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

Chika Maki and the others, who had never seen Alice before, were bewildered by this little creature that had suddenly appeared.

"what?"

This was unexpected; he had never imagined he would see Alice again. He had thought she had died completely with the disappearance of the local gods, and he was even a little saddened, planning to buy an empty grave to remember Alice. But he was stunned by her unexpected reappearance.

"hiss--"

This is Yotsuya Miko, who was deeply traumatized by Alice and completely unaware that Takami used the power of the mountain god to create a new, kind version of Alice. Under the influence of intense fear, she lost control of her facial expressions and, with a scream that she tried to suppress but didn't actually let out, she fell off the sofa and crashed to the ground, knocking over the trash can next to the sofa.

Bang!

Interlude 4-02: Takahashi's Split Spirit Alice and the Embryo of Rules

Alice.

In a sense, the name itself can be seen as a cultural symbol. Since the publication of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," the name "Alice" has been interpreted in various ways by different countries, cultures, and works. It can be said that seeing the three words "Alice" is enough to evoke a specific image of a cute young girl in the minds of readers and viewers.

For Takahashi, before he was transported to this world and fell into this damned "Sacrifice Game," the name "Alice" was still quite appealing. Whether it was a robot loli who was constantly being opened, a loli servant transformed from a fairy tale book, or even Nyarlathotep, it wouldn't be out of the question. After all, they were separated by a dimension, and the other person couldn't actually come to his side, so it didn't matter how he fantasized.

But now, Gao Hai must admit that he can no longer view [Alice] in the same way he originally thought. The very thought of the existence represented by that name now evokes extremely complex feelings in Gao Hai.

Alice, the monster that brought him extremely terrible torment, was the first monster to let Gao Hai experience what it was like to be completely crushed and beaten by a monster.

The real Alice, who was filled with misfortune and suffered countless pains, gave Gao Hai her sincere blessings and was finally saved by Gao Hai after the destruction of "Campus Ghost Stories".

And the new Alice created by Gao Hai in the [Infant Cry Village] instance, based on the personality of the monster Alice and his own memories.

The three distinct Alices left Gao Hai with three completely different impressions. Now, Gao Hai can no longer simply regard "Alice" as a cultural symbol or something similar as before.

To be honest, Gao Hai hadn't initially intended to keep Alice, whom he had created with his own mental power. Ultimately, despite using Alice's personality template, it didn't mean Gao Hai had any affection for Alice. On the contrary, it was precisely because he genuinely disliked the monster Alice that he wanted to use this personality template to provoke himself and ensure that he wouldn't be misled by this personality template used to establish a connection with the mountain god.

However, compared to his initial thoughts, what happened next was completely beyond Gao Hai's expectations. He hadn't anticipated that this new Alice he created would possess such rich emotions and thinking abilities, and that it would play a huge role in his successful completion of the game, directly finding the Root Form for him at the last moment.

And it was also this Alice who, after losing all his teammates and having to start a new playthrough alone...

Ultimately, Gao Hai had to admit that he did miss the Alice he had created. Although her way of speaking was similar to the original Alice the Monster, making Gao Hai occasionally feel uncomfortable when he heard her voice, he genuinely acknowledged her existence. However, Alice was ultimately an individual created by the power of the Black Mountain God, and therefore, once the god's obsession dissipated, she could no longer exist and was destined to vanish.

...That was Gao Hai's original thought, but he didn't expect that these departed gods who had returned to the cycle of reincarnation would create such a big mess for him.

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening everyone! Hehehe, this must be the first time Alice has appeared in front of anyone other than her teacher, right? Everyone looks quite surprised, but Alice believes she'll get along well with everyone soon, since we all like our teacher, don't we?

The blonde girl on the screen wore an innocent smile.

Off-screen, Miko had already hidden behind Takami, her face showing a look of dread.

Maki and Kaguya were unsure how to react or what was going on, so they turned their attention to Takami.

Chika had noticed that the mysterious character who suddenly appeared seemed to be from the friendly faction, but out of caution, she didn't say anything and just silently observed everything.

Goto Ichiri had already taken out her guitar, but she didn't attack. She was just a little confused and suspicious, so she adopted a defensive stance. Before defending herself, Ichiri hesitated for a moment and then picked up the blanket on the sofa and handed it to the other person next to her, helping her to cover herself up a little.

"S-S-Sen-Sen-Senior... what is this...?"

Finally, regarding Alice's most severe PTSD, Miko grabbed Takami's clothes and asked in a low voice.

"...She's not the Alice you know, although she might look similar, but she's definitely not the Alice we met at Fujihana Middle School. She poses no threat to us; just treat her as a teammate. Yes, that's right, but to be honest, I really didn't expect to see her again."

Gao Hai's voice carried a hint of emotion.

He couldn't help but feel a sense of awe; the blessing bestowed upon him by the spirits of the departed planets was something like this. He couldn't help but feel a sense of awe.

That's right, the blessing bestowed upon Gao Hai by the combined power of the last remaining planetary gods, such as the Black Mountain God and the Fox Queen, is Alice herself.

To be precise, it was through the fusion of divine power and Takami's spiritual power that a being akin to a split spirit was created. This Alice, possessing a soul and independent consciousness, is essentially connected to Takami's soul. Therefore, as long as Takami lives, Alice will not truly die; even if her soul is scattered, she can be reborn within Takami's consciousness. In a sense, Alice can be seen as taking over Kita Ikuyo's place in Takami's mind, but compared to Kita, who could only serve as a conversational partner and a vigilant, Alice's functionality far surpasses hers. After all, she was specially left for Takami by the gods.

First, Alice has no physical form; she is a purely spiritual being. Therefore, she can move freely regardless of physical obstacles in the real world, and can travel up to 50 kilometers away from Gao Hai. This distance is actually the limit that Gao Hai's mental power can project under normal circumstances; beyond this distance, his mental power dissipates on its own. Therefore, Alice can only travel this far at most.

Then, based on this, Alice possesses extremely powerful information analysis capabilities. She can help Gao Hai analyze everything from basic changes in temperature, humidity, and energy levels to the nature of supernatural forces. It can be said that Gao Hai essentially possesses an intelligent supercomputer that can analyze his surroundings at any time.

Furthermore, because it is an extension of Gao Hai's own soul power, Alice, while unable to touch things with physical form, can touch things with supernatural powers. In other words, she can reach objects of her obsession from a distance, and then Gao Hai can use his power to bring them directly to her. Some blessings that do not require physical contact, such as bomb summoning and perception blessings, can also be used through Alice, but this ability cannot extend the range of mental power projection.

Furthermore, because Alice was essentially created based on Gao Hai's perception, she also possesses a certain degree of information life characteristics. This means she can hack into networks, various communication frequencies, and even projection devices. Just like now, she hacked into Gao Hai's television, directly controlling the screen to project her own image. It's fair to say that Alice could easily play the role of a super AI.

Of course, because it's a split spirit, Alice can also link to Takami's own spiritual power like Kita, enhancing Takami's spiritual strength at crucial moments. Furthermore, her spiritual strength far surpasses Kita's. If we consider spiritual power as a mana bar, and Takami's mana bar is considered 100, then Kita's linked spiritual power would at most reach around 100.01, while Alice's link could raise Takami's mana bar to around 110.

In general, Gao Hai essentially obtained something similar to a spirit pet, right?

No, if we must get into the details about identity, this Alice can, in a sense, be seen as Gao Hai's daughter. Of course, Gao Hai wouldn't think that way, and Alice wouldn't think that way either... well, she probably wouldn't think that way, right?

To be honest, Gao Hai had to admit he was somewhat pleasantly surprised by this Alice created by the native gods of those deceased planets. He could sense that this Alice was the same individual he had created in the previous instance. Clearly, the lingering wills of those gods, after confirming Alice's existence, had deliberately preserved her and given her life for Gao Hai's sake. For the obsessions of gods who had lost their essence and retained only a small portion of their power, this was obviously not an easy task, but for Gao Hai's sake, they still exerted their last bit of strength.

In other words, can I assume that they saw all of my interactions with Alice, including when I was forced to beg her for help?

Gao Hai suddenly felt a little relieved that these local gods had returned to the cycle of reincarnation and would no longer remember the past.

In short, after spending a little time explaining to the girls what Alice was all about, the small commotion in the room was somewhat calmed down. Well, actually, apart from Miko's particularly strong reaction, the others didn't seem to have much of an opinion; after all, in their eyes, it was just another beautiful girl by Takami's side. Only this one was different from the previous ones—she didn't have a physical body.

Everyone's open-mindedness eased Gao Hai's somewhat conflicted feelings a little, but seeing Zi's somewhat strange expression made him feel uneasy. Although she didn't say anything, Gao Hai suspected that the girl's impression of him had subtly changed.

After this brief interlude, everyone's attention quickly returned to their new abilities and the changes to their existing ones. Gao Hai initially wanted to send Alice back to her mental space, but once released, this thing no longer acted entirely according to Gao Hai's wishes. As a result, not only did she refuse to go back, but she also directly told Gao Hai in front of him that she wanted to study his living environment before disappearing on the spot and running off to other places via the network.

So why is this thing beyond my control? I don't really understand what those local gods are thinking.

Gao Hai wanted to complain, but seeing that everyone else was still there, including a certain "new" girl who hadn't chosen to leave, he temporarily put Alice's matter aside and focused his attention on the four new blessings he had received.

Although what Gao Hai received this time couldn't strictly be considered a blessing, but rather a power of obsession formed from the concentrated power of the Blood Flower—after all, Gao Hai couldn't even recognize the names of the four core obsessions—in fact, Gao Hai, whose regrets hadn't been fulfilled, originally wouldn't have received a blessing. It was the Blood Flower that forcibly gathered their obsession power after their rest, giving Gao Hai four abilities that resembled blessings. Therefore, if he had to name these four abilities, Gao Hai thought calling them "Divine Blessings" would be more appropriate.

The first divine blessing was the power of the sacrificed bride.

Normally, as a Crimson Moon-level blessing, this power should have three to four different functions. However, because it was forcibly condensed from the power of the Blood Flower, this blessing only has a single ability.

No, this feeling... this... this doesn't seem to be an ability?

Gao Hai initially thought it was a blessing, but when he truly began to perceive this power, he realized something was amiss.

This power is not a blessing.

As the blood blossoms coalesced, this power of obsession resonated with the power of the two Root Forms that Gao Hai had absorbed, causing a transformation. Because it wasn't a blessing obtained through normal means, and combined with Gao Hai's gradual ascension, this power metamorphosed into… a rule?

With his eyes closed, Gao Hai realized that the change in his ability was not simple and began to seriously comprehend this power.

The Rules of Blood

After getting a general feel for this power, Gao Hai decided to give it this name.

The function of this ability is simple: it only takes effect within the range of Gao Hai's mental energy. When this rule is in effect, any human blood within Gao Hai's mental energy range that is being observed by a sentient being with thinking abilities will immediately be perceived by Gao Hai, who can then choose whether to look at the source of that gaze. Furthermore, the effect of this ability is not fixed; what Gao Hai is currently experiencing is only its effect at its current stage. If Gao Hai's own power level changes, the power of this rule will also change accordingly.

The power of this rule is still very rudimentary and its effect is still very small, but its characteristics and its great potential for growth are enough for Gao Hai to understand what exactly is going on.

The power extracted from the four core obsessions of [Infant Cry Village] by the Blood Flower, after merging with me, became rules centered on me and that would change as I grow. In other words, this is a strange tale of rules that belongs to me.

So now I've essentially become the core of a ghost story, and these four divine blessings are the four basic rules I created with my power.

Once Gao Hai fully understood, he was momentarily stunned.

Interlude 4-03: The Gradually Buildable Power of Rules and the Blessing of a Comprehensive Upgrade

I am gradually mastering the power to regulate the rules of ghost stories.

After obtaining these four new powers bound together by the blood flower, Gao Hai realized that what he had gained this time was no longer a blessing, but the manifestation of the rules of the ghost story itself.

The forces originating from four different core obsessions resonated with him, developing into four different directions of rules based on his memories, abilities, and subconscious. In a sense, it can be said that Gao Hai has gradually begun to construct his own set of supernatural rules based on his own existence.

The power of the wedding dress artifact was transformed into the manifestation of the "Rules of Blood," granting Gao Hai the ability to sense the gaze of thinking beings through "human blood," and to project his own mental energy back onto them using this "gaze."

Currently, this power of the rules is not very useful; it's practically too fragile for a Red Moon-level blessing. However, Gao Hai doesn't dare underestimate this power, because it's completely different from previous blessings or obsessions. It provides Gao Hai with a foundation, a fundamental power of the rules with extremely high growth potential and malleability. Furthermore, from the moment he obtained this power, Gao Hai was certain that this new ability has a growth ceiling that none of his previous blessings possessed. He can't even be sure of what level it can reach at present.

But why blood?

While appreciating the significance of this new ability, Gao Hai also had some doubts, not quite understanding why this rule would use blood as a catalyst.

Is it because the wedding dress-clad ghost was sewn with its mouth and eyes and then drowned? Or does it have something to do with me?

Gao Hai didn't think for long before turning his attention to the remaining three rules.

The second set of rules originated from the cluster of obsessive thoughts of the children in the hidden Liu Family Village, and was transformed from the power of those children who were sacrificed.

The way this power manifests is hard for Gao Hai to describe. If he had to describe it... well, perhaps it could be described as the "Rule of Love"?

When this idea entered Gao Hai's mind, he felt somewhat uneasy, but in fact, this power of the rule was indeed centered on [love]. It wasn't limited to familial love, romantic love, or friendship; as long as it was a positive, close relationship, when people with this emotional connection were simultaneously within the range of Gao Hai's mental energy, they would receive a certain degree of protection, experiencing a slight increase in physical attributes, willpower, and mental strength. This enhancement wasn't significant; ordinary people might hardly feel the changes, while players might experience a more noticeable difference, but it would still be difficult to discern anything.

The strange rules and strange powers even gave Gao Hai the feeling of watching a hellish joke. The power of a group of children sacrificed and cooked as offerings had coalesced into a power of rules centered on love, which Gao Hai found somewhat darkly humorous.

Without dwelling too much on that, Gao Hai then turned his attention to the third rule of power.

This time, he was looking at the power left behind by the collective obsession of the Zhangjia Village residents. He felt that the ability Gao Hai felt this time could be named "The Rules of the Family".

Unlike the previous two rule systems, this rule system explicitly incorporates the characteristics of the material world. It requires that when a person within the influence of this rule is in an environment that they can recognize as their "home," as long as the overall outline of the "home" remains intact, then apart from structures such as "windows" and "doors" that are conceptually clearly characterized by internal and external interaction, other structures such as walls, floors, and ceilings will receive structural enhancements and will simultaneously gain high resistance to both physical attacks and attacks by supernatural forces.

Conversely, when this rule takes effect, if the person who triggered the rule locks the windows and doors of their home, putting it into a non-open state under their cognitive state, then the home will have a completely sealed effect. Even if what is actually closed is a screen window or an iron gate, and air can still circulate normally, all dangers within the person's perception, whether physical poison gas or some kind of supernatural entity, will be prevented from entering the home, and their ability to observe the home will be weakened.

For this rule to take effect, in addition to the coverage of Gao Hai's mental energy field, the person triggering the rule also needs to be in what they consider "home". Of course, places such as ancestral shops or offices that the person regularly uses and considers "to belong to them" can also trigger this rule's power, although the effect may be slightly weaker than that of a real "home".

"..."

Gao Hai didn't know how to evaluate this ability. To be honest, he felt that this thing was of no help to him in exploring the dungeon, and he had a vague feeling that if this power of the rules were to be used one day, it might be when something extremely serious happened.

However, he didn't think much about it at the moment, and quickly turned his attention to the last rule power.

This power comes from Mr. Du, who is in charge of Xinnaia. Unsurprisingly, this power can be described as a [rule of God].

faith.

To activate this rule, others need to have faith in Gao Hai.

This rule struck Gao Hai as rather strange. Its power seemed to shift with the depth of another person's faith in him. The more unwavering and fervent their belief in Gao Hai, the more profound the influence he could exert through his mental power. This ranged from simple enhancements to willpower or physical attributes, to bestowing blessings upon the other to a certain extent, and even directly imbuing them with his own will to temporarily control them—all were possible.

It's a rather unique power of rules, but I don't think I can use it.

After much thought, Gao Hai couldn't think of any way he could use this power. After all, he wasn't a real god, and no one in the world believed in him, so there was no use for him having this ability.

It's just an inexplicable ability, but considering that this ability comes from Mr. Du, I won't ask for too much.

Thinking this, Gao Hai quickly sensed the four new abilities he had acquired once more. After briefly reflecting on the changes in himself, he began to focus on the old blessing he originally possessed, which had now undergone further changes.

Due to his increased strength, even the power of a Crimson Moon-level blessing now has many shortcomings for Gao Hai, and is no longer as effective as before. Of course, this is on the premise that the next dungeon will also feature overly powerful enemies like the blood blossoms that appeared this time. However, considering the mysterious fate guided by the black watch and the fact that multiple KPs have emphasized that this world is nearing its end, Gao Hai feels it's best to imagine the situation as pessimistic.

Perhaps because Bloodflower had considered this point, it comprehensively enhanced the blessings held by Gao Hai, ensuring that these abilities could still be useful even in extremely dangerous situations.

The first blessing was from Li Zhaodi, and it came from the poor little girl in the Shirakawa Apartment.