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

Kenta Hayashi muttered under his breath, glancing down the corridor and at the researchers standing in the room, heads bowed, seemingly operating some kind of machinery.

If you look directly at them, those people don't exist; you can only see the machines running automatically without anyone operating them.

But when our gaze shifts away from those people, their figures reappear clearly in the corner of our eye. It's as if they've always been there, never leaving from the beginning, only that no one noticed.

The lights are getting brighter and brighter.

The research institute itself is becoming cleaner and more normal.

The biting cold grew stronger with each step they took. If they turned around at this point, they would see a brick wall that had somehow appeared behind them, completely blocking their way back and giving them no chance to regret it.

In the surrounding rooms, the blurry figures multiplied. They moved around in the three people's peripheral vision, talking incessantly, their forms slowly approaching, but when they actually turned their heads to look, they could see nothing at all.

Then, the road ahead seemed to twist slightly.

boom! ! !

Without hesitation, Shao Ye summoned his sword in the next second, and his cloak burst into flames. In an instant, the raging flames exploded, and the surrounding lights shattered one by one. The twisted figures in the darkness screamed and retreated, leaving only a dilapidated dark corridor in front of them.

"……continue."

The flames disappeared once again, and Shao Ye, now fully recovered, continued to walk forward while speaking.

After witnessing firsthand the other party's violent method of expelling the evil spirits, Hayashi Kenta suppressed all his emotions and obediently followed behind the other party.

Soon, the three found what appeared to be their destination. It was a completely sealed-off area separated by thick metal walls and a protective door, a place they had never seen before, but which had now appeared out of nowhere. On this sealed door, a faded warning sign, its dried dark red color appearing vibrant and alive under the light of Hayashibe Kenta and Nanakawa Ren's flashlights.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Unknown Sinner's Last Will and the Lawyer's Analytical Actions.

I can no longer recall when it all started.

My earliest impression seems to be of a strange patient, a very unusual patient.

Lobotomy... This is not an inhumane procedure. The patient has about a third of their brain tissue removed, resulting in the loss of most physiological functions, turning them into an unresponsive, zombie-like entity. I knew this; I knew it from the beginning. But I still did it, like most people, proceeding with such surgery knowing there were problems.

I have no regrets about this. I know what fate awaits those I performed this surgery on. I know that many of these patients are innocent, blameless, and may not even be sick at all. Their parents, their lovers, their children, their families who should have supported them, sent them to my operating table for various reasons. And what I did was insert an ice pick into their brains and remove a third of their brains. What I did was undoubtedly sinful, and I will not deny it. I did these things knowing exactly what I was doing.

As for why I do this, the reason is simple: money. Those forced to undergo this surgery often have families willing to pay exorbitant prices, especially after I hint to them about minor procedural issues. These people with guilty consciences are always quick to hand over their money; it's thanks to them that I've been able to pay off my student loans, cover my hefty annual house taxes, and pay for my two daughters' tuition.

A few years ago, I probably thought my life would just continue like this. As an evil doctor who harms innocent people, nothing would change until the end.

[Until that patient appeared, until that patient zero came before me, plunging everything I had into the abyss.]

My hands are trembling.

I wanted to control it, but I couldn't. I could feel cold sweat pouring down my face. Just because I wrote down that patient's code name, fear took root in my heart. I was so scared that I almost fainted on the spot.

I don't know if he was my karma, that patient. When I first met him, I never imagined he would be so special, so terrifying.

His family almost never visited him. He supposedly had a daughter, a middle-aged woman who was married with three children. I only saw that woman two or three times. She had someone forcibly bring him to my hospital and onto my bed. I don't know what he had done, but there was no doubt that he and his daughter were bitter enemies, and his daughter was clearly stronger and more ruthless. On the operating table, his behavior wasn't much different from other patients; he threatened and intimidated me, tried to lure me with benefits, and finally begged for mercy until the anesthesia took effect and he lost consciousness.

When he woke up, he became like the other patients. He would just lie in bed listlessly, ignoring everyone's calls, and needed help with eating and using the toilet. His daughter was very satisfied and paid me a large sum of money, and she will continue to pay for his care every month thereafter. I have gained a stable income, which allows me to live a better life.

Until problems began to emerge, things seemed no different than before.

The first victim was the night patrol nurse. She was also an innocent victim; she had no idea how cruel the hospital's so-called treatment methods for patients with bipolar disorder were, or how many conspiracies lay behind them. She was just an employee living her life according to the rules. However, she was the closest person to him that day, so she became the first to jump from the roof, landing headfirst and shattering into pieces on the ground.

At the time, I didn't realize what this meant. I did see the description of the "hole" in the report, but I never imagined it would signify anything. Then, three days later, all the nurses and security guards on duty that night committed mass suicide. They somehow obtained an electric drill and together at the nurses' station, each piercing their own head with the drill, and writing in their blood on the wall, "There's a hole here; jump down and you'll see a new world."

The blood-written words were written about half an hour after everyone committed suicide, but the police investigation showed that no outsiders were present at the time, so the words should never have existed in the first place. I realized something was wrong then, but I didn't expect things to develop like this. At the time, all I could think of was to resolve the matter as quickly as possible, calm public opinion, and ensure my job didn't get damaged—that was all.

Then, I saw that hole in my dream.

He appeared in my dream; he dug open his head; he showed me the existence of that hole.

At that moment, I realized that no matter who this person was in the past, the thing standing in front of me now was no longer him, but something else entirely.

I didn't jump into that hole.

In that moment, I saw all the imagination I could ever fathom in my life, my dreams, my entire soul.

But in the end, I didn't jump down. I didn't enter that hole. I regained my senses, which is why I survived and was able to truly communicate with him.

But now it seems that this may not be a good thing.

If I could have died sooner, I wouldn't have had to get involved in all of this, I wouldn't have had to endure these nightmares, and I wouldn't have had to face this ending.

This safe house can hold out for a while longer, and we still have plenty of food and water, but I have no chance of escaping. The research institute has been completely abandoned, and those who funded me withdrew even faster than expected. I'm not sure how they made that decision, but I, and those who are still alive like me, have been completely abandoned. There's no way we can leave this place alive. Even if we manage to escape the pursuit of those things in the hospital and research institute, we'll be silenced as well once we're outside. There's no chance of survival.

I can still see that hole, and I know I can jump in if I want. Even if terrible things happen inside, at least in my own perception, I'll think I'm happy.

But I can't actually jump in.

After learning what that was, and after understanding what "truth" truly means, I could no longer make that choice.

The last thing I can do now is to pull the trigger on my head, that's all.

I think my fate was sealed from the very beginning. From the moment I succumbed to temptation and started acting according to Patient Zero's ideas, I was destined to end up like this.

I don't want to accept this outcome, I don't want to die.

He's right outside. I can feel it. He'll definitely take me away, whether I want to or not. He'll definitely take me into that cave.

Why can't he just die? Why can't he come back even after I've completely destroyed him? Why does he hate me so much and refuse to let me go?

【I don’t want to die】

【I don’t want to die】

Please, someone save me.

God, please save me, please save my soul!

Please

Please

……

The lawyer stared expressionlessly at the messy handwriting in his hand, his gaze slowly moving from the first word to the last row of chaotic lines before finally looking away at the corpse with a hole in its head next to the table and chair beside him.

He was no longer in the area where the medical staff were on the first floor, but had entered a completely unknown place.

Driven by a desire for rigor in the investigation, the lawyer, after deciding to remain on the first floor to investigate the specifics, adopted a truly thorough and meticulous approach. He went through every room, including the men's and women's changing rooms, the doctors' and nurses' rest rooms, the toilets, the medical records room, and the elevator.

By skillfully using the book with its alloy ramming mechanism, the lawyer smashed through the walls, floors, and ceilings of every room, attempting to uncover all the hidden clues with an audacity that would be almost impossible for a normal player.

Throughout this process, he encountered resistance more than once, sometimes from attacks by distorted creatures, sometimes from abnormal distortions of spacetime itself. For anything he could fight back against, he would simply physically subdue it, then toss it out of the hospital and into the spatial disorder zone to fend for itself. He also encountered dangerous situations he couldn't handle on several occasions. For these, the lawyer, forced to fight alone, adopted a very simple method: withstand the enemy's attacks and wait until Gao Hai's communications were restored, then remotely unleash a powerful attack to resolve the problem, before continuing his investigation—a deeply investigative process conducted in an extremely aggressive manner, completely unlike that of a player.

It was through such unreasonable means that the lawyer was able to discover the secret passage located in the medical records room.

After venturing deep into that secret passage, the lawyer himself experienced several more crises, dismantling several areas that required passwords or keys to access. With the help of Gao Hai, he cracked a special passage that he couldn't open on his own. Finally, without obtaining any relevant clues or key items, he managed to find the secret room located underground in the hospital. After forcibly opening it, he found the body of what appeared to be the hospital director and his suicide note.

This method of skipping levels consecutively was clearly problematic, but the lawyer felt that time was of the essence, and even if the methods were somewhat unorthodox, it didn't matter, since no one would be judging their actions. Gao Hai fully supported the lawyer's efficiency-driven approach, fulfilling his requests as much as possible. In fact, among the players now divided into several groups, the lawyer was indeed the first to successfully find the crucial clue.

"The person whose name is currently unknown, suspected to be the hospital director and the surgeon who performed the illegal prefrontal lobotomy, was the first to come into contact with Patient Zero and survive. It now seems that at that time, it was probably the [hospital] that he came into contact with, rather than the supernatural entity itself. This gave the doctor a misconception, leading him to embark on the path of contacting and researching the supernatural entity. By comparing with other clues, it can be determined that this doctor eventually attracted the attention of the officials of the Kingdom of America, and cooperated with the government to build a research institute, beginning further research on the supernatural tales related to the [Bottomless Pit]."

As the lawyer spoke, he sat down in another chair in front of the corpse that had fallen onto the chair, completely ignoring the foul odor emanating from the body, and continued his analysis while facing the corpse.

"Both patients, A-1107 and D-2003, left behind medical records, so the period when these two key patients were located should still be during the hospital phase, before the establishment of the research institute. Considering that the hospital was abandoned after the establishment of the research institute, it is very likely that some kind of loss of control occurred during the hospital's operation phase. This phenomenon led to the abandonment of the hospital, as well as the intervention of official personnel, and ultimately led to the abandonment of the research institute and the abandonment of all survivors."

"You ultimately died in a secret room in the hospital, which means that in the final and most dangerous stage, you chose to return to the hospital. Objectively speaking, the hospital must have been teeming with monsters in that final stage, and you wouldn't have returned without a specific reason. So, did you believe you could find a way to deal with the monsters in this place? Or did you hope to return to find the real mastermind and try to negotiate again?"

"Whatever the reason, you ultimately chose to shoot yourself. And the [Hospital] certainly doesn't want its record to remain in the next level, so I didn't see any clear information in your suicide note. But one thing is certain: the problem between you and Patient Zero is definitely not as simple as you wrote in your suicide note. After he became a monster, the person he most wanted to kill was you, and this has become his obsession. This couldn't have been achieved simply because of the surgery; you must be hiding something."

In a calm voice that remained unchanged throughout, the lawyer slowly leaned forward, gazing at the corpse before him, its head tilted back, seemingly motionless.

With Gao Hai's assistance, clues from Xiong Mi, Mao Ge, and Shao Ye were all gathered on his end, and the clues he collected could also lead to the locations of the other three groups.

Therefore, the lawyer has now basically confirmed what he wanted to confirm, and also understands what to do next if he wants to take it a step further.

“You’re not the type to answer questions honestly. Even on your deathbed, you still avoid some crucial matters. In that case, all I can do is find the other party involved and get information from them. Since you’re here, I’ll lend you your identity for now.”

Reach out.

The lawyer paid no attention to the other party's condition and grabbed the corpse's shoulder.

Almost instantly, the corpse, which had been lying obediently, twitched violently, then grabbed the lawyer's hand, and its head, with a hole in it, slowly rose, its turbid eyes and sinister aura attacking the lawyer.

hum-

Then, under the overwhelming power of Gao Hai's crimson domain, he was instantly beaten half to death, his head lolling to the side as he lay there.

Let go.

The lawyer could sense that his "Actor's Blessing" had successfully replicated the creature's aura. Now, if he wished, he could use the power of the blessing to impersonate the monster, making everyone else in the instance, including the monster itself, genuinely believe he was the monster when they saw him.

So, I've got the key item. Next, I need to go back to the ward where patient 0-0001's head is located, activate the power of the blessing in front of it, and see what kind of reaction that will produce.

Based on current calculations, there shouldn't be any further changes.

However, it is still somewhat risky, and it is best to avoid any possible unexpected situations.

Thinking this, the lawyer looked at the strange doctor who had recovered somewhat and was about to launch another attack on him, and quickly made a decision in his mind.

A few minutes later, the doctor-like monster had transformed into a figure wearing only boxer shorts, while the lawyer had changed into the monster's doctor's uniform. To make his presence more palatable, he even dug some blood and mud from the hole in the monster's head and smeared it on his clothes.

Although the instance itself is classified as Red Moon level, it doesn't mean that all the monsters within it are Red Moon level in strength. For example, the doctor monster in front of the lawyer is clearly only at the Dark Night level. Therefore, during the forced clothing change, in order to prevent this thing from resisting, the lawyer directly shattered its limb joints, leaving it only able to wriggle laboriously on the ground, posing no threat to the lawyer's safety whatsoever.

After changing clothes, activating the power of the blessing should allow us to deceive for a longer period of time.

The lawyer analyzed and thought about it very seriously for a while, but his gaze returned to the strange creature still struggling on the ground.

A few minutes later, with a flash of golden light, the lawyer received the blood key that had been remotely transmitted from Gao Hai. After several attempts, he successfully opened the door to the safe room containing the human heads. Then, the lawyer left before the signal on Gao Hai's end was lost.

Beside the lawyer's advancing figure, with the screeching sound of the chains dragging on the ground, the grotesque creature with a hole in its head, tightly bound by these chains and unable to move, was still struggling in vain to attack the lawyer, but it stumbled along headfirst, being dragged along the ground towards the shadows behind the door ahead.

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Patient Who Fell into the Cave and the Man Who Provoked the Cave.

slam-la-

Outside the broken window, the sound of pattering rain could still be heard.

The lawyer, now dressed in a doctor's coat, walked steadily down the corridor, followed by rescue team members with guns raised on guard. He dragged the grotesque creature, stripped of its clothes, along with the other side.

The lights in the corridor flickered, and the lawyer's shadow on the wall flickered and swayed, stretched out and moving constantly.

"I've successfully escaped the area where the medical staff are active. Based on my current actions, I deduce that escaping this spatial distortion zone can be achieved through role-playing. Stealing a doctor's or nurse's uniform and putting it on might allow me to break free from the distortion. Hmm... wait a minute, that might not be very reliable. If simply changing clothes could change one's identity, there should be a record of that in the survivor rules. I think it's necessary to obtain some kind of identification while changing clothes, such as having an internal hospital badge on the doctor's uniform I'm wearing now, while also carrying this strange object. I'm not sure which of these two actions worked; I suggest trying both if possible. That's all I need to convey, Mr. Gao Hai."

Okay, no problem. Do you need my help getting back to the mental hospital area? The spatial disorder outside the building is still quite severe.

"I assume that getting to the ward area shouldn't be too much of a problem, but if you, Mr. Gao Hai, can help me, I would be extremely grateful."

[OK, I've recorded your initial route, retraced your steps from the ward to the first floor of the outpatient department, and confirmed the spatial nodes. I anticipate no abnormalities within the next 3 minutes and you can proceed normally. However, if you feel anything is wrong after opening the door, do not go in immediately. Be sure to notify me, and only proceed after I've confirmed the situation.]