Artifact Report

Chapter 428 Chess - The End of Good Luck

The "rules" that exist only in words and concepts... are now falling down from the night sky in droves.

One rule after another, mixed in with the raindrops, originating from countless scripts, traps, and lair areas, are all scattered and disjointed, like countless jigsaw puzzle pieces that have been dumped all at once.

As soon as my gaze sweeps across the rain, and I see rules hidden within it, words automatically pop into my mind:

"...Just like smoking can only be done in designated smoking areas, every human activity can only be carried out in its corresponding area! If you want to speak, please step into the 'voice area'; if you want to walk, please step into the 'walking area'. Hmm? What did you say? Once you leave the walking area, you can't walk anymore, so how can you enter the voice area? Well, that's where your creativity comes in, hahaha!"

There are lengthy rules, and there are also short rules.

"Please do not emit light."

"Those who have been in a relationship or on a date in the past year will have 10 points deducted from their limbs score."

"If you do not learn the next rule within five minutes of seeing this rule, you will be randomly turned into a 'negative status' spewing machine, firing at least five negative statuses at your teammates and companions around you."

……what?
Chai Si was taken aback when he heard Uncle Kai ask, "Do these rules still apply after the nest falls out?"

“Of course,” Damian laughed.

There are at least hundreds or thousands of rules that fell from the night sky, scattered from countless different sources. Who knows where the next rule for "negative state" will be?

No, now is not the time to rush.

Chai Si clenched his teeth, his facial muscles tensed, and he abruptly cut off all emotions.

He knew that Damian's attention was always focused on him, but at this moment he couldn't care less about Damian—Chais strained his eyes, scanning back and forth across the sky, across the dimness between the buildings, and across the countless raindrops about to hit the ground.

Hundreds and thousands of rules erupted from his mind in a few rapidly passing seconds; Chai Si felt as if his mind had become a soaked tissue trying to hold a heavy brick, and he could no longer bear it. He groaned, lost his footing, and almost fell to the ground.

He knelt on the ground, his vision blurring in waves. For a moment, it didn't feel like he was breathing, but rather like a needle had been pierced into his lungs.

“No need to rush, it will only truly take effect when it falls into the human world,” Damian said slowly. “Look, several have already fallen among us.”

A rule was placed on Chibley's shoulders, and the rain that enveloped it soaked Chibley's coat.

"Please pay the rent by the hour," the rule said.

It was vague and incomplete, neither stating what the rent was for nor what the rent actually was.

Heaper suddenly screamed and stumbled back several steps, crashing into a wall that used to belong to the underground parking lot.

A rule landed right at her feet, brightening the area within a meter radius: "If someone calls your name, never respond."

"Don't look up, don't look at me, listen to me,"

Kaironan said to his wife in a deep voice, “The glowing area should be the area where the rule takes effect. It’s no use for you to retreat any further now, because when it takes effect, you will already be within the rule’s range. From now on, remember this rule. No matter who calls you, especially when they call your name, don’t look up, don’t make a sound, just pretend you didn’t hear them. Do you understand? Even if you understand, don’t make a sound.”

Haiper stared intently at the bright white floor in front of him, his eyes bloodshot.

“There are many more rules,” Damian said. “Ah, they’ve all been blown away by the wind and drifted to different places… How many have fallen here?”

Kaironan suddenly twisted his body—Chai Si's heart jumped into his throat—the next second, he barely avoided a rule that brushed past him.

"Stand upright! Please make sure it stands upright! Please do your best to keep it upright. If anything lies horizontal for more than three seconds, a 'Great Cleaning of Uprightness' will occur."

That rule stood upright on the ground, motionless.

Fortunately, because it is upright, its effective range is only the size of a fist where the rule touches the ground; it is easy to avoid.

Chai Si wiped the rain off his face, his despair turning into utter bewilderment.

...Has the nest truly entered the human world?

Impossible, impossible, the lair couldn't possibly—it's not that easy for one person to connect the lair to the human world. Damian has so many methods; he must have meticulously orchestrated this scene.

Impossible, impossible—

"Brother Chai," someone called out from afar.

impossible.

"Brother Chai!"

Chai Si looked up, startled, at the sound. Haiper's designated area was far away; he thought blankly, "If someone called me, I could respond..."

“Brother Chai Si,” it was Sayuki who spoke. Her face was pale, and she pointed towards his hand, which hung limply at the ground. “What…what are your rules?”

For half a second, Chai Si didn't understand what she meant.

He lowered his head almost blankly and looked at his hands.

"Only when..." is "released".

The three fragments of the rules, each containing only a few words, were lifeless, clinging to his hands.

It took Chai Si another half second before he finally began to understand. He was about to raise his hand to touch his face when he stopped abruptly.

He shouldn't have unconsciously wiped the rain off his face, because every drop of rain might contain a rule.

The rain was wiped away with a hand, and the rules were torn apart along with it...? Is that how it is?

What does this rule contain when it is complete?
The Nest… the Nest has truly entered the human world. Damian seemed to be laughing, but it sounded so distant.

Pain, blood loss, and exhaustion, like a gradually thickening fog, began to vaguely obscure his mind and hearing.

Wake up...wake up.

Despite the excruciating pain, Chai Si pulled his phone from his pocket. He had never taken a selfie in his life, but he had seen others do.

When he turned on his phone, the first thing he saw was a message from Tianxi.

“Brother Chai, I can’t go back to you right now. Because… because even though I have this phone, I’m still not sure if I’m really me. If Tianxi appears in your life, you absolutely must not believe him. Just drive him away.”

...The nest has indeed entered the human world.

Suppressing the strange laughter brought on by waves of dizziness, Chai Si turned on the front-facing camera and looked at his face.

A remnant of the rule still lingered on his face, but it was meaningless—because when that fragment was wiped away, it was torn into a long mark; when his gaze fell on the remnant of the rule, the words that floated in his mind were also stretched, deformed, and diluted, losing all meaning.

It was just a subconscious action, and he had no idea what rules he would have to follow next.

Perhaps his good luck has finally come to an end tonight.

He just wanted to laugh.

As Chai Si put his phone back in his pocket, his fingers touched a cool, smooth cylinder.

He looked up and glanced at Damian.

Damian was almost excited with joy at this moment—he would point to a rule that had fallen from the night sky from time to time and order everyone to look at it; sometimes he would deliberately ask the Kai family hunters to move their positions, trying to lead them into the area where the rule was effective.

“Dad,” Damian said, spreading his hands, “the nest is already inside, at least you should believe that, right?”

Kaironan's expression was grim. After a few seconds, he said in a hoarse voice, "...Yes. We're all doomed?"

“Ordinary people might be unlucky, but you won’t, Dad,” Damian said almost earnestly. “Not only will you not be, you can also gain the power to change all of this—if you choose correctly. Do you want to see what kind of power you’ll gain next?”

Fortunately, Chai Si thought, fortunately he has a pair of unusually large hands.

He covered the broken bone in his abdomen with one hand and pressed the other to his mouth, looking the same as before, as if he was forcibly suppressing a cough.

This was undoubtedly disrespectful, Chai Si thought. It was offensive, disrespectful, presumptuous, and exploitative…

He was willing to accept whatever anger or punishment Uncle Kai might inflict on him in the future; but for now, he really had no other choice.

"Before we proceed to the next step, Damian, I have a favor to ask."

Kaironan looked at his son and said softly, "I understand that you hate Chess. But those family hunters are innocent. Let them go first... We'll handle our family matters as a family."

Chai Si loosened his grip slightly and looked at Damian.

The warmth of his lips still lingered faintly in his palm and on the mouth doll.

Damian tilted his head and thought for a moment. "Mom, what do you think?"

Haiper shuddered, and just as she was about to look up, she suddenly remembered that she couldn't respond, so she quickly bit her lip.

"Hey, I'm not calling you by your name, you don't need to be so careful."

Damian waved his hand, seemingly finding it somewhat boring. "I originally wanted to kill those guys to make Chai Si happy. But since Dad has spoken, let them go. However, they're out of cars now, and walking on two legs in the Rule Rain, I wonder how long they can survive."

Chai Si's heart sank back into his stomach, but then he suddenly paused for a moment.

Damian used a building to smash up that row of Kai family cars, was it just to prevent Sayuki and the others from getting in the car and escaping?

Sayuki and the others knew that this opportunity would be fleeting, and now was not the time to linger. Almost as soon as Damian finished speaking, they immediately turned and left.

“Don’t do anything unnecessary,” Damian reminded him.

He probably always knew that Sayuki and the others wanted to use the illusion to heal Shibasaki's injuries.

Chai Si pursed his lips and gave a wink to the road in the distance—the entrance to the former underground parking lot behind Damian.

Although the Kai family's car was smashed to pieces, he drove up a Morgan family SUV, which was still parked on the side of the road; Chais had no intention of keeping it at all, and the key was still in the car, not removed.

The three of them, seemingly oblivious to his signal, half-walked and half-ran away from the parking lot.

When Chibley yanked open the SUV door, Chais finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Whether a car will fall within the scope of the rules if it violates them is still unknown—because a "car" is an object, not a location.

Judging from Damian's deliberate destruction of the Kai family's car, being inside the car is safer than not being inside.

As the engine roared to life, Damian glanced back, his expression displeased.

The SUV started up, as if it didn't want to linger for even a second longer, and immediately drove off onto the night road ahead.

As they passed by Chai Si, Sa Xue suddenly stuck a pistol out of the window, aimed it at Chai Si, and fired several shots.

(End of this chapter)