There is One New Rule Every Month Globally

"Ding, congratulations to player Chen Yi for successfully establishing the 18th squad in the world, named 'Rabbits Do Not Kill!'"

"..."

"Ding, Chen Yi invites you to join the squad 'Rabbits Do Not Kill!'. Do you accept?"

Tuberculosis Rabbit looked expressionlessly at the system prompt in front of him and remained silent for a long time without speaking.

After a long, long while, he spoke softly.

"Yi, I can understand that you think the name I chose is too tacky, and that's completely understandable."

"But, Yi, do you really think the name you picked for the squad sounds good?"

"When we appear on the global squad rankings in the future, this name will definitely be embarrassing."

"Embarrassing?"

Chen Yi shook his head seriously: "You lack a bit of aesthetic sense; this squad name might seem a bit nonsensical at first glance, but if you read it carefully twice, you will appreciate its unique charm."

"Alright, enough talk, let's see what this squad is good for."

He then carefully looked over his squad panel.

'Squad Name': Rabbits Do Not Kill.
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'Squad Level': lv.1

'Current Features': Squad chat channel, real-time status check of squad members.

'Promotion Requirements': All squad members must collectively possess 3 C-Rank props, 10 D-Rank props, 3 C-Rank skills, any one prop with +12 enhancement or above, and clear 1 Squad-Exclusive D-Rank Map.

Currently, the squad only had these two features. The first feature was straightforward, while the second feature was mostly useless in most cases; it just let you see the green and red dots on the right upper corner of squad members, so you clearly know if your teammates are alive or dead.

As for more detailed status.

For example, whether your squad members are injured or how serious their injuries are, this was completely undetectable.

Only the status of life and death was discernible.

It was like the life tokens in xianxia novels.

As for the promotion conditions, they sounded somewhat complex, but they had already met most of these requirements and even exceeded them significantly.

The requirement for C-Rank props and C-Rank skills were all met; the only condition not yet fulfilled was clearing a Squad-Exclusive D-Rank Map once.

This promotion criteria was a collective total of all the members' props and skills.

For a typical squad, theoretically, the more members there were, the easier it should be to fulfill the promotion conditions.

The 'Global Squad Ranking' was still empty at the moment, not a single squad had been listed, as they were all in the initial state. Presumably, only when a squad advanced first would it be able to claim the top spot on the global squad ranking.

As for the 'Global Guild Ranking', not a single guild existed either. Unlike 'Squad Creation Order' which could be directly purchased in the Points store, 'Guild Creation Order' had no direct sales channel.

But the existence of a Guild Creation Order inevitably meant that some forces with weak cohesion before would organize more clearly and have stronger cohesion and team execution.

Chen Yi squinted his eyes as he looked at the squad map in front of him, deep in thought and remaining silent.

Unlike normal maps requiring a pass or walking to the map entrance to enter, squad maps appeared one by one in the squad map panel based on map difficulty from lowest to highest.

In front of him, the squad map panel displayed a dense array of map previews, but almost all of them were greyed out and not viewable, except for three E-Rank maps.

'Map Name': Tetris.

'Map Synopsis': Don't ever think this is a map for playing a single-player video game.

...

'Map Name': Human Centipede Version of Snake Game.

'Map Synopsis': We are willing to give some rewards to players with big hearts.

...

'Map Name': Night Widow Village.

'Map Synopsis': Try your luck. As you carry a lantern towards a dim village, guess whether the door will be opened for you by a full-figured widow or a ghost draped in human skin.

...

For now, he could only view these 3 maps, all E-Rank. Each map had just a cover, a name, and a map synopsis that didn't reveal much information.

According to the prompt,

you only needed to complete one E-Rank map to unlock D-Rank maps.

Clearing any D-Rank map would allow his squad to level up successfully and gain more squad features.

There was also a separate squad leaderboard behind each map, ranking all squads based on their best performance in that map.

After pondering for a moment, Chen Yi selected the third map as the first E-Rank map they would venture into.

"Let's go, Tuberculosis Rabbit, let's take a look in the squad map."

"Alright."

Tuberculosis Rabbit sighed helplessly: "Although I still find it hard to accept this squad name, who am I to argue when you're the boss? But it's just the two of us in our squad right now, right?"

"Isn't two enough?"

"Well, it's enough."

"Ding, the leader of the squad 'Rabbits Do Not Kill,' Chen Yi, has chosen to enter the E-Rank map 'Night Widow Village.' Each player in the squad must submit 2000 Points as a deposit."

"Successful clearance will result in the deposit being returned; failure to leave will result in the forfeiture of the deposit."

"Please prepare, the teleportation will begin after 1 minute."

"Eh?"

The Tuberculosis Rabbit spoke with a hint of surprise, "This squad map is quite interesting. If you fail to clear it, it only deducts 2000 Points instead of wiping you out or something. It sounds like the risk would be much lower."

"With such low cost, it should attract quite a number of squads to try."

Not long after these words fell,

a flash of white light signalled their teleportation.

Yancheng had carefully considered the choice of this map.

The first one, the Tetris E-rank map, sounded like a map with an uncertain purpose, one from which you couldn't infer any information about its content.

The second map, the Human Centipede Version of Snake Game, by its name and the brief introduction, you could easily guess that it wasn't a map a normal person would choose, so it was immediately passed over.

As for the third map, it sounded somewhat supernaturally thrilling, but for him and the Tuberculosis Rabbit, one fearless and the other with nerves of steel, the scariest parts of this thriller map were not an issue, which meant the difficulty plummeted for them.

Under these circumstances, the third map was naturally the best choice.

...

July 1st, around 00:30 A.M.

It had been about 30 minutes since the rules of July came into effect. Everyone had read through all the regulations for July and had started to revel.

Screams sounded with reckless abandon in the skies above Yancheng!

Many players hid in their rooms, enjoying the freedom of their own minds!

Some rushed into the bathroom, stared at their own reflections in the mirror, and roared viciously, shouting Ghost, Ghost, Ghost, I'm the ghost, come and kill me if you dare, I just love ghosts!

Others turned on the TV in the living room, watching horror movies with excited laughs, challenging, if you have the guts, come out and finish me!

Some stuck their heads under their beds, looking at the empty space and swearing angrily, Come on out, come out, you know how I've lived through these months, why don't you come out now? Face me directly!

And then there were those who found ways to dress up as ghosts and ran amok in the streets at midnight, shouting with glee, clearly in the mood for an early Halloween celebration.

These past few months, all the players had suffered. They had to keep tense, not daring to relax for a moment, not allowing themselves to think about ghosts or any specific rules regarding them.

Now, they were finally free.

Everyone was indulging in the freedom of thought, like those watching horror movies, who actually had no interest in that genre at all; it was purely vengeful watching.

It was just like a vengeful obsession with ghosts after being banned for two months.

It wasn't that people wanted to see ghosts.

They just wanted to release all the pressure from the past two months and let their brains construct images of ghosts in their minds without any restraints.

Soon enough, a number of players discovered that even though they could try to recklessly conjure images of ghosts in their minds now, they suddenly realized they seemed to lack the ability to do so.

Completely incapable of constructing any image...

And not too long after Yancheng and his people entered the map, an angry roar suddenly erupted inside the house, "Tuberculosis Rabbit, are you freaking insane?!"

...

Sword Without End, just returned from hell and relieved to find himself still in Yancheng's room, breathed a sigh of relief, which meant his body was still intact and undamaged.

But right after, he sensed something wrong.

Why was his point of view standing up? He should be lying in a cryo-coffin, shouldn't he? His first sight upon opening his eyes should have been the ceiling or a closed coffin lid. Why was it the room?

The next second—

he understood his situation.

Both his hands and feet were shackled, and the chains were nailed to the wall. His body was posed in the manner of the Thinker statue by Rodin, affixed to the wall.

He was firmly fixed on the wall.

Sword Without End struggled to twist his head around and survey his surroundings, noticing a circle of mahogany frame that enclosed him.

In the bottom right corner, there was a small wooden plaque.

A few lines were written clearly on it.

"Artwork: The Slumbering Sword Without End."

"Art Anchor Point: Art needs to be appreciated with sensibility. When your thoughts begin to wander, that's when you can clearly experience the charisma emanating from the artwork.

When a corpse lies here and might resurrect at any moment, it exists in a superposition of life and death. None of us can predict which state will collapse first. While both states coexist, we can comprehend the fragility of life's end and the wonder of its inception through the appreciation of this artwork."

"Artist: Mr. Tuberculosis Rabbit."

This allowed him to thoroughly understand his situation; his corpse was actually turned into an art piece by Tuberculosis Rabbit and hung on the wall, even framed with a mahogany border.

Below was a wooden plaque introducing the artwork and its maker!

He had never imagined that a trip down to hell would lead to his return as an art piece!

Thankfully, he came back early. He had no doubt that if he had returned even later, he might have ended up on display in some art exhibition for the public to view.

Now, fully aware of his predicament, Sword Without End couldn't help but burst into laughter at the absurdity of Tuberculosis Rabbit's actions.

What kind of brain circuitry does this brother have, like an earthworm?

This shit's pure insanity, isn't it?! Ah?!

I asked you to take care of my body, not to frame it and hang it on the wall!

Hanging a corpse on the wall, aren't you creeped out by that when you sleep?