Meanwhile, in the hall on the first floor.
The Programmer and Wrench were sitting on the sofa, the atmosphere somewhat gloomy.
“Hey, I’m saying…” Wrench fidgeted restlessly, shifting his weight before finally unable to hold back anymore.
“Is it really okay for us to just wait here like this?”
He spoke with some anxiety: “If Student and the others really find some clue up there, they definitely won’t tell us.
Then won’t we be left in the dark?”
The Programmer pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose and said calmly: “First, you need to understand one thing clearly—what is the objective of this dungeon task.”
“The objective?” Wrench was taken aback.
“It’s to survive 72 hours,” the Programmer emphasized the word “survive.”
“There’s nothing saying we need to find some key item, and certainly nothing saying we need to kill any evil spirit.”
“In theory, as long as we strictly follow those four rules, we can live safely until the game ends.”
That’s what he said, but truthfully, he had no confidence either.
The sight of Xiao Hui’s body from last night was still vivid in his mind, and the ghost reflection in the mirror they’d discovered this morning—all of it proved that merely following the rules might not guarantee safety.
But even so, venturing upstairs to the second floor right now was absolutely out of the question.
Pride?
In this place, pride was worthless.
He was purely making a risk assessment.
The situation on the second floor was completely unknown.
Who knew what monsters and demons might be waiting up there.
Letting Student and those three reckless boys scout ahead was the optimal choice for now.
After all, Rule Three was very clear: [Please do not casually touch personal belongings in the manor that do not belong to you].
Even if they found some key item, they wouldn’t dare take it away.
Once they’ve scouted the way and confirmed it’s safe, there would be time enough to go up later.
“But…” Wrench still felt uneasy.
“In a place like this, information is the most important thing, right?
We’ve just been sitting here doing nothing all afternoon.
If something happens again tonight, we won’t even know how we died!”
The more he spoke, the more agitated he became: “Think about it—that Student kid, as annoying as he seems, definitely knows more than we do!
The fact that he’s willing to risk going to the second floor means there must be something very important up there!
If we keep waiting like this, our chances of survival will only get worse and worse!”
Wrench’s words actually made the Programmer pause and think.
He had to admit that Wrench made sense.
Complete passivity was indeed a death sentence, and information gaps were fatal in any game.
“All right.”
We can’t just do nothing.”
He stood up and dusted off his pants: “Let’s conduct a thorough search of the first floor again and see if there are any clues we missed before.”
He emphasized deliberately: “But remember this—that room is absolutely off-limits, and stay far away from all mirrors!”
“Got it!” Wrench, pleased that he’d agreed, perked up and immediately bounced off the sofa.
The two then began a fresh round of systematic searching through the first floor.
…
On the second floor, in the maid’s room.
Due to the restrictions of Rule Three, none of the three—Shido Makoto, Artist, and Shirogane Kei—dared to move anything in the room recklessly.
They could only observe carefully with their eyes.
The room wasn’t large, but it was very tidy.
Besides a bed, wardrobe, and vanity, there was only a nightstand.
A landscape oil painting hung on the wall, depicting a lake.
“There doesn’t seem to be anything special here,” Artist said with some disappointment.
She had expected that this room guarded by the maid might harbor some earth-shattering secret.
Shido Makoto shook his head: “Look more carefully.”
Before his words even finished, he heard Artist suddenly exclaim with delight: “Look!
There’s something here!”
She was standing in front of the vanity, her gaze fixed on a half-open drawer where a notebook seemed to be placed.
The vanity’s mirror was strange—it was covered with a thick white cloth, as if to conceal something.
Artist’s mind was already dizzy with the excitement of discovering a clue.
Without much thought, she directly reached out, pulled open the drawer, and took out a brown leather-bound notebook.
“I found it!” She held up the notebook and turned back to boast to Shido Makoto and Shirogane Kei.
Instead, she saw two faces frozen in shock.
It was over!
Shido Makoto’s heart skipped a beat.
In an instant, he was already prepared to run.
Shirogane Kei also instinctively took a step back.
However, the terrifying scene they’d anticipated did not occur.
Shido Makoto turned to look at the doorway.
The maid was still standing there like a stone statue, showing no reaction whatsoever.
Nothing unusual happened in the room either.
Artist stood there holding the notebook in a daze, completely confused: “Huh?”
Only then did Artist belatedly realize what she had done.
Frightened, she let out a small “ah” and her hand trembled, nearly dropping the notebook.
“Nothing…
nothing happened?” she asked quietly.
Shirogane Kei was also stunned.
She looked at Artist, then at the notebook, completely unable to make sense of the situation.
Why?
Why did Artist touch the notebook without triggering Rule Three?
The two were bewildered, but Shido Makoto’s eyes grew brighter and brighter, countless thoughts flashing through his mind.
So these rules do have preconditions for activation!
Or rather, there must be safe zones!
He had suspected this for some time.
Rule One is: [Please keep quiet and avoid making unnecessary noise].
But he clearly remembered that when everyone first entered the dungeon task, both Wrench and Xiao Hui had shouted loudly, yet it didn’t trigger instant death.
Including when exploring this morning, the Programmer was so frightened he knocked over a chair and let out a shriek—the noise was definitely not small—and nothing happened either.
Even Xiao Hui’s screams just before death last night probably weren’t the direct cause of her demise.
The only two times Rule One was triggered resulting in death were Wrench before the [Rollback] and himself, and the common factor in both instances was—they were both in the dining hall!
This suggested that Rule One’s effective range was likely limited to the dining hall, or more precisely, limited to the vicinity of those puppet-like people.
Of course, this was merely a hypothesis with no way to be 100% certain, but he personally leaned toward this explanation.
As for Rule Three: [Please do not casually touch personal belongings in the manor that do not belong to you].
Now, Artist had picked up a notebook that clearly was a personal item, yet suffered no punishment whatsoever.
Did this mean that Rule Three’s effective range did not include this room?
Or perhaps the phrase “personal belongings that do not belong to you” had a narrower scope than imagined.
Perhaps it specifically referred to certain special items treasured by the evil spirit?
Only then would it make sense.
Otherwise, their exploration would be severely restricted—if they couldn’t touch anything, surviving 72 hours would be pure fantasy.
Shido Makoto’s peripheral vision caught the maid standing in the doorway, and an even bolder conjecture arose in his mind.
Perhaps it was because of her?
Because of her presence, this room had become a temporary safe zone, allowing them to explore?
While this reasoning still lacked sufficient evidence, it was the most plausible explanation so far.
“Don’t be scared.”
Shido Makoto came back to himself and spoke first to reassure the still-shaken Artist: “It seems the things in here are temporarily safe.”
He walked to the vanity, opened the drawer, and picked up the notebook, weighing it in his hand.
“Let’s take a look together and see what’s written inside.”
____
👻🔥P- Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Samsara Game: Starting with Shirogane Kei
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