Rules-related weird stories: 4016.

Chapter 358 That is the "Angel" (1000 words added)
“Boom! Boom! Boom…”

As his heart restarted and his cognition was established, the "established fact" that had crushed all his bones was overwritten by him. He crawled up from the ground intact, and then quickly looked for Lao Mo's figure.

"I'm in the gallery! I'm with Old Mo! I'm in the gallery, and Old Mo is with me!"

"I'm in the gallery! I'm in the gallery..."

He kept in mind Lao Mo's instructions and did not use identity anchors to position himself. He only used the most basic anchoring method - using Lao Mo's position to anchor himself.

This is an extremely unreasonable way of anchoring, because the more it is detached from reality, the more difficult it is to anchor back, and the more conditions are required. It is simply not realistic to only use "Gallery" and "Lao Mo".

But what if Lao Mo himself is also guiding him?

The two-way anchor is as indestructible as an iron chain.

Lin Yi soon saw Lao Mo's shadow in the gray fog not far ahead.

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

"call--"

Lao Mo's figure broke through the gray fog and came in front of Lin Yi.

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

The dry and hoarse voice is like a magic needle that calms people down.

He extended his hand to the staggering Lin Yi, and that look gave people a white-bearded trance-like feeling. I was really afraid that his next words would be "Be my son."

Lin Yi was pulled up by Lao Mo to steady himself, and said quickly: "Lao Mo, I..."

"I know." Lao Mo seemed to be very afraid of this and quickly interrupted, "Don't stay, leave first."

Lin Yi naturally knew how serious the problem was, so he quickly followed Lao Mo into the depths of the gallery. However, when he left, he found that the little girl had already disappeared.

But despite this, 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…”

【Children, play hide and seek...】

“Ding ding dong… Ding ding dong dong…”

[…My little sister’s waist is sore…]

“Ding ding dong dong…”

[Brother, you are so mean~ You made fun of my sister for having a dull saw~]

【…】

He stroked his arms, quickened his pace and left.

And in the dark corner of the gallery, an opened music box was running slowly, and the gray fog rolled and buried it completely.

……

X023年5月10日，0:16，艺术楼画廊。

“Knock, knock, knock…”

There was almost no light in the depths of the gallery, only the dull sound of footsteps on the wooden floor and the occasional "creaking" sound.

When passing through the gallery, Lin Yi saw another huge painting. The picture showed a deserted cemetery with crooked tombstones and the sky was covered with dark clouds. In front of the painting, the fog was thicker, forming the outline of a human figure, standing there quietly, as if waiting for something.

When Lin Yi approached, the outline suddenly disappeared, leaving only endless darkness and coldness, which made people terrified.

I don’t know how long I ran, but Lin Yi vaguely felt that there was more moisture in the air, and the gray fog was not so thick, as if it was dispersed a little by the moisture.

“Bang, bang, bang!”

“Bang, bang, bang!!!”

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

Lao Mo rushed over and opened the door.

“Bang!”

The huge storm pushed open the quaint and rusty iron door, and the majestic mist rushed into the gallery along with the fierce storm.

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

“Huff, huff, huff—”

“Shhh—”

The wind duct effect is pushed to the extreme here, and the sound of waves hitting the reefs is as violent as a mountain torrent.

Countless hands with sharp nails rushed in at that moment and grabbed Lao Mo and Lin Yi fiercely.

Lao Mo growled and chopped out with the butcher knife.

No one knew what Lao Mo had done, but countless broken limbs, carrying a fishy and muddy substance, fell on Lin Yi's body like a garbage dump. The disgusting smell was nauseating, as if the broken meat was dancing with large chunks of flesh and blood.

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

The minced meat was just as he had guessed, exactly what it looked like after the nocturnal creatures were chopped up. They were washed onto his body by the storm, and were as disgusting as rotten eggs and smelly vegetable leaves soaked in slop.

The only thing that made sense was that these fragments were petrifying into sculpture fragments at an extremely fast speed. Even those on Lin Yi's body quickly turned into wind-dried crumbs.

Thunder continued to roar, and the scene in front of Lin Yi's eyes switched back and forth between dim black and pure white. The moment he walked out of the gallery, a thick bolt of lightning tore through the dark night sky, revealing an extremely terrifying scene in the art building.

I saw that the outer wall of the art building was covered with dense nocturnal species. The dense number of them was like a group of red crabs swimming into the sea on the beach. Their heads kept moving, as distinct as each grain of flesh on a mulberry. Their limbs were swaying and twisting as they swayed, and like crabs, they made some sounds similar to spitting bubbles.

But there were so many of them and so densely packed together that it was impossible to tell which head or arm belonged to whom—even they themselves couldn't tell.

“Rustle… rustle… rustle…”

They pushed and shoved each other, constantly looking for any hole or crack on the wall of the art building, and then frantically drilled in. When they saw a door opened on their side, the nocturnal species nearby swarmed over.

Lao Mo let out a low roar, while expanding his territory and continuously draining out all the nocturnal species that rushed in, and at the same time wielding a butcher knife to chop up those nocturnal species that were squeezed into the territory like cutting leeks.

"Boy! Close the door! Close the door!!!"

Old Mo Teng was unable to help, so Lin Yi hurriedly tried to pull the heavy iron gate while holding the fragments of the nocturnal plant.

Due to the duct effect, the already heavy iron door seemed to be welded in the open state, and no matter how hard Lin Yi tried, he couldn't open it.

“Is it closed?!”

“Close it again——!” Lin Yi roared, and a sky-blue aura rose from his body like steam. The muscles on his arms swelled at a speed visible to the naked eye, and in the blink of an eye, they surpassed the captain of the beautiful buttocks...

“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 back teeth were about to break, and then he pulled the iron door up heavily and closed it.

It was so strange that when the iron door was closed, the entire door and the wall seemed to merge into one, giving people a feeling of being impregnable. It felt like the door was right there but no one could open it.

The moment the door was closed, the recoil force was transmitted upwards, causing Lin Yi to fly away a little.

Lin Yi lost his balance briefly and rolled a few times on the ground. When he got up, he just happened to see through the terrifying storm that there was a ruined observation tower outside the outer wall of the art building!
The end of the lookout is a cliff!

And at the end of the cliff is——

"Night Watch"!!

At the end of the cliff, under the storm, a black iron tower-like figure, holding an ancient green lamp in hand, stood there like a natural moat.

“Is that... a tsunami?!” In front of the night watchman, there was an endless tsunami that almost covered the sky.

However, the tsunami today seemed to be frozen in time and remained still over there.

The size of the tsunami cannot be described in words. It was like the entire ocean was overturned, rising from one end of the horizon and covering the art building!
The height of the waves alone is higher than the art building and the cliff that towers into the sky like a sword!

It turns out that the sense of déjà vu of fishing boats on the 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 nocturnal species. Those nocturnal species were as numerous as flooding locusts and migrating schools of fish. They merged with the tsunami and descended on the coastline in an almost world-destroying manner!
And in the depths of the tsunami, behind the nocturnal species, there seemed to be a huge black shadow. No one knew how long the shadow was, but the vague outline alone was enough to make those who had a fear of the deep sea faint.

"Then... what's in there?!" Lin Yi was so shocked that he lost his voice, and his soul seemed to be sucked over by the tsunami.

“Swish, swish, swish—”

At the moment when Lin Yi was attracted by the tsunami and was in a trance, a large number of nocturnal species rushed towards him like piranhas smelling blood.

However, before they arrived, Lao Mo's domain fell.

"boom--"

The nocturnal species were blown away by the fluctuations of the field, and those that were enveloped in it withered on the spot.

"The tsunami is just a 'perception'! What you see is the form that has been filtered through layers! Don't worry about it, it's not something we can deal with!"

Lao Mo woke Lin Yi up with his roar. The storm and thunder almost drowned out their voices. Even if they shouted at the top of their lungs, they could only communicate effectively.

Lao Mo swung the butcher knife hard into the air, and the arc of light formed by the air wave split the storm into a crack. Just when Lin Yi was still puzzled, his roar drowned out the thunder.

"Big golden retriever——"

Before he could finish his words, a huge searchlight pierced through the storm like a sword and enveloped them with precision.

"Boo!"

At another lookout tower covered by wind and rain, art teacher "Big Golden Retriever" held a huge searchlight, looking at the rain curtain that was torn open and then quickly recovered, grinning: "The wind and rain are too strong, it's really hard to find without a signal... I have to help Lao Mo, I'll leave the back to you for now."

"Hurry up! Don't lose the big picture by losing the small one!"

As soon as he finished speaking, several figures appeared beside him. It turned out that he was not the only art teacher on the observation deck, but they seemed to have their own duties and complement each other in this storm.

If you look closely, you will find that the observation tower is surrounded by dozens of mysterious creatures similar to laughing angels.

The reason why they are similar is that they only have some of the characteristics of the Sly Laughing Angel, and more of them are some non-human characteristics. For example, under the hem of Nashima Chun's skirt are not legs, but a gaseous tail like a genie in a magic lamp...

They wandered around the lookout, occasionally attacking the art teachers, as if trying to destroy the lookout.

The art teacher "Big Golden Retriever" no longer paid attention to these smiling angels, but concentrated on operating the searchlight, guiding the beam of light to move slowly along the outer wall of the art building.

As the searchlight moved, the nocturnal creatures perched on the outer wall of the art building screamed in fear and scattered around, as if they were very afraid of being swept by the beam of light.

As the lights shone on, the outer wall of the art building came alive as if under a spell. Some strange changes occurred on the surface of the wall, as if ripples were being created, and all these ripple changes eventually gathered towards a certain location - another heavy iron door on the outer wall.

Finally, the light stopped moving, as if it was sucked in. Lao Mo immediately understood what he meant and rushed over with Lin Yi.

Open the door, enter, close the door.

All in one go.

Watching Lao Mo disappear behind the iron gate, the art teacher "Big Golden Retriever" silently retracted the beam of the searchlight.

"Come on, Lao Mo..."

"I hope to see you again someday..."

……

X023 May 5, 10:0, in the art building area, in a certain passage.

Lao Mo leaned against the iron gate of the passage, slowly regaining his strength. Even though he was surrounded by nocturnal creatures that rushed in the moment the iron gate opened, he looked like he didn't care at all.

His domain was released slowly until all the nocturnal creatures around were turned into powder, and then it was revoked.

"It's a little safer now." Lao Mo picked up a piece of petrified nocturnal species fragment and used it as a rag to wipe the butcher knife while it was still not completely annihilated. "Since this is the path guided by the big golden retriever, it should be right. If we follow this path, we will soon reach the bell tower."

As if he had thought of something, Lao Mo added: "Don't worry, there are many smiling angels behind. I will definitely help you get the one holding a lantern."

Lin Yi didn't expect that Lao Mo would still remind him of this, so he smiled bitterly and said, "I'm not actually worried about that..."

He has too many things to worry about now, such as the gallery. With his strength, can he really walk through the whole gallery by himself?

At the beginning, Lao Mo's understated words "return the same way" suddenly seemed so pale and powerless after experiencing all these things...

Lao Mo was slightly stunned: "Then... were you scared silly by the 'tsunami' just now?"

Before being awakened by him, Lin Yi indeed saw the tsunami and the mysterious black shadow within the tsunami for the first time, and his soul trembled uncontrollably, as if he was about to be directly attracted by it.

Now that Lao Mo reminded him, Lin Yi seemed to be back to the emotion that shocked him: "That tsunami... could it be the 'root'? !"

Lao Mo said that the tsunami is just a "cognitive" form. That thing has a more terrifying real form before being filtered through the layers, so Lin Yi made this speculation.

"How can that be the 'source'?" Lao Mo shook his head, "Aren't you always curious about 'angels'? That is actually the 'angel'."

"Or rather, that is the 'angel' in my understanding"..."

"Now you understand why I said there are no "angels" on campus, right?"

"If something like that were to come, S City University wouldn't be able to handle it, let alone 'contain' it."

"What...?!" Lin Yi's pupils shrank sharply, but when he thought of the Night Watchman standing over there to fight it, he subconsciously thought that there was a chance to resist it, "Can that kind of thing... really be fought with 'manpower'? What is the Night Watchman doing over there?"

Lao Mo said, "I've said it before... Once that thing comes, so far, the only person in the entire campus who has the ability to fight it is the "Principal". However, I haven't had the opportunity to face the Principal. All I know about the Principal is what the canteen owner told me."

"But I think that's probably the limit of what humans can do."

"The game at that level has nothing to do with the concept of 'quantity'... Have you read novels about cultivating immortals? It says that everyone below the level of a saint is an ant. That's what it means. As long as you are not at that level, even if you are just a hair's breadth away, there is an insurmountable gap in your life level."

"As for your so-called Night's Watch fighting against it..."

"That's just what you 'see' with your naked eyes."

"The Night Watcher... simply prevents it from penetrating the layer. That's why it remains still."

As Lao Mo spoke, he sat down on the ground, pulled his backpack over, and started handing tomatoes to Lin Yi.

Lin Yi looked at the tomato in Lao Mo's hand and was stunned for a moment.

"You eat the tomatoes, and I eat your extraordinary strength... to replenish the consumption."

"This is the last place where we can replenish our strength. Once we reach the bell tower, it will be a life-and-death battle... Mu Daxian, that guy, should not be dead yet."

"Uh...'dead'?" Lin Yi was stunned again.

Lao Mo raised the tomato.

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

It was not until then that Lin Yi had the mind to recall the previous scenes, and then he discovered that along the way, Lao Mo used his domain to drain the extraordinary power from the bodies of countless nocturnal species, but did not absorb any of it to replenish his own consumption.

Lin Yi thought of what Lao Mo had said before, that those extraordinary powers were too complex to be absorbed.

So what Lao Mo could absorb was his extraordinary power, and he...

"That's not right, Lao Mo. You can't absorb the extraordinary power here, so why can I?" Lin Yi asked while eating a tomato.

(End of this chapter)