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

Could these things multiply and divide? Could they grow two new ones after being destroyed?

A strange thought surfaced in Xiaohua's mind, but the girl knew very well that now was not the time to be distracted. So after a brief moment of thought, she quickly ran toward the escalator on one side of the square, releasing small amounts of flames as she ran to destroy all the televisions blocking her way so as to avoid contact with them.

Boom——

With a loud bang, another old television set flew into the air and then crashed heavily to the ground.

The girl quickened her pace, moving rapidly through the continuous bursts of fire.

[Sizzle—Sizzle sizzle sizzle—]

The noise was becoming increasingly piercing, coming from behind her, from all around her, and from the television screens that were always facing her, moving with her every whim—sounds that seemed to foreshadow something.

The girl completely ignored the strange noises and focused on sprinting to the escalator. She ran along the escalator at a faster pace and reached the second floor of the mall in less than three or four seconds.

There are also those television sets here.

As soon as you climb up the stairs, right in front of you are rows of overlapping television sets, completely blocking the entire corridor.

[Sizzle... No... Sizzle... Escape... Happiness... Follow... Follow us... Sizzle...]

Amidst the piercing noise, a gentle voice gradually became clearer, so clear it was as if someone were speaking right next to your ear.

It seemed to get colder. Even though the source of the chill was nowhere to be found, one could clearly feel the increasingly intense cold air, as if one were to strip naked and walk into the snow in the twelfth lunar month.

Rumble, rumble——

Without the slightest hesitation, Baihe Chuanhua once again resorted to the simplest and most brutal method, directly releasing high-temperature golden-red flames to destroy these television sets, smashing them one by one.

This seemed to have some effect; at least the clear voice had temporarily disappeared, and the surrounding sounds had temporarily returned to their initial harsh noise state. But before Xiaohua could even calm down, the gentle voice from before reappeared, and the chill in the surroundings intensified.

No matter how many times... *sizzle*... we will still... wait for you... *sizzle*... hoping you... will walk towards... *sizzle*...

Looking back at the path she had come from, the closed escalator was now piled high with television sets—at least a hundred at a glance—all crammed onto the escalator, as if they were secretly observing Xiaohua.

Looking around, countless old-fashioned television sets had once again taken over the second-floor corridor. Standing amidst the ruins destroyed by the girl, they seemed to rise from the corpses of these television sets, silently standing in place, facing the girl in the corridor.

All the screens were lit up.

All the images were constantly flashing.

From the glaringly distorted, snowy screen, Xiaohua saw something, something that gradually became clearer and seemed somewhat familiar.

That thing... was a smiling human face?

Is it that little boat bell from earlier?

Is summoning these old television sets from the last century her supernatural ability? Is she hiding inside these television sets, looking for an opportunity to harm herself?

Something seems off.

The girl frowned.

I don't remember when I stopped and stood there blankly, no longer moving forward.

My thoughts seemed to be getting blurry, and I couldn't quite remember what I was thinking about a moment ago.

A strange sense of peace is welling up from the bottom of my heart. Where does this feeling come from?

Please join us... on our journey towards...

"Waaah... No, no, no!"

Xiao Hua shook his head violently, and his somewhat confused mind suddenly cleared up.

She realized she was being influenced by some force, and that her vision was becoming blurry. At the same time, the scenery in her field of vision was gradually being enveloped by a strange, ever-present white light, as if that light had become a dye, replacing the surface of all objects with that color.

A pale, lifeless light.

Just like what I saw when I was walking up the escalator to the third floor, that white light that completely blocked my view and made it impossible to see anything.

Now the white light appeared once more. As the number of old televisions increased, this eerie white light reappeared in Xiaohua's field of vision. And unlike before, this time the light appeared in a very strange way, gradually eroding its surroundings. It didn't seem to be real light, but rather some kind of curse, some kind of pollution, as if it were slowly obscuring her vision, gradually covering everything she saw, leaving only the distorted white light itself.

boom--

The golden-red flames swept out again, tearing all the surrounding television sets to shreds.

The girl ran forward amidst the billowing smoke, ignoring the dust that covered her, and continued to unleash her power to destroy the television sets that had reappeared from her blind spots.

Rumble—rumble—

Amidst the continuous explosions, flames reached the posters hanging on the wall, and the raging fire spread, flickering and illuminating one corner of the dark mall.

Crackle—crackling—

The walls and floor of the shops affected by the explosion were blasted into tiny fragments, and cracks of all sizes continued to spread, shattering in the face of the powerful flames.

"Huh...huh...huh..."

The girl's breathing became heavier.

She reached up and wiped her nose, her hand covered in blood.

The backlash from the power has already begun, and whether she likes it or not, she will have to reduce the intensity of the power she releases.

Regardless, Yurikawa Hana's physical and mental strength is far below that of a Red Moon-level player. Even Red Moon-level players cannot withstand Gao Hai's power without limits, let alone Yurikawa Hana, who is not even as strong as a Red Moon-level player.

As for directly having Gao Hai strengthen Xiao Hua's body and soul to a level sufficient to withstand his own power, that's impossible. The improvement of power is a gradual process. Just as Gao Hai, when he was in the [Infant Cry Village], became a festering mess after forcibly absorbing divine power, for someone with insufficient power, forcibly imposing a large amount of power at once can cause immense, even irreversible, damage. The problem is that adding too much power at once reduces the recipient's own power to a smaller fraction, resulting in assimilation or absorption failure leading to an explosion—a terrible outcome.

If Gao Hai wanted to reliably and safely raise Xiao Hua's physical strength to the level of a Red Moon player, he would need to focus on Xiao Hua for at least several hours. If he wanted to raise her to an even higher level, the time and effort required would be even more staggering, making it impossible.

This explains why players in teams like the Sunflower Squad and the Interlude Squad, after their deaths, could only have their physical attributes raised by Gao Hai to the basic level of Red Moon players. After all, these players had already reached the Dark Night level, and their bodies, having been destroyed, could be rebuilt immediately. Furthermore, the fact that they were in a state of collapse within the instance space or its periphery, resulting in a relatively good signal, allowed Gao Hai to safely elevate them to a higher level. Even under these favorable circumstances, he only lowered their basic physical attributes, not their mental strength, because doing so would require too much time and effort.

With incidents occurring throughout Tokyo and the hospital constantly seeking opportunities to reverse the situation, Gao Hai couldn't focus too much on strengthening his own people. Even though Yurikawa Hana had established a relatively close connection with Gao Hai, her physical strength had only improved to a certain extent, at most reaching the level of a Twilight-level player approaching the Dark Night level. Conversely, her mental strength had only slightly increased during the dozen or so hours she spent in the shelter. If she encountered a strong mental attack or was in a state of overexertion, the girl would still fall into weakness, a fact that couldn't be changed.

Just like now, Xiao Hua is starting to feel the strain of Gao Hai's power due to his continuous and large-scale use of it, and his body and mind are beginning to suffer damage.

Accept us... Accept us...

The murmuring sound kept repeating in my ears, becoming increasingly impossible to ignore and increasingly irresistible.

Xiaohua found it hard to describe the feeling. She knew perfectly well that this was her enemy, and she knew that the other party could not possibly help her in any way. But after listening to the voice shouting for a while, she found herself gradually unable to maintain her previous hostility. Instinctively, she had the idea of ​​trusting the other party and acting according to their words.

I shouldn't have these thoughts, but why do I...?

"Hmm...no, this is not right at all, is this the power of pollution...?"

The girl shook her head violently, tapping her head several times before looking around again.

As expected, the television sets once again covered the surroundings, densely packed and completely occupying the entire second-floor shopping mall corridor. Not only that, but looking out over the railing on one side of the corridor, Baihe Chuanhua discovered that the first-floor lobby was also completely filled with television sets. Even the old television sets were stacked layer upon layer, piled up from the first floor to the second, to the point that she could no longer see the first-floor floor.

The chill continued to intensify, and the mist between breaths began to condense.

Why are they able to increase indefinitely?

Why is it that no matter how many times I burn them with Mr. Gao's flames, I can't affect their increase or really get rid of them?

One question after another surfaced in the girl's mind.

Xiao Hua stopped trying to destroy these things. She knew that it would only be a pointless waste of her own strength. To break the current situation, she had to find the weakness of these strange creatures and the flaws in their abilities.

But... do I have to do things like thinking about the weaknesses of ghost stories?

Baihechuan Hua felt lost.

She had no idea how to think or in which direction to think.

Despite trying her best to think after realizing she needed to, the girl couldn't find a direction for her thoughts after a long time and had no idea what she should do.

Oh dear, what should I do? I'm really bad at deciphering and thinking. Is there any hint that can help me?

Growing increasingly anxious, Xiao Hua looked around again and again, staring at the television sets for a long time, but still couldn't see anything analytical about these old, flickering TVs. It's safe to say she's not good at thinking; if Bai Hechuan Hua were to force herself to decipher the rules of the strange creatures, she might die several times in a row without finding anything wrong.

We can't stay stuck here any longer; we can't stop here like this.

Mr. Gao once said that you should do what you are good at. I don't know how to break the rules, and even if I stood there for hours, I wouldn't be able to figure it out. This strange creature that attacked me is even less likely to give me that much time to find its weakness, so I have to take action now.

Considering the current situation, all I can do right now... never mind, I need to run first, get to the third floor and see if any survivors are there. That's the initial target location anyway, I'll get there first and then figure out the next step. If I can't find any survivors, I'll try to find Sister Wen Gu. If I can't find anyone, I'll escape this mall on my own. In short, I can't stay here and wait to die.

After thinking for about twenty seconds, Yurikawa chose to abandon her thinking and just go for it.

The golden-red flames were summoned once more, swirling and churning around him.

Having carefully controlled the scale of the summons to avoid excessive consumption, Xiao Hua took a deep breath, manipulated the rings of fire to protect himself, and then charged directly towards the television set area that blocked the road ahead.

I don't care about anything else, I'll just rush over there in one breath!

Thinking this, the girl suddenly accelerated and crashed straight into the group of television sets in front of her.

boom--

The first old television set to come into contact with the golden-red flame ring exploded on the spot.

Boom boom boom——

One television set after another began to explode in a chain reaction, sending debris flying and rolling to the ground, scattering across the dark corridor.

Xiao Hua breathed in the smell of gunpowder and the scalding, uncomfortable heat.

But she ignored everything and charged forward with her head down, continuing to rush forward at top speed, letting the protective ring of flames destroy all the television sets along the way, creating one explosion after another.

As she ran further, Xiaohua lost all sense of where she was going. She kept accelerating, following her instincts, charging headlong without any regard for direction, until she realized something was wrong and tried to stop, but it was too late. She crashed straight into a wall, her small head hitting the concrete wall with a "Duang!" before she finally cried out in pain, clutching her head and crouching down to stop.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch... I should have looked where I was going..."

Tears welled in Xiaohua's eyes from the pain as she gasped for breath, clutching her head and staring at the wall in front of her. The flames surrounding her had charred the wall black, and turning back, she saw countless television sets standing amidst the wreckage, once again blocking the road. The white light had clearly obscured more of the area; Xiaohua could no longer see the shops on either side of the road, and the ground and ceiling were blurred, only the corridor itself remaining barely discernible.

Where is the way to the third floor?

The girl rubbed her eyes, trying hard to find the second escalator leading to the third floor, but she couldn't see anything.

If not here, then where would you be?

And where have I ended up?

Where should we go next? Where can we find the way?

[Hey! Yurikawa! Can you hear me, Yurikawa! Stop running around like that, you won't find your way out!]

A familiar voice rang out.

It sounded like someone she had only recently met, but there seemed to be something between the source of the voice and herself, causing some delay and obstruction, making the content somewhat unclear. Caught off guard, Xiao Hua was unable to fully understand what the other person was saying.

This sound is...

Xiao Hua looked toward the source of the sound with a puzzled expression and found that the sound was right beside him, among the scattered wreckage on the ground.

She got off the desk and walked to the source of the sound, only to find it was a broken piece of a television screen. At that moment, the screen, which was no longer flickering with static, reflected the face of Fumiya Otoha. She was looking at her anxiously, and only when she saw that Fumiya Otoha was finally looking at her did she show a happy expression.