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

Gao Hai followed closely behind, intending to go straight into the house, but noticed that Zhenfei had taken off her shoes at the door and put on her own slippers. After thinking for a moment, he used his mental power to obtain two plastic bags, modified them into shoe covers, and put them on himself. He then summoned three Lao Guos to search other directions of the villa before entering the villa and heading towards Zhenfei.

Wow, that looks pretty big! It must be over 200 square meters, right?

Gao Hai, who had caught up with Zhenfei in a few steps, casually remarked in the mental link.

{To be precise, it's 280 square meters. This is the house that Mr. Iwako bought in his middle age. According to the investigation, he originally hoped to live in this house with his wife and three children. However, before the house was even renovated, his wife suddenly fell ill and passed away. Afterwards, the old man had a conflict with his three children, and as a result, his three children quickly chose to live separately after reaching adulthood. Eventually, he was left living alone in the house. According to the information, he lived there alone for at least thirty years until he was hospitalized with a serious illness.}

Now accustomed to communicating through the mental link, Maki casually remarked as she slowly made her way along the corridor leading into the villa, quickly arriving at the living room.

Having been unoccupied for months, the living room was now covered in a thin layer of dust. Even though it didn't look completely abandoned, the two people who entered could clearly sense a lack of human presence. This feeling was difficult to describe precisely; Gao Hai could only say that although the house seemed fine at first glance, he instinctively realized upon entering that it was an uninhabited house.

{There doesn't seem to be anything special about it on the surface. Hmm, should we split up and search?}

Zhenfei walked to the middle of the living room, her gaze sweeping over the high-end sofa, the various valuable ornaments on the coffee table, and the paintings on the wall. In the end, she only said this in the mental link.

{There's no need. We're not in a hurry. What can you tell from these portraits and ornaments? I'm not a wealthy person, after all; I can't see anything special about these things.}

Gao Hai walked over to Zhenfei's side and also observed the surroundings. However, he couldn't see anything wrong with her either, so he had no choice but to ask her.

{This has terrible taste; it's the kind of ridiculous decorations someone who just made money and wants to show off would buy. But that's not surprising, since those who want to climb the social ladder always have to suffer some losses, so overall these things… well, there seems to be one portrait that's a bit off.}

The young girl's assessment of the living room was quite harsh; for Zhenfei, who truly came from a wealthy and noble family, this nouveau riche style of decoration was clearly unappealing. However, under Gao Hai's questioning, she took a closer look, and this second careful observation led Zhenfei to notice a small detail she hadn't noticed before.

It was a self-portrait, and by comparing photos, it could be seen that it was a portrait of the old man named Yan Ke when he was young.

The portrait itself wasn't particularly problematic; it was just an ordinary full-body portrait. From the image itself, it appeared to depict a dignified and imposing middle-aged man with his eyes closed, though the way he was posing in a suit looked slightly comical. However, what drew Maki's attention to this portrait was its placement among a group of landscape paintings. Given the distribution of the other paintings, portraits and landscapes were strictly arranged in different locations, making this portrait seem rather unusual.

Ding-ling--ding-ling--

Amidst the crisp sound of bells, several wind chimes hanging by the window on one side of the living room, facing the courtyard, began to ring.

With a cool breeze, Gao Hai stepped forward, grabbed the edge of the portrait, and took it down from the wall.

Then, he turned the portrait over and looked at the woman's face on the back.

{It looks like the back of the portrait is a picture of this man's wife.}

Gao Hai casually placed the portrait in front of the sofa, revealing the image of a richly dressed woman with her eyes closed. He spoke casually in the mental link, while his mental energy constantly searched the entire villa and its surroundings to ensure that nothing could sneak up on him and Zhenfei.

Although his mental energy has not detected any problems so far, considering that the other party had previously drained an old man's soul to communicate with him, Gao Hai felt it was best to be more cautious to avoid any trouble.

However, it seems unlikely that it will be easy to find clues here, at least judging from the feedback from the three Lao Guos who were sent out to investigate, there are no clues.

{Are the two sides portraits of two people? Hmm, I can't see anything wrong with it. Let's leave this here for now and look around elsewhere. This house gives me a slightly uneasy feeling; maybe something is really hidden here. I'm not sure if this feeling is some kind of omen, but it's worth a try.}

Consort Zhen walked up to the portrait, examined it carefully, and even pinched it, but found nothing.

However, the girl did not give up, but spoke with some hesitation in the mental link.

The reason she said this was because of a peculiar power granted by the Blood Flower Blessing. Even now, Maki-hime hasn't fully understood that power; however, since acquiring it, the girl has developed a certain special "intuition," instinctively feeling that something might happen and that she should do something. This special sense of premonition is very unstable, sometimes accurate and sometimes not, and has never been fully controlled, which is why Maki-hime is hesitant now.

Compared to Miko's ability to foresee short-term future events, Maki's new ability seems very unstable and has a riddle-like tendency. However, the effective timeframe of this ability is significantly longer than Miko's. For example, Maki had vaguely guessed the approximate scope of the exam the next day, and a couple of days ago she also sensed that she shouldn't send blessings to Takami at night during this period, otherwise something awkward might happen (referring to Miko being embarrassed).

Her abilities can work in this place, does that mean we might actually find something here?

With that in mind, Gao Hai and Zhen Fei exchanged a few more words, and then the two quickly left the living room, intending to investigate the rooms on the first floor further.

Before leaving the living room, Gao Hai glanced back at the portrait of the smiling woman with her eyes open, which was leaning against the sofa. He frowned slightly, then turned and walked away without saying a word.

Interlude 4-16: Maki's New Ability and the Discovery of the Underground Chamber

step-step-

The crisp sound of footsteps gradually spread across the high-end solid wood floor.

Shijo Maki slowly walked along the dimly lit corridor, stopping from time to time to observe her surroundings.

This villa, which in her eyes exuded a nouveau riche ostentation and possessed a strange, incongruous quality, gradually became clearer with each step of her investigation. Maki could increasingly sense that something remained in this place. Although it was gone, something still lingered with a strong aura. Maki didn't yet know what that thing was, but she was certain that this being, which had spent a long time with Old Master Iwashina in this mansion, was definitely not human.

Maki was able to perceive this thanks to a blessing granted by the Blood Flower. If we call that mysterious precognitive ability "Omen of the Unseen," then the ability the Blood Flower granted Maki can be simply named "Deep Perception." Its effect is quite simple: it's essentially a weakened version of the ability to see a child, a permanent passive effect that greatly enhances Maki's reconnaissance capabilities. Through this ability, Maki can often discover many unusual things with just simple observation, which is why she came to explore this villa with Takami today.

The blessing power of the crimson flower has different effects on each girl. Based on the current statistics and sharing, the blessing power of the crimson flower seems to manifest in two main directions: one is to compensate for the deficiencies of the blessed person, such as how Miko gained the ability to activate her own sensory talents. The other is to respond to the desires of the blessed person, and Maki believes that the blessing she received is the latter.

Among the blessings of the Blood Flower, aside from the first effect, [Anchor of Origin], which is possessed by all the girls closely related to Takahashi and provides him with the basic functions of mental sensing and releasing coordinates, the other three effects that Maki received were responses to her desire to help Takahashi and share his burdens. Maki gained the ability to foresee danger because she wanted to help Takahashi detect potential threats; she gained enhanced perception because she wanted to better assist Takahashi in his investigations.

As for catching up with Gao Hai in terms of combat power, Maki had already given up hope. She could sense that Gao Hai's growth rate was destined to far surpass everyone else's, so it was unrealistic to expect to keep up with Gao Hai's abilities in every aspect. Therefore, she hoped to help him at least in one area, and in this choice, Maki leaned towards the direction of [investigation and intelligence gathering]. Thus, the effect of her last blessing ability, [Mystic Resonance], was that after confirming the existence of traces of extraordinary power, she could gradually trace those traces, thereby tracing its trajectory and source.

Well, there's actually a fifth effect that increases the strength of all blessings, and like the first effect, everyone has it. Although it lacks Gao Hai's [Overclocking] ability, it can still be considered a comprehensive enhancement for the girls. Because of this enhancement, Maki had to spend more than ten minutes adapting to her strengthened physical abilities. It's fortunate that Gao Hai now possesses the ability to distort the reality world with his will; otherwise, the girls' process of adapting to their own power changes alone would have been enough to demolish his house.

{There are many traces... everywhere. Whatever that thing is, it must have been here for a very, very long time. Maybe several years? Or perhaps... more than ten years? That thing was probably already able to leave the instance and reside in the real world for a long time before the [Sacrifice Game] officially began.}

Zhenfei stopped in front of a guest room, closed her eyes, and spoke calmly through the mental link.

{While this situation isn't entirely unexpected, it's still over ten years. Didn't the other Keepers see it or do anything about it? Or did no Keepers notice anything amiss before that thing officially revealed its fangs? Furthermore, since that thing needed to drain an old man's life and soul to communicate with me normally, what has it been consuming to remain in the real world for over ten years?}

Gao Hai shook his head slightly; the news brought by Zhenfei made him feel somewhat emotional. He quickly noticed a suspicious point in the information and, from this, began to contemplate some very unpleasant possibilities.

{I think the answer to your question, Haijun, can be found in the basement. I sensed something ominous from the traces of these forces. It seems to have entered and exited the villa's underground area multiple times, and each time it did so, it was accompanied by the aura of death.}

Maki's gaze fell on the stairwell in the corner. The stairwell was located in the middle of a flight of stairs, and since there were no windows on the side, it was very dark, and she could not see what was at the bottom of the stairs at all.

You can vaguely sense that many traces have been left there.

Although all the traces are old and clearly from a long time ago, the density is...

The girl couldn't help but think of what Gao Hai had said about the world running out of time and the abnormally accelerated pace of the [Sacrifice Game]. Judging from the reaction of the blood flowers, this anomaly had actually been discovered tens of thousands of years ago, but it had only now finally reached the stage of eruption. So, in these tens of thousands of years, during the abnormally frequent brewing of this strange power, just how much... well, there's no point in thinking about that now. Let's investigate this place properly first.

step-step-

The footsteps continued softly in the darkness.

Empress Zhen steadied herself and walked ahead, slowly descending the stairs step by step.

Gao Hai, who was standing next to her, took out his phone and turned on the flashlight to provide illumination. Meanwhile, his mental energy had already spread out, enveloping Zhenfei in order to prevent any potential danger.

However, just as Maki had said, nothing remained here except for traces. So after spending some time, the two found a hidden passage in what appeared to be just a private wine cellar basement, and through this passage, they entered a deeper level, the second basement level, a place that looked somewhat like a doctor's office in a hospital.

The office wasn't large and was quite simple, containing only a table, two chairs, a sink, and a hospital bed—nothing else. On the table sat an old-fashioned telephone, several brochures on mental illness, and some medical documents. The newer documents were dated at least a few months before the elderly man's hospitalization, while the older ones were yellowed and at least ten or twenty years old.

Gao Hai and Zhenfei reviewed some of the documents and discovered they contained medical records related to mental illnesses. Gao Hai immediately contacted Alice, who linked to the internet to search for the names on these records. They found that all the names on the list were missing persons, and all of them had records of severe mental illnesses before their disappearances. Many had even been abandoned by their families because their mental illnesses were too severe to treat. Of course, these disappearances didn't attract much attention, and there weren't even any police reports. Their families had completely forgotten about these patients, just like most people in the real world.

[Psychologist]

This is the standard message in the doctor's column on all the record sheets.

This so-called psychologist did not leave a name record; all that remained was a signature that looked exactly like it had been printed, with no difference in font size or shape.

Alice found nothing about this. There was no record of the old man named Iwako seeing a psychiatrist in his medical records. In fact, based on the existing records, he was someone who was quite averse to going to the hospital. The reason he ended up in the hospital was because he was transferred there by his children after he became seriously ill and lost consciousness. When this old man was still able to make his own decisions, he was someone who would never go to the hospital no matter how serious his illness was.

In a sense, you could say that this old man was stubborn and simply didn't like seeing doctors.

But after discovering this strange basement, which was deliberately decorated like a doctor's office, Gao Hai felt that the situation might not be as it seemed on the surface.

{Found}

Maki's voice rang out in the mental link.

She reached out and pressed down on the wall on one side of the room. With a little force, the wall slowly moved away, revealing the interior space.

There was no rotten smell, nor any eerie atmosphere.

Inside that room, there were only semi-transparent bags, and inside the bags, dried-out and sealed corpses, devoid of any life.

step-step-

Clear footsteps echoed in the room.

Gao Hai and Zhenfei walked step by step along the corridor filled with mummified corpses until they reached the end of the corridor, where they counted more than two hundred corpses.

{His life force was completely drained, every cell was utterly necrotic, just like that old man.}

Gao Hai commented after briefly observing the corpses.

So, is it possible that a self-proclaimed "psychologist," a somewhat eerie individual with a degree of independent thought, has been hiding in this old man's house for decades, constantly absorbing the life force of others to remain in the real world? To be able to construct such a secret room, the old man must either be under control or, while fully conscious, have actively become an accomplice.

Having witnessed the depths of human depravity alongside Gao Hai, Maki was no longer afraid or disgusted by such things. Therefore, she stood amidst the pile of corpses without changing her expression and calmly continued her conversation with Gao Hai.

{Considering the message on the hospital bed railing, I actually suspect it's brainwashing.}

After confirming that there was nothing else in the secret passage on the second basement level, Gao Hai shook his head and answered helplessly before turning around and leaving.

Finding something is still quite useful for now. Although there aren't many clues, Gao Hai believes that if they continue investigating along this line, they should still have a chance to find more things, and maybe even catch the other party red-handed before the real danger descends upon the real world.

Tap—tap tap—

The floor here seemed to make an unusually loud sound when you stepped on it. Every step echoed very clearly, so clearly that it sounded as if there were other people's footsteps mixed in with the sound of you and Maki.

But that's impossible. If something were truly following him, Gao Hai was certain his mental power would detect it. His mental strength far surpassed that of the players, even exceeding that of strange creatures. Even a god-level being would find it difficult to escape his perception.

But, does it sound like there really is another set of footsteps?

Gao Hai suddenly turned around.

But all he could see were the corpses hanging in the bags, swaying gently, with nothing unusual in sight.

The wind blew the bags around.

But... why is there wind here?

{Haijun, something's not right. There seems to be a new trace appearing, shortly after we entered this area. But it's very faint; I can't track it. It seems to appear and then disappear immediately, as if… the other party isn't even in the real world.}

At the same time, Consort Zhen also noticed the abnormality and vaguely realized what was going on.

Gao Hai didn't speak, but simply gestured for Zhen Fei to follow him and leave quickly. The current situation was somewhat unusual, so Gao Hai decided to temporarily retreat from this area and have Alice scout it out in spirit form before going in again.

Ring ring— Ring ring ring—

However, his actions had only just begun when the phone rang in the doctor's office, making Gao Hai realize that what followed was likely the first formal contact between the two parties.

{Should I answer the phone if it's coming from this old-fashioned phone at this time?}

Consort Zhen was still somewhat hesitant.

{Go ahead and answer it. We've come this far, there's no need to back down. But I have to answer it. You shut down your senses and don't listen to the content. That way, if there's any curse or mental attack, I'll handle it alone. I can handle it.}

Gao Hai stared at the phone not far away, and made a decision after only a moment's thought.

He first used his mental power to temporarily seal Zhenfei's senses and then used his mental power to cover them to prevent attacks from external forces. Only then did he walk to the phone and press the speakerphone button.

A familiar, chilly atmosphere emanated from the phone in the next moment.

The intensity of a Crimson Moon-level core's obsession... no, perhaps it's even higher than that, after all, this is just an aura leaked over the phone. Moreover, this feeling doesn't seem entirely like a strange creature, but rather like it contains a part of a living person? Perhaps it's a monster with its own consciousness, like Alice?

Before the other party even spoke, Gao Hai had already sensed many things through this aura.