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

The purest power was revealed at this moment.

Boom, boom! ! !

Amidst the violently exploding crimson light, the flesh and blood of that node were completely destroyed. Yu Qingshan and Kazama Ren's consciousnesses were almost shattered on the spot during the node's destruction, but they were barely protected by the power of the crimson domain's full eruption, preventing them from truly dying on the spot.

You can sense that something that had been entrenched here has disappeared.

In the gap between reality and the alternate time, something that had been forcibly stabilized in this area has begun to dissipate and perish.

But it seems that's not enough?

With his mental strength further enhanced, Yu Qingshan realized from that unseen connection that the link between the residential area in the real world and the virtual space had not yet been completely severed. The node they had eliminated was merely one of many. In other words, to truly regain control of the residential area, they needed to find and eliminate other nodes.

This is really... I thought sacrificing one group would be enough, but it turns out it's far from enough...

Half of the face that had merged with the flesh and blood monster had disappeared.

The mangled arm, which was almost completely absorbed into the monster, now only has two fingers left.

Yu Qingshan turned around and saw that the figure of the eyeball monster was gradually fading and disappearing. It seemed that without the stability of the node, this level of strange creature could no longer exist stably in this distorted space.

Splash—splash—

One after another, pale or rotting human hands reached out from the pool of blood and grabbed the weakened Yu Qingshan himself.

The blood pool itself began to tremble violently, clearly indicating that this space was on the verge of collapse at any moment. Correspondingly, the monsters here were becoming more active and frenzied.

However, Kazama Ren herself is not in any immediate danger; the [death makeup] and her previous voice disguise can protect her for a little while longer.

So now only she can leave.

"Waaah... Captain..."

Kazama Ren, struggling to sit up, caught her breath and tried to come forward to rescue Yu Qingshan.

“Let’s go. Since we can still walk, let’s not stay here. Let’s also take that object of Seventeen with us. Since he said he doesn’t want an eighteenth one, let’s not use that thing anymore. Let’s find a way to give that object of his obsession to Mr. Gao and see if he can help him pass on.”

Yu Qingshan used his broken arm to help Kazama Ren up, then pushed her away.

Stumbling and falling, Kazama Ren turned her head and saw the black camera surfacing. Then she looked at Yu Qingshan, who was being grabbed by twisted arms. After a brief silence, she only said, "Goodbye, Captain," before picking up the camera and limping away into the distance, towards the edge of the gradually collapsing space that was once again connected to the outside world.

No further farewells are needed; for players, parting is simply that.

Click—click click—

The surrounding dilapidated walls are collapsing, and the blood pool itself is gradually crumbling.

Unable to escape, Yu Qingshan was caught in the collapsing debris and slammed violently into the ruins of the collapsed house. He fell repeatedly as the world spun around him, his face constantly covered in rubble and blood. He endured the continuous impact for an unknown amount of time before the situation finally calmed down.

"Huh...huh..."

I could still hear my own heavy breathing.

Even after all this, how come I'm still alive?

Yu Qingshan struggled to open his eyes and saw a cell phone beside him, its screen shattered and unable to display any information, emitting a faint glow.

Oh, right, Kazama Ren threw out a phone earlier. She didn't retrieve it, so when I was swept into the depths of the shattered space, this thing protected my body, preventing me from turning into mincemeat or something.

Sigh, this field is still not intelligent enough. Wouldn't it have been better if it had just killed me?

"Ouch... Ah... That really hurts..."

He slowly got up from the ground.

In the deepest part of a dark, twisted space, littered with blood and broken ruins, gradually collapsing.

Unable to stand, Yu Qingshan leaned against a broken wall, listening to the eerie sounds of the surrounding creatures he couldn't escape, and couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

[Sizzle…]

Then, to his surprise, he heard a sound coming from the phone.

[You successfully destroyed a spatial node of the "hospital," well done! This will allow more people to survive. Which team are you from?]

Gao Hai's authoritative voice, tinged with undisguised weariness, rang out from the phone as he earnestly inquired of Yu Qingshan.

"You can actually make contact here?"

Yu Qingshan was stunned; he hadn't expected to hear Gao Hai's voice in such a place.

With the node destroyed, the "hospital's" influence here has diminished, allowing me to project more power into this space and to contact you for dialogue.

Gao Hai's voice was very calm, without any of the urgency he showed when talking to Baihe Chuanhua. In fact, he deliberately slowed down his speech to take care of Yu Qingshan's weakness.

"I see. Then it's definitely much more convenient for the others. I imagine there will be many more people who survive..."

Yu Qingshan spoke with difficulty, breathing heavily. He could sense that the eerie aura around him was growing stronger, while the red light emanating from the phone lying beside him was weakening and might go out at any moment.

Yes, many people will survive.

Gao Hai's voice was full of affirmation.

"Haha, that's perfect. As for me... I'm Yu Qingshan, the captain of the Sunflower Squad. There's also another member who has already sacrificed his life, his name is Seventeen."

Yu Qingshan smiled somewhat awkwardly, and then answered Gao Hai's initial question.

"I understand. Mr. Yu, the power of this fragment is almost exhausted. I cannot use it to help you escape. Do you have any last words?"

Gao Hai responded quickly, but his voice seemed to have become softer.

"Yes, I understand. That's good. In the end, I won't die alone. I'll have Mr. Gao to talk to me."

Yu Qingshan smiled softly. Amidst the increasingly noisy wailing and roaring of the strange creatures around him, he leaned back against the rubble behind him and slowly spoke after a moment's thought.

"If you have any last words, leave them to my mother. That's all I can do for her."

"Let me think about it, Mom. By the time you receive this message, I think I will already be gone. There's nothing I can do about it. I can't move on anymore. My journey has come to an end."

"But don't worry, your future life will be taken care of. As long as you continue to eat well, sleep well, and have fun, there won't be any problems. Haha, this might sound a bit pretentious, but there's nothing I can do about it. After all, I'm not an expert at writing wills."

"But, ha, but... everyone has to go through this. I just left a little earlier than expected. Don't think about catching up with me as soon as possible. I persisted to the end because of what I was willing to sacrifice myself for. I won't regret it. I saved a lot of people, which is very meaningful to me. But looking back, the only one I can't be completely at peace with is you, Mom."

"So please, live on, just for my sake..."

After saying this, Yu Qingshan fell silent for a long, long time before sighing again.

Then he spoke to Gao Hai, his voice hesitant, but in the end he was relieved.

"...That's about it. I can't think of anything else to say. Oh, right, I'll just delete the first sentence that I can't get out of the way. There's no need for her to know how pathetic I ended up. I hope her final impression of me will be that I'm handsome."

As the last sentence fell, twisted arms began to emerge from the surrounding rubble and ruins. These monstrous creatures, driven to their final madness before destruction, had found the location of the last living person in this collapsing land.

I will remember this well. Goodbye, Mr. Yu Qingshan.

"Well, goodbye, Mr. Gao..."

As the final sound faded, the blood-red light, having reached its limit, dissipated. Yu Qingshan closed his eyes and was finally swallowed by darkness.

Beyond that darkness, Kazama Ren, the last of the three to survive, had walked out of the ruined apartment, stumbled to the ground, and gasped for breath as she waited for her injuries to heal.

The other players active in the edge space also sensed the destruction of a node. Some were excited, some were puzzled and curious, some became more determined to act, and some silently prayed and offered blessings in their hearts.

Further away, on a throne amidst a dim light, piled with the remains of what could be human or something else, someone opened their eyes, their gaze shimmering with golden and red light. Their expression shifted slightly, but ultimately they made no move to react.

"Master, what's wrong..."

From the side of the throne, a weak, hoarse voice asked a question. A figure sitting on the throne barely raised his head, looking so fragile that he seemed about to fall asleep at any moment.

"It's just two more soldiers who have fallen... It's alright... It's alright... Hang in there a little longer..."

Despite being pierced by various instruments and his dark red blood staining the seat beneath him, the man smiled and spoke softly, his voice filled with determination.

Chapter 36: Kita Ikuyo's Solo Flesh Node Speedrun

hum-

An echo from afar made the red-haired girl, who had been searching for a way out, look up and gaze in the direction from which the sound came with some confusion.

She couldn't make out the exact sound, and it seemed to be coming from quite far away. Of course, considering that this edge of space didn't quite follow the physical laws of the real world, the girl couldn't be entirely certain about the source of the sound.

However, with such sounds and commotion, has someone actually succeeded? And this feeling... it's probably coming from the residential area. Could it be Yotsuya? No, it shouldn't be her. If it were her, the commotion would be much greater. After all, with Yotsuya's unreasonable perceptual talent, she could easily release multiple interconnected nodes by contacting a single node, not just cause a simple spatial distortion like this.

Those are the Sunflower Squad members who came to help. It's unbelievable. I remember they were just a small team that cleared the Dark Night level dungeon, right? They're strong enough to unlock the spatial node? Even if they only managed to complete the exile thanks to Mr. Gao's Crimson Domain fragment, just being able to walk to the node alive is already incredible. You know, while the [Hospital] can't protect every single node because there are too many, at least each node is guarded by a Red Moon level monster.

Ah, but even so, it's not impossible to succeed.

After all, if the goal is simply to successfully liberate the node, it is still possible to succeed by risking one's life for a chance.

"Hopefully, as many as possible will survive."

Kita Ikuyo simply closed her eyes, bowed her head, and whispered a prayer.

From Mr. Gao's choice to use the Throne of Mind to amplify himself and accelerate his ascension to godhood in order to counter the power of the [Hospital], to the [Hospital] interfering with Mr. Gao's ascension process, causing him to be stuck halfway and unable to continue, and then to the confrontations during these rewinds, Kita didn't know how many deaths she had witnessed. Whether it was the death of innocent victims or the deaths of players who came to the rescue, those blood-soaked memories had already made the girl somewhat numb. But... when she realized once again that someone else might have sacrificed themselves somewhere not far from her, Kita couldn't help but feel a pang of sorrow.

Even though I've been a player for so long, I still can't get used to this kind of thing.

With these thoughts swirling in her heart, the girl strode forward, phone in hand, continuing her journey through the bizarre and distorted space.

She could smell the approaching stench of blood; without a doubt, a certain node was nearby. Once that node was successfully destroyed, the hospital's encroachment on the residential area would be greatly curbed. After destroying this node, Kita anticipated two more. Once those two nodes were also destroyed, the hospital's influence on the residential area would be completely eradicated, and this area would be completely reclaimed.

Furthermore, it's important to understand that this isn't just about this one cycle. As a spatial node specifically cultivated by the [Hospital], it has extremely strict requirements for materials. The reason it can currently use ordinary human flesh and blood as materials is only because Gao Hai released his essence to elevate the status of all humanity. Besides the human flesh and blood as the basic material, the node itself also incorporates something very important from the [Hospital]. This makes it difficult to replace once a node is destroyed, and even if time is rewound, the node cannot be repaired. Therefore, if a node in a certain area is completely destroyed, that area will maintain a minimal level of contamination after a time rewind, and will not reconnect to the edge space.

However, precisely because of this, we must act quickly and spare no effort to liberate the other nodes as soon as possible. The hospital isn't stupid; they've definitely noticed the problem with this node, and it'll probably be long before something significant arrives, like that [psychologist] or something…

Recalling something chilling, Kita unconsciously shuddered, then gritted his teeth and forced himself to relax before continuing his exploration.

[Sizzle... sizzle sizzle...]

The piercing electrical sound gradually became clearer and more chaotic.

Kita stepped into a chaotic house littered with blood and furniture piled up in disarray. A throwing knife appeared in his hand, and with a light flick, he pierced through a grotesque creature that had revealed itself not far away, pinning it directly to the wall. Although it seemed like a trivial physical attack, the deformed creature seemed to have been nailed to the wall, its body drooping and motionless.

The second throwing knife has already emerged from the girl's hand.

Kita continued forward, sensing the changing intensity of the eerie aura around her, traversing the corridor and ascending the narrow staircase. The path suddenly darkened, and the girl, now without a light source, could only rely on the red light emitted by her phone. But she didn't seem to care, continuing her nimble journey, casually dodging a creepy hand from the darkness, then slightly tiptoeing to avoid several strange graffiti drawings on the ground, before tossing a throwing knife that pierced the eerie creature that silently attacked from behind.

The abnormal distortion of space did not escape Kita's observation. As the surrounding environment began to change, she moved her position almost immediately, swiftly avoiding the source of the aura and not being pulled into another space.

And so, after carefully and swiftly traversing several areas, Kita pushed open the door and found himself in the lobby of a luxurious hotel, where he could see the colorful crystal chandelier overhead.

Her target, the grotesque and terrifying aggregate monster formed from the fusion of many people's flesh and blood, was currently standing motionless on the stage in the very center of the hall, as if asleep.

Of course, besides these, there were even more strange creatures attacking from all directions. These twisted things, in different shapes and forms, rushed towards Kita himself as he stepped into this area, one after another, as if they wouldn't stop until they tore Kita to pieces.

"Is that all?"