Rules-related weird stories: 4016

Just then, the homeroom teacher 040 seemed to notice his gaze. She looked up, met his eyes, and gave him a gentle smile, then reached up and lightly tucked a few stray strands of hair behind her ear.

This response, however, surprised Lin Yi slightly, and further confirmed a suspicion he had—that this new homeroom teacher 040 definitely knew something about him.

Since he couldn't figure out what secrets the check-in folder held, he simply stopped thinking about it. He withdrew his gaze from homeroom teacher 040 and began to ponder.

In fact, the change of homeroom teacher might be baffling to others, but to him, there was a clear indication. After all, yesterday, the homeroom teacher used him as an anchor point, letting him witness her undressing.

According to the homeroom teacher's initial words, his, "Lin Yi - X0230506098's," homeroom teacher was the person with the "Homeroom Teacher - B2-039" badge. From the moment the homeroom teacher took off her uniform, it was equivalent to removing the "Homeroom Teacher" identity.

So today, it had changed to a new homeroom teacher—"040."

But judging from homeroom teacher 040's performance, she seemed to know something.

"Did homeroom teacher 039 leave information before leaving, telling her that I have a high level of inspiration?"

Only in this way could it be explained why homeroom teacher 040 didn't stop him from watching the video in the digital camera.

Because even if homeroom teacher 040 knew that the digital camera couldn't capture the conceptual sculptures, she couldn't guarantee that he would still maintain his cognitive stability after seeing the video of the non-human student killing Pan Jian.

But what made him suspicious was, did homeroom teacher 040 really only know this much?

【 "Someone like you with sky-high inspiration applied for the experience qualification. There's no way the school or the company would let you in!"

"What exactly is going on... what exactly is going on?"

"What's the difference between letting you in and sending you to your death?" 】

The words that homeroom teacher 039 had said before instantly flashed through his mind, and he maintained a conservative guess about the reason why homeroom teacher 040 knew he had been let in.

Lin Yi glanced at the time.

"8:53."

He withdrew his gaze, preparing to adjust his state and then begin reciting the two rules of the art department, but when he held the pen in his hand, he couldn't calm down and start reciting no matter what.

Some restless emotions were constantly spreading in his heart. A certain thought quietly spread in his mind and gradually took the upper hand in driving force—

"Go take a look at that window."

That thought became more and more solidified, and a strong impulse constantly impacted his heart.

"Go take a look, there must be clues there!"

Like a demon's whisper softly murmuring in his ear, Lin Yi couldn't tell whether this was his subconscious thought or... the drive from some indescribable existence.

But he couldn't resist the temptation brought by the possibility of glimpsing part of the truth, so he took a deep breath and then slowly approached the window.

In the process of approaching, he began to anchor his position in his mind in advance with a kind of "self-proclaimed very firm" will, to prevent his cognition from being distorted if he accidentally encountered such a situation:

"My name is Lin Yi, my student ID is X0230506098, I am in Class 2 of Group B..."

He quickly arrived at the position where the blurry figure had been crouching last night, then approached the explosion-proof glass and looked at the windowsill.

There were indeed white plaster-like traces on the windowsill, but there were no other traces besides that.

"Nothing else?"

He muttered, feeling a little disappointed, and then withdrew his gaze.

But at this moment, he caught a glimpse and accidentally saw the green belt in the distance, and his whole person froze on the spot.

He saw a phalanx almost entirely composed of sculptures...

At this moment, the clear sky and the bright sunshine illuminated the earth at nearly 9 o'clock, making the whole earth transparently bright.

The green belt outside Building B of the teaching building had also dissipated a large amount of fog due to the sunlight, leaving only the part of the area deep inside still shrouded in mist.

What Lin Yi saw was the area pushed inward from the edge of the green belt. In that area, a terracotta army-like sculpture phalanx was now densely packed.

These sculpture groups were solidified under the sunlight, and the huge number was like the little demons in Lion Camel Ridge, filling the mountains and fields, from the edge of the green belt all the way to the mountainous area deep in the mist...

Lin Yi's scalp instantly felt numb as if struck by lightning, and a chill ran down his spine.

"In the green belt... there is actually a sculpture phalanx lurking?"

He thought of the battle-damaged version of the Little Genius sculpture he saw on the morning of May 7th. The Little Genius sculpture was not in the green belt on this side. Now, comparing the two pictures immediately gave him the illusion that the Little Genius sculpture had gotten lost from this phalanx.

"Those sculptures... are not the conceptual kind of things. They seem to be purely sculptures, very similar to the sculpture group in the stairwell leading to the dormitory building on the first basement floor of the teaching building, but not as abstract as the ones in the stairwell!"

In comparison, the sculptures here are all humanoid.

But here comes the problem.

【 All the sculptures in the campus are busts, and all of them are kept in the art building. If you see complete human sculptures in areas other than this in the campus, please find the numbered street lights nearby... follow the street lights back to the building closest to you. 】

"There are no full-body sculptures in the campus, only busts!"

Yesterday's Little Genius sculpture was not complete. It could barely be considered a bust or a broken sculpture, but the sculptures he saw now were all full-body statues!

"Rule conflict!"

This was the first thought that arose in Lin Yi's mind, but he immediately shattered it.

"No, no, no, I can't think like this, I shouldn't think like this..."

"If I move according to the map attached to the teaching rules, it's impossible to get close to that green belt under normal circumstances, and I won't see them, so..."

"No, no, no... I can't make it up anymore!"

Lin Yi suddenly realized that being able to deceive oneself was a great ability, but he couldn't do it!

"Wait a minute... 'If you see complete human sculptures in areas other than this in the campus, please find the numbered street lights nearby and follow the street lights back to the building closest to you'!"

"I'm already in the building now, right? Then, according to the art student rules, I am currently in the 'safe state protected by the rules'."

"Since I am in the 'safe state,' then I should be on the edge of the rules... exploring the campus as much as possible to find the underlying logic of the rules!"

After calming down, Lin Yi immediately thought of He Tianbufan's plan, so after ensuring that he was safe, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief and then tentatively looked at the sculpture phalanx again.

Not long after, a cloud happened to drift across the sky, and the shadow cast by the cloud covered the green belt.

Just as the clouds obscured the sunlight, a prickling, awful sensation surged in Lin Yi's heart.

That long-forgotten feeling suddenly descended upon him, and this feeling was unmistakably…

‘Void Lock-on’?!

"The non-human students aren't here, who the hell is targeting me? Wait… could it be?!"

He stealthily glanced towards the sculpture formation, and suddenly noticed that the few sculptures that had most caught his attention had, at some unknown point, turned their heads and were staring in his direction from a distance…

"Holy crap, what the…?!"

Lin Yi felt his hair stand on end, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets, and he instantly crouched down like a turtle retracting its head into its shell, hoping to conceal himself from the gaze of the sculptures.

However, he forgot that Void Lock-on wasn't eliminated that way, so despite his efforts, he still felt a burning, prickly sensation on his back.

But to his surprise, this prickly sensation vanished after only a few seconds.

"Huh?" He was taken aback, poked his head out from behind the wall, and then discovered the reason.

"It's the clouds, no, it's the sunlight!"

The clouds had drifted away, and sunlight once again shone directly on the earth, bathing the sculpture formation.

"So sculptures in direct sunlight pose no threat…"

Even though the faces of those few sculptures were still oriented towards Class 2, Group B of the teaching building.

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Just as he thought this, he couldn't help but glance at the sky.

High in the clear sky, clouds drifted by, and judging by the movement of the shadows, it wouldn't be long before another cloud obscured the green belt.

So he made a bold decision to test his hypothesis.

He continued to crouch down, concealing himself beneath the windowsill, while silently calculating the time it would take for the clouds to drift over.

Sure enough, about fifteen seconds later, that prickly sensation of being targeted by Void Lock-on reappeared in his heart.

He then reached a conclusion.

"Direct sunlight inhibits the sculptures' lock-on mechanism, but it doesn't refresh the mechanism. The only known way to eliminate Void Lock-on is to eliminate attention."

This was actually quite simple.

Lin Yi mentally pictured his boss in a swimsuit, easily eliminating his attention on the sculptures.

Having dispelled the Void Lock-on debuff, he peeked out again and looked at the sculptures.

The faces of those few sculptures were still oriented in this direction, but some had already returned to their original positions, so he stopped thinking about it and left the windowsill.

"But speaking of which, Void Lock-on is a killing mechanic of the non-human students… do those humanoid sculptures also have it?"

"According to the transformation path deduced by Young Master Tian, non-human students will turn into sculptures after the pollution deepens. Could it be that even the killing mechanism is preserved, no, inherited?"

He rubbed his nose. Moreover… the sculptures' Void Lock-on mechanism was clearly even more terrifying than that of the non-human students.

The non-human students' killing mechanism required a condition to activate: the classroom lights had to be turned off.

Which meant that fluorescent lights and sunlight could effectively restrain the non-human students' mechanism.

But the sculptures… he had been looking at the sculptures in direct sunlight, but the sculptures had immediately reacted with Void Lock-on after being obscured by the clouds.

Applied to the non-human students, it would be like seeing and noticing the non-human students under fluorescent lights, only to be chased and killed by them the moment the lights went out.

Too outrageous.

He had to remember that he was currently located in the teaching building on the normal layer, in a truly "safe state"!

"Sculptures… are truly a terrifying group."

"But, if the sculptures can move in the shadows, doesn't that mean they can move freely at night?"

"Can we be protected by just relying on streetlights?"

Lin Yi wasn't sure. If interpreted literally from the student handbook, the sentence 'staying under streetlights should provide sufficient protection' seemed to imply that, but whether or not it could provide an 'absolutely safe' environment surrounded by sculptures was still unknown.

To be absolutely safe, one needed to return to the nearest building.

"Wait a minute… does 'nearest building' still refer to 'buildings with lights'?"

"So lights should protect people under them from attacks by sculptures, but if 'Void Lock-on' can't be removed, the sculptures will chase the locked-on person like a haunting spirit…"

Being targeted by something tireless and seemingly lifeless, and being killed directly with one mistake… just thinking about it made him break out in a cold sweat.

What made Lin Yi maintain a conservative attitude was that he didn't know if the sculptures had other mechanisms or behavioral logics.

But the threat from the sculptures was definitely far greater than that of the non-human students.

Also, the number of sculptures was simply too large. Just the green belt alone had a formation-like number of them, and who knew how many there were in other places.

And the most crucial point was, weren't the sculptures supposed to be in the art building?

How did they get into the green belt?

Could there be some unknown means of movement hidden here?

"A route not recorded in the rules!" Lin Yi's heart suddenly leaped, but he immediately reacted. Such a route might really exist, but it was very likely a path that humans couldn't take, and perhaps, this path didn't even belong to 'living' entities!

Lin Yi glanced at his watch. The current time was 9:07, which meant that he had just spent 14 minutes probing the sculptures.

So he returned to his seat, opened his folding chair, sat down, and opened the small notebook he carried with him to start writing out the rules of the art department from memory.

More than 40 minutes passed in a flash. After he finished writing out the rules for art building and art students, he looked down at his watch, and it was already 9:50.

"Sigh… half an hour!"

He shook his sore wrist, twisted his neck, stretched his muscles and bones, and let out a long sigh.

There was no choice. The rules for art students alone had about 2000 words, and he barely managed to finish them with his frantic writing…

But there was no other way. Tian Bufan said that just listening wasn't enough, there had to be a hard copy for record, acting like he had a collecting habit, and he couldn't just print it out of thin air…

Wishing everyone a Happy Spring Festival!

Thank you to book friend "Cup-sized Thinking" for the Alliance Leader!

Owed updates total 12000 words (Miao Er 2000 + Cup-sized Thinking 10000 words), will start repaying the debt after the Spring Festival!

PS: Taking a leave tomorrow (justifiably)

After that, during the Spring Festival holiday, it depends on the situation. I will resume as soon as possible, anyway, at most two days off…

Finally, asking for monthly tickets!

To everyone! Happy! New! Year!

Orz!!!