“When propriety is lost, seek it among the common folk; when the Way is lost, seek it among the shamans.”
While everyone else is being chased by ghosts through dungeons, Shen Yun is looking for loopholes in the rules.
“Do not look in the mirror”? Cover it up, and the rule no longer applies.
“Do not look back”? Use a mirror to see behind you. You never turned around.
She is a Rulebreaker: she doesn’t obey the rules, she uses them.
Shen Yun, a folklore master’s student at Beicang University, is selected to beta-test a virtual reality game called Village Rules.
In the game, she becomes the fastest player to clear it, a Rulebreaker who uses logic to deconstruct taboos and her knowledge of folklore to unravel rituals. But when she clears the game, she discovers that reality has changed: joss paper appears along the roadside, the clashing of Nuo opera gongs echoes late at night, and her phone starts playing funeral wails on its own.
As she investigates the truth, she discovers that the game wasn’t designed by humans. It is a device for reviving the old gods.
Every player who clears the game is burning incense for them.
Once enough people have cleared it, the game will devour reality.
And there is only one rule: those who show reverence live; those who don’t die.
Shen Yun’s gift is “seeing the rules”: every taboo’s boundaries, loopholes, and weak points are clear to her at a glance.
But her gift also tells her this: beyond the rules lies the human heart.
“The folklore you’ve forgotten has come back to claim your life.”
