Rules-related weird stories: 4016

May 7, X023, 20:23…

The cold, fragmented moonlight struggled to penetrate the heavy clouds, casting its glow on the walls of the teaching building. An endless, dense fog churned outside, filling the silent air with a sense of oppression.

Beyond the corridor bridge of Building D, a team advanced slowly under the dim yellow lights. Everyone wore solemn expressions and moved in orderly steps. The distinct sound of their footsteps seemed to cut through the wailing wind in the green belt. Light and shadow intertwined endlessly in the mist, as if concealing lurking, grotesque figures that followed the team slowly, slowly, into the distance beyond the corridor bridge of Building D…

As the last cook entered the corridor bridge of Building D, the originally soft, amber glow began to fade. The scorched, yellowed paper-like image seemed to heal like a wound, or like snow reappearing to cover a surface, slowly repairing itself and returning to a snow-white wall.

This scene was like someone using invisible ink to draw on a piece of paper beforehand. Then, when someone brought a light source close to the painting, the hidden pattern would emerge. But when the light source moved away, the pattern would disappear again as if sinking into water.

“I… I just now?!" Mao Feiyang clutched his chest, breathing heavily. “I felt like I was going to follow the security guards!”

“I felt like I didn’t want to go, but my body felt like it was out of control!”

“Good thing you held me back…”

Mu Daxian released Mao Feiyang and leaned against the corridor bridge, sighing in relief. “It’s normal. Very few people can resist the security guards’ ‘request’…”

He paused, then added, “Only those with extraordinary talent, unparalleled geniuses, can do it.”

Is it really okay to praise yourself so much… Mao Feiyang couldn't help but complain inwardly.

“Hey, wait a minute! They, they just now…” Mao Feiyang suddenly realized something, but it took him a while to figure out how to express it. Finally, he slapped his head and exclaimed, “Didn’t they just use a wallhack?!”

Mu Daxian: “……”

“If you want to understand it that way, it’s not entirely wrong.” Mu Daxian began to move. “Let’s go, let’s go over there. That place has old kerosene lamps and the aura of the security guards, which is very safe for us.”

The two quickly arrived at Building C. Mao Feiyang curiously looked at the wall in front of him, recalling the scene he had just witnessed in his mind, and tried to reach out and touch it.

“Just look, don’t think too much when you’re looking… Ah, damn it!” Seeing Mao Feiyang's curiosity, Mu Daxian didn't stop him, but he immediately pointed out some precautions to prevent Mao Feiyang from triggering anything.

But unexpectedly, Mao Feiyang seemed to be attracted by something, unconsciously reacting. By the time he realized it, it was already too late. Mao Feiyang had touched some kind of boundary and saw… the corridor bridge of Building D, and at the end of the corridor bridge—that building with a wild and abstract style!

It stood at the intersection of moonlight and gray mist, somewhat similar to the old clock tower and art building, like a corner of a church shrouded in the smog of the Industrial Revolution, giving people a strong sense of dreamlike unreality.

“That is… ?!” Mao Feiyang murmured to himself. Without realizing it, a touch of fanaticism surged in his eyes, and his body trembled slightly, as if he had witnessed an exciting scene.

In that instant, what Mao Feiyang saw resonated with Lin Yi, and the image flashed rapidly before his eyes, like skipping frames…

The image was a world of only black and white, like a black and white picture formed by pulling out the film from an old-fashioned camera and exposing it to the sun…

A chill rushed to Lin Yi's forehead. He suddenly realized that the illusion he had experienced while exploring the teaching building with Li Huiyuan on May 8th was the same scene that Mao Feiyang was seeing now?

In this instant, time seemed to wash over Lin Yi. He saw the kind of "static and dynamic superposition" image that only appeared in movies. Then, everything around Maozi seemed to be fast-forwarded, and the version of himself from the afternoon of May 8th slowly walked over like a phantom, eventually overlapping with Mao Feiyang on this May 7th…!

“What I saw… was actually what Maozi saw a day earlier?!”

A chill instantly climbed up Lin Yi's spine. Only at this moment did he realize that the contamination from Maozi was pervasive. It wasn't necessary to exchange vision for that kind of situation to occur. The things he saw through "My Vision" were, to some extent, the things that Maozi had seen at different points in time in the same space?!

“Could that also be part of the supernatural characteristics brought about by the contamination from Maozi’s side…?”

While Lin Yi was still in shock, an even more frightening and terrifying change came from Mao Feiyang's perspective.

The corridor bridge of Building D was actually distorting in front of Mao Feiyang's eyes…

You need to know that, whether it's painting or photography, every image has a vanishing point, used to converge all lines of sight, acting as a focal point. And the vanishing point of the corridor bridge of Building D was originally the area at the end, but at this moment, the vanishing point was shattering into several pieces, as if disintegrating.

The scene before them was like the reality being arbitrarily tampered with in Doctor Strange's mirror dimension. But compared to that space with its strong geometric rules, what Lin Yi and Mao Feiyang saw was much more broken. In this entire space, it was almost impossible to find a straight line!

All the lines were twisting, and the direction of that twisting was beyond anyone's logical prediction. Therefore, the more you looked, the more it made you feel uneasy, with a kind of indescribable itching and nausea, as if being bitten by ants.

Gradually, this sense of distortion permeated from the corridor bridge of Building D and began to transmit to Mao Feiyang. At the same time, everything around Mao Feiyang began to fade, even the light from the fluorescent lamps became dim…

The whole world seemed to be dragged into another collapsing dimension in the distortion. Mao Feiyang felt like he was losing his balance. Even though he hadn't moved at all, the whole world was shaking like a ship at sea being pushed by the wind and waves.

He felt like he was about to fall, but in the continuous change of his center of gravity, he couldn't help but feel a sense of déjà vu that once he fell, he would be swallowed by the twisted spatial lines…

With the appearance of this shaking sensation, the scene that Lin Yi saw was also continuously collapsing. The discomfort that he had originally suppressed attacked again. Countless purebred Nightwalkers suddenly emerged from the space and the walls. They wriggled like flattened dough suddenly bulging, and then one bloodshot eyeball after another popped out of the fleshy seams.

These large eyeballs rolled around, filling the D Building's connecting bridge and the surrounding world, all staring at Mao Feiyang. The feeling of being watched by such eerie things made one feel as if they were in an ice cellar or a bottomless abyss.

When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.

But at this moment, there's no need to gaze into the abyss; the abyss is already gazing at you, because you have inadvertently arrived in the abyss...

[He's here!]

[He's here!!!]

[Come! Come!]

[Hahahaha...]

Mao Feiyang seemed to hear the laughter of countless purebred Nightwalkers, the sound of the sea breeze and waves, and a call coming from the depths of the ocean—

["I AvgruNnen av tKe og mrke jaGer forTapte Sjeler fanTome"]

Mao Feiyang felt as if he was turning to stone, gradually sensing the abyss swallowing him, and a strong desire to escape arose in his heart, but his body had no way to move.

Just at that critical moment, he suddenly noticed that the sense of distortion in the surrounding space had faded a lot, and then, as if twisted by some force, it gradually returned to the original lines with a sense of geometric regularity...

At the same time, the eerie screams of pain also began to fade, and everything seemed to be reversed.

Immediately afterward, a hand rested on his shoulder, pulling him back.

Mao Feiyang turned his head and saw Mu Daxian's stern face.

Seeing that Mao Feiyang had regained his senses, the curve of Mu Daxian's mouth softened slightly.

"Don't mess around... I can't save you every time. It's already lucky that I could pull you back this time." He breathed a sigh of relief and didn't blame Mao Feiyang too much, seemingly accustomed to the art freshman's clumsy actions creating small surprises for him.

Mao Feiyang looked at the wall with some lingering fear: "What's behind this wall?"

"If we use the teaching building rules, that's Teaching Building D," Mu Daxian said calmly.

"Oh..." Mao Feiyang suddenly understood.

Hearing Mao Feiyang inquire about matters related to Building D, Lin Yi's eyes suddenly lit up, but when he heard Mao Feiyang say "Oh," he became anxious on the spot.

「Maozi, why the hell are you saying 'oh' again?!」

「What time is it? Why are you still saying 'oh, oh'? Can't you ask for some useful information, bro?!」

As if echoing Lin Yi's shouts, Mao Feiyang asked thoughtfully: "It sounds like there's another explanation... Building D looks a lot like the art building. Could it also be using that... that virtual image technology?"

"That's not right... You mentioned 'see you again' to that homeroom teacher in the art building. Is that place part of the art building?"

Mu Daxian shook his head: "No, that's the library."

Mao Feiyang was taken aback: "Is that the 'library' we passed on the way here in the elevator?"

"That's right." Mu Daxian nodded. "The library is located between the teaching building and the art building."

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Mao Feiyang had a flash of inspiration: "Since we can't go to the classroom anyway, why don't we go to the library for a while and come back when it's almost 0 o'clock?"

"No," Mu Daxian directly rejected his idea.

"Why?" Mao Feiyang asked, puzzled.

Mu Daxian patted the wall: "Because this road is one-way. Once you walk through the connecting bridge to the front of the library, the road will disappear."

"Will it turn into a wall like this?"

"Sort of... yes." Mu Daxian shrugged, avoiding the question, "But you won't have much chance to go to the library, so don't ask too much. Knowing too much won't do you any good. It's a turbulent time again, so try to get through this wave of 'Doomsday' safely."

"Oh..." Mao Feiyang nodded.

"Let me think, if I remember correctly, this should be..." Mu Daxian calculated for a moment, "The '73rd Gray Mist Intrusion'!"

"Okay..." Mao Feiyang suddenly became interested. "I just heard you and that teacher talking about Doomsday. What's the relationship between that and the Gray Mist Intrusion?"

Mu Daxian glanced at him, thought for a moment, and then said: "Do you really want to know?"

"Uh... Is it the kind I can't know?" Mao Feiyang was stunned.

Mu Daxian shook his head slightly: "It's a little related..."

Mao Feiyang pursed his lips: "Then, how about you tell me the part that's not related?"

"..."

"You're such a dog..."

Mao Feiyang chuckled, but didn't refute.

Mu Daxian briefly sorted out his thoughts and then said: "Let me give you an analogy."

"Okay."

"The art building is surrounded by mountains on three sides and faces the sea on one side, right?"

"Yes, it is."

"In the depths of that sea, there is a source of pollution that emits strong radiation. The power of pollution permeates the sky and the ocean, presenting a gray mist-like texture. And with the tides, the pollution will seep into the coastline, invading our world from that world..."

"The 'Doomsday War' was the greatest battle in history, like the Big Bang. It happened a long, long time ago, but the impact of that battle continues to permeate time and space."

"Even now, the whole world is still occasionally affected..."

"However, the Gray Mist Intrusion cannot be equated with Doomsday."

"The Gray Mist Intrusion event refers to the 'ocean tides' since the establishment of S City University."

"It can only be considered a relatively large aftershock of Doomsday..."

Mao Feiyang pondered: "It's like the relationship between an earthquake and aftershocks?"

"Something like that." Mu Daxian said, then he emphasized, "However, everything I just said was an analogy for you to understand."

"Especially the sea and tides I used as an analogy. Don't really understand them as the sea and tides, or I'm really afraid you won't dare to sketch when you return to the art building."

"Okay." Mao Feiyang nodded.

The two of them stayed there, while the image in front of Lin Yi's eyes showed slight fluctuations, and then this sense of fluctuation became stronger and stronger...

Finally, Lin Yi's thoughts returned to the previous "first layer of dream."

At this time, the time in the dream should be around 23:00 on May 7th. Mao Feiyang was walking in the teaching building led by Mu Daxian, and behind him was a group of purebred Nightwalkers with "signal delays."

「Until just now, there were no clues about Maozi losing the student commemorative coin...」 Lin Yi thought thoughtfully, 「Could it be a problem that occurred when taking the elevator?」

Thank you to book friend "usjdnshhs" for the reward!!