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

With no time to change clothes, Gao Hai immediately used his mental power to distort matter, swapping his and Jianzi's pajamas with the clothes they had already changed out of and placed aside, changing clothes in a second.

Then, he opened the second-floor window and jumped down first, landing on the ground. Before landing, he used his mental power to open the first-floor door of Miko's house and simultaneously pulled over Miko's shoes and Takahashi's shoes, which were placed at the door, so that he could put on his shoes the instant he landed. Then, Takahashi reached out and caught Miko, who jumped down behind him. At the same time, Miko's shoes also flew over under his mental power and were steadily put on Miko's feet.

Finally, Gao Hai used his mental power to close the doors and windows, and summoned three Lao Guos to guard the area around the house. He also had the police officers hide in the living room just in case. Only then did he finally grab Jianzi and leap up to leave quickly.

{Although I had witnessed it before, your power is still incredibly exaggerated. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it divine power, would it?}

Held in Gao Hai's arms, Miko slightly turned her head to avoid the oncoming gust of wind and couldn't help but sigh in the mental link.

{I'm not sure if I can still be considered human now; I don't really know the answer myself. But at least deep down, I still identify as human and I accept this world. So let's find some trouble next.}

Hearing this, Gao Hai smiled and casually replied in the mental link. At the same time, he also notified all of them, including Maki Chika, through other link channels, telling them what had happened before, regardless of whether they were already deep in sleep, in a light sleep, or still awake.

To be precise, it's only the beginning of the fourth day since the dungeon ended, since it's already past midnight. For something to go wrong in such a short time, Gao Hai honestly doesn't know what to say. However, compared to before, at least this time, he's no longer in a state of passively receiving information and being powerless to do anything about it, which Gao Hai is very grateful for.

That's right, the reason he and Jianzi went out in the middle of the night was because the strange KP that appeared in the dream had been successfully tracked back by Gao Hai.

In the instant that dream was about to collapse, Gao Hai, pushing his mental power to its limit, followed the flow of the other party's power and successfully found the object's location in the real world. Although he couldn't immediately pinpoint which instance the other party was in, now that he had found the other party's power transfer point in the real world, Gao Hai was certain that if he followed it quickly, he might find more clues.

whoosh-

Amidst the rushing wind, Gao Hai, holding Jianzi, leaped up and landed on the roof of a house. Then, he jumped again, and with the aid of the power of nothingness, he floated and flew forward at an extremely fast speed.

Under the cover of night, no one could see the two people who had already disappeared into another dimension. Even players with powerful senses could not detect the possibility of Gao Hai at his current level of strength.

In less than a minute, the two landed silently on the roof of a hospital building.

{Alice, give me information about this hospital}

As soon as Gao Hai landed and put Jianzi down, he spoke to a support character who had never returned since being released on the first day, through the mental link.

[Alice's AI program received. This is Tanse Private Hospital, a high-end hospital specializing in parasite treatment and gastrointestinal care. Every year, many domestic and international doctors come here to learn from their experience. Furthermore, this private hospital belongs to the Shinomiya family of Japan. They chose to partner with the Shinomiya family 55 years ago during a financing collaboration, and over the following 22 years, the Shinomiya family gradually acquired the majority of the shares. Today, it can be considered a property under the Shinomiya family's umbrella.]

You are currently on the rooftop of Inpatient Building No. 2 in this hospital. This building has 15 floors, but there are no floor numbers for the 4th and 13th floors; therefore, the highest floor shown on the floor plan is the 17th. Currently, there are 88 patients and 23 medical staff in the building. Based on the teacher's previous observations and tracking, the source of the anomaly has been identified as being located between the 12th, 13th, and 14th floors, but the exact floors and location are not yet confirmed. Please note that due to the building's unique floor marking rules, floors 12-14 are actually displayed as floors 14-16 within the building. Please don't get them mixed up!

[By the way, 0.7 seconds before the teacher marked it, in ward number 5 on the 13th floor (which is actually the 15th floor), a critically ill heart patient had just stopped breathing. Six medical staff are currently gathered around him, attempting resuscitation. However, according to Alice's observation, the poor old man is completely beyond saving; he's already dead. Of course, if life support equipment were used in time, his body could "live" for a while longer, hehe~]

Alice, who had previously ignored Gao Hai's calls and seemed to have vanished, suddenly responded quickly and provided him with all the information and clues he wanted in great detail.

It seems that although she has been silent for the past two days, she has not really gone far. Instead, she has stayed by Gao Hai's side and has been secretly watching his life. She has only started to speak again now.

Gao Hai decided not to dwell on this for the time being, but instead focused on the immediate matter at hand.

{Regarding the person who died, and those who tried to save him, find their information as soon as possible. Also, check the information of everyone in this building, whether patients, doctors, or nurses. If you find anything suspicious, report it to me immediately.}

As Gao Hai spoke in the mental link, he quickly received a strange comment from Alice: "Alice's box opener activated." However, he didn't mind and immediately switched the mental link frequency to communicate with others.

{Kaguya, contact your family and have them temporarily seal off the area around Tanse Private Hospital. Then contact the high-ranking members of the Market and the Red Society in Tokyo. However, don't rush over yet. First, assess the safety of the surrounding area. If you must come, teleport directly; don't travel. I'll conduct preliminary reconnaissance with Miko.}

After a brief exchange with Kaguya via the mental link, followed by a few more words with the other girls, Gao Hai and Miko exchanged a glance. Suddenly, their clothes automatically changed into doctors' white coats, and two identification cards appeared on their bodies, usable within the hospital building. These cards even contained their medical information. This wasn't fake information; while Gao Hai was using his mental powers to alter reality, Alice also modified the hospital's internal registration information, granting them the necessary permissions. Even though these two young people, whose combined age was less than forty, didn't look it, within the hospital system, they were now officially hospital directors.

Be careful to manage your abilities; if you feel unsure about anything, leave it to me.

In this way, Gao Hai, speaking through the mental link, conjured a key to the rooftop staircase door, opened it, and stepped into the pitch-black stairwell.

{I know, don't worry, senior. I can control my power now.}

Seeing that Zi nodded very seriously, he made a promise.

She wasn't just talking nonsense. The blessing of the Blood Flower had profoundly enhanced and modified Miko's perception. Miko now truly possessed the ability to activate and deactivate her super-sensory abilities. She was no longer the person who would inexplicably sense high-risk targets and endanger the entire team; now she could choose when to activate her abilities… although mistimed activation could still cause problems. It could only be said that this girl's talent in this area was so exceptional that even the blessing of the Blood Flower could only add a switch, not control its magnitude.

step-step-

With the distinct sound of footsteps, the motion-activated lights in the dimly lit stairwell turned on, casting a stark white glow.

Gao Hai decided to investigate the ward where the person had died first. Although his tracking hadn't pinpointed the exact floor or room, after rolling the golden and blood-red dice to confirm his suspicions, he determined that the room Alice had specifically pointed out was the most likely to contain clues, so he headed straight there. Of course, this didn't mean he would abandon investigating the other floors and rooms, so he used the rescue team badge to release the remaining two Lao Guos and two Ghost Slayers, ordering them to explore floors 14 and 16 in pairs. He also released [Teacher] to explore other areas of floor 15.

Miko hasn't activated her abilities yet. After the lesson learned from the Blood Flower incident, for safety's sake, Takami decided not to let Miko use her powers to lead the charge. Only in places that Takami himself has already scouted and investigated can Miko use her abilities to scout again, to avoid a repeat of the situation where she summoned the final boss at the start, as happened in [Infant Cry Village].

squeak-

Push open the stairwell door on the 15th floor, which is actually the 13th floor.

Under the white light, the white walls and floor seemed to shimmer slightly.

All the doors were tightly closed, and not a single light or sound could be heard from them, except for room number 5, which Gao Hai and Jianzi were rapidly approaching. It was the only room on this floor with its door open, and also the only room that was making noise at this moment.

Even from a distance, Gao Hai could hear the doctors and nurses using medical terms he couldn't understand, and the sounds of them trying to resuscitate the elderly man whose heart had stopped beating.

Gao Hai couldn't judge the professionalism of these medical staff because he lacked relevant knowledge, but he was certain that the patient's condition was very, very wrong.

Just as Alice said, the patient is already dead.

Although less than five minutes had passed between when Gao Hai and Miko woke up from their dream and when they arrived at this floor, the patient, whose heart had stopped beating for no more than five minutes, was already completely brain dead, and all his organs had been dead for at least several tens of minutes. The loss of life force couldn't fool Gao Hai, who had already received the blessing of the Blood Flower. He was 100% certain that the old man had actually died half an hour earlier, and that time… was the time he saw the eerie KP in his dream.

The medical staff haven't detected anything unusual yet because the old man's outward appearance and the rate of his life force loss don't match. Some force is temporarily maintaining the appearance of his body, but in reality, it's draining his life force, thus establishing a temporary transit point. Using this as a medium, extraordinary power from a certain instance is able to enter the real world and reach Gao Hai's location, entering his dream.

No, it wasn't just vitality, but also the soul... The old man's soul had been completely exhausted. This was something that wasn't easily perceived with mental power alone; Gao Hai was only able to roughly confirm this when he got close to the door of the ward.

The sobs of the patient's family members mingled with the tense sounds of doctors and nurses trying to save the patient.

Under the cover of their spiritual power, Gao Hai and Jianzi entered the ward unnoticed and immediately saw the old man lying on the bed. The old man was emaciated and withered, his neck cut open and tubes inserted, and his body was covered with various tubes of different sizes, connected to many medical instruments.

I did not sense any residual supernatural power.

Despite having already identified the building, and considering it to be the most suspicious location according to Alice's analysis, Gao Hai found no trace of any suspicious forces upon actually entering the building.

Am I still too late?

Unable to achieve the desired results, Gao Hai frowned slightly.

{There, there seems to be something over there.}

But Jianzi, who came in with him, tilted her head, then squatted down and poked Gao Hai, gesturing for him to look at the horizontal bar on the side of the hospital bed.

what is that?

With the blessing of ethereal transformation, Gao Hai's figure detached from the real world, passing directly through the bodies of the doctors and nurses, and walked to the bedside.

Then, he noticed that near the old man's fingers, on the crossbar of the hospital bed, which had now been lowered, there was a crooked piece of writing that looked like it had been scratched out with a fingernail.

That passage is...

I will step into a world of happiness; the Lord will guide me away from suffering and towards perfection!

Interlude 4-14: Reactions of Others and the Unfinished Investigation

The only result of Gao Hai and Jian Zi's midnight exploration of the hospital was the inexplicable sentence engraved on the bedside of the old man who died of illness.

Despite their remarkably fast arrival at the hospital, Gao Hai still couldn't find any trace of the other's power. All that remained of the corpse was a decaying shell; even Yotsuya Miko's attempts to analyze it using her senses and prophetic abilities yielded no results. The only certainty was that the other party had already left the real world.

It's unclear whether the thing was overly cautious, leaving Gao Hai no chance, or whether its connection to the real world was too fragile, causing its aura to completely dissipate before Gao Hai could even approach it.

However, regardless of the possibility, one thing is certain: the main setting of this currently unknown and mysterious instance should be the [hospital]. Just like in the [Campus Ghost Stories], Fujika Middle School could only manifest within the school to take away students, and even when they later sought out Takami, they needed Miko as a transit point. For ghost story instances, their inherent limitations and characteristics are often revealed in these inconspicuous little details.

So, Haijun, is your guess about a Red Moon-level dungeon that might primarily feature a hospital setting?

In the mental link, Maki's voice sounded a little tired because she hadn't been sleeping well lately due to her busy schedule.

To be more precise, it should be something that might possess the Root Form of the "Hospital Mystery," outwardly appearing as a Red Moon-level dungeon but actually possessing an Abyss-level difficulty. Its internal state has been mutated to the point where it's completely unlike a normal dungeon. Considering we've already encountered "God" in the fourth mission, I believe that in this unknown hospital dungeon, there should also be some kind of deity waiting for us.

While answering Maki's questions in the mental link, Gao Hai yawned and felt the body temperature emanating from the girl beside him.

It was now the fifth day since the end of the [Infant Cry Village] instance. The idea of ​​sealing off the hospital in the early hours of the previous day had indeed alarmed many people. After all, it was Gao Hai's warning that had prompted everyone to take action. Now, Gao Hai's sudden and inexplicable desire to seal off a certain place, coupled with his tense and prepared stance, had caused quite a stir, with many people thinking the end of the world was imminent and panicking for quite some time.

Fortunately, for these players, things didn't ultimately escalate to a worse state. Therefore, after the lockdown was lifted, many players began to communicate privately, concluding that Gao Hai had simply overreacted. Some even speculated that the dungeon experience might have caused him some psychological trauma, leading to his unusual reaction, and some even began to doubt the veracity of Gao Hai's warning.

However, Gao Hai himself didn't need to worry about such matters. In fact, under the control of the higher-ups in the [Market], those players' prejudices against Gao Hai would never be brought before him. Xiao Heshu had been busy with many things recently, one of which was to establish some kind of personal connection between everyone in the [Market], or at least to some extent, the players in the [Market], and to make the [Market] show a "loyal" side.

At the very least, Xiaoheshu's behavior during this period has, in Gao Hai's view, already qualifies as loyalty. Although this makes Gao Hai somewhat strange, since he doesn't think he has done anything that would warrant Xiaoheshu's loyalty.

In short, after the hospital was quietly sealed off and then the seal was lifted, Gao Hai and Jianzi investigated for quite some time until they were sure no traces had been left before returning home. As a result, Jianzi skipped school again for a day, and Gao Hai spent another day with her. The two went out to play and chatted for a while. However, the specifics of their conversation were not convenient to disclose; Chika, who secretly observed, remarked that Jianzi herself was probably now more adept at having fun than she was.

Then, on the fifth day, Gao Hai stopped the previous dating games and took the initiative to find Maki and go with her to a luxury villa in the suburbs of Tokyo.

Whizzing--

Under a gloomy sky filled with dark clouds, two people, one tall and one short, stepped over the railings and walls and stood in the garden that was now overgrown with weeds.

This villa, far less luxurious than the Shinomiya residence, belonged to the only patient who died in the hospital that day. According to the investigation, the elderly man had lived alone in this villa for several years before his condition deteriorated to the point where he needed life support. After his death, the place remained vacant for at least several months because his children had their own homes and were preoccupied with funeral arrangements and inheritance disputes.

In fact, judging solely from visual observation, Gao Hai would assume that the villa had been abandoned for several years, as it did indeed appear quite dilapidated.

Gao Hai still remembered the old man's message on his sickbed. Whether it was stepping into some happy world or accepting the guidance of God, it had a strong feeling of being brainwashed. But since it involved the power of supernatural tales, and specifically a supernatural power that actively interfered with the real world, Gao Hai felt it was necessary to investigate the old man's life trajectory to determine when the other party's mindset had changed. Perhaps this would allow him to find the enemy's whereabouts.

This time, it was Shijo Maki who accompanied Takami on this mission.

{Will we really find anything? I have a feeling that if we do find something, things might actually get worse.}

Wearing casual clothes, Zhenfei walked beside Gao Hai, appearing indifferent and calm on the surface, but she kept talking to Gao Hai in the mental link.

{While that's what I say, I still hope to find something, because this situation is clearly different from before. I hope to seize the opportunity and take the initiative as much as possible, instead of just waiting for things to happen like before. This time, too many people are involved, and I can't bear to continue to slack off.}

Gao Hai casually walked directly into the villa area through the main gate, while simultaneously communicating through a mental link.

Under the influence of his mental power, the security guards in the villa area mistook Gao Hai and Zhen Fei for residents. The front door of the house also opened automatically as the two approached, controlled by Gao Hai's mental power, revealing a completely dark interior.

There was no chill in the air, which at least confirmed that there were no active monsters hiding in the house.

{Let's go, Haijun, let's see if there's anything hidden inside.}

The girl, who was saying this, stepped into the house first, while Gao Hai followed silently into the dimly lit villa.

Interlude 4-15: Portrait in the deserted villa and an unclear premonition

What's it like to have to go back to work right after the holiday starts?

If he could, Gao Hai wouldn't really want to think about these kinds of questions. However, with the crisis looming, he simply couldn't enjoy his vacation as he usually did. Especially with the enemy already coming to his door, and it was clear that the problem was only going to be more serious than before, Gao Hai figured that even if he were allowed a vacation to enjoy his daily life, he probably wouldn't be able to relax.

Regardless, since trouble has already come knocking, it cannot be ignored; Gao Hai is aware of this.

But... haha, I never wanted to be a good person, but in the end I still ended up on the path of a savior. Why does it feel a little ironic?

But looking back, although it's only been a little over three months, he's developed a profound connection with this world. Whether it's the girls who traveled with him, or the beacons of humanity he's witnessed in these instances, he's unknowingly become a part of this world. He can no longer just be carefree; Gao Hai finds this change somewhat laughable. He certainly wouldn't have acted this way a few months ago.

Of course, this feeling wasn't entirely bad, and he wouldn't add too much burden to himself because of it. Ultimately, Gao Hai truly cared about those who were good to him. As for most others, Gao Hai could only say he would save as many as he could within his power, but if they were his enemies, or caused him trouble when they should have been obedient, then Gao Hai could only apologize. After all, even having decided to save the world, Gao Hai didn't intend to be a pushover who wanted everyone to be nice.

squeak-

While she was thinking, Maki, who was walking ahead, had already pushed open the door and entered the quiet mansion under the gloomy sky.