Rules-related weird stories: 4016

Chapter 358: That is "Angel" (Bonus Chapter - 1000 words)

"Thump! Thump! Thump..."

As his heart restarted and his cognition solidified, the "established fact" that his bones had been crushed was overwritten. He stood up from the ground unharmed and quickly began searching for Old Mo.

"I am in the gallery! I am next to Old Mo! I am in the gallery, Old Mo is next to me!"

"I am in the gallery! I am in the gallery..."

He remembered Old Mo's instructions and did not use his identity anchor to locate himself, only using the most basic anchoring method—using Old Mo's location to anchor himself.

This was an extremely unreasonable anchoring method because the further one deviated from the real world, the more difficult it was to anchor back, and the more conditions were required. Using only "gallery" and "Old Mo" was simply unrealistic.

But what if Old Mo himself was also receiving him?

Two-way anchoring, as solid as an iron chain.

Lin Yi quickly saw Old Mo's shadow in the gray mist not far ahead.

"Old Mo..." he called out with difficulty.

"Whoosh—"

Old Mo's figure broke through the gray mist and came before Lin Yi.

"Don't worry, I'm here."

The dry and hoarse voice was as reassuring as a divine needle steadying the sea.

He extended his hand towards the staggering Lin Yi, giving people a vague feeling of a white-bearded old man, making one fear that his next sentence would be, "Be my son."

Lin Yi was pulled up by Old Mo and steadied himself, quickly saying, "Old Mo, I..."

"I know," Old Mo seemed very wary of this, quickly interrupting, "Don't linger, leave first."

Lin Yi naturally knew how serious the problem was, so he quickly followed Old Mo deeper into the gallery. However, as he left, he found that the little girl had already disappeared.

Even so, he could still vaguely hear the notes of the music box and the black nursery rhyme sung by the little girl.

"Ding-dong, ding, ding..."

"Little friend, hide-and-seek..."

"Dong ding-dong... ding ding dong dong..."

"...Sister's little waist is sore, oh so sore..."

"Ding ding dong dong..."

"Brother, brother, you're so bad~ Laughing at sister's dull saw~"

"..."

He stroked his arm and quickened his pace to leave this place.

And in the dark corner of the gallery, a music box with its lid open slowly played, the gray mist swirling, completely burying it.

…

October 5, 2023, 0:16, Art Building Gallery.

"Tap, tap, tap..."

The depths of the gallery were almost devoid of light, leaving only a series of dull footsteps of shoes stepping on the wooden floor and the occasional "creak, creak" sound.

As he passed through the gallery, Lin Yi saw another huge painting. The scene was a desolate cemetery with crooked tombstones and the sky completely covered by dark clouds. In front of the painting, the fog was even thicker, forming a human-shaped outline, standing there quietly, as if waiting for something.

When Lin Yi approached, the outline suddenly disappeared, leaving only endless darkness and cold, making people terrified.

He didn't know how long he had been running, but Lin Yi vaguely felt that there was more moisture in the air, and the gray mist was not so thick, as if it had been dispersed by the moisture.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

"Bang, bang, bang!!!"

At the end of the gallery, there was a rapid knocking sound, as if something was violently knocking on the door.

Old Mo rushed over and opened the door.

"Bang!"

A huge storm pushed open the ancient and rusty iron door, and a torrential mist, accompanied by a violent storm, poured into the gallery.

The end of the gallery was crumbling, like a fishing boat being lifted up by a monster, and the water vapor poured in, almost washing Lin Yi away.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—"

"Splash, splash, splash, splash—"

The wind tunnel effect was pushed to the extreme here, and the sound of the waves crashing on the reefs was as violent as a mountain torrent.

Countless hands with sharp fingernails drilled in at that moment, fiercely grabbing towards Old Mo and Lin Yi.

Old Mo let out a low roar and slashed out with the pig-slaughtering knife.

He didn't know what Old Mo had done, but countless broken limbs, along with stinky, muddy substances, smashed onto Lin Yi like dumped garbage. The disgusting smell was nauseating, like dancing with large pieces of flesh in minced meat.

Suddenly, a thunderclap tore through the night sky, and the whole world turned pale white, and Lin Yi also saw a scene that made his scalp tingle.

Those minced meat were indeed the appearance of Nightwalkers after being chopped up, as he had guessed. They were washed onto him by the wind and rain, as disgusting as rotten chicken eggs and stinky vegetable leaves stained with swill.

The only thing that was still acceptable was that these fragments were petrifying into sculpture fragments at an extremely fast speed. Even the ones stuck to Lin Yi quickly turned into dried powder.

Thunder rumbled continuously, and the scene in front of Lin Yi switched back and forth between dim black and pure white. The moment he drilled out of the gallery, a thick lightning bolt tore through the dark night sky, revealing the extremely terrifying scene of the art building now.

He saw the outer wall of the art building was covered with densely packed Nightwalkers. The dense number was like a swarm of red crabs entering the sea on the beach. Each head kept squirming, as distinct as each piece of flesh on a mulberry. Their limbs were also swaying, twisting as they swayed, and making some bubble-like sounds like crabs.

But there were too many of them, so dense that it was impossible to tell which head belonged to whom, or which arm belonged to whom—even they themselves couldn't tell.

"Swish, swish, swish... Swish, swish, swish... Swish, swish, swish..."

They pushed and squeezed each other, constantly looking for any holes or cracks in the walls of the art building, and then frantically drilled inside. Seeing that they had opened a door here, the nearby Nightwalkers swarmed over.

Old Mo let out a low roar, opening up his domain while constantly draining all the Nightwalkers that涌over, and at the same time wielding the pig-slaughtering knife to chop up the Nightwalkers that squeezed into the domain like cutting韭菜.

"Kid! Close the door!! Close the door!!!"

Old Mo couldn't spare a hand, so Lin Yi quickly braced himself against the Nightwalker fragments to pull the heavy iron door.

Under the effect of the wind tunnel, the already heavy iron door seemed to be welded in the open state, and no matter how Lin Yi moved, he couldn't pull it over.

"Is it closed yet?!"

"It's closing—!" Lin Yi roared, and a sky-blue aura steamed out of his body like steam. The muscles on his arms bulged at a speed visible to the naked eye, and in the blink of an eye, they surpassed the 美臀队长…

"Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak—"

The thick iron door made a harsh sound, as if it was playing tug-of-war with Lin Yi. Lin Yi clenched his teeth so hard that his molars were about to break, and only then did he pull the iron door shut heavily.

Strangely enough, the moment the iron door was closed, the entire portal and the wall seemed to merge into one, giving people a feeling of impregnability, the feeling that the door was there but no one could open it.

At the moment of closing the door, the recoil was transmitted, sending Lin Yi flying out a bit.

Lin Yi briefly lost his center of gravity and rolled a few times on the ground. When he got up, he just happened to see through this terrifying storm that the outside of the art building turned out to lead to a dilapidated watchtower!

The end of the watchtower was the cliff!

And the end of the cliff was—

"Night Watchman"!!

At the end of the cliff, under the storm, the black iron tower-like figure, holding a green lamp and ancient lantern, stood there like a natural chasm.

"That is… a tsunami?!"

In front of the Night Watchman, there was a boundless tsunami that almost blotted out the sky.

However, the tsunami now seemed to be frozen in time and stood there.

The hugeness of the tsunami could not be described in words, as if the entire ocean had been overturned, rising from one end of the horizon and covering the art building!

The height of the raised waves alone was higher than the sword-like towering art building plus the cliff!

It turned out that the sense of sight of a fishing boat at sea was not an illusion. The entire ocean was lifted up, and the art building was as small as duckweed!

And in that tsunami, there were endless Nightwalkers, those Nightwalkers were as numerous as overflowing locusts and backflowing schools of fish, merging with the tsunami and descending on the coastline in an almost world-destroying posture!

Deep within the tsunami, behind the Nightwalkers, there seemed to be a massive dark shadow. No one knew how long that shadow was, but its vague outline alone was enough to make those with a phobia of the deep sea faint.

“What… what is that inside?!” Lin Yi exclaimed in shock, his soul seemingly drawn towards the tsunami.

「Swish— Swish—」

In the moment Lin Yi was drawn to the tsunami, his mind wandering, a large number of Nightwalkers surged towards him like piranhas smelling blood.

However, before they could reach him, Old Mo's domain descended.

「Boom—」

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The Nightwalkers were scattered by the domain's fluctuations, and those enveloped within it withered on the spot.

“The tsunami is just a ‘perception’! What you're seeing is already a form filtered through layers! Ignore it, it's not something we can deal with!”

Old Mo's roar awakened Lin Yi. The storm and thunder almost drowned out their voices, and even shouting at the top of their lungs was only enough for effective communication.

Old Mo forcefully slashed the cleaver into the air, and the arc of energy formed by the blast of air split the storm, just as Lin Yi was still confused, his roar overcame the thunder.

“Goldie—”

Before he could finish speaking, a massive searchlight, like a sharp sword, pierced through the storm, precisely enveloping them within its beam.

「Poof!」

Beside another watchtower shrouded in wind and rain beneath the storm, Art Teacher “Goldie” supported the massive searchlight, watching the rain curtain that immediately healed after being torn open, grinning mischievously: “The wind and rain are too heavy, it's really hard to find you without a signal… I have to help Old Mo, I'll leave the back to you for now.”

“Hurry up! Don't focus on the small things!”

As soon as he finished speaking, several figures appeared beside him. It turned out that there was more than just him, an art teacher, on this watchtower, they just seemed to have their own responsibilities, complementing each other in this storm.

If you looked closely, you would find dozens of mysterious creatures similar to Grinning Angels surrounding the watchtower.

The reason they were said to be similar was because they only had some of the characteristics of Grinning Angels, with more non-human features, for example, Xima Chun's skirt did not conceal legs, but a genie-like gaseous tail…

They roamed around the watchtower, occasionally launching attacks on the art teachers, seemingly wanting to destroy the watchtower.

Art Teacher “Goldie” no longer paid attention to these Grinning Angels, but focused all his attention on operating the searchlight, guiding the beam of light to slowly move along the outer wall of the art building.

As the searchlight moved, the Nightwalkers entrenched on the outer wall of the art building let out terrified screams, scattering around, seemingly very afraid of being swept by the beam.

As the light shone, the outer wall of the art building seemed to come alive as if by magic. Strange changes occurred on the surface of the wall, like ripples spreading out, and all these ripples eventually converged towards a certain location—another heavy iron door on the outer wall.

Finally, the light stopped moving, as if it was firmly sucked in, and Old Mo immediately understood, leading Lin Yi to rush over.

Open the door, enter, close the door.

All in one go.

Watching Old Mo's figure disappear behind the iron door, Art Teacher “Goldie” silently retracted the beam of the searchlight.

“Good luck, Old Mo…”

“I hope there will be a day when I see you again…”

… …

May 10, X023, 0:25, Art Building area, inside a certain passage.

Old Mo leaned against the iron door of the passage, slowly recovering his strength, although he was surrounded by Nightwalkers who had poured in the moment the iron door opened, he seemed completely unconcerned.

His domain slowly released, until all the Nightwalkers around him turned into powder, then he withdrew it.

“It's a little safer.” Old Mo picked up a petrified fragment of a Nightwalker, and while it hadn't completely annihilated, he used it as a rag to wipe his cleaver, “Since it's the path guided by Goldie, it shouldn't be wrong. Following this path, we can reach the clock tower soon.”

Seeming to think of something, Old Mo added: “Don't worry, there are many Grinning Angels behind us, I will definitely help you get one holding a lamp.”

Lin Yi didn't expect Old Mo to remind him of this, so he smiled wryly: “Actually, I'm not worried about that…”

He had too many things to worry about now, such as that gallery. With his strength, could he really walk through it alone?

Old Mo's casual remark of 'return the way you came' at the beginning, after experiencing these things, suddenly felt so pale and powerless…

Old Mo was slightly stunned: “Then… could it be that you were scared silly by that ‘tsunami’ just now?”

Before he was awakened by him, Lin Yi did see the tsunami and the mysterious dark shadow within it at first glance, and his soul trembled uncontrollably, as if he was about to be directly drawn over.

Now that Old Mo reminded him, Lin Yi seemed to return to the emotion of being shocked by it: “That tsunami… could it be the ‘Source’?!”

Old Mo said that the tsunami was just a form of “perception,” that the thing had a more terrifying true form before being filtered by the layers, so Lin Yi had this speculation.

“How could that be the ‘Source’?” Old Mo shook his head, “Aren't you always curious about ‘Angels’? That's actually the ‘Angel’.”

“Or rather, that is ‘the ‘Angel’ in my perception’…”

“Now you understand why I said there are no ‘Angels’ in the campus, right?”

“Once that kind of thing descends, the scale of S City University simply cannot bear it, let alone ‘contain’ it.”

“What… ?!” Lin Yi's pupils contracted violently, but when he thought of the Night Watchers standing there to fight against it, he subconsciously thought that there was a chance to resist, “That kind of thing… can it really be resisted by ‘human power’? What are the Night Watchers doing there?”

Old Mo said: “I said… once that thing descends, so far, only the ‘Principal’ in the entire campus has the ability to contend with it. However, I have never had the opportunity to face the Principal. My knowledge of the Principal was told to me by the convenience store owner.”

“But I think, the limit of what ‘human’ ability can achieve is probably like that.”

“That level of game has nothing to do with the concept of ‘quantity’… You've read cultivation novels, right? All beings are ants under the Saint, that's the meaning. As long as you don't reach that level, even if it's only a hair's breadth away, it's still an insurmountable gap in the level of life.”

“As for your so-called Night Watchers fighting against it…”

“That's just what you ‘see’ with your naked eyes.”

“The Night Watchers… are merely preventing it from penetrating the layers. That's why it's static.”

As Old Mo spoke, he sat down on the ground, then pulled over his backpack and began to hand Lin Yi a tomato.

Lin Yi was stunned for a moment, looking at the tomato in Old Mo's hand.

“You eat tomatoes, I eat your extraordinary power… to replenish my consumption.”

“This is the last place to replenish power. Once we get to the clock tower, it's a life-and-death battle… That guy Mu Daxian shouldn't be completely dead.”

“Uh… ‘completely dead’?” Lin Yi was stunned again.

Old Mo raised the tomato.

He quickly took it, put it to his mouth, and took a bite.

Only then did Lin Yi have the mind to recall the previous scenes, and then he realized that all the way here, Old Mo had used his domain to drain the extraordinary power from countless Nightwalkers, but hadn't absorbed any of it to replenish his own consumption.

Lin Yi thought of Old Mo's previous words, those extraordinary powers were too mixed and couldn't be absorbed.

So what Old Mo could absorb was his extraordinary power, and he…

“That's not right, Old Mo, you can't absorb the extraordinary power here, why can I?” Lin Yi asked while gnawing on the tomato.