Rules-related weird stories: 4016.

Chapter 398 Arrival at the Library

At around 4 o'clock on campus, the elevator entrance of the teaching building was dark. In the absence of light, the pseudo-human students appeared to be in the state of sculptures.

And when the light of the old kerosene lamp fell on them, their light-facing sides began to "hiss" and emit white smoke as if they were placed on a barbecue grill, and transformed into pseudo-human classmates. However, perhaps the light of the old kerosene lamp was too strong for them, and their somewhat "flesh" bodies immediately began to "swish" and shake off many white powder particles.

At the same time, the pseudo-human sculptures made low mooing noises like cows, and instinctively covered their eyes with their hands, hoping not to be photographed.

They pushed and shoved backwards, but were pushed back by the pseudo-human sculptures behind them that were unaware of the situation. After a few breaths, they turned into sculptures without any breath.

The light spread out, and the pseudo-human sculptures around the elevator were directly killed.

Lin Yi suddenly remembered that in his dream, he had seen from Maozi's perspective that those pseudo-human sculptures came out of the classroom one after another around 4 a.m., and then lined up along the corridor to the stairwell. Now, looking again, they were actually running over to take the elevator!
"Wait... 4 o'clock!"

[Be sure to take the elevator and leave the Art Building before 4 o'clock, otherwise you will have to wait until the next day. ]

Lao Mo's words also emerged in his mind.

4 o'clock, does this time point correspond to the pseudo-human sculpture leaving the teaching building?
Lin Yi initially thought that those pseudo-human sculptures would leave the campus along the green belt and follow the art building, but now it seems that they will first leave collectively through the elevator at 4 o'clock, and will choose to escape to the green belt when they can no longer leave.

"Is this the reason why you don't take the elevator after 4 o'clock?"

"Or... are there more reasons?"

If this was the only reason, he could have just taken the elevator at the teaching building. Why did Lao Mo specifically emphasize that he had to go to the library?
Isn’t this the normal “layer” of the campus?
He seemed to have guessed some reasons.

After all, if it was just a fake human sculpture, he would be fine as long as he had an old kerosene lamp. Even without the old kerosene lamp, with his physical strength, he could still hold out until the sun comes out at six o'clock, just like Mu Daxian did parkour with Maozi in the teaching building.

"Could it be... related to that conceptual sculpture?"

As if they were telepathically connected, just as Lin Yi was thinking of this, a strange light came from the unknown void, emitting a colorful color that was beyond the cognition of ordinary people, so gorgeous that it made people feel fascinated...

Somewhere in the teaching building, a floating ball of light that was wandering irregularly suddenly produced some induction and then floated towards Teaching Building B.

There was a blurry figure inside the ball of light. Lin Yi could only perceive that it had the outline of a "human". Other than that, there was nothingness. However, outside of its outline, there seemed to be some familiar aura floating around - "ashes".

"It is this... a conceptual sculpture!!"

Sensing the approach of the conceptual sculpture, Lin Yi used his muscle memory to touch the button panel and frantically pressed the only button - the "↓" button.

Finally, when the hazy ball of light was about to appear in front of the elevator, the elevator trembled slightly, and then closed with a series of "clang clang" sounds.

The elevator started slowly.

Sensing the elevator leaving, Lin Yi let out a long sigh and sat down on the ground limply.

He hadn't felt this kind of life-and-death speed and sweat in a long time.

The oppressive feeling that the conceptual sculpture gave him did not decrease at all as his understanding deepened. On the contrary, after he came back from the art floor, his understanding deepened, so his understanding of the conceptual sculpture also deepened.

Its terror is restrained; the light ball and the brilliant colors are just its self-protection. It lurks in the campus, seemingly with an unknown purpose.

"Wait..." Lin Yi was suddenly stunned, "That ball of light... is the conceptual sculpture?"

"Doesn't that mean that the thing that made Master Mu so fanatical that he wanted to see it even at the cost of his life was this conceptual sculpture?"

"Then..." Lin Yi thought quickly while taking a break. "The one who expelled the conceptual sculpture was the owner of the store who disappeared and then returned again...?"

Everything seems to fit in!

But Lin Yi always felt that something seemed to be missing.

The canteen owner seemed to have returned in the early morning of May 5, but the conceptual sculpture had already been wandering around the campus on the evening of May 8...

correct!

It's "Ashes"!
This conceptual sculpture is covered in ash!
And "Ashes"... that's something only "Angels" have!

"It is because Ashes is an Angel that the teacher at the time thought it was an Angel!"

It can be seen that Homeroom Teacher-039 must have established relevant knowledge when receiving official training. That is why she can confirm the other party's "identity".

"Then here comes the question... From what the teacher said, she was also fighting on the night of the 6th, and the conceptual sculpture entered the classroom because she failed to stop it..."

"How did she stop it?"

It’s not that Lin Yi looked down on the class teacher-039, but that thing was expelled only when the store owner came. How could he do that with the power of the "class teacher"?
Moreover, it seems that the security guard also took it out of the classroom...?
Lin Yi was a little confused. The combat power of this conceptual sculpture seemed to be a mystery. Could it be an anti-Sha Seng? Its combat power was a mystery, and it would be weak when facing a weak opponent?

"Perhaps it is not reflected in the visual combat performance... perhaps the pollution it carries is of a very high level?"

This is possible. After all, it is "Ashes". Even the boss has to drink a pot when he comes, let alone others.

From this perspective, it is very likely that Homeroom Teacher-039 was contaminated by the ashes, and the food delivered from the cafeteria was not the root cause.

The elevator continued to run and Lin Yi continued to think.

He thought that perhaps the existence of that conceptual sculpture was the reason why Lao Mo didn't want him to appear in the teaching building.

That thing is much harder to deal with than the Laughing Angel. If it targets you, it may be useless even if Vibranium shouts the commandments until he becomes hoarse.

The female dormitory manager looked at the elevator door with lingering fear, patted her chest lightly, and let out a breath: "I am scared to death... It's so scary every time... The teaching building is really dangerous at night..."

She secretly glanced at Lin Yi and found that Lin Yi was also sweating profusely, and he felt much more balanced.

"Senior, are you soft?"

“Ahem…” Lin Yi stood up by holding onto the inner wall of the elevator and corrected himself, “Strictly speaking, I was just a little tired, so I took a break. Damn it, luckily I slammed the elevator shut, otherwise that thing would have squeezed in and we would both be screwed.”

"What the hell?" The female dormitory manager was slightly startled.

"That ball of light, didn't you see it?" Lin Yi asked. The female dormitory manager's expression changed: "Senior...you, did you look outside just now?"

"Huh...?" Lin Yi was startled, thinking to himself that this was not good. It seemed like there was an explanation. Could it be that the "Dormitory Management Rules" stipulated that one had to do so when staying in the teaching building, and was not allowed to look outside?

If it is for the purpose of protecting cognition, this is entirely possible.

But if the dormitory manager is like that, is it still necessary to protect his cognition?

Lin Yi thought briefly, then spoke: "Be patient. My senior told me that once I understand the underlying logic of the rules, I can adapt to them flexibly to a certain extent. You haven't reached that level yet, so you still need to work hard!"

"Ah..." The female dormitory manager opened her mouth and muttered softly, "I don't want to be a dormitory manager. I must leave the campus..."

"Come on, you can do it." Lin Yi said.

The female dormitory manager pursed her lips and said nothing. Is it okay? She actually already knew something about it, but she was just not willing to accept it.

There was silence for a while, and the elevator began to slow down again.

When the elevator stopped, Lin Yi quickly locked his eyes on the floor panel and began to get nervous.

Please don't do anything weird again...

"Ding!"

The voice sounded, and words popped up on the floor panel:
「Library-1F」

"We're at the library!" Lin Yi's eyes lit up and he quickly took out the dorm manager's badge from his trouser pocket and threw it away. At the same time, he grabbed his student ID card in his hand and reached out to his face with his other hand. A sky-blue aura surged on his hand, evaporating rapidly and overwriting his features with a milky white gelatinous substance that read "Dormitory Manager-0X0221119003".

"I'm Lin Yi, my student number is X0230506098, I took the elevator to the library..."

"I'm Lin Yi, my student ID is..."

He re-anchored his identity in his mind over and over again. The jelly on his face quickly petrified and then turned into powder and shook off, as if a large amount of dead skin was rubbed off from his face.

And his appearance also returned to its original state.

He knew time was short, so he wiped it quickly.

The female dormitory manager was frightened by Lin Yi's behavior. She looked at this senior who suddenly behaved strangely in horror. As soon as the elevator door opened, she quickly took the boy's hand and walked out of the elevator.

Lin Yi wiped it for a while, until the elevator began to close. He ignored the fact that he still had some white gelatin left to remove, and quickly threw the old kerosene lamp into the corner of the elevator, then jumped out with his backpack in his arms.

As soon as I rushed out, the elevator door closed.

Lin Yi glanced at the elevator behind him and saw a sign next to it that read: "Library - Forbidden - 056"

He stared at the word "ban" with a frown, as if thinking about something.

He got up from the ground, took off the pair of tattered sneakers with holes in their toes, and took out a pair of clean sneakers from his backpack and put them on.

Wei Liang had specifically asked him to put this pair of sneakers in on the morning of the 9th. Unexpectedly, they would finally come in handy at this time.

"Huh!" Lin Yi was pleasantly surprised. He almost forgot that there was food and water in the schoolbag.

He quickly took out a roll of bread and a bottle of water, then put on the bag, and also moved Lao Mo's bag, which had been on his chest, to his back.

While eating, he looked at the environment of the library.

However, he only took one look and was stunned in shock.

"This...is this the technology that should be available in this era?!"

What Lin Yi is facing now is a sci-fi creation that far exceeds his understanding of existing technology!

This is a building that only exists in science fiction movies, very similar to the one that the male protagonist saw when he returned to Murphy's space station in the end of "Interstellar".

What appeared before him was an extremely huge curved building. Countless bookshelves grew on the curved surface like hair, each bearing different gravitational forces that were all perpendicular to the ground below.

He was like an ant, entering a huge sphere covered with bookshelves. If he kept walking along the straight line in front of him, he could reach the bookshelf area above his head!
On this curved surface, no, on the spherical building, there are many circular holes. Through the holes, Lin Yi saw the world below. The situation below... was similar to this one.

And in that hollow space, there was actually... a staircase!
At this moment, the long-lost content of the "Student Code" appeared in his mind:

[You can only go up and down the stairs in the teaching building, and you can only take the elevator in the library. If you see an elevator in the teaching building or stairs in the library, please pretend you didn't see them, even if you see classmates using them. ]

[When classmates invite you to take the elevator in the teaching building, or persuade you to take the stairs in the library, please ignore them and stay away from them immediately. They are not your classmates.]

In the "Student Code", the overview of the library is as simple as one sentence: "The library can only be used by elevator", but I didn't expect that the library would be like this!

He suddenly felt that the student code of conduct was more reasonable than ever before. However, this simple sentence, when reflected in the actual situation, turned out to be so absurd and weird.

Who would have thought that the floors of this library were arranged like concentric circles, one layer within another?
This is simply an ivory multi-layer carved ball!
What is outrageous is that in this "ivory multi-layer carved ball", the gravity distribution of each one is so uniform and incredible.

This is not the technological level that should be achieved in X023!

Lin Yi had thought the exoskeleton armor was a bit outrageous before, but now seeing this library, he suddenly felt that the exoskeleton armor was just child's play.

“How…how was this built?”

Lin Yi was shocked to the point of being dumbfounded, but compared to the weird feeling that filled his heart when he saw the art building, he was now more shocked, as if he had traveled through time and space in a science fiction movie.

There is no fear, and there is no collapse of cognition. Perhaps the boy's romance with science fiction dilutes the weird feeling brought by unreasonableness?
Lin Yi didn't know, but at least he didn't find it weird.

At this moment, a cry of surprise interrupted his initial understanding and observation of the library's environment.

"what--"

(End of this chapter)