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

Then, she found that she couldn't lift one of her feet, as if something was wrapped around her ankle and she couldn't get rid of it.

This is how the same thing?

Xiao Hua, whose mind was still in a daze, turned around and looked at the thing that was tangled around her feet.

Then she saw the black hair, and then she saw the pale head peeking out from behind the toilet, hidden among the messy hair.

"..."

There was no time to let out a scream.

Because a small, swollen hand crawling with maggots had already covered Xiaohua's mouth.

Amidst a pungent, indescribable stench of decay filling her nostrils, Xiao Hua looked up and saw a child dressed in elementary school clothes, whose eyes were bulging due to severe swelling, smiling at her with their mouth open.

Countless flies flew out of his mouth, and thick, yellowish corpse oil, along with wriggling maggots, dripped from the corners of his mouth and fell to the ground.

A pair of wriggling little hands emerged from the thing's swollen belly, revealing a skinless baby face, and uttered a muffled "Mama" to Xiaohua.

More shadows have fallen.

One after another, grotesque creatures with twisted and terrifying shapes, completely devoid of normal human appearance, surrounded and encircled the girl.

Xiao Hua did not respond to this.

Once she realized she couldn't escape and was surrounded by monsters, her mind went completely blank, and she had no idea what she could do next.

Dead silence.

In the dim, flickering light, all Yurikawa Hana could feel at that moment was absolute silence.

But... something seems a bit strange...

After being stunned for two or three minutes, the girl suddenly realized that she had not been killed.

These monsters did nothing.

Yes, despite a giant monster pressing its hand against Xiaohua's mouth, and a human-headed monster wrapping its hair around her feet, not to mention several other strangely shaped, clearly hostile creatures surrounding her, Xiaohua was not attacked, harmed, or even mentally damaged. After surrounding her, these monsters simply stood still and did nothing.

Why...didn't they attack me?

The unexpected situation left the girl somewhat bewildered.

However, soon after feeling a strange tingling sensation on her body, Xiao Hua turned her gaze slightly and saw a cockroach lying on her side.

It was a very large cockroach, so big it looked like it could fly, and it would burst open if you stepped on it.

It looked very familiar, after all, I had seen it not long ago, and more than once.

Xiao Hua realized that the cockroach was not a creature from the real world, but a manifestation of the power of the supernatural.

So that's how it is? That doll-like mother monster's power has already taken effect on me. So even though it's not here now, its power will make other monsters wary, or rather... they will be confused in their logical judgment because I'm already marked prey, and they won't be able to attack me directly.

This feeling is really quite strange.

Xiaohua didn't know how to describe her feelings. Back when she was still in that villa, and during the time she first entered the rotting room, the doll-like monster had undoubtedly wanted to kill her. However, simply because she ate a whole table of food and praised her, the doll-like monster immediately recognized her as its child. It even chased after her after she left the rotting room and entered a deeper area, protecting her at all costs.

What exactly are these strange creatures? Are they really just machines that act according to rules? Or do they also develop emotions under certain circumstances? They're hard to understand, truly hard to comprehend. But since they don't attack me, could I try to go outside?

While thinking, Xiao Hua reached out and grabbed the rotting hand, trying to pull the stinking thing off her face.

...It didn't budge.

Then she tried to stretch her legs, trying to get rid of the hair that was tangled around them.

...It wasn't removed.

Xiao Hua fell silent once again, dumbfounded once more.

These strange creatures did not attack her again; they simply stayed put and did not move.

However, even if they do not attack, the fact that these monsters are far stronger than Xiaohua remains unchanged.

With her strength, she was no match for these things.

No way?

Am I just supposed to lie here forever?

Is there no way to get rid of these monsters?

The girl desperately wanted to punch the monstrous creature in front of her and then unleash a furious attack, beating up all the ugly monsters that had surrounded her. But she knew very well that she didn't have that kind of strength. On the contrary, if she recklessly fought back, she might only provoke the monsters and cause them to actually attack her.

In that case... in that case... how am I supposed to get out of this predicament? The hair on my feet and this hand are like iron clamps, completely impossible to resist. What should I do to escape this situation? What should I do?

Hope had barely arrived when despair once again shrouded everything.

The pale-faced girl stared at the shadows cast upon her, her body trembling uncontrollably, completely unable to think of a way to escape.

step-step-

But it was at this moment that she heard footsteps again.

The footsteps that came in from outside the toilet had a distinct rhythm and didn't sound like those of a ghost.

"Oh, there really is."

A woman's voice rang out, tinged with surprise.

With her view blocked by a group of strange creatures, Xiao Hua couldn't see the person's appearance, but could only barely make out that the person should also be a woman, who seemed to have a side ponytail.

After the other party spoke, the strange creatures that were unable to attack directly because of Xiao Hua's special identity turned around and faced the intruder.

"You're quite impressive to have survived being surrounded by so many monsters. Even though they're just a bunch of low-level Twilight monsters, it's still not easy for an ordinary person to last this long. Oh, I see. You have a mark of a core-level Twilight obsession on you, which gives you a level advantage over these monsters. No wonder they just surround you without attacking. You're really lucky. To be honest, I'm a little envious of your luck."

Who is this person? What is she saying? I don't understand.

Xiao Hua was stunned. Because the visitor spoke Chinese instead of Japanese, and she wasn't bound to the [Sacrifice Game] and hadn't been given the ability to understand languages, she had no idea what the other person was saying.

Then let us, as their fellow human beings, leave together without them noticing.

The next moment, a voice, clearly imbued with some kind of power, was slowly uttered in a chilling tone.

The man took a step forward and walked directly through the strange creatures in the toilet corridor, reaching Xiao Hua, who was still lying on the ground and unable to get up. He bent down and extended his hand to her.

“Li Ling, deputy captain of the Sunflower Team under the Huaxia Rescue Team, if you want to live, come with me.”

This time, the other party used Japanese.

A few minutes later, in a secluded basketball court, Xiao Hua, sitting on a public bench at the edge of the court, picked up a piece of bread and devoured it in a few bites. Then he picked up a compressed biscuit and, without caring that it was enough to last for several days, ate it all. He then took a big gulp of juice, picked up a large piece of beef jerky, and swallowed it all in a few bites.

"How many days has this kid gone without eating properly? He's really suffering."

Wang Gui, who was over forty-five or forty-six, looked at Xiao Hua wolfing down his food and seemed to recall something, his expression becoming quite complicated.

"Old Wang, don't overthink it. This is clearly a side effect of her newly awakened supernatural power. It seems her ability is taking a very heavy toll on her body. No wonder she couldn't walk before and I had to carry her out. And this... is she going to eat all the emergency rations we prepared? Could it be that she awakened a gluttonous ability?"

Li Ling's expression towards Xiao Hua was not particularly friendly. The main reason was that Xiao Hua's unceremonious way of eating made Li Ling, who liked to hoard things, feel a sense of crisis.

As it turned out, her sense of crisis was correct; Xiao Hua really did eat all the emergency rations prepared by the three-person team all by herself.

"Thank you so much for saving my life. I will definitely repay you all."

After finishing the meal, Xiao Hua didn't even have time to wipe her mouth before she bowed deeply to the three of them and made a very serious promise.

"...A total of 14 minutes were wasted. Vice Captain, are you sure this is okay?"

Angel, the only one of the three who hadn't paid attention to Xiao Hua, completely ignored her at this moment, and instead looked at Li Ling and asked in a cold tone.

"Ah, no problem. Firstly, we came here to rescue people, and someone who has awakened supernatural powers might be able to help us. Secondly, even if we hadn't found this living person and stopped to rescue her, we wouldn't really have a good solution to the current problem."

Li Ling answered casually, but her tone gradually became somewhat heavy.

She looked up in a certain direction not far away. As she looked, Wang Gui and Angel also turned their gazes in that direction. Even Xiao Hua, who didn't know what was going on, turned her head to look when she saw the three of them reacting like this. It was only then that she noticed something was standing not far away.

"This...this kind of thing..."

The girl's eyes widened in shock, her voice filled with barely concealed fear. If she hadn't already witnessed things that challenged the limits of human comprehension more than once before, Xiaohua suspected she might have screamed in terror or even vomited from the horrifying sight.

"Based on calculations, there must be a node behind that thing."

Angel held the human skin book covered with strange symbols in his hands and spoke with a firm tone.

“I know, of course I know. I know your prediction was accurate, and I know the enemy will be prepared after the nodes are liberated. But... to directly bring out something of this scale, how are we supposed to crack it? To be honest, I have absolutely no idea. This is too cheating…”

Li Ling sighed deeply, revealing a very helpless expression.

Before the four of them stood a colossal wall of flesh and blood, over a hundred meters high, formed by the fusion of twisted and disordered corpses, with no visible boundaries, which was still writhing silently.

Chapter 39: The Squad's Progress, Shifting Objectives, and the Illusory Trophy

So big...so scary...

Xiao Hua stared wide-eyed at the massive wall of flesh and blood, her mouth agape, unsure of how to react.

The enormous wall of flesh and blood, even from a distance, exerted a strong sense of oppression on everyone present. Not to mention that it was constantly writhing and trembling as if breathing, with many creatures that appeared to be some kind of fleshy monsters climbing and moving up and down the wall, emerging from or burrowing into it, looking like some kind of parasite living within that flesh and blood.

You must not go near that thing.

Even from a considerable distance, just by gazing at this seemingly endless giant wall, everyone could strongly feel this and understand the dangerous consequences of getting close to it.

"Don't look at it anymore, that thing will erode our will."

Finally, Li Ling, the deputy captain of the Sunflower Team, spoke first, reminding everyone. Only then did the group belatedly realize that they couldn't take their eyes off the wall of flesh and blood, as if the wall itself possessed some kind of extraordinary magic that attracted their attention.

"If we approach rashly, we might be assimilated by that flesh and blood and become part of the wall. We need to find a way to go around or pass through that thing."

Angel glanced at the tattered book in his hand, then spoke in a cold tone.

"Let's get close enough first, then try to investigate. Such a massive wall of flesh and blood couldn't have been built without any cost, and it's impossible that there really isn't a way to get in or out. But then again, are you really sure there are [nodes] inside?"

Li Ling's face didn't show much expression either. She simply turned to look at Angel, her gaze fixed on Angel's facial expression as if she were observing her.

"Of course, this is a conclusion I drew from the book. As for whether this information is reliable or not, that's for you, Vice Captain, to judge. You know I'm only responsible for providing information, not for verifying it."

Angel remained indifferent throughout, and did not react even though she sensed Li Ling's obvious observation.

"Alright, after all, we've worked together so many times, I'm still willing to trust you. So, Lao Wang, and this gentleman, um... should I call you Baihe, Chuanhua, or something? I'm not quite familiar with the way they address people in Japan."

Seeing that Angel seemed to be doing alright, Li Ling didn't say anything more and instead turned her attention to the other two.

Wang Gui simply nodded silently, indicating that he would follow orders and act accordingly. As a complete newbie who had only cleared the Twilight-level dungeon three times with the help of a small team, this older man still had many misunderstandings about the strange and supernatural tales, so he was very honest and willing to listen to anyone's commands.

"Um, my surname is Baihechuan, not Baihe. As for how to address me, you can just call me Xiaohua. And, may I call you Sister Li?"