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

The rescue team member sitting next to Touyama Akira tilted its head in confusion, instinctively intending to get up and do something. Touyama Akira quickly turned to look at the other person and used his mental power to signal the rescue team member not to do anything rash, and only then did it stop its movement.

What's wrong with these rescue team members? Why are they suddenly disobeying orders and acting recklessly?

Akira Toyama didn't quite understand why the rescue team members suddenly had a tendency to act on their own, but his question was soon answered when he saw the things that were entering the dining area.

Judging from their appearance alone, they could be considered human.

Even though they were dressed in rags and covered in dust, looking utterly disheveled.

Even though everyone was so thin they were skin and bones, with sunken cheeks and clearly visible ribs, some even had abnormal swelling on their faces and bodies, or protruding, swollen bellies.

But at least, Akira Toyama could see that these things were now showing what they looked like when they were alive, not what they looked like when they were dead. Even though they looked so terrifying that they were no different from dead people, and even more chilling than dead people.

These "people" came in with only one purpose: to eat.

They headed straight for the counters at the edge of the dining area, reaching out to grab anything they could touch and stuffing it into their mouths, eating quickly and frantically, one bite after another.

All the "people" who come here at this moment are like this, eating continuously with an infinite thirst, ignoring any reactions around them, just eating, just eating non-stop, just eating again and again, nothing more.

"..."

The three players remained silent.

It's hard to say whether their silence was partly due to being intimidated, but at least through contact with Gao Hai, who was also observing the area, they were somewhat shocked by those monstrous, starving creatures.

What's going on with these people who look like they came from a famine era?

How could such a group of people appear in a resort dungeon set in a clearly modern society?

Moreover, judging from their clothing and appearance, these people must be from at least two or three hundred years ago or even earlier. They seem to be refugees from some famine year in ancient times. How could such people be connected to the resort?

Gao Hai recalled the clues the players had found before, including the information about the three underground levels and the various unusual phenomena that occurred after the underground excavation project was carried out.

Could it be that these disaster victims were dug out from underground?

While thinking, Gao Hai noticed that Ishido Masaaki was making subtle movements. The captain of the Red Society seemed to be sitting still, but in reality, he was controlling the insect-shaped object, intending to send the little insect to fly to the monsters that were eating and observe them up close.

These strange creatures that appeared out of nowhere were so different in style from the resort itself that Ishido Masaaki felt he would miss an opportunity if he didn't try to investigate them.

He was certain that these strange creatures were connected to the core obsession within this instance area. If he could figure out their origins, he might be able to find information about the core obsession. Especially after sensing the intense stench and unprecedented twisted death aura emanating from these creatures, and confirming that each of these ghoul-like beings possessed extremely terrifying power, Ishido Masaaki felt even more determined not to let them go easily.

Please maintain order and dine in a courteous manner.

Customers with children or elderly relatives, please take good care of them and avoid causing trouble for others.

Maintaining civilized order is everyone's responsibility. Thank you for your cooperation.

The loudspeaker came on.

Just a second before Ishido Masaaki was about to act, as the little insect he was controlling was about to fly towards the strange creatures, the broadcast suddenly sounded, causing Ishido Masaaki to pause for a moment.

[Captain, stop!]

Akira Toyama realized the problem in that instant and immediately shouted to Masaaki Ishido through the mental link.

"..."

At that moment, Masaaki Ishido realized the problem, broke out in a cold sweat, and quickly stopped his probing actions.

The sounds of eating continued.

The monsters continued to eat frantically, as if they were never full. They just kept repeating the process of eating, suffering in the torment of satisfaction and insatiable hunger.

But their eyes weren't on the food.

Although these animals have been eating non-stop in front of the counter since they entered the dining area, their eyes have never actually been on the food.

They were staring at the three players in their seats.

All the monsters that were constantly devouring, regardless of gender or age, were staring at the three players from the Red Knot Society as they ate.

On those faces, almost devoid of fat and so thin they were practically skin and bones, bulging eyes were all looking at Ishido Masaaki and the others, scrutinizing them from head to toe, their limbs, and every inch of their skin.

A chill spread through my nerves.

From the moment they realized that those things had been watching them the whole time, all three players felt a chill run down their spines, as if they could already see those things tearing their flesh apart and feeding on their corpses.

Don't move, just stay seated.

"I can speak calmly in the mental link," said Akira Toyama in the mental link.

[As long as we don't take any deliberate action, these things can't really harm us. I can sense that their actions are actually quite limited. This dining area, in terms of its rules, still offers us a certain degree of protection.]

I just don't know why this rule wasn't written in the rule sheet.

If such a terrifying thing were to be encountered in the dining area, the survivors should at least have made a record of it. It's impossible that encountering this thing would necessarily mean certain death, and that the recorded information would also be erased. It can't be that bad, can it?

Akira Toyama increasingly felt that there was something wrong with that rule table.

Thinking about it carefully, although the rule sheet didn't explicitly say so, it implied that the survivors should eat in the dining area.

Hu Baoxiong has confirmed that the "meat" in the dining area is problematic. Now, these strange creatures are heading straight for the areas with various meat and vegetable dishes. Could it be that eating the meat here will have some kind of influence, causing them to ignore some issues that should be noticed, or even turn into an accomplice to some kind of abnormal harm?

If that's the case, it's really bad. It means that the survivor organization here has been in a state of "contamination" from the moment it was established. If we stay here until the "second day," which theoretically would mean meeting other survivors, we'll most likely run into a bunch of self-righteous monsters, right? The situation might get quite terrible then.

Tread - Tread -

As they pondered, the strange creatures began to turn and leave.

It was as if there was an invisible clock. The moment the clock struck, these monsters, who had been feasting just a second ago, stopped eating, turned around and walked towards the door they had come in through, and left one by one in silence.

"..."

The three players remained silent, sitting motionless in their seats, none of them looking up at the objects.

After leaving the dining area, the hungry monsters quickly fell silent, as if they had vanished into thin air after walking a certain distance. Even with the player's powerful senses, they could no longer detect their presence.

Meanwhile, Akira Toyama and the others remained silent, not making any rash moves, and continued to sit in place, keeping watch for any possible abnormal situations.

No problem, they have completely disappeared.

Only when Gao Hai spoke in the mental link did the three of them finally breathe a sigh of relief and relax their posture.

"Looks like we missed lunchtime."

Masaaki Ishido looked up at the digital clock that showed 14:00 PM, gave a wry smile, and began to tease.

"Time is flowing faster here. Although our investigation hasn't yielded many valuable clues, it has likely triggered a reaction from the strange creatures lurking here. The situation we're about to face will probably become more troublesome and dangerous."

Toyama Akira let out a long breath, still somewhat shaken. The oppressive aura of the group of starving monsters was still terrifying to him. Especially when Ishido Masaaki's probing action was met with a reaction before he could even make a move, and as the monsters' aura intensified, Toyama Akira was prepared to fight on the spot, so he was tense all over. Only now could he finally relax a little.

"...They will definitely not let us go, and they will come back again."

Hu Baoxiong rubbed his nose and then came to this conclusion with certainty.

Although those things left without doing anything in the end, Hu Baoxiong's intuition told him that the three members of the Red Knot Society had been identified, and sooner or later those strange creatures would come knocking on their door. There was no way to avoid this conflict now.

However, let them come; they're here to cause trouble anyway. They're just being cautious for now to avoid losing clues and increasing the difficulty, since they haven't met the big boss yet. If things really come to a head, they wouldn't mind testing their skills against the strange creatures lurking here and seeing who's stronger.

Anyway, with Gao Hai watching over them, the chances of them losing are really slim.

"Let's keep going, don't waste any more time."

Masaaki Ishido was the first to stand up, stretch and loosen his shoulders, then gestured for his teammates to follow him.

The next objective was very clear: the game area on the first floor.

Having failed to identify any issues there, the players, who deduced it might be a time-related problem, decided to wait until the time specified in the rules prohibiting travel to that area before heading there, to see if anything would spawn in the game area by then.

Compared to previous actions, this time they were truly defying the rules, and no one could predict what might happen. Therefore, Gao Hai silently empowered the three players to prevent signal loss at crucial moments. The three players didn't hesitate and strode into the newly remodeled first floor of the resort, quickly beginning to search for the location of the game area.

There seemed to be a faint sound coming from afar.

Unlike the silent resort in the morning, the afternoon resort, though still deserted and devoid of any activity from anyone other than the players, occasionally emitted extremely faint, indistinct sounds in the distance. These sounds seemed to remind them that they weren't alone, or perhaps to lure them closer, guiding them step by step towards the sounds.

"We should be close."

As the sounds became clearer, Masaaki Ishido quickly identified several corridors that had previously been adjacent to the game area during his investigation. Having experienced several changes within the building, Ishido had discerned patterns, knowing that areas that were initially close together wouldn't immediately move apart after the next spatial shift, but would remain relatively close. Often, it would take three or four spatial shifts for those initially adjacent areas to become distant.

"This way."

Hu Baoxiong was more direct. He lay down on the ground and sniffed around, circling the carpet like a hunting dog for a while. Then he stood up, pointed to a corridor, and looked confident.

[It reminds me a bit of the female police officer who played Captain America in Madagascar 3...]

Watching this scene unfold, Gao Hai couldn't help but mentally complain, but out of politeness, he didn't let the three players hear his complaints. Only Hayasaka Ai, who was drowsy by the throne, glanced back with some confusion before continuing to focus her attention on the area that Maki Kaguya and the other player had created.

I could feel it; it was definitely getting closer.

Yuanshan Ming was gradually able to distinguish the faint, intermittent sounds.

Gunshots...

The sound of people screaming...

The distorted sounds, intertwined and swirling, were mixed in with the music.

Even before actually arriving at that place, just hearing those sounds is enough to imagine the scene of those bandits attacking customers with guns.

Dear customers, the game area on the first floor is currently under maintenance and cannot provide entertainment at this time.

We sincerely apologize for this and hope you can wait a while. We will notify you once the game area is repaired.

[The game area is currently closed. The resort will not be held responsible for any accidents that may occur while you are playing here. Please be extra careful.]

Then the broadcast came on again.

The broadcast was mostly silent in the morning, but now it's been coming on one after another. It seems that only violations and dangerous behaviors trigger a response from the broadcast.

However, this broadcast seemed somewhat off.

Akira Toyama keenly noticed that the content of this broadcast had changed slightly compared to the previous ones.

This broadcast didn't seem particularly harsh; it merely stated that players who went to the game area would bear the consequences, rather than directly prohibiting them from going there or demanding they stay away from the area altogether. This meant that the actions of the three members of the Red Guild wouldn't, in principle, directly contradict the broadcast, leaving some room for maneuver between the broadcast rules and the players.

Speaking of which, the captain mentioned before that this broadcast should allow us to know our actions anytime, anywhere.

So, is this change in the broadcast content because the other party already knew our objective and made this adjustment only after confirming that we absolutely had to go to the game area?

Akira Toyama frowned. As he listened to the increasingly familiar, yet completely unrecognizable, voice of a young girl on the radio, his speculations about this mysterious broadcast grew.

tread--

As Masaaki Ishido, who was walking at the front, stepped down, the three players officially arrived at the corridor of the game area.

Under warm lighting, an upscale carpet stretched along the corridor, with hidden doors dotting one side of the wall. Most of these doors were open, having been previously investigated, and some even emitted light, likely because the players hadn't turned off their screens before leaving.

There doesn't seem to be anything wrong.