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

It doesn't matter who stands in my way, I won't back down.

It seems there's no major problem; the text hasn't changed since I read it before, it's just as it was before.

slam-la-

No, it doesn't seem to be entirely like that. Something appears in the text; something else has appeared in the text that should have been normal, as if something is trying to pop out of it.

[Page 39]

Who are those piled-up corpses? What are those monsters choosing from among them? Who should you run for your life...?

Who is on page 47?

The nightmare continues. Who are you? The monsters are multiplying. Who are you? Who are you? Who are you...?

[Page 5 is page 7]

Who are you? ...

Endless streams of blood-red characters burst forth from the records, screaming at Miko in a frenzy.

In a daze, she was no longer surrounded by the space filled with blood and corpses, but in a dark alley. A clinic ahead lit up with a pale white sign. Under the four crooked characters of "Happiness Clinic," an old man stood at the door, smiling at Jianzi and inviting her in.

slam-la-

[Page ? ? ?]

I finally remembered that even though I didn't know where I was, I knew I was standing on a floor made of some kind of solid material.

That's my own floor, the floor of my bedroom.

I never truly left; I stayed in the same place. In my dream, I walked towards them, actually telling them where I was. I thought I was searching for something, but actually, they were searching for me, and I, who knew nothing, told them the answer.

The tattered notebook lay on the ground, revealing a page of extremely distorted text.

Jianzi had already walked up to the old man, who was smiling. The blood vessels connected to the old man's body trembled slightly, and the clinic behind the old man opened its mouth, ready to bite down on the girl who had stepped forward.

click-

An invisible blade pierced forward in an instant.

Long black hair danced in the wind.

The expressionless girl raised her head, her golden eyes seeming to flicker with light. The spiritual spike in her hand pierced through the old man's abdomen, through the clinic behind him, piercing through the man and the building together, and lifted him up in mid-air.

“I know, it’s a trap.”

Then, Jianzi said softly.

[Hospital] has absolute control over low-level dungeons. The gap in strength is insurmountable. Therefore, the clues picked up from the beginning may be misleading, or even hide deadly traps. Yotsuya Miko understands this very well.

But she still deliberately brought along the notebook containing the hidden trap, and intentionally flipped through it to trigger its effect, attracting the strange creature before her.

The reason is simple: the strange creatures belonging to the [Hospital] ultimately share the same origin as those spatial nodes formed by the fusion of flesh and blood. Directly searching for the nodes is highly likely to lead to being misled, or encountering powerful guardians; in short, it will inevitably encounter all sorts of trouble. The enemy is already prepared; they only need to wait and see. So why should one actively jump in? Why not proactively trigger a trap first to control its strength?

Then, after controlling the strange creature that served as a trap, and after stepping into this alternate dimension where the creature was hidden, since both of our origins lie in the [hospital], why don't I try using the strange creature before me as a medium to amplify my senses and directly search for the existence of nodes from a distance?

Close your eyes.

At this moment, Miko Yotsuya unleashed all of her perception without reservation, even using the power of blessing to further enhance it.

This unreasonable "Eye of God," which the hospital found troublesome and attempted to deal with in advance, instantly saw through the entire foundation of the "Happiness Clinic." Its influence extended further, perceiving all other strange entities that had come into contact with this obsession, other strange entities with similar origins, and all beings that could connect with it and possessed mystical characteristics, establishing invisible connections with them all.

In the blink of an eye, it was as if a monstrous sea of ​​blood had erupted. This undisguised perception immediately revealed Jianzi's location. A howling mental shock came toward Jianzi with the force of crushing everything. The hidden monsters that had been hiding and waiting for their turn were also mobilized, ready to eliminate Jianzi at all costs.

"Too late."

Jianzi has already seen the existence of the node.

All the nodes connecting to the residential area in the real world have been exposed to Miko's view.

The crimson light burst forth in an instant, spreading wildly in all directions.

The nodes destroyed by the Sunflower Squad and Kita Ikuyo are like two holes in a piece of paper, opening up a larger channel for Miko's perception, allowing her to establish deeper connections with other flesh and blood nodes more quickly and rapidly, and then connect this connection with the blood-red domain fragments she carries, linking them together as a group.

boom--

The edge space trembled violently in an instant.

Rumble, rumble——

The entire edge space trembled violently at this moment, cracking open one fissure after another.

Yotsuya Miko single-handedly severed all spatial nodes connecting the residential area, and even liberated several nodes near the residential area, thus completing all the conquest tasks for this area in one go.

"call……"

The girl, who was in a daze from releasing too much mental energy, exhaled, but her expression did not show any relief.

The matter is far from over.

This temporary victory is just the beginning.

Sensing the rapidly approaching terrifying aura, Jianzi turned around and faced the other party without fear.

Chapter 44: Moment of Battle, Moment of Collapse, Moment of Diversion, Moment of Crisis

The city is breaking down.

A crimson light rose from the burning ruins.

The monster's howl pierced the darkness, twisted shadows flickered and disappeared, and chaotic buildings collapsed one after another.

Regarding the question of just how strong those female players surrounding Gao Hai, who were rumored to have surpassed the Red Moon level, were, most of the players who came to Tokyo to provide support actually didn't know. For example, the players from the Sunflower Squad had only seen Gao Hai a few times at meetings and had no idea what those JK beauties around him were capable of. In fact, many players initially suspected that Gao Hai was just an unreliable man driven by his lower body.

Of course, the bad impression of Gao Hai vanished after this man, who held down the fort from the rear, supporting the entire city with fragments of his spiritual energy and the Crimson Domain, and commanding several seemingly prophetic actions. Now, no one doubts Gao Hai anymore; in fact, more and more people are developing a subtle admiration for him. However, human nature is always complex. After Gao Hai's abilities were recognized, many began to doubt whether the girls around him were genuine, wondering if these Japanese beauties had bewitched him or held him back.

Such a thought no longer exists, at least not among the current members of the Sunflower Squad.

Because she was now completely certain that this was a group of superhumans. Their level of strength was beyond what the word "player" could describe; they could only be considered a separate biological species.

Rumble, rumble——

The red-haired girl crashed through a skyscraper, bursting through the flying debris and colliding with the oncoming black monster.

The surrounding building debris rotted like flesh and blood in an instant, followed by a massive blast wave released at supersonic speed that shattered the entire building in half, along with the windows of several surrounding high-rises.

"Did we get lost on the Superman set?"

Having already found Wang Gui and Angel in the ruins, Li Ling sighed and then continued searching for the missing Xiao Hua.

Click click click——

Amidst the sounds of countless shattering glass flying everywhere, dark shadows attacked the girl in mid-air from all directions. However, the girl deflected several attacks by waving her hand and releasing gravity. Then, she turned around and kicked away another attack, while a flying knife shattered two more.

Then, Kita Ikuyo fell from the sky and landed steadily on a half-collapsed tower crane. She bit her finger and waved it in mid-air, instantly releasing the blessing power of the Spirit Guardian to knock away the attacking dark monster. The monster was sent flying backward and crashed into the front of a train, collapsing along with the front of the train and more than a dozen carriages behind it.

Such a massive battle was not too taxing for Kita Ikuyo; she could fight all day without getting tired.

Of course, for Aoyama Nanami, whose power had been twisted and altered by the [Hospital], such attrition was utterly meaningless. She was now closer to a monster than a human, an immortal, non-human being. If the battle were to become a war of attrition, Kita herself would inevitably be exhausted and killed after days and nights of intense fighting. This was the inherent advantage of monsters; even though Kita was now almost as strong as a superhero in a movie, she couldn't overcome this gap.

However, she doesn't need to smooth things over.

After all, from the very beginning, the girl's goal in choosing to fight head-on was not to defeat her senior. She couldn't possibly do that in her current state, and Kita was well aware of that.

"It's about time you woke up a bit, Nanami-nee."

As Kita Ikuyo spoke softly, the crimson domain in her hand flowed like water, and fragments of Takami's own spiritual power reflected a golden-red light.

Unlike most players who didn't know Gao Hai and lacked sufficient strength, Kita's use of the Crimson Domain was far more refined and powerful. Just as Miko could manipulate the power of the Crimson Domain to call Xiao Hua, Kita could also forcibly release Gao Hai's mental energy within it, launching a mental attack on Aoyama Nanami.

Of course, compared to Miko's situation, Kita's use of the Crimson Domain is more complicated and consumes more of her own energy. This is unavoidable; Kita's relationship with Takami isn't close enough, so the Crimson Domain's power can't work with Kita as effectively as it does with Miko, requiring her to expend more of her own power. But even with this drawback, after the continuous battles that were enough to destroy a city, Kita is certain that Aoyama Nanami's will has been severely impacted and must have been awakened to some extent.

【…】

There was no howling, nor an immediate attack.

The monster shrouded in darkness paused briefly at Kita's voice, while the decay of the surrounding buildings continued to expand.

Still not working? How much of Nanami's consciousness is left?

While casually releasing her blessing power, Kita threw some of the strange creatures that had gathered around her and tried to attack her into the depths of the collapsed edge space, and continued to silently observe the changes in Aoyama Nanami, intending to try to fight for a while longer.

hum-

An indescribable, violent tremor suddenly spread outwards, and in the blink of an eye, all the buildings in the entire edge space began to tremble. Kita immediately sensed the abnormal changes in the structure of this space itself.

The node has been freed.

Kita immediately realized what had happened.

All the nodes connecting the residential area have now been successfully liberated.

While it's uncertain how many nodes remain, there's definitely more than one. This ability to unleash multiple nodes at once can only belong to that girl named Yotsuya Miko. It's terrifying; can her perception achieve such an effect after being fully released? No wonder the [Hospital] specifically dispatched three Abyss-level modified beings and deliberately isolated the residential area to try and eliminate her. However, this plan is now doomed to failure. The conquest of the residential area and the rescue of Miko have both been successful; the [Hospital] can no longer reverse the tide in this war zone.

"Hmm, senior?"

Then, Kita noticed Aoyama Nanami turning away. The dark figure seemed to have received some kind of command, and was forcibly controlled to stop trying to take back the trophy from Kita's hands. Instead, it began to move towards the factory located in the lower part of the edge space.

Once you realize the situation is beyond repair, do you plan to cut your losses immediately?

Without hesitation, Kita immediately gave chase, leaving a red afterimage in mid-air.

Rumble, rumble, rumble——

It was at this time that the collapse of this edge space itself began to intensify, and the entire distorted and deformed city gradually entered destruction, just like a copy space that had been freed of its core obsession and could no longer continue to exist.

"That wall of blood is collapsing. It must have been done by Miss Yotsuya. And this aura... the situation over there seems to be very bad."

Even from a great distance, Li Ling could clearly sense a terrifying chill emanating from behind the collapsing wall of blood.

"I'll go over there, Vice Captain. You and Lao Wang go downstairs."

Angel, who had been holding the book in human skin, turned to look at Li Ling and suddenly spoke.

"What the hell are you talking about? At a time like this, you're still worried about your clue? This place is about to collapse."

Li Ling was taken aback by Angel's words, but she immediately understood what he wanted to do.

"The clues are only part of the reason. Having survived so many instances, I'm not the kind of person who would rush to my death. But that aura just now was clearly not something that Miss Yotsuya could emit, right? Someone has to go and check the situation, and I happen to be the right person."

As Angel spoke, he moved swiftly, crossing a widening fissure before the ground could completely split open, and stood on the other side of the road.

"No, what kind of hero are you trying to be now?!"

Knowing her companion somewhat and realizing some of his thoughts, Li Ling's expression changed, and she prepared to give chase. But before she could act, a loud crash followed, and a tall building collapsed from above, completely blocking the path between them, forcing Li Ling to take Wang Gui, who had the worst physical abilities, and dodge away.