I am a full-level celestial master, you let me enter the strange talk of rules?

The third match had gone out. Jones squatted down, took out the fourth match, struck it, and dropped it into the small opening.

The flame landed, paused for a second, and then with a "whoosh," the streetlight came on.

Light poured out from the lampshade, illuminating the surrounding area.

The things that had been wriggling in the darkness suddenly shrank back; the footsteps disappeared, the breathing disappeared, and the gaze disappeared.

Silence returned to the surroundings, with only the sound of the wind and the hum of the streetlights.

Jones counted the remaining matches in the matchbox.

He used one stick to light exam papers, one stick to light candles, two sticks to light lamps, and one stick to light streetlights. Including the one that fell to the ground and went out, he has used six sticks in total.

There are four matches left.

He carefully put the matchbox back in his pocket, feeling that his current situation was very dangerous.

These matches can indeed save lives.

Jones had deduced that lighting a match would deter the strange creatures if they approached.

That's what matches are used for.

If he runs out of matches, his life will be in danger.

On the giant screen in the Dragon Kingdom, Zhang Yangqing didn't carefully protect the flame as Jones did as he did, nor did he drop the match with a trembling hand like Jones did, nor did he need a bandaged security guard behind him for courage like Jones did.

Because he walked straight into the darkness without even lighting a match.
The chosen ones lit matches and walked cautiously because it was too dark outside to tell where the streetlights were, so they could only search slowly based on their memory.

The darkness was so thick that it distorted one's sense of direction, swallowed one's sense of distance, and even though you clearly remembered that the streetlights were right in front of you, you walked for a long time only to find that there was nothing there.

So Jones needed a bandaged bodyguard supporting his shoulders, two people to protect the flames, and he had to cautiously move forward step by step.

Every step could be right, and every step could be wrong; if you're wrong, you're doomed.

Jones was lucky; he found the right direction on his first try. Those chosen ones who couldn't find it fared much worse.

Zhang Yangqing has a strong ability to pinpoint locations. He glanced out the window of the monitoring room and memorized the location of the streetlight, the number of steps between the streetlight and the building, and the angle between the streetlight and the building.

I knew the approximate location as soon as I stepped outside, so I walked straight there.

It wasn't good luck, it was purely because I have a good memory.

Those details that others would only glance at were etched into his mind, marked with coordinates, and mapped out as a route.

At this moment, it wasn't that the strange creatures outside weren't attacking him.

They want to attack, they are always looking for an opportunity, but they need to abide by a law: when the opponent is weak, the strange creature will approach and attack.

How do you determine if the other party is weak?
The eerie creatures are a combination of negative states; fear, anxiety, despair, panic, and other such emotions are their compass.

If a human is weak, he will experience fear, tension, rapid heartbeat, and shortness of breath.

Those emotions emanate from the body, like the smell of blood spreading in water.

The strange creature smelled it and knew that this person was someone it could bully, approach, or attack.

So they grope their way over, inching forward little by little, gradually shortening the distance until they drive you to the brink of collapse.

Zhang Yangqing is an anomaly. He is a human individual without any energy, yet he walks directly into the darkness without fear or tension.

His heartbeat was as steady as if he were sleeping, and his pace remained unchanged from beginning to end.

The strange creatures nearby were also bewildered. What was going on with this person? Was he not afraid of us? Or was he simply unaware of our presence?
By the time they realized what was happening, Zhang Yangqing had already lit a match under the streetlight and walked back.

A group of bewildered and eerie creatures were left wandering around, as if pondering a question they could never understand: what exactly was that person?
At this stage, Zhang Yangqing has eight matches left, the most of all the chosen ones.

Zhang Yangqing returned to the monitoring room, and this time, everything was back to normal. The streetlight outside the window was on, flickering, its light dim but not completely extinguished.

Of the eight surveillance cameras, four were lit up: the laundry room, the toilet, the restaurant, and the library.

He has already repaired four, and there are four more to go.

Where are the remaining four? Nobody told him.

The bandaged security guard once said that this building might have endless floors, with corridors, rooms, and doors on every floor.

Even if he had the key, he wouldn't know which door corresponded to which lock.

Finding the wrong thing means wasting time, wasting time means less surveillance footage, less surveillance footage means a loss of presence, and a loss of presence means getting one step closer to death.

Several ideas flashed through Zhang Yangqing's mind.

The first approach is to find "humans" who work here, preferably long-term employees.

Those people have been here longer, know more information, and know which floors have surveillance cameras and which rooms have hidden cameras.

The second method is to find those shoes.

The owner of those shoes was probably the previous security guard.

He definitely knows something, but there might be a huge pitfall here.

The previous monitor may have gained the trust of the chosen one by helping them, in order to achieve ulterior motives.

Rule 6 already provided an indication of this.

[Rule 6: If you see someone wearing the same uniform as you in the surveillance footage, kill them immediately. Otherwise, they will kill you sooner or later. That person is not your colleague; they are hiding in the surveillance footage, waiting to replace you.]

Zhang Yangqing wondered if this rule could be interpreted in a different way.
The person in the surveillance footage, wearing the same uniform as me, seems to have appeared.

The shoes that appeared in the library and the severed arm that appeared in the restaurant are the best proof, aren't they?
In other words, the rules are telling him: find the owner of the severed arms, and then kill him quickly.

Otherwise, he would definitely kill me.

But before that, Zhang Yangqing had to use that "colleague" to figure out where the other surveillance cameras were.

Zhang Yangqing stared at the monitor; all four screens were eerily quiet, too normal to be normal.

Zhang Yangqing pondered how to get his 'colleague' to appear.

A scene appeared in his mind.

I remember when I first arrived here, before I was fully awake, I felt a cool touch near my ear, as if someone was lying next to me, watching me, waiting for me to wake up.

When he opened his eyes, there was no one beside him, but the door was moving, as if someone had just gone out.

That's when he heard the sound—not footsteps, but the sound of wheels turning.

He didn't follow the wheels; he followed the footprints.

The footprints led him to the library, to the shoes, to the rules, and to a way to survive.

Zhang Yangqing suddenly understood something; Rule 2 was speaking.

[Rule 2: Do not stare directly at a surveillance screen for more than 30 minutes. Take a 5-minute break to relieve fatigue. If you feel something in the screen is watching you, immediately look away and try to get rid of it. Avoidance will not solve the problem.]

So that's what the rule means.

I'm not telling you "don't look," I'm telling you "look a little longer." (End of Chapter)