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

At the same time that Akira Toyama was successfully rescued, the instance that was sealed by the power of the [Hospital] began to undergo drastic changes, affecting the entire city of Tokyo.

From now on, only one of the three "doctors" remains.

Gao Hai's voice rang out with a hint of coldness.

Meanwhile, the angry roars belonging to the [hospital] began to sweep across the entire city as the other side increased its investment of power.

Goto Ichiri, Fujiwara Chika, Yotsuya Miko, and Kita Ikuyo have successfully returned to the real world after the collapse of the instance, with no casualties.

Ijichi Nijika, Hoshika, Yamada Ryo, and a few other lucky survivors are now heading to the nearest shelter under Takami's guidance. If all goes well, they should be able to stay safely until things are over.

The balance of power between the enemy and ourselves tilted completely at this moment.

The resources invested by the hospital in this war were undoubtedly terrifying, but in the end, in this fifth playthrough, in this battle where both sides truly exerted their full strength, Gao Hai gained the upper hand and began to move step by step toward victory.

Of course, victory will not be so easy to achieve.

Gao Hai could clearly sense that with one doctor dead, one injured, and another temporarily trapped, the aura of the hospital began to fluctuate violently. It was going crazy and throwing in more power without any regard for martial ethics, trying to forcibly reverse the situation.

Well, it was completely unsurprising.

Now, it's time for the real showdown.

Before we begin, here's a little surprise for you; I hope you like it.

On the throne of thought, Gao Hai watched the storm engulfing the entire city of Tokyo, then released a power that spread deep into the copy space that connected to the real world.

Chapter Sixty-Nine: The Explosion Time of the Dungeon Space and the Final Frenzy of its Opening.

The monster known as the "Internal Medicine Doctor" has been completely destroyed by Gao Hai's power.

Meanwhile, another monster with the title of "psychologist" was also severely injured by Gao Hai's continuous attacks. It is certain that he will not be able to recover for a long time and is basically in a semi-crippled state.

As for the surgeon, although he hasn't been able to eliminate him yet, Gao Hai has identified his weaknesses to some extent, allowing him to temporarily hold him back. In other words, the situation between Gao Hai and the hospital is now clear: no matter how much the hospital invests, it cannot change the fact that it is at a disadvantage. Unless Gao Hai surrenders, the hospital has little chance of winning.

So, what choice will this being hiding in the dungeon make when the situation changes?

hum-

Feeling the terrifying power that was rapidly spreading from the dungeon world to the real world, Gao Hai took a deep breath, his expression becoming somewhat solemn.

The hospital's choice is to overturn the table at all costs, deploying the largest possible resources to completely destroy the entire city of Tokyo before it fails.

What a sore loser! But ultimately, this isn't a game; it's a life-or-death struggle. Making such a choice when things are going badly isn't entirely unreasonable. In fact, realizing he was doomed to fail, his decision to go all in instead of conserving his strength was actually more advantageous for Gao Hai. After all, if the opponent had truly hidden away in the dungeon and taken all their forces, then storming the [Hospital] and completely eliminating them wouldn't have been so easy.

However, with the hospital taking such a completely insane action, Gao Hai had to respond. Otherwise, if he allowed this guy to unleash his power, all his efforts over the past five cycles would be in vain.

[Hehe, there's no turning back this time, teacher, are you ready?]

Alice's voice, tinged with a hint of playfulness yet also revealing a touch of seriousness, reached Gao Hai's ears at that moment.

[Prepare for a population census, making sure to include both the living and those whose souls have been preserved in my domain. This task is entirely up to you.]

Gao Hai calmly replied to Alice, while simultaneously gathering his own power.

As long as the remaining population is no less than 1%, the ritual in Tokyo will not succeed, and the deaths and injuries here will not be proportionally reflected back to the rest of human civilization. Although the fall of Tokyo will inevitably bring a series of extremely bad reactions for Japan, it is the best outcome compared to the eight billion people on Earth suffering along with it.

We must protect the shelters that are still operational as much as possible, and we must not allow the [Hospital] to continue to breach the shelters and kill more people.

The key lies in the number of living people.

After all, although Gao Hai can preserve the souls of the victims through his newly acquired domain power, his own power is too great, and the souls he preserves will be constantly eroded. Even if he tries his best to reduce the erosion, the souls that have lost their bodies will eventually dissipate. As for immediately creating bodies for those people, that's even more impossible. Gao Hai is not yet capable of mass-producing bodies that match the souls. He simply doesn't have time to learn such a delicate operation, and the current situation doesn't allow him to focus too much energy on this. Therefore, directly bringing the entire city's population into his domain is absolutely impossible to succeed.

hum-

The first wave of power released by the [Hospital] could be felt to come from the instance area that contained the combined obsessions of thirty core members.

[What is the current situation of each Red Moon-level squad?]

Gao Hai established a mental communication connection and inquired with the players present.

"Two large nodes have been located, bringing the total number of core obsessions to seven."

The first to respond was Xiong Mi. Although she was troubled by the curse to some extent, Xiong Mi, who never thought that tracing those memories did not completely conform to the rules of the curse, has resisted until now without falling into the cursed space, and continues to lead the team.

"Two large nodes have been located, bringing the total number of core obsessions to seven."

The second to respond was Masaaki Ishido. After Akira Toyama's disappearance, the captain quickly reunited with Kenta Hayashibe and Ren Nanakawa, and began investigating the next key area. Upon Akira's return, the Red Society members worked together and quickly completed their investigation of the four core obsessions in the new area.

"Market experts and historians collaborated to locate one major node, and a total of five core obsessions were identified."

The last to reply was Xiaoheshu. The historians, however, were busy searching for Shijou Maki's parents on Gao Hai's orders and hadn't responded yet. The cooperation between these two groups was actually accidental; Tangyuan's historian team had unintentionally encountered the market team and, unable to leave the area, helped them. Regarding the search mission, considering the historians hadn't found any clues for so long, Gao Hai suspected that the two might have been taken into the Root instance space by the [Hospital].

In other words, out of a total of 30 core obsessions, 26 were successfully located? This number is much better than expected.

Amidst the calm muttering to himself, Gao Hai could sense that the spatial coordinates of those core obsessions were rapidly changing, while a large number of powerful monsters were gathering towards several player teams.

As the [Hospital] itself revealed, it knew about the Red Moon-level players Gao Hai sent from the beginning and was aware of their motives. However, it chose to allow these people to enter the instance to search for the core obsession item, and then used these players to unleash curses that destroyed several shelters. Now, it is using the power of the curses to further threaten the safety of more shelters.

As for the issue of core obsessions, the [Hospital], which was unaware of Gao Hai's ability to forcibly purify obsessions at the time, had no concerns about this. In its view, even if these players could find all the core obsessions, they still could not threaten it. On the contrary, it could manipulate the situation to eliminate Gao Hai's powerful players in one fell swoop.

Yes, I can sense that they are indeed unable to escape that space now.

It's unclear exactly what methods the hospital used. It's somewhat similar to the space-sealing method the internal medicine doctor used before, but there are many differences in the details. Perhaps it was to prevent Gao Hai's side from quickly breaking through using the same method, so they adopted different measures. It's unclear whether this was a temporary solution or if the hospital had actually mastered multiple different space-sealing methods from the beginning. However, considering the cursed space and the infinite space where Cat Brother was trapped, it's most likely that the hospital does indeed possess multiple spatial abilities. In that case, this guy is quite a high achiever in a certain sense, isn't he?

And these obsessions were all spatially transferred by the [Hospital]. It seems that this was prepared from the very beginning, which is why this guy let the players act freely, with the aim of making the players realize in the end that all their efforts were in vain and they had accomplished nothing.

The question is, who gave you the courage to believe that these objects of obsession, once tainted by my aura and identified by me, can be easily moved away?

Although I don't know where you found the "hour hand" and used it to partially disable my black watch, making some of its functions less usable, you don't really think that will solve everything, do you?

Gao Hai grinned.

A crimson light flickered.

The hands of the black watch trembled at that moment, and those core artifacts imbued with Gao Hai's aura, those copy cores that had been isolated by the [Hospital], established an unbreakable relationship with Gao Hai at that moment.

Due to the interference from the [clock hand], all the extended capabilities of the black watch were affected to some extent; for example, Miko was unable to communicate with Takami previously. However, the functions of the black watch specifically targeting Takami were largely unaffected by this interference.

For example, the ability to seize objects of obsession by staining them with blood can still function in this situation. However, after ascending to the Throne of Mind, Gao Hai couldn't spread his blood everywhere at will. So, after a save, he modified this function, allowing any object of obsession whose traces he touched could be seized. At the same time, the connection brought by the traces could be strengthened in the current cycle, so that even if Gao Hai didn't enter the next cycle, he could still forcibly perceive and connect with those objects of obsession to a certain extent through this function.

Thus, all the cores that had been hidden by the hospital came into Gao Hai's view at that moment.

Therefore, no matter how the hospital realized what had happened and tried to remedy the situation, it could not stop Gao Hai from achieving the effect he wanted at this moment.

So, let's liberate them!

I will fulfill the regrets you couldn't have.

The hatred you have not yet resolved, I will inherit.

The innocent shall go forth, and the guilty shall be judged by me. Now is the time.

The moment the words were spoken, a golden-red light spread out.

The first attack that Gao Hai released from the real world into the instance space did not cause much of a ripple when it landed; there was no obvious movement at all, as if nothing had happened.

hum-

Then, like a drop of water falling into a calm lake, it began to create ripples.

buzzing-

Like an earthquake, the increasingly violent tremors became more pronounced at this moment, and the furious roar of the [hospital] also rang out at the same time, but the roar was soon drowned out by the sound of the tremors.

Rumble, rumble——

Ultimately, with the collapse of scene after scene, this distorted world, which was a mix of seven different Red Moon-level dungeons and was under the control of the [Hospital], began to fall into a state of violent collapse and disintegration, disintegrating itself as if the end of the world had come.

Under the protection of Gao Hai's power, the Red Moon-level players quickly evacuated the collapsed area, either heading towards the spatial rifts that appeared after the collapse and led to the real world, or heading towards the still intact areas belonging to the undeciphered dungeon region.

The strange creatures active in the real world began to dissipate due to the destruction of the Root Dungeon. Those who were considered elite soldiers by the [Hospital], and were its most important subordinates capable of mass killing ordinary people, suffered irreparable and severe losses at this moment.

Under the protection of the "Rules of the House," Night-level and Twilight-level monsters cannot breach enclosed buildings to harm those inside. While Crimson Moon-level monsters also struggle to break through Gao Hai's rule-based defenses, their mere aura and mental pollution effects are enough to severely harm survivors hiding within. This is why shelters housing at least a thousand people are essential; only such a powerful "Rules of the House" barrier, built with a large number of people, can withstand external attacks from multiple Crimson Moon-level monsters. However, with the significant reduction in Crimson Moon-level monsters, many survivors who hid alone and did not enter shelters now have hope of safely surviving this disaster.

"The 'Touch Fish' guild is in charge of the last unsolved dungeon area; just leave it to us."

In the distorted instance space that was in a state of violent collapse, Xiong Mi's calm voice came through the mental link, and all the members of the "Slacking Off Gang" took action.

"The Red Knot Society and the Market Society are responsible for evacuating survivors found in the instance and joining the city defense operation. We have already taken action, please provide guidance."

Then the Red Society and the market reacted quickly.

There's been no response from the historians yet; they seem to have deliberately entered some spatial rift and their whereabouts are now unknown. However, just recently, Tangyuan sent Gao Hai a private message saying she had a lead and hoped that these people hadn't simply stormed into the hospital.

hum-

The intense shocks also continued in the real world.

At the same time that Gao Hai completely destroyed these dungeon areas, the [Hospital] also began to strengthen all the monsters it could still mobilize, and launched a fierce attack on all areas where there were living people.

So, this wave is the opponent's last desperate move.

This long-running battle is almost coming to an end.

On the dark throne, Gao Hai gazed at the torrential rain that still covered the entire city of Tokyo, his eyes more serious than ever before.

Chapter Seventy: The Choice of Mutual Destruction and Alice's Unusual Reaction.

Splash—splash—

The torrential rain that had enveloped the city was growing even more intense, with the roaring raindrops falling continuously onto buildings and the ground, whether intact or already dilapidated.

A fierce gale howled, gathering relentlessly in the seemingly endless night. An irrational force was converging at this moment, and an even greater storm was now on its way to the city.

"……came back."

Goto Ichiri, guitar slung over his shoulder, stood atop a skyscraper, watching as something emerged from the shadows beyond the real world gradually spread around him. After a long while, he wiped the rain from his face and murmured a sigh.

"Yes, we're back, and it looks like this is the final push. As long as we hold on and withstand this last wave of counterattack, Mr. Gao will be able to completely eliminate the enemy hiding in the dungeon world."

Kita Ikuyo, who was standing next to Ichiri, nodded slightly at that moment, her expression incredibly firm.

Boom——

A pale flash of lightning tore through the night sky, illuminating the faces of the two girls standing there, as well as the stains and not-yet-fully-healed wounds clinging to their clothes.

Yili wiped the rainwater off her body again. She didn't like the feeling of being soaked, but the rainwater now contained a certain amount of the [Hospital]'s power, making it difficult to erase with any obsession or blessing power. She had no choice but to fight through the downpour. Judging from the corrosive power of the rainwater, Yili estimated that if an ordinary person without any supernatural powers were caught in this rain, they would go into a state of madness within 10 minutes at most. If they were continuously rained on for more than half an hour, or if the total intermittent rain exposure within 10 hours exceeded two hours, there would probably be no chance of recovery.

"If there are any survivors still outdoors now... it will be very difficult for them to survive."

Sensing the extremely malevolent curse power hidden within the rainwater, the pink-haired girl hesitated for a moment before speaking in a low voice.

If the hospital, in its previous struggle against Gao Hai, while indiscriminately killing ordinary people, clearly still recycled the flesh and souls of its victims, genuinely treating humanity as an important resource, then now the hospital's methods are to recklessly destroy any life, using the most extreme methods to wipe out the city's remaining population.