INSIDER Chapter 44

7’s words made Lu Chu’s heart skip a beat, but it wasn’t out of fear.

Then, in a matter-of-fact tone, 7 said, “Do you want to know what 7 represents?”

Lu Chu naturally nodded.

7 leaned back against the chair, sipped some water from his pale lips, and said, “I used to be a player too.”

Lu Chu suddenly understood, as this had been one of his original guesses.

“The number ‘7’ itself doesn’t have much significance,” 7 continued, “It’s just that I once thought it was more important to remember how to survive than my own name. Over time, I truly forgot my name. ‘7’ is merely the number assigned to the ‘rule’ I belong to.”

“Do the ‘rules’ have numbers?” Lu Chu had just learned from Song Gui that there were many ‘rules,’ and now he discovered that they each had specific numbers, raising even more questions about their existence.

“Yes,” 7 answered, “Each ‘rule’ has its own specific number. The higher the number, the less established the ‘rule’ is. The ‘rule’ you currently belong to is number 413.”

This made Lu Chu frown. “7 is a very early number.”

“It is indeed early. ‘Rules’ and players coexist. Each ‘rule’ has a limited time to select a certain number of players. After that time, the number of people in the ‘rule’ no longer changes, and the players continue to play the game until they all die, causing the ‘rule’ to be erased and disappear. Then a new ‘rule’ will replace it.” At this point, 7 half-closed his eerie eyes. “The first six rules have all been eradicated.”

“‘Rules’ themselves don’t want to be eradicated.”

Hearing this, Lu Chu voiced part of his conjecture: “So, to avoid eradication, did the ‘rule’ you belong to save you?”

7 shook his head. “It doesn’t have that much self-awareness. I was the last person alive in rule number 7. Because each task is non-repeatable, one day I realized I had completed all the solo tasks.”

Lu Chu’s throat moved. “All of them?”

7 nodded slightly with a smile. “All of them.”

Having experienced all the solo tasks, Lu Chu couldn’t comprehend what that meant. But he knew that some people lost hope for life after just one game, like the middle-aged man who never re-entered the illusion.

“In the same ‘rule,’ with only me left, group tasks couldn’t be carried out, and solo tasks couldn’t be repeated. The ‘rule’ and I found ourselves in an awkward situation. Later, the ‘rule’ seemed to receive new instructions from some unknown source, and after that, I became a presence that roamed through the various games, clearing out unstable factors.”

7’s bloodshot eyes stared straight at Lu Chu. “After that, a long time passed.”

A long time until he became more and more numb, mechanically carrying out orders, without words. He forgot most things, except for the instinct to fight and survive.

From 7’s words, Lu Chu understood that, for whatever reason, 7 had long played the role of eliminating unstable factors in the ‘games,’ and he was once one of those targets.

But even knowing they were originally completely opposed, Lu Chu’s tone remained calm because he knew that 7 had never meant him any harm. “Why did you spare me?”

Strictly speaking, 7 not only spared him but also saved him. Although Lu Chu had yet to fully understand everything about the ‘rules,’ 7 had spared him and told him how to leave that game, to transition from being a ‘game person’ to becoming a player, which surely came at a cost.

Why didn’t he go through with it?

At these words, 7 recalled the first time he saw Lu Chu.

At that time, he had received instructions to eliminate ‘Lu Chu’ in the ‘City of Lost Feelings,’ so he entered that game.

When they first met, Lu Chu was out shopping. The sunset slanted down, Lu Chu walked leisurely through the clean streets of the town, holding a leash in his hand, with Carrot leading the way in front of him, occasionally turning back to rub against Lu Chu’s pant leg. Each time, Lu Chu would lower his head, tilt his ear towards the sound of Carrot, and then smile gently and call out, “Carrot.”

How strange.

Despite being different from everyone else, despite bearing so much, despite merely being a person within a game, why could he smile so warmly and peacefully?

Just as 7 was thinking indifferently, Lu Chu seemed to sense something and realized someone was following him.

Lu Chu slightly tilted his head, accurately turning his body towards 7’s direction, then half-lowered his eyes, curled his lips into a gentle smile, and nodded politely in 7’s direction before turning and leaving with Carrot.

At that moment, 7 suddenly wanted to remember his own name.

Later, he continued to follow Lu Chu but never made a move, until Lu Chu invited him into his home as a guest.

Thoughts stopped, and the eerie red in 7’s eyes seemed to soften. He said, “Lu Chu, I won’t harm you.”

.

After their conversation, the immense amount of information left Lu Chu temporarily overwhelmed, so after their meal and talk, 7 led him to a room to rest.

Lying in bed, Lu Chu recalled their conversation, and as he drifted into sleep, his mind was filled with the image of 7 looking into his eyes and saying, “Lu Chu, I won’t harm you.”

The next morning, Lu Chu woke up early, intending to make breakfast, only to find 7 already neatly dressed and sitting at the dining table, elegantly waiting for him to join for breakfast.

Lu Chu took his seat and smiled as he greeted 7 with a good morning.

7 asked, “Did you sleep well?”

Lu Chu nodded and casually asked, “What about the others in the basement?”

7 handed Lu Chu a cup of hot milk and said lightly, “I killed them.”

Lu Chu froze, his hand pausing as he reached for the milk. “Killed… them?”

“Yes,” 7 held the cup of milk to Lu Chu’s lips, feeding him a sip, then handed him a sandwich, “It was inevitable. Because of my role, before confronting a player, I had to kill one person every day.”

At this point, Lu Chu understood.

On the thirteenth day, the kidnappers would choose a player for ‘surgery.’ Until then, they continued their game, selecting one person for surgery each day. This meant that since Lu Chu was captured, twelve people had been killed before he was chosen.

7 couldn’t violate his ‘character,’ but he didn’t have to kill them one by one. It was more efficient to do it all at once.

Lu Chu didn’t know how many times 7 had done such things to speak so calmly about killing a dozen people in the basement.

A person numbed to killing.

If it had been anyone else, Lu Chu didn’t know what he would think, but since it was 7, he felt a moment of confusion followed by heartache.

Lu Chu was stunned, thinking to himself, this must be what it means to be biased.