Three Rules

The floors were no longer connected. The rule that made it impossible to ever reach the top floor was temporarily damaged.

Time was frozen. Two white-haired figures with similar appearances were almost stuck together.

Dark golden chains emerged from the sub-space, entangling the Bizarre Finality's four limbs.

With a "clang," the chains moved, easily tearing the limbs from the body.

A crack appeared on the Bizarre Finality's neck. The next second, her head fell from her neck, and blood splattered everywhere.

She seemed to be dead.

But Bizarre Things are immortal. The Bizarre Finality's own time began to reverse, and her head rewound to a complete state, sitting properly on her neck.

The Corrupted Kiana would not allow such a thing to happen. She stretched out her hand, and an invisible pollution spread throughout the main keep, once again sealing all time here.

If it were in the past, the battle would have been over.

Kill, then lock the opponent's death state. Even a ghost could not restart.

The Bizarre Finality was frozen in place, and the blood droplets that had shot out from her neck were suspended in the air, motionless.

She had been locked in a state of death by the Corrupted Kiana.

"Mo..."

The Corrupted Kiana called out softly, like a wounded small animal, calling out the name of the person she most longed for and desired to be loved by.

A trace of blush miraculously appeared on her pale cheeks. She pursed her lips, and a look of intoxication flashed in her dark golden eyes.

Just as the Corrupted Kiana was about to touch Li Mo with her hand, a spear flew out from behind and pierced through her body.

Then it bloomed. It was more tragic than what Li Mo had encountered before. This time, not even the silhouette of a complete body remained.

But the Bizarre Finality also possessed the ability to manipulate time. It took half a minute to successfully escape from the Corrupted Kiana's time lock.

The shattered flesh and blood on the ground began to heal and gather on the Corrupted Kiana.

The Corrupted Kiana slowly turned around and stared at this ghost, who looked similar to her but was so damn annoying, with a face ashen as death.

No authority was enough to kill the other party.

The restart in terms of rules and the rewind in terms of time made it impossible for either of them to completely fall into a state of death.

The two Herrschers of Finality were like ordinary people holding blades, using the most primitive means to cut and chop each other into a state of dismemberment. Before the other side could recover, they would inflict harm again, repeating the cycle.

"Kiana... no, this is a good opportunity."

Li Mo turned around. This time, as expected, he easily found the way upstairs.

The Corrupted Kiana's arrival had forced the Bizarre Finality to use all her tricks. The surrounding time was frozen, and most of the incomplete rules directly fell into silence.

There was no better opportunity than this.

Once he missed it, when the battle between the Corrupted Kiana and the Bizarre Finality ended, no matter which side won, it would be his time of death.

Li Mo believed that the Corrupted Kiana would win, it was just a matter of time.

When she realized that she could suppress rules with rules, rather than primitive killing, that would be the time of the Bizarre Finality's defeat.

It might not take long. After all, the amount of pollution in their bodies was not on the same level, even if the Bizarre Finality also had fifty thousand years of pollution.

The situation had already exceeded Li Mo's expectations. He had to complete the ritual as soon as possible and die and be reborn according to the notebook's prediction.

Only when the "him" of this world "died" could the Corrupted Kiana leave.

Otherwise, this place would become the next St. Freya High School.

Li Mo forcibly suppressed the joyful emotions in his heart. If the Corrupted Kiana had really touched him just now...

He might have preferred to die rather than take another step forward.

MEI's reminder was really timely, both in terms of the Bizarre pistol and his behavior.

Use absolute rationality to suppress those emotions that shouldn't exist.

Did she secretly use the notebook?

Li Mo quickly went upstairs, looking for traces of the Bizarre source on each floor.

The second floor was a classroom, or rather, a layout similar to a school floor.

There were many classrooms in the corridor, and each classroom was more or less the same, transcending this era of war. The classrooms here were in a modern style of the Far East.

"There is a lot of bizarre aura residue here."

Li Mo felt a familiar gloom, especially in the classrooms.

The corridor outside, on the other hand, had no rules to speak of.

Li Mo was silent for a while, then opened a window and jumped in.

He had originally wanted to use "Usurp" to directly change his geographical location, but he had just been continuously killed by the Bizarre Finality, and his body had reached its limit. If he forcibly used "Usurp" to change his geographical location, it would be too much of a loss. He should save the use of "Usurp" for more important places.

As for why he jumped through the window...

Although the Corrupted Kiana had already frozen most of the bizarre rules in the main keep.

But some of the causality rules that were not related to time were not among them, such as the act of opening a door.

His time had not been frozen, which meant that the rules could still act on him. Compared to the door, the window was safer.

At least for now, Li Mo had not found any bizarre rules related to windows in Yae Village.

"Hmm? There are... traces of learning here." Li Mo picked up the workbook on the table. It was filled with some simple math problems.

But strangely, the workbook was very crumpled, and all the man-made marks on it were left by a pencil.

There were also traces of an eraser on the table and on the floor.

But the eraser on the table was intact.

"Can the Bizarre source in the main keep supplement incomplete things?"

"Erasers are consumables, but workbooks are not. If the main keep has really existed for fifty thousand years, then even the most durable erasers from the previous civilization would have been used up long ago."

"Does the Bizarre source in the main keep have human consciousness? Or did it just do these things according to its habits before death?"

A common sense, although it had been overturned several times, was still the standard by which Li Mo judged most Bizarre Things:

the longer the pollution time, the shallower the human consciousness.

A few hundred years could completely erase an ordinary person's consciousness, let alone fifty thousand years. Even if one had become a Bizarre during their lifetime, they should have long since become a ghost that only followed rules.

Pollution was irreversible, like the law of entropy in the universe.

Li Mo once again rummaged through the things in the desk. In addition to the textbooks, he also found a photo.

A photo he had no impression of at all—

his own selfie.

It was colored and new.

Unlike his current gaunt and lifeless face.

In the photo, he was very young, wearing a school uniform. The school emblem only showed the style of a certain middle school.

His sleeves were wrapped around his waist, and his jacket was tied around his waist like a scarf. A faint smile played on his lips, and he looked very sunny.

The photo had a strong bizarre aura, and it was bone-chilling to hold.

It had clearly been restored by a rule.

"Is this the 'special' that Yae Sakura was talking about? In the previous civilization of this world, there was an existence of me, an ordinary student."

Li Mo tried to find more clues in this photo, but unfortunately, there were none.

The Bizarre source in the main keep seemed to know him, and their relationship was not shallow. Otherwise, it would not have specifically saved a photo until fifty thousand years later.

Li Mo took the photo and turned to walk to the third floor.

The third floor stored a large number of books, most of which were read by middle school students in the previous civilization, including novels and famous works. There were many of them, all books for passing the time.

On every page inside, there were impressions and thoughts written after reading.

This showed that for the past fifty thousand years, the Bizarre source in the main keep had been reading these books and had the habit of taking notes to pass the time because it was too boring being trapped here.

This made Li Mo even more suspicious that the Bizarre source in the main keep really had complete human consciousness.

But how did the other party do it? It shouldn't be.

You had to know that this was not five years, or fifty years, but a full fifty thousand years.

As he was puzzled, Li Mo found an inconspicuous white notebook. The reason he found it was because it was placed in the center of the table, and next to it was a pen with the cap off.

The nature of the pen on the third floor was different from the pencil on the second floor.

What was written with a pencil on the second floor could be erased, again and again, like an experience.

But what was written with a pen could not be changed, at least for this era. Unless the Bizarre source had a related ability, but from all the information so far, the Grief Seed did not have a related ability.

"Should I pick it up and have a look?"

Li Mo was thinking about this question.

Something written by a Bizarre might be a trap, like the diary page left by the Corrupted Kiana in the infirmary of St. Freya High School.

Or the fairy tale book on the fourth floor of the haunted mansion, the ancient ruins deliberately shown to the living by the Impostor in the tunnel.

Once a living person tried to explore out of curiosity, they would trigger the rule left by the ghost.

But high risk also brought high rewards. In most cases, there were indeed some important clues inside, related to the truth of the corresponding Bizarre.

"Now is the best opportunity. The Corrupted Kiana has become the biggest variable, attracting most of the attention for me. If I don't dare to try at this time, then I will never be able to bear the price of seeing the content inside."

Li Mo made up his mind, took out his Bizarre pistol, and quickly opened the white notebook.

When he saw the first page, his tense nerves suddenly relaxed, replaced by full of confusion and bewilderment.

["The moonlight shone on his sculpted face. His straight nose appeared even more rigid under the light, exuding a bone-chilling gloom. His dark eyes were like two bottomless deep pools, and black shadows that were hard to fathom occasionally emanated from his pupils, mysterious and unpredictable. His thin lips outlined a cold arc, and the corners of his mouth, slightly upturned, revealed a cold smile, 'Tonight... stay by my side.'"]

["Sister lowered her head, her pretty face flushed red, delicate and alluring. Her high heels stepped on the ground, pacing back and forth, making a nervous 'thump, thump' sound. She seemed to have made up her mind, suddenly raised her head and looked at her brother, her cherry-pink lips moving closer. At this moment, all etiquette was thrown to the wind. Sister bravely stuck out her tongue and forcefully pried open his mouth..."]

"..."

"..."

Slap!

Li Mo closed the white notebook and came to a conclusion.

The creator was a little girl who was deeply poisoned by cool literature. But in this main keep where no one had ever set foot, the only one who could write this kind of thing was...

a living person, and a person who had experienced modern civilization.

Li Mo had a person in mind.

"Even I find it hard to imagine that the Bizarre source in the main keep would be the culprit that plundered the vitality of the living and made them fall into demonic beasts."

This shock was no different from in real life, when a three-hundred-pound tank shouted "husband" in a little girl's voice.

Fortunately... he was terrifyingly calm now.

He had no time to deal with these meaningless things. Li Mo took the white notebook in his hand and walked towards the top floor.

The top floor of the main keep was the fourth floor. If nothing unexpected happened, the Bizarre source was there.

"I wonder how things are on the Corrupted Kiana's side. I have to hurry."

Just as Li Mo was about to leave the third floor, the ground shook violently.

But Li Mo knew very well that this was not an earthquake, but the space being divided.

A thought suddenly appeared in his mind, forcing Li Mo to immediately come to the window on the third floor to check the situation outside.

The dark sky was like a shattered piece of glass. The visible cracks were unimaginably dense. From the numerous cracks, a black-red liquid was left on Yae Village, as if it were raining lightly.

This phenomenon quickly spread, extending to the horizon.

"Dragging the opponent into her own sub-space, but because Yae Village is similar to a sealed tomb, if she wants to leave, if she can't find the required rule to leave, she can only use her bizarre ability to forcibly break it."

"The Corrupted Kiana can do it. She has too much pollution on her. In her polluted sub-space, her ability to control time will be greatly enhanced. I don't know how long the Bizarre Finality can last."

"Perhaps, I should take advantage of this time to finish the remaining things as soon as possible."

Li Mo quickly assessed the situation. At the same time, he looked at his clean white left hand.

Actually, from the very beginning, Li Mo was not sure that he could take little Chiyo away. He had only made a verbal promise, that if there was a chance, he could take her away.

But because of the main keep, he would verify the notebook's prediction and become a sacrifice in the festival.

Whether he would die or survive was unknown, so the promise he had made to Grandma Chiyo to take little Chiyo out of Yae Village could naturally not be fulfilled.

Li Mo looked in the direction of Chiyo's house, although he couldn't see anything.

He stretched out his hand, and the pollution quickly accumulated.

After a brief pause, a "Li Mo" with a complete appearance but with a pitifully small amount of bizarre aura was born.

His left hand was incomplete, and his expression was dull and lifeless.

His eyes were empty, with no pupils, only a white sclera.

Using "Usurp" to create a living doll with the same appearance as himself, and this living doll had no thoughts or ability to act, it was just a soulless shell, its essence being—

a derivative.

Li Mo bit his left finger and dripped the blood into its eyes.

"I will grant you three rules. These rules will create an incomplete soul for you, and will be deeply imprinted in the source of the soul, becoming the only command for your actions."

"The first rule: go to Chiyo's house now and take little Chiyo and her only family member out of Yae Village."

Li Mo's face became paler, and the cloudy glass crystal became more dim, without a trace of luster.

The Corrupted Kiana had forcibly broken the closed rule of Yae Village, but this was only temporary. Tonight might be the only chance for all outsiders to leave Yae Village.

"The second rule: it is forbidden to enter the courtyard. You are only allowed to stare from a distance outside the courtyard until they come to you."

Li Mo's left hand trembled continuously, and a stench emanated from his beautiful white left hand.

His body had already begun to rot, his body was already in pieces, and his consciousness was like a small sailboat swaying on the waves.

Every time Li Mo granted another rule, a piece of wood would break off the sailboat.

And the storm never subsided.

"The third rule: after completing this rule, find an uninhabited place and immediately self-destruct."

Her voice fell heavily. Li Mo withdrew his left hand and leaned against the wall, bowing his body.

This was the limit of what he could do. Anything more... was beyond his power.

Perhaps he could grant more rules, such as killing the over-polluted outsiders, saying specific words to prove his identity after seeing little Chiyo, and killing the derivatives or outsiders who tried to stop him from taking little Chiyo out of Yae Village...

But his body couldn't support it. Li Mo could feel that the pollution had already begun to invade his consciousness. It was only the faint and strange fantasy in his mind that was stopping the pollution from extending.

He was only one step away from becoming a complete Bizarre.

Although there were many loopholes in the three rules above, it was the limit of what he could do.

As for whether little Chiyo and Chiyo would walk out of the courtyard and come to the derivative he had created, that was not something Li Mo should consider.

Perhaps they would treat the derivative as a ghost and hide in the house without coming out.

Or maybe they would leave the house as soon as they saw the derivative and leave with it.

Li Mo no longer had the extra energy to interfere in this matter.

If he was lucky, other outsiders could also leave with little Chiyo.

Of course, that was a small probability event. For most people, missing out was the norm.

Perhaps, only those protagonists who had traveled back from the future could seize these opportunities. For those who were struggling in the present.

Whether it was little Chiyo, the outsiders, or himself.

None of them could completely decide their final destination.

Because everyone was the same.

All were, fated to live or die.

The derivative Li Mo was like a child who had just learned to walk, one step and one fall.

After a few attempts, he gradually learned to walk skillfully, or rather, he was just taking back a part of "Li Mo's" characteristics. His walking pace, posture, and speed were all close to a normal Li Mo.

The derivative Li Mo went downstairs without a word and walked towards the courtyard of little Chiyo's house, following the path he remembered.

Apart from the most basic incomplete soul, Li Mo did not grant him the ability to speak or think.

Therefore, the derivative Li Mo could only act strictly according to the rules, like a walking corpse.

"This... should be enough..."

Li Mo's voice was a bit hoarse. His vocal cords seemed to be damaged, and his normal human organs began to decay.

"I don't owe you anymore."

Li Mo leaned against the wall and slowly walked to the top floor of the main keep.

In the bedroom, little Chiyo suddenly woke up from her dream and stared blankly at the mirror on the windowsill.

Her existence was not in the mirror.

The moonlight poured in, as white as water. She got out of bed and stared blankly at the mirror. Her peripheral vision suddenly caught a glimpse of a pot of blood peach blossoms in the corner.

The pink contained scarlet, full of vitality, and exuded a rich floral fragrance.

When was it placed there?

Grandma didn't have the habit of putting flowers and plants in the room...

Little Chiyo slowly approached. The fragile flower bud rubbed against her small fingers.

In a daze, a familiar figure appeared on the small hill outside the window.