Chapter 37: Rules Concealing a Deadly Threat

As the female teacher announced the start of the exam, each student in the classroom held their breath in nervous anticipation.

She stepped onto the podium and began distributing the stack of test papers, separating them into individual copies.

“I am a strict teacher. During my exams, anyone who violates the proctoring rules will be executed.

The proctoring rules are as follows:

1: No one is allowed to look at another’s test paper. If you leak any exam content, you will be executed.

2: You may not leave the classroom during the exam.

3: You may not harm the proctor.

Those are the only rules. Now, I will begin handing out the test papers.”

Every student present was a seasoned veteran of countless exams—some had taken hundreds, if not over a thousand tests since childhood.

Therefore, when the exam rules were announced, some keen students immediately noticed that the proctor had omitted a crucial rule, the fundamental rule of all exams—

No cheating!

Those four words carried immense implications.

For instance, no whispering, no phone use, no leaving one’s seat...

In other words, under these deadly exam rules, all those actions were permitted!

Students could whisper, use their phones, and leave their seats...

Was this not a blatant invitation to cheat?

No, there couldn’t be such an obvious loophole.

Unless... the proctor believed that even if students could talk, use phones, or leave their seats, cheating would still be impossible!

Such an exam, where these things were allowed but cheating was impossible, was unprecedented for these students.

Many could sense that this deadly exam harbored hidden perils.

The proctor held the test papers and began distributing them one by one.

Those who received their papers were dumbfounded when they glimpsed the contents.

This was unlike any exam they had ever encountered!

What shocked them even more was that inside each test paper was a sharp dagger!

Every examinee was handed a test paper and a sharp dagger.

Soon, the paper reached Chen Mu.

The proctor glanced at him, placed the test paper on his desk, and handed him a dagger as well.

Chen Mu quickly scanned the paper.

Indeed, the content was unchanged from the one he had encountered in his previous life.

[Deadly Exam Test Paper]

[Class: Senior Year, Class 27]

[Candidate Name: Chen Mu]

[Dear Candidate, welcome to the Deadly Exam.

During the exam, please familiarize yourself with this test paper’s contents.

Have you noticed your classmates seem different from usual?

Yes, there is a strange entity hidden in your class.

It lurks silently within the exam room, watching you all.]

[Exam Content: Within two hours, find and kill this entity to pass the exam.

If you fail to find and kill it, you will fail the exam. After the exam time ends, half of the surviving students will be randomly executed.]

[Before starting, carefully read the following rules—they are very important:

Rule 1: The entity will not attack unless provoked. If it is harmed, it will attack you.

Rule 2: During the Deadly Exam, all students’ abilities are suppressed. When the entity attacks, no one can kill it.

Rule 3: The dagger you hold can cause fatal damage if stabbed into the entity.

Rule 4: This is a personal rule for you—you must shout loudly exactly 1 hour and 30 minutes into the exam. After that, no matter who asks, you cannot explain why.

Rule 5: When you believe you have found the entity, the entire class may vote on whether to submit the test. If the vote passes, you submit your paper to the proctor, who will judge your answer. A wrong answer means exam failure.

Rule 6: When half or fewer of the class remain, the exam automatically ends successfully. Congratulations, you may go home.]

[I will tell you how to identify the entity. Usually, it has the following traits:

1: The entity is lazy and generally does not move until discovered.

2: It occasionally emits strange cries—listen closely to find its location.

3: The entity has four arms and four legs, just like a human. It is difficult to distinguish by appearance.

4: A practical trick—stab the entity with your dagger. If it is the entity, black smoke will emit from its body.]

This was the entirety of the test paper’s content.

This was no ordinary exam.

After reading the paper, all the students’ eyes filled with shock and disbelief.

Someone in the class had become the entity?

Who was it?

As long as they found and killed the entity, the exam would be passed!

Suddenly, students glanced nervously at one another, trying to detect anything unusual in their peers’ eyes.

Still, no one dared speak; all communication was through glances.

The old exam discipline lingered—though speaking wasn’t explicitly forbidden, no one wanted to be the first to break the silence.

After all, talking during an exam was a violation of the rules.

Looking over the rules again, Chen Mu began to contemplate.

This time, the rules were far more complex than ever before. Counting the entity identification points, there were at least ten rules.

This signaled a significant rise in task difficulty.

The Deadly Exam was more challenging than the Midnight Diner or the Misty Museum tasks.

Judging by the scale, this exam involved far too many people.

If the correct path to survival wasn’t found, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Chen Mu’s mind drifted back to his previous life’s Deadly Exam—a bloodbath.

No class in the entire high school had found a way out.

The cost had been unbearably high.

After the exam, the entire Nightfall High School became a sea of corpses.

Such horror was beyond imagining.

Even after five years surviving the entity apocalypse, Chen Mu still shuddered recalling that moment.

Now, he resolved to take the exam seriously and try to find a way out.

Studying the rules, Chen Mu began his reasoning.

From Rules 1, 2, and 3, he deduced:

Rule 1, 2, and 3 essentially meant—

The entity cannot harm anyone before being attacked. Once discovered and attacked, it begins its slaughter. No one can resist it. Even the dagger cannot harm it after it retaliates.

Therefore, a natural conclusion arose—

Once the entity is found, it must be killed swiftly and decisively with a single blow, leaving no chance for counterattack! If the entity fights back, everyone dies.

Though seemingly straightforward, Chen Mu sensed the deadly trap behind this conclusion.

This danger became clearer when combined with the method to identify the entity in Rule 4.

The way to tell the entity was to stab it and see if black smoke emerged.

So, if Chen Mu suspected someone was the entity, what should he do?

Simple—stab them with the dagger.

But he could not just lightly cut or stab a limb to test, because if the person were the entity, hurting it would provoke an attack no one could survive.

Thus, the only clear answer was—

If he suspected someone was the entity, he had to stab hard and fast—right into their skull!

One strike, certain death!

If that person was not the entity, they would inevitably die.

There was no surviving a dagger through the skull.

Students who understood these rules broke out in a cold sweat.

The Deadly Exam’s rules were designed to force participants into killing!

This was one of the hidden deadly traps of the exam.

Moreover, the exam’s rules hinted constantly at death and slaughter.