New Rules

And so, the people with rabbit ears, along with some who had no opinions of their own, headed down the road on the right.

The dozens of remaining chosen ones were mostly like the man from Sakura Country.

They had all figured out the key information.

So they stayed where they were.

Time slowly passed.

About half an hour went by.

Just as Yamashita Kenichiro began to suspect he had guessed wrong.

A staff member in a blue uniform walked over.

The chosen ones immediately crowded around him.

They all talked over one another as they explained the strange incident.

After hearing them out, the blue-uniformed staff member's expression changed drastically.

"Wait here for a moment. I'll be right back."

Without waiting for anyone to reply, he turned and ran back to the entrance of the Ape Area.

They watched as he pulled a sign out of the grass beside the road.

He set it in the middle of the road.

Several large words were written on it.

"Ape Area temporarily closed."

Once that was done, the blue-uniformed staff member ran back again.

Looking panicked, he said, "Come with me."

With that, he strode toward the road on the left.

At the sight, Yamashita Kenichiro's smile grew even brighter.

He knew he had guessed correctly.

And Lamb, who had bullied him, had clearly made the wrong choice.

That damned bastard was definitely done for!

He happily followed the staff member with long strides.

Meanwhile, just as Su Chen felt he had been walking through the fog for ten minutes.

He finally emerged from it.

In that instant, everything before his eyes seemed clear and bright.

Su Chen let out a long breath.

He began surveying his surroundings.

Then a crumpled ball of paper by his feet caught his attention.

Su Chen bent down, picked it up, and unfolded it.

He found a great deal of hastily scrawled writing on it.

In one corner, someone had scrawled, "~~Escape~~ Stay alive."

1. "Rabbit Blood" does not exist. It is "Goat Meat." (This rule had been written and crossed out repeatedly, leaving the crossed-out text illegible.)

2. The Goat Area is an elephant. (Beneath this sentence was a crooked drawing of an elephant with rabbit ears.)

3. Rabbits will eat apes. (This sentence had been crossed out, and a circled question mark had been added over the word "apes.") In the Ape Area, you must not speak to staff, leave, feed the apes, or enter when there is only one road.

4. Do not enter the Aquarium when no one is there.

5. Only "Goat Meat" can be eaten.

6. If the Aquarium turns off its lights at night, you must not stay overnight in the Aquarium!

7. The first four white lions are apes. The fifth white lion is a goat. Rabbits are elephants. Blue is black. (This sentence had been marked for emphasis.)

8. You are a whale. I am a goat. (The handwriting in this sentence was extremely messy.)

9. You are an elephant. I am a white lion. (The handwriting in this sentence was unusually neat.)

Su Chen's expression turned grim as he read the note.

These baffling statements, which grew more terrifying the more he thought about them, left him deeply unsettled.

The elephant with rabbit ears and the rule that rabbits would eat apes.

They shook Su Chen profoundly.

However, Su Chen had one strength.

If he could not figure something out for the moment, he simply stopped thinking about it.

Otherwise, if he kept analyzing it like this, he might not even die at the hands of the strange horrors.

Instead, he might suffer a mental breakdown first.

Su Chen put the note away and surveyed his surroundings again.

Just then, a security office not far from both the shop and the Elephant Enclosure caught his attention.

Su Chen turned toward the security office, intending to ask the guard what was going on.

Soon, he reached the door.

He raised his hand and knocked a few times.

But no one answered.

Seeing this, Su Chen pushed the door open and walked straight in.

The room was empty.

There was only an old desk, with a photograph of a security guard on it and a note covered in writing stuck to its surface.

Su Chen frowned and approached the desk, first glancing at the photograph.

It showed a dark-skinned, middle-aged man nearing forty.

A long, conspicuous scar ran along his left arm. It looked like the mark left by a bite.

There was nothing particularly remarkable about him otherwise.

So Su Chen shifted his gaze to the note beside it.

Before long, he had finished reading it.

Shock spread across Su Chen's face.

[Hello to whoever is relieving me, whoever happens to enter the security office, or any new employee who sees this note in the future. During your shift, please make sure to follow the instructions on this note. These are the lessons I have accumulated on the job to stay safe and mentally stable. I do not want to lose another colleague or experience any more inexplicable incidents. I believe you do not want that either. After reading this advice, go about your business as though you never saw it.]

1. Always remember the color of your clothes. They can be any color: red, blue, or black. Do not change their color. Maintaining a firm sense of self is extremely important. Do not let "it" discover that your perception of the outside world is wavering in fear and uncertainty, shifting back and forth.

2. Believe. Believe. Believe. Animals are worthy of your trust. Only animals are worthy. (The latter half had been traced over in blue.)

3. Rabbits eat people. People wearing rabbit-ear accessories do not. Tree shade eats people. People who trim the trees do not. Elephants eat people. People watching elephants do not, and neither do people who are not watching elephants. White lions eat people. Glowing jellyfish do not. (In immature, childlike handwriting: Is it because jellyfish have no brains?)

4. "It" cries when it is stopped. "It" laughs when it succeeds. Do not concern yourself with what "it" is. Once you discover "it," just play happily together. You cannot escape. (The latter half had been traced over in blue.)

5. Food that inexplicably appears on shelves anywhere is a test. Do not look at the labels on the food, and do not concern yourself with what others call it. Ignore it. If necessary, buy it and eat it as ordinary food. Do not let "it" know that you have noticed "it." Eat. I like you all. Once you finish, we will go see the jellyfish together. (Traced over in blue.)

6. Humans have two eyes, arranged horizontally, one on either side of the nose. Anything else is not human. If a human's appearance changes, it means "it" is watching them. At such times, try your best to maintain the same perception as "it." At the very least, do not waver.

(In immature, childlike handwriting: Are humans monkeys?)

After reading the note in the security office, thoughts kept racing through Su Chen's mind.

The visitor rules and the contents of the note he had picked up kept corroborating the instructions on this one.

Soon, Su Chen had roughly pieced together a chain of reasoning.