Chapter 25 The "Hidden" Rules Revered as the Golden Rule

"rule?"

Di Qing was taken aback, but quickly realized, "Of course I received it. Didn't you say I didn't need to pay attention to the sound or open the door?"

She immediately turned her head and looked at Gu Keke in the next bed with a fierce look in her eyes.

"But the rules don't say I can't speak, do they? You just covered me with the blanket like that, how am I supposed to know what you're trying to do?"

Gu Keke's eyes widened in surprise; she had never felt so patient before.

"Didn't you hear how big the NPC outside the door reacted when Liang Jun just whispered something?"

She laughed angrily, "If we had let you continue to speak loudly, things wouldn't have ended so peacefully now."

"It's not mentioned in the rules..."

Does the absence of something in the rules necessarily mean it won't happen?

Liang Jun gripped the desk lamp tightly; she was wide awake now. "Di Qing, why have you been so reckless these past few days? It's hard for us not to be suspicious..."

She carefully considered her words for a long time before finally saying, "Your stance."

Upon hearing that Liang Xun and Gu Keke had begun to doubt him, Di Qing visibly panicked.

She stammered, racking her brains to add, "I remember now, last night, the dorm supervisor did the same thing—when I went down to open the door, the NPCs on the other side didn't do anything unusual, they just checked the number of people in the dorm normally, and didn't do anything else."

Di Qing's voice grew weaker and weaker, "I naturally assumed that today would be the same..."

"You opened the door?"

Catching the key information in the other person's words, Liang Jun frowned slightly, "Were the lights turned off then?"

"Let me think..."

The desk lamp in Di Qing's hand flickered twice, then its battery completely died, and it shut down.

She spoke softly in the darkness, "At that time, there were still lights on in the corridor, so it must not have been lights-out time yet."

More and more suspicious points emerged. Gu Keke was about to continue asking questions following Liang Xun's train of thought when Di Qing tossed the dead lamp aside.

She grabbed the quilt, which was crumpled up, and pulled it over her head.

Di Qing's muffled voice came from under the covers, "It's too late, I'm sleepy, I'm going to sleep now."

Gu Keke stopped herself from saying what she was about to say.

She felt suffocated and looked at Liang Yan across the street by the light in her hand.

Liang Jun didn't say a word, but simply shook her head at her, indicating that she should stop asking.

If we anger Di Qing, it won't do anyone any good.

The two of them turned off their lamps one after the other, and then quietly snuggled into their respective blankets.

Just before sleepiness completely overwhelmed her, Liang Xun's mind was still racing.

They spent the entire day in their dormitories, avoiding the classrooms, but were not punished for it.

This shows that the teaching building is not an area that players necessarily have to stay in.

Furthermore, since they had already explored most of the teaching building, they could now spend all their time in the dormitory building.

Moreover, the dormitory is protected by a golden lock. As long as the player does not break the rules, their safety in the dormitory can be guaranteed.

As soon as the logical chain was sorted out, Liang Xun's eyelids grew heavier and heavier.

She wanted to continue playing, but her thoughts drifted into a desolate wasteland, and she fell into a deep sleep.

When Liang Xun woke up again, dragging her aching body, it was already midday.

Gu Keke and she woke up at almost the same time.

The two sat facing each other on the bed, staring at each other for a full minute before their bodies and minds were forced to "start up."

Di Qing remained wrapped in the quilt, motionless, seemingly fast asleep.

Neither of them intended to wake her up.

After last night's events, the rift between the two sides seems to have deepened.

The two of them tiptoed out of bed, and after getting themselves ready, they carefully left the dormitory.

Luo Chuange and Song Ming were already waiting downstairs in the dormitory building—it was just lunchtime.

The dining area remains the liveliest area besides the study room.

When Liang Jun was collecting her food tray at the registration desk, she noticed that there weren't many players left on the registration sheet.

The game is already halfway through, but the number of surviving players is far less than half of what it was when they logged in.

Liang Jun felt a mix of emotions.

She didn't say much, but picked up her plate and skillfully joined the queue.

The window staff were all working normally today.

Cornbread paired with simple stir-fried vegetables, and refreshing Shine Muscat grapes garnishing a smooth egg pudding—

It looked like an absolutely delicious meal.

Gu Keke was so tempted that she picked up the plate, brought it to her nose, and took a deep breath.

"How is it? Doesn't it smell delicious?"

Watching her movements, Liang Xun couldn't help but chuckle as she looked for a seat. "Be careful not to cough from the smell of chili."

Seeing no drooling expression after smelling the aroma, Gu Keke frowned and moved the plate away with some disdain.

"Did the kitchen not choose the right ingredients?" She rubbed her nose with her free hand. "Why does it smell so bad?"

Liang Jun and the others had already found empty seats. After they sat down in a row, Song Ming was the first to take a bite of the plate of stir-fried farm-style dishes.

"How could it smell bad?"

He scooped up a generous spoonful of spicy bamboo shoots and diced meat, put it in his mouth, and chewed with satisfaction. "This is my favorite..."

Before he could finish speaking, he coughed repeatedly and spat out all the food in his mouth.

"It really smells awful!"

The series of strange reactions made Liang Jun feel uneasy.

She picked up only a small piece of red chili pepper with her chopsticks, then closed her eyes to fully savor the flavor of the food.

This should be the most impactful ingredient for the taste buds—unsurprisingly, her most obvious sensation should be "spicy".

But Liang Jun clearly also tasted the "stench".

Luo Chuange took a bite of his cornbread, his expression not looking too good.

"The staple food also smells bad."

Gu Keke, who is most sensitive to food, was the first to give up.

Her face was full of frustration, and she leaned back and slumped down in her dining seat.

"How am I supposed to eat this...?"

Her lips curled down, her unhappiness written all over her face. "It stinks like this... I don't want to eat today..."

I don't want to eat...

A similar voice seemed to echo in Liang Xuan's mind at the same time.

She always felt that she had experienced this scene herself.

"I can't eat anymore, can I throw the food away...?"

Song Ming, who was standing to the side, also chimed in with a worried expression.

Pour it out...

All the memories came together at this moment.

Liang Xun grabbed Gu Keke, who was trying to stand up, while Luo Chuange also reacted quickly and stopped Song Ming's movement.

Liang Xun glanced at Gu Keke and said, "Do you remember that Di Qing said something similar? She even said it more than once, saying that she thought the food smelled terrible."

Gu Keke and Song Ming stopped moving and mechanically sat back down in their seats, like puppets that had lost control.

“Song Ming may not know, but Coco, you definitely do.”

Following her train of thought, Liang Xun continued, "On the first day of the meal, Di Qing did not finish her food and chose to throw it away; but from the second day onwards, she began to feel that the food was smelly."

Gu Keke removed her hand from the plate.

“Every day after that, she would refuse to eat, claiming the food was smelly, and instead dump it into the slop bucket… But doing so only resulted in even more foul-smelling food the next day…”

Song Ming glanced at the empty swill bucket, and as if he had suddenly thought of something, his tone suddenly became intense.

"I remember now! We threw away all the food yesterday!"

Yesterday's meal was unusual. According to the rules, it was not allowed to be eaten.

Unable to find a suitable solution, they could only follow Di Qing's example and dump the untouched food into the trash can.

Wasting food results in dishes that are like swill.

Liang Jun gripped her chopsticks again. "No matter what, we must finish all this food today."

She had good reason to suspect that if she threw away all the food today, just like yesterday, the next few days would only get more difficult.

Upon hearing Liang Jun's suggestion, the group silently nodded in agreement.

Fortunately, they only threw away the food once, so the smell of today's meal wasn't too bad; it was just the smell of things starting to spoil.

Try to hypnotize your brain as much as possible, and cover your nose if necessary; you can still swallow this meal.

The most pitiful one is Gu Keke, who is most sensitive to taste.

It took her a full twenty minutes to eat those three cornbread buns. The overflowing stir-fried vegetables made her gag repeatedly.

Liang Yan has a high tolerance for this type of food. She was the first of the four to finish all the food and also the one who felt the least nauseous.

While waiting for the others to finish their meals, Liang Jun quietly pondered the logic behind the matter.

If what she said is true—the more food is wasted, the worse the food will smell, and there might even be worse consequences—then why wasn't the system alert triggered?

This should also be subject to the rules.

But my system remained silent and unresponsive.

"Liang Jun? What are you thinking about?"

Gu Keke stretched out her hand and waved it in front of her eyes a few times, "Let's go, we're finished eating."

Liang Jun came to her senses and noticed that the other three had already completed the liquidation process.

"Okay." She uttered a single word, then picked up her plate and followed behind the others.

As I left the dining area, it was already getting dark.

As the sun sets, golden rays of the evening glow spill across the campus, casting the tender buds of the branches onto the ground.

With bared teeth and claws, it resembled a soul-stealing demon.

Liang Jun's heart skipped a beat, and she quickly looked away.

She initially thought there was a system delay, but when she returned to the dormitory with Gu Keke, her system remained as quiet as if it were dead, and Liang Jun realized that something was wrong.

Could it be that there are rules in this game world that they don't know about?

Are there rules that actually exist, but the system doesn't notify players about them?

What are the truly "hidden" rules?

If such a rule does exist, it also means that players can no longer regard the system as the sole standard.

If we continue to act according to the known rules as before, we may unknowingly violate those unseen "hidden" rules.

For example, those "delicious" meals made from recycled swill.

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Author's note: What are some good boneless chicken feet recipes?

Recently, my craving for boneless chicken feet has reached its peak—

Every time I scroll through videos, I see all sorts of chicken feet reviews and mukbang videos, and my mouth waters like crazy...

I love spicy food!

Please recommend! Please recommend! Please recommend!