Rules-related weird stories: 4016

Chapter 87: "Yesterday's Self"

"This…? !"

He was like something that didn't exist, not even worthy of being called a thing…

Yet, he clearly felt that grounded sensation.

"Wait? Grounded?"

He tried to squat down, and then he discovered a cobblestone path beneath his feet, submerged in the thick fog.

"Cobblestone path?"

"This time… am I dreaming of the campus roads?"

This fog…

Has the campus layer fallen?

But he wasn't very flustered… because once you know you're dreaming, your courage tends to increase.

Of course, some people realize they are dreaming, but their behavior still follows the logic of someone who doesn't know they are dreaming.

This kind of behavior—"I know I'm dreaming, but I can't control my dream"—still lacks a scientific explanation.

Lin Yi didn't dwell on this point. He began to walk forward along the cobblestone path…

Gradually, he saw the lampposts in the fog.

These lampposts were like lighthouses, floating in the sea of fog, struggling to maintain the lamplight's domain.

Beyond the cobblestone path, he discovered a moving group of figures.

Among those figures, he saw the leading one, a security guard carrying an old kerosene lamp. And those figures were, surprisingly… the food delivery chef team!

The moment the thought of going over to take a look popped into his head, his vision rapidly expanded. Like a ghost, he floated away, quickly catching up with the team.

Within the team, he saw chefs wearing white chef hats, white chef uniforms, and blue aprons, and he saw their name tags pinned to their chests.

These chefs were frowning, muttering something like chef rules, but the speech was slurred and the words were blurry. Aside from catching a few "don'ts," he couldn't hear anything clearly.

He quickly discovered a chef with a green apron hidden in the chef team. This green-aproned chef gradually fell to the back of the team, then rolled up his green apron and unbuttoned his chef's uniform…

"Hehehe…" It let out a sinister laugh, opened the lid of the lunch box, and glanced at the food inside.

Then, it used its own hand to tear open its chest, inserting it inch by inch into its chest cavity. Lin Yi watched this scene, knowing he was dreaming, but still uncontrollably felt nauseous.

He felt extremely uncomfortable, his hairs felt like they were about to be frozen into ice crystals, and a million ants were crawling and tearing at him all over.

But he still stared intently at the green-aproned chef's actions, disgusted but struggling to keep his eyes open, not missing any of its behavior.

Crimson blood slowly flowed from its chest, becoming viscous as it flowed, gradually turning into ketchup and dripping onto the ground.

The blood became more and more abundant, and the ketchup became more and more viscous, quickly changing from drop by drop to strand by strand, eventually becoming a line of blood…

"Drip… drip… swish—"

The green-aproned chef's uniform was soaked in scarlet, and its arms rummaged around in its chest, blood gurgling out, ketchup dripping all the way.

"Found it… found it…" It chuckled, a morbid madness emerging on its face, pale from blood loss. It slowly pulled out its arm and dug out its heart…

"Thump! Thump! Thump…"

The heart in its hand seemed to still be alive, beating once after another.

But soon, it stopped beating…

The green-aproned chef pulled apart the heart, took out a bright red tomato, and casually threw the fragments of the heart on the ground.

"La la la… bleh bleh bleh…" It lagged behind the chef team like a straggler, humming a dry, strange melody, and began to make tomato dishes, incorporating tomato elements into the food…

The road covered in ketchup was soon submerged in the thick fog.

But before long, the sound of "shasha shasha…" came from the fog. Figures emerged from the green belt, crawling like humanoid spiders or surrounding like zombies, all lying down and licking the ketchup along the way…

"Shasha shasha… shasha shasha…"

In the thick fog, only the rustling sound remained.

Lin Yi persisted in watching the green-aproned chef's series of anti-biological operations. His stomach was already churning with discomfort. He felt several times that stomach acid had reached his throat, but he couldn't throw up anything.

The green-aproned chef was obviously not satisfied and was preparing to start working on the intestines.

Lin Yi couldn't bear to watch anymore and turned away.

Suddenly, he saw a lamppost appear ahead, with some figures under the lamppost…

One, two, three, four, five, six…

Those figures were damn familiar, like… yesterday's them?!

As soon as he realized this, he floated closer, arriving in front of "yesterday's self."

Just as he approached "yesterday's self," a look of irritability immediately appeared on "yesterday's self"'s face, as if hearing some kind of summons.

Wei Shan beside him immediately lowered his body, his eyes fixed on his position, a low growl of "fu fu fu…" coming from his throat, like a beast about to go berserk.

Lin Yi didn't know if Wei Shan was looking at the void where he was or at this direction, and his heart was slightly startled…

But he immediately realized something. He turned his head and found that the thick fog behind him suddenly rolled violently, accompanied by flickering faint yellow light. The security guard carrying the old kerosene lamp broke through the fog like a heavy tank and came to him.

"It's the security guard!" He heard Wei Liang's frightened and excited voice.

At this moment, it was just like that moment.

At this moment, the security guard didn't know what he had discovered, but he suddenly turned his head, and a pair of golden eyes met "yesterday's self."

However, at this moment, Lin Yi was sweating profusely, his whole body stiffened on the spot as if struck by lightning, not daring to move at all.

The security guard's scalding golden pupils seemed to be staring at… him at this moment.

"Creak—"

The security guard slowly clenched the wolf-tooth club in his hand, which was covered in white powder, and a hard sound came from his tiger's mouth.

The security guard frowned slightly, and even his sun-like eyes seemed to become more dazzling. He sniffed Lin Yi, the Lin Yi of "yesterday's self."

"…"

He didn't say anything, turned around, and stepped from the light into the thick fog.

Seeing the group from yesterday follow, Lin Yi also floated over…

However, he frowned, thinking about an extremely serious question.

"What the hell is going on…?"

"Aren't I in a dream? Why do Wei Shan and the security guard… seem to have noticed my existence?"

"Or is it that Wei Shan noticed the smell of those non-human entities hidden in the fog? Did the security guard also smell the scent on 'me' because of this?"

Because Lin Yi vaguely remembered that yesterday, when he led Wei Liang towards the lamppost, that eerie art teacher seemed to be closely following behind them, but because he didn't turn his head, he didn't trigger any subsequent crises.

However, based on experience, not triggering any special "plot" doesn't mean not being subjected to "contamination."

In other words—

"I might have been contaminated a long time ago? I just don't know it myself?"

He couldn't help but think of what the boss said—"It's hard to imagine you being able to come to the gymnasium alive."

"Damn, could it be that I was supposed to have an accident from the start...?"

He couldn't help but shudder—even though he didn't seem to have any physical form.

He slowly followed the team, and suddenly, he saw that green-aproned chef slowly approaching Mao Feiyang from behind…

"Maozi."

That green-aproned chef emitted a voice exactly the same as his own.

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Then, Mao Feiyang subconsciously turned his head.

"Not good!"

Lin Yi thought with dismay, but he was like someone watching the occurrence of this event with a God's-eye view, unable to change anything at all.

The green-aproned chef drooped his head, the arc of his mouth curved like a clown's, and his surroundings rolled with eerie white mist, making him look as if only the sculpted human outline remained.

"Maozi."

"Maozi."

"Come with me."

"Come with me…"

"Hehehe…"

Within the mist, the green-aproned chef emitted a demonic voice that was completely identical to "Lin Yi's" tone, chilling as a cold wind in the frozen wilderness.

Mao Feiyang's eyes were filled with fear, and his thin, dark face was covered in cold sweat.

"No… no no no… no…"

He quickly turned around and fled, chasing after "Yesterday's Lin Yi."

"Hehehe… You saw me, you… saw me…"

The eerie white mist churned and roiled, and the green-aproned chef suddenly swept away like a ghost.

At this moment, he was completely different from a walking corpse, as if he had established some kind of connection with Mao Feiyang, displaying an incredible hunting ability.

The eerie white mist seemed to carry his body like a cloud, making him cling to Mao Feiyang's shadow like a ghost…

His cyan-grey, porcelain-like palm gently caressed Mao Feiyang's shoulders and behind his ears from a distance of one or two centimeters, occasionally blowing out some smoky white powder particles…

Mao Feiyang could see him, could sense his existence, and could even feel the gritty sensation of the white powder hitting his face.

But he clenched his teeth tightly, doing his best not to breathe in these white powder particles.

However, these powder particles were not affected by breathing at all, and like snowflakes, they fell onto his body, then silently dissolved and penetrated into his body…

Just as the powder particles were constantly eroding Mao Feiyang's body, "Yesterday's Lin Yi," who was walking at the front of the team, suddenly frowned, vaguely noticing something was wrong.

At this moment, Lin Yi, from a God's-eye view, was stunned…

When Mao Feiyang was infiltrated by the white powder particles, from his current perspective, he could actually see a faint, almost non-existent dotted line.

Like a local area network, Mao Feiyang became a port, slowly dispersing the absorbed white powder particles…

Besides Wei Liang, Wei Shan, Kuai Hongji, Tian Bufan, and "Yesterday's Self" were all "assigned" such powder particles.

"This…? Maozi was contaminated by the green-aproned chef, and then… infected the rest of us?!"

"But how come Liangzi wasn't infected?"

"What exactly is going on?!"

Lin Yi was bewildered.

The content of this dream was beyond description.

If he dreamed of what Tian Bufan had experienced, that would have been fine, after all, Tian Bufan had described such a scene to him…

But the humanoid sculpture that could not be described in words and the current God's-eye view scene that was almost like a replay had far exceeded the scope of what his brain could understand.

At this time, "Yesterday's Lin Yi" led the team away from the chef team led by the security guard and plunged into the lamppost "Teaching Building - 108," while Mao Feiyang was entangled by the green-aproned chef…

The eerie white mist poured into Mao Feiyang's limbs and bones as if it were free, causing an unnatural cyan-greyish white color to surface under his originally dark skin.

His limbs became cold and stiff, and his pupils began to slowly dilate…

Seeing that Mao Feiyang was not moving for a long time and was constantly being contaminated, even Lin Yi, who was in the God's-eye view, couldn't help but worry and shouted in his heart: "Maozi! Don't be dazed, hurry up! Catch up with them!"

Mao Feiyang's scattered pupils suddenly re-gathered their light, his head ached as if it were splitting, but he seemed to hear Lin Yi's voice, and a hint of doubt flashed in his eyes as he rubbed his forehead and shook his head.

"Maozi, hurry up!"

Kuai Hongji's impatient urging came coldly from under the lamppost, interrupting Mao Feiyang's doubts.

The green-aproned chef seemed to sense something and quickly released Mao Feiyang, cowering into the shadows.

Mao Feiyang ran away, catching up with the backs of his roommates.

Just as Mao Feiyang passed by him and caught up with Wei Shan and the others, Kuai Hongji held the lamppost "Teaching Building - 108" with one hand and slowly looked at the green-aproned chef who seemed to be hiding in Mao Feiyang's shadow…

His eyes were so gloomy as if they were perennial ice and snow, and the corner of his mouth held a cold arc.

He slowly opened his mouth, as if he was talking to the air, or as if he was talking to the green-aproned chef:

"Scram."

The green-aproned chef carried his lunchbox and scurried back to the chef team with his tail between his legs…

Lin Yi looked at Kuai Hongji almost blankly, his mouth so wide that he could stuff Wei Shan's fist into it.

…

Lin Yi followed "Yesterday's Self" and his group to the teaching building and counted the floors of the teaching building again.

In the thick fog, the visible floors of the teaching building were six and a half, and it was really impossible to see clearly above that.

Seeing that the others had entered the stairwell one after another, he quickly followed.

He wanted to wander around in the corridor to see what the other parts of the stairwell looked like, but he soon realized that there seemed to be some kind of restriction on his behavior—he could not leave "Yesterday's Self" and his group.

This dream… seems more like a supplement to the details of last night.

As long as he or others saw something, he could reproduce it in great detail, but for those things that he did not observe at all, he had no way to peek at them.