Why is my Isekai in the Slice of Life anime was become a Horror Story?

Chapter 14: It's Time to Show My Skills ～

Takahashi Takakai stepped into the guard station.

Inside, it was clean, clearly cleaned regularly.

He saw a table, a bed, a torn security uniform thrown on the floor, and a map hanging on the wall.

When his eyes accidentally swept over the map, Takakai immediately felt something was wrong and quickly looked away, thus failing to see the entire map clearly.

He approached the table, lowered his head, and saw a printed piece of paper pressed under the glass surface. The paper seemed to have had writing on it, but the text had faded to the point of being unreadable.

After a moment of thought, Takakai grabbed the edge of the glass and lifted it gently with one hand, even though it weighed at least several dozen kilograms. He then picked up the printed paper and flipped it over.

[I'm at the guard station. The rules are not to leave the "plain," check the barrier wall every half hour, do not enter the "gentle slope," I'm alone, everything is new, as if nothing has happened...]

The pen found in the guard station was almost out of ink, but after a bit of contemplation, Fujiwara Chika still decided to record her situation on the back of the rules paper she had painstakingly retrieved from beneath the glass.

Due to the ink running low, what she wrote was concise but still conveyed the basic rules she received and her current state.

Would he be able to read it?

Chika couldn't help but feel a little worried.

However, the man named Takakai was very skilled. He could perceive the assimilation effects of the exploration suit, showed no fear of any strange phenomena, and kept investigating and acting. Therefore, when he discovered that they had been separated, he would undoubtedly try to reach the guard station – the place where the security guard should appear.

If she happened to be out patrolling when he arrived, the notes on the paper might help him. And… if everything was as Chika suspected, the concise rules she wrote might even benefit her in the future.

Fujiwara Chika was a girl brimming with bold ideas.

Born into an extremely strict family, she was forbidden from playing video games or any similar activities, and her entertainment was tightly controlled. But her lively nature wasn't suppressed by this upbringing. On the contrary, she constantly found loopholes in the rules her parents set, eventually becoming a master of board games, with profound knowledge of word games and obscure puzzles.

Thus, from the moment she encountered the Horror Story Rules, this girl had been tirelessly thinking and analyzing the possible clues hidden in the rules. However, a single set of rules made it difficult to derive anything useful, especially since these rules were deliberately vague and left open to interpretation, making her analysis much harder.

But at this moment, while wearing a security uniform and realizing that the wall outside seemed to be regularly maintained, with the bedding in the guard station still new and unused, Chika immediately associated it with the possibility of time and space separation.

Perhaps she and Takakai were now in different timelines?

With that thought, the girl decided to leave notes on the rules paper to see if she could leave any clues.

She guessed she might have entered a past timeline of this place, but it was also possible they were simply separated into different spaces, still able to sense and even indirectly interact with each other. That would explain why she had seen someone dressed in yellow stripes, looking very much like Shinomiya Kaguya, appear.

Afterward, she searched the entire room and found nine flashlights, each powered by high-capacity batteries and capable of running for a very long time. Chika sat down at the edge of the bed, raised her head to glance at the wall clock in the room, confirmed it was a little over ten minutes to ten, and then just sat quietly, waiting.

Meanwhile, Takakai had put the printed paper back down.

"Is she here?"

His eyes swept over the wall clock in the room. The clock was broken, its hands no longer moving.

After a moment of silence, Takakai gently adjusted the badge on his shoulder and then summoned a member of the rescue team he could call upon.

"Put on that torn security uniform. Someone who needs our rescue might be in another space. This security uniform could be the key to finding her."

Without hesitation, Takakai gave the order. And the rescue team member – in reality, an eerie entity – complied without delay, picking up the dirty and torn security uniform. It paused briefly, seemingly uncomfortable with the item, before putting it on.

The next moment, in Takakai's view, the rescue team member vanished on the spot.

On the other side, Fujiwara Chika looked up in astonishment. She saw the security uniform in the corner of the room bulging strangely. Immediately afterward, someone emerged from the uniform—a person wearing rescue team attire that made the already torn uniform stretch even more. The face of this individual was blurred and indistinct.

"Eh? Eh? Eh?!"

Caught off guard by such an unexpected situation, Chika immediately retreated into the corner of the room, staring in terror at the figure approaching her step by step.

Could it be that the rule was wrong?

Or had her efforts somehow triggered a penalty?

Powerless to resist, the girl could only watch as the tall figure approached her, then stood upright before her and gave a slight bow.

[Target located. Please wait while I coordinate with Captain Takakai to develop an appropriate rescue plan to ensure your safe extraction.]

Eh?

[For now, please follow the rules provided for security personnel. The dungeon's rules hold special significance. Unless it's confirmed that a rule has a serious flaw, it's best to adhere to it to avoid danger.]

Eh? Eh?

[I will now review the rules, then leave the guard station to explore the cave within this timeline. If you encounter any abnormal situations that cannot be handled, please call for rescue immediately. I will return to assist you.]

Eh? Eh? Eh?

Chika stared as the figure delivered this series of statements to her, then turned and left on its own. It approached the table, glanced at the rules sheet, then walked to the station door, opened it, and stepped outside. On its way out, it casually grabbed one of the flashlights Chika had found, politely closed the door, and left.

"Very good. As long as it can rationalize its actions as 'rescue,' I can essentially control that entity to carry out specific tasks."

Inside the guard station, Takakai sat on a chair, frowning as he monitored the actions of the summoned entity under the influence of Obsession. Internally, he sighed in relief.

Wearing different attire grants different identities.

Initially, he had thought this rule might only apply to players—or in other words, only to humans.

However, it now seemed that even eerie entities could use this rule to change their identity, possibly even layering identities. As long as the outer layer of clothing could validate an identity, whatever lay underneath became irrelevant. This meant that the rescue entity controlled by Obsession could freely switch between the roles of security personnel and rescue team member, and could traverse the two distinct spaces occupied by Takakai and Fujiwara Chika.

If eerie entities could change their identities in this way, could the rules be exploited differently? For example, could two people embrace and wear the same large uniform to share an identity? Or could frequent identity changes suppress the assimilation effect?

These ideas flashed through Takakai's mind but were not put into practice.

He turned to look at the three new players outside, who were waiting anxiously. After some thought, he stood up while mentally controlling the rescue entity in the dark cave and addressing the three individuals.

"Mr. Wang, your mental state is still stable for now, so you'll remain here temporarily. As for the two of you, you're already showing signs of forgetting your identities. This means you can no longer maintain the role of rescue team members. If you continue, you'll completely lose yourselves and be unable to escape this place. Therefore, I'll have to 'change your clothes.' But changing your attire also means changing your identity, and you'll likely be transported to an unfamiliar area. Think carefully—do you want to risk changing your uniforms?"

Takakai warned the two new players, who had already forgotten their names, with a serious tone.

Despite being newcomers to the game, the two showed no hesitation and nodded, clearly aware of their dire situation.

"Alright then, I hope you both survive. After all, I have plenty of ideas that require your help to test in order to succeed."

Saying this, Takakai quietly pulled out the blood puppet from his watch.

After a long period of caution and deliberation, perhaps it was time to take a more proactive approach.