There is One New Rule Every Month Globally

Time always flies swiftly, unnoticed.

It was August 4th.

The afternoon sun was just right.

The global event of "Thrilling World" had long ended, but its impact remained significant, leaving many players still catching their breath.

Chen Yi was lying in a rooftop rocking chair, wearing sunglasses, enjoying the sunbath with Tuberculosis Rabbit and others, about to enter the next map, which was a bit strange with a fixed opening time.

It was only open from two in the afternoon until three.

There were still about ten minutes left until two o'clock.

"Yi."

Next to Chen Yi, Jiaye knelt with a grievance in her voice, "Is playing one hundred and eight Jiayes fun?"

"It's fun."

Chen Yi nodded seriously, picked up a chilled coconut water, and spoke with a hint of emotion, "I also didn't expect them to keep popping up; it's quite strange and a new experience in life."

Perhaps seeing her lack of reaction,

The game decided to increase the difficulty for him, so during those three days, almost every moment a new Jiaye would pop out from various hidden spots to startle him. He didn't refuse any, placing them all on the rooftop as if they were figures.

Quite interesting.

The sight of one hundred and eight Jiayes arranged on the rooftop was truly magical, but unfortunately, after the Thrilling World event ended, these female ghosts dissipated. Otherwise, it would have been fun to collect them and place them inside the house as figures and mess with enemies' vision.

"What a pity."

...

Tuberculosis Rabbit and Sword Without End were both leaning on the rooftop railing, gazing distantly with a lost expression.

"I kind of miss it."

"I know, right."

"I seem to remember the Russian Roulette game being quite popular recently."

"Now that you mention it, it does ring a bell."

After saying that, Tuberculosis Rabbit shook his head, clearing his vision, "A man who can't control his lower half is doomed to accomplish nothing. Let's not think about this anymore and talk about something serious."

"I did control it."

"You? If you had control, would you still go?"

"I went there precisely because I controlled my lower half. Do you think it can go there on its own?"

"..."

"Let me sort this out."

After a moment of silence, Tuberculosis Rabbit, not knowing how to refute Sword Without End's logic, forcibly changed the subject, "The map we are about to enter is new, from a Map Access Pass that appeared in the store."

"It must be for the August rule, 'Unable to Lie,' specially designed for this map."

"Today is the first time it's being opened."

"At that time, there will probably be a lot of players entering this map."

"You be prepared. I..."

The voice abruptly stopped.

Tuberculosis Rabbit, impatient, pushed Sword Without End aside and stood up to leave, "Forget it, I can't continue this with you. Now when I see your face, I can't have a normal conversation."

"Get lost!"

...

The time of several minutes quickly passed.

Then the Map Access Passes in the backpacks of Chen Yi and his group turned into a white light and disappeared at almost the same time, followed by a notification sound in their ears.

'Ding, you have entered the map - 'Prisoner's Dilemma''

'Map Name': Prisoner's Dilemma.

'Map Content': This map can accommodate ten players. Before entering the map, each player will experience a sequence of events in the first-person perspective. Then they will gather in a room to identify the murderer among them who killed someone in the sequence.

Out of ten people, only one is the murderer.

Within one hour, discover the true murderer through voting.

The remaining innocents will pass if done so.

If the true murderer is not found through voting within one hour,

The murderer passes.

There are three voting opportunities. If all are used up, the murderer wins.

'Map Reward': Depending on the players' performance in this map, exclusive rewards will be issued.

'Map Introduction': "I'm so sleepy, I feel like sleeping, but I still have to write this introduction for this damned map. When will the boss die? Oh, this is a map that evaluates acting skills, good luck to you all."

'PS: Detecting Chen Yi, Tuberculosis Rabbit, and other players are in a party, they will automatically be separated and distributed to different maps. This map is for single players and will distribute players who have had interactions with each other to different maps based on big data.'

As the system notification sounded,

Chen Yi found himself in a room resembling a cinema, surrounded by darkness, with only a shaft of light visible not far away.

His perspective quickly moved towards that light.

Soon, he saw an image of a modern villa study, coming into view from the distance.

Without much time to think, he began to carefully observe every image within his line of sight.

He couldn't control this perspective.

He could only passively receive it.

It seemed like a first-person real-life VR movie.

Before the game's arrival, Blue Star also had this VR movie technology, but it hadn't spread quickly in cinemas; instead, it was quite popular on certain platforms.

This image could only be seen once, so he had to pay attention to every piece of information to ensure he wouldn't miss any clues later.

The owner of his perspective seemed to be the lord of the modern villa, currently writing something in the study.

Writing... a will?

He seems to be quite old, in his sixties or seventies, right?

The owner of this identity appears to be an old man.

The content of the will is very simple.

All his estate is to be donated to charity.

"Hmm."

Chen Yi followed the perspective toward the will written in black on white paper on the table, and nodded thoughtfully. It seemed that the identity he was playing came with a storyline, donating all his estate to charity, how noble.

"Wait a minute...?"
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He suddenly realized something was wrong.

Although he couldn't see his own appearance in this identity and could only gather information at first glance, the forearms of his identity that were lying on the desk didn't seem to belong to an old man; there were no liver spots or wrinkles, but they were very smooth, and hairless.

They were obviously the arms of a young person, and... hairless at that.

But why would a young man be writing a will?

Soon he figured out what was going on, the owner of this identity was not writing a will, but modifying one.

The new will was quickly amended.

"Donating all my estate to a charity organization, I definitely can't do that. I've decided to leave all my estate to my eldest son, Chen Yi."

"..."

Chen Yi looked expressionlessly at the modified will, his mind filled with frustration. Was the identity he was playing an idiot?

With the will modified in such a way, could the lawyer possibly accept it?

Even if it were accepted, wouldn't his suspicion as a murderer be all too evident?

At this moment, he caught sight of an elderly man's corpse lying next to the desk from his somewhat panicked vantage point. The corpse was in a pool of blood with a noticeable head wound, and beside it lay a candlestick smeared with blood.

It was clear.

In this identity, he found the will left by his father and decided to kill his father and falsify the will.

Nice.

This might well be his first failed map.

How could this possibly be whitewashed?

There's no way to whitewash it.

Not at all.

If this identity he was playing had even a bit of intelligence, he would have split some of the inheritance in the will to make it less obvious, leaving everything to himself seemed to truly take others for fools.

The will was quickly modified.

Chen Yi silently watched from the first-person perspective as the identity he was playing carefully and meticulously put everything on the desk back in its place. Then he bent over again to take a closer look at the elderly man's corpse lying in the pool of blood.

After pausing for about three seconds,

he then focused his gaze on the candlestick.

"Not too dumb."

Chen Yi silently nodded to himself; at least he knew to take away the murder weapon.

Although things seemed dire from the start, as long as he wasn't discovered on the spot, and if he cleaned up any unmistakable clues like fingerprints that he couldn't talk his way out of, there was still room for maneuver.

If it weren't for the August rule, the inability to lie, he would have even more leeway.

Of course... in some cases, having this rule actually expands the operational space. After all, it means that everything someone says carries a high level of credibility, and credibility... can deceive people.

Just as his viewpoint was about to bend down, there was suddenly a knock on the study door from outside.

"Father, are you alright? I'm coming in."

As that voice fell, the identity he was playing had no time to tidy up the scene and quickly hid behind the curtain, holding his breath and daring not to make a sound.

Soon—

the door lock was turned.

From Chen Yi's first-person viewpoint, he couldn't see who was entering, only knowing it was a woman. He could only see the thick curtains in front of him.

"..."

At that moment, his mind was filled with one word.

Silent.

Just caught red-handed, wasn't there supposed to be a storyline? The current plotline is practically forcing him to confess.

Isn't this a bit too targeted at him?

Perhaps feeling a bit nervous, the identity he was playing stared intently at the curtain in front of him, not even glancing at the floor. He actually wanted to know if the curtain could cover his feet or if the shoes were sticking out.

But the viewpoint simply would not move downward, just staring straight ahead.

Just as Chen Yi was internally sighing in resignation, preparing to face his first map defeat, he suddenly furrowed his brows, squinted, and listened intently.

It was very quiet.

No screams.

Logically, a normal person opening the door to discover a crime scene would scream, right?

Even if it were a mute, there should still be some sounds of panic, or some noise from trying to flee in a hurry, right?

But at this moment, the study was extremely quiet.

Something was off.

And soon, he heard the study door being slowly closed through the curtain; the woman who knocked earlier seemed to have walked into the room and then a rustling sound followed.

After listening for a moment,

Chen Yi was certain of one thing: that damn woman was also here to modify the will.

About five minutes passed.

Only then did the woman in the study leave and close the door behind her.