There is One New Rule Every Month Globally

"So cooperative?"

Tuberculosis Rabbit looked at the woman who was already leading the way ahead, sizing up Yi and his companion with a strange scrutiny. The reason he let this woman pay was that they literally had no money in their pockets.

So far, they had no idea what the circulating currency in this map was.

They couldn't pay at all.

He had planned to use some excuse, like promising big future benefits or other such enticements, to trick this woman into paying for them. Unexpectedly, before he could articulate his plan, the woman took over all the talking.

It seemed that people like them, without mechanical organs on their bodies, really did have high status?

"Isn't this a bit too exaggerated? Even driving a multimillion-dollar luxury car on Blue Star wouldn't get you this kind of treatment, right?"

"...It's not necessarily so."

Sword Without End said quietly from the side.

"Keep up."

Chen Yi didn't say much, but, leaning on his cane, he looked ahead at the back of the woman, through whose clothes he could vaguely see a lot of things.

Underwear, panties, smooth skin.

No strange tails or tentacles or the like.

At least it showed she was a normal person, not some kind of alien.

He vaguely remembered seeing an advertisement on Blue Star.

A man was sneaking a bite of a Snickers bar when his girlfriend suddenly burst in. In a panic, he placed the Snickers bar behind his neck and embraced his beloved girlfriend.

Then a mouth suddenly appeared on his neck and slowly swallowed the Snickers bar.

The ad ended with a line—

Tasty snacks, not even to be shared with your lover.

Well, he had never seen such a stupid ad before, and it had given him a psychological shadow about these aliens. Before that, he had never thought a commercial could leave such a big scar on him.

The woman quickly led them into a skyscraper with several hundred floors. At the elevator, she dutifully blocked the door, bowing and scraping towards Chen Yi and the others at the entrance, with a flattering smile.

The scene was quite ridiculous.

There was a strong sense of dissonance.

In ordinary eyes, women with tall figures, pretty faces, and outfits consisting of black stockings and short skirts shouldn't be so obsequious, but should have a sense of pride of their own. This level of obsequiousness was indeed strange.

But the gazes of the people around them didn't contain a hint of disdain for her, only envy—envy so intense it had turned into jealousy, almost as if they wished they could immediately take her place.

Soon, the elevator stopped at the 44th floor.

Standing at the front desk on the 44th floor, Chen Yi saw the woman interacting with the staff behind the counter using her wristwatch. He didn't hear the exact content, but he roughly understood the payment method of this map.

Payment was through the wristwatch, somewhat similar to the QR code payments on Blue Star.

...

"Miss."

A woman in uniform behind the counter, with a professional smile on her face, looked at her: "Unfortunately, the balance of your account does not allow you to book an exquisite luxury suite. You can opt for a more economical king-size room."

The woman in black stockings appeared slightly anxious as she lowered her voice, "I've already applied for an overnight loan. Please, pay attention and quickly approve my application."

"You should also see the status of the people behind me, right?"

"Don't just make it difficult for me. If you really affect their mood, do you think you can please them?"

"..."

Jealousy flickered in the eyes of the woman at the counter, who intentionally dragged her feet before finally saying, "The room has been prepared. It's room 4418. A member of staff will guide you to your room."

"Good luck."

An overnight loan is a unique form of loan in City 13.

When Upper City People come to the Lower City looking for fun and choose a Lower City Person to take to a hotel room but lack the funds, they can apply for this loan.

Instant approval.

This loan is a collaboration between banks and hotels.

No background checks were needed; if the borrower accompanied an Upper City Person, approval was granted.

The banks also believed that a Lower City Person who had spent a night with an Upper City Person, even if they were previously jobless vagrants, could soon repay the money. After all, the little that trickled through the fingers of the Upper City People was more than enough for these individuals to live lavishly.

...

"Gentlemen, I've got the room ready."

The woman spoke with a coy tucking of hair behind her ear, standing in front of Chen Yi and the others, "Let me lead the way, please follow me."

"I don't know why."

As Sword Without End watched the woman leading them down the hall with a swinging gait, he murmured with a touch of emotion, "For a moment just now, I thought about persuading her to take the right path and not to keep heading down the wrong one."

Tuberculosis Rabbit patted Sword Without End's shoulder, speaking in a resigned low voice.

"Those are words for after the fact, you've got the process wrong."

"Let's follow her first."

As soon as they entered the room.

Before Chen Yi and the others had a chance to take in the decor, they saw the woman had already shut the door and knelt down with knees together, in a posture that suggested she was at their disposal.

"Can you get online? It's something like the internet or another name that might be used, where people can exchange information in a kind of virtual space."

Chen Yi pulled out a chair from within the room, sat in front of the woman, and lifted her chin with his cane, staring into her eyes as he spoke slowly and clearly.

The woman's self-perceived sexy attire didn't interest him in the slightest.

He was more concerned about whether the woman's next words would contain any lies.

According to psychology, if you keep staring into someone's eyes while speaking and pretend that you can discern the truth from their eyes, the other person will subconsciously reduce the frequency of lying. Moreover, they'd also have subconscious little movements like eye dodging while speaking, which could indeed help in discerning the truth from their eyes.

"Are you talking about... the Spirit Web?"

A flash of panic crossed the woman's eyes. Feeling the cold cane against her skin and facing the man with an expressionless face sitting before her, she couldn't help but press her legs together a bit more tightly.

The pressure from the Upper City people was so overwhelming.

Just humiliate her like this, wantonly destroy her dignity.

Yes, that's right.

Treat her like a lowly Lower City person, and vent your frustrations on her!

"I can... everybody can, don't the Upper City people use this?"

"I ask, you answer, no backtalk."

Chen Yi, staring emotionlessly into the woman's eyes, calmly said, "Search for the Snow Sea Project Team and tell me the information related to it."

"Oh."

Although the woman was somewhat unclear about the situation, she obediently did as she was told, projecting the searched information into the air.

"Wow."

Tuberculosis Rabbit touched his nose, looked at the information panel floating in the air, and couldn't help but mutter, "This is really high-end."

He had only seen such scenes in science fiction movies.

Although Blue Star also had this function after global gamification, Blue Star's technology hadn't developed to this extent before the advent of the future world.

However, the information searched was somewhat different from what they had expected.

To be precise, it was different from what Sword Without End had expected.

The term Snow Sea Project Team, as it appeared, wasn't even a valid index; the search results were about a few companies having a project group called the Snow Sea Project Team, but it was completely different from the Snow Sea Project Team they knew of.

After carefully perusing the information for a while, Chen Yi spoke again.

"Search for Blue Star."

"Okay."

"Search for global gamification."

"Search for the Snow Sea Project Team and global gamification."

"Search for the Snow Sea Project Team and players."

"Search for players."

After a while. Continue your journey with empire

Chen Yi and his companions gathered by the window, each frowning and lighting a cigarette to their mouths, silently contemplating without speaking.

After a lengthy pause, Sword Without End hesitantly spoke up, "Could I have guessed wrong?"

Without finding any news about the Snow Sea Project Team and Blue Star, according to Sword Without End's speculation, the purpose of the global gamification by the Snow Sea Project Team might have been to train warriors to invade other worlds—players, that is.

But now it seemed that this possibility had greatly diminished.

"Not entirely wrong."

Tuberculosis Rabbit shook his head, frowning as he looked out the window at the busy traffic and said, "The first time you left this map, the law enforcement that was chasing you said something about you damn parasitic players."

"This at least shows that these people are aware of the existence of us players."

"Even if the major direction was off, some minor directions of speculation could still be correct."

Chen Yi didn't speak but pondered for a moment before returning to the woman, "How big is your world?"

"The world?"

The woman looked up at Chen Yi, bewildered, not searching immediately this time but hesitating for a while before speaking, "Our world used to be very large, but a long time ago, it faced a crisis."

"Until now, only 13 cities have carried on the inheritance. Apart from the 13 cities, all other places have been destroyed."

"It's not very clear how big the 13 cities are specifically, maybe a few tens of millions of people. There's no detailed information online; I've only known to live in this city since I was born."

"Bullshit."

Tuberculosis Rabbit couldn't help but laugh in exasperation, "Do you realize that such a large city relying mostly on self-sufficiency would lead to starvation for most of its population? Not to mention, where would the food come from?"

"Where would those coffee shops get their coffee beans from?"

"Moreover..."

The voice suddenly stopped.

Tuberculosis Rabbit suddenly realized something, his eyes flashing with shock as he looked sideways at Chen Yi.

Chen Yi had also come to an equally startling conclusion at that moment, without any hesitation he made his way outside the building and left a message for the kneeling woman.

"Wait here for me."

"Don't go anywhere until I return."

Then he quickly left the hotel with Tuberculosis Rabbit and the others, heading towards the building's exit.

After going downstairs.

With a unified purpose, they moved silently, striding toward the coffee shop where they had arrived.

Just then, a nearly unanimous yet somewhat improbable answer had suddenly appeared in their minds.

Before long.

They returned to the very coffee shop where they had arrived, and without any hesitation, they pushed open the door and entered.