Rules of the Unusual: I am the Final Boss

Time lost its meaning in the deathly silent carriage.

The darkness outside the window was thick and sticky, and the bus seemed to be traveling through a crack in time. Only the numbers jumping on the dial and the cold feeling of their strength being gradually drained away reminded them that they were "moving forward".

Bai Xu gripped the notebook tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force.

Numbers crawled all over his mind like insects, but he couldn't grasp any clues.

110022003300...

They were just numbers, cold and silent, mocking his powerlessness. The feeling of his attributes slipping away became clearer and clearer, as if his life force was being slowly drained from his pores, leaving behind a gradually weakening, empty void within.

He looked at Shi Mo beside him.

Shi Mo had been leaning back in that chair position for a long time.

The cigarette in his hand had burned to the end, leaving a long trail of grayish-white ash, which he forgot to flick off.

His gaze was unfocused, resting on the empty air in front of the carriage, or perhaps piercing through the vehicle and projecting itself into a more distant and unknowable place. The lines of his profile appeared somewhat hard under the dim, swaying headlights.

Bai Xu did not disturb him.

He knew Shi Mo was thinking, his brain operating in a way he couldn't fully comprehend. Only the low, monotonous roar of the engine and the deathly silence of the seven "passengers" remained in the carriage. The smell of rust and the faint stench of blood seemed even stronger in the air.

Bai Xu didn't know how much time had passed; it might have been ten minutes, or it might have been half an hour. Bai Xu almost thought Shi Mo had fallen asleep.

Then, Shi Mo's voice rang out, calm and clear, as if he had just emerged from deep water.

"One hour, one hundred days."

Bai Xu was stunned for a moment, his thoughts interrupted. "What?" He didn't understand, or rather, he wasn't sure what he had heard.

Shi Mo moved slightly, finally raising his hand to flick the long piece of cigarette ash onto the metal floor beneath his feet. The ash scattered, quickly dispersed by a gentle breeze that seemed to come from nowhere.

He turned his head to look at Bai Xu, the mist in his eyes dissipating to reveal a sharp, insightful light.

"Every hour that passes here," Shi Mo explained calmly, as if stating a simple math problem, "our attributes will regress by one hundred days. Two hours later, it will be two hundred days. And so on."

He paused for a moment, his gaze sweeping over the notebook in Bai Xu's hand before returning to Bai Xu's face.

"Three days is seventy-two hours. Seventy-two times one hundred is seven thousand two hundred days. Seven thousand two hundred days is about..." He narrowed his eyes slightly, his mental calculation speed astonishingly fast, "...close to twenty years. Time will keep going backwards until... probably until... before I was even born."

Bai Xu's breath hitched for a moment.

He suddenly looked up at Shi Mo, his eyes gleaming. "How did you come up with that?"

Shi Mo gave a slight, almost imperceptible smile. "A feeling," he answered simply, offering no further explanation. "The regularity of the number intervals, plus the sense of the speed at which attributes are lost. They match."

After a brief pause, the live stream chat exploded with comments:

Holy crap! It's solved!

One hour equals one hundred days?! What a bizarre rule!

So that string of numbers is a time stamp? Which 'age' range has the hint attribute regressed to?

[How did Shi Mo manage to connect these things?!]

[Awesome! Absolutely awesome!]

There's hope! We've found the pattern!

The spark of hope had just been ignited in Bai Xu's heart, but the next second, the cold tide of reality surged up again, extinguishing that spark until only a wisp of smoke remained.

The excitement on his face quickly faded, his lips pressed into a straight line, and his shoulders slumped slightly.

"But..." The excitement in his voice vanished, replaced by a deeper weariness and helplessness. "Even if we find the pattern... what can we do?"

He looked around at the prison vehicle that was traveling in eternal darkness.

The rules are real and cannot be broken. Attributes are irreversibly slipping away. They are trapped here, nowhere to go, helpless. Knowing how one is heading towards death doesn't make death itself easier to accept; sometimes, it makes it even more cruel.

"We know how we died," Bai Xu's voice lowered, almost as if he were talking to himself, yet also as if addressing the countless expectant eyes in the live stream, "but we can't find a way out. We know 'one hour, one hundred days,' we know the numbers are countdown markers... and then what? Can we stop this car before the 'countdown' ends? Can we find that non-existent 'final destination'?"

He looked down at his hands, which seemed paler than usual due to the loss of his attributes. He clenched his fist, then released it. His strength was indeed weakening; although it wasn't very obvious yet, the trend toward the abyss was clearly perceptible.

The chat in the live stream quickly cooled down after Bai Xu spoke:

Uh... Team White is right.

Knowing how to die and being able to avoid death are two different things.

It's still a desperate situation.

This dungeon is so hopeless.

Is there really no other way?

The optimism that had just risen from solving the numerical puzzle vanished in an instant. A heavy silence returned to the carriage, the only solace to the agonizing sense of loss that silently proclaimed the passage of time and the approach of death.

Shi Mo quietly watched Bai Xu go from brief excitement to rapid dejection. He offered no words of comfort, nor did he refute him. He simply watched, his gaze calm.

Then, he took out another cigarette from the pack. The lighter clicked softly, a flame leaping up and igniting the tobacco. He took a deep drag and slowly exhaled the greyish-white smoke. The smoke swirled and rose under the dim car lights, blurring his deep-set eyes.

His brain didn't stop working. On the contrary, after cracking the first layer of rules, more clues and information were colliding and combining in his mind.

No loud noises... No disturbing other passengers... No asking to get off at non-designated stops... No asking the driver for directions... Please survive until the final stop...

The rules flashed by, one by one. They were all true. But to obey meant certain death. So, where was the way out? Outside the rules? Between the lines of the rules? Or… in the logical abyss of contradictions inherent in the rules themselves?

Bus, passengers, driver, a never-ending journey, time constantly reversing...

He had some thoughts, vague, dangerous, almost insane ideas. These thoughts, like vines sprouting in the darkness, entangled his mind.

Several minutes passed in silence. Shi Mo's cigarette burned out again. He stubbed it out on the ash that had fallen earlier, his movements calm and composed, without the slightest hint of impatience.

Then, he turned his head, his gaze falling on Bai Xu's downcast profile. Bai Xu seemed still immersed in that helpless frustration, staring at the floor, lost in thought.

Shi Mo stared at him for a few seconds, the light and shadow in the carriage flickering on his face.

Finally, he spoke, his voice not loud, but it was exceptionally clear in the deathly silent carriage, carrying a strange calmness, as if he had made some kind of decision.

"team leader."

Upon hearing this, Bai Xu raised his head somewhat blankly and looked at him.

Shi Mo met his gaze. There was no intense emotion in his eyes, only a deep and unfathomable calm, and beneath that calm, something was gathering.

He paused, then asked in an extremely serious tone:

Do you believe me?