Decryption?
Scrutinizing rule loopholes?
Using wisdom to save people?
As he listened to Bai Wanyang, Yue Shi’s expression shifted slightly.
A person needed to have some self-awareness.
Yue Shi never considered himself a genius; only when he was up to no good did he display any startling degree of intelligence.
As for acts of kindness like "saving others," if it benefited him, he might consider at least not making things worse.
"As far as I know, the only supernatural powers in this world so far belong to supernatural creatures and transcendents." Yue Shi looked at Bai Wanyang with a serious face.
"Huh?" Bai Wanyang didn't quite catch his drift.
Yue Shi continued, "If no other types of supernatural systems exist in this world, then this so-called 'Rules Horror' is most likely a trick played by some supernatural creature or transcendent. There's a small chance it's achieved with the help of a supernatural object."
"Using wisdom to find loopholes in the rules? Decrypting bit by bit to survive? That’s a waste of time! By the time we use our brains to crack the rules, the people inside will probably have frozen to death long ago."
He paused, his tone decisive. "It’s better to just use brute force."
"But... but the first rule said we can't damage the cold storage..." Bai Wanyang reminded him.
Yue Shi waved him off, offering no further explanation. He simply said, "Take the rest of the people and strictly follow the rules written on the paper. Try walking out the main door first."
"Oh, okay!" Bai Wanyang nodded immediately and called over the few surviving investigators who were nearly frozen stiff.
Trembling with fear, they followed the rules' requirements: they stayed quiet, didn't shine their flashlights around, avoided any suspicious water stains or items, and made sure not to look at or touch anything they shouldn't. Step by step, they moved slowly toward the cold storage door.
The process was unexpectedly smooth; no anomalies occurred.
Yue Shi was somewhat disappointed. He had expected someone or some supernatural creature to jump out and stop them.
The group successfully stepped out of the cold storage door, as if passing through an invisible boundary. Cell phone signals were instantly restored, and the temperature was no longer as biting.
The survivors nearly collapsed to the ground, immediately pulling out their phones to report the terrifying encounter inside the cold storage with trembling voices.
Seeing that everyone had left, Yue Shi curved his right fingers into a claw and plunged them into the metal wall of the cold storage without hesitation!
Screeech—
A subtle, teeth-gritting sound rang out as the decaying curse spread rapidly from his fingers across the insulated wall panels. Wherever it passed, the metal lost its luster, the coating peeled away, and the structure became fragile and crumbling.
Rule 1: It is forbidden to damage the cold storage or any items within it.
The punishment for violating the rules descended instantly!
An unimaginable, extreme cold appeared out of thin air at Yue Shi’s position, attempting to freeze him solid.
Pitch-black demon feathers walled off all the chill. Yue Shi stood in place, expressionless, his arm steady as a rock. His fingers remained embedded in the wall, continuously outputting the decaying curse.
The entire cold storage began to decay and age at a visible rate. The refrigeration unit let out an overwhelmed hum before dying completely, and the walls cracked with rust.
In just a few minutes, this modern building became like a ruin abandoned for years, teetering on the brink of collapse.
Yue Shi snorted coldly and withdrew his hand.
Rules Horror? I choose to overpower all with brute force!
He walked back into the depths of the cold storage and dragged out the bodies of the colleagues who had been turned into ice sculptures. The terror and disbelief they had felt before death were still frozen on their faces.
The investigation into the skinless corpse case could no longer proceed. The group, eyes filled with sadness and spirits low, did some basic tidying and set off back to the Investigation Bureau.
On the way back, the atmosphere in the car was incredibly heavy. No one spoke; there was only the roar of the engine and the sound of suppressed breathing.
Watching the night scenery flash by outside the window, Bai Wanyang finally couldn't help but whisper to Yue Shi beside him.
"Brother, we clearly went to investigate the human skin monster and the skinless corpses... how did a Rules Horror suddenly pop up? Is this the work of another completely different supernatural creature?"
Yue Shi pondered for a moment, then turned his head. His pupils looked exceptionally deep in the dim light. "It seems we've overlooked one thing."
"What?" Bai Wanyang was puzzled.
"The human skin monster is a supernatural creature with high intelligence!" Yue Shi’s voice was steady and cold.
"I destroyed dozens of the human skin monster's skins before, and the Investigation Bureau has been hunting him across the city lately, hounding him like a stray dog. Do you think he would just choose to endure it silently without any resentment or retaliation?"
"Even a stray dog knows to bite back when it’s hit, let alone a supernatural creature with intelligence no less than a human's."
Bai Wanyang’s pupils shrank. "You mean... everything that just happened in the cold storage is still tied to the human skin monster! Could this be a trap he set to get revenge on the Investigation Bureau?"
"It’s just a reasonable deduction." Yue Shi looked at the darkness of the road ahead.
"The human skin monster might be a supernatural creature that has been active for many years, perfectly hidden in human society. For a long time, no one found any flayed corpses, so how did we just happen to find such an important clue all of a sudden?"
Hearing Yue Shi say this, Bai Wanyang felt enlightened, and he began to form even worse associations. "You're right. Maybe after the human skin monster kills and skins someone, there are usually no bodies or remains left at all; he has his own unique way of disposal. The skinless corpses in the cold storage were just bait he planted."
Yue Shi nodded slowly. "The human skin monster has a brain, is good at hiding, and can play mind games. He’s different from those idiots who only act on instinct. We can't deal with him using conventional thinking."
The conversation between the two transcendents cast an even deeper shadow over the hearts of the others in the car.
If the human skin monster could not only wear skins to disguise himself but also set traps like this, then his danger level probably needed to be reassessed.
The vehicle drove smoothly along the road. Just when everyone thought the night's horrors had finally come to an end...
Yue Shi’s peripheral vision caught the rearview mirror, and his gaze suddenly froze on the back seat.
There sat three investigators, exhausted and shaken.
But the person sitting in the middle seemed... off.
It was very subtle, yet impossible to ignore.
Through the rearview mirror, Yue Shi’s gaze locked onto the investigator in the middle of the back row, whose head was lowered.
The light in the car was dim, and the shadows happened to cover the person's eyes, leaving only the lower half of the face visible. The clean line of the jaw, the tightly pressed lips, and the sickly complexion were no different from the two people beside him.
Yet that extremely slight sense of incongruity was like Mother Rong's embroidery needles, constantly pricking Yue Shi’s perception.
At first glance, the lower half of the face looked familiar, belonging to one of the colleagues he had just been working with. But after looking a few more times, it faintly gave off an indescribable sense of strangeness and stiffness. Especially when compared to the two people beside him, it was like shredded ginger mixed into shredded potatoes.
Rate on N.U.
