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

Chapter 49: Superhero Goto Ichiri Reports!

Darkness is gathering.

Darkness was converging towards its location.

The ground was trembling continuously.

Many houses have been dragged into darkness, broken into pieces, leaving only ruins.

However, it was clear that those hiding in the houses were not dead.

Even with such terrifying power that directly destroys buildings, the [Rules of the House] still stubbornly played their role, protecting the ordinary people under their protection until the very last moment.

Therefore, those people must have already fallen into the instance world.

Under the protection of the [Rules of the House], these ordinary people would not be crushed to death by the collapsing building, but now I can no longer sense the life force of those people, so they must have been captured by the dungeon world and fallen into another space.

This is both good and bad news. After all, while entering a dungeon means you won't die immediately, the sheer number of ordinary people entering in this way basically means they're just feeding the monsters inside. Just like when a Red Moon-level dungeon manifests in the real world and devours ordinary people, Gao Hai had encountered this before. Although he eventually managed to break through the dungeon, he couldn't save the twenty-odd ordinary people who had entered with him. He only managed to bring them back later by re-entering the dungeon and using the power of the artifact.

Ah, speaking of which, that rescue operation was something Gao Hai and I did together. It was after that experience that our connection truly began to form and our relationship truly became closer.

Recalling the past, Goto Ichiri blushed slightly.

However, soon after, sensing the gathering aura around her and knowing that she was now completely locked on, the girl opened her eyes, and her aura began to change.

"Ms. Goto, what should we do next?"

A middle-aged Japanese firefighter behind him cautiously asked what was happening. He had been rescued by Goto Ichiri and a team of players not long ago. After learning what was happening in Tokyo, he volunteered to drive a large vehicle to transport survivors. He then joined the player team, driving a bus to help transport three groups of survivors, totaling over 100 people, to the shelter. Now, with the dramatic changes in the Shimokitazawa area, his vehicle had a tire punctured by gravel, forcing him to get out and walk to Goto Ichiri at the front to inquire about the situation.

hum-

The girl did not answer him, but gently plucked a few strings.

Then, the situation changed a few seconds later. The piece of rock that flew from who-knows-where was blocked by the clone of Yili before it could even touch the bus. The uncle did not get off to ask about the situation, but sat on the bus and watched the collapsed road ahead with concern.

“Drive back to Vault 16; that stretch of road is intact.”

At this moment, Yili spoke softly to the players following behind.

"But with these surrounding auras... I'm afraid we can't break through..."

A Dark Night-level player swallowed hard and spoke in a low voice.

“You can get out; they’ve come to find me.”

The next moment, a hazy mist rose up, released from the center of Goto Ichiri, instantly covering an area within a hundred meters, engulfing everyone present, whether they were players following him or ordinary people sitting on buses waiting to evacuate, soaking their bodies in the mist.

"This...this is?!"

Players with strong perception have already noticed that the eerie auras converging from all directions can no longer lock onto them.

"Keep your body moist; the effect will last long enough until you enter the shelter. Let's go."

Goto Ichiri simply spoke with a cool and indifferent expression. She stood still the whole time, her small body displaying an extremely powerful aura.

The power she released at this moment was not the blessing of the blood flower, but the blessing of the priestess that she originally possessed.

However, unlike in the past, this blessing, which was originally only at the Twilight level, has now been upgraded to the Crimson Moon level under the influence of the Blood Flower's power. Furthermore, unlike the initial blessings held by Kaguya Maki and others, Ichiri's blessing underwent a qualitative change after being strengthened, transforming into a completely different form from the past.

Previously, the "Blessing of the Priestess" only produced an effect on a single person through a special ritual. But now, Goto Ichiri can release a transcendental domain called "Purification" directly from her center with a mere thought, rapidly filling the space within a hundred meters around her with abundant water vapor. Furthermore, if she is in an area with high water content when releasing the domain, the effect of this blessing is enhanced. And now, the entire city of Tokyo is shrouded in a massive downpour, so Ichiri easily extends the effect of this blessing to everyone present except herself.

The effect of this domain, named "Purification," is far stronger than when the blessing was at the Twilight level. Firstly, the power of this blessing significantly reduces the presence of any individual within the area whose body is wet and who is recognized by Goto Ichiri himself, making them immune to the monsters' attention. In short, as long as they don't recklessly make physical contact, they could dance around in front of the monsters without being noticed.

Secondly, this blessing significantly suppresses any monsters within the [Purification] domain that are already wet, making it difficult for them to escape. It also forcibly fixes their tracking target to the domain's creator, Goto Ichiri herself. This is why she didn't activate the domain on herself. She needed to activate this effect to hold back all the monsters present, preventing them from accidentally encountering the fleeing survivors.

Finally, and very importantly, even if those who receive the blessing leave the [Purification] field's coverage area, as long as their bodies remain wet, they can retain the extraordinary power granted by the [Purification] field for a certain period of time, allowing them to continue disguising themselves from being detected by the strange creatures.

Of course, if the body returns to its "dry" state and leaves the area, the blessing's effect will definitely be lost. And as always, this blessing is much less effective on men than on women. However, this is unavoidable, as it's a fundamental rule of the blessing itself.

"Have more than 9% of them been attracted?"

With just a slight sense, one can determine the number and overall proportion of the strange creatures that have been attracted to the surrounding area within a mile.

A few monsters are immune to the power of the [Purification] field, notice the ordinary players and survivors who are retreating. These are all Crimson Moon level monsters, so the power of the Crimson Moon level blessing cannot completely affect them, and gaps will still be found.

But it doesn't matter. Since Yili is going to stay here, she can't possibly leave without making any preparations. She had anticipated the current situation.

"replace."

The girl spoke softly, and extraordinary power began to operate according to her will.

The second effect of the [Blessing of the Priestess] began to take effect at this moment. This greatly enhanced blessing effect, at Ichiri's own will, replaced the ground beneath her feet, giving it the concept of [everyone present]. This replacement would not affect those who fled the area. However, in the monster's perception, those fleeing players and survivors had now become [the ground beneath Ichiri Goto's feet]. Conversely, the concrete ground beneath the girl's feet was now imbued with the concept of [everyone present].

As a result, the few remaining monsters that had not been distracted were also forced to focus their pursuit on the area where Goto Ichiri was located, making it their destination.

In that case, there's no problem.

The girl blinked, glanced back one last time at the people who were evacuating, and then focused her attention on the strange creatures that were gathering in front of her.

It's estimated that all the monsters in the Shimokitazawa area have arrived by now. If we can take this wave away, the pressure on the rescue personnel in this area will basically be reduced to zero.

For shelters that already have a large number of survivors, the [Rules of Home] will receive a great boost. So even in the current situation of large-scale urban area collapse and falling into a dungeon, Ichiri can be sure that those shelters can continue to exist stably in the real world without worrying about being breached by the enemy.

This has been a key focus for Gao Hai's team for several playthroughs. Even though the [Hospital] has tried many methods, those guys hiding in the dungeon simply can't break through their defenses. Is that why they need to change their strategy and have come looking for them?

Before making the decision to act, Ichiri had already tried to manipulate time several times using the power of her guitar, but no matter what she did, she couldn't shake off the pursuit. The enemy was clearly determined to eliminate her, and in this situation, the girl's only choice was to confront them head-on.

[Be extremely careful, our opponent came prepared this time, and I can't project my power over here for the time being. Qianhua has already been dragged into the instance, you have to hold on, signal... signal also... weaken... be stubborn... I... buzz... buzz... split...]

The mental link established by the black watch became unstable again, interrupting Gao Hai's anxious voice. The chaotic noise soon subsided. Even though Ichiri could still sense Gao Hai's presence through the mental link, he couldn't communicate with him now. The root of all this was that the hospital had produced a special item that could interfere with the black watch's operation, which Yotsuya Miko called the "clock hand."

It sounded complicated, and Yili couldn't quite understand it, but she didn't care. She knew exactly what she needed to do.

Also, although it might not be the best way to put it, but...

{The scene of me standing here and casually releasing my domain to make everyone leave must have been incredibly cool, right?}

After confirming that no one was watching her, Boqi felt a little swell up inside. She completely forgot about how she had been so nervous earlier because of the crowd that she couldn't show any expression and didn't know how to speak, so she only managed to stammer out a few words the whole time.

"Are you coming?"

The first to attack were those Night-level monsters.

Since no Twilight-level monsters were seen, the attackers were clearly aware that such monsters were utterly meaningless in this area.

The girl's attention quickly locked onto the female monster among these various shapes, some fragmented, some ethereal, and that seemed to be pieced back together like building blocks.

Is this the dismemberment-wielding female ghost? [Hospital] was able to secretly turn the tables on her beloved this time thanks to this ghost's special abilities. But after using it, she used it to fill in the gaps and attack herself—isn't that incredibly cowardly?

But that's fine too. Since they've sent this thing over, I won't be polite.

The girl took a step forward.

More than a dozen clones of various shapes immediately appeared around Goto Ichiri and quickly headed towards the strange creatures.

A blood-like, fluid substance then formed around the girl, radiating outwards with her thoughts and heading towards the various strange creatures.

hum-

A strange creature resembling an old man covered in tumors vanished without a trace upon being touched by the blood.

hum-

A girl, whose body was half-body and only bones remained, and whose entire body looked as if it had been doused with chemical reagents, disappeared immediately when touched by the clone.

In the blink of an eye, more than half of the strange creatures attacking from all directions were gone.

Goto Ichiri's eyes had turned blood red at some point, and something within that blood-red light was constantly churning, like a tidal wave.

That was indeed the ocean tide.

Those were waves stirred up by the [Mirror Blood Sea], which existed outside of reality and could only be activated by Goto Ichiri himself; they were waves created by the struggles of the monsters imprisoned within.

One of the blessings that Goto Ichiri possessed, derived from the Blood Flower, was the ability to extract the divine blood sea that filled the entire Bydos Research Institute from her memories and transform it into a blood sea located in another dimension that only Goto Ichiri herself could enter and exit.

The Blood Sea itself is entirely composed of divine blood, possessing an extremely powerful suppressive force against any strange creature whose existence is rooted in divine blood. Even Crimson Moon-level strange creatures find it difficult to escape the Blood Sea's control. Furthermore, the size of the Blood Sea depends on Goto Ichiri's memories, but not on a single memory. Rather, it is based on the cumulative amount of blood pools she personally witnessed during the decades of time travel she took with Takami. In order to save those survivors on the timeline, Ichiri and Takami traveled back and forth on the timeline more than 100,000 times. Therefore, the amount of blood in the [Mirror Blood Sea] is more than 100,000 times that of the blood pool in the Bydos Research Institute, which is more than enough to form a Blood Sea.

Of course, such terrifying power cannot be completely controlled by Ichiri. Among those who received the Blood Flower Blessing, including Takahashi, only Ichiri's blessing is not entirely under her control and is a blessing with significant limitations.

Firstly, Yi Li cannot directly release the sea of ​​blood into the real world to create a massive wave for everyone. On the contrary, the amount of divine blood she can control and channel into the real world is very limited, enough to fill only one truck at most. Furthermore, even if this divine blood escapes Yi Li's control, she cannot summon new blood unless it is completely consumed. Otherwise, she must reclaim the divine blood she has summoned before she can summon new blood.

Secondly, the contamination of this thing is arguably even greater than the blood pool at the Bydos Research Institute. Manipulating divine blood is practically a form of slow suicide for Yili, as each use of this blessing incurs significant consumption. However, she doesn't need to worry about this divine blood strengthening the monsters. As a blessing, the divine blood she possesses resists all monsters generated by the [Sacrifice Game], and the two will only counteract each other upon contact.

Currently, Yili has successfully developed two main ways to utilize this blessed power. One method involves consuming about one-third of the divine blood from the [Mirror Blood Sea] to help Gao Hai, who sits on the Throne of Thought, refine his power. It can be said that Gao Hai's current strength is inseparable from Yili's help. However, this has also placed a great burden on Gao Hai, a burden that is difficult to eliminate even after a rollback. In addition, the Throne of Thought itself has been tampered with by the [Hospital], leaving Gao Hai stuck halfway through his ascension to godhood. The divine blood that Yili consumed cannot be replenished after the rollback; of course, even without replenishment, it would be difficult to notice how much is missing, given the sheer amount of this substance.

The other use is quite simple. Since sending divine blood into the real world is difficult and dangerous, why not just send the monsters in? This is indeed much easier than releasing divine blood. All Yili needs to do is let the divine blood he controls come into contact with the monsters, or let his clones come into contact with the monsters, and he can directly send them into the sea of ​​divine blood in the mirror space through physical contact, suppressing them on the spot.

In just about half a minute, all the strange creatures that attacked from all sides were thrown into the sea of ​​blood and suppressed by Yili.

Under the torrential rain, walking through the misty, ethereal air, the girl took a step forward, and the shadow that had seeped into the real world from the dungeon world receded a step.

Regardless, Gao Hai's assessment has confirmed that the instance is classified as "Dark Night Level," and the strength of Dark Night Level instances is actually insufficient to infiltrate the real world. Therefore, although the "Hospital" used some unknown means to successfully bring the instance's power into the real world, a powerful player like Goto Ichiri could simply use his aura to force its power back, gradually pushing it back into the instance space.

Of course, the enemy who orchestrated all of this will not allow the girl to have her way.

Indeed, such a small lamb is not enough to satisfy God's chosen ones.

A gentle voice, so soft it seemed to inspire trust just by hearing it, slowly rose from the ruins.

Goto Ichiri's body tensed up instantly, and the clones that had scattered around her quickly disappeared and immediately appeared beside the girl to protect her.

Such a distorted, powerful aura—Ichiri was certain she couldn't possibly be mistaken. So, after a brief moment of thought, she chose to ask directly.

"Which 'doctor' are you?"

Chapter 50: The Arrival of the [Internal Medicine Doctor] and the Blessing of the Young Girl

【doctor】.

These are three beings who exist within the [Hospital], truly transcending the limits of supernatural beings and approaching the realm of gods.

Despite Gao Hai's best efforts, he was unable to leave behind many records regarding his interactions with these three "doctors." So far, only the "psychiatrist," due to her direct encounter with Yotsuya Miko and Kita Ikuyo and subsequent capture by Gao Hai's clone, has left relatively more clues. As for the "surgeon" and "internist," there are still no sufficiently detailed records available.

However, this is unavoidable. After all, even Red Moon level players would find it difficult to survive a single round if they encountered a [Doctor] head-on. The overwhelming difference in strength, coupled with the fact that these three [Doctors] don't exactly follow martial ethics, often leaves players who encounter them completely unaware of what they've done, and they may even die without ever knowing what happened to them.

Only a few elite Red Moon-level player teams, including the "Slacking Off Gang," could survive against these three malevolent entities, and even those survivals had an element of luck involved. Perhaps because the "Hospital" hadn't fully invaded the real world, its three "Doctors," as its highest-level combatants, were still somewhat restricted in their actions there. Therefore, if they couldn't defeat a player team quickly, they would swiftly retreat and attack other players instead.

However, Goto Ichiri estimated that this time the situation might be different from before.

After all, she could clearly feel the chilling aura emanating from the darkness, and sense the deep hatred her enemies harbored for her.

This time, the enemy probably only has one goal: to kill her.

"Which 'doctor' are you?"

The girl, showing no fear whatsoever, stood still and asked in a calm tone.