Rules-related weird stories: 4016

Chapter 329 Dream Realm, Kui Hongji, and... "Fanatics"

May 9, X023, "Giant Egg" auxiliary building of the stadium.

Lin Yi, fast asleep, was having a dream.

In his dream, he seemed to have entered a dense jungle. This jungle felt both familiar and strange, like the green belt in the school district, yet different. It was as if it were a corner forgotten by the world, exuding a chilling aura.

Light struggled to penetrate the layers of overlapping branches and leaves, but had already become extremely dim, like the last breath of a dying person, weak and feeble.

Each ray of light was like a prisoner swallowed by darkness, gradually disappearing in its struggle, leaving only mottled, almost imperceptible light and shadows on the ground. Those shadows were like ghosts lurking in the darkness, twisted and irregular, and seemed to be wriggling restlessly with the occasional breeze.

Mist, like a giant, cold white snake, meandered and coiled, tightly entwining the entire dense forest.

It permeated every inch of space, thick and humid, like miasma gushing from the depths of hell.

In the mist, everything became blurred and indistinct, the outlines of the trees looming, like a group of monsters baring their fangs and claws in the darkness.

Occasionally, the mist would dissipate briefly, but then quickly gather again, as if deliberately teasing intruders, mercilessly extinguishing that fleeting hope.

The trees here seemed to have been twisted by some evil force. The trunks bent at angles that defied common sense, like limbs struggling in pain.

Their bark was rough and cracked, like deep wrinkles carved by years and suffering. The branches were like withered arms, stretching helplessly towards the sky, or pulling and entangling each other, as if engaged in a never-ending struggle. Some withered yellow leaves hung on the branches, rustling in the breeze, a sound like a choked whisper, causing goosebumps to rise involuntarily.

Gusts of rapid airflow shuttled between the twisted trees, making a sharp "woo woo woo" sound, sometimes high, sometimes low, like a tormented soul wailing in endless darkness.

Some wind blew through the dry branches, making a "rustling" sound, as if a pair of invisible hands were shaking the entire dense forest violently.

Gradually, he heard some rustling sounds, like something moving on the fallen leaves and soft soil. As the "perspective" continued to penetrate deeper into the dense forest, he gradually saw some looming figures. These figures were very different from the shadows of the gnarled old trees. From a distance, one could distinguish that they were "people"—or, at least, things with human-like outlines.

Soon, Lin Yi analyzed what those things with human-like outlines were by decomposing the movement patterns between different sceneries and the mist in the field of vision, and combining them with the patterns of light and shadow changes—humanoid sculptures.

However, compared to the pseudo-human sculptures in the sculpture phalanx, the humanoid sculptures here gave him a more eerie feeling. If those who were able to enter under the light curtain of the lampposts were newly born pseudo-human sculptures, then the humanoid sculptures here should be the old pseudo-human sculptures.

These humanoid sculptures were scattered around, moving according to certain specific trajectories, as if they were loyal guards.

Before he could react, the perspective in this dream began to move...

The owner of the perspective flashed and moved through the mist, as agile as something other than a person, more like some kind of spirit riding the wind.

Lin Yi's thoughts flickered slightly, trying to pull the perspective back a little.

So, just like when he entered Mao Feiyang's perspective in his dream, he now floated out of the body of the owner of this perspective like a wisp of smoke...

After seeing this person clearly, he should have been a little shocked, but he was calmer than he expected, as if it should have been this way all along.

He saw the owner of the perspective—Kui Hongji.

This turned out to be Kui Hongji's perspective.

Absolutely unexpected, yet within reason.

For two days, he mostly followed Maozi's perspective in his dreams, experiencing the affairs of the art student. He rarely entered Kui Hongji's perspective.

Unexpectedly, this time he entered Kui Hongji's perspective.

"Kui Kui is shuttling through the dense forest?"

"When did this happen?"

He subconsciously glanced at his wrist, but unfortunately, there was no quartz watch on his wrist.

After entering the school district, Kui Hongji had been maintaining a solo combat rhythm. Except for a few meals and returning to the dormitory, he had not had much interaction with them.

He knew that Kui Hongji had entered the green belt, but he didn't know what he was doing inside. Therefore, he had always been curious about what Kui Hongji was doing, but he didn't expect to see it at this time.

Kui Hongji was still moving in the depths of the jungle, and now the thickness of the mist in the depths of the jungle had far exceeded imagination. Those with poor eyesight couldn't tell whether it was a tree trunk or a humanoid sculpture, or some more bizarre thing.

"Kui Kui is moving here, is he not affected at all?"

Lin Yi was a little puzzled. Logically speaking, to maintain sanity in this environment, one would at least need to have a pre-existing understanding of the things seen.

But when did Kui Hongji have this deep understanding?

"Could it be that he knew everything from the beginning?"

"No... Could it be that only I don't know anything?"

In Lin Yi's perception, Tian Bufan knew the most, but now it seemed that Kui Hongji was the most bizarre one. His behavior logic was like performing a specific task.

His purpose was too clear.

What made Lin Yi even more unbelievable was that he tried to observe Kui Hongji using his perspective, but found that Kui Hongji was like an invisible man. He shuttled through this place filled with mist and pollution, but all the aura passed through him.

This was somewhat similar to his previous ability to let "primitive pollution" enter and exit his body.

But at that time, he was at least taking a ladle from three thousand weak waters, but Kui Hongji didn't get a drop, just like he didn't exist.

"Wait... Doesn't exist?"

"Could it be that in the 'cognition' of these non-human units, Kui Kui doesn't exist now?"

Just like the original pseudo-human sculpture, which anchored each other through mutual perception and then carried out void enemy seeking, these humanoid sculptures could not perceive Kui Hongji's existence at all, so they couldn't find him?

This skill was like a very clever "stealth," even reaching the point of "invisibility."

Lin Yi didn't know how Kui Hongji did it.

The cold aura came from all directions as if materialized. Even if it was just a dream, Lin Yi still felt it as if it had invaded every pore of his body, freezing his blood.

He wasn't breathing, yet he could feel every breath of Kuai Hongji as if it were drawing the surrounding cold into his heart and lungs, causing him to shiver involuntarily.

Lin Yi vaguely remembered that deep within the dense forest, there existed a dividing line between light and shadow, a place even Mu Daxian hadn't taken Maozi.

However, Kuai Hongji had been traversing the depths of the forest for a long time, yet Lin Yi hadn't seen such a dividing line.

Not only hadn't he seen this dividing line, but he hadn't even seen the abandoned lampposts.

"Hasn't he reached that boundary yet?" Doubts arose in Lin Yi's mind, but looking at the increasingly strange and unfamiliar environment, he suddenly realized that perhaps the opposite was true!

Kuai Hongji hadn't just not crossed that boundary, but had already crossed it!

Lin Yi then followed Kuai Hongji, like a ghost, traversing the depths of the forest. He passed through layer after layer of patrols of humanoid statues, and finally arrived in a dim world completely obscured by lush foliage.

Here, the ancient trees had been felled according to some pattern, and some areas had become completely barren, cracked earth. The momentum of vegetation growing from the dense forest towards the cracked earth was diminishing like melting snow.

The appearance of such a region in the depths of such a damp forest was extremely abnormal.

It was a desolate land seemingly forgotten by the world. Scattered across the earth were some huge, milky-white stones. It was difficult to determine what material these stones were made of with just a distant glance, but Lin Yi's first impression was that they were like the kind of plaster that could be used for sculpting.

However, compared to traditional plaster, the stones in front of him seemed to be even harder.

The newest novels are first published on 69shu.com!

Kuai Hongji stopped at the edge of the desolate land. His slender, bamboo-like figure nimbly climbed the gnarled branches of an ancient tree, blending into the surrounding environment like a stick insect.

At this moment, he was like an extremely patient hunter, hidden among the gnarled branches, his somewhat sinister eyes fixed on the scattered giant stones, observing something, waiting for some kind of opportunity.

Lin Yi then began to observe the large plaster-like stones. Through the drifting mist, he faintly saw some figures moving.

"There are living beings here?!"

Lin Yi was shocked. The figures were still humanoid, but compared to the humanoid statues, they seemed to have some special… "rhythm."

Suddenly, he noticed that behind a large plaster stone relatively close to him, a figure also emerged.

Because the distance was relatively close, and the mist was drifting intermittently, he could now see clearly what the closest figure looked like.

It was a person wearing a dark green cloak and a hood. It held a strange vessel in its hands, and some axes and chisels seemed to be hanging from its waist, like a combination of a mentally unstable mason and carpenter.

In the vessel held in its hands was some viscous, milky-white paste.

Because his vision was severely obstructed, Lin Yi couldn't see the expression on the figure's face at all, but even from a long distance, Lin Yi could feel the wild enthusiasm, the morbid piety, and the restless greed and agitated madness emanating from it…

"'Fanatic'…?!"

At that moment, the word inexplicably popped into Lin Yi's mind, whether it was from his intuition or from a trace of Kuai Hongji's inner consciousness.

Regardless of whether it was related to Kuai Hongji, his intuition told him that this guy was a fanatic, and the guys behind him were also fanatics.

Lin Yi remembered that the first time he heard the term "fanatic" was from Mu Daxian.

And now, seeing such a situation, the first title that came to his mind was "fanatic."

These people seemed to have characteristics of the art department, but without the green aura of art, but a mottled gray-green aura.

And the dark green robes they wore had also become tattered cloaks.

The style of the cloak was like the original art student's uniform robe, torn to shreds by swarms of bats in a bat cave.

This fanatic gesticulated piously in front of the large plaster stone, occasionally reaching out and scooping some paste from the vessel and smearing it on the plaster stone, muttering something in its mouth, sounding like a buzzing sound that made people's heads feel uncomfortable.

When the fanatic had finished applying all the paste, it reluctantly left with the vessel, and then, like gears turning, another fanatic immediately walked out from the depths of the desolate land shrouded in mist, taking over its work and continuing to fiddle with the large plaster stone.

He observed the other large plaster stones, and upon this observation, he immediately discovered that in front of each of the large plaster stones he observed, there was at least one fanatic carrying out some kind of activity.

Lin Yi immediately realized that these fanatics were carrying out some kind of organized and disciplined secret activity.

As he observed the large plaster stones, he also discovered that these large plaster stones did not seem to be… "inanimate objects."

After he noticed this, the large plaster stones became vivid in his "perception," and he could see that the surface of these large plaster stones seemed to have some slight undulations, like the cocoons of some kind of creature.

"Dong… Dong… Dong…"

He seemed to be able to hear some subtle noises, and even the surrounding mist seemed to be affected by this noise, pushing out ripples in all directions in a very regular rhythm…

A flash of light suddenly flashed in Lin Yi's eyes: "Why are the ripples fluctuating in the mist so similar to the gray mist ripples on the giant egg playground?!"

"Could these plaster bodies be the source of the gray mist fluctuations?!"

"Did Kuai Hongji come here alone because of these large plaster bodies?!"

"Or is it… related to some kind of activity that the fanatics are carrying out?!"

At this thought, Lin Yi increasingly felt that everyone in the dormitory seemed to have come with mysterious missions, and only he had really come to "experience seven days."

No.

From now on, his experiential life seemed to have already deviated from the normal trajectory…

However, just as he had this thought, he found that Kuai Hongji's attention had fallen on the depths of the desolate land at some point.

It seemed that something that existed over there was truly related to Kuai Hongji's purpose in coming here.