Chapter 9
Chapter 9
He began from the premise that the black text was correct and the blue text was false.
The first thing to exclude was the note he had found.
It contained no blue writing and therefore offered no point of comparison.
Rule One of the Visitor Rules and Rule One on the security office note were essentially saying the same thing.
Remain firm in your perception!
In other words, “It” might contaminate a visitor’s perception before launching a subsequent hunt.
The more violently that perception wavered, the easier it would be to fall victim.
He continued down that chain of logic.
Rule Two on the security office note most likely ought to have said: trust humans!
Yet the blue text on the note said to trust animals.
The Visitor Rules were meant to help visitors escape.
The security office note was meant to protect staff from contamination.
So why include such confusing blue-text rules?
Su Chen then remembered Rule Seven on the note he had found.
[The first four white lions are primates. The fifth white lion is a goat. Rabbits are elephants. Blue is black. (This sentence was heavily emphasized.)]
The person who wrote that note had expressed themselves with extreme confusion.
Their perception had clearly been contaminated by “It.”
That meant their perception must have been drawing closer to “Its.”
Seen that way.
The words “blue is black” took on another meaning.
Su Chen ventured a bold hypothesis.
Perhaps “It” could not distinguish blue from black.
If that premise was true, the blue text might be a covert warning to visitors that those passages were traps.
Switching the color of the type would also avoid attracting “Its” attention.
But that pointed to something even more terrifying.
“It” was close to breaking free from the constraints of the rules.
“It” was distorting them.
That was why the staff had resorted to this method.
When the rules were printed, problematic passages were marked in blue.
This prevented “It” from randomly distorting the words.
Some of the Visitor Rules contained no blue text.
Su Chen also had ideas about those rules.
Take the rule concerning the primates.
The security note explicitly said that rabbits ate humans.
But Rule Three on the note he had found said rabbits ate primates, with a question mark circled over the word “primates.”
That led to one conclusion.
“It” could not distinguish primates from humans.
That was why “It” had not chosen to distort the rule involving primates.
Then there was the rule about tearing off the dotted section of the map.
Perhaps in “Its” perception, the zoo consisted only of the area inside that dotted line.
The rest of the map instead made “It” uncomfortable.
Tearing off that section brought a person’s perception into agreement with “Its.”
That was why the rule had not been altered.
The remaining undistorted rules were even simpler.
They all involved white lions.
Clearly, “It” feared white lions.
As a result, none of the rules involving white lions had been distorted.
Su Chen worked out this basic logic.
Then he looked again at Rules Five and Six on the security note.
[Do not let “It” know that you have noticed “It.” Eat. I like all of you. When you finish eating, we can go see the jellyfish together. (Traced in blue.)]
[Humans have two eyes, arranged horizontally on either side of the nose. Anything else is not human. When a human’s appearance changes, it means “It” is watching. At such times, try to keep your understanding aligned with “Its,” or at the very least, do not waver between possibilities.]
These two rules first established one thing.
To protect himself when “It” noticed him, he had to keep his perception aligned with “Its” as much as possible.
At the very least, his own perception could not fluctuate too drastically.
Only then would “It” stop paying sustained attention to him.
Otherwise, something horrific might be triggered.
The final rule also revealed something else.
“It” might perceive eyes incorrectly.
That applied both to a person “It” had transformed into and to someone under “Its” gaze.
The number and placement of their eyes would change strangely.
Those changes also served as a warning.
After working all this out, Su Chen felt a headache coming on.
This rule-based horror scenario was far too difficult.
“It” had broken through the rules’ constraints and begun distorting both reality and the rules themselves.
That created far too many uncertainties.
For now, Su Chen had no good solution.
He tore the note off the security office desk and stuffed it into his pocket.
There were still parts of the rules he had not fully understood.
He would study them again if he got the chance.
For now, he needed to look around elsewhere.
Perhaps he would find something else useful.
Cross-referencing more evidence might unravel the remaining mysteries.
The viewers in Longguo’s livestream were completely dumbfounded.
“Holy shit, guys. These rules have tied my brain in knots. Can someone smart analyze them?”
“I don’t understand either, but did any of you notice the changes in Su Chen’s expression? He seems to have figured something out.”
“I had the same feeling. Maybe Su Chen isn’t as stupid as the rumors say! Could he have been pretending all along?”
“Whatever the truth, Su Chen has found two hidden sets of rules, and nothing abnormal has happened during any of his actions so far. That’s already the best news we could ask for.”
By now, the viewers’ opinion of Su Chen had gradually begun to change.
Earlier, they had regarded Su Chen with contempt and scorn.
Without realizing it, they had begun to trust him instead.
After all, he had been remarkably steady throughout the journey.