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

Those memories that he had finally managed to recall were now slowly fading away, peeling away from his mind bit by bit.

The memories he had painstakingly retrieved after arriving here were now uncontrollably disappearing, detaching from his mind along with the power of the curse.

Is that so?

So that's the true nature of the power of this curse.

In that moment of hesitation, Akira Toyama slowed his movements even further. It was at that moment that he clearly saw a figure sweep past him and stride forward.

That was his father, the one who had secretly observed him many times not long ago, and whose expression of heartache clearly showed that he was recalling what he had experienced in the past.

Now, however, he walked calmly forward, completely ignoring Akira Toyama beside him, and strode towards the exit.

This is truly a lucky thing for ordinary people.

Their mental strength is too fragile. After being infected by the cursed power, they are often unable to realize what is happening to them in time. By the time they react, they have mostly entered the second stage and have already entered this distorted space and encountered important people from their memories.

Similarly, when they leave this place under the guidance of the players and begin to trigger the second stage of the curse and start to forget the past, because their mental strength is too weak, they are unable to realize what is happening to them in time. Therefore, they will walk to the exit without knowing anything, forget everything and return to the real world.

Those once unforgettable and important memories will disappear from their hearts, and in their own eyes, such memories never even existed. They cannot possibly realize that such a thing ever happened to them.

But Akira Toyama couldn't do that.

He couldn't ignore it.

As a Red Moon-level player, his spirit was too strong, and his memories too clear. Therefore, when his memories began to return, he would uncontrollably devote all his energy to them, unable to ignore the memories and the extraordinary power acting on him. Similarly, when forgetting began, he would also uncontrollably become aware of the past he was forgetting, and because of his emphasis on these memories, a flaw would appear in that instant, a gap in his thinking.

Can't leave.

As the other survivors around him headed towards the exit, Akira Toyama stood frozen in place, unable to move any further.

"Hoo... Uh..."

His breathing began to slow down.

Intense pain spread from the body and the depths of consciousness, uncontrollably spreading throughout the entire body.

That's really enough. It just so happens that at this very last moment, because they couldn't let go of their past memories, they revealed their weakness.

Akira Toyama sighed softly, feeling the heavy binding sensation coming from all around his body, as he was being pulled little by little into the depths of darkness, falling into the deepest part of this cursed space.

The process of forgetting stops at this moment, and those memories of the past that were once so valued become clear again.

This time, however, the memory became the medium of the curse, the poison, beginning to destroy Akira Toyama's soul and body, and preparing to spread further through his existence after completely destroying him.

I remembered why I had deleted my family's memories.

That most unpleasant period of time, filled with helplessness and pain.

Yuanshan Ming remembered that it happened during his break after the fourth dungeon mission he participated in.

That was in the early stages of the [Sacrifice Game]. At that time, players didn't even know what a Red Moon-level dungeon was like. The Dark Night-level dungeon alone made players tremble with fear. Akira Toyama's fourth mission was also his first Dark Night-level mission. He barely escaped after a near-death experience. He had no ability to explore the core obsessions or anything like that. Just surviving was extremely difficult.

It was around that time that players discovered the targeted nature of participating in five consecutive dungeons of the same level. The Twilight-level dungeon entry tickets, initially thought to be life-saving, now seemed to offer only temporary delays to death, driving many players into a frenzy. In their madness, these pathetic individuals turned their blades on ordinary people, ruthlessly slaughtering the innocent and creating wave after wave of riots.

During that turmoil, Akira Toyama fought with all his might to protect his family from being affected, which made him an enemy and was hated by many players.

Although Akira Toyama eventually managed to deal with these players gradually, at least at that time, he wasn't confident he could fight them all. Therefore, he had to find a way to hide his family, ensure they wouldn't be discovered by these lunatics, and, considering the worst-case scenario, ensure that if he were killed by these hostile players, his enemies wouldn't be able to find his family and retaliate further if they chose to extract his memories to investigate him.

At that time, he was not strong enough, and the Red Society had not yet been established. Toyama Akira mostly fought alone and did not have much support to rely on.

The indiscriminate massacres of ordinary people were eventually suppressed, and the majority of players were willing to maintain order. However, the madmen who were obstructed were not all eliminated, and many players who stood up were later retaliated against by these bastards, while Akira Toyama's family also had several close calls.

The most dangerous incident involved the enemy using a hypnotic concoction that could induce an entire street to answer a certain number of questions honestly at once. They then used this concoction to search for the families of opposing players. At that time, Nao Toyama, who was out alone, happened to be on the next street. That player had traversed dozens of streets that day, killing hundreds of ordinary people whose names he remembered from the questions, but he happened to change direction when passing Nao Toyama's street, allowing her to escape.

Afterwards, Akira Toyama found the bastard in time and killed him, but the object of his obsession had already been moved beforehand, and at that time it was unknown who the holder was.

He could no longer tolerate this situation continuing indefinitely.

I need to find a way to ensure my family's safety, preventing the enemy from finding them, and even if they do, from realizing their connection to me and gaining no intelligence about me. At the same time, I also need to take certain precautions to prevent them from being discovered and retaliated against after my death.

After making the final decision, Akira Toyama left the home where he had lived for over thirty years.

His family no longer remembers him; all memories of him have been sealed off and deleted.

Akira Toyama also altered his own memories; once he dies, his memories of his family will become blurred and difficult to recall.

After that day, he never went home again. At most, he would watch his father and sister from a distance of two blocks before turning away.

Even after joining the Red Knot Society, he never revealed these things.

For Akira Toyama at that time, the choice he had to make to protect his family had become an unhealable scar in his heart. Therefore, he chose to avoid it, not to expose it, not to think about it, to ignore it, and to learn to forget it all.

Although that's what he said, he didn't erase his memories. He couldn't erase those past memories that, in his eyes, were filled with pain and helplessness, yet were still so precious that he couldn't bear to part with them. Therefore, he would still secretly visit his family behind everyone's back, try his best to help them obtain money, solve some intractable problems for them, and use the power of his obsession objects to help them live healthier lives. At the same time, once he discovered any remnants of his enemies from back then, he would not hesitate to hunt them down and eliminate them completely.

For a long time, Akira Toyama felt that his life was unlikely to change much in the future.

He will always be watching over his family from afar, until the day he dies.

However, after he entered the area called "Fujihana Middle School" and failed in front of the terrifying Alice, what followed was an uncontrollable madness and cruelty.

To protect his younger sister, he didn't hesitate to erase her memories. What a great brother!

Making such a self-sacrifice must have been very painful for you, brother? It's okay, Alice understands that pain.

[And also, Alice loves it most about living such a painful life, brother. Let Alice make you suffer even more, let Alice give you even greater despair, how about that, Onii-chan~ Hehehehe~]

The torment, affecting both body and soul, continued relentlessly.

No respite was allowed; a torture more terrifying than slow slicing was being performed every second, and the mind was repeatedly collapsing amidst deliberately constructed hallucinations.

Alice laughed hysterically, while he completely collapsed in this endless despair, his personality almost completely destroyed.

When he was finally rescued by Gao Hai and his blood-red chainsaw was taken away, he barely regained some of his senses. Because of the near-death experience of being turned into a doll, the memory lock he had set for himself was activated on its own. As a result, his past memories were shattered, and he could no longer recall the people he once cherished and the experiences he had gone through.

Now he finally remembered.

These precious memories, which he was unwilling to forget, though painful, were finally recalled by him once again.

However, it is precisely because he cannot let go of these memories that they have become the poison that is killing him now.

Darkness had completely engulfed Akira Toyama's body and consciousness.

In a daze, he only felt his body falling continuously.

Unable to resist, it plunged deeper into darkness and despair.

And it was in this daze that he vaguely heard a familiar voice.

The voice was saying to him:

"Brother, don't go!"

Chapter Sixty-Eight: If we forget, then let us start anew.

In my earliest memories, from my hazy childhood, my older brother always looked unhappy.

Every time Dad sees my brother, he looks guilty. But every time I ask Dad, he only says that he is sorry to my brother, and he won't say anything else.

She had asked her brother, but he wouldn't tell her. He just told her there was no need to care about their feud, that it was between them and that she was too young to understand. If she pressed him for details, he would just smile bitterly and make up various excuses to avoid the truth.

When my older brother and father were both home, the atmosphere would become very dull. Sometimes they would try to find a topic to talk about, but my brother would always start attacking my father, making him feel awkward and unsure of what to say. So later, my father rarely stayed home, and my mother was often away as well, leaving me alone with my brother.

“It’s true that I’ve wronged your brother. I couldn’t give him a happy childhood, and after he grew up, I decided to start a new family on my own without considering that he was actually having a bad time, just like me. But now… after all these years, even if I wanted to apologize to him, I wouldn’t know what to say, and he probably wouldn’t want to hear it anyway. But Nao, I can tell that your brother likes you a lot, so you should try to get along with him. If you’re by his side, he should be happier. As for me… it’s better if I appear in front of him less often.”

My father smiled somewhat embarrassedly and solemnly gave me his instructions.

However, this is not how it should be done.

When Dad said these words, his face looked very sad. Dad should have always wanted to make up with my brother, right?

And my brother is the same; he's always cared about Dad a lot. Even though they often argue when they meet, he's secretly kept tabs on Dad many times. Once, when Dad was sick and Mom wasn't home, it was my brother who took care of him. Ultimately, even if they can't communicate well, they're still family. My brother always wanted Dad to be happy; he doesn't resent Dad at all.

And Dad is the same. He always wanted to get along well with his brother and wanted to do something to help him. Why couldn't he muster up the courage to go up to his brother and talk things out properly?

An awkward older brother, and an awkward father...

Unfortunately, I'm stuck in the middle of these two awkward people. Ugh, this feels so troublesome.

Mom never got involved in these things, probably because she wasn't my brother's mother, so their relationship was more like that of two strangers. My brother usually treated Mom quite normally, and seemed very polite. It's just that Mom was a little afraid of him, probably because although he seemed gentle most of the time, he could be quite fierce when he argued with Dad.

As for me... my brother has indeed always taken care of me, from when I was very, very young. He's been taking care of my life. Whether it's daily life, tutoring, or holiday trips, he's always by my side. Sometimes I can't tell if he's my brother or another father.

No matter what, family is still family. Since my dad and brother can't get along well with each other, I'll try to find a way to get along with them.

How about we start by having our whole family go on a trip together?

So, brother...

The scenes in my memory seem to be getting blurry.

I can't remember what happened.

All I remember is that everyone gradually became unhappy, and my brother started to be away from home often, I don't know where he went.

Then one day, my brother suddenly came back.

My brother was disheveled, his eyes were red, and he looked like he hadn't slept for many days. I didn't know what had happened; his face was full of pain, and his eyes were glistening as if he was about to cry, or as if he had just been crying.

Why are you making that face?

Why act like it's a life-or-death separation?

Why do I always feel like the distance between my brother and me is... growing further and further apart...?

……

Before I knew it, I seemed to have fallen asleep.

When I woke up again, it seemed like someone was missing from my life, but I couldn't remember who was missing. I just had this vague feeling.

Life remains the same as before, with no major changes.

But this feeling of emptiness always lingers, a feeling that something is missing from my heart.

Dad reacted the same way. Although he seemed no different from usual, he often fell into a daze. He would accidentally cook for four people, and he would come to the front door to wait when everyone was inside, as if he was waiting for someone to come home.

Is someone missing from our family?

No matter how hard I try to think, I can't recall anything. There was no fourth person in my family; from the beginning, it was just me, my parents, and myself.

But for some reason, whenever I see families with older brothers and younger sisters, and see those siblings laughing and teasing each other, I feel a deep sadness in my heart. It's as if I've forgotten something important that I shouldn't have forgotten.

This feeling of confusion lasted for many, many days, to the point that I began to doubt whether I had some kind of illness.

But now, those memories have all returned.