Forbidden Rules

The room Jack was in now was a vast, circular hall, like the inside of an ancient clock tower. The entire space exuded a dizzying sense of dislocation. The walls were covered with all kinds of clocks, but every single one of them was frozen.

In the center of the hall, a colossal clock hung upside down from the ceiling. Its hands were spinning counter-clockwise at a frantic speed. Each time the hour hand swept past the number "12," the entire hall would shake violently, sending dust and debris falling from above.

The brass plaque on this room's door read:

[Please restore the normal flow of time.]

Restore the normal flow of time? Jack looked up at the furiously reversing clock, which seemed to be the source of the room's instability. He remembered Rule 3: Strictly follow the prompt at the entrance of each room.

He also remembered Rule 2: Trust your eyes. His eyes told him that this reversed clock was the heart of the problem.

He soon found a control console in an inconspicuous corner. On it were three levers, clearly labeled: "Clockwise," "Stop," and "Counter-Clockwise."

This seemed too simple, simple enough to be a trap.

"Restore the normal flow of time"... What was the definition of "normal"? For this upside-down room and its reversed clock, perhaps "counter-clockwise" was its normal state?

His gaze swept from the console to the frantic clock. He noticed that with every shake, one of the frozen clocks on the wall would develop a crack on its glass face. A dozen of them were already covered in spiderweb-like fractures.

Rule 5: Any act of damaging the facility will be considered a severe violation.

The giant clock's actions were "damaging" the other clocks! Therefore, its behavior was definitely not "normal." It had to be stopped.

So, "Stop" or "Clockwise"? The prompt was to "restore the normal flow," which implied time could not stand still. So, the "Stop" option had to be wrong.

That left only "Clockwise."

He gritted his teeth, gripped the lever marked "Clockwise" with his uninjured right hand, and yanked it down with all his might.

SCREEECH—!

A deafening sound of grinding metal filled the air. The giant clock on the ceiling lurched to a halt for a split second, and then... it began to spin counter-clockwise again, but at an even more ferocious speed!

"No!" Jack cried out.

The shaking of the hall became more violent than ever. In an instant, the glass faces of all the clocks on the walls shattered simultaneously!

CRACK! SMASH! POP!

[Warning! You have violated Rule 5: Damaging the facility. Punishment protocol initiated.]

The Guide's voice was devoid of any emotion.

To his horror, Jack saw a withered, pale hand emerge from behind each shattered mirror... no, countless hands. And their target was him, standing right in front of the console.

"Damn it! Damn it!" Jack cursed. He couldn't figure out where he had gone wrong. Every step of his reasoning was based on the rules! Trust his eyes, follow the prompt, don't damage the facility... where did he go wrong?!

The withered hands surged toward him like a tide. Jack could only dodge pathetically. As he ran, his injured left arm was seized by a hand, its sharp nails digging into his wound. The agony made him let out a muffled groan. He tore himself free with a powerful jerk, but the wound was ripped open even further, exposing the bone.

He was cornered on the far side of the hall with no escape.

In his desperation, his eyes swept across the floor—across the reflections in the broken pieces of clock glass. In those distorted reflections, he saw the control console.

Wait... reflections?

A bolt of lightning tore through his pain- and fear-ridden mind.

This room... the central clock was upside down. So, could it be that everything in this room was reversed?

He looked at the control console, then snapped his head down to look at its reflection on the floor. In the incomplete reflections formed by the shards of glass, he was shocked to see that the labels on the three levers displayed entirely different words!

The "Clockwise" lever he had pulled, in its reflection, was labeled—"Accelerate"!

The "Stop" lever he had first dismissed, its reflection was labeled "Repair."

And the "Counter-Clockwise" lever's reflection was "Destroy."

Rule 2: Trust your eyes.

It was a colossal lie! Or rather, a vicious word game! He had trusted the words his eyes "saw," but he hadn't trusted the truth his eyes "saw"—that the room was upside down, so all information had to be interpreted in reverse! The real prompt was hidden in the reflection!

"So that's how it is..." Jack let out a bitter laugh. Blood loss and cold sweat were making his vision blur. He was too far from the console now; there was no way he could make it back before being caught.

Rule 5: Any act of damaging the facility will be considered a severe violation.

He had already violated it. So... when a rule itself is a noose, obeying it means willingly putting your head through it!

With his last ounce of strength, Jack picked up the largest piece of a broken wall clock from the floor. He raised it high with his good right hand and, with all his might, hurled it at the core of the furiously spinning clock above—at the weakest link, the chain connecting it to the ceiling!

CLANG!

With a tremendous crash, the wreckage struck the chain's connection point perfectly. Already under immense strain, the chain snapped!

The colossal, mountain-sized clock, now unsupported, plummeted toward the floor with the force to destroy everything in its path. The withered hands, as if facing their natural predator, instantly retreated back into the clock faces. The moment before the clock hit the ground, Jack dove with all his might toward the wall.

BOOOOM—!!!

An earth-shattering roar echoed through the hall, making the entire structure moan. The giant clock smashed onto the ground, shattering into countless pieces. A palm-sized gear, spinning at high speed, flew past Jack's face like a throwing knife, leaving a deep, bloody gash on his cheekbone.

The world fell silent.

[...Severe violation detected...] For the first time, the Guide's voice had a slight stutter, like a glitch in a data stream. [...Re-evaluating... Evaluation complete. As you have terminated the room's anomalous state, the punishment is canceled. The door to the next room has been opened for you.]

Behind Jack, a new door quietly materialized. He dragged his battered body, step by step, toward it. He understood now. The real name of this trial should probably be—The Code of Lies.

Act Three: The Silent Library and the "Forbidden" Book

The room behind this door was a magnificent library. Towering bookshelves reached up to a vaulted ceiling. The silence here had weight, pressing down on his eardrums so heavily that not even the sound of a floating dust mote could be heard.

The brass plaque at the entrance read:

[Find the book that does not belong here.]

Jack leaned against a bookshelf, gasping for breath. The blood loss made him dizzy. To find a book that "does not belong here" among these tens of thousands of volumes? It was like finding a needle in a haystack.

He remembered the lesson he had just paid for with his blood: rules were meant to be broken and reverse-engineered. He dragged his exhausted body between the shelves. He picked up a copy of The Theory of Relativity and opened it. It was filled with blank pages. He picked up Hamlet; blank pages again.

He pulled out a dozen books in a row and found that they all had covers but no content. This was a library of empty shells.

So, what would a book "that does not belong here" look like? A book with content?

Just as he was about to give up, he saw a "person."

At the very top of a high bookshelf, an old man in a librarian's uniform was holding a book, silently polishing its cover with a velvet cloth. His movements were meticulous, as if he were handling a priceless treasure.

Jack's heart skipped a beat. Rule 4: They are merely background elements.

Another "staff member." Last time, he had nearly died for being "discourteous." What should he do this time?

This "librarian" made no sound and hadn't glanced at him. He didn't seem aggressive like the monster in the previous room.

Jack's gaze fell on the book in the librarian's hands. Its cover was deep red, with a title in gold foil that shimmered even in the dim light. The book "that does not belong here"... could it be the one in his hands?

A bold idea formed in Jack's mind. He decided that this time, he would initiate "contact" with this so-called "background element." He walked to the foot of the tall bookshelf and, using only one hand, began the difficult climb up the ladder.

Finally, he reached the same height as the old librarian. The old man was still polishing the book, seemingly oblivious to his presence.

Jack remembered Rule 1, "maintain courtesy." He panted, his voice as gentle and respectful as he could manage. "Good day, sir. I am terribly sorry to bother you."

The old man's polishing motion paused for a hundredth of a second, then continued.

It's working! Jack pressed on. "I am looking for a book, a... very special book. I have a feeling it might be the one you are holding. May I please see it?"

This time, the old man stopped completely. He slowly, very slowly, raised his head. Jack's heart was in his throat.

The old man had no eyes. In their place were two smooth, ceramic-like planes.

But Jack did not flinch. He suppressed his terror and remained calm. He knew that to retreat, to show fear, was to lose.

The old man "looked" at him for a moment, and then, he offered him the book.

With a trembling right hand, Jack took it. The book's cover was warm to the touch. In an ancient script, the title read—The Forbidden Rules.

Jack's heart hammered against his chest. He opened the book.

On the first page, written in ink the color of blood, was a single sentence:

[When you begin to read us, we are no longer rules.]

He flipped through the pages. The book chronicled the stories of other participants—how they entered the trial, how they struggled in each room, and the manner of their deaths. He saw someone who died in the Crying Corridor, cause of death: "made eye contact with a staff member." He saw someone who died in the Clock Hall, cause of death: "fully obeyed the literal prompts on the control console."

This book was a record of every failure. It was, in itself, a detailed strategy guide written with human lives. These were the true "Forbidden Rules"! What was forbidden was letting the participants know the truth!

The "book that does not belong here" was this book that revealed all the secrets. It did not belong in this "official" library of lies and traps.

As Jack closed the book, the eyeless librarian, along with the bookshelf behind him, began to dissipate like smoke. The entire library was disintegrating, revealing the pure white walls behind it.

[...You. You found it.] For the first time, the Guide's voice carried a complex emotion, something close to "disappointment." It was like an intrigued chess master discovering his opponent had seen through to the endgame long before he expected. [You have gone further than any participant we have ever anticipated.]

A black door, exuding a cold metallic sheen, slowly rose before Jack. It was the end.