All Realms and Worlds: The Lost Home

His voice was deep and calm, each word firm: "The real rules of victory and defeat are not about quantity at all."

"The only condition for winning this game is whoever eats first wins."

As soon as those words were spoken, Su Qing's pupils constricted instantly, and she suddenly understood!

That's it!

All the round restrictions, quantity restrictions, no-repetition rules, and the "winner-takes-all" rule are just a smokescreen!

They are all deceptive traps designed to sow discord and mislead judgment!

This evil spirit went to great lengths to create complex rules, just to make humans fall into scheming, hesitation, and confusion, so that they dare not act immediately!

Hesitation is death!

Being first means survival!

"Everyone back off, hold your formation, and don't move."

Ning Ye said in a deep voice, his tone firm and unwavering, "I'll take care of it."

Su Qing immediately led Nancy back half a step, still sticking close together and firmly guarding the triangular formation, not giving the strange creature any chance to hunt down alone.

"Ning Ye, are you sure?" Su Qing's voice trembled with nervousness. "If anything goes wrong... the three of us will be slaughtered in an instant..."

"I'm sure."

Ning Ye stepped forward, his gaze meeting directly with the sinister, thin figure and the eerie, laughing balloon.

"You fabricate complicated false rules just to create hesitation, fear, and information asymmetry."

"You manipulate people's hearts and schemes, but you forget that the simplest game is often the most unsolvable."

As soon as he finished speaking, Ning Ye no longer hesitated or paused.

He raised his hand, his fingertips precisely aimed at the four oranges floating in mid-air, and without choosing two or calculating the quantity, he directly made the action of eating.

There is no touching or grabbing; it's purely a simulation of eating, corresponding to the "eating oranges" rule in the game.

At that moment, he was the first person in the entire room to eat an orange.

No hesitation! No calculation! No delay!

The instant Ning Ye completed the action!

Om-!

The entire residential building suddenly shook violently!

The four floating golden oranges suddenly burst into a blinding white light, completely dispelling the dark and cold atmosphere of the corridor!

crackling-

A series of cracking sounds filled the air as the false barrier of rules that enveloped the entire arena crumbled and disintegrated inch by inch!

Hehe! Hehehe—!

The smiley face balloon suddenly emitted a sharp, piercing, and eerie howl, no longer the playful and lazy chuckle of before, but a wail of extreme pain and anger!

The black patterns on the surface of the balloon burst, disintegrated, and dissolved wildly, with wisps of black gas evaporating out of thin air!

A sudden gust of wind swept up the stairwell, and a chilling wind blew backward!

The previous bone-chilling cold vanished instantly, replaced by a scorching heatwave as the rules of the universe collapsed!

"It's...it's done?!" Su Qing's pupils widened suddenly, her voice filled with disbelief and excitement, tinged with trembling joy.

Nancy looked up instantly, her wet eyes shining, and whispered with delight, "Brother Ningye won! We won!"

However, the crisis has not been completely resolved.

The little girl in the shadows began to convulse, tremble, stiffen, and contort violently.

Her once mechanical and calm limbs began to tremble uncontrollably, and her bones made cracking and popping sounds as if they were dislocating.

That ferocious, stiff grin began to twist, crumble, and dissipate little by little.

In the dark, empty eyes, the black energy dissipated wildly, gradually restoring the childlike clarity of their original appearance.

But the lingering resentment of the evil spirits continues to retaliate and struggle desperately!

"No...you can't lose...you mustn't lose..."

From deep within the little girl's throat, a broken, hoarse, eerie murmur escaped, half childlike and soft, half demonic and hoarse, creating an extremely terrifying sense of tearing apart.

This is the balloon monster's last desperate counterattack!

It was unwilling to be defeated by humans, unwilling to lose this life-or-death game it had meticulously planned!

"Hold on! Don't relax!" Ning Ye immediately warned in a deep voice, his eyes still tense. "It hasn't completely dissipated! The resentment is still surging back!"

"Winning by the rules is only the key to breaking the deadlock; we must completely eradicate the balloon itself to truly end the crisis!"

The floating pink balloon had now lost its luster, its ferocious maw on the surface was constantly cracking open, its sharp teeth were shattered inch by inch, and the black mist was rapidly dissipating.

It stopped floating and began to sway and slowly fall.

But just as it was about to completely collapse!

boom!

A dense black aura suddenly burst forth from inside the balloon, transforming into a pitch-black afterimage, attempting to escape instantly, lie in wait, and await the next possession and hunt!

"Trying to run away?!"

Ning Ye's eyes sharpened; he had anticipated this!

He had long anticipated that the rule-based monsters were adept at feigning death, lurking, and escaping with remnant souls, and he would never give them any chance to retaliate!

"Su Qing! Do it!"

At her command, a dazzling pale blue electric light instantly lit up Su Qing's palm!

The supernatural power accumulated throughout the night erupted instantly. Although he only had 30% of his combat strength left, it was enough to shatter the remnant soul and black energy!

Sizzle sizzle sizzle—!

Lightning ripped through the air, striking precisely the fleeing black currents!

The dark resentment was instantly enveloped, burned, and dissolved by the lightning!

The balloon let out a final, mournful laugh before completely deflated, shattering, and turning to ashes!

The eerie smiley face balloons that haunted the entire residential building and troubled residents all night have vanished completely!

As the balloon ghost completely perished, the little girl's stiff, twitching body went limp and she fell straight to the ground.

Those empty, dark eyes completely regained their clarity, the lingering sneer faded away, and they returned to the clean and innocent appearance of an ordinary child.

All the coldness, malice, and deathly silence that enveloped her vanished in an instant.

"She...she's back to normal?" Su Qing rushed forward and carefully caught the little girl who had fallen, her voice full of surprise and doubt.

"The eerie aura has completely dissipated; there's no residue, no possession, and no malice left!"

Ning Ye stepped forward to examine her, his fingertips probing the little girl's aura. Completely lowering his guard, he slowly spoke:

"Possession dispelled, game won, rules broken."

"We won this do-or-die orange game."

The eerie wind in the stairwell completely stopped, the biting cold vanished, and the dripping sound of blood disappeared entirely.

The thick darkness slowly dissipated, and a faint ray of light pierced through the broken window, illuminating the blood-soaked stairwell.

The long night was finally showing signs of dawn.

The corpses scattered on the ground were still cold, and the stench of blood had not yet dissipated, but the shadow of death that had weighed on everyone's hearts had completely vanished.

One night of slaughter, eight people perished, only three survived and turned the tide.

The eerie smile that everyone thought was unsolvable ultimately succumbed to the simplest life-or-death struggle.

It was defeated by the human heart that was not misled by false rules, not swayed by fear, and decisively broke the deadlock.

Holding the unconscious little girl, Su Qing let out a long breath, her tense nerves completely relaxing. She said, still shaken:

"Looking back now, it was too risky... If we had hesitated for even half a second, worrying about the number of rounds or the number of turns... all three of us would be dead."

"It deliberately releases complex false rules, taking advantage of human weaknesses such as being calculating, afraid of making mistakes, and hesitant."

Ning Ye gazed at the gradually brightening sky outside the window, his eyes calm: "The ultimate trap of all strange tales about rules is never the rules themselves."

"It is the greed, fear, hesitation, and wishful thinking in people's hearts."

Nancy leaned gently on Ning Ye's shoulder, looking at the now peaceful hallway, and murmured softly, "Finally...safe..."

The dilapidated residential building has finally returned to peace, and the bloody hunt, orchestrated by smiley face balloons and manipulating people's hearts, has come to a complete end.

The four figures stood silently in the corridor amidst the mountains of corpses and seas of blood, welcoming the first light of dawn and the only chance of survival in their desperate situation.