Rules-related weird stories: 4016

“Lao Mo… I feel like something is watching us…” Lin Yi felt a sense of unease. As he walked through this place, he didn't feel disgusted by the dim and oppressive environment, but this feeling of being watched gave him a chilling sensation.

It was hard to imagine how difficult their situation would be if he wasn't with Lao Mo, if Lao Mo didn't have a tool similar to a kerosene lamp in his hand.

“A feeling of being watched…?” Lao Mo pondered for a moment. “I didn’t sense it… That’s right, your perception is better than mine. You even pinpointed the location of the Arts Building. What kind of feeling is it? Is it threatening?”

Even Lao Mo didn't sense it? Lin Yi was immediately shocked. He quickly described the feeling he had.

However, after listening, Lao Mo frowned and didn't speak for a long time. Finally, he said, “It could be… sculptures.”

“Sculptures…?” How long had it been since he heard that word? Lin Yi felt a little unfamiliar with it. “What kind of sculptures? Not ordinary sculptures, right?”

If they were ordinary sculptures, Lao Mo wouldn't have such a solemn expression.

Lao Mo shook his head and said, “A very ancient kind of sculpture. Or rather, at that time, there wasn't even the concept of 'sculpture' yet. You need to know that many conceptual definitions are reinforcements of cognition by later generations.”

Lao Mo added, “Let’s go. You’ll see them soon… The situation might be a bit complicated. Just ignore their existence.”

Soon, a patch of white light appeared in front of them. This was the visual difference that would inevitably occur when looking from a dark place to a bright place. Lin Yi knew that the Arts Building hall filled with candelabras and chandeliers should be there.

As they approached the hall, the wind became even stronger. This was the venturi effect, but it also indicated that there was a vent, or even multiple vents, inside the Arts Building, which should have been sealed.

「The situation really doesn't seem too optimistic…」 The ominous premonition in Lin Yi's heart grew stronger and stronger. The last time Maozi came, the weather was also abnormal, with wind and rain, but it wasn't as bad as it was now.

But then again, so far, he had only seen purebred Nightwalkers and Grinning Angels. Could it be that the Gray Mist invasion was just this?

“Lao Mo… what exactly is the Gray Mist invasion?” Lin Yi couldn't help but ask.

Lao Mo was taken aback. “Aren’t the things you’ve seen part of the Gray Mist invasion?”

“Just these?”

“‘Just’?” Lao Mo couldn't help but sneer. “Don’t forget that you’re still a frog just because you’re used to the height of the sky. A frog that leaves the deep well is just a frog that has gone from being at the bottom of the well to being outside. In essence, it’s still a frog…”

“You think it’s simple because I’m here, and because it’s here…”

Lao Mo raised the string of large eyeballs in his hand.

“If it weren’t for it…”

He casually threw the string of large eyeballs out.

The glowing large eyeballs advanced forward like a flare gun thrown into a deep well. The light along the way dispelled all the purebred Nightwalkers hidden in the darkness. But as the large eyeballs left his hand, the dim environment instantly closed in like a swamp. The purebred Nightwalkers hiding in the shadows finally revealed their greedy desires and intense killing intent towards Lin Yi and Lao Mo…

「Swish… swish… swish…」

They moved quickly like humanoid spiders on the walls of the corridor, surging towards Lao Mo and Lin Yi.

“Lao Mo!” Lin Yi exclaimed.

“Be calm.”

As Lao Mo's dry voice sounded, an invisible domain expanded. Lin Yi, who was at the center of the domain, suddenly felt the discomfort of an extraordinary power being forcibly drawn from his body. The purebred Nightwalkers that had been surging over seemed to have been suddenly subjected to an extremely strong gravity, and were slammed heavily onto the ground.

「Thump thump thump…」

Large numbers of purebred Nightwalkers crashed to the ground, constantly emitting some green powdery particles from their bodies, which all poured into Lao Mo's body…

Lao Mo walked forward and picked up the large eyeballs he had thrown out.

Warm light re-enveloped them, but a layer of cold sweat had already appeared on Lin Yi's back.

“See that?” Lao Mo said with a fake smile. “Relative safety… is built on absolute strength.”

「Gulp…」

Lin Yi glanced at the shriveled sculptures that had almost fallen to his feet, as if all the blood had been drained from them, and swallowed hard, nodding.

Lao Mo glanced at the ethereal Grinning Angels that ignored the walls of the Arts Building corridor and muttered, “I didn’t trick them… It seems they’ve learned their lesson.”

“Ah?” Lin Yi was stunned. “What do you mean?”

“I just discovered a Grinning Angel holding a lamp.”

“A Grinning Angel holding a lamp? What’s the significance of that?” Lin Yi knew that it was the dormitory administrator who had transformed into a Grinning Angel.

Lao Mo said, “That’s the key to your return to the campus.”

Lin Yi was stunned. After thinking about the cause and effect, he couldn't help but guess, “Could it be that you want to transform them back into the dormitory administrator, and then let the dormitory administrator take me away?”

Lao Mo looked at Lin Yi in surprise. It was the first time his expression was so strange, as if saying, “Chang Wei, are you still saying you don’t know martial arts?”

Even Lao Mo couldn't help but swear.

“Uh… I… it’s not… ” Lin Yi quickly explained how he was chased by the Grinning Angel in the gymnasium, and then Teacher Wang took action to “restore it to its original form”, “…that’s how it is, so I know!”

Lao Mo breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s good… I thought you’d been a dormitory administrator these past few days… In that case, you were being targeted by the Grinning Angel during the day probably just because you were stained with ‘ashes’.”

「‘Probably’, ‘just’?！」 Lin Yi's eyelids twitched violently. “Could there be more reasons?”

“These aren’t very important to you right now,” Lao Mo said. “Let’s go first. If we really can’t catch a Grinning Angel holding a lamp, we’ll just have to spend some time actively hunting one down…”

Lin Yi asked, “The Grinning Angel holding the lamp, is that the dormitory administrator?”

Lao Mo nodded. “Yes… After the old kerosene lamp’s protection of the dormitory administrator fails, an excessive amount of extraordinary power begins to permeate the dormitory administrator’s identity, eventually causing them to transform into Grinning Angels.”

“So the Grinning Angel is actually formed by excessive pollution?”

“Don’t just look at the surface. It’s like learning chemistry. The same substance can produce completely different reactions under different catalytic conditions.”

“The old kerosene lamp… is a catalytic condition?”

“That’s an analogy. Not all Grinning Angels are born in this way, but one of the birth paths is caused by more pollution after the lamp fails…”

“Will the failed old kerosene lamp produce extraordinary power with characteristics different from the ‘light’ type, similar to the dark side of extraordinary power?”

“I don’t know. You can understand it however you want. Anyway, compared to ‘not having an old kerosene lamp at all’, the danger brought by ‘forcibly using a failed old kerosene lamp’ is more unpredictable.”

“Then… why doesn’t the dormitory administrator throw it away?”

“I can’t tell you the answer to that. If you have the chance, you might be able to find the answer through the 《Dormitory Administrator Rules》… However, you’d better not have this opportunity.”

“Why?”

“Idiot, of course it’s because I’m afraid you’ll accidentally turn into a Grinning Angel.”

Hearing this, the corners of Lin Yi's mouth twitched fiercely. If Lao Da's flying kick before was a joke, then if he really became a Grinning Angel, he would probably be crushed by Lao Da…

「Damn… I hope that day never comes…」

Lin Yi shivered violently, but he immediately realized something. “Hey, Lao Mo, what you just said was… hunting Grinning Angels? Is it the kind of Grinning Angel that can be transformed back into a dormitory administrator?”

“Yes.”

“If you hunt them, what will happen to the dormitory administrator? Will they die?”

Lao Mo's face turned dark when he heard this. “After you hunt something, is it possible for that thing to still live?”

“Then the dormitory administrator…”

“When they become Grinning Angels, they already possess the power to decide who lives and dies, and at the same time, they become subject to being decided upon for life and death.” Old Mo said coldly, “If your friends become Grinning Angels, then they are no longer the people you know… I understand…”

“Huh?”

“You stayed in the gymnasium… you saw a dormitory manager who was peeled away from the layers, so you think that Grinning Angels have a chance to be saved, right?”

Lin Yi nodded: “Yes…”

“That’s just survivor bias.” Old Mo said, “Only the Grinning Angels who appear in the gymnasium have a certain chance to be transformed back, and even if they are ‘people’ who have been peeled away, the probability of regaining cognition and becoming ‘human’ again is very low…”

“In the time I've been a Black Bib Chef, I've only encountered a limited few…”

Lin Yi pursed his lips. He knew that one of them might be Mu Daxian.

The secrets surrounding Mu Daxian were truly numerous and complex.

Lin Yi stopped asking about the dormitory manager because the corridor had reached its end.

He tugged at his soaked school uniform. Surprisingly, even such a fierce wind ultimately failed to completely take away his body temperature. The blue aura within him maintained his body's vitality like a heater. The soaked clothing, apart from causing some physical discomfort, did not hinder his actions in any way.

「Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—」

The wind tunnel effect was maximized the moment Lin Yi stepped out of the corridor. The gale blew so hard that he could barely take a step, as if the front wasn't the art building's hall, but a cliff by the sea.

White light enveloped Lin Yi, and the fierce wind made his clothes flutter. In that instant, he seemed to hear some sounds he shouldn't have heard.

The latest novels are available first at Six/Nine/Book/Bar!

The gale created a strong echo in his ears, and the wind tunnel effect also brought a more rapid wind sound. In such a whistling and sharp wind sound, he shouldn't have been able to hear any extra sounds, but Lin Yi began to hear another kind of sound in his ears that was independent of the wind sound… the sound of chains!

「Clang, clang, clang…」

It was the sound of chains being dragged slowly across the ground!

The sound came from somewhere unknown, as if in the wind, yet not in the wind, as if it had reached Lin Yi's ears through some completely independent channel.

Deep within the chains, an echo of a low, slightly evil, eerie, strange, and cold voice resounded. The voice had no origin, and he didn't know where it came from, as if it had fallen directly into his heart.

That voice was saying…

【Lin Yi… You've finally come…】

At this moment.

「Boom—」

Something seemed to explode in Lin Yi's mind, and the white light in front of him dimmed at a rapid pace…

The scene of the art building hall began to appear in his vision, and a slight sinking feeling appeared on his shoulders—Old Mo's hand was resting there.

“What’s going on?” Old Mo asked, “Your body temperature dropped to freezing point in about three seconds, and even the blue aura of the sports department had no effect.”

“Ah? This…!” Lin Yi exclaimed, “I… I just heard some kind of calling sound…”

Upon hearing the words “calling sound,” a gloomy golden light flashed in Old Mo's somewhat dim eyes: “'Call… ing… sound…'? What was the content?”

“It was just… just calling my name.”

Old Mo looked Lin Yi up and down strangely: “What's the use of calling your name? Besides, you are currently… 'without an identity'. What can ignore the effect of the 「Source Shadow」 scales and directly see your 'identity'?”

“I don’t know either…” Lin Yi said with a mournful face, “I won’t be a burden to you, will I?”

“Probably… not, right?” Old Mo's mouth twitched. He originally thought he had brought a power bank, but he discovered it was a nuclear power plant, and now he realized the problem was even bigger.

Lin Yi wasn't just a nuclear power plant, but a nuclear power plant with a nuclear leak.

“How long has this situation been going on? Did you hear it as soon as you entered the art building?”

“Uh… if I had to say, it feels like it’s been going on for a few days…”

“A few… days?!” Old Mo wasn't calm at this moment, “How many days have you been in school?!”

“Today is the fourth day…”

“…” Old Mo was silent for a while before slowly recovering, “You… you must have been here before.”

“This is my first time…” Lin Yi said weakly.

“Alright, if I say it isn’t, then it isn’t. It’s useless for you to say it is.” Old Mo interrupted, “Memories are very easy to tamper with with the current methods… If I’m not mistaken, your memories must be abnormal, right?”

“Uh…” Lin Yi pursed his lips and didn't speak.

As soon as Old Mo saw this, a look of deep understanding appeared on his face: “Okay, I might know…”

“What do you know? Why don’t you tell me, I actually… don’t know anything.” Lin Yi said.

Old Mo took a deep look at him: “I can’t say… at least, I can’t say.”

“Hey, Old Mo, why are you starting to act mysterious?”

“It’s not that I want to act mysterious, but your situation is something I’ve seen once before… You need to know that memory tampering is a kind of 'overwriting', but even the 'overwriting' of art students requires a constant stream of sources to maintain the overwritten state… and this situation will weaken over time.”

“You don’t need to guess randomly, you’ll know everything soon enough.”

Hearing Old Mo’s words, Lin Yi couldn’t help but be stunned. Tian Bufan’s words echoed in his ears like thunder.

《The Fifth Day》

As long as he waited until the fifth day, he would tell him everything.

「Could it be that Young Master Tian overwrote my memory, and then this overwrite will disappear on the fifth day?」

「Then wait… wait until Young Master Tian reveals the 'truth' completely.」

Lin Yi took a long breath and began to focus his attention on the hall.

Strangely, even though the wind in the corridor was terribly strong, there was no wind at all in the art building hall, as if they were two different worlds.

Large chandeliers hung down from the arched dome carved with exquisite patterns in the art building hall, and the entire hall was filled with a mysterious and majestic feeling.

Old Mo looked around and pondered: “This place has indeed been invaded…”

“What?” Lin Yi suspected he had misheard, “This place has also been invaded? How is that possible? Isn’t everything normal here?”

“Normal? This is just what it looks like in your 'eyes'…” Old Mo said in a low voice, “This place has already been flowing with blood and piled up with corpses, it's just that you can't see it…”

Lin Yi suddenly understood: “It’s 'overwriting'! The art students overwrote this place?!”

Old Mo's gaze focused on some strange places, and while looking, he said: “The art students have overwritten the layout of the hall. This is a huge trap, the first barrier to intercept purebred Night Walkers!”

Hearing Old Mo's words, Lin Yi was suddenly awakened, like someone who had been deceived by lies, and noticed a trace of awkwardness in everything that seemed normal in front of him.

This was like observing a photo taken using visual errors. If someone didn't tell you the problem in the photo, you would only be immersed in the initial cognitive bias.

But now, Lin Yi was gradually discerning the truth.

A cluster of faint golden flames rose from the depths of his eyes. As the light and shadows appeared, everything he saw in front of him became distorted.

As the vision changed, everything changed as if it were fading. The things overwritten on the surface gradually disappeared, while the chilling and terrifying scenes at the bottom slowly emerged…

His school uniform fluttered once again, and the wind in the layers finally blew to him.

This was the wind from the corridor, mixed with a trace of blood, filling the entire hall.

A patch of blood red began to appear in Lin Yi's vision. This was not the blood-colored aura of the Berserk Angel, but… blood mist!