Welcome to Rule City

Mu Ai walked through the surreal and bizarre scene before her, regretting not checking the settlement in the cinema… But what difference would it make? The package would still be sent to her apartment, and she hadn’t brought the Fortune Cookie with her.

Ah, next time she should remember to pack Fortune Cookies in her backpack to prevent such situations.

Mu Ai summoned the Rulebook and saw that her Mental Pollution had indeed reached 80. According to the classification given by Guize City players, she was at the brink of “Madness.” Just one more point, and she would slip into the abyss of “Believer.”

At that point, Fortune Cookies would be almost ineffective, and unless she used special items and skills, she would be irretrievable, gradually heading towards destruction amidst whispers and chaos.

“Madness” wasn’t much better than “Believer,” as evidenced by the constant murmuring in Mu Ai’s ears, along with the bizarre life forms with red outlines she saw.

The murmurs continued to whisper strange things, trying every way to tempt Mu Ai to believe in them or do as they said, attempting to pull this human standing on the edge of the abyss into endless darkness.

“Believe in me, and I will grant you endless All Achievements!”

“You’ve got it wrong; what I desire is an uncle named All Achievements.”

Mu Ai replied expressionlessly, continuing along the road. Her vision was filled with absurdity, and the street and surrounding landmarks had long since distorted. She began to doubt whether she could find her way home.

“Believe in me, and I will grant you many uncles named All Achievements. Whatever kind you want, believe in me, quickly believe in me!”

“I don’t want a golden uncle or a silver uncle; I just want my ordinary uncle.” Mu Ai, taking advantage of her madness, babbled nonsense without pressure, “My big uncle and my second uncle are both my uncles. High stools and low stools are all wood. My big uncle likes to wear a suit, holding a cane, with the title Colonel, codename KFC. My second uncle loves wearing a yellow clown suit, with bright red hair, recently nicknamed Golden Arches.”

The whispers seemed to have never encountered such a situation, and for a moment, they fell silent, giving Mu Ai a moment to breathe. She quickened her pace, relying on her memory to find the bus station.

…

Outside the cinema, Meng Hao and Anton were anxiously searching for all the audience members exiting the theater. They each stood on one side, quickly identifying those with dejected, mad, or relieved expressions.

No.

Not her.

After checking ten or so people, Meng Hao’s heart began to sink. He didn’t believe Mu Ai would fall in a welfare movie, but if she encountered the most troublesome Cthulhu system Instance…

“Over here!” Anton’s voice came through the Communicator. “She’s not in a good state.”

Meng Hao’s heart skipped a beat, and he quickly ran towards Anton, seeing his partner holding Mu Ai’s arm, guiding her to a less obstructive spot by the wall.

In Mu Ai’s eyes, she was being grabbed by a person with a raven’s head. The person’s mouth opened and closed, and coupled with the whispers in her mind, they strangely matched the lip movements.

“Believe in me, and I will grant you a Colonel uncle named KFC and a clown uncle named Golden Arches. They will soon come to you. Do you miss them? If you miss them, believe in me.”

Mu Ai coldly replied, “No need, because I have no money. These two uncles belong to the type that doesn’t love me unless I pay them, so let them live in my memory. After all, today isn’t Crazy Thursday.”

Anton, while unwrapping the Fortune Cookie, glanced at Meng Hao. “What’s with Crazy Thursday? Is she being tempted to eat KFC?”

“Shouldn’t it be asking if she desires power?” Meng Hao also unwrapped a Fortune Cookie, taking out the paper strip before attempting to feed the cookie to Mu Ai. “Mu Ai, can you hear me? It’s Meng Hao. Open your mouth and eat the cookie. You need to lower your Contamination Value quickly.”

Once the Contamination Value exceeds 60, Fortune Cookies have an 80% chance of failing. Each person can eat up to five per day. Meng Hao didn’t know Mu Ai’s exact Contamination Value, so he could only hope she had incredible luck to lower it somewhat.

If she was really stuck at the critical point, neither he nor Anton had confidence they could safely bring her back to Guize Community. After all, outside there were not only Random Events but also any situation could arise-if they encountered malicious intent, Mu Ai in this state would be the first to explode like a firecracker.

Mu Ai stared blankly at the raven gentleman in front of her and the owl gentleman flapping its wings nearby. Their voices struggled to penetrate the whispers in her mind, making it impossible for her to understand what they were saying. However, she could sense something from their touch.

For example, although the owl gentleman held her jaw, his touch was gentle. He held a lump of sticky green stuff, seemingly trying to shove it into her mouth.

Although the lump looked like poison from the surface, given the strange creatures already appearing before her, Mu Ai thought perhaps it wasn’t so bad.

Reaching out, Mu Ai grasped the owl gentleman’s wing, feeling the warmth of a human arm rather than the expected smooth feathers.

Good, although her vision and hearing had betrayed her, at least her sense of touch remained. Mu Ai calmly thought and posed her question, “Do you know me?”

The owl gentleman nodded, opened his mouth, and said something, but Mu Ai couldn’t understand a word. She could only gesture for him to stop, “There’s a fool whispering in my mind; I can’t understand what you’re saying-if you live in the same building as me, press down one finger; if you’ve been in the same Instance, press down two; if you’ve seen me elsewhere, three; if none, four.”

“Her mental resilience is impressive.” Anton praised, arms crossed, holding the unwrapped Fortune Cookie but not in a hurry to feed it. He knew Mu Ai, maintaining her sanity in such circumstances, wouldn’t simply eat what they offered.

Meng Hao smiled helplessly, his worries mostly alleviated. He feared seeing Mu Ai in chaos and terror, but if this was the situation… perhaps there wasn’t much to worry about?

Well, he would definitely worry; Meng Hao cared for every team member, even if they were just Reserve under the Bronze.

Following Mu Ai’s instructions, Meng Hao pressed down two of her outstretched fingers, adding his response, “I’m Meng Hao, do you remember?”

“Two fingers, huh.” Mu Ai’s expression relaxed a bit, pondering for a moment before asking, “If you live in the same building as me, press down one more finger; if not, two.”

Meng Hao complied, pressing down two more fingers.

Mu Ai’s face softened further, she extended her fingers again, posing the final question, “Our identities in the Instance: 1, Xie Meng and Su Mu; 2, Xie Meng and Yu Mu; 3, Xie Su and Yu Meng; 4, none of the above.”

Meng Hao was truly relieved now. He sighed, choosing the correct answer, and saw her smile for the first time since meeting.

Immediately, Mu Ai opened her mouth and pointed inside, clearly indicating she trusted them to feed her whatever they had.

Then, a Fortune Cookie with the paper strip removed was stuffed into Mu Ai’s mouth, along with some crumbs. The taste was bland and unremarkable, and after chewing twice, she knew exactly what she had eaten.

After all, anything made as tasteless as this and still popular could only be the Fortune Cookie that reduces Contamination Value; nothing else should exist in the world!

Mu Ai summoned the Rulebook, her Contamination Value dropping from 80 to 65, proving her lineage, luck, and appearance with real action-a cause for celebration.

With the Contamination Value lowered, although not back to the previous stage, it had a certain effect. At least the whispers temporarily disappeared, and even if triggered again, they wouldn’t be as frequent or relentless.

Mu Ai genuinely breathed a sigh of relief. Her previous conversation seemed relaxed and nonsensical, but she had been teetering on the edge of danger. Each time the whispers tempted her, she felt her willpower weaken, persevering purely on her years of experience dealing with spirits.

It showed that any experience, when enriched, was always beneficial.

“How is it, did it work?”

Meng Hao’s worried voice reached Mu Ai’s ears clearly. She nodded, finally giving a direct response, “Dropped by 15, give me a few more, I’ll repay you when we get back.”

“Eat this.” Anton handed over the Fortune Cookie he had prepared. “Can I ask what your Contamination Value was earlier?”

Mu Ai took the cookie from the raven gentleman’s wing, unhesitatingly stuffing it into her mouth, chewing a few times before swallowing, freeing her mouth to answer, “80, then dropped to 65, now it’s 60.”

60, the safe threshold, dropping one more point would enter the previous tier. Though not the safe range, at least she wouldn’t see red-outlined alien creatures everywhere.

“Whoa! Impressive!” Anton gave a thumbs-up, his tone hard to discern whether it was mocking or annoyed, or perhaps both. “You nearly turned yourself into a Believer. Were you planning to worship KFC or Golden Arches?”

“I’m a lover of all, likely both, since one has my favorite pineapple pie, and the other offers irresistible Crazy Thursday.”

Mu Ai took another Fortune Cookie from Meng Hao, noticing the owl gentleman’s face looked grim, as if someone had inexplicably punched him, yet he couldn’t retaliate.

This cookie didn’t work, nor did the next one, but fortunately, the last one didn’t disappoint, successfully reducing Mu Ai’s Contamination Value by 8 points, allowing her to escape the bizarre illusion and see the outside world again, along with the true faces of the raven and owl gentlemen.

Emmm, turns out it wasn’t related to the eerie filter; their faces really did look bad.

Mu Ai blinked, instinctively feeling it was related to her previous state. She knew she had pushed her luck this time, so she obediently followed them to the bus stop, not uttering an extra word.

Having someone worry about her was indeed a novel experience, and both were creditors-Mu Ai still owed them five Fortune Cookies.