The more Andrew thought about it, the more horrifying it became.
His scalp tingled.
He even began to feel afraid to lie down on his own bed and sleep.
It was too terrifying.
Who could imagine that beneath one's own bed, a living person had once been hiding?
That this person was likely killed by his parents and then dismembered?
And part of that corpse… might have been cooked into meals… and eaten by the entire family?!
"Urgh!!"
Even Andrew couldn't help it, he retched.
He wanted to vomit everything he had ever eaten.
Disgusting.
Utterly horrifying.
Could parents really do such a thing?!
It took Andrew a long while to suppress his nausea.
Though he hadn't actually eaten any of his mother's food himself yet, the feeling was too real.
Even the overwhelming sleepiness he had been forcing down was now dissipated.
He took a deep breath and continued examining the last three rules.
[You must take the 1 a.m. delivery!!]
1 a.m.? And someone's still delivering packages?
Why is the deliveryman wearing a rabbit, puppy, or pig (crossed out) mask?
And why was part of that sentence scribbled out?
The rule first says you must take it, then immediately warns never to open the door for a bad guy!
If we remove the crossed-out part, the full line becomes:
The deliveryman will be wearing a mask. Never open the door for a bad guy!
So... is the deliveryman the bad guy?
Is he, or they, the one who killed the parents and dismembered the sister?
In that case, the 1 a.m. deliveryman might be the murderer of the entire family.
[11. If you hear a rooster crow at midnight, leave the city immediately!!]
[12. If you hear the sound of a suona or ceremonial drums, take your sister and flee the city immediately!!]
Why would there be a rooster crowing at midnight?
Was someone imitating a rooster's call to signal an operation?
And what exactly was that operation?
"Leave the city immediately."
Did that mean the entire city would be attacked?
Who had that kind of power?
Or…
Was everyone in the city a threat?
No one trustworthy?
Also, why did only Rule 12 mention taking the sister along?
Why not in Rule 11?
Could it be that the sister transforms upon hearing the rooster crow?
Becomes dangerous?
Or maybe…
The event triggered by the rooster crow won't harm the sister.
Or only targets males and not females?
Another flood of questions without answers.
At least for now, he couldn't figure it out.
"If I can't figure it out, I'll stop thinking about it for now."
"As long as I follow the rules, I should be fine."
Andrew exhaled sharply, forcing his racing brain to stop spiraling.
And after all, the rooster crowing wasn't the problem he was facing right now.
The most pressing danger was that the power would go out at 4 p.m.
[In the event of a power outage, do whatever it takes to leave your home!!!]
It was now nearly noon. That gave him about four hours before the outage.
Also, according to the Simulator, his mother wouldn't be returning home at noon.
"I should rest. I'm sure there will be more trouble tonight."
Andrew was at his limit.
Too much had happened just this morning.
If it weren't for the discovery of new rules, he would've already fallen asleep.
He set five alarms starting from 3 p.m., then finally closed his heavy eyelids.
Because of what he'd deduced that someone, or something, had once been hidden under his bed, he chose to sleep in his sister's room instead.
His sister was the only one he could still trust.
Plus, the rules did say she liked sleeping beside him.
Doing what his sister liked might help increase her favorability.
Even if it didn't, it felt safer to sleep in her room.
As light snoring began, Andrew drifted into a deep sleep.
The moment Andrew fell asleep, the people watching the livestream grew restless, especially the citizens of countries whose own challengers had already failed.
In H Country's high-level command center.
As death tolls poured in from all regions, the person in charge was so grim his face could drip water.
"Shit! Didn't Sir Andrew already find five pieces of paper with the Rule Horror?
Then why are so many people still dying?!"
The Research Team was scolded so hard their scalps were going numb.
Yes, Sir Andrew had found five notes with rules written on them, but this Rule Horror still had tons of unsolved problems.
And in the real world, with a population far larger than the selected challengers, any overlooked detail could cause mass civilian deaths.
Worst of all, only challengers can obtain key items within the horror tale.
Like Grandma's Pocket Watch, or the papers with the rules.
The Pocket Watch was especially vital.
Many rules required it to determine the correct course of action.
But the public didn't have access to it.
So even when people knew the rules, the death toll stayed high.
After all, this was meant to punish failure.
Death was inevitable.
Fairness didn't apply.
"Shit! What are you looking at me for?
Get back to researching this Rule Horror!"
"People are dying every second, don't you know that?!"
"Damn!!!"
Seeing the team still staring at him, the official exploded again, unloading another round of vicious curses.
Still, he understood.
Cracking a Rule Horror isn't easy, especially one that's invaded the real world.
These tales exist purely to kill.
Trying to crack them using large civilian samples was nearly impossible.
And even if it was possible, it would require a blood-soaked cost.
H Country was already in population decline.
Now it was plummeting even further.
The best hope was to keep watching Andrew's livestream and extract more rules, more clues, anything of value.
But now?
Andrew was… asleep?!
"Sir Andrew! Wake up! It's been ten minutes!"
"Ten whole minutes!"
"Do you know how many people in H Country have died in that time?!"
The official was practically frantic, pacing like a hot pan of ants.
If he could, he would've charged straight into the Rule Horror world and dragged Andrew out of bed.
To him, Andrew wasting time sleeping was costing lives.
Lives they could not afford to lose.
And similar scenes played out all over the world.
Even countries whose own challengers hadn't failed yet were desperate for Andrew to wake up and continue searching.
Because no one knew when their own challengers might fall.
And Andrew was currently the most advanced.
He was the only one who had found so many rules.
Everyone hoped he'd keep going, keep finding new rules and keep giving humanity a fighting chance.
But instead, he was sleeping.
And with him asleep, the whole world couldn't sleep at all.
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。