Love-Brained

A tall, thin man cursed.

Compared to NPCs, Players thought of much more.

The candle flame flickered, and everyone harbored their own schemes.

Now that there were clues suggesting the Village Chief's rules were false, which one was the fake rule?

Before anyone could figure it out, a tall man could no longer stand the cold in the room. The ice that had originally wrapped around him began to melt, soaking his clothes completely and making him shiver violently from the cold.

"No, this room is too cold. Didn't the Village Chief say to go to Aunt Wang next door if we needed anything? I'll go ask her for some charcoal."

The man shouted as he walked toward the entrance. With a creak, he opened the door, and cold wind poured in.

No one stopped him. The NPCs paid him no attention, while the examinees treated him as a living Chess Piece who could be used to test the rules, staring unblinkingly as he walked out.

It was already close to ten at night, far past the eight o'clock limit stated in the rules.

(Rule One: The village is located deep in the mountains, where all kinds of giant beasts abound. Outsiders should not leave their rooms after eight at night.)

Yet when the man stepped out of the room, nothing unusual happened at all. There was no face-to-face slaughter as they had imagined.

Was Rule One false?

Bo Shuo folded his arms and stood in the corner, warily watching every movement around him.

Before long, Aunt Wang came trudging over, carrying charcoal, one foot sinking deeper than the other.

'Aunt Wang' wore a floral padded jacket and was wrapped up thickly from head to toe.

She looked to be in her thirties or forties. Well preserved, with fair skin, she didn't look like someone from a remote mountain village.

"Children, why didn't you come to me sooner in such cold weather? What if you froze?"

Aunt Wang's voice was full of concern. She hurriedly added charcoal to the fire, warming the entire room.

The red glow from the stove illuminated her face, making her look even gentler, with a loving, maternal air.

But Bo Shuo's attention was focused on her side. 'Aunt Wang' had been called over to add firewood, so where was the male NPC who had just gone out?

Had he encountered some misfortune?

007 was even less restricted than Bo Shuo. It hopped to the doorway and peered outside before suddenly speaking. "That man's behind her. He's just in a rather miserable state now."

As soon as those words fell—

"Clack."

Mountaineering boots landed heavily against the floor, leaving behind sticky, wet footprints. The tall man entered from outside, hunched over and slowly approaching without saying a word.

His arms hung limp in front of him, his fingers blue-black, his face deathly pale. There was even a thin bloodstain around his neck.

A tattooed man who was close to the tall man stepped forward. Frowning with concern, he asked, "Hey, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"

For a long while, he received no response.

Suddenly, the tattooed man seemed to see something horrifying. His pupils trembled, and his face instantly turned pale.

"He... he... he!" Dead.

"Shut up."

Before he could finish saying that word, Bo Shuo urgently interrupted him. The tattooed man was so startled by the sudden shout that he nearly fell onto his butt.

He raised his head shakily and met Bo Shuo's cold, emotionless gaze. It seemed that if he dared say the word 'dead,' the gleaming blade would slit his throat first.

Bo Shuo wasn't pretending this time. He genuinely intended to act.

If the tattooed man didn't stop talking, he would knock him unconscious cleanly and decisively.

(Rule Five: Aunt Wang has a gentle temperament, but do not mention anything related to death in front of her, lest you provoke her and cause casualties among those present.)

The rules 007 had copied for him kept flashing.

Bo Shuo felt a lingering fear, and sweat broke out on his palms.

If Aunt Wang suddenly erupted and became a monster, everyone present would be in danger.

Nearly all the examinees glared menacingly at the tattooed man. If Bo Shuo hadn't stopped him, they would have attacked him directly as well.

The tattooed man was so frightened by what had happened that he didn't dare move.

His materialist worldview had been shattered completely.

(Emotion Points +99 from the tattooed man.)

Another NPC who hadn't understood the situation came over and patted him on the shoulder. "Are you all right? I'll help you rest over there."

The tattooed man was scared out of his wits. With the shadow of death hanging over his head, he desperately wanted to tell someone what had happened. But the moment he tried to speak, he recalled the Youth's warning-filled eyes and couldn't utter a word for a long time.

The surroundings fell silent. The examinees weren't particularly friendly toward the NPCs.

To them, NPCs were merely expendable materials for completing missions.

They could hardly be considered living people, but rather programs and strings of code.

Some examinees had even wondered at the very beginning whether they should kill all the NPCs, in case they triggered some rule related to death and ended up attacked from both sides.

But in the end, they hadn't acted rashly.

This wasn't their home ground. Even if they wanted to kill the NPCs, it wasn't their turn to do so. There were several Big Shots ahead of them.

At that thought, some examinees unconsciously shifted their gazes toward Bo Shuo again.

The Youth stood at the far edge, seemingly unconcerned with what was happening here. Or rather, unless something violated the rules, he intended to stand by and watch as long as nothing else involved him.

He was cold to an excessive degree.

Only after 'Aunt Wang' left did the atmosphere in the room begin to warm up.

The examinees who had already sensed something strange about the tall man exchanged glances and remained silent.