Rules-related weird stories: 4016

But what the hell kind of reverse inception is this?! Impossible, absolutely impossible.

Lin Yi felt like his brain was about to overload if he thought about it any further, so he shook his head and stopped pondering, instead keeping the conjecture in mind to discuss with Tian Bufan and see if Tian Bufan had any other insights.

Meanwhile, Li Huiyuan had been waiting for him at the stairwell for almost two minutes. Lin Yi walked over and called out to Li Huiyuan, but he found that Li Huiyuan didn't respond to his call.

He called Li Huiyuan twice in a row without any response, and an ominous premonition instantly took over his heart. He quickly went over and patted Li Huiyuan on the shoulder, only to find that her body was trembling uncontrollably, and even emitting some cold air from her shoulders.

Lin Yi's expression was a little unsightly: "Not good, she dropped a layer in just these two minutes?!"

"Li Huiyuan, Li Huiyuan!"

Lin Yi shook Li Huiyuan's shoulder and pulled her back from the layer.

After Li Huiyuan came back to her senses, she looked at Lin Yi in surprise, and at the same time realized the problem that had occurred to her. A cold sweat broke out on her back.

"What did you see just now? Why did you drop a layer?" Lin Yi asked.

Li Huiyuan's face was still a little pale. She gasped for breath and pointed in the direction of the stairwell: "I... I was just looking at the stairs, I didn't do anything else, and then, then I didn't even know what happened, and by the time I came back to my senses, you were already calling me..."

"Oh! I seem to remember!"

Li Huiyuan's expression changed slightly, she covered her forehead, her expression suddenly became dazed, and her eyes darted left and right, as if she had fallen into some kind of memory.

"The stairs! There's something wrong with those stairs! They... they're not normal!"

Lin Yi quickly looked towards the stairwell, but at first glance he didn't see anything wrong.

But he didn't doubt Li Huiyuan. Instead, he took her into the sunlight to let her rest for a while, and then he began to observe the stairwell himself.

Since the teaching building rules clearly stipulate that one can only use the stairs to go up and down the stairs, students in Class 4 and above in each teaching building need to use the stairs to return to their respective classrooms. Lin Yi is also a trainee with a "student ID", so theoretically there is no danger in going up and down the stairs, let alone just staring at them.

A minute passed, and Lin Yi didn't notice anything unusual, and the change in vision similar to "spider sense" didn't appear either.

"Could it be that there really isn't a problem? Or is it Li Huiyuan's problem?" Lin Yi couldn't help but wonder as he looked at Li Huiyuan, who was gradually returning to normal.

But it's best to take a look at the fourth floor of the teaching building.

He looked at Li Huiyuan and asked, "How is it? Can you still walk?"

Li Huiyuan's eyes flickered for a moment, then she pursed her lips and stood up, nodding firmly: "Yes."

"Then come with me, let's go into the stairwell." Lin Yi stretched out his hand, "Let's hold hands. Once we feel that the other person has a problem, the other person should immediately find a way to pull the other person out of the stairwell."

If the situation is really not right, then for safety's sake, we will have to temporarily exit the stairwell.

"Student Lin..."

"Is there a problem?"

"No problem, but... aren't I cannon fodder?"

Lin Yi was speechless for a while, thinking what the hell is wrong with this Li Huiyuan, does she want to die so much?

"Cannon fodder and freebie are two different concepts."

Li Huiyuan was stunned for a moment, then stretched out her hand.

Lin Yi took her hand and slowly walked towards the stairwell.

Li Huiyuan looked at Lin Yi's hand, suddenly a little distracted, and then subconsciously followed Lin Yi's pace.

Lin Yi's hand was very warm, and the strength of his grip was just right. The two walked out of the corridor area and entered the stairwell.

The isolation fire doors at the stairwells of the teaching building are always open. There is also a light-transmitting window every half-floor in the stairs, and there are incandescent lights on the ceiling, so although the stairwell is a bit darker during the day, it is still very bright overall.

But as they approached the stairwell, a faint sense of discomfort suddenly fell on Lin Yi.

Lin Yi noticed that Li Huiyuan subconsciously tightened his hand, presumably also noticing something.

"It seems like there really is a problem." Lin Yi stopped at the entrance of the stairs and looked at the stairs in front of him.

Suddenly, he rubbed his eyes, then widened his eyes, looking at the stairs in front of him in disbelief.

In front of him, there were two staircases.

Generally speaking, the architectural style of S City, no, the entire Huaxia's staircase architectural style is built from right to left in a counterclockwise spiral, but what is presented in front of him now are two staircases that are mirror images of each other with the spiral axis of the staircase as the center!

He was stunned. Usually, even if the layer falls or there is a visual illusion, what he sees are distorted lines and collapsed light and shadow images. This is the first time he has seen stairs with such a sense of order and artistry.

So he took Li Huiyuan's hand and decisively exited the stairwell.

"Did you see anything just now?" Lin Yi asked.

Li Huiyuan said: "I saw two staircases... Student Lin, did you see them too?"

Lin Yi nodded.

Li Huiyuan said: "That's the problem I was talking about just now... I saw these two staircases at a glance just now, and then I thought of the student rules that say 'Regardless of the time, all the stairs in the campus buildings must be on the right-hand side', but what I don't understand is..."

"The rules say 'keep to the right', it should be the right-hand side of that staircase, right, but now there are two staircases, each with a right-hand side... Which one should we take?"

Lin Yi pondered: "You were thinking about this question just now? And then you dropped a layer?"

Li Huiyuan shook her head slightly: "It's not entirely like that... When I looked at the stairwell just now, looking at the light in the stairwell, I don't know what happened, but I was a little distracted, and then I seemed to feel that the two staircases were a little twisted like braids, and, I seemed to see a staircase going downwards..."

"Are you sure it's... a staircase going downwards?!" Lin Yi asked curiously.

"I... I'm not sure." Li Huiyuan shook her head weakly, "I can't see clearly. I felt like the stairwell I saw just now was like a paint pattern painted on the surface of the water. When the wind blew, the surface of the water rippled, and then the original lines were all twisted together..."

"I don't know what's going on with that staircase, but it seems to really exist..."

"I felt like I was attracted by that staircase. I seemed to want to walk on that staircase uncontrollably, but before I could move my feet, you woke me up... I knew I was hallucinating."

"That kind of hallucination... is that what you call 'dropping a layer'?"

Lin Yi nodded silently: "Basically, yes."

Li Huiyuan suddenly asked a little anxiously: "Student Lin, can you tell me what dropping a layer means? Is it related to me being 'contaminated'?"

Lin Yi thought for a moment, then said, "Do you remember my conversation with Young Master Tian before? It's like a glass bridge built between high mountains. The glass bridge is one layer, and below the glass bridge is another layer. Usually, we walk on the glass bridge, and that glass is opaque."

"But when we are contaminated, the glass bridge becomes transparent, and we can see the things in another layer. Some people with a fear of heights can't stand this change, and they become anxious, breathe rapidly, and even show symptoms of madness. Some will accidentally fall down, plunging into another layer, and their fate is unknown…"

"You and I are now like those people walking on the edge of the glass bridge. Sometimes we can see the things below, and sometimes one of our feet is in the air. If we can't step back in time, we will be doomed if we fall."

"Even whether the glass on this glass bridge is strong is unknown. So sometimes I need you to walk in front of me and help me… test the danger with your life. Sometimes when you have a problem, I can pull you back onto the bridge, but as the danger increases, there will be times when I can't even save myself, let alone save you…"

"'Cannon fodder'…" Li Huiyuan slowly uttered two words.

Lin Yi noncommittally said, "The truth is unpleasant, but that's how it is."

Li Huiyuan had already accepted it, and nodded silently upon hearing this.

Lin Yi on the side fell silent.

「What Li Huiyuan saw just now… could it be the staircase leading to the basement of the teaching building?」

The real problem isn't this, but… the staircase leading to the first basement floor of the teaching building was actually seen by Li Huiyuan at this time.

Who is Li Huiyuan? In terms of identity, she is a "probationary student who lost her student ID and has been contaminated."

And what was our position when we also saw the staircase leading to the first basement floor of the teaching building?

According to the conversation between the dormitory manager and the art teacher, it can be inferred that we were "probationary students who haven't even obtained student IDs yet."

As for contamination, that did exist.

Which means—

「Probationary students without identification and contaminated can see the staircase leading to the basement of the teaching building?」

Lin Yi rubbed his chin. If that's the case, it could explain why Tian Bufan couldn't find the stairwell in the teaching building on May 7th.

Because Tian Bufan had a student ID, he didn't meet the conditions to see the stairwell. Even if he was already in the stairwell, he couldn't access the things in that layer!

However, there is still a doubt about Li Huiyuan being able to see the stairwell leading to the basement, which is the time.

「How did she see that layer in broad daylight?」

「Or is it that she can only see it but can't go there?」

「Wait a minute! Maybe that's really the case!」

The position where Li Huiyuan was standing just now was not in an area directly exposed to the sun. In other words, it was extremely similar to the situation when he was thinking about the problem in the classroom and fell into another layer…

This can be understood!

When the state is unstable, problems may be encountered in any place without direct sunlight!

Lin Yi looked down at the time.

15:13.

There are only 17 minutes left until the agreed time to return to the classroom. Lin Yi felt that there was no chance to go to the fourth floor to observe, but decided to take another look at the stairwell, trying to find the door that might exist between the layers…

He felt that this stairwell was extraordinary.

Not extraordinary in a good way, but extraordinary in an extremely dangerous way.

He felt that on the layer-level staircase, there should be one or even two spiral staircases, one leading to the mysterious fifth floor and above of the teaching building, and the other leading to the first basement floor.

Perhaps, the staircase may also be another hub…

When walking in the stairwell, a closed environment naturally forms an independent layer, and that layer drifts between layers with some kind of supernatural force. Only when the people walking in it meet certain conditions that can achieve self-anchoring will the condition to leave the stairwell be triggered.

Otherwise, it would be like them going endlessly downstairs before, or like Mao Feiyang going endlessly upstairs.

Speaking of which…

Lin Yi suddenly thought of a creepy thing—he suddenly remembered that when he followed Mao Feiyang through his dream and shuttled through the stairwell, he saw a group of sculptures with different shapes. Those sculptures were frozen into various poses, some struggling, twisting, as if they were frozen at some terrifying and extremely painful moment of death…

「Could it be that they… are some creatures that have been contaminated into Nightwalkers, fell into another layer after entering the stairwell, and then could never leave, and finally died alone in the stairwell and became a member of the sculpture?」

Thinking of this, Lin Yi suddenly had a burst of inspiration, and a picture appeared in his mind…

He saw Li Huiyuan being attracted by the stairwell, and then uncontrollably stepped into the stairwell.

Li Huiyuan's eyes were dull, her spirit was sluggish, as if sleepwalking, stepping on the stiff steps. However, after this step was taken, the steps that should have been higher than the ground suddenly turned into a layer of steps lower than the horizontal ground in the twist.

But Li Huiyuan didn't notice the abnormality at all, and stepped down the steps step by step…

The picture in his mind was like some kind of inspiration deduction. When Li Huiyuan walked down the steps, his "lens" also followed Li Huiyuan down…

Walking, walking, walking…

I don't know how long it took, Li Huiyuan suddenly shivered and woke up.

She glanced at the bottom, a Fibonacci sequence spiral staircase seemed endless, and she couldn't see the end.

She also looked up palely, a similar Fibonacci sequence extended in her spiral, as if she couldn't see the way back.

Her whole person was struck by lightning, standing on the original steps as if she were stupid, without any movement.

Gradually, I don't know how long it took, she finally moved and began to stick to the wall on her right hand side, constantly walking up the steps.

Just walking and walking, I don't know how long it took, her body began to undergo strange changes…