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

Masaaki Ishido looked towards the bar and saw an empty wine glass that had been placed there at some point.

After a brief hesitation, the man chuckled, stood up, and slowly walked towards the bar.

step-step-

The sound of footsteps became clearer as the floor beneath their feet changed from high-end carpet to ceramic tiles.

Hu Baoxiong had already arrived on the first floor.

Hu Baoxiong, crawling on all fours, sniffed the ground as he slowly made his way through the first-floor corridor, eventually returning to the hot spring area he had passed through earlier.

He was searching for the source of the bloody smell.

That faint, seemingly distant smell of blood, which only he could detect.

Many people have died in this place.

It's difficult to give a precise number, but Hu Baoxiong guessed that there should be at least two or three hundred, otherwise it wouldn't be possible to create such a strong smell of blood.

Of course, for a Red Moon-level dungeon, this level of casualties is nothing. Normally, at least several thousand or even tens of thousands of people would die in a Red Moon-level dungeon. But Hu Baoxiong wouldn't underestimate the situation because of this. After all, this is just one area of ​​the dungeon. Who can be sure that beneath the surface of these two or three hundred dead, there might be something even more terrifying?

For example, these dead might actually be sacrifices in a bloody ritual, their deaths bringing something far more horrific. Or perhaps their deaths are part of a conspiracy, with similar events occurring elsewhere on a deeper level. It's also possible this place is trapped in some kind of time loop, where these hundreds of people repeatedly die and come back to life, producing extremely terrifying results with a relatively small number of participants…

Hmm, I'm thinking a bit too far ahead. Let's focus on doing what's in front of us first.

Speaking of which, the food in the dining area looks pretty good. Ever since Tokyo fell into a huge crisis, I've been running around without a break, and I'm starving. I really want to go get some food as soon as possible. Anyway, with Mr. Gao watching over things, even if there's something wrong with the food, he can easily take care of it...

While lost in thought, Hu Baoxiong continued his investigation.

This might sound strange—how can someone be distracted while doing something that requires concentration? But for Hu Baoxiong, it's entirely possible. The reason is simple: his mind was damaged by a past trauma, resulting in a mild tendency towards dissociation. This dissociation isn't enough to make Hu Baoxiong a person with dissociative identity disorder, but it allows him to, to some extent, separate his thoughts, thus enabling him to focus on two different things simultaneously.

This is also why Hu Baoxiong enjoys letting his mind wander while on missions. Since his thoughts can operate independently, he doesn't need to worry about anything going wrong. Of course, there are occasional exceptions, such as when he was almost captured by Alice, only to be tricked into entering Hayate Elementary School during his escape and ultimately turned into a dog and eaten. But if such a situation arises, even if he focuses on both his thoughts simultaneously, it won't help. Therefore, Hu Baoxiong hasn't shaken his habit of daydreaming.

Sniff sniff sniff sniff

Hu Baoxiong, who was crawling forward on the ground, suddenly widened his eyes.

The smell became clearer.

After wandering around the hot spring area for a while, he suddenly noticed that the previously vague smells had become clear and fresh.

It was as if time had reversed at that moment, and he had returned to the very beginning of that massacre.

No, it should be said that it just ended.

"..."

Hu Baoxiong raised his head with a serious expression and looked at the hot spring pool in front of him.

The hot spring pool was stained with blood, filled with many corpses, and exuded a strong smell of blood.

You could see the unseeing look on the faces of those guests.

You could see the gun barrels of all sizes on the guests' bodies.

They were shot.

These customers, who had come to the resort to enjoy themselves, were driven away and trembled in the hot spring pool. They cried out and tried to escape amidst gunfire, but were eventually killed one by one and floated in the pool, turning the steaming pond blood red.

Shoot him?

Hu Baoxiong turned his head and looked at the ground next to the hot spring pool, at the rows of footprints left in the dirty bloodstains.

There were at least two people carrying guns.

Both were male, and one of them also had body odor.

They stood by the pool, chased away the customers, and eventually killed them.

When did this happen?

Tsk, if something that serious really happened, it should be famous nationwide, or even globally, right? Oh, by the way, dungeons have an information obscuring effect; everyone will forget everything related to the dungeon. That's quite a joke, isn't it?

wink.

The bloody scene has disappeared without a trace.

Everything had returned to normal. The hot spring pool was still clean, with no corpses, no blood, and no screams or wails. At this moment, the only person present was Hu Baoxiong, who was lying on all fours.

He stretched out his foot, scratched his chest and shoulders, and then shook his back.

Unconcerned about how others perceived his actions, Hu Baoxiong continued forward, sniffing the ground as he crawled.

He could sense that he would soon find more traces of the resort's past and trace back to a horrific event, an extreme shooting incident that was likely on the verge of being a terrorist attack.

Meanwhile, Yuanshan Ming, who was still on the second floor, gradually stopped moving forward, unlike Hu Baoxiong.

"Strange feeling..."

He recalled the scene in the bar just moments before, and the voice that had come over the loudspeaker.

That voice was undoubtedly that of a young girl, a childish voice, no older than 6 years old, the kind of child who still needs an adult to hold her hand when crossing the street.

Neither the captain nor Hu Baoxiong heard such a thing.

Why is it that what I hear is different?

Is there something special about me? Or is there a subtle difference between the role I play and those of others?

And most importantly, why do I feel a strange sense of familiarity with this voice? Why do I feel like I've actually heard this voice somewhere outside the instance?

The more I think about it, the more confused I become.

"call……"

However, such thinking will not yield the answer.

Yuanshan Ming closed his eyes, took several deep breaths, and then opened them again. The confusion in his eyes faded, and his gaze became focused once more.

Thinking about questions without finding answers is pointless. Since we lack sufficient clues to deduce the truth, we should focus on finding those clues first. Delaying action due to meaningless thinking would be putting the cart before the horse.

With this in mind, Akira Toyama continued forward, slowly approaching the massage area he had previously investigated.

The last time they investigated this place, they found nothing. This time, Akira Toyama decided to conduct a more thorough reconnaissance to see if he could find any clues. After all, this place was considered dangerous according to the survivors' rule list, and the danger only existed during the free time in the afternoon. This made Akira very curious, and he wanted to try to find out what the hidden danger was and determine what it was.

Buzz buzz buzz——buzz buzz buzz——

As for Masaaki Ishido, the flying insect he was controlling had already entered the game area on the first floor. In terms of investigation approach, this captain and the vice-captain Akira Toyama were quite similar, both focusing on the problematic areas clearly mentioned in the rule list.

Unlike the other two, while remotely probing through flying insects, Masaaki Ishido himself sat at the bar, solemnly picked up an empty glass in front of him, and slowly pushed it forward.

A pale hand reached out from behind the bar and took the glass of wine offered by the man.

Hello sir, what do you need?

The bartender in the suit asked Masaaki Ishido.

"Let me think... something to perk me up, preferably something fancy, something that will leave a lasting impression from the very first bite, how about that?"

Masaaki Ishido grinned and casually addressed the bartender in front of him.

[An interesting request, I hope I can satisfy you, sir]

The bartender started mixing drinks while laughing. He quickly displayed a variety of cool moves, and exclamations of surprise rang out from beside Ishido Masaaki. Most of the customers, who were new to the place, had never seen the bartender's tricks before, and they all gathered around, whispering among themselves.

He reached out and pinched his nose, took a deep breath, and tried his best to suppress his frown.

A cocktail, shimmering with multiple colors like a rainbow, appeared before the man. Looking up, he could see the bartender's confident smile and the huge wound on half of the bartender's head, clearly inflicted by a shotgun.

I wonder if any blood or brain matter dripped in just now. I should have just skipped this drink.

Ishido Masaaki's expression remained unchanged as he reached for his wine glass and drank it all in one gulp.

The taste is indeed quite good.

Unfortunately, the other person is already dead. If he had met the bartender while he was still alive, Masaaki Ishido felt that he might have been able to become friends with him.

"The taste is pretty good, I'm very satisfied."

"Ishido Masaaki put down his wine glass and said in a low voice."

slam-la-

The broken bottle fell to the ground.

Smudged blood dripped slowly, and corpses lay scattered in various corners of the bar.

Dense bullet holes were scattered throughout the corners of the house, and the bullet casings scattered on the ground reflected a cold glint in the warm light.

It was undoubtedly a massacre.

The gunman entered the bar and used an automatic weapon to fire around the room, knocking everyone to the ground.

Then, the other party switched to a shotgun, walked up to each victim, and shot them in the head at close range, blowing off pieces of flesh and bone all over the room. He then opened a bottle of wine, drank it, and changed a few more bottles if he wasn't satisfied before turning around and leaving.

Looking at the messy footprints on the ground, Ishido Masaaki roughly pieced together what had happened.

At the same time, clues from Hu Baoxiong's side also converged, and the same conclusion was quickly reached in the minds of the two players.

Regardless of what lies behind the [Spring Storm Resort] instance area, on the surface, the direct reason this place became an instance area should stem from a terrorist attack.

Multiple gunmen entered the resort, sealed off the premises, and committed massacres. It is likely that almost none of the customers and staff inside survived, and the tragic deaths of these hundreds formed the surface layer of the dungeon's obsession and eerie presence.

The resort was already complex, riddled with various hidden doors. Therefore, it was easy for both victims and perpetrators to get lost, especially in life-or-death situations. The memories of these escapees, once the replicas were created, fed back into the resort, giving its terrain a truly ever-changing characteristic, transforming it into a bizarre, labyrinthine state.

The fact that the toilet could provide cover is likely because the gunman couldn't find the hidden door. Well, that's not necessarily true. After all, the rule of "don't look up" probably means the person hiding has already been discovered by something, but there's no interaction, so they're safe. Given the characteristics of those gunmen, they'd probably open fire immediately upon discovery, giving the other party no chance to interact.

So, what makes the massage area and gaming area dangerous zones? If it were merely a gunman's attack, it wouldn't be enough to qualify them as special zones, would it?

While pondering, Masaaki Ishido looked around at the clean bar, where there was no one else besides himself, no mutilated corpses, and no blood and gore on the floor. He found a spot and sat down again.

The current time is 11:30.

Time passes much faster in this instance area than in the real world, and it's unclear whether this is due to the instance merging process. But for the three players of the Red Guild, this change is good news. After all, they can't possibly spend several days investigating this place, so speeding up time to trigger various events is, in their view, a good thing.

Hopefully, it will be afternoon soon. By then, we'll be able to determine exactly what the problem is in those two areas.

As Ishido Masaaki was thinking this, he suddenly received a message from Takami. This made him pause for a moment, then his expression turned into one of suppressed laughter. Soon, the man contacted Toyama Akira, who was investigating on the second floor, and asked him to go to the locker room to meet a teammate who had been separated from him and was now returning.

Do you really want me to go? I don't really want to spend time with that person...

Akira Toyama was somewhat resistant to this.

"We have to take it; what if it runs off again? With it there, Mr. Gao's signal will be more stable. You're the closest, so you go. I'm the captain; you have to listen to me."

Masaaki Ishido exercised his authority as captain without hesitation, while Akira Toyama, unable to say "you'll regret this," had no choice but to obey.

When he arrived at the locker room, Akira Toyama could already sense the other person's presence.