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

Chapter 4: If I'm the main character, why can't I have a cheat!?

Horror story rules.

It is a special genre that combines reasoning and horror elements, which was once very popular on internet. Takahashi Takakai had once delved deeply into it.

These were bizarre urban legends, to horror parodies of Doraemon and many other things, all based on certain rules. From ordinary things transforming into the extraordinary, they stimulated the reader's reasoning while also giving them chills.

Such writings had once captivated Takahashi Takakai for a while.

However, because he understood what they were, Takahashi Takakai absolutely didn't want to actually find himself in a world related to Horror story rules.

Damn it! This is so unfair! What did I do wrong?!

This thing called Horror story rules, with things like mental pollution or insanity, were just small matters. They often involved space overlaps, parallel worlds, or even time reversals.

The bosses behind them were usually incomprehensible, undefeatable entities, like Cthulhu or some other supreme being. Takahashi Takakai wasn't a legendary detective or anything, he was just an ordinary Webnovel author, so why the hell should he be forced to endure all this?!

Would it be better if I just committed suicide and reincarnated?

Takahashi Takakai couldn't help but seriously consider this question.

Then, he suddenly remembered that in some Horror story rules, suicide not only doesn't kill you but also subjects you to even greater suffering.

Damn it, these Horror story rules authors, can't they be a bit more gentle? Don't they realize how miserable someone unlucky enough to be isekai'd into the world they describe would suffer?

Can't they have a little sympathy for my wretched fate, a main character tortured by a terrible author?

"Survival rules, huh?"

While Takahashi Takakai was lost in thought, over to the side, Kaguya had finished reading the content and frowned.

These so-called rules were really bizarre, giving her an indescribable sense of unease. Though she had never believed in the supernatural, the strange sounds from before and the terrifying experience of losing control over her body had shaken Kaguya's worldview. And now, seeing such rules, she couldn't help but think more deeply.

"If these rules aren't a joke... Hmm, by the way, where is the clock in this room?"

Takahashi Takakai thought about the clock mentioned in the rules, the "absolutely accurate" clock, and immediately wanted to look for the clock in the room to check the current time.

And at that moment, he unconsciously looked down and noticed the black watch on his left wrist.

A watch?

When did I put on a watch?

It was hard to tell what brand the watch was. There were no decorations; it looked very ordinary—just a black watch.

Before his gaze landed on this watch, Takahashi Takakai had completely not perceived its existence. He hadn't felt anything on his wrist.

Only after noticing the watch did he realize that, yes, he was wearing it.

Afterwards, when Takahashi Takakai raised his left hand and examined the watch closely, he noticed that the watch was covered in cracks, with only a minute hand on its face, featuring 12 tick marks. There was no hour hand or second hand.

At this moment, the minute hand was pointing straight at the 0 tick mark, showing no sign of moving, and Takahashi Takakai couldn't find any buttons or switches to adjust the hands of the clock.

What the hell is this?

Could this be the cheat for me, the main character?

Immediately, Takahashi Takakai considered this possibility, or perhaps he was just trying to comfort himself in the face of the bleak future that might lie ahead. He could only rely on this thought to try and avoid falling into a completely negative mindset.

"AHHHHH—"

A woman's piercing scream suddenly rang out, seemingly from the room next door.

What's going on? Isn't this the kind of situation you'd find in stories? A sudden scream at the beginning of the plot, to drive the story forward. Doesn't this repetitive trope seem a bit old-fashioned by now?

Could it be that when we go outside, we'll find a corpse, and then everyone starts speculating, with a middle-aged man collapsing to the ground, and then a little elementary school boy hiding behind him, giving a speech pointing out the culprit or something?

Hmm, maybe that's not such a bad thing after all. It's a hundred times, no, a thousand times better than being caught up in the Horror story rules game.

"Should we go out and check? Surely we're not the only ones trapped here."

Takahashi Takakai cleared his throat and spoke to Shinomiya Kaguya, who was sitting across from him.

It was then that he realized that the printed sheet of paper on the table had been taken by Shinomiya Kaguya. She was flipping it over, trying to view it from different angles, and had even turned it over to the blank side to examine it closely.

She's looking for hidden text?

To be honest, I just got distracted for a second, and she silently took the paper without making a sound. Are all women in 2D worlds so terrifying? Or is she a descendant of Hassan-i-Sabbah?

"Go ahead and check it out, you keep the rule sheet. My clothes don't have pockets, so I can't put things in them."

Perhaps because she was certain there was no hidden information, Shinomiya Kaguya calmly placed the printed sheet back on the table and said to Takakai.

Though she said she would go out to check, Shinomiya Kaguya didn't move. Clearly, she was waiting for Takahashi Takakai to act first before stepping outside. She wasn't willing to go ahead of him.

Takahashi Takakai didn't say anything. He decisively folded the paper and put it in his jacket pocket. Then, he looked around the room, confirming that there were no clocks in sight. His gaze then landed on the only wooden door in the room, as well as the door leading to the kitchen on the other side. He walked towards the door, which had a hole in it, grasped the doorknob tightly, and opened it.

Creeeek—ya—

The unpleasant creaking sound rang out, accompanied by a heavy feeling. It was very difficult to pull the door open.

The hinges of the door were almost completely rusted, and the inside was nearly completely stuck. It could only be opened with force.

When the door finally creaked open, Takahashi Takakai saw a small wall clock beside it, along with a decaying wall less than a meter from the door.

According to the time on the clock, it was probably around 8:30. Combined with the light coming through the window slit, it could be confirmed that it was daytime. Of course, it could also be night, but according to the rules, as long as it wasn't yet 9 PM, it was fine. So, Takahashi Takakai decided to step out of the room.

The position of this door was at the end of a narrow hallway.

After walking through this cramped, dimly lit corridor, Takahashi Takakai saw a sharp corner, which led into another narrow hallway.

At the end of this hallway, he saw an old bathroom door slightly ajar, a squat toilet type, which seemed to have been neglected for a long time. But fortunately, nothing too strange could be seen, so that was fine. The exit door was right next to the bathroom door, a rusty metal door that seemed quite old.

Takahashi Takakai tried to recall the layout of the house. On the right when you entered, there was the bathroom; on the left, a short hallway, followed by another hallway that turned at a right angle, leading into a small room that served as both the living room and bedroom. The living room side connected to the kitchen...

What kind of insane asylum design is this?

The architect of this building must have had something wrong in their head.

With such thoughts, Takahashi Takakai raised his hand, grasped the doorknob, and yanked the door open.

"The lock's broken."

Looking down, Takahashi Takakai noticed that the lock was completely broken, the key cylinder wouldn't engage, and as a result, the door couldn't be properly closed.

A sense of unease immediately rose within him.

He opened the metal door and stepped into the hallway outside.

This place felt even more suffocating than inside the room, mainly because the hallway was so narrow, extending in a straight line on both sides. And while the hallway was already cramped, there were quite a few cabinets along it.

These cabinets were tall, leaving almost no space to climb or grab hold of them, and they seemed to be nailed to the walls, leaving just a small gap at the top, enough for an adult to lie down.

The whole hallway was lit by a pale white light, illuminating the ceiling and the walls with peeling paint and cracks, while the deep red, rusted metal doors were lined up in a row along the narrow corridor.

On the door that Takahashi Takakai had just stepped out of, there was a red room number plate labeled [204].

What a perfect spot for a horror movie.

The sense of unease in Takahashi Takakai grew stronger by the second.

At that moment, there were a few people in the hallway. Takahashi Takakai noticed a black man with a short haircut;

A middle-aged, overweight Asian man wearing an oversized suit and glasses;

A tall, muscular white man, over 190 cm, with a thorny tattoo on his face;

A middle-aged Asian man wearing a backpack, looking quite ordinary, with a gentle expression;

And a young girl who appeared to be a high school student, dressed similarly to Kaguya.

"Is she someone you know?"

When he saw the girl for the first time, Takahashi Takakai felt she looked somewhat familiar, but didn't immediately recall who she was. He turned to ask Shinomiya Kaguya, who was with him.

"..."

After a single glance, Shinomiya Kaguya immediately recognized the girl, and the girl also recognized Kaguya. Although both of them knew each other, they did not make any moves to communicate. They exchanged a glance, making sure not to let anyone around them realize that they were familiar with each other.

Despite wearing similar outfits, the act of concealing their relationship didn't carry much weight, but avoiding recognition as acquaintances might be useful in some way. So, without hesitation, both of them opted to keep their connection discreet.

Cousin, you're here too?

Oba-sama, you're here too?

It seems that the person behind all this holds significant power, enough to simultaneously target both the Shinomiya and Shijo families...

Even so, looking at it now, it doesn't seem like their goal is ransom or anything like that. Oba-sama, do you have any clues?

We're the same age, so why do you still keep calling me like that? Don't you see the situation we're in?

Even if you say that, Oba-sama is still Oba-sama, isn't that how our generational order works?

Though no words were exchanged, perhaps because they were both from a 2D world, Shinomiya Kaguya and the girl with the twin braids had managed to exchange a surprisingly complex amount of information through nothing but a single glance.

At the same time, Takahashi Takakai, after a brief moment of confusion, quickly recalled the identity of the girl.

This girl… isn't she Shijo Maki?

The most tragic character in the original Kaguya-sama story, someone who lived in the sorrow of unrequited love every single day—actually, it was worse than just unrequited love.

At least with unrequited love, three people could get involved, but she was just a loser who had to endure witnessing the sweet love of her friends with the person she liked.

By the time she was 17, she had already seen those two get married because of an unplanned pregnancy. It was such a bizarre situation.

It's surprising that this poor girl, who was constantly tortured in the original story, is now part of this bizarre game. To be honest, if we only judged by her personality, she could be considered an angel in the original work.

If everything I'm going through now is really part of a movie, a game, or a fanfiction, to be honest, I'm starting to wonder if the author is some kind of psychopath. Why would they include such a cute and tragic girl in such a weird story?

A whirlwind of thoughts spun through Takahashi Takakai's mind, but none of them appeared on his face.

At this moment, he, along with a few others in the hallway, were all looking at room 205—the room next to his and Shinomiya Kaguya's room, the one from which the scream had just come. No one knew what was happening inside.