Rules of the Unusual: I am the Final Boss

Shi Mo felt as if he had passed through a layer of icy water film, and the surrounding scenery instantly distorted and rearranged.

The pure white, deathly silent palace has vanished, replaced by narrow, damp alleyways that reek of mildew and the sour smell of garbage. Above, a sliver of gray sky hangs in the air, while on either side stand crumbling, mottled walls.

He looked down at his hands; they were fair and slender, but no longer contained the power to overturn rules and annihilate stars.

An unprecedented sense of weakness enveloped him, as if he had transformed from an omnipotent creator into... a slightly stronger vessel. Only the golden rule mark representing 'skill plunder' deep within his soul continued to flicker steadily.

"Is this... the feeling of being bound by a mortal body?" he murmured to himself, his voice echoing faintly in the narrow alleyway.

He subconsciously tried to expand his senses to cover the city, and even this plane, but found that his thoughts were as if they had hit an invisible wall, and were firmly restricted to a very small area around this body.

[Host! Welcome to the human world! How are you feeling now?] The system's electronic voice sounded at the opportune moment, carrying a hint of barely perceptible flattery and... tension. It had personally witnessed how this big shot had been "lucky" to an absurd degree.

"Noisy." Shi Mo responded indifferently, but his attention was drawn to the novel sensations of this body.

He raised his hand and touched his hair. It was still white, but its length only reached his shoulder blades, no longer cascading down like a galaxy. The horn on his forehead, symbolizing his rank and power, and the pair of wings on his back that could obscure light and shadow when retracted, had also vanished without a trace. Only his heterochromatic pupils, a mixture of molten gold and blood, remained settling in their sockets, incongruous with his somewhat ordinary human body.

As he was savoring the texture of the rough ground beneath his feet and the polluted air—

"Get out of the way! A good dog doesn't block the way!!"

A panicked and menacing voice, accompanied by hurried footsteps, approached from afar. A man in a sloppy jacket, looking flustered, suddenly turned into the alley and bumped into Shi Mo unexpectedly.

"Bang!"

The force of the impact was like a gentle breeze to the former Shi Mo, but to his current "ordinary" body, it made him stagger slightly.

The man himself nearly fell over. He was clutching a woman's handbag tightly in his arms. He turned around and glared fiercely at Shi Mo, cursing, "Damn it! Are you looking for death! Standing in the middle of the road! Bad luck!" After cursing, he didn't dare to linger and turned to continue running away.

Shi Mo steadied himself and gently brushed off the shoulder he had bumped, where a trace of the other person's sweat and cigarette smoke seemed to linger. His heterochromatic eyes narrowed slightly as he watched the fleeing figure.

[Host! Calm down! This is just a thief! The laws of the human world...] The system panicked, its code scrambling wildly. It knew all too well that this person's "temperament" was anything but pleasant. In the world of supernatural rules, any candidate who dared to offend him like this would not even have a fragment of their soul left.

"Law?" Shi Mo repeated the word in his mind, a hint of absurd amusement in his voice, as if he had heard some extremely childish vocabulary. "Does he... have any skills?"

[Huh?] The system paused for a moment, then quickly scanned. [Found! Target name: Zhang San, possesses the C-level mental skill 'Telepathic Communication,' which allows for one-way or two-way communication with a specific target at the telepathic level over a short distance. Additionally, this skill has a passive effect: in each rule-based instance, it can intuitively determine the authenticity of a rule once (with an accuracy rate of approximately 70%).]

"Telepathic communication...rule judgment..." Shi Mo murmured, chewing on these two words. His right eye, which resembled molten gold, seemed to light up for a moment. "Although the level is a bit low, it's...interesting. Perfect, let's try out my new 'toy'."

[Host! What are you trying to do?! This is the human world! You can't do whatever you want here...] The system tried to stop it in a panic.

But Shi Mo had already made his move.

He took a seemingly casual step, yet his figure instantly closed the distance between him and the thief Zhang San like a ghost. The alley was narrow, and before Zhang San had run more than a few steps, he felt a cold, suffocating aura enveloping him from behind.

"What...what are you doing?!" Zhang San turned around in terror, his heart nearly stopping when he saw those inhuman heterochromatic eyes. He instinctively swung his fist at Shi Mo's face, his other hand still clutching the stolen bag tightly.

Shi Mo didn't even block; he simply tilted his head slightly to dodge the chaotic punch.

His movements were as elegant as a court dance, but his right hand gripped Zhang San's throat with the precision of an iron clamp, slamming him hard against the damp, cold wall.

"Ugh!" Zhang San let out a painful groan, feeling as if his spine was about to be shattered. Intense fear made him struggle desperately, his legs kicking wildly.

"Let...let me go! Here...here you go! All the money is yours!" he roared hoarsely, his face turning purple from lack of oxygen.

Shi Mo leaned closer, his heterochromatic eyes scrutinizing the face contorted with fear, as if examining an interesting specimen. "Your skill," he said calmly, devoid of any emotion, "I'll take it."

"Wh...what skill? I don't know...Help! Help..." Zhang San's cries for help came to an abrupt halt.

Because Shi Mo's other hand, with its fingers like a knife, carrying a sharpness far exceeding the limits of his current physical strength, originating from the rules of 'skill plunder,' easily pierced his chest.

"Pfft—"

Warm liquid with a strong metallic smell spurted out, with a few drops even landing on Shi Mo's fair cheeks, creating an extremely eerie and cruel contrast with his heterochromatic eyes.

Zhang San's eyes widened instantly, filled with unbelievable pain and despair. He let out a "hoarse" sound from his throat, his body convulsed violently a few times, and finally went limp and fell silent.

Shi Mo released his grip, letting the corpse slide to the ground, leaving a dark red stain on the filthy floor. He looked down at his blood-stained hands, then raised his hand and gently wiped the warm, dampness from his cheek with his fingertips.

He stuck out his tongue and quickly licked the scarlet on his fingertip.

"The taste... is just so-so," he commented, as if he were tasting a dish that didn't suit his palate.

[...] The system was completely silent, not even daring to emit any electronic noise.

Just then, a faint spiritual fluctuation emanated from Zhang San's not-yet-completely-cold corpse, and as if drawn by an invisible force, it quickly entered Shi Mo's body.

[Ding! Detected a lootable skill: C-rank 'Telepathic Communication' (with accompanying passive skill based on rules). Loot?]

"Yes," Shi Mo confirmed in his mind.

A cool, slightly distracting stream of information flowed into his consciousness, where it was quickly processed and assimilated.

He felt that his mental perception range had expanded slightly, and that he had gained a wonderful way of using it. At the same time, a vague imprint of "rule intuition" was also imprinted on him.

[Plunder successful! Host Shi Mo has obtained the C-rank skill 'Telepathic Communication' (with passive effect based on rules)]

[Current skill level: SSS-rank 'Skill Plunder', C-rank 'Telepathic Communication']

"Not bad efficiency." Shi Mo nodded, sensing his newly acquired ability, seemingly satisfied with the results of this "test." He completely ignored the still-warm corpse at his feet and the thick stench of blood permeating the air.

[Host...] The system finally regained its voice, its tone trembling with tears, [You...you just killed him? Right there on the street? Even though it's an alley, someone could come at any moment! The police from the human world...]

"Police?" Shi Mo repeated the word, his heterochromatic eyes glancing towards the alley entrance, where faint footsteps and shouts seemed to be coming from. Probably the victim or someone who had been alerted. "And what's that? The new rule enforcers?"

[Almost, pretty much! They'll hunt down lawbreakers! Like...like murderers!] The system was practically short-circuiting in its panic. [Our powers are currently sealed; getting caught will be a huge problem!]

"Troublesome?" Shi Mo tilted his head, looking at his blood-stained hands and then at the corpse on the ground, seemingly pondering for a moment. Then, he raised his hand and tried to mobilize his weak, newly acquired mental power towards the corpse and the pool of blood.

An invisible spiritual wave swept across, and the bloodstains on the ground began to fade and dry at a visible speed. The corpses also seemed to have their time accelerated, quickly turning gray and stiff. Although the traces could not be completely erased, at least they were no longer so shocking.

"Will there be less 'trouble' this way?" he asked, his tone as calm as if he were asking about the weather.

System: [...] It no longer knows what code to use to express its current feelings.

The sounds coming from the alley entrance grew closer and closer.

Shi Mo took one last look at his "masterpiece," his face expressionless, devoid of both the excitement of slaughter and the slightest pity or disgust. He acted as if he had casually brushed away a speck of dust.

He turned and walked slowly in another direction of the alley. The white ends of his hair shone faintly in the dim light, and the bloodstain on his cheek, which he had not completely wiped away, added to his eerie appearance.

"Let's go," he said to the system, his voice carrying a hint of interest in the "rules" of this world that had just been piqued. "Let me see what other 'interesting' ways there are to play in this world where you can't use your power at will."

A faint electronic voice from the system sounded, tinged with a resigned despair: "[...Okay, host. Planning a route to avoid surveillance for you...]"