them to die on the spot, they wouldn't care?

Considering the way these guys operate, Gao Hai felt it would be best to be more cautious when they took action later.

Speaking of which, is the animal's problem internal? If there's something wrong with their bodies... could it be the parasitic blood flower? No, the blood flower should still be suppressed by the mountain god; only someone with such extraordinary perception as Jianzi would encounter it. Then... could it be the "water"? After all, the water in this instance seems to have some unknown problem, and the animals obviously don't care about flow or deity when they drink it. Hmm, the "sky" might also be the problem. The villagers know to hide indoors and avoid looking at the sky, but the animals don't know how to deal with it. Perhaps that unknown thing in the "sky" has already corrupted these animals, transforming their internal structures?

While they pondered, the players began to act. This time, they would split into two groups. One group would operate within Li Family Village, attempting to investigate another space more deeply through the well to see if they could find any more clues. The other group would leave Li Family Village and head to the area where the paper figures were found in Goto Ichiri. They would try to interact with the paper figures to enter Liu Family Village under the cover of night, and then search for the Fox Queen to try and obtain a way to enter and exit the Water Ghost Lake normally.

The group heading to Liu Family Village consisted of Gao Hai, Hayasaka Ai, Tang Yuan, and Cat Brother, while Cha Cai and Xiao Guo were responsible for exploring the well. To ensure the village's safety, Li Xiaoxiao and the Taoist, as Red Moon level players, remained in the village and did not participate in this round of operations, to be replaced in the next round. Zhenfei Qianhua and the others were stationed at various lookout points in the village, ready to send out signals immediately if any abnormalities were detected.

Before setting out, Gao Hai underwent concept erasure by historians. Experiencing this ability for the first time felt very novel to Gao Hai. Although he clearly remembered the meaning of the word "sky" in his mind, when he looked up at the sky, he had no idea what he was looking at. He had a strange feeling that his perception and consciousness were cut off, as if something in his brain had become wrong.

With such abilities, it's no wonder these "historians" dare to run around everywhere. However, Gao Hai could forcibly break through this level of mental distortion and return to his original state if he wanted to, even if he didn't.

He took the night watchman's clapper from his black watch, examined it, and then put it back. This mysterious object of obsession, which Gao Hai had acquired with his blood in the previous round, hadn't been used until now. The reason was simple: it was completely inactive within the spatial range of [Li Family Village], rendering it utterly useless. But now Gao Hai was preparing to head to [Liu Family Village], the area where the night watchman's activities were initially observed. Gao Hai guessed that once there, the clapper, which couldn't activate its abilities, might become active, and then he could figure out its function.

Meanwhile, the player brought back by the police officers has been imprisoned by Cat Brother using the power of his obsession object, and his memories are being slowly extracted. It has been about twenty minutes since then, and the player's screams are almost inaudible. It is estimated that the extraction will be completed after the operation, and then the guy will be given a quick death.

"Alright, let's move out. We're setting off now. The two of you exploring the well, be extra careful, as are those staying behind in the village. The [Treasure Hunters] haven't completely lost their fighting ability yet, and they might launch a surprise attack on the village."

After giving his final instructions to his teammates and the girls, Gao Hai led the way out of the village and set off into the night.

Hayasaka quietly followed beside Takami, while a clone created by Goto Ichiri silently followed on the other side. Cat Brother and Tangyuan walked a little further apart, and the five of them set off along the muddy dirt road, following the path trodden out by the villagers who once lived there.