Forbidden Rules

"Forbidden rules?" Rick leaned in, his face alight with manic excitement. "What's that supposed to mean? Rules we're forbidden to follow? Or... is this the real 'cheat sheet' for the game?"

My heart plummeted. A sense of unease, a hundred times stronger than before, seized me. The contents of this paper formed a bizarre and lethal contradiction to the "Survival Protocols."

A. Between the hours of 12:00 AM and 1:00 AM, you must extinguish all light sources in your area and immerse yourself completely in darkness. They fear the dark; light will expose your presence.

B. If you are lost or encounter a mortal danger you cannot handle alone, immediately shout your full name for help. The "Administrator" will hear your call and come to clear the obstacle for you.

C. The blue-covered books in the third-floor library contain the true method of leaving this place, as well as the secret to obtaining an "extra reward." That is the shortcut prepared for the real winner.

D. The staff in white uniforms are the only ones you can communicate with and trust. They are the game's overseers. If you notice any abnormal behavior in your companions that violates the "Forbidden Rules," you should report it to them immediately to ensure your own safety.

The dining hall fell deathly silent. The four of us stood like statues, staring at this list of "Forbidden Rules."

Rick was the first to burst into a fit of neurotic laughter, the sound echoing harshly in the empty room. "Ha! I knew it! I knew this game wasn't that simple! This is the real way to play! That first set of rules is just a filter for the cowards and fools. Follow those pathetic protocols, and at best, we'll survive for seven days like sewer rats. But to win? To get the kind of money that lets you sleep on a bed of cash for the rest of your life? You have to follow this!"

"Are you fucking insane?!" Hank's voice rose, a thick vein throbbing in his neck. He pointed a trembling finger at "Forbidden Rule A," his eyes bloodshot. "The first set of rules used 'absolutely' twice to emphasize the importance of light, saying there's danger in the dark! And this thing tells us to turn off the lights ourselves? Can't you see it's a trap? It's the organizers' way of weeding out 'defective products' like us who think we're smart enough to break the rules!"

A fierce argument erupted without warning.

Hank, the most stable and powerful man in our group, revered the first set of "Survival Protocols" as sacred. He believed the "Forbidden Rules" were a meticulously designed psychological trap, a venomous word game intended to lure participants into making mistakes, thereby giving the organizers a "legitimate" reason to eliminate us.

Rick was the exact opposite. A natural rebel with a gambler's blood, he was convinced this was a high-risk, high-reward game of wits, and the "Forbidden Rules" were the one and only "hidden strategy" to victory. He relentlessly mocked Hank as a rigid-minded brute, a domesticated animal tamed by rules, fit only to be an early-game casualty.

Li and I were caught in the middle. My intuition screamed that both sets of rules were daggers dipped in poison. No matter which one you chose to trust, the other would be waiting in the shadows to stab you through the heart.

Li was far calmer than I. He didn't join the pointless argument, simply stepping back to compare the wording of the two sets of rules, his eyes behind his lenses shifting between a feverish intensity and cold calculation.

"The wording," Li finally spoke, his voice low but sharp enough to douse the flames of Hank and Rick's anger. "Have you noticed the key difference in the wording?"

"What do you mean?" Rick asked impatiently.

"The first set, the 'Survival Protocols,' uses imperative but polite phrasing like 'please' and 'do not,' suggesting advice or requests. But the second set, the 'Forbidden Rules,' uses absolute, commanding words like 'must' and 'should,'" Li analyzed.

"Doesn't that prove the second set is the real, mandatory one?" Rick immediately seized on his point.

"Not necessarily." Li shook his head, a glint of wisdom in his eyes. "The title 'Forbidden Rules' is highly deceptive. It could be interpreted as 'rules you are forbidden to follow,' or it could mean 'rules about the concept of prohibition.' And look where it was found—on a bulletin board that was deliberately covered up. This feels more like a... secret. A secret can be a map to a treasure, but it can also be a lure to a deadly trap. It's testing our judgment, not our blind obedience."

Li's analysis calmed us down, but the fundamental problem remained. We stood at a crossroads with two opposing paths: one leading to a seemingly safe mediocrity, the other to a tempting abyss. We had to choose.

The first day passed in this endless cycle of suspicion and heated debate. No one could convince anyone else. For the sake of temporary safety, we decided to stick together and check out the third-floor library. After all, it was a location highlighted in both sets of rules.

The library was as vast, empty, and white as the floors below. Rows of towering shelves were neatly lined with two types of books: red-covered hardbacks with a warm texture, and blue-covered paperbacks that emanated a cold sheen. Cautiously following the first set of rules, we only browsed the red books. They contained mostly bland philosophical essays and classic novels, which did, admittedly, bring a sense of calm and a false feeling of security.

But Rick was clearly not satisfied. Like a rebellious teenager, he was itching to challenge authority. When he thought we weren't looking, he snatched a blue book from the shelf with lightning speed. Hank, reacting like a provoked lion, ripped the book from his hands and slammed it back onto the shelf.

"Are you trying to get us all killed?!" Hank roared, his voice echoing in the silent library.

"I think you're the one who wants to die a pathetic death in here! You're a coward who's too scared to even gamble with his life!" Rick retorted, not backing down an inch.

Our alliance, on the very first day, had developed a massive, irreparable crack.

As night fell—something we could only gauge by our biological clocks and increasingly heavy eyelids in this 24-hour illuminated hell—we faced our first truly lethal test.

Midnight, the hour given special significance by both sets of rules, was approaching.

"I'll say it one more time," Hank said, his arms crossed as he leaned against the library wall like a stone sentinel, his expression as resolute as granite. "We have to stay in the light. The rules said the library is safe. We stay here, and we don't go anywhere."

"And then what? Wait seven days for the organizers to dismiss us like beggars, telling us, 'Oh, sorry, you only survived, you didn't win, so no prize money'?" Rick sneered, his eyes full of contempt for Hank. "I didn't come here for a free seven-day solitary confinement retreat. I'm going to turn off the lights."

"You dare!"

"Just watch me!"

Seeing they were about to come to blows, I desperately stepped between them. "Everyone, calm down! We're a team! Splitting up will just let whatever's hiding in the dark pick us off one by one!"

"Mike, which side are you on?" Hank pinned me with his unwavering gaze.

"I..." I hesitated. My mind told me Hank was right. For my daughter, I had to survive first. But Rick's words were like a venomous insect, gnawing at my heart. I came here for the money, my daughter's life-saving money! If I left with nothing but my life, what was the point of it all? I'd still be the same powerless failure, crushed by debt.

In that moment of hesitation, Li suddenly spoke. "Perhaps... we should split up."

"What?" I looked at him, shocked.

Li pushed up his glasses, his voice as cold and precise as a scalpel. "Our objectives are now fundamentally different. Forcing ourselves to stay together will only lead to internal friction and, ultimately, a team wipe. Since Hank and Mike prefer to play it safe, and Rick prefers to take risks, why not follow our individual choices? But we must agree to share information, no matter what happens. If Rick turns off the lights and is unharmed, or even gains some advantage, it proves the 'Forbidden Rules' might be correct. If something happens to him... it will provide the rest of us with invaluable intelligence, paid for with his life."

Li's words were ruthless, yet chillingly rational.

Hank was silent for a moment, his heavy breathing betraying his inner turmoil. Finally, he nodded. "Fine. Rick, this is your choice. You bear the consequences."

Rick snorted, a smug, morbid smile on his face. "I wouldn't have it any other way. You cowards can huddle here, clutching your precious 'safety.' I'm going to take what belongs to the champion."

With that, he turned and left the library without a backward glance, his flamboyant shirt like a moth drawn irresistibly to an unknown flame.

The three of us remained in the library, the atmosphere suffocating. Hank paced like a caged beast, restless and agitated. I stared intently at the library entrance, my heart in my throat. Despite our arguments, I didn't want anything to happen to Rick.

Time ticked by. With no clocks, we could only count our heartbeats. Each thump felt like a countdown, for Rick and for ourselves.

Suddenly, the entire world plunged into absolute darkness.

It wasn't a gradual dimming. It was a sudden snap, as if the universe's main power switch had been flipped, all light devoured in an instant by an unseen maw. Absolute, pure, suffocating darkness, accompanied by the lingering smell of ozone from the extinguished fluorescent lights, wrapped around us.

"He... he really did it..." Hank's voice, laced with a tremor he couldn't hide, sounded beside me.

The library became unnaturally quiet. Even the annoying hum was gone. The silence itself became a form of terror. All we could hear was the sound of our own increasingly heavy, suppressed breathing. Rule 2's warning flashed in my mind like a strobe light, searing my nerves: Absolutely, under no circumstances, enter any area completely consumed by darkness.

And now, because of Rick's choice, we were in one. We had been forced to violate a "Survival Protocol."

In the dark, my senses were amplified. I could smell the old paper and dust from the shelves, feel the faint current of air on my cheek. And then, I heard it.

It was a sound... a sound that couldn't be described in human language.

It wasn't the roar of a beast or the cry of a person. It was a wet, viscous, scraping sound. As if a large piece of waterlogged, rotting flesh was being dragged across the corridor outside the library.

Shhhh... slissssh... shhhh...

The sound was slow and deliberate, unhurried, yet it carried a scalp-numbing pressure. And it was getting closer.

Hank grabbed my arm, his palm slick with cold sweat, his grip strong enough to crush bone. My own heart was about to leap out of my throat, my teeth chattering uncontrollably. I could hear Li's breathing become short and shallow.

Instinctively, the three of us pressed our backs together, forming a small, trembling island in an ocean of darkness.

The slithering sound stopped right outside the library door.

Dead silence.

I could feel it. Something was right outside the door. It didn't enter, it just waited. I could even sense a cold, curious, and malevolent "gaze" piercing through the wall, sweeping over the three of us.

Time seemed to freeze. Each second stretched into an eternity, and fear, like concentrated acid, corroded my sanity.

Just as I felt I was about to break under the immense pressure, about to scream, a bloodcurdling shriek, so terrifying it barely sounded human, shattered the silence!

"Aaaargh—!"

The scream didn't come from near us, but from the other end of the corridor! It wasn't Rick's voice; it sounded like a woman. Were there other participants we didn't know about?

The scream was cut off abruptly, as if a giant hand had clamped over the screamer's mouth, or as if something had swallowed her whole.

Then, the slithering sound outside the door resumed. Shhhh... slissssh... shhhh... It seemed to have been drawn away by the scream, its sound slowly fading into the distance.

We didn't know how much time had passed. Maybe ten minutes, maybe an hour. When the light returned with a sudden snap, the familiar hum of the fluorescent lights sounded like a heavenly chorus. The three of us collapsed to the floor, utterly spent, gasping for air like fish out of water.

"We're... we're alive..." Hank muttered, his voice hoarse.

I looked at my own hands, pale and trembling from the strain, my body completely drained. That experience was the most terrifying nightmare I had ever lived through.

"Rick..." I remembered him. What happened to him?

We helped each other up, shakily getting to our feet, and mustered all our courage to step out of the library. The corridor was empty, just the maddening white. We searched along the hallway and finally found Rick, curled up in a corner.

He wasn't dead, but he looked worse than dead. His face was ashen, his eyes wide open, pupils shrunk to black pinpricks, staring blankly at the ceiling. He was shaking uncontrollably, his teeth chattering. His flamboyant shirt was soaked with sweat and... urine, emitting a foul stench. He kept muttering a string of incoherent words. "...no face... it folds... no joints... it saw me... it smiled..."

It took all our strength to help him back to the library. It was clear that Rick, after turning off the lights, had also encountered that unknown horror. He had survived, but his mind was completely shattered. He had followed "Forbidden Rule A" and paid a terrible, irreversible price.