Chapter 1 The Chosen One Enters the Museum

"The chosen one has entered the Museum of Curiosities, triggering a visitation quest. Please visit four exhibition areas, with a minimum of four exhibits in each area, and a minimum visitation time of thirty minutes per area. After visiting all four exhibition areas, exit the Museum of Curiosities to return to the real world."

Listening to the voice broadcast of the Rule Anomaly, Shen Wei rushed into the Museum of Curiosities. He didn't know if it was because he was rushing too fast, or if something tripped him, but he almost fell. Fortunately, he finally entered the Museum of Curiosities within the allotted time!

"Damn it, I think something tripped me just now!"

Shen Wei said with a puzzled expression.

"Laughable. I think you were just rushing too fast and almost fell. Look around, what could have tripped you?"

Shen Wei's strange right hand mocked him mercilessly.

"Strange..."

Shen Wei looked back with a puzzled expression. Through the blurry glass door, he felt someone staring at him intently from behind the door. Due to the lighting, he couldn't see the person's face clearly, but Shen Wei felt that the person looked somewhat like… himself!

"Is there another me outside the door? What kind of demon or monster is this? What are his intentions?"

Shen Wei pondered secretly, but with too little information, he couldn't analyze much that was useful.

Shen Wei held a black ticket. According to the rules, he had to visit the exhibition areas in the order on the ticket.

"First, the Non-Human (Modern) exhibition area, then the Non-Human (Ancient) exhibition area, the Inanimate Object (Modern) exhibition area, and the Inanimate Object (Ancient) exhibition area! Now I need to enter the exhibition hall from entrance A, and safely come out after visiting all four exhibition areas..."

Shen Wei opened the Museum of Curiosities visitor's manual and read it carefully.

"Ouch, why did you pinch me?"

Shen Wei glared at his sinister black hand.

"Kid, there seems to be someone ahead?"

The voice of Shen Wei's sinister hand echoed in his mind.

Shen Wei had been too engrossed in reading and hadn't noticed. Sure enough, a few people were walking towards entrances A and B in the corridor ahead.

Shen Wei closed the Museum of Curiosities visitor's manual and quickened his pace to follow behind them.

Because the lights in the corridor were too dim, Shen Wei couldn't see clearly until he got closer. There were two groups of people. One group consisted of three men and one woman, all holding black tickets and visitor's guides. The other group was a staff member wearing an ID badge and two young men holding red tickets and visitor's guides!

The two groups weren't too far apart, but they didn't talk to each other. The atmosphere was terribly dull. Both groups had noticed Shen Wei, but they didn't show any surprise. They just glanced at him briefly before heading towards their respective entrances.

"Someone really chose the red ticket, and they don't seem to be in any danger. They even have staff escorting them. Their safety factor is much higher. Could my assumption be wrong?"

Shen Wei thought as he walked.

"I knew buying the red ticket was the right choice! But I won't tell you. Don't blame me. I want to train your ability to think and reason independently..."

Shen Wei's strange right hand felt uncomfortable if it didn't act up for a day.

"Go away. If you were so smart, you wouldn't have been tricked into possessing my hand..."

Shen Wei said with a look of disdain.

"Kid, I think you're missing the heart-wrenching feeling of a fatal strike. Want me to help you remember it?..."

Shen Wei's words directly broke the strange right hand's defense, forcing it to threaten him with a fatal strike, successfully deterring Shen Wei...

Shen Wei walked into entrance A and headed towards the Non-Human exhibition area. Along the way, he constantly thought about the contents of the Museum of Curiosities visitor's guide in his mind.

Museum of Curiosities Visitor's Guide:

1. When visiting each exhibition area, be sure to remain rational and restrain your fear. Because fear will make "them" aware of your difference.

2. Please remain quiet during your visit, try not to make any noise, and do not have excessive contact with the exhibits.

3. If you find that an exhibit is not in its display case but appears elsewhere, please ignore it, turn around and leave, and continue your visit in a different direction. If you still cannot get rid of it, try to find a staff member for help.

4. The Museum of Curiosities does not have a second floor or higher. There are also no underground exhibition halls. If someone invites you to visit exhibits in these two places, please refuse. If he pesters you and you cannot get rid of him, find an empty display case and lock yourself inside.

5. If you see a fifth exhibition area on the first floor, do not enter it under any circumstances.

6. All staff members of the Museum of Curiosities wear ID badges. Before seeking help, please confirm that the person matches the photo on their ID badge. Note: You can trust the staff here, but you cannot trust them completely.

7. If you see another version of yourself in an unknown exhibition area, do not be afraid. It is just a hallucination caused by your fear. Please leave immediately.

8. Please remember at all times that you are not an exhibit, nor a staff member, nor a ticket seller! You are you, you don't belong here, you must become yourself again! You must escape!

9. They are watching you, don't let them find you, and don't let him (her) become it!

10. Do not… ticket… important… ret (crossed out and illegible)

"These rules are chaotic, some are even contradictory, and it's hard to tell what's true or false. But the key to escaping is hidden within them..."

Shen Wei had already entered the Non-Human (Modern) exhibition hall. Glass display cases stood row upon row. There were at least 100 of them!

The items inside were indeed bizarre, even terrifying.

Shen Wei looked at a few at random. Exhibit No. 13 was a mermaid recovered in modern times. This thing was completely different from what Shen Wei had imagined. She looked like an incomplete fish-person, with dead fish-like pupils and a mouth full of sharp fangs. She definitely wasn't a benevolent creature.

Her description plaque read: Evil Mermaid, her singing can contaminate people's minds, driving them mad, leading to insane self-harm or suicide.

Exhibit No. 26 was a huge transparent glass jar filled with formalin. Inside the jar was a male corpse, soaked pale.

The plaque stated that it contained the corpse of the famous cannibal Hannibal, said to be a collection donated by an enthusiastic tourist. Shen Wei was about to look away when he suddenly saw the corpse soaked in formalin blink at him out of the corner of his eye. When he looked closely again, the pale corpse had returned to normal, as if it were all Shen Wei's hallucination.

"What strange exhibits..."

Shen Wei took deep breaths to calm his nerves.

"Tch, what are these things? Not a single good one. They're far worse than my collection..."

Shen Wei's strange right hand began its self-entertainment mode again, frantically disparaging the exhibits here.

Shen Wei had been a little scared, but this guy's disturbance reduced his fear a lot.

He walked forward for a while, and suddenly he saw a staff member putting a humanoid exhibit into a glass display case and putting a black bracelet tag on it.

But when Shen Wei saw the face of the humanoid exhibit clearly, his pupils suddenly shrank to the size of pinpoints, and his heart pounded wildly.