The stairwell leading to the top floor was wrapped in heavy, icy silence. The flickering fluorescent lights popped and sputtered, casting erratic shadows on the concrete walls. The seven survivors climbed slowly, each step echoing through the empty building.
Chen Yu held the blue antidote vial in one hand, his talent continuously scanning the air for hidden rule data.
【Dungeon Core approaching. Top Floor: Origin Ward.】
【Warning: This space generates all the hospital’s rules. Every thought spoken here may solidify into a new binding rule.】
Lin Wan’s voice was low as she walked beside him. “All rules are born here? If that’s true… can we break the source entirely?”
“I don’t know.” Chen Yu shook his head. “The dungeon may simply rewrite everything if we destroy it. We need to find its core logic first.”
Zhang Hao gripped his bent metal pipe, watching the survivors behind them. Tension hung thick between the group. The three-dose antidote was still an unresolved, cruel problem. One survivor kept staring greedily at the small blue bottle.
At the top of the stairs stood a massive, solid white ward door. No handles, no windows. A line of faint glowing text hovered on its smooth surface.
【Top Floor Rule: No one may enter the Origin Ward unless they surrender all their personal memories.】
A young woman survivor whimpered. “Surrender memories? That means losing who we are! We can’t do that!”
【Hidden True Rule detected.】 Chen Yu’s eyes narrowed as his ability parsed the buried text.
【The public rule is reversed. If you surrender your memories, you will be trapped forever. To enter, you must hold tight to your most precious memories.】
Chen Yu turned to the group. “The rule is inverted again. We must hold onto our memories, not give them up.”
“Memories?” A man frowned. “How do we prove that?”
Before Chen Yu could answer, the door began to glow brighter.
【Rule verification begins.】
【The ward will test each person’s memory. Those who forget their own identity will be rejected and turned into rule ink.】
The door split open with a soft hiss.
Inside the Origin Ward, there were no hospital beds or medical equipment. The entire room was lined with towering glass tanks filled with thick black liquid. Faint, twisted human shapes floated inside each tank. Countless lines of glowing rule text drifted like fireflies through the air, constantly rewriting themselves.
At the very center of the room stood a transparent humanoid silhouette, formed entirely from swirling black characters. It was the rule core of this dungeon.
【System Core: Rule Entity.】
【You have broken countless of my rules. You keep finding my bugs.】
【You think you can escape this hospital? All survivors become fuel to generate new rules.】
The voice echoed inside every person’s mind, cold and inhuman.
One survivor suddenly screamed, clutching his head. “My memories! Something is pulling them away!” Black veins spread rapidly across his face. He was starting to forget his own name.
“Hold on to your memories!” Chen Yu shouted. “Think of the people you care about! Don’t let it take them!”
Lin Wan gritted her teeth, forcing herself to recall her medical school days, her family. The black erosion on her wrist slowed.
But the man who had been eyeing the antidote bottle lost his grip. His eyes turned empty. “I… I can’t remember who I am.”
His body melted rapidly into thick black ink, flowing toward the glass tanks.
The remaining six survivors watched in horror.
The rule entity’s form rippled, more glowing text pouring out.
【New rule generated: Any survivor who forgets their identity will be converted into rule ink.】
Chen Yu’s gaze locked onto the swirling character core.
“All your rules are built on the fear and memories of humans. That is your bug.”
【Impossible. Rules are absolute.】
“Rules are only absolute if we believe them.” Chen Yu stepped forward. “You twist truths, lie to survivors, and trap us in endless loops. But you cannot rewrite our memories.”
As he spoke, the floating rule text around the room began to flicker and glitch. The core entity shuddered.
Zhang Hao suddenly yelled, pointing at one of the glass tanks. “Look! There are other survivors trapped inside there!”
Lin Wan’s eyes widened. “They are the people who got caught in this dungeon before us.”
Chen Yu quickly scanned the core.
【Clue unlocked: The core cannot be destroyed directly. If shattered, the whole hospital will collapse, and every living person here will be consumed by curse erosion.】
【Only method: Rewrite the core’s root rule.】
The rule entity let out a distorted roar.
【Foolish human. Trying to rewrite the origin rule? The cost will be heavy. One life must be sacrificed to rewrite the root contract.】
Silence crashed over the room.
Chen Yu’s expression turned grave. To change the core rule, someone had to pay the price.
The survivors exchanged nervous glances. The choice had become even more terrible than deciding who would get the antidote.
The black ink in the tanks churned violently. The rule entity prepared to unleash a wave of new, deadly rules.
Chen Yu raised his chin, staring straight at the character-made core.
“Then let us negotiate.”
【Next chapter preview: Rewriting the Root Rule】
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