[Rules-based horror + national destiny game + max-level expert + nonhuman protagonist]
A global rules-based game descended upon the world. Other countries drew urban legends, but China alone got an underworld exam: [Sixteen Taboos for Yellow River Corpse Retrievers].
A postgraduate from a top university was so scared his legs went weak. The moment he broke a rule, he was dragged into the Yellow River. A personal trainer, a delivery rider, a programmer... six people in a row met gruesome deaths under the rules.
Just as the whole internet gave in to despair, the System selected a young man in flip-flops, crouching on the riverbank with an enamel mug as he brushed his teeth.
System announcement: [Contestant: Chen Hesheng. Occupation: Yellow River corpse retriever.]
To the shock of everyone online, he casually closed the rules panel, grabbed a bamboo pole, and headed straight into the water. “My great-grandfather made the first rule. My Chen family has guarded this river for three hundred years. I decide when it’s time to go in.”
When he hauled the corpses no one dared touch onto shore as casually as picking out clothes, and even turned one of the corpses’ hands palm-up, the global live chat went wild
[Holy crap! He changed the rules?!]
Only then did the world realize that in this global livestreamed game of life and death, he hadn’t come to clear the levels.
He’d come to set the rules for everyone else.
