Chapter 2 Hidden Rules (The character) stretched out its long tongue and licked with satisfaction.
Liang Jun had no idea how she was pushed away.
In the brief moment her mind went blank, her father behind her forcefully turned her shoulders and slammed Liang Yun heavily to the ground.
Until the very last second before they separated, the girl, still lying prone on the ground, maintained her grip tightly.
A tingling, numb pain emanated from Liang Jun's calf.
She belatedly looked down and discovered that her thin pajama pants had been completely torn, and the marks left by her fingernails were stained with streaks of crimson on her fair skin.
[Hidden rule triggered.]
6. The smell of blood is extremely alluring; please avoid emitting this smell as much as possible, and mask it if necessary.
Liang Xuan's mind reacted first.
The tattered pieces of her pajama bottoms were right next to her. She grabbed the scraps of cloth and frantically wiped away the scattered bloodstains on her legs.
But obviously, the girl whose mother had already grabbed her school uniform collar wasn't so lucky.
The blood clots that had already congealed on her body were a sign that her prey was about to surrender.
A chilling green light flashed from the mother's small pupils, and the tear at the corner of her mouth became increasingly exaggerated.
Beneath the lips torn to the earlobe were two rows of sharp, yellowed teeth, and excess viscous fluid clumped together on the girl's black hair.
The girl was so frightened that she lost control of her bladder. Her limbs were weak, but she still tried her best to break free from this hellish prison.
She had clearly killed all the monsters in the room, she had clearly tried every possible way to escape, she had clearly clung to the legs of the person who saved her life...
Just as Liang Xun was about to reach out her hand to him, he was so close to surviving...
The girl's feet were off the ground.
She struggled in vain, but the violent swinging of her legs did nothing to change the situation.
As the monster's face drew ever closer, the girl's face was streaked with tears of anguish.
With a satisfied smile, the mother left rust marks on the girl's frantically throbbing neck with the serrated blade.
"No--"
Scalding blood sprayed onto Liang Jun's face.
Mom threw the completely red-hot kitchen knife toward the kitchen.
She clung tightly to the sticky school uniform with her right hand, her limp body being dragged toward the kitchen, leaving a curved, blood-red mark on the floor.
She clutched that sticky clump of long black hair in her left hand, her black pupils, filled with terror, collapse, and despair, staring straight back at Liang Yan.
The mother held the head and made two up-and-down weighing motions.
"There's not much meat today, I wonder if it'll be enough to eat..."
The father knelt on the bloodstain as if no one else was there, like a vicious dog wagging its tail and begging, licking it with satisfaction with its long tongue.
This was the first time Liang Jun had ever seen such a scene.
The strong smell of blood filled her nostrils, and she realized that she could no longer make a sound.
An instinctive feeling compelled her to escape this area completely—the sooner the better.
Mom was preparing the "ingredients" in the kitchen, while Dad was engrossed in savoring the "gift from heaven."
Taking advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention to her, Liang Xun desperately ran back to her bedroom. After reflexively locking the door, she collapsed behind it, panting heavily.
Cold sweat, a result of surviving the ordeal, poured freely from her body. Before long, Liang Xun's pajamas were completely soaked.
The wound, irritated by the sweat, also ached. Although it was shallow, Liang Jun went into the bathroom and turned on the tap. Only after rinsing until there was no more blood seeping out did she drag her heavy body back to her desk.
The rented room was very small. Even though she had closed the door tightly, the sound of a cleaver being chopped heavily in the kitchen still reached Liang Yun's ears.
She was unwilling to let her highly active brain cells conceive and fantasize about that extremely bloody scene.
With trembling hands, Liang Jun pulled out earplugs from beside the bed and used them to block out the noise without saying a word.
She knew that girl.
The girl's name is Qin Miao, and she is a senior high school student at a nearby high school.
In six months, she will be facing the college entrance examination. In order to minimize the time wasted on the way to and from the school, her family specially rented a house for her near the school.
The girl leaves home around 6 a.m. and returns home around 10 p.m. Liang Jun, a senior in college, has a less regular lifestyle.
During the weekdays, the two of them almost never bump into each other.
But their relationship is fairly good.
During the one-day weekend in high school, Qin Miao would come to Liang Jun for tutoring. Occasionally, there would be an extra day off, and Liang Jun would take Qin Miao to the nearby flower and bird market to relax.
When she was at home without classes, Liang Xun would occasionally make Qin Miao some of her favorite bento boxes.
The two girls interacted and took care of each other, and everything was peaceful and harmonious.
Six days ago, on that morning, Qin Miao had just changed his clothes and was about to wash up when the same eerie system voice was poured into his consciousness.
She didn't immediately understand what it meant, but a sixth sense of dread made her uneasy. Qin Miao grabbed her toothbrush and rushed into the living room, trying to open the bedroom door, but nothing happened.
At the same time, she heard a scraping sound coming from the kitchen.
It's the sound of a sticky, gelatinous substance crawling across the ground.
Qin Miao learned from the rules given by the system that his absolute safe zone was the area of the bathroom right beneath his feet, while the unexpected visitor that spawned from the kitchen was a giant python.
For the past six days, Qin Miao has been waging a guerrilla war against the giant python. In order to sneak into the kitchen and obtain the necessary food, she had to find ways to avoid the python's possible attacks at any time.
There were some clothes she had changed out of and were waiting to be washed in the bathroom, so Qin Miao soaked them all in water. After the water in the basin started to turn sour and smelly, she endured the nausea and poured the water over herself, using the smell to temporarily evade the giant python's patrol and attack.
Even so, complete safety cannot be guaranteed.
The apartment Qin Miao rented was rather dilapidated, and the bathroom door was always half-open.
She used to live alone, so she didn't pay much attention to this small problem. But now, she was facing a survival issue, and the giant python seemed to have sensed this as well, lingering at the bathroom door all day long, completely blocking Qin Miao's way out.
The food that had been brought earlier had been almost entirely eaten, and Qin Miao's consciousness began to gradually become hazy.
She realized that if she didn't take some drastic action, she might never be able to leave this so-called "safe zone" again.
Qin Miao rummaged through all the storage cabinets in the bathroom and finally found a thick, rectangular wooden stick. She tossed the stick into the living room, which had a slightly larger space, preparing for her next move.
She also completely removed the glass that served as a mirror. To make it easier to work with, Qin Miao slammed the glass to the ground, ignoring the cuts from the shards, and picked out a relatively satisfactory piece, holding it in her hand.
She took a deep breath and rushed into the living room with all her might.
The rapid movement of the temperature-sensitive object quickly caught the python's attention.
Qin Miao noticed that an extremely thick and long green python-like creature was moving rapidly towards him.
The surge of adrenaline actually calmed her down.
Qin Miao carefully adjusted his position, placing himself behind the wooden stick. The clumsy python, mistaking it for a mere obstacle, prepared to climb over it without a second thought.
Just as the giant python's head passed by, Qin Miao plunged the sharp shard of glass deep into the hole.
The wooden stick served as a support, and by taking advantage of this slight difference in height, the glass blade pierced the python's skin in an instant.
Thick, foul-smelling green liquid immediately flowed out, like an ugly balloon toy that had been punctured, and the green python's body gradually deflated.
Just when Qin Miao thought it was all over, the giant python's tail suddenly attacked her.
The unexpected slap knocked her half-conscious. Her body's instincts were still fiercely resisting, but the giant python continued to coil around her.
The suffocating feeling, like drowning, intensified instantly. Qin Miao's face turned purple, and her skin began to bleed from the immense pressure.
Her innate will to survive made her desperately try to break free, but the green viscous fluid inside the giant python seemed to be corrosive, and wherever Qin Miao's body came into contact with it, it burned and caused bleeding wounds.
Just as she was about to lose consciousness, the powerful feeling of being bound to her gradually dissipated.
Qin Miao cut the python open, creating a large enough cross-section. All the green mucus inside the python flowed out, and the python, stripped of its body filling, was no longer able to launch a ferocious attack.
The nearly transparent python skin and the mixture of red and green liquids scattered all over the ground proclaimed Qin Miao's victory.
Now that she had successfully eliminated the biggest threat in the room, all she had to do was wait quietly for the day to pass peacefully.
But Qin Miao was already terrified.
As her adrenaline subsided, the horrific scene before her and the physical pain delivered a double blow to her spirit. She staggered towards the door—this time, she managed to open it easily.
Qin Miao, who is extremely insecure, feels that she is still in a vulnerable position and must find a lifeline that can save her in an emergency.
Qin Miao chose to live next door to her sister, Junjun.
Even until the moment of his death, Qin Miao was still immersed in immense fear.
Despairing, lifeless eyes stared unfocused into the distance—
Whenever Liang Yan closes her eyes, this is the image that appears in her mind.
Her ears were swollen from being stretched by earplugs, so Liang Jun simply pulled them all out.
The sound of chopping meat in the kitchen had long since stopped, replaced by a sweet, cloying aroma that filled the air.
Liang Xun didn't want to think about what would happen next anymore. All she needed to do now was figure out the underlying logic behind the rules within the limited time available.
Since rules exist, they must have meaning.
Of the six known rules, only rule three relates to "father and mother".
Thinking of this, Liang Jun took out her notebook.
She had already copied these rules into her notebook. Liang Jun's pen moved across the paper, trying to uncover the mysterious meaning hidden within the rules.
Please don't break their hearts...
Liang Xun blurted out without thinking, then, as if sensing something, repeated, "It hurt their feelings..."
The pen tip paused on the character "伤" (scar/injury), and the ink began to spread.
This rule only emphasizes "don't hurt your parents' feelings," but it doesn't explain what the "consequences of hurting them" are.
Previously, Leung Jung subconsciously assumed that the consequences would be detrimental to her; however, in fact, the rules never confirmed this from beginning to end.
Her tightly furrowed brows slowly relaxed, and the pen tip, which had been motionless, quickly swept across the paper again, completely erasing the word "don't" from the rules.
The rules are set by the system, and NPCs are created within the system—which makes sense, and the rules should be more biased towards NPCs.
Therefore, Rule 3 essentially protects NPCs. To completely eliminate this threat, the only thing to do is to go against this rule.
A glimmer of hope flashed in Liang Jun's eyes.
"Please, break their hearts."
A note from the author:
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Why are there still mosquitoes in November?!
I was freezing to death, and the mosquitoes were still alive?!
Looking for a quick way to eradicate mosquitoes...
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