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

Liang's gaze lingered on the message "Mingjia" for a second before she carried Xingge on her back and quickly moved forward into the room with the broken walls. She soon found a very inconspicuous hole on one side of the room.

That really did qualify as a dog hole.

Liang had no choice but to lie on the ground and, with only her waist barely able to support her, crawl through the hole into the deeper room. She then turned around and dragged the unconscious Xingge into the dog hole as well.

What appeared before Liang's eyes was an even more outrageous pile of garbage, with an even more unbearable stench and litter everywhere.

Layers of black duct tape were wrapped around the walls, blocking the doors and windows, allowing the nauseating smell to continue to spread.

The wall in front was also smashed and broken, with rubble piled up in the corner, mixed in with other garbage.

Rounding the corner, Ryo found a partition in the pile of trash, clearly pieced together from different tables and chairs. She also saw numerous messages left by victims from different times. Behind this partition was a relatively clean area, where Ryo placed Xingge.

If she continued walking, there should be another room. But the walls of this room were all sealed off, and Liang couldn't find a door to the next room. However, she did see a hole in the top of one of the walls. After thinking for a moment, she climbed up onto the table under the hole, which was large enough for her to pass through, and looked into the hole. The next thing she saw was a huge pile of rotting garbage that filled the entire room—so much so that it made her dizzy just by looking at it.

"Uh……"

I almost threw up.

Liang covered her nose and took one last look at a door on one side of the garbage room that seemed to be able to be opened.

She roughly pieced together the internal structure of room 304 in her mind, and thus could clearly determine that there was a considerable unknown area in the room that could not be entered.

But Ryo couldn't investigate this unknown area right now, because the moment she jumped off the table she was standing on, she clearly heard the "click" of a door opening. At the same time, an eerie chill that was hard to ignore also spread throughout the room.

Chapter 18: The Inscriptions in the Dark Land and the Pain and Silence Belonging to Death

Something has entered this house.

Extremely dangerous, something that should never be touched lightly, something that could easily take her life.

Even before it truly appears in sight, you can already deeply feel the terror of something gradually approaching.

"call……"

His cool breathing seemed somewhat heavy.

Mr. Gao Hai is with Hongxia right now, so he can't help me. I'm all alone now, and I have to take care of the unconscious store manager. I have to face this situation on my own.

It's impossible to be sure if that thing will venture deep into the house to find me. After all, if a locked door can't stop it, can a fairly well-hidden dog hole really stop it?

But there's nowhere else to hide. Do we really have to go to that room full of rotting garbage? That doesn't seem like a good idea.

The more Liang thought about it, the more immense the pressure became, and the more aware he became of that thing gradually approaching.

Like a countdown to death, the pressure grew heavier and more overwhelming.

"Well……"

A slight stinging sensation came from my foot.

Liang looked down and could see faint bloodstains on the ground where she had walked.

Because the environment in 304 was particularly bad, it was easy for Liang to step on dirt when walking barefoot. Therefore, she had to be careful. As a result, although she did not step on the black stains that looked like excrement, she accidentally stepped on shards of glass, which cut her foot and caused her to bleed quite a bit.

To be honest, it really hurts, especially since the situation is urgent and there's no time to remove the glass shards, causing excruciating pain in the soles of my feet with every step.

Normally, she probably would have found it hard to endure this pain, but now Ryo could clearly feel her will becoming stronger. It seemed that some inner power had strengthened her spirit, allowing her to endure the pain without changing her expression.

There must be a place here where one can hide from the enemy.

Liang took a deep breath and looked around the filthy, smelly room.

The fact that room 304 could accumulate so much garbage proves that someone lived there for a long time, specifically after the strange creatures started appearing. Therefore, this kind of creature breaking in must have happened more than once. There must be a way to avoid attacks from the creatures, a way to survive, and that method must be hidden in these interconnected rooms with their broken walls.

The girl's gaze swept quickly across the room, carefully searching for any useful clues.

The walls and windows sealed shut with duct tape... it's pointless.

Piles of garbage... are equally pointless; such places should be avoided.

A partition made of tables, chairs, and cabinets... might be useful, but since that thing is already coming into the room, it proves that the other party will go around the partition, so this thing probably won't be of any use.

A clean cabinet... wait, this cabinet is clean?

Liang's gaze suddenly stopped, landing on the only relatively clean item in this filthy room: a large cabinet placed against the wall.

Realizing something, the girl carried the unconscious Xingge forward and immediately saw several lines of engravings on the cabinet.

They don't inspect the cabinets.

They won't inspect this cabinet because it's company property.

They would never dare to inspect Dansu Company's products, just as they would never dare to let us tell the truth.

See, they're not actually that smart, are they?

After all, if they had realized what was happening, they wouldn't have become accomplices, and they wouldn't have died here too, right?

【——Mingjia】

The distorted inscriptions seemed to be brewing some kind of hatred. Just reading these words made Liang feel as if he could see a ferocious face with gnashing teeth.

However, she couldn't care less about deciphering the text at this moment. For the girl, who was already in grave danger, survival was the most important thing. Therefore, Liang opened the cabinet door without hesitation, without even glancing at the few lines of inscription left on the inside, and hid inside with Xingge, closing the cabinet door behind them.

The already dimly lit room was plunged into absolute darkness after the cabinet doors were closed.

Even though the computer in Liang's hand was emitting a faint red light, it couldn't illuminate the surroundings, or even the narrow space inside the cabinet. At least, it couldn't let Liang see the engravings on the inside of the cabinet that she hadn't noticed before.

"Huh...huh..."

The cold breaths and heartbeat grew increasingly heavy.

She could already sense that the things that had entered the room were now coming through the dog hole towards where she was hiding.

They know she's in this place.

She couldn't give a specific reason, but at this moment, Liang could clearly sense it. She was absolutely certain that the things that had entered room 304 and were about to reach the cabinet knew she was hiding there and had clearly seen her.

However, strangely enough, despite knowing that he had been discovered, Ryo did not feel the chills that he had felt before, and he did not have the strong sense of crisis that came from being targeted by a terrifying monster.

It's as if this cabinet creates a special kind of isolation, transforming the cold, unprotected roommates and those unknown, eerie creatures into the audience and the movie screen in a theater. Even if the film being shown is actually a rather terrifying horror movie, a movie is ultimately just a movie; it won't actually go off-screen and harm the audience.

This feeling is truly quite magical.

Gradually, Liang could feel her breathing and heartbeat calming down.

She could sense that those things were still outside, searching and lingering in the room, looking for something. They knew she was here, in this cabinet, but they were indifferent to her, never lingering in front of the cabinet, as if deliberately ignoring it.

Since this is a cabinet belonging to [Dansu Company], it will never be inspected, right?

This strange rule really bothered Ryo. She couldn't understand why these terrifying creatures would change their behavior logic because of a so-called "company." Considering that she was now temporarily in a safe zone, Ryo thought for a moment and decided to take a slightly risky step.

Hopefully nothing bad will happen. However, now is probably the best opportunity to understand the current situation and gather more intelligence.

"call……"

Take a deep breath and close your eyes.

The next moment, Liang's consciousness was projected out of his body, and a part of his soul was freed from his flesh and blood, passing through the barrier of the cabinet door and looking into the room outside.

Then, she saw the protective suit.

The grayish-white suits, which cover a person from head to toe without exposing any skin, look very similar to the full-body protective suits used by people in infectious disease epidemic areas.

At this moment, what appeared in Liang's line of sight were several "people" wearing gray and white protective suits, searching for something inside the house.

These people… no, that’s not right, this aura is definitely not human. They’re dead, they’re monsters, monsters in human skin. Don’t be fooled by their appearance. But why do they look like this? Making such complete protective suits… is the water poisonous? Wait, if we follow the information on the note, could it be that when this apartment was still in the real world, the Japanese government actually knew what was happening here and deliberately allowed the situation to escalate?

After all, these people in protective suits looked exactly like official inspectors. So, could their decision to enter room 304 directly after curfew be linked to some unusual activity in room 304 itself?

As she pondered, Ryo's expression grew increasingly focused. She had actually observed the room carefully after entering, considering its structure and comparing it to room 109. It was through this comparison that she was able to determine that the bathroom in room 304, the central part of the room, was the completely sealed-off area. Connecting this to the information that the water was poisonous, Ryo felt that the original inhabitant of 304 was very likely an informant, someone who knew the inside story before anything happened. This was precisely why the investigation of this inhabitant was so drastically different from others, and why these investigators, disguised as strange entities, could freely enter and exit 304.

Ryo couldn't confirm the veracity of his conjecture, but even if it differed from the truth, the appearance of these strange creatures alone was enough to explain a great deal. Ryo had to admit he was getting a little excited, and beginning to feel elated that he had successfully grasped a clue to the truth in this instance.

Maybe I have a real talent for being a gamer.

Although Gao Hai had warned Liang beforehand that this was a [Dark Night] level dungeon, a dangerous dungeon that new players could hardly clear on their own, Liang still couldn't help but have a fantasy. He imagined what it would be like if he could uncover the truth of this dungeon, and how others would view him if he could successfully break through it with Gao Hai's help.

【Jingle Bell--】

It seemed as if the sound of wind chimes could be heard, ringing from an unknown source.

Liang, who was inside the closet, couldn't hear the sound very clearly. Although she was a little confused about what the sound was, she didn't dare to completely stick her soul out of the closet. So she cautiously stayed still in the same spot.

The lights came on.

Suddenly, the ceiling light came on. Although it barely illuminated the room, it still brought a little warmth to the gloomy space.

They started to leave.

Liang wasn't sure if the monsters left because they couldn't find their target, because they heard the wind chimes, or because they wanted to avoid the lights.

But at least for now, these things in gray-white protective suits are indeed leaving one by one. They disappear in the direction of the dog hole, and it's impossible to tell whether they walk straight through the wall or actually crawl out through the dog hole. In short, in the blink of an eye, Liang can no longer see those strange creatures.

Click——

The sound of the door locking rang out. These strange creatures seemed quite polite, as they even remembered to lock the door before leaving.

No, this idea is meaningless. As Mr. Gao Hai said, ghosts are ultimately just the afterimages of living people. All they do is repeat themselves. Forcing them to have emotions or colors is pointless.

Of course, Mr. Gao Hai also mentioned that some of the supernatural beings possess sentience, emphasizing that these beings are artificially created and that normal supernatural beings don't resemble that. However, what's slightly odd is that while Mr. Gao Hai mentioned the existence of these special supernatural beings, he refused to elaborate on their characteristics. Naturally, since Mr. Gao Hai was unwilling to speak, Liang wouldn't be so tactless as to press him further; for her, the most important thing was how to survive.

Anyway, now that those things are gone, I should be safe, right? I should be able to leave this cabinet now, right?

Thinking this, Liang first cautiously observed her surroundings using her soul's perspective. Finding that the lights were still on and there was nothing unusual, she waited cautiously for a moment, then, feeling that everything was alright, slowly pushed open the cabinet door and carried the still-unconscious Xingge outside.

"Hey?"

Then, she noticed the blood-red characters carved on the inside of the cabinet door.

Don't step out of the closet when the lights are on!

The light is on! It's back!

[The light is on! Don't leave the cabinet!]

It will see you! It will come to you!

You can't dodge it! You can't escape it!

[Get back in the closet quickly!!!]

Go back before it sees you!!!

Can't I leave the cabinet when the light is on?