At 3:17 in the morning, I was trapped in a convenience store.
Every time the scanner gun goes off, a transaction is completed. What you buy is a commodity, what you pay is your life. When the last living heart was "returned" to the checkout counter, I did something I shouldn't have done - I scanned the QR code to buy a bottle of water and took the heart away.
The rules say "Never accept returns." So I didn't retreat, I swallowed.
The moment the bottle of water mixed with the fragments of rules slipped into my throat, I saw the other side of the world with my left eye: every weird body was dragging chains of rules, interlocking with each other, and the weakest link of the chains was shining in my eyes.
Others cannot beat the rules and can only escape.
I can see the rules. Then, swallow it clean in one bite.
I later learned that the incident at the convenience store that night was not an accident. Someone is in this city, selecting "devourers" who can survive. And I am the only one who has swallowed the complete rules.
A crack opened in the wall of the world, and weirdness poured in from the crack. Some people want to repair it, some want to demolish it, and some people want to push the entire city down.
I don't want to be a savior.
But since I saw it, I will plug this gap again.
Even if the one who has to block it in the end is myself.
