There is One New Rule Every Month Globally

"Yi, do we step on this colorful square?"

Tuberculosis Rabbit hesitated for a moment before speaking uncertainly, "I know the correct answer for that black square on the left, choose C, the calf."

"The longest muscle in the human body is in the calf. Although I don't know the specific scientific name of that muscle, I have stripped and compared all the muscles."

"There's also a widespread notion that the tongue is the longest muscle in the human body, but it actually isn't."

"As for that colorful square, I'm not sure what we'll encounter."

"..."

Sword Without End glances at Tuberculosis Rabbit with an odd look, not knowing why, he feels this person is a bit creepy. Which normal person would be so curious about human anatomy, even medical students aren't as passionate as Tuberculosis Rabbit.

Chen Yi looked up at the countdown, which had a little over 7 minutes left, and after a moment of silence, he decided to step on the colorful square.

The next second—

'Ding, player Chen Yi stepped on the colorful square, triggering a special event!'

'Random draw for a special event in progress...'

'All members of the team will be transported to the Lin Yin Artistic Foot Bath Shop for a mandatory one-hour massage!'

A prompt sounded in everyone's ears.

Before Chen Yi and the others could react, the scene before their eyes suddenly went dark. When they came to their senses again, they found that at some point, they had changed into loose bathrobes and were lying on three sofas in a private room.

Three long-legged girls holding small bags, dressed in short skirts, black stockings, and high heels, stood in front of them and bent over to greet them softly.

"Good evening, sir, masseuse number 117 at your service."

"Good evening, sir, masseuse number 520..."

As they bent over, the view was like branches and leaves in a spring courtyard, uncontrollably breaking over the wall and bursting forth.

Before they could even speak, the long-legged beauties began to squat down, placing everyone's feet into foot bath buckets.

"What the hell!!!"

Tuberculosis Rabbit was stunned for a moment, then raged, "Who the hell has time to get their feet washed here? Aren't we mapping? Forced foot bath for one hour?"

"By the time we get out, the House of God's countdown will have already ended!"

"What kind of crappy random event is this?!"

He did like foot baths, and he liked these beauties, he liked Silver Party even more. He was no Liuxia Hui, the man known for his resistance to temptation, but it still depended on the situation, dammit!

Everyone was busy mapping, who was in the mood to care about this?!

Chen Yi got up with an unpleasant expression, put on his slippers, walked to the room's door in the private room, and tried to see if he could open the door to leave. But as soon as he was about to turn the doorknob.

Some lines of light text suddenly appeared on the wall.

'Please have players return to the sofa. Leaving the sofa for more than one minute or forcibly breaking out of the private room will result in a failure to clear the level and a permanent ban from entering the team's map as punishment.'

'During this hour, we hope that the players will earnestly enjoy this moment of respite amidst your busyness.'

There was also a countdown below.

'00:59:37'

"..."

After standing at the door in silence for a while, Chen Yi let go of the doorknob quietly, lay back on the sofa, rested his arms behind his head, closed his eyes, and spoke softly, "Go easy, I can't take too much pressure."

"Huh?"

Tuberculosis Rabbit turned to look at Chen Yi beside him, somewhat anxiously said, "Yi, you're just going to leave it at this? We're in the middle of a map, how can we get a high enough map score if we don't collect enough props before the House of God finishes?"

"Don't you care at all?"

"What use is worrying?"

"Um... seems like it's useless, but at least it would show our sincere attitude, right..."

"If it's useless, then just continue lying down. We'll see what happens when we get out."

Tuberculosis Rabbit also lapsed into silence. After a moment, he stripped off the upper part of his bathing suit, lay bare-chested on the sofa, and slowly closed his eyes, "Press harder, I can take it."

He felt that Yi made sense.

They couldn't leave anyway. What good would worrying do? Better to calm down and enjoy this so-called foot massage.

Sword Without End, lying on the far left, saw that Tuberculosis Rabbit and Chen Yi had both given up trying, and he too relaxed, imitating their positions by resting his arms under his head.

"Don't make it too strong or too weak, I like the pressure to be just right."

Half an hour later.

They were all feeling a bit drowsy by then. The private room was undoubtedly pleasant, with modern decor and cozy, intimate lighting.

In the dim light, the shadows seemed to dance endlessly.

Despite being an enclosed space, the air was exceptionally fresh. There were no ventilation fans to be seen; perhaps they were using some air purification method unknown to them.

And at that moment, they still had 30 minutes left before leaving this unusual event.

Out of boredom, Tuberculosis Rabbit casually took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and started puffing smoke carelessly as he spoke nonchalantly, "Hey, bro, there's something I've never understood."

"You always give me the impression that you're deeply devoted to your wife, but why did I see you at Silver Party on my first visit?"

"You were even hitting on a woman."

"Don't you know that makes me feel like your character is very inconsistent?"

"Can deep love and patronizing prostitutes coexist?"

"..."

Sword Without End turned his head and stared intently at the cigarette in Tuberculosis Rabbit's mouth, feeling a bit of an itch to smoke himself, and after a while, he finally spoke up, "Is it allowed to smoke in this room? Aren't there any July rules restricting it?"

"There are."

"Then why are you smoking?"

"Oh, isn't there a three-strike leniency? I have a habit of smoking while getting a foot massage, so I'll just use one of those chances."

"Can you stop smoking? It's making me crave a smoke."

"Can't do, but you can light one up too. Take your time and smoke in hell. My art gallery always has a space reserved for you, right in the center."

"I've even got a two-meter-high cross ready to go; once you die again, I'll nail your corpse to it."

"You haven't answered my question yet. If you love your wife so much, what were you doing at Silver Party? Is that a place for a Pure Love Warrior like you to be?"

After a long silence, Sword Without End finally spoke softly, "It's true that I love my wife, but I also have physical needs to fulfill. I know this might make me seem disgusting and scummy, but humans are inherently dual-sided and contradictory."

"I love only my wife and won't fall for another woman, so I won't remarry, nor will I find a new girlfriend."

"But... I also desire women."

"Often, I feel like a hypocritical Pure Love Warrior. I was in a lot of pain before because of various things—because I couldn't control myself from seeking women after my wife's death, because I didn't have the money to save her, because I felt worthless."

"But later, I came to terms with myself."

"I stopped overthinking it and just lived in a daze. Maybe only when facing the true moment of death will I wake up to the true meaning of my life."

"What about you, why did you go to Silver Party?"

"With your status and fame, you don't need to spend money on such places. Just a wave of your hand, and countless women would throw themselves at your feet for your protection."

He turned his head towards Tuberculosis Rabbit, but what he heard were fragmented, incoherent mumblings.

"Having a foot bath, with Yi and Sword Without End."

"It's that Sword Without End I made into an art piece. He suddenly came back to life and joined our team. We encountered a special event while exploring the map, and that's how things turned out."

"Yes, the kid's had it rough. We should really look out for him. If not for us, he wouldn't have such a lonely and doomed fate."

"Still, I feel like he's more suited to be an art piece mounted on a wall."

"Tuberculosis Rabbit?"

Sword Without End sat up, looking somewhat bewildered at Tuberculosis Rabbit, whose eyes were tightly shut and mouth moving without pause. He couldn't quite grasp the situation—what was Tuberculosis Rabbit saying?

Why couldn't he understand?

"He's talking in his sleep."

Chen Yi didn't open his eyes, speaking in a lazy tone, "Tuberculosis Rabbit has a habit of sleep talking. Just get used to it, no need to worry about it."

"He falls asleep quickly; just keep talking about your thing."

...

ps: There are two more chapters tonight that are being edited last minute; I'll post them right after I eat the cake my girlfriend bought.