Chen Lei Triggered a Hidden Rule

5:40 p.m.

Kannazuki rode his electric scooter into the Happy Home residential complex.

The setting sun stretched the shadows of the aging corridor-style apartment buildings.

The old man at the entrance waved a palm-leaf fan, his radio playing the Linhai City evening news.

Kannazuki parked his scooter in the bike shelter beneath Building 3.

He pulled out the key.

He looked up at the other side of the road.

The black Santana was gone.

Chen Lei had withdrawn the covert surveillance.

Li Jianguo had killed himself by smashing his head into a wall at the detention center, and the list written in his blood implicated several senior city officials.

The sky had fallen over Linhai City.

As a core member of the Special Task Force, Chen Lei was undoubtedly under intense scrutiny from every faction now, with no time to spare.

Helmet in hand, Kannazuki climbed to the third floor.

He stopped outside his rented apartment.

He bent down, bringing his eyes level with the gap around the door. The clear tape was intact. The pencil dust in the keyhole was undisturbed.

He unlocked the door, went inside, and locked it behind him.

He drew the blackout curtains. The room fell into shadow.

Kannazuki took off his yellow outdoor jacket and hung it over the back of a chair.

He walked to the sink and turned on the tap. Cupping cold water in both hands, he splashed it over his face.

Water dripped from his chin.

He raised his head and looked at himself in the mirror.

His eyes were calm, without the relief of someone who had narrowly escaped disaster.

He was reviewing everything.

From the municipal police headquarters at 118 Jianguo Road to the office building in the High-Tech Zone, then to Interrogation Room Two.

Forty-eight hours of being pushed to the limit.

Chen Lei's instincts were too sharp.

Without any evidence, armed only with overlapping movements flagged by big-data screening, Chen Lei had dared to order him brought in for questioning.

In the interrogation room, Chen Lei had exerted immense pressure, every question striking at a weak point.

If Li Jianguo had not acted right on schedule, smashing himself to death at the detention center and creating the perfect discrepancy in timing...

Chen Lei would certainly have held him for the full forty-eight hours, and might even have used unconventional methods to force him to talk.

Chen Lei was an enormous, uncontrollable variable.

As long as Chen Lei remained at the Linhai City police headquarters, Kannazuki's purge could be exposed at any moment. Chen Lei was like a wild dog with its teeth sunk into its prey's throat, refusing to let go until it tore away a chunk of flesh.

He had to die.

Kannazuki dried his face with a towel and walked to the bed.

He lifted the bedsheet and pulled the black Death Note from the gap.

He unfolded the folding chair and sat down.

He laid the notebook flat on the computer desk.

He uncapped the Black Water-Based Pen.

Kannazuki began constructing the scenario for Chen Lei's death in his mind.

It couldn't be a simple heart attack.

The sudden death of a criminal police captain from a heart attack would draw intervention from the Provincial Department, or even the Ministry of Public Security.

The investigation would intensify severalfold.

He had to use the 23-day rule.

Chen Lei's death had to make sense, and even serve one final purpose.

Kannazuki stared at the blank page.

The scenario took shape.

While investigating the officials shielding the Construction Group, Chen Lei would uncover an extremely dangerous criminal hideout.

He would venture in alone and engage armed criminals in a fierce gunfight.

After killing three of them, he would suffer multiple gunshot wounds and die in the line of duty.

That would make Chen Lei a fallen hero.

The police would turn their attention to the criminal gang.

Kannazuki would not only eliminate his greatest threat, but also clean up a few pieces of human scum along the way.

Two birds with one stone.

Kannazuki tightened his grip on the pen. Its tip hovered a centimeter above the page.

His wrist was steady.

He was ready to lower the pen and write "Chen Lei."

"You can't do that."

A harsh, gravelly voice suddenly sounded in the cramped room.

"Yue, you can't kill him."

Kannazuki froze instantly.

The pen tip was mere millimeters from the page.

He had not written a single stroke.

He neither turned his head nor asked a question.

He held his writing posture, his brain shifting into overdrive.

Ryuk hung upside down from the ceiling. His enormous black-feathered wings drooped low, nearly brushing the top of Kannazuki's head.

He held half an apple, his bulging red eyes fixed on the pen in Kannazuki's hand.

Kannazuki slowly straightened.

He capped the pen and set it on the desk.

He turned his swivel chair and looked up at Ryuk.

"Why?" Kannazuki's voice was steady.

"Cluck, cluck, goes the hen." Ryuk let out a grating laugh, flipped through the air, and landed squarely on the bed.

He bit off a large chunk of apple and said through a mouthful,

"No reason. You just can't kill him."

Kannazuki folded his hands over his knees. His gaze stayed locked on Ryuk's eyes.

He was analyzing Ryuk's motives.

Ryuk was a god of death.

An utterly bored hedonist who took pleasure in watching humans struggle.

In Ryuk's eyes, human lives were worth no more than weeds.

He would never save a police officer out of morality, justice, or pity.

There was only one possible reason Ryuk had spoken up to stop him.

The objective conditions did not permit it.

"If I write his name, it won't work?"

Kannazuki offered his first hypothesis.

Ryuk stopped chewing. He tilted his head and split his mouth into a grin. "No. Once you write the name, the rules will take effect."

"If they'll take effect, why can't I kill him?"

"Gah ha ha ha!" Ryuk laughed again, flapping his wings twice. "Human, you're clever. You've already figured it out, haven't you?"

Kannazuki lowered his eyelids slightly.

He recalled what Ryuk had said in this room dozens of hours earlier.

"My creator added three rules to the notebook's original ones to make your experiences in this story more exciting."

Three hidden rules.

Kannazuki looked at Ryuk.

"Chen Lei triggered a hidden rule."

Kannazuki stated it as a fact.

P.S. Could readers who have made it this far without leaving a rating please rate my work? Good or bad, either is fine. Please leave more comments so I can see where my writing falls short and where the plot transitions feel unnatural. I'll correct the mistakes I've made in this book and keep working to give readers a better reading experience.