[Rule 9: If you encounter a little girl in a red dress in the hotel, never give her candy.]
This was the red-dressed girl mentioned in the rules—except back then, Chi Mu's system had already flagged this particular rule as false.
The little girl lifted her head and looked at Chi Mu, flashing a sweet, innocent smile."Big brother, are you going to the ninth floor too?"
Chi Mu nodded. Since the girl counted as "her," he could only respond if she spoke first.
At the same time, Chi Mu was quietly analyzing her true identity.
Because she appeared in the rules, she had to be a key figure in this scenario.
When the elevator reached the ninth floor, Chi Mu stepped out alongside the little girl.
"Big brother, my name is Ah Jiu. Have you seen my mommy?"She hugged her porcelain doll close, staring up at Chi Mu with wide eyes.
"What's wrong, Ah Jiu? Did you lose her?"
"Mommy's been missing for a few days now. Ah Jiu's been looking everywhere… If you see her, can you tell her to come find me in the ninth floor storage room? That's where I live now…"
Chi Mu's expression froze for a moment.
The storage room?
Why would a little girl like her be living there? And if her mother had been gone for days, why didn't she ask the hotel staff for help?
Just as Chi Mu was trying to piece the clues together, Ah Jiu suddenly looked up and asked,"Big brother, do you have any candy? Ah Jiu wants something sweet."
Chi Mu nodded and pulled a piece of candy from his pocket, handing it to her.
The moment he did, the Dragon Nation's think tank and the livestream audience exploded into chaos.
—"What is Chi Mu doing?! Rule 9 clearly says not to give candy to the red-dressed girl! Did he forget?!"
—"Calm down! It's Chi Mu we're talking about. He's done tons of unexpected things already. Clearly, he's figured out the rule was a fake!"
—"Seriously? Don't be a fangirl right now. Chi Mu had zero reason to assume Rule 9 was false. You're just blindly defending him!"
Inside the war room, cold sweat beaded on Elder Qin Jianghe's forehead.
The think tank's data team had just finished running a probability analysis on that rule—90% certainty it was true. They hadn't even had time to report their findings before Chi Mu had already handed Ah Jiu the candy.
Everyone braced for disaster.But the girl didn't change—not even a flicker of abnormality. She simply peeled off the wrapper with delight, popped the candy into her mouth, and smiled.
"Thank you, big brother! Here—this doll is for you!"
She handed him her porcelain doll, then cheerfully skipped away down the hall.
Chi Mu looked at the doll in his hands. After inspecting it carefully, he slowly unzipped it—and found a folded slip of paper inside.
[Sequence Three Rules]1. Although Ah Jiu has been corrupted, she remains kind-hearted.2. The shadow on the wall—Ah Jiu knows who it is.3. The murderer is hiding within the hotel. Be warned: once he starts suspecting you, he will silence you.4. Do not enter the storage room.5. The storage room on the ninth floor is where cleaning supplies are kept. There are two cleaners assigned to this floor. One fell ill with a fever last week and hasn't returned. Only one cleaner is still working.6. The remaining cleaner is a woman.7. A hotel guest vanished one week ago. The missing person was a famous corporate tycoon.
As Chi Mu finished reading the new rules, the system's mechanical voice rang out in his mind.
Ding! New rules acquired.System function activated. Marking one rule as false...
Instantly, Rule 4 lit up in red.
"Do not enter the storage room" was false.
Which meant… he could enter the storage room.
Chi Mu folded the paper and looked in the direction Ah Jiu had gone. That way likely led to the storage room she mentioned.
He slipped the paper away and returned to his room with the porcelain doll still in hand.
—"Told you! Chi Mu knew that rule was fake! Not only did he avoid the trap—he unlocked the next sequence!"
—"Damn! Bow down to the prophecy king upstairs!"
Not just the audience—even Elder Qin Jianghe and his entire think tank were stunned.
Their algorithm had given a 90% certainty that Sequence Two's Rule 9 was accurate. So how had Chi Mu managed to see through it?
Qin Jianghe didn't have time to dwell on it. He immediately ordered his researchers to begin analyzing the new rules in Sequence Three.
Back in his room, Chi Mu sat down to rethink the situation.
So far, he had unlocked three sequences of rules. Based on what he now knew, a rough timeline of events within this hotel was beginning to take shape.
The previous SS-rank clearance conditions had been:
Find the source of corruption and destroy it, uncover the truth behind a wrongful death, and escape the hotel.
Now, with the addition of Sequence Three's rules, one thing was clear: someone had been falsely accused—or murdered—and the truth was still buried.
But the most chilling part?
The killer was still inside the hotel.
"Ah Jiu, the missing tycoon, the cleaner, the shadow on the wall…"
Chi Mu murmured to himself, trying to connect the dots.
From what he could deduce: Ah Jiu's mother had been missing for days. The corporate tycoon had also vanished—both incidents happened a week ago.
It was very likely one of them was dead.
To dig deeper, Chi Mu would need to locate the mysterious wall shadow, and bring Ah Jiu along—Sequence Three's Rule 2 said she recognized him.
And Rule 1 said she was kind-hearted, even if corrupted. That meant it was safe to approach her and ask for help.
Having reached a conclusion, Chi Mu began his preparations.
He pulled out his phone and placed an order through a delivery app—balloons and a large bouquet of roses.
After all, he had promised Yang Qu a surprise by the time she got back.
Once that was done, Chi Mu stayed in his room, waiting for the delivery. After decorating the place, he would go in search of the shadow.
An hour later, the hotel room's landline suddenly rang.
Chi Mu instinctively moved to ask who it was—but the words stopped at his lips.He silently counted to three in his head…Then hung up without saying a word.
Not even five seconds passed before the phone rang again—shrilly, unnaturally.
The call… had come back.