Rules-related weird stories: 4016

Perhaps it was because his perception had reached this level, but Lin Yi, leaning against the lamppost, could vaguely sense their presence. These filthy things were moving timidly in the darkness, only daring to linger there, like schools of fish looking up at the blue sky but not daring to approach the surface. However, the inexplicable greed and desire revealed in their eyes far outweighed their fear…

They were wary of the light, they approached the light, they wandered in the fog, constantly pushing through it, devouring the power of the light…

"Once it hits 21:00, and the security guard isn't seen, there's no time to delay."

Lin Yi looked towards the boundary between light and darkness, at the area already submerged by the fog. He could see that parts of the cobblestone road were already distorted due to the influence of the layers.

Within the fog, there seemed to be an invisible pressure, slowly being applied to him.

He didn't know if the other experiment participants were encountering any difficulties, but it was clear that this abnormal weather was far from simple.

"Drip, drip, drip…"

Time ticked by, and Lin Yi breathed while staring intently at the quartz watch on his wrist.

20:59:02… 30… 50…

20:59:57, 20:59:58, 20:59:59…

21:00:00!!

"Time's up!" Lin Yi suddenly raised his head, his hawk-like eyes scanning the surroundings, but the light in his eyes quickly dimmed.

"Didn't see the security guard… Sure enough, didn't see him."

Although he had been mentally prepared, Lin Yi couldn't help but sigh softly in his heart when it actually happened.

"Damn it! There really isn't a security guard!" Wei Liang heavily punched the ground, then yelped in pain from the cobblestones, his face contorted, "Ouch, damn, that hurts…"

He rubbed his fist while cautiously surveying his surroundings: "Lao Lin, run?"

"We can only run," Lin Yi said solemnly.

The fog had already suppressed the range of the lamplight, and countless humanoid statues in the darkness were eyeing them covetously. Once the lamplight dimmed, he couldn't guarantee that everyone would maintain this sense of "respectful distance."

However, as the two of them slowly stood up, supporting themselves on the lamppost, looking for the next lamppost, Wei Liang's expression suddenly changed drastically: "It's bad!"

"Lao Lin, look at the road… Is it starting to distort?"

Lin Yi's heart skipped a beat. He quickly stared ahead, and when he looked, he indeed found that the cobblestone road ahead was distorting and stretching in a way that defied common sense…

The lampposts scattered on the cobblestone road, like buoys floating on the sea, began to sway from side to side.

Lin Yi took a few deep breaths, holding onto the lamppost, and then looked ahead carefully again. This time, the distortion of the cobblestone road disappeared, but the lamppost had definitely drifted a distance…

"Damn, this situation isn't good…"

He supported Wei Liang and said in a low voice, "Like yesterday, put your hand on my shoulder, and I'll take you back to the dormitory!"

"Lao Lin, can you do it? I feel like I can still hold on for a bit…" Wei Liang said seriously, gritting his teeth.

Lin Yi glanced at him and scolded in a low voice, "Hold on to what? Leave it to me! I could get back to the dormitory building yesterday, and I can do it today!"

As he spoke, he ignored what Wei Liang wanted to say, grabbed Wei Liang's hand, and placed it on his shoulder: "Hold on tight, trust me."

"Okay…" Wei Liang nodded without hesitation, and then added, "If it really doesn't work, just tell me. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve, maybe they'll help…"

Lin Yi's eyes lit up when he heard this: "Damn, you didn't say you had a trump card earlier? Actually, I'm already at my limit. Why don't you show off your divine power and do a 'Great Mighty Heavenly Dragon, World Honored Ksitigarbha,' and I'll applaud for you on the side?"

"Lao Lin, I think I just heard someone barking like a dog," Wei Liang said seriously.

"Damn it, how awful, didn't you say you had a trump card?"

"Hey, isn't this how the normal script goes? I say, 'I still have a trump card I can use,' and you say, 'Why bother the father with such a trivial matter,' and then you reveal your courage and lead me to break through the encirclement or something…"

"Liangzi, are you taking advantage of me at this time?"

"We're all honorary fathers to each other, why care about such trivial matters?"

"If I hadn't seen you watching H manga with my own eyes, I would have really thought you were reading hot-blooded brotherhood manga!"

"Hot blood and bloody battles aren't that different to some extent, they're both essentially sweaty battles! Don't worry about those details!"

"So, do you have a trump card or not?"

"'If there is'!"

"You damn…"

The two of them walked slowly, exchanging words, out of the range of the "Dormitory Building - 087" lamppost, and towards the lamppost in front.

It was just that Wei Liang didn't see Lin Yi's increasingly pale and ugly face.

The moment Lin Yi grabbed Wei Liang's hand and put it on his shoulder, he felt Wei Liang's hand was terrifyingly cold, the temperature was like picking up a brick that had been placed in ice water and carrying it on his shoulder.

However, he looked at Wei Liang, but he didn't show anything unusual, as if he had even deceived himself.

This scene immediately reminded him of the scene in Investiture of the Gods where Bi Gan was disemboweled. Bi Gan, walking on the way home, asked an old lady selling vegetables whether vegetables could live without a heart, and what would happen to a person without a heart? The old lady said that a person would of course die without a heart, so Bi Gan died on the spot.

And Wei Liang's current state, Lin Yi felt was similar to Bi Gan. He couldn't remind Wei Liang of what happened, he could only let Wei Liang maintain this perception of himself, like a slice of time, trapping himself in this stage, and then pulling himself back after he was safe.

But Lin Yi couldn't understand the logic of Wei Liang doing this at all, and he couldn't even ask, for fear that asking would break Wei Liang's strange state.

There are a total of 96 lampposts in the dormitory building area. At most, it would only take the distance of nine more lampposts to reach the front of the dormitory building, but Lin Yi didn't relax at all. In the end, it was because he had no idea about the distance of the campus road under abnormal weather.

Moreover, according to his previous experience of walking in the fog, as long as he didn't reach the "Dormitory Building - 096" lamppost, then no matter how close he was to the dormitory building, he wouldn't be able to see the dormitory building.

…

Under the thick fog, the two figures slowly moved forward with the help of the dim lamplight, as if they were hunters walking in the snowfield with wind and snow overhead.

As he walked, Lin Yi began to realize that something was wrong.

He found that the cobblestone road under his feet gradually lost its smooth geometric shape and began to become soft and glutinous, like bubbles bulging from the swamp, losing the hard characteristic it should have.

He glanced down at his feet, and saw that the cobblestone road still existed in his "vision", but from the tactile feedback from the soles of his feet, it was simply a soft road. His feet even felt a little staggering and slipping when he stepped on it.

"The falling layer is affecting my perception, but because I firmly believe that I am still on the cobblestone road, what I 'see' is still what I believe, but what I 'feel' is the 'real road now' after the layer has fallen!"

Suddenly, a sharp light flashed across Lin Yi's eyes, and the hairs on his arms stood on end in an instant. He clearly sensed something…

That feeling, it was like… thick fog?!

He suddenly realized that the thick fog had come to his side at some point, like a sheet being unfolded and slowly falling, about to cover him, and outside those thick fogs, countless humanoid sculptures swarmed, as if they were waiting for the moment he was swallowed by the thick fog!

"Swish, swish, swish…"

"Swish, swish, swish…"

There were also some nocturnal species crawling on the ground like hungry hyenas, greedily watching his every move…

"Layers!"

"Am I… stuck between two layers?!"

He was now like a drowning man, perhaps his chest was still struggling above the water, but the rest of his body had already fallen into the water.

That water surface was the boundary of the layers. Once he completely sank, he would be devoured by the piranhas beneath the surface, leaving not even bone fragments!

"What I 'see' are the water surface and the things beneath it, but what I'm in contact with are already things beneath the surface... I must paddle to the lamppost ahead before I sink!"

Lin Yi had to use analogies to weaken the influence of the layers. Even if he imagined himself swimming or traversing a swamp, it was better than acknowledging that he was walking alongside a group of humanoid sculptures with a ravenous desire for his flesh and blood.

His eyes were fixed on the dimly lit lamppost ahead. He struggled, dragging Wei Liang along, until he reached the lamppost, then looked up at the pole.

"Dormitory Building - 090".

"He mlgb... skipped two lampposts! No wonder it looked so far away!"

He rested briefly, then glanced at the time.

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21:06.

Three lampposts, six minutes. This speed was far slower than he had anticipated...

The dormitory building's corridors would start turning off the lights at 22:00, and be completely dark by 22:20, but the real time they had to return to the dormitory was only before 22:00.

There were still six lampposts...

And the dormitory building's corridors...

The seemingly short journey felt as severe as two battles. Lin Yi even began to worry whether the remaining 54 minutes would be enough for them to fight these two battles.

He took a deep breath, and, taking Wei Liang with him, plunged into the fog, continuing to 'swim' laboriously through the mist like a dog paddling, gradually closing the distance to the dormitory building.

...

As Lin Yi walked through the fog, he repeatedly told himself in his heart, "I am Lin Yi, my student ID is X0230506098, I am on the cobblestone road leading to the dormitory building." At the same time, he would occasionally look at the time on his watch to roughly estimate the distance he had already traveled...

21:09. Lin Yi reached out and pushed aside the thick fog in front of him, and saw clearly the dimly lit lamppost ahead.

"Dormitory Building - 092".

At first glance, there seemed to be nothing wrong with the straight lamppost with its orange-yellow light. The lamppost also had the lamppost number written on it in white paint, but Lin Yi felt a strange, indescribable feeling when he looked at it.

He couldn't tell whether he was just becoming paranoid from 'dog paddling' in the fog for too long, whether he suspected the safety of the lamppost, or whether some changes he didn't know about had really occurred to the lamppost.

But he didn't think too much. Wei Liang's icy hand was already turning a bit blue, gradually turning into that cyan-gray state from before. He had to receive the lamplight to catch his breath before he could continue forward.

He didn't have much time left.

So he took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and walked with Wei Liang to the lamppost labeled "Dormitory Building - 092".

When he broke through the dense fog and entered the range of the lamppost's light, the already strong sense of unease in his heart became even stronger, like magma churning violently before a volcanic eruption, impacting his heart. His heart began to pound.

An incomprehensible, unpredictable sense of crisis, as if a net was cast down from the void, gave him a sense of confusion and helplessness.

"What's going on?"

"What is causing this intense sense of crisis?"

He carefully looked around, but couldn't find anything strange at all. A lamppost standing on a cobblestone road, emitting orange-yellow light in the thick fog, wasn't that supposed to represent a state of safety?

He also had his student ID, and hadn't violated any rules. The safe state should definitely not be invalid, so where did the crisis come from?!

Lin Yi was anxious and paced around in circles. His intuition urged him to escape immediately, but he hadn't found the location of the next lamppost, and Wei Liang's body hadn't recovered enough warmth under the lamplight!

Without direction, rushing out of the range of light would really be courting death.

However, the sense of crisis didn't weaken in the slightest because Lin Yi didn't leave the range of the lamplight. Leaning against the lamppost, Lin Yi felt more and more strange, as if ten thousand ants were crawling on the shadows on his body, making him restless.

"What exactly is wrong?"

Lin Yi had no way of knowing whether this feeling of wrongness came from the psychological hints given to him by the surrounding environment, or whether his cognition had already begun to crack and was being silently polluted by this falling layer.

He felt that he was somewhat unable to distinguish "right from wrong". He was starting to doubt whether the area he was in was really in a safe state...

He felt the metallic texture of the cold lamppost, felt the biting cold, and suddenly shuddered violently.

"Not good! Was I just confused?"

"My will has weakened!"

The evening wind was bone-chillingly cold, piercing Lin Yi's body and mind.

That kind of imperceptible pollution, like boiling a frog in warm water, made him feel a chill down his spine.

He realized that he was being affected by the layer. Just like a person who has been swimming all the time, their skin will eventually become loose from being soaked in water. Even if he remains determined, if he can't reach the shore, then all that awaits him is drowning after exhaustion.

Lampposts are beacons, but not the shore. Only the dormitory building is the shore!

He leaned on the lamppost and gasped for breath, trying to keep his mind calm, or, to maintain "the state of being calm that he believed he was in", and then, continued to look for the location of the next lamppost.

He glanced sideways at Wei Liang's hand. Under the lamplight, Wei Liang's hand still maintained a pale, cyan-gray, icy state. The lamplight had failed to warm it up, only allowing Wei Liang's body to remain in this state without continuing to deteriorate.

He slowly withdrew his gaze—but just as he withdrew his gaze, he suddenly discovered that the cobblestone ground under his feet had disappeared at some point. Under his feet was only damp, soft sand. The cobblestones that should have been laid under his feet—no, at least what appeared to be "cobblestones" from a "visual" perspective—had completely disappeared!

He looked at the lamppost beside him again.

The lamppost was still there, the light was still dim, but he finally realized something. He stretched his neck and approached the white paint on the surface of the lamppost, gently touched it...

He immediately discovered that the numbers written in white paint had become much fainter, as if they had been ravaged by countless years of wind, frost, rain, and snow. He looked up at the lamppost and found that the light bulb inside the lampshade had also become dimmer.

His pupils dilated slightly, as if trying to take in more light.

But at this moment, he discovered that the thing inside the lamppost lampshade didn't seem to be a light bulb, but... some kind of stone that emitted light!!

Originally, the light was bright, and with the existence of the lampshade and some water mist, and Lin Yi had never carefully observed the lamppost's light bulb before, he had subconsciously assumed that the light bulb was the traditional pear-shaped glass body with a filament.

However, as the light faded, the shape of the light bulb gradually appeared before him.

600 words added for the alliance leader "Cup-packed Thinking", paying off the debt~

Wahaha, there's no debt anymore, I'm swelling up~~~

Thanks to "usjdnshhs" for the reward!!

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Ahem, the above is the original... I won't delete it, keep the original cheerful face (covering face.)

Then—

Thanks to the alliance leader "chltchu" for the reward, re-owing 10,000 words, will be added within three days, rush rush rush!