Welcome to Rule City

As Mu Ai gasped for air and ran onto the beach, chaos unfolded just as she had planned. The Indigenous People ran back to extinguish fires, while the Civilized People and the remaining players clashed fiercely.

Overall, Song Yu and his followers held a significant advantage. The captured players were weak, and Song Yu’s group was armed.

Song Yu’s faction of Civilized People wasn’t just made up of players he had tricked into becoming Believers; some were his trusted subordinates. After all, controlling a crowd single-handedly was challenging; he needed enough manpower.

As the battle raged, Mu Ai calmly squatted at her hiding spot, watching without any intention of intervening. Her combat skills were not strong; there was no need for her to go and become cannon fodder.

Besides, the only person she had any connection with, Chu Tiankuo, wasn’t there either. Mu Ai had no reason to intervene; she simply shifted into a more comfortable position and waited for the boat that would take them out of the Instance.

That’s when the anomaly occurred. In the heat of battle, someone was thrown onto the pre-built Altar, accidentally activating a bizarre array. Black tentacles burst from beneath the sand, growing rapidly along the edge of the array and enclosing everyone within it.

Song Yu’s face turned pale: “The deity is angry!”

His words acted like a switch, triggering the tentacles to surge wildly. They danced through the air, targeting the people inside the circle.

“Screams for help echoed, and the dying gasps of the humans were enough to pierce the heart of any onlooker. But by then, it was too late. In the blink of an eye, every creature touched by the tentacles mutated into something else.

Indiscriminate of friend or foe, Song Yu, who proclaimed himself a devout Fanatic, was no exception. Countless tentacles sprouted from his body, making him resemble a cactus covered in black spikes, except these spikes also had eyes that oozed a viscous fluid.

“If you wish to become an Abnormal Species, so be it,” Mu Ai muttered under her breath, continuing to observe the transformation. Once the tentacles altered the forms of the humans within the array, a new change emerged from the sea.

The mysterious and familiar sound of waves heralded the arrival of a massive shadow that crawled ashore. It stayed on the beach, a colossal unknown sea creature standing silently.

All the Survivors on the beach were frozen like enchanted puppets, trembling but unable to flee.

Mu Ai wasn’t paralyzed, nor did she lose consciousness or mutter strange words as usual. Instead, she felt a sharp pain in her head, blurring her vision.

She felt herself falling into a bizarre space, seemingly empty yet filled with an omnipresent something. She was watched, observed, and maliciously scrutinized.

“I bet right, this is the mental challenge left for the players.” Standing in the void, Mu Ai forced herself to focus, staring into the darkness, “I guess those with high Contamination Values and weak Mental Power have gone mad by now. Not everyone can withstand this pressure-fortunately, I’ve been tested like this since I was very young. This environment is all too familiar to me.”

Mu Ai lowered her gaze and brought her hand to her lips to wipe away the blood. She was enduring through sheer willpower, reluctant to use the Black Stone unless absolutely necessary. It wasn’t that she was stingy with her resources; such trials were rare.

Throughout her limited life, Mu Ai had encountered countless spirits. Most wandered aimlessly, bearing only instinctual hatred towards the living. Only a few possessed self-awareness and intelligence to communicate with her.

Among these few, some held malice towards Mu Ai. Bound by certain rules, they couldn’t directly harm her but would use loopholes to torment the girl who could see them.

Mu Ai had suffered much that she couldn’t share with others. She soon realized that pleading and crying not only failed to elicit sympathy but emboldened her tormentors. So, she chose another path.

-Want to break me with words? I won’t let you, treat it as if you’re just farting.

-Want to make me kneel with terror and pressure? Ha, I’d rather stay true to myself, enjoying how you get furious yet can’t cross the line.

If I endure, I win; if I don’t, I die. And if I die, we’ll be on the same plane, and I’ll smash your damn head directly!

Time was hard to track in the mental realm. Even the increased heartbeat due to stress became a hindrance. Mu Ai had no idea how long it had been; she only felt the pain in her brain growing more reckless, and the darkness before her eyes tinged with red, reminiscent of the feedback from being shot or severely bleeding in a game.

The whispering in her ears grew louder. Just as Mu Ai reached her limit, preparing to release the Black Stone from the Rulebook, a gust of wind seemed to sweep through, and the intense malice instantly vanished.

Mu Ai’s negative state persisted, albeit lessened. She felt as though she was yanked from hell back to reality. Observing the tragic scene on the beach, she was momentarily disoriented.

Not far away, a trace of a ship appeared on the sea surface. A rescue boat was lowered from the ladder into the water, and it wouldn’t take long for them to land on Sunburn Island and evacuate all eligible people.

Ignoring her dire state, Mu Ai staggered out of her hiding place toward the sea. The boat would only stay for 10 minutes after landing; she couldn’t miss this chance.

Others who had hidden in advance moved like her, their conditions no better than Mu Ai’s, but at least they were alive and aware of what to do.

“You-” Song Yu climbed up from a pile of bodies torn apart by unknown forces, his face smeared with blood making his handsome features grotesque, “Come help me, and I’ll treat you better and offer you more wealth when we return.”

Mu Ai glanced coldly at him, deliberately changing her path to avoid Song Yu’s location. As he watched in disbelief, she delivered the line she had long wanted to say.

“Sorry, I’m a police officer.”

Feeling smug about peeling off the mask, under the semi-attentive gazes of others, she made her stance clear: “I’m not one of yours, nor am I with those Indigenous People-actually, I was the one who set that fire, to lure the tiger away from the mountain. From beginning to end, I’ve been serving myself. I’m a Lone Wolf, and a Lone Wolf doesn’t blend into a fool’s crowd.”

After saying her piece, Mu Ai no longer looked at Song Yu’s twisted expression and crumbling body, summoning her last bit of strength to run to the lifeboat floating in the shallow waters.

“May I board the boat?” Mu Ai didn’t rashly enter the water but first asked, to avoid breaking any unknown rules, “This place is too terrifying, I want to go home!”

The rower looked at Mu Ai for a moment, pausing for a few seconds on the tentacles on her wrist, then nodded: “Come on, you’re human, don’t worry, the doctor will cure you.”

Granted permission, Mu Ai immediately entered the water, half-walking, half-swimming to the lifeboat. Once the rower helped her aboard, achievements popped up.

[Achievement Unlocked: Lone Wolf]

[Hidden Achievement Unlocked: Face Your Fears]

Mu Ai’s face immediately looked wrong; she clutched her chest and collapsed on the seat, panting. There were hidden achievements? What about her previous Instances? Did she miss them, or were there none?

She couldn’t dwell on it further. Forcing herself to breathe deeply, Mu Ai focused on the opposite beach, lest her thoughts wander too far and torment her Gaming Obsession.

Mu Ai’s boarding seemed to signal others to leave the Instance. Those who had hesitated also entered the water, swimming toward the boat.

Chu Tiankuo was among them, as was the veteran viewer Old Wang. Both soaked, they climbed aboard and collapsed just like Mu Ai, unwilling to move.

“Too terrifying…” Old Wang murmured, “I never want to enter a Cthulhu system Instance again. I was almost done for; if it weren’t for a card-like item that came in handy, it’s too dangerous, not a place for ordinary people.”

As more players continued to board, they nodded in agreement. Apart from Old Wang’s constant rambling, no one else wanted to speak. They sat quietly on the boat, waiting out the last long 10 minutes.

During this time, some were denied boarding, mostly those whose tentacles had exceeded the critical point yet hadn’t been eradicated by the Indigenous People. No matter how they cried, begged, or cursed, the rowers remained indifferent, utterly unmoved.

Some players who were not allowed to board insisted on trying; their fate was to be swiftly killed by weapons drawn by the rowers, resulting in a relatively quick end.

After the 10-minute wait, the rower restarted the lifeboat and rowed toward the larger ship not far away.

Mu Ai subconsciously looked back, barely making out many people running to the beach, gesturing wildly at them. Whether cursing or pleading for help, everything became increasingly distant and dim, along with the sea and sky around them.

When the lights came back on, Mu Ai was still sitting in the auditorium, a snack combo she had purchased at her side. The screen displayed the cast list, her name prominently appearing under the lead actor’s section.

Looking around, Mu Ai noticed that the audience had thinned significantly from when they first entered. She guessed those missing hadn’t left because the movie was half-boring but had been permanently left in the film, unable to return.

Compared to the tense atmosphere before, the auditorium was now much livelier. Some celebrated their narrow escapes with smiles, while others cried over companions who had died because of the movie. It was noisy and chaotic.

Mu Ai coldly watched them tempt fate, silently standing and leaving the auditorium. The movie was over, true, but the rule was [No loud talking inside the cinema]. She wondered what those people were thinking. Even if they were celebrating surviving a close call, they should at least leave first.

Shaking her head, Mu Ai walked the path she had come through, leaving the auditorium, thinking about checking the results. However, the moment she stepped out of Gui Ze Cinema, a sudden dizziness assaulted her mind, distorting her vision while a devilish whisper tempted her.

“Do you crave power? Believe in me, and I will grant you endless strength.”

“No, I don’t crave power,” Mu Ai said indifferently, ignoring the two-headed rabbit that passed by the intersection. “I only crave All Achievements.”

Believing in deities, as if the Cthulhu system Instance she had just endured was for nothing?

Pshaw!