Chapter 22: Sir, Your Tea

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Another harsh rule, the fifth one:
【Except for the floor and the walls, all inanimate objects are the Duke’s exhibits.】
Another seemingly harsh rule!
On the surface, it restricts human movement, forbidding people from touching anything other than the floor and walls.
But looking at it from another angle, this rule actually contains a metaphor—a method for turning people into exhibits!
If a person remains motionless, then under this rule, they become one of the Duke’s exhibits in the museum!
Therefore, by combining these rules, Chen Mu deduced the path to survival for the mission:
When encountering the eerie security guards, there is no need to run or hide; you only need to stand still, and you become one of the Duke’s exhibits.
The eerie security guards cannot touch the exhibits, and naturally, they cannot touch you, let alone capture you.
As long as you stand still for two hours, you will remain invincible in this game of hide-and-seek and safely survive until the game ends.
However, the sharp-minded Chen Mu also caught a hint of something unusual in these mission rules.
This time, for the first time, there were deceptive rules!
So-called deceptive rules are meant to lure players into making mistakes and interfere with their ability to find the correct path to survival!
Take rule number 4, for example:
【If you are unfortunately discovered by the security guards, do your best to evade them, but during the process of evading, please do not touch the museum’s exhibits.】
This is a classic deceptive rule!
It subtly suggests that when encountering the eerie guards, one must try their best to dodge them.
To dodge the guards, one naturally has to run and move, which makes it impossible to remain still, and thus impossible to become an exhibit.
If a player trusts this rule too much, they will likely miss the path to survival!
"As the time in the eerie apocalypse drags on, the difficulty of these missions is gradually increasing," Chen Mu whispered to himself.
Chen Mu was not surprised by this.
After all, he was a survivor who had lived through five years of the eerie apocalypse.
Five years!
In such a long time, the tasks in the eerie apocalypse had become quite difficult and perverse.
Deceptive rules? That’s child's play!
There are even contradictory rules later on, and sometimes even completely false ones.
The most difficult mission Chen Mu ever encountered had twenty-three rules in total!
And the most absurd part was that all twenty-three of them were false!
If you believed even one of them, you were finished; you might as well wait for death.
To find the path to survival, Chen Mu had to deduce the hidden truth based on those false rules.
He had to combine several pieces of incorrect information, identify the contradictory parts, and use them to infer the hinted path to survival.
That was a double test of physical and mental strength, and Chen Mu had survived it all.
Therefore, the current game of hide-and-seek was, in Chen Mu’s eyes, nothing more than child's play.

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Two hours of mission time, and he had found the path to survival right at the beginning.
Chen Mu was confident; with his experience, the path he found for a mission of this difficulty could not be wrong.
Thus, watching the eerie security guard walking toward him, Chen Mu remained very calm.
Sure enough, the eerie guard stopped when it was one meter away from him, staring at him from up close but not daring to step forward.
Chen Mu stood right in front of it, yet it dared not approach!
This is the thrill of discovering the path to survival!
As long as you master the secrets of the survival path, you can handle these eerie missions with ease.
After watching for a while, the eerie guard felt a sense of dread toward Chen Mu; it dared not move him, because under the definition of the rules, Chen Mu was now one of the Duke’s exhibits.
It dared not kill him!
After a moment of stalemate, the eerie guard turned around, prepared to leave.
Chen Mu finally breathed a sigh of relief; the facts proved that his deduced survival path was correct.
However, before he could even settle down, he suddenly felt a hand patting his back.
What shocked Chen Mu even more was that the hand was pale and ice-cold; at a glance, one could tell it was definitely not a human hand.
It was an eerie hand!
An entity was touching him!
How could this be?
Chen Mu’s expression changed. According to the rules, he was currently an exhibit, and the eerie entities were not allowed to touch the exhibits.
Could it be that his deduction was wrong, and he had found the wrong path?
As this thought crossed his mind, Chen Mu’s heart sank.
How could his deduction be wrong?
With his five years of experience in the eerie apocalypse, the probability of his deduction being wrong was extremely low.
Chen Mu was confident in himself; to survive in the eerie apocalypse, confidence is an essential quality.
Just as Chen Mu was trying to figure it out, an eerie voice came from behind:
"Sir, your tea?"
Tea?
What tea?
Chen Mu was completely bewildered.
The entity behind him walked forward and appeared in front of Chen Mu.
It turned out not to be a security guard; it was dressed in a waiter’s uniform, holding a tray in its hands.
On the tray sat a steaming cup of tea.
"The butler is worried that you might be thirsty, so he asked me to bring you a cup of hot tea. The Mist Museum is cold and damp; please take care to keep warm, Mr. Chen. Those eerie security guards cannot harm you. If you do not wish to participate in the game, you may leave at any time."
After the waiter spoke, it placed the hot tea beside Chen Mu.
Looking at the scene before him, Chen Mu finally understood: this entity was not a guard; it was the Duke’s waiter.

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It had come to serve him tea and water!
Wait a minute, what kind of strange turn of events is this?
The others were struggling for their lives in the eerie mission, yet he was being given special treatment, served hot tea, and allowed to leave whenever he wanted?
A hide-and-seek game... it was called a game, but perhaps it was only a real game for Chen Mu.
The disparity in treatment was just too vast!
To be honest, this was the first time Chen Mu had received such special treatment.
Back in the eerie apocalypse, he had been a pauper just like the others, with his life hanging by a thread; how could he have ever enjoyed such hospitality?
"Tsk tsk, it’s good to have underworld currency in the eerie apocalypse!"
Chen Mu couldn't help but sigh.
At this moment, not far from Chen Mu, Wang Dafu’s mistress came stumbling over.
After getting separated from Wang Dafu, she had been hiding in the Mist Museum all by herself.
The entire way, she had been terrified, and her arms were covered in bruises from hitting the floor, making her look quite disheveled.
Never did she expect to run into Chen Mu when she arrived here.
She had originally intended to go up and ask Chen Mu for help.
Unexpectedly, before she could approach, she saw Chen Mu surrounded by two eerie entities.
In front of Chen Mu was the eerie security guard, and behind him was the eerie waiter.
She had thought Chen Mu was about to die, but the reversal happened so quickly—
The eerie security guard was wary of Chen Mu and didn't dare to get close, turning around and leaving;
As for the eerie waiter, it was even more absurd—it had actually given Chen Mu a cup of hot tea!
It was practically there to wait on Chen Mu!
Looking at her own disheveled state, then looking at Chen Mu, who was calm and composed with an entity serving him tea, the woman felt for the first time the sheer inequality of the world in the eerie apocalypse.
How could the gap between people be so vast?
The image of Chen Mu in her eyes changed from a young, loser-like youth to a profound and unfathomable powerhouse.
In comparison, Wang Dafu was incredibly weak.
Even though Wang Dafu was usually arrogant and held status and position, once in the eerie apocalypse, he was immediately stripped of his facade.
Wang Dafu was unreliable, so she would have to find another backer.
Thinking of this, the woman looked at her own body.
She smoothed out her hair and pulled her top down a bit, trying to make herself look as alluring as possible.
She wanted to use her feminine charm; what if Chen Mu took a liking to her...
If she could latch onto Chen Mu, wouldn't she be able to live a life of luxury in the eerie apocalypse?
What she didn't know was that in Chen Mu’s eyes, these little actions of hers were nothing but petty tricks.