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

【save……】

So, she was also one of the experimental subjects of Dansu Company's senior management, is that right?

The company recklessly left her in the storage elevator to rot, and even though the employees smelled the stench, they didn't dare to ask. Everyone just kept silent, pretending that nothing had happened. Is that how it is?

That's disgusting.

Compared to being soaked in a bunch of maggots, this is actually the truly disgusting thing, isn't it?

Furthermore, if she was in the vault simply hoping to be discovered and rescued, which is why she paid attention to anyone whose expression changed and who was interpreted as "suspected of discovering her," then could the reason they couldn't talk about her after leaving the vault be because discussing matters involving higher-ups would lead to her being dealt with?

【…】

"..."

The sounds of the corpse finally ceased, and finally, all was quiet.

Liang remained silent throughout, maintaining a blank expression.

"call……"

Then, after one breath, everything disappeared.

I don't know when it happened. When I finally noticed, I found that the surrounding walls had turned back into cement walls, the swollen and rotting corpse had disappeared, and the countless wriggling maggots and viscous corpse oil had also vanished.

She returned to that dark, seemingly normal shaft.

In that case, I guess I've passed the test?

While thinking, Ryo noticed that she could see another exit of the service elevator below, and near this exit, she also noticed another inscription that looked to be from an earlier time.

This is the final step; this may be my end, my final destination.

I finally understand what they are trying to find.

They want despair.

They wanted to see the despair of someone who had endured countless sufferings, who had succumbed to utter hopelessness amidst that suffering, and who had lost all ability to resist or even think.

They wanted to create a sense of despair that embraces everything and abandons everything, a despair akin to being transformed from a living person into a mindless lump of flesh.

I don't know what the outcome of doing this will be.

But those inhumane acts have completely exceeded my tolerance limit.

So this is the end.

I know I can't resolve this through fair means. This is their city; they've seized all the moral high ground, while we, the suffering people, are divided and have no way to organize and resist them.

Therefore, the only solution I can think of is to perish together with them.

[The Sheep Sheep Apartments, the affiliated kindergarten, the industrial park… the final ceremony will likely take place somewhere in the upper-level offices. They intend to use the employees they control to complete this final ritual. And I will make them, too, a part of this ceremony.]

I have compiled all the evidence and placed it in a safe place.

Once this is over, as long as these high-ranking officials die with me and lose their power to control this city, the truth will eventually be revealed to the public, and true justice will surely follow.

Hopefully, nothing like that will ever happen again, and such tragedies will never occur again.

My daughter, my beloved, I once swore to protect you with my whole life. I'm sorry, I failed to do so. I'm a useless father.

I'll be there for you soon.

Please wait for me.

And, someday in the future, if anyone sees my last words, if anyone comes here.

Please tell me that the world of the future will no longer have such bloody and cruel tragedies.

Please tell me when there are still kind people in this world who can live well and are not used as playthings or sacrifices by those in power for no reason.

Even though I will no longer be able to hear by then, I hope that such a day will truly come after me.

[——Eiji Kashiwatani’s masterpiece]

The messy inscriptions may reflect, to some extent, the mindset of the person who left the message.

Liang didn't answer, nor could she answer. She thought about how this father, who had lost his daughter, had such a beautiful wish in mind when he finally decided to sacrifice himself, and she couldn't help but sigh.

Is it really possible for such a bright future to become a reality?

Regardless, at least for now, we still need to get the things that need to be done done first.

crunch - crunch -

The metal-constructed utility elevator door was torn apart bit by bit by Ryona's superhuman power.

I jumped out of the freight elevator and was finally able to stretch my body with my feet on the ground. I took the flashlight out of my mouth and looked around.

Hmm, it's just an ordinary duty room, like before, but... is there a company map on the wall? I don't recall this map being here before, right?

The slightly puzzled girl gently toyed with a domino. This was a Dark Night-level obsession item, the "Disordered Domino," that Gao Hai had given to Liang before their last communication ended. She had almost used it back in the shaft, but thankfully she managed to hold back.

Never mind all that for now, let's just turn on the power first.

With that in mind, Liang quickly located the distribution box in the duty room and turned it on.

Then, looking at the power distribution device that had no switch and could not be started, the girl was stunned.

Why is there no switch?!

Liang, who knew absolutely nothing about electrical distribution equipment, searched around the distribution box with an incredulous expression, and actually found a small note.

The switch in the distribution box had burned out due to repeated circuit switching, so for safety reasons I removed it and plan to replace it with a new one.

The new switches and toolbox are currently located in the office area. You can pick them up if you need them urgently; they are in cabinet number 3.

When you go, remember to use the north-facing door; the south-facing door is broken.

It seems things aren't going to be resolved so easily.

"The office area? So... I still need to figure out how to install switches and repair the circuits?"

Liang rubbed her temples, feeling a slight headache, then looked at the tightly closed door of the Dark One's duty room. She had a premonition that the real trouble was probably just beginning.

Using superhuman strength to break through the wall and rush into the office area... no, that's suicide. Let's find a way to sneak past properly.

However, there is more than one office area. Are we going to try them one by one?

But if that's the case, what about that office area full of people? Going in there would be a dead end, right? Oh wait, the lights are off now, so things should have changed. In that case, maybe I should check the map? I wonder if the map will change too.

As Liang pondered, he carefully walked to the door of the duty room and glanced at the map to see how different it was from the normal map he remembered.

"Um?!"

Then, after seeing with his own eyes what this thing looked like, Ryo, who was completely unprepared, was stunned.

Chapter 54: Yamada Ryo's Dark Journey and the Bloodstained Will of a Young Girl

Before today, Liang had to admit that he never imagined that such a bizarre and strange place could exist in this world.

After gently pushing open the door to the duty room, what appeared before her eyes was a bizarre world so distorted that it defied description, as if an absurd scene from a dream had come true, giving her the illusion that she was still half asleep.

The walls seemed to be torn apart, sometimes bulging, sometimes denting, and sometimes floating in mid-air.

The ceiling was so high that you couldn't see the end of it at all; even shining a flashlight on it wouldn't make it visible, as if the walls themselves were extending infinitely upwards.

The entire corridor and rooms were completely out of order. The office area, which should have been on the left and contained many bizarre human figures, had disappeared without a trace. In its place were heavy metal doors that could only be seen in prisons, and objects and building structures that had been twisted into various shapes and were completely unrecognizable.

A sign that read "Work First" was pasted on the wall, next to which were the words "Work" written in blood.

The words twisted and distorted wildly when they were being watched, as if one could see a madman tearing his own flesh, smearing the bloody words on it, and laughing hysterically.

And on the edge of these chaotic buildings, behind the broken walls, she could see the outside world.

It wasn't the original street, but a grotesque mess so fragmented that it was impossible to tell what it looked like. It was as if countless buildings and corpses had been torn apart and then mixed together, repeatedly torn apart and finally fused together, creating something indescribable.

What exactly is that?

Why would I see something like this in this place?

Standing behind the wall, Yamada Ryo stared intently at the darkness emanating from him, feeling a terrifying aura wash over him.

There's a feeling... a very strange feeling...

The colors of red and black intertwine, and the light of unknown origin reveals the bloody substance.

Broken things that do not exist in reality stand quietly, like tombs, like empty shells.

Empty shell...

An empty shell...empty?

Huh... is it empty...?

Why do I feel that the ruins outside those buildings are empty? What is the source of this feeling?

I have absolutely no idea how to describe this bizarre feeling; it just doesn't make sense no matter how I think about it. But the truth is, after truly witnessing this hideous, broken flesh and blood, after seeing the ruins of those destroyed buildings, after seeing those things overflowing with a foul stench, I did indeed have the feeling that I was staring at some kind of empty shell.

Like an eggshell that has already hatched, even though it still bears traces of fragmentation, it has actually lost something very important forever.

So, was there anything there before?

Can't figure it out.

Why do I get this feeling from a blood-soaked building ruin?

And after looking at it for a while... I always feel dizzy and have a strange sense of fatigue. Forget it, I shouldn't keep staring at this. No matter what the situation is here, it's not something I can handle right now. I'll write it down in my mind and consider this matter again if I can restore contact and get Mr. Gao Hai's help later.

Thinking this, Liang shook her head, quickly shifting her attention, and began to carefully walk through the corridor, which was now completely unrecognizable as it once was.

The cold beam of the flashlight shone through the twisted road, surrounded by all sorts of structures that defied the laws of reality. Liang saw many ceilings and desks floating in mid-air, and some that had merged directly with the walls and floor, even mixing together to form strange, incongruous shapes.

A bone-chilling coldness spread through the darkness.

So far, Ryo has not seen any activity other than his own.

Of course, she was well aware that the "security guards with lights" mentioned in the table would pay attention to anything within the light's range, making her action of moving forward with a flashlight extremely dangerous. Unfortunately, the power outage had plunged the entire floor into complete darkness. Without lighting, she couldn't see anything at all, and even with Gao Hai's enhanced physical abilities, Ryo was no longer capable of moving freely in absolute darkness. For her, groping in the dark was far more dangerous.

If the map I saw in the duty room is correct, this floor, after the lights are turned off, should only have an office area left. The other areas have either been distorted into something else or replaced by the "prison area".

While pondering, the girl carefully stepped across the corridor in front of her and entered what looked like an elevator hall. However, only the No. 1 passenger elevator was still barely recognizable; the other elevators were either completely distorted beyond recognition or had simply disappeared without a trace.

More barbed wire and iron fences came into view, and some areas of the ground even collapsed. If you shone a flashlight down, you would find that the light could not reach the bottom of these pits at all, as if they were an infinitely extending ceiling.

【■■■■……】