I’m a Max-Level Taoist Master, and You’re Throwing Me Into a Rules-Based Horror Game?! - Chapter 186

Chapter 186: The Bizarre World, the Land of Eternal Frost!

[This round of Rule-based Bizarre Tales has begun. Each country will select one challenger to enter the game world of Rule-based Bizarre Tales.]

[If the selected challenger dies, a bizarre tale will randomly descend upon one city within that country.]

[If a country fails ten times consecutively, the bizarre tale will cover the entire nation.]

[The Bizarre Tale world is now opening. Current Instance: ‘Polar Night Snowfield’!]

[Current Bizarre Tale Difficulty: Six Stars.]

[Within the Bizarre Tale world, you will play the role of a mountaineering team member. Please maintain a clear head to find the rules within the instance and use them to survive.]

Familiar prompts appeared before the challengers. This round included a particularly high number of those on their second playthrough or more.

At least over a hundred were people with prior experience in bizarre tales.

Veteran faces like Gretchen need not be mentioned; after all, this was his third time entering.

This time, he had learned his lesson: do what needs to be done and avoid showing off.

When Gretchen was preparing to enter, the Holy Knight Sidney asked him if he had any special skills.

Because after Sidney cleared his run, he also received a skill.

However, Sidney’s was an SS-grade skill. He wanted to know what skill Gretchen had obtained from his SSS-grade clearance.

Naturally, the higher the rating, the better the skill.

But no matter who asked, Gretchen never revealed it.

Because the skill was… embarrassing.

The skill Gretchen rolled was called ‘Spare Me, Hero!’.

Spare Me, Hero!: When an individual anomaly or other individual creature is about to attack you, you can kneel down and shout “Spare me, hero!” This will cause the opponent to let you go this once. Cooldown: 24 hours.

When Gretchen first obtained this skill, his eyes widened in disbelief; he was utterly dumbfounded.

He had heard rumors that most skills currently given by the Bizarre Tale world were survival-oriented. His skill might be a god-tier, life-saving trump card for other challengers.

But could he actually use this skill?

Even with just his previous identity as a Cardinal, he would never use such a skill.

Now, as the Pope’s successor, using this skill would bring shame upon the Church.

Forget what the Pope might think of him; his colleagues would probably kick him out of the Church immediately.

He wished he could just delete the skill outright.

Thinking to himself, as long as he played it safe this round, he shouldn’t need to use such skills.

He aimed to follow the Dragon Country’s Celestial Master’s example and acquire some weapons or items instead.

Many challengers shared similar thoughts this round. Others also brought skills with them, more or less. The long-awaited high-level match had begun once again.

After all, people are like this: if the name of the bizarre tale sounds too frightening, most wouldn’t dare to participate.

The previous instances, ‘Apocalyptic Cataclysm’ and ‘Journey of Despair’, immediately gave off an intimidating vibe upon release.

This time, the Bizarre Tale world didn’t reveal anything upfront, so there were still bold individuals willing to sign up.

After entering and seeing the title, along with the harsh environment, the challengers realized they had been severely tricked by the Bizarre Tale world.

Those who came here were veterans. They knew that in this Bizarre Tale world, the entire area had a negative debuff: the cold.

This was similar to the hospital’s poison gas, a mandatory debuff. Once it stacks to a certain level, the body will exhibit abnormalities.

If not addressed in time, one could freeze to death.

Challengers with high attributes only had some resistance, not immunity.

The mental damage from creatures in the Bizarre Tale world and the negative damage from the Bizarre Tale itself were two different things.

Therefore, they couldn’t stay outside for extended periods, which inherently meant the difficulty of this Bizarre Tale world was not low.

Moreover, the first thing they saw upon arrival was a corpse, which was definitely not a good omen.

If a newcomer who entered randomly saw this scene, they would surely be scared off.

Because the corpse was excessively bizarre and horrifying. It had no clothes, no skin, and no discernible features.

Most of those present were veterans, along with some elite challengers. Naturally, they chose to approach and investigate first.

Veterans were relatively accustomed to corpses; they were commonplace in the Bizarre Tale world.

But one this disfigured was a first for many.

Due to the cold weather, the corpse had turned bluish.

But it was just a body of flesh and bones; one couldn’t even tell if it was male or female. There were no signs of fractures either.

Even those with experience in autopsies couldn’t determine the cause of death.

The organs seemed to be intact, but the skin had been peeled off, as if ripped away while the person was still alive.

The challengers looked around. This place was in the middle of nowhere; how did this person die here?

And it appeared to be a case of body dumping. A natural death wouldn’t result in the absence of both clothes and skin.

Because it was snowing heavily, footprints were quickly covered, making it impossible to determine who had dumped the body.

At this moment, the challengers noticed a slip of paper in the corpse’s hand.

Perhaps it contained important information. So, suppressing the urge to vomit, the challengers pried open its hand and retrieved the note.

The note contained several rules.

Mountaineering Guidelines:

[Rule 1: The cold will cause your body’s various functions to decline. If you don’t want to freeze stiff, you need to find a heat source.]

[Rule 2: You can only light a fire inside a building. Only a heat source can relieve the cold.]

[Rule 3: Please pay attention to the volume of your speech. Do not cause an avalanche. The snow is unstoppable.]

[Rule 4: If a small animal asks you a question, you can try to answer, or you may not answer, but you must not answer incorrectly.]

[Rule 5: In this place, food is precious. If someone asks you for some, never give it to them directly.]

[Rule 6: Remember, if someone drips blood on you, quickly wipe it clean with snow.]

[Rule 7: The mountaineering team has only five members. Find a way to eliminate the anomalies disguised as team members, otherwise they will kill you or kill others.]

[Rule 8: When all your teammates die, the mountaineering plan fails, and the mission fails.]

[Rule 9: Mistakenly killing a teammate will result in a curse, permanently losing all senses.]

[Rule 10: Your teammates are not weak. If you want to seek a teammate’s help, first make sure they are indeed your teammate.]

Upon reading this, the vast majority of challengers had already grasped what they needed to do this round.

They then began searching their persons for useful clues.

The challengers were dressed in two layers of clothing, wore a hat, and thick hiking boots.

They had a backpack containing food, water, a flashlight, a small map, a sleeping bag, and a small tent.

Aside from a watch, they also had a metal lighter, though it was impossible to see how much fuel it contained.

Opening the small map, there was a marker indicating a rendezvous point.

Crossing over one mountain from here would lead to the rendezvous point.

Zhang Yangqing connected the obtained information to form a beginning.

In other words, he was part of a five-member mountaineering team.

The corpse discovered now was likely one of the other four team members.

An anomaly killed this teammate, peeled off his skin, stole his equipment, and assumed his appearance.

The goal of this anomaly was to kill the others, causing the mountaineering team to fail.

In this stage, protecting oneself alone was insufficient; they also needed to identify and protect the genuine ‘teammates’.

If all teammates died, they themselves would be directly eliminated by the rules.

The anomaly could kill silently, possibly related to blood and food.

According to Zhang Yangqing’s speculation, the anomaly’s blood might be the ‘contamination’ in this Bizarre Tale world.

Other challengers might only think this far, but Zhang Yangqing could extrapolate further.

The anomaly’s methods of killing weren’t limited to those written in the rules; many things in this Bizarre Tale world could be lethal.

For example, utilizing the cold: methods could include destroying buildings, sabotaging heat sources, ruining tents, freezing everyone to death.

It could also cause an avalanche, or simply directly attack someone.

These were all methods the anomaly could use.

But whether the anomaly feared death was hard to say, as an avalanche might kill everyone.

This mountaineering journey certainly held many other deadly traps; these were the so-called hidden rules.

The rules only reminded everyone of the more bizarre methods.

Challengers could use these methods to determine who the anomaly was.

Then, they could find a way to unite with teammates to eliminate the anomaly.

This was the strategy for ordinary challengers.

However, this Bizarre Tale world didn’t impose significant restrictions on superhumans, and there were a few relatively powerful challengers present.

Once they identified who the anomaly was, they would directly kill it.

But the problem arose: once the anomaly realized someone had guessed there was an imposter in the team, it might use this to feed false information to the challenger, tricking them into killing a teammate, leading to the challenger being cursed.

Losing all senses was no different from waiting for death.

Therefore, the strategy for what came next was clear: they couldn’t reveal their knowledge of this situation, and they had to observe their teammates’ every move to find flaws.

Thinking this, the more cautious challengers buried the corpse with snow.

These were relatively safe minor details. After all, on the way to the rendezvous, what if other teammates also discovered it?

Rule 10 stated that these teammates were not weak; they likely all had unique skills.

Otherwise, the anomaly wouldn’t resort to such methods to kill; it would just slaughter everyone directly.

After carefully checking that there was nothing else usable and completing these tasks, the challengers headed towards the rendezvous point as shown on the map.

They felt somewhat apprehensive, as they were about to join a team with hidden dangers.

They needed to find a way to identify this danger and eliminate it as soon as possible to better face subsequent threats.

The challengers all knew that this Bizarre Tale couldn’t be as simple as finding a single mole.

The rules for completing the level haven’t even been revealed yet, and in this icy, snowy environment, the difficulty is unimaginable.

After making these preparations, the challengers also seemed to feel the biting cold and hurriedly sought out their team.

Zhang Yangqing’s thoughts differed from theirs. Ordinary challengers wanted to catch the one mole within the team.

But Zhang Yangqing thought, who told the challengers there was only one mole?
There was a significant trap here.

Rule 7 clearly stated: The mountaineering team has only five members. Find a way to eliminate the anomalies disguised as team members, otherwise they will kill you or kill others.

It didn’t specify only one anomaly.

The challengers only found one corpse, but that didn’t mean there was only one corpse.

According to Zhang Yangqing’s understanding, that meant among these four teammates, possibly one to three were impostors.

Why one to three and not one to four? Didn’t the rules state that when all team members die, the mission fails directly? That’s the death rule.

That implied there was at least one living teammate; the others were anomalies.

Otherwise, before the mountaineering even began, the challengers would already be eliminated.

Challengers who failed to realize this would be in great danger.

Treading on the thick snow, the challengers felt colder with each step.

No matter how much they moved their bodies, they couldn’t drive away the cold or make their bodies feel warm.

This was what the rules mentioned: only a heat source could relieve the cold.

Moreover, they needed to find a building; only inside a building could they light a fire. The conditions were quite harsh.

No challengers complained here now; everyone was striving to adapt to the environment.

They observed the surroundings for other creatures. Rule 4 also mentioned that if a small animal came to ask a question, it might be an opportunity.

Based on the challengers’ understanding of the rules, this rule meant that if you knew the answer, you should tell the small animal. If you didn’t know, then don’t answer.

Answering correctly might yield a reward, while answering incorrectly might lead to an attack.

Therefore, before encountering a small animal, they should gather as much information as possible. That was the strategy for this rule.

Because the correct answers would definitely appear in places the challengers passed by or in the surrounding areas.

It was polar night in the Bizarre Tale world. The so-called polar night meant the sun simply wouldn’t rise during this period.

In this snowy night, the figures of the challengers grew increasingly indistinct.

The audience could almost feel the chilling cold emanating from the scene.

:”Lucky that the physical condition of those entering this round is pretty good. If it were me, I’d probably be done for before even reaching the meeting point.”

:”It’s been a while since we’ve had a Bizarre Tale with no restrictions. Doesn’t that give superhumans a huge advantage?”

:”Not necessarily. Superhumans are also afraid of killing the wrong person. If they make a mistake, it’s certain death. Having ability doesn’t mean they can use it recklessly.”

:”But then again, I think ordinary challengers have a bigger advantage because they need to rely on their teammates, so they’ll build good relationships with them. If superhumans don’t build good relationships and get isolated, their situation could still be very dangerous.”

:”That makes sense. There are pros and cons for each; it depends on who can discover the hidden anomaly first.”

The properties of the anomalies here were actually similar to those in the Wax Museum.

The rule in the Wax Museum was not to damage the wax figures, but the anomalies disguised as wax figures didn’t count as wax figures.

Therefore, anomalies disguised as teammates didn’t count as teammates, and challengers could eliminate these anomalies.

Under the watchful eyes of the audience, the challengers walked through the snowfield, each breath producing a puff of mist.

Even simply walking required attention to whether the snow underfoot was getting deeper or if there were pits.

It took about fifteen minutes for most challengers to spot a small, dilapidated temple.

As the challengers approached, they noticed some movement inside.

This put the challengers on guard, with some even observing the surroundings of the temple.

They peered through cracks in the temple walls and broken sections to assess the situation inside.

Zhang Yangqing didn’t bother with such precautions and walked straight in.

Everyone knew this was purely due to his exceptional skill and courage.

The dilapidated temple had some wood shavings and dry grass. The windows and door also showed signs of damage.

Entering through the main door, one could see a statue enshrined inside the temple.

The upper half of the statue was missing, its whereabouts unknown. The lower half was also heavily worn and covered in some mud.

It was impossible to tell which deity was being worshipped.

From behind the temple’s statue, there seemed to be a rustling sound, which felt somewhat eerie.

“What are you doing?”

Zhang Yangqing’s words, conversely, startled the person behind the temple statue.

Other challengers were the ones being scared out of their wits, but this guy went and scared others instead.

A young man dressed similarly to Zhang Yangqing appeared before him.

His hand was bandaged, clearly injured.

He had his hair slicked back, his nose was red from the cold, and there were traces of white snow on his eyebrows.

In front of him were some pieces of wood.

If Zhang Yangqing’s eyes weren’t deceiving him, these so-called wood pieces were probably the temple’s door and windows, right?

And then there was the Slicked-Back Hair man’s action: he seemed to be trying to start a fire by rubbing sticks together.

In other words, this guy dismantled the doors and windows just to make a fire?

It was important to note that in such weather, challengers and other climbing team members also needed rest.

Maintaining ample physical strength was crucial; otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to reach the next stop.

According to the map, their destination was not this place.

That meant, before the so-called ‘night’ fell, the climbing team needed to find a place to rest.

This place needed to meet the condition of allowing a ‘fire’ to be lit, and then provide warmth.

This guy, upon arriving, directly dismantled the windows and door, allowing cold wind to blow in through them.

Moreover, he was the first to arrive, and he had an injury on his hand.

Having an injury meant he could potentially ‘bleed’, and bleeding might be a condition for contamination.

Various signs seemed to indicate to the challengers that he might be the anomaly.

An ordinary challenger’s mind would conjure a ‘scenario’:

The anomaly killed this Slicked-Back Hair man, then took his equipment, peeled off his skin, and disguised itself as him.

Then, it arrived early at this overnight resting spot.

Since only this place in the vicinity had a building where they could ward off the cold,

the anomaly found a way to damage this place, planning to kill everyone during the night.

As for the injury on his hand, it might have been caused while dismantling the doors and windows, or it could be a pretense. Later, he could use the injury as an excuse to drip blood on others without leaving traces.

This was a naturally forming narrative.

Once they thought of this, the challengers became somewhat wary of this Slicked-Back Hair man.

It seemed like none of the teammates could be trusted, but this one was particularly suspicious.

The possibility couldn’t be ruled out that the Bizarre Tale world was using him as bait to attract the challengers’ attention.

Because it was so obvious, it made many challengers feel he might not be the one.

If he really were the anomaly, wouldn’t that be too foolish?

Such a clumsy method would inevitably make people suspect he was the mole.

But the possibility also existed that the Bizarre Tale world was feinting, making the most suspicious person the one least likely to be suspected.

Regardless, the challengers had become wary of him.

Just as the challengers were about to speak to Slicked-Back Hair to gather information,

an displeased female voice came from behind:
“Are you two out of your minds? Dismantling the temple? Do you want us all to freeze to death tonight?”