Chapter 43: The Answer Lies Within the Rules!

Deduce the path to survival from the rules?

Hearing Chen Mu's reply, the students present all wore looks of doubt.

Everyone had the rules.

Yet only Chen Mu was able to deduce a path to survival!

Immediately, some examinees refused to give up. They hurriedly flipped through their test papers, reading the rules one by one.

No matter how they looked at it, however, they could not imagine how one could possibly deduce a path to survival from them.

Upon hearing Chen Mu's answer, the invigilator's expression turned slightly solemn.

As far as she knew, only the most elite individuals possessed the extraordinary capability to search for clues within the rules and thereby find the hidden path to survival.

Without exception, such people were all able to carve out a place for themselves in the terrifying apocalypse.

Chen Mu in his past life was indeed such a person. Surviving for five years in the apocalyptic terror was proof enough of his strength.

Seeing the puzzled expressions of the crowd, Chen Mu smiled and began to explain in a calm, methodical tone:

"When I first received the test paper, looking at the dense collection of over ten rules, I felt just as dazzled and overwhelmed as all of you.

In the face of such a tangled and complex situation, the simplest method is this—

Abandon irrelevant distractions and seek the most core, most essential objective!

In this exam, as candidates trying to survive, our most core objective is to find the hidden anomaly!

Thus, I began my analysis, categorizing the dazzling dozen or so rules and filtering out the most critical ones.

Those most critical rules are precisely the ones that tell us how to find the anomaly!

Only by comprehending these rules could I find the path to survival!

Consequently, I searched rapidly and finally locked onto these key rules:

1: Anomalies are very lazy. Before you discover an anomaly, it generally will not move.

2: Anomalies occasionally make strange noises. Pay attention to strange noises around you, and you will find the traces of the anomaly.

3: Anomalies, just like humans, have four arms and legs. From the outside, it is difficult to tell who is an anomaly.

Throughout the entire test paper, only these three rules tell us how to find the anomaly.

I call these—the Source Rules!

All the other various rules are secondary; they either distract us or serve as auxiliary evidence.

In short, apart from the Source Rules, I call the rest—the Secondary Rules!

However, after finding the Source Rules, I quickly fell into a dilemma.

I imagine you all fell into this dilemma just as I did!

The source of this dilemma stems from the third Source Rule—

Anomalies, just like humans, have four arms and legs. From the outside, it is difficult to tell who is an anomaly.

When we read this rule, we naturally assume that the anomaly has disguised itself as a human, taking the form of one of our classmates.

Following that, everyone naturally begins searching among their classmates to see who the anomaly might actually be.

In reality, you are all wrong. You have all fallen into a trap!

I fell into the trap as well, but I quickly discovered the abnormality.

I discovered the anomaly starting from the first Source Rule—

Anomalies are very lazy. Before you discover an anomaly, it generally will not move.

Haven't you realized? This is a rule highly unfavorable to the anomaly!

If the anomaly has disguised itself as a classmate, then before we discover it, it cannot move.

A living, breathing classmate who cannot move at all!

Isn't that an obvious flaw?

As long as someone has a sound mind, seeing a classmate remain completely motionless for a long time would surely arouse suspicion.

That being the case, it would be very easy to find the anomaly and pass the exam.

Yet the reality was completely the opposite. Not a single class passed the exam!

This precisely indicates that our understanding of the third Source Rule was mistaken.

Once I figured this out, my thinking became much clearer.

I began to repeatedly read Rule 3 to myself, trying to find any hidden clues within it.

Finally, I discovered the critical flaw!

Rule 3 actually plays a game of semantics!

'Anomalies, just like humans, have four arms and legs.'

'From the outside, it is difficult to tell who is an anomaly.'

These two sentences are separated by a period!

This means there is no inevitable logical causality between these two sentences.

It is not because anomalies are like humans and have four arms and legs that it is difficult to tell who is an anomaly from the outside.

These two sentences possess no causal relationship!

We should understand them independently!

Moreover, the correct order of comprehension is to understand the latter sentence first, and then the former sentence.

Let's look at the latter sentence first—

From the outside, it is difficult to tell who is an anomaly.

Then, what must an anomaly transform into so that people cannot tell who it is from the outside?

It's very simple: besides turning into the shape of a person, it can naturally turn into other shapes!

Turning into air, turning into liquid, turning into an object...

Just imagine, if the anomaly turned into air, could you tell who the anomaly was from the outside?

Obviously, no!

Then the question arises: what shape will the anomaly actually turn into?

At this point, we should turn back and understand the preceding sentence.

Look for suggestive clues in the preceding sentence—

Anomalies, just like humans, have four arms and legs.

This is actually a very obvious hint, telling us that the anomaly has 'four limbs'.

Limbs are not just arms and legs; benches and tables also have 'limbs' in a sense!

At this point, a rough guess could already be made.

The anomaly might be a desk or a chair.

So, among so many desks and chairs in the classroom, which one is actually the anomaly?

This depends on the second Source Rule—

Anomalies occasionally make strange noises. Pay attention to strange noises around you, and you will find the traces of the anomaly.

This is actually an extremely critical rule!

The anomaly will make sounds!

A desk or chair that makes sounds is very likely the anomaly.

So I began to pay attention to whether any desks or chairs were making sounds.

In the end, I heard it three times!

All three sounds came from Wang Xiaoxiao's desk!

That was the creaking sound made by an aging desk.

Even if someone heard it, they would take it for granted as normal.

Only by fully understanding the rules can one find clues amid the most ordinary movements!

And so, as you all saw, I picked up the dagger.

At the very last moment before picking up the dagger, I still had to answer one critical question—

Is this a pseudo-survival path?

The so-called pseudo-survival path is a path obtained from the rules, but this path cannot be proven; even if one tries to prove it, it demands the price of life.

When a path to survival requires you to gamble with your life to see if it's correct or not,

then that path to survival is not a true path to survival, but a pseudo-survival path!

It will lead us straight to death!

In some classes, students guessed that the invigilator was the anomaly.

Then they all handed in their papers, using everyone's lives to gamble on whether this path to survival was correct.

At that time, there were also students in our class who wanted to do this, but I stopped them.

Because the moment I looked at it, I knew this was a pseudo-survival path!

So, was the path to survival I guessed a pseudo-survival path?

The answer is—

No!

If I wanted to verify my path to survival, I only needed to go and hack at that desk.

Slashing at the desk posed no danger to my life.

Moreover, the rules were also protecting me; even if the desk truly was the anomaly, it could not harm me before I struck it.

Another rule also stated that the dagger in my hand could hack the anomaly to death.

These two rules were actually protecting me, protecting this path to survival!

This made verifying this path to survival entirely free of danger.

This also indirectly confirmed that the path to survival I guessed was not only not a pseudo-survival path, but was protected by two rules, making it most likely the genuine path to survival.

Therefore, I did it.

And as you all saw, I found the path to survival.

The anomaly was precisely that desk!"