There is One New Rule Every Month Globally

"When you need something, you get it; when you're thirsty, you drink; when you're hungry, you eat."

"That's pragmatism."

"What do our generation of young people value? We value romanticism."

"What do you mean by romanticism?"

"Romanticism is about wanting something even when you don't need it, just for the sake of romance. Like you said, it's summer; we don't need a campfire."

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"But don't you think it's romantic to sit by a campfire under the night sky, feeling the warmth of the flames, and enjoying this momentary comfort?"

Tuberculosis Rabbit looked at Sword Without End with disdain, as if he was looking at an antique.

Sword Without End remained silent, not speaking. He couldn't quite grasp this mindset. No matter how much Tuberculosis Rabbit went on and on, he still firmly believed that lighting a campfire in the hot summer was a fool's errand.

It had absolutely nothing to do with romance.

After a moment, he spoke up again.

"I'm only 34, not as old as you say, and probably only a few years older than you guys."

"No wife?"

Tuberculosis Rabbit took some snacks out of his pocket and spread them on a cloth on the ground, making the atmosphere look a bit like a picnic. He then added, "Just look; I brought them out as props for the ambiance, don't actually eat them."

"They're just unfilling prop foods; I've nibbled on them already—they've got my saliva on them."

"I had one."

"Divorced?"

"She died."

Sword Without End, with droopy eyelids, casually said, "We'd been married for less than two years, and one day she wasn't feeling well and went to the hospital for a check. We thought it was a minor illness, but the diagnosis came back as advanced cancer, and she died not long after."

"That time was quite painful. We were just in our honeymoon phase, the best time in our relationship, and then she died."

"Sometimes I think, if she had died after more than a decade of marriage, maybe it wouldn't have been so painful for me. But then, I feel like that kind of thought is really inhuman."

"..."

Tuberculosis Rabbit, who had been all smiles, suddenly fell into an awkward silence. After a while, he touched his nose and said, "Uh, sorry about that, I didn't know... um..."

"It's okay."

Sword Without End seemed quite nonchalant as he shook his head and said with a smile, "It's been a while since it happened. Birth, old age, sickness, death—everybody goes through it. It's just that some people reach the end of their journey sooner."

"I've come to terms with it."

"What about... your parents?"

"My mom had complications during childbirth and died."

"My dad borrowed a lot of money to try and save her, and afterward, to pay off the debt, he worked four jobs a day. On the day I got into college, after finishing work on the construction site, he drank a bottle of chilled iced tea and suddenly died, without even leaving a will."

"The doctor said it was the chilled iced tea that shocked his system. If he hadn't drunk that iced tea, he might not have died."

"Yep, just died a pointless death."

"..."

Tuberculosis Rabbit, who had just picked up a piece of roast chicken and was about to eat it, froze when he heard Sword Without End's words, staring blankly at the chicken in his hand, motionless.

He vaguely felt that eating roast chicken wasn't suitable considering the current mood.

How did the conversation get here?

He was sure that just moments ago, the mood was light and cheery.

Nightfall, a gentle breeze, a campfire, a few good friends, a picnic.

What a romantic thing it was, but now it had turned into this.

Seeing that the atmosphere had become somewhat awkward, he finally spoke up after a long silence, "Look on the bright side, at least you still have relatives, as well as..."

"All my relatives are dead."

"In my second year of university, it rained heavily for three days straight in my village, triggering a mountain flood."

"The village at the foot of the mountain was inundated, and all the relatives I can remember were wiped out that day."

"..."

Tuberculosis Rabbit silently placed the roast chicken on the cloth, expressionless, and turned his head to look at Sword Without End, "You must have in-laws, right?"

"They're dead too."

"When my wife was 19, they died on a highway, crushed into a pulp between two heavy trucks."

"What about your wife's relatives?"

"My wife was from my village. That flood took away all of her relatives too."

"Friends, you must have friends, right?"

"I don't have friends. The few best friends I grew up with also died in that flood; they just happened to be visiting the village that day."

"Colleagues?"

"After my wife died, I stopped working. I've had no colleagues for a long time."

"..."

Tuberculosis Rabbit fell silent again, and after several minutes,

he solemnly knelt down, facing the food on the cloth spread on the ground. He inserted three lit cigarettes into the ground and kowtowed towards the open space.

"The conditions are a bit lacking, so I'm using the cigarettes in place of incense."

"I hope all the uncles and aunties can forgive me."

"There's some food here, please enjoy it at your leisure, uncles and aunties."

"Uh..."

Sword Without End felt a little embarrassed, "Did I spoil everyone's picnic? I didn't mean to mention all that; you kept asking, so I just went along with it."

"It's fine, just kowtow with me."

"Today we'll commemorate the uncles and aunties."

"Maybe you should put that stuff away," he suggested, "My wife doesn't eat food that others have touched, didn't you say your saliva was all over these things?"

"Oh."

...

Several minutes later.

A flash of white light momentarily passed before Chen Yi and his group, and when their vision returned to normal.

They found themselves inside a coffee shop.

Soft music was playing in the café, and the patrons were chatting quietly amongst themselves, creating a tranquil atmosphere that instinctively made one lower their voice.

Glancing out the window.

The neon lights under the cloak of night added a touch of glamour to the city, making the ceaseless flow of traffic seem especially vibrant.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Before they could take a closer look.

A panel popped up before their eyes.

「Map Name」: City 13.

「Mission」: Proceed to the Law Enforcement Bureau on 78th Street and assassinate the criminal under trial named Li Bei within 8 hours.

「After completing the mission, escape to the evacuation point within 15 minutes.」

「Players who fail to complete the mission within the time limit or fail to escape to the evacuation point in time will be eliminated.」

This was their mission.

"Hmm."

Tuberculosis Rabbit glanced at the mission panel that had popped up and didn't pay any more attention to it, instead continuing to survey his surroundings, and he said thoughtfully, "We just arrived directly into this café without drawing any attention, meaning we didn't just appear out of nowhere."

"This doesn't quite line up with your guess," he continued.

"After all, if, as you speculated, we entered this real world as 'players,' we should have arrived in some secluded place, otherwise we'd definitely draw the attention of people around us."

"Suddenly appearing out of the blue in broad daylight would be quite conspicuous, after all."

Chen Yi didn't speak, instead knocking on the glass wall beside him with his knuckle.

Their table was situated next to a window of the café.

"Thud."

When his knuckle made contact with the glass wall, a slightly muted sound emanated, and the feedback from both the sound and touch felt very real.

"Let's go."

Chen Yi didn't sit for long, he just quickly scanned the coffee shop's interior, then got up and headed towards the exit without any staff trying to stop them.

Standing on the sidewalk, Chen Yi instantly felt many eyes sizing them up, their gaze ... filled with fear?

The people on the street were indeed as Sword Without End had described.

Everyone had mechanical organs, suggesting the city's technology was more advanced than that of Blue Star, where such augmentations had not yet become commonplace for everyone.

Including the hovering cars and the corresponding low-altitude traffic control—none of these existed on Blue Star.

This city's technology was decidedly more advanced than that of Blue Star.

Chen Yi quickly made a judgment in his mind.

"Do you gentlemen need any assistance?"

"If you are being coerced or watched, you can signal by blinking."

Just then—

An officer wearing a police uniform, both of his eyes mechanical, approached them confidently, rested his hand on his waist, and looked around with a wary undertone as he whispered.

"Um..."

A flicker of possibility passed through Chen Yi's mind, and he asked thoughtfully, "Why would you think we're under duress?"

"A person without any mechanical organs like yourself usually wouldn't come to a slum like this."

The officer in front of them replied solemnly and respectfully.

So it was as he had guessed.

Their lack of mechanical organs was the reason why the passersby looked at them with fear, presuming them to be part of the so-called aristocratic class of the city?

"No need," he replied.

He shook his head, replying instinctively, "We're just looking around, thank you for the warning. You can leave now if there's nothing else."

As soon as he finished speaking.

The officer's pupils constricted instantly, his body tensed as he crouched slightly, masking his emotions well as he rasped, "Then I won't disturb you gentlemen any further."

Afterwards, he walked briskly into the distance and melted into the crowd.

And quickly stepped into a narrow alley.

Once the officer ensured no one was following and looked at his wristwatch, he reported in an anxious and rapid tone, "Officer 231 with an urgent report, suspecting..."

However, the next second.

The voice stopped abruptly.

"Thump!"

The sound of something blunt echoed in the secluded alley.

Tuberculosis Rabbit tucked the towel-wrapped stick back into his coat and took out a needle and thread, starting to sew the mouth of the passed-out officer, his expression serious as if mending a torn teddy bear at home.

"That's not good at all," he murmured.

"Tattletales need to have their mouths sewn shut," he continued naggingly, his hands fluttering rapidly as he stitched the officer's mouth and occasionally lifting the stick to reinforce the anesthesia.

They didn't dare to kill him.

It might trigger an alarm from the city's Law Enforcement Bureau, so it was safer to just sew the man's mouth shut and prevent him from communicating the incident.

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