This is a bizarre rule, isn't it? It's supposed to grant me many children and good fortune

Chapter 171: The eerie sights produced "garbled text".

However, the black-and-white figures did not immediately launch an attack. They stopped beside the trainee prison guards, their smooth faces slightly tilted, as if silently assessing the situation, or perhaps waiting for a crucial opportunity.

Suddenly, a "ding" sound rang out in the cafeteria.

The sound wasn't crisp; it was like a rusty copper bell rattling in thick cotton wool, with a long trailing tone and interspersed with subtle, metallic scraping noises.

"Is that a bell? Can I open my eyes now?" Anna's voice rang out in the darkness, her eyelashes fluttering rapidly.

Lin Feng's pupils contracted sharply—he saw clearly the source of the sound.

All the white-faced, black-clad figures wandering around the cafeteria seemed to receive an invisible command at some point, and their movements stopped in unison.

Immediately afterwards, they all raised their pale, faceless faces, turning the constantly writhing gray hole in the center upwards.

All the gray holes simultaneously expanded and trembled slightly.

"bite----"

A longer, deeper sound, mixed with a gurgling noise like swirling viscous fluid, came from all directions at the same time!

They're mimicking a bell!

The goal was to lure inexperienced trainee guards into opening their eyes before the actual safety signal arrived!

Lin Feng leaned forward slightly, lowered his voice, and spoke quickly but clearly to Wasim beside him, while speaking towards Evelyn and Anna opposite them:

"Don't open your eyes! Wait a little longer!"

Upon hearing Lin Feng's warning, the three people, who still had their eyes closed, paused almost simultaneously.

Without any hesitation, they quickly suppressed their initial instinctive wavering, regained their composure, and nodded in the somber darkness.

........................

Not far away, Kume, the chosen one of the Ryukyu Kingdom, trembled violently with his eyelashes.

Perhaps out of fear of missing the signal, or perhaps out of irresistible curiosity, urged on by the eerie ringing, he finally couldn't resist and slowly opened his eyelids a crack.

At first, all I could see was pure darkness.

But soon, as if his vision had adjusted to the darkness, the shadows receded slightly, and an outline became clear before his eyes—

A smooth, pale face, devoid of any features, was quietly, almost face-to-face, "looking" at him.

In the very center of that face was a slowly writhing, irregularly shaped gray hole.

Kume's blood seemed to freeze, and his pupils dilated with extreme fear.

He opened his mouth to scream and back away, but everything happened too fast.

The gray hole suddenly expanded violently, instantly exceeding its normal size, its edges tearing outwards to reveal its interior—

That wasn't a throat, but a dark abyss filled with countless tiny, crimson specks of light!

Those red dots writhed and flickered densely, carrying a sense of greed.

"No--!"

Kume's scream had barely escaped his throat when the gray hole, which had expanded to a terrifying diameter, lunged forward like a predatory python, swallowing his entire head whole!

"Ugh... Ugh!!" The remaining screams turned into muffled, indistinct whimpers and struggles coming from "inside".

The moment the white-faced, black-bodied figure swallowed Kume's head, its head swelled and stretched strangely, like an inflated sac, and the outline of Kume's struggling pores could even be vaguely seen on its surface.

But it did not stop at all; its edges, like viscous asphalt or activated mud, continued to spread downwards and envelop the surrounding area.

Kume's body erupted with a final survival instinct, kicking the floor with his feet and scratching at the shadowy "skin" with his hands, but only leaving a few fleeting ripples.

Soon, the "mud" had spread to his ankles, and then, like the last grain of sand being swallowed by the receding tide, Kume was completely devoured.

After the white-faced, black-shadowed figure devoured Kume, its previously ethereal outline seemed to solidify and expand.

It paused for a moment, then, from the depths of the still-slowly undulating gray hole, a deep, satisfied sound emanated—

"Hiccup~~~~"

Once there's a first, there's a second.

One by one, people couldn't help but open their eyes, either deceived by the ringing or terrified by the noise in the darkness.

Everyone who opened their eyes was bitten on the head the instant they made eye contact with the black and white shadow, and then quickly swallowed up.

Just then, a dark figure with a white face seemed to sense something was amiss.

It quickly moved to the dining table where Lin Feng was, and the slowly writhing, irregularly shaped gray hole in the center of the white dish locked onto Lin Feng—

The human had not closed his eyes, but did not emit any "prey-friendly" signals.

The black-and-white figure paused slightly, seemingly confused, and ripples appeared on its body surface.

Lin Feng looked at it, not afraid at all, but instead curled the corners of his lips and waved to it gently.

This action completely shattered the cognitive logic of the black-and-white figure.

Its writhing gray hole suddenly contracted into a single point, and a tiny, crimson light spot inside flickered and flared wildly at an unprecedented frequency, as if a serious internal disorder had occurred.

His entire body trembled violently, and even the edges showed subtle distortions and double images, like a projection with an unstable signal.

Lin Feng clearly sensed a strong surge of turbulent emotions emanating from its trembling body.

It was the shock of the underlying logic being overturned, the deep confusion about the "incomprehensible phenomenon", and... a sense of almost instinctive panic that arose when faced with this "abnormal existence".

Lin Feng even waved at it again, this time with a slower movement, his fingertips pressing down lightly, as if to say:

"Relax...don't get so worked up!"

The trembling of the black-faced figure intensified suddenly, the edge of the gray hole twitched uncontrollably, and its body trembled so violently that it almost disintegrated.

If it had an expression, it would probably be all scrunched up right now, shouting loudly:

"Mom—! There's a bug here!"

........................

Studio:

"Hilarious! Humans can't outsmart the supernatural anymore. This is the first time I've ever seen a supernatural being so scary I'm shaking!"

"Shadow: My CPU burned out. Have humans been forgotten by the rules?"

"Shadow: Reporting to main system! Abnormal human unit detected! Requesting formatting!"

"About the incident where I scared something so weird that it produced gibberish."

"I'm worried about the psychological impact on the shadowy figure; I'm going to have nightmares tonight (if weirdness can cause dreams)."

"Brother Feng: Rules? Those are toys I use to break."

"Shadow: I'm just an employee, why did I have to run into a cheater?"

........................

About half a minute later, a truly crisp and pleasant "ding" sound finally rang out in the cafeteria.

This is the real safety signal!

Lin Feng breathed a sigh of relief, coughed lightly, and said in a normal voice, "Everyone, you can open your eyes now!"