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

Gao Hai pondered for a moment, and finally said this.

Now that you mention it, I'm actually more interested in hearing about it.

Tangyuan, a member of the "historians", changed his expression upon hearing this. He seemed eager to listen, but at the same time, he hesitated for the sake of his own safety.

He wasn't lying. If he told us, we'd all die. Hmm... it seems like everyone except Mr. Gao will die soon. Mr. Gao will die too, but he'll die later and in a more gruesome way.

The Taoist priest calculated and calculated very carefully, and gave a very rigorous conclusion.

Is what you saw related to "that"?

Maki remained standing beside Takahashi the entire time, even when he entered a state of inspiration. Seeing the change in Takahashi's expression, she guessed what might have happened and inquired through the mental link established by the black watch.

"That" naturally refers to the Blood Flower. Although Gao Hai had deleted most of Maki's memories related to the Blood Flower for safety reasons, she still knew that it was extremely dangerous. In the previous playthrough, it had wiped out the entire team in one fell swoop, and in this playthrough, it had captured Miko, among other things. In Maki's opinion, the only thing that could cause Gao Hai to show such a change in expression was probably that thing.

{More or less, although it's not information that directly points to that thing, but how should I put it... we might have stumbled upon a graveyard of ancient gods.}

As Gao Hai spoke in the mental link, he slowly walked towards the lake ahead.

After gradually understanding the history of the land where this instance is located, he no longer knows how to evaluate the villagers who have settled here.

At the same time, he was also puzzled. If these seals were all fine at the beginning, why did they suddenly break down in Li Ziyong's generation, causing everything to fall into chaos and eventually forming a duplicate?

Could it be KP's guidance?

After thinking it over, Gao Hai felt that this matter could not be simply attributed to external forces like KP.

After all, in the face of the Black Watch, a KP like a writer would be utterly powerless and easily devoured. This means that a KP's power level is absolutely incompatible with the Black Watch, so when it comes to the Crimson Flower, something that can genuinely sense the watch, a KP's power is incapable of controlling it.

Moreover, Gao Hai still vaguely remembered something that the KP (King Point) of this instance mentioned.

An invisible destiny...

Believing himself to be controlled by fate and wanting to see players break free from it, this strange guy isn't like those writers who like to tightly control the dungeon; he seems to value the choices made by the characters in the story more... Choices? Could it be... that this puppet, after discovering that these villagers had entered the extremely dangerous place of Little Black Mountain, started trying to guide waves of people who could help them, ensure the safety of the seal, and solve the problem, and then observe how these villagers would choose? Although there's no evidence, Gao Hai feels that this eerie KP might just like this kind of operation.

Forget it, there's no point in guessing anymore. Let's just take action first.

{I'm going in. Be careful and keep watch on the surroundings. The enemy may attack after I leave or when I return.}

Gao Hai finally stopped his pointless thinking and instead leaped forward into the lake in front of him.

A few responses came from the mental link and the temporary mental link, and then it fell silent.

His vision became cloudy for a moment. Although he did not feel like he was entering the water, he felt as if he had passed through a layer of air and entered a strange place with a sense of weightlessness. At least visually, Gao Hai still felt like he was entering the water.

It's like the very concept of "water" has been stripped of a part; it's a really strange feeling.

Now that we've managed to get in safely, we should carefully search for the location given by the black watch and determine what's there.

With that thought in mind, Gao Hai swam one step forward, and then had to stop.

His foot was pulled by something.

Not long after he entered the lake, before he even touched the bottom, something grabbed his feet.

Gao Hai lowered his head.

He was greeted by a pale, swollen, festering, and distorted face.

The bride's dress, now faded to a deep black, floated in the water.

One after another, the bloated and deformed brides swam toward Gao Hai, reaching out their broken fingers to grab him.

Aside from these brides, you can also see some equally swollen, pale, baby-like things mixed in, slowly rising and approaching Gao Hai.

Judging by sight alone, there are more than a thousand of them.

The lake bottom was filled with corpses, so densely packed that there was hardly any space to be found.

There were even layers upon layers of corpses, so many that many of the older bodies had been completely buried, so many that they were not even identifiable to the naked eye.

Intense resentment and a frenzied power are eroding Gao Hai's spirit.

The sheer number of bizarre creatures, accumulated over the years, created a twisted power that almost formed a tangible vortex, threatening to engulf Gao Hai completely, leaving him no room to escape.

Now he knows what the "cursed water" is all about.

We have now determined the root cause of the problem with the water that was originally well-controlled.

The erosion by the dead, the continuous accumulation of the aura and power of the same strange creature, probably eventually resonated with the cursed remains of the gods, causing problems with the originally stable seal. In the end, the mountain god and the fox goddess had to suppress it again, but they were unable to completely suppress it, which ultimately led to the disaster.

{If I were God, I would have slaughtered all these villagers from the very beginning.}

As Gao Hai silently evaluated this in his heart, he mobilized the power of blessing. The next moment, a blood-red domain bloomed, accompanied by a muffled roar that pushed away all the twisted corpses.

Chapter 92: Let us sink into the darkness of this deep lake.

The cries could not travel across the lake and could not be truly heard.

Even if they wanted to open their mouths to call for help, they couldn't, because their mouths had been sewn shut.

Shedding tears was also impossible, because the eyes were also sewn shut. They did not allow the sacrifices any possibility of expressing their own thoughts, not even a sad expression.

Pain, suffocation, coldness, and finally death.

Resentment is buried by the water, slowly accumulating in the water.

Meanwhile, the people on the water were cheering and rejoicing over the new harvest.

The sound of crying echoed in Gao Hai's ears, never ceasing.

He swam downwards, passing through corpse after corpse, towards the darker depths of the lake, slowly approaching the bottom of the abyss.

The crimson domain continued to protect Gao Hai at this moment. In addition, the Void Transformation reduced the damage to the monsters' power. With the double blessing, Gao Hai firmly resisted the erosion of these monsters' aura and gradually moved towards the bottom of the lake while surrounded by them.

The further you go, the more clearly you can feel the resentment and corrosive power released by these things deposited in the lake.

If it were my past self during my time at Nightfall Mountain Middle School, I probably wouldn't have been able to resist the corrosive influence of these things at all. After all, during my first playthrough at Nightfall Mountain Middle School, I nearly lost my life when besieged by a large number of monsters in the school building, and I only managed to escape by sacrificing a police officer. But now, facing an attack from a group of Red Moon-level monsters that is about one-tenth the size of the Nightfall Mountain Middle School school building, I don't feel much pressure, and I even have the energy to observe my surroundings. This difference is quite noticeable.

In a sense, Gao Hai has now grown to the point where even top-tier Red Moon-level dungeons have a hard time dealing with him. If it weren't for the existence of overpowered enemies like the [Gods] in this dungeon, who far surpass the core obsessions of Red Moon-level characters, Gao Hai theoretically wouldn't need to exert much effort at all. He could have easily crushed both the villagers and the [Treasure Hunters] on his first encounter.

So, because of the curse of this black watch, I'm forced to play high-level matches every time. As a result, my growth rate has accelerated, and the opponents I encounter are getting more and more outrageous. What will the fifth dungeon be like at this rate? Tsk... I can't even imagine what that scene will be like. But then again, according to the rules of the [Sacrifice Game], I should only be qualified to officially challenge the Red Moon level dungeon after clearing the [Infant Cry Village] dungeon, right?

To be honest, Gao Hai found the qualification issue rather amusing. In the dungeons he'd experienced so far, both [Campus Ghost Stories] and [Infant Cry Village] were undoubtedly top-tier dungeons of the Red Moon level, or even higher. But under the rules of the [Sacrifice Game] organizers, he was only playing Dark Night level dungeons. Although this level anomaly had started back in the Shirakawa Apartment days, Gao Hai still found it incredibly funny, so funny that he wanted to drag out the organizers of the [Sacrifice Game] and kill them.

Mr. Gao, please report on the underwater situation.

The voice of Tangyuan, who remained on the ground, came through the temporary mental link.

{I've descended to a depth of about 200 meters, and now I'm almost completely surrounded by darkness, relying solely on my own light source for illumination. I haven't seen the lake bottom yet; there seems to be some degree of spatial distortion here, and it's expected to take longer to reach it. Also, the density of corpses around me hasn't decreased, so my blessing can continue for a while longer. For now, there's not much of a problem, as long as no core-level artifacts emerge from these corpses, I should be able to hold out for about another hour.}

As Gao Hai slowly descended and swam downwards, he responded in the temporary mental link.

Okay, everything on the ground is normal right now, no different from before. There's no change in the presence of any strange creatures, and nothing suspicious is approaching.

After listening to Gao Hai's words, Tang Yuan quickly responded. Then, the Taoist priest, Kaguya, and Maki responded through the temporary mental link and the black watch's mental link, respectively, to verify from multiple perspectives and allow Gao Hai to confirm that everything on the ground was indeed normal.

"call……"

In the pitch-black environment, where only the crimson light of the blood-red domain illuminated the surroundings, Gao Hai continued to advance silently.

Those swollen human hands reached out from all directions, trying to grab Gao Hai and keep him there forever. But under the combined effect of Chiyo Hachiya's blood-red domain and the teacher's ethereal power, these attempts were always ineffective. The monsters were either pushed away by the power of the domain, or they couldn't even touch Gao Hai's body, or even if they did grab him, they couldn't pull him away and were instead thrown off after being dragged a distance.

"Huh...huh..."

Gao Hai's breathing remained steady and normal.

He could feel the immense water pressure as he continued to descend, causing him to descend rapidly; he had already reached a distance of approximately four hundred meters. For an ordinary human being, reaching this depth without equipment would be impossible, but Gao Hai felt no discomfort and continued to descend steadily.

As for why he was able to breathe normally in this environment, the reason is quite simple: he was wearing a full-coverage diver's mask.

The [Diver's Mask] was given to Gao Hai's team by the [Market] as one of the three Dark Night-level Obsession items as a reward for conquering the [Campus Ghost Stories] dungeon. Its effect is simple and clear: it isolates the player from the exchange of gases with the outside world and provides the player with a stable supply of oxygen.

This obsession device is extremely specialized in its application scenarios. It requires the wearer to maintain a constant breathing rate. The breathing rate you have when you put it on cannot change significantly while wearing it. Otherwise, the oxygen provided by the device will instantly turn into carbon dioxide, making it impossible for the user to breathe smoothly. Furthermore, removing the mask under these circumstances will further trigger a loss of control.

Although Gao Hai didn't trigger it, based on what the Market said about the previous user's fate, it seems that after the user experienced breathing difficulties and had to remove their mask, their lungs were filled with seawater of unknown origin. Even after surrounding players cut off the seawater-filled lungs and used healing items to regrow two lungs, the curse's power continued, refilling their lungs with water. Ultimately, that player suffocated to death, and their healing item was sold to the Market by their teammates, eventually ending up in Gao Hai's hands.

As a Dark Night-level player who had already surpassed humanity to a certain extent, it's quite tragic that he ended up like this. As for the obsession item with its astonishing side effects, Gao Hai wasn't too worried. Although maintaining steady breathing was quite troublesome, Gao Hai was still confident in his abilities. Moreover, even if he encountered unforeseen circumstances causing respiratory disturbances, he could use the obsession item [his mother's special drink] to get rid of the abnormality, rather than being forced to the point where even having his lungs removed wouldn't free him from the curse.

However, this feeling is really annoying.

In the dim red light, Gao Hai felt himself sinking deeper and deeper into darkness.

The number of corpses around them gradually decreased. They stopped attacking Gao Hai and simply floated quietly in the water, as if they were just ordinary corpses, no longer making any movement.

Even though these things stopped attacking, Gao Hai couldn't relax. As he descended further, he began to feel an indescribable, heavy pressure, as if the lake itself was exerting some kind of mental influence on him.

"call……"

No matter which way you look, all you can see is pitch black.

Apart from the dark red light emanating from the crimson domain and the silent corpses all around, nothing else existed in this world.

For a moment, Gao Hai even felt as if he had been banished to another dimension, trapped in a completely empty, dark abyss where nothing existed. There was nothing here—no light, no temperature, no tangible objects to touch, only himself, constantly falling.

Once such a thought took hold, there was no way to take it back. Gao Hai even subconsciously recalled the torment he had endured during the month he was trapped in the cave, remembering the intense pain he had felt. But then, compared to that pain, he could feel an indescribable loneliness, an absolute silence as if the entire world had completely vanished.

"Huh...huh..."

Gao Hai maintained steady breathing.

Even though his mindset was somewhat disturbed at this moment, he still maintained steady control of his body and did not make any mistakes.

He guessed that his current feelings might be what is known as "thalassophobia." However, if he remembered correctly, thalassophobia mainly refers to the fear of some kind of giant monster that might exist in the sea, rather than the fear of pure darkness without any light source. Of course, Gao Hai wasn't actually afraid right now; he was more overwhelmed by the profound pressure emanating from the lake, causing an overwhelming emotional fluctuation.

This feeling... is like having spent a very, very long time in the darkness, trapped here with no way to escape...

Why am I feeling this here? These sacrificial corpses must have died shortly after being thrown into the water, right? These dead children and women couldn't possibly have felt something like this before they died, something that only happens after being trapped for countless years, could they?

How long did I stay underwater?

Gao Hai finally couldn't help but ask in the mental link.

For his powerful willpower, this level of erosion was nothing. But as he gradually descended, Gao Hai suspected that the erosion itself represented some kind of hidden rule, so after much deliberation, he decided to ask a few questions in the mental link.

{15 minutes, what happened?}

Maki immediately recalled his voice; the girl was clearly paying close attention to Takahashi's condition.

{I thought I'd been down there for days. There's a very strong mental erosion effect deep within this lake; it slows down one's perception of time and instills a profound sense of loneliness. I'm not sure if it's the emotional power accumulated from the dead at the bottom of the lake, or if there's something wrong with the lake itself. Anyway, this thing is quite troublesome, and I haven't found a way to get rid of this emotional problem yet.}

Gao Hai calmly explained his problem and looked down at himself.

Apart from complete darkness, Gao Hai can't see anything now.