A Manual for Surviving a Weird World

Chapter 381 The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, Part Two
A few wisps of rain were blown by the wind and drifted into the window. Fearing that her daughter would catch a cold, Feng Yushu went to close the window.

Bai Zhi sat in her wheelchair, watching her mother's pear-shaped back. She glanced down at the floor by the window, where only two curtains cast long shadows on the white tiles. Feng Yushu's feet were empty.

There are no secrets between mother and daughter. Feng Yushu did not hide the two rules she knew from her daughter, so Bai Zhi knew what was going on as soon as she saw the scene before her.

"What happened downstairs?" Bai Zhi asked.

Feng Yushu drew the curtains, turned around and said, "Just like the nurse said, the lobby on the first floor where people are waiting for their numbers is in chaos. Many people have died on the chairs while waiting for their numbers. The doctors and nurses upstairs are rushing to the scene with their equipment to provide emergency care... More people have died."

As the two were talking, another person collapsed on the floor of the lobby. It was a nurse who was checking the vital signs of the person who had collapsed. She had only gone halfway through the check-up process when she herself collapsed.

With a thud, chaos erupted in the lobby on the first floor. Several patients' family members, without saying a word, pushed past the security guards and ran towards the door. Before they could take two steps, they collapsed one after another on the steps, leaving several more corpses with their eyes wide open at the hospital entrance.

In the midst of the chaos, no one noticed that on the ceiling of the corridor outside the first floor, a huddled dark figure was quietly crouching in the crack of the ceiling, its empty eyes silently watching the scene unfold, taking in everything that had just happened.

Feng Yushu dared not get too close. The deaths of patients and nurses in the hall were completely unpredictable; at least, she couldn't find any pattern at all.

"Azhi, what did you mean when you said not to be afraid?" Feng Yushu asked in the ward.

"Literally, it means 'Don't be afraid, or you'll die.'"

Bai Zhi looked down at her knees and said softly, "This is a coward. Its rule is 'fear.' Anyone who is directly or indirectly afraid of it will have their life taken away by it. So I told you, Mom, not to be afraid. As long as you are not afraid, nothing will happen."

Feng Yushu stroked her chest and breathed a sigh of relief: "So that's how it is... Thank you, Azhi, I understand."

Whether it's a special entity, a very simple one, or even the elusive [Tai Chong], as long as its core rules are understood, the threat level of the strange events will be greatly reduced. Some seemingly unsolvable and hopeless strange phenomena will be easily resolved once the core rules are discovered.

“As long as you’re not afraid, nothing will happen…” Feng Yushu silently repeated her daughter’s words to herself, then asked with some curiosity, “What would happen if I encountered that ‘Coward’ at close range without feeling any fear at all?”

Bai Zhi shrugged: "If you're not afraid of it, it will be afraid of you, because it's a coward."

Meanwhile, in the hospital lobby on the first floor.

"Evacuate the crowd and clear the first floor immediately!"

"All unrelated personnel must leave immediately. There are not enough rooms available for your quarantine!"

Two teams of heavily armed soldiers in black filed in through the entrance, while another law enforcement team blocked off all entrances and exits of the hospital. As they evacuated unrelated civilians, they began to examine the bodies lying on the ground.

"The death was horrific, the expression one of terror, with no obvious signs of external injury; it's almost certain that it was scared to death by the [Coward]." "It should still be here. Don't be afraid, keep moving! I repeat, don't be afraid!"

The enforcement captain, wearing a black and gold armband, rolled up his sleeve and glanced at his watch: "How many music boxes do we have left?"

"There's only one left, sir," the team member crouching beside the body replied. "There are two requiems inside... Shall we play them now?"

The requiem in the music box has the rule of "forced sleep," and theoretically, playing just one piece should be enough to quell a strange event, but that's an ideal situation. After all, the music box is just a ritual prop, not a real ghost, and the requiem inside is just a recording; its hypnotic effect is far less than if the source ghost played it live.

If the object being hypnotized is a strange being in a stable, 'standby' state, the recording in the music box would be a piece of cake. But right now, this 'coward' is in an active state. In just a few minutes, more than a dozen people have died from fear. The coward, whose rules have been triggered multiple times in a short period of time, is undoubtedly in an extremely excited and active state.

To hypnotize such a highly excited monster, two requiems are probably not enough... far from enough.

Once the requiem begins to play, everyone present will fall asleep. If the cowards also fall asleep, that's fine, but if the hypnosis fails...

“If hypnosis fails and the coward loses control and escapes the hospital to the city center, the consequences… are unimaginable.” The law enforcement officer hesitated, took out a music box from his backpack, and looked up at the squad leader beside him, leaving the choice to his superior.

The enforcement captain noticed the hesitation in his subordinate's eyes, but before he could give the order, there was a thud, and the officer collapsed next to the victim's body, the music box in his hand falling between the two corpses.

he died.

"Are you still scared...?" The enforcement captain took a deep breath, bent down and picked up the music box. Although they had all been trained and told in advance that they 'could not be scared,' human instincts are not something that can be easily overcome.
When a gun is pressed against the back of a person's head, even if the person holding the gun is their closest friend, family member, or brother, even if they are repeatedly told that the gun is actually empty, the safety is off, and it's just a joke with no danger whatsoever, and being pointed at with an empty gun poses no safety risks... they will still be afraid.

No matter how clearly or thoroughly the rules are explained, those who are afraid will still be afraid. This is human instinct, and instinct is not something that can be easily overcome.

The enforcement captain stood up from beside the body of the fallen officer, opened the lid of the music box, and the tranquil music filled the hall.

The requiem played quietly.

Bai Zhi, who had been specially allowed to leave the corridor ceiling and return to the ward on the third floor of the hospital, shrank back under Feng Yushu's skirt, becoming a round shadow the size of a basketball. In the wheelchair, Bai Zhi looked puzzled, her eyes carrying a hint of seriousness.

"Mom, you mean that the enforcement team knew about the coward rule as soon as they walked in?"

The bizarre incident codenamed "Coward" had only been going on for less than five minutes on the first floor of the hospital, and the death toll was just beginning to show signs of an exponential increase when a fully armed law enforcement team arrived at the scene, carrying with them precious, specially crafted items for quelling bizarre incidents...

They knew that a strange event was about to unfold, and they even knew the specific rules governing the ghosts involved.

How did they know?
(End of this chapter)