Rules-related weird stories: 4016.

Chapter 581 Lin Yi's Premeditated Scheme

Although everyone is an "old friend," he doesn't act like one now.

Moreover, Lin Yi had a terrifying premonition: could it be that the summoning wasn't Tian Gongzi's summoning, but rather... that he was being instructed to call upon the giant serpent at a crucial moment?!

In a daze, he seemed to see a glimpse of himself in the illusory outline of the giant serpent's shadow, as if he were looking in a mirror in a hazy mist.

Soon, the broken and distorted layers began to return to normal, and Lin Yi's will returned.

He plopped down on himself.

……

X023年5月11日，11:43，B组2班。

Lin Yi gently shook his head, his will completely returned, and he felt whole again.

He fully woke up and immediately checked the time on his watch.

11: 43.

"Holy crap, it's almost 12 o'clock?!" Lin Yi exclaimed in surprise, but upon closer reflection, he realized that it was already around 9:40 when he was summoned by Tian Bufan.

I've done so much in just two hours, it seems... not bad at all!
Moreover, this is based on the fact that they entered a time-distorted rift in the layers.

If things were flowing at the normal pace, it would probably be afternoon by now.

Forget about eating, there's barely enough time to get to class at the gym.

He quickly patted Wei Liang on the shoulder: "Liangzi, Liangzi! Time to eat, wanna come?"

Wei Liang quickly put down the book in his hand: "Let's go! I'm starving! Oh right, what time is it now?"

He glanced at the pendulum clock on the wall as he spoke.

"Holy crap! It's almost midnight?!"

His eyes widened. "I've been reading for so long?"

"You bet! I'm almost embarrassed to bother you," Lin Yi coaxed. "But strictly speaking, at our pace, it'll be noon by the time we get there. Shall we go for lunch?"

"Of course we're going! We'll get hungry if we don't eat!" Wei Liang said, pointing to the classroom. "Look, everyone's gone, only the two of us are left."

Lin Yi asked instinctively, "Where are they?"

"Is that even a question? You must have all gone to eat! I thought you were reading and eating your fill today and weren't planning on going to the cafeteria!" Wei Liang said. "After all, as the old saying goes, there are Liu Ruyan in books, and even more Ji Datui in books. If you really didn't go to eat, I could understand."

"Please, that's Yan Ruyu, not Liu Ruyan." Lin Yi was speechless, but too lazy to say anything more to Wei Liang on this level.

Wei Liang's reminder made him realize that the homeroom teacher, 040, seemed to have left the classroom after signing in, and the physical education students and other students who had shown signs of mental abnormality had also left the classroom.

Lin Yi pursed his lips: "I'm really impressed with you. Let's go, let's go eat! It feels like we've already gone back and forth about twice!"

"Let's go then." Wei Liang responded and followed Lin Yi out of his seat and out of the classroom.

As they descended the steps, Wei Liang, who was following behind Lin Yi, suddenly glanced at Lin Yi's figure without making a sound, and then a subtle light flashed in his eyes.

“Crack!”

Lin Yi pushed open the classroom door, and as soon as he stepped out, he saw Wei Shan squatting on the steps outside the classroom of Class 3, Group B, staring at their classroom door like someone who was staking out the place.

That's why, as soon as he opened the door, his eyes met Wei Shan's.

"Weisang!" Lin Yi called out in surprise.

"Old Lin." Wei Shan stood up, clapped his hands, and slowly walked to Lin Yi's side.

"What are you doing here?" Lin Yi asked in surprise.

Wei Shan said, "Young Master Tian said that I will stay by your side every step of the way while we are on campus today."

"I see..." Lin Yi murmured, indicating his understanding, and nodded. "Then let's go, let's go to the cafeteria together."

"Mm." Wei Shan nodded.

Lin Yi casually put the doorknob on, and just then, he noticed the classroom door sign.

"What are you looking at?" Wei Shan asked.

"It's nothing..." Lin Yi shook his head slightly. "When I left last night, I seem to remember there was a piece of paper or something stuck here. Right, Liangzi?"

He was certain that it was Wei Liang's handwriting, and that he had used the same paper from Wei Liang's notepad.

Wei Liang took two pieces of paper from him. He used the first piece of paper to write "a small piece of paper thrown by a Song Dynasty person", and he stuck the second piece of paper on the classroom door sign.

“Right, right!” Wei Liang exclaimed. “It’s normal for a plastic bag to drift over on a windy day, and it’s normal for something to get stuck in it. If it’s a piece of paper, it’s either a small advertisement or something to ward off evil spirits.”

"To ward off evil spirits..." Lin Yi narrowed his eyes. Since Wei Liang wasn't going to say, he wouldn't ask any more questions.

The three of them descended the steps and walked slowly toward the cafeteria.

Lin Yi couldn't help but look up at the sky. It was almost noon, but the entire campus was still shrouded in a gloomy cloud cover. The sunlight could not penetrate the thick clouds, and the whole campus was filled with a damp and cold atmosphere.

"Liangzi, do you think it will rain during the day?" Lin Yi suddenly asked.

Wei Liang was taken aback for a moment: "You're asking me? I'm not a weather forecaster, but looking at this weather, it's probably going to be a downpour tonight. I'll give you all my raincoats later."

Lin Yi snorted and glared, "Why don't you tell me to go back to my dorm and sleep?"

"Hey, what are you guys thinking? You only made these dumplings because of this vinegar!" Wei Liang patted Lin Yi on the shoulder. "But don't panic, I'm not going back to the dorm tonight either. I'll stick with you through this!"

Upon hearing this, Lin Yi was immediately overjoyed: "You actually want to come with me?! No wonder you are the Heavenly Venerable Fusheng Weiliang!"

"So excited?"

"That's for sure!"

“Okay, but don’t move yet, I haven’t finished speaking,” Wei Liang said. “I’m not going back to the dorm with you, but I didn’t say I’d stand outside in the rain with you.”

"Ah? Then you..."

“I’ll stay in the stadium. If anything happens to you, I can get the boss to save you right away,” Wei Liang said earnestly.

"Uh... really?"

"It's even more real than a steel needle!" Wei Liang said.

The group quickly left the dormitory area and re-entered the cafeteria area.

Along the way, they encountered several other students returning to the teaching building area. Similarly, these students seemed listless, as if their souls had been hollowed out.

It seems that numbness and self-isolation are the only ways for the students to survive in this campus.

Not long after Lin Yi and his group left, a figure slowly appeared on the path they had walked.

Zhao Lingxiao.

She looked perfectly normal now, quiet like an introverted girl, except that her gaze behind her glasses was intensely fervent. "Lin Yi's scent..."

She muttered to herself, like a well-trained tracking dog, following the scent to find Lin Yi's figure.

Strangely, if Lin Yi were here, he would find that when Zhao Lingxiao moved around, all the scent of him in the air was absorbed by her.

Zhao Lingxiao absorbed his aura like a human vacuum cleaner, devouring his aura, and then... emanated a strange, fanatical aura.

Aside from that, she was as normal as could be, like a...pure, infatuated girl.

She adjusted her glasses, licked her lips, took a deep breath, and then slowly walked after Lin Yi's retreating figure.

……

X023年5月11日，11:59，林异三人抵达了食堂的告示牌前。

As he walked along, Lin Yi discovered that he could now see the image beneath the layers with great ease.

He now wants to see the chef sculpture like someone standing by a pool wants to see the tile pattern at the bottom of the pool; all he needs to do is look down and focus his attention.

Moreover, such observations do not affect his own activities within the real-world layers, nor does his observation and cognition of the layers.

He adapted faster and faster, and some things no longer required him to deliberately improve; he was constantly progressing with every breath.

It's as natural as Superman absorbing the light of the yellow sun.

“Today is so strange…” Lin Yi said slowly, “I feel like I haven’t seen any Nightwalkers in a long time.”

"We didn't find it in the green belts around the teaching building area, nor in the green belts around the canteen area... nor did we find it near Young Master Tian."

"How come when I woke up one night, it was as if all the nocturnal creatures had vanished?"

Wei Liang was taken aback: "Are you talking to me?"

"Uh...you know what?" Lin Yi was delighted. He knew that Wei Liang never participated in in-depth discussions, so he was actually talking to Wei Shan just now.

Wei Liang said, "I don't understand this 'bastard' thing you're talking about at all, but usually when a group of things disappears, it's either because they all died at once, or they were attracted to something else or something more important. What do you think it is?"

"You mean, something summoned the Nightwalker?" Lin Yi was shocked; why hadn't he thought of that?

Wei Liang shrugged and said, "I don't know anything! You should ask Wei Sang."

Wei Shan shook his head and said sheepishly, "I don't know."

"Never mind that for now," Lin Yi said. "Let's eat first."

The nocturnal species themselves are not capable of causing any trouble, but Lin Yi's only concern is that they might gather together and create a large force, which could then cause trouble.

The three of them each took a copy of the "Cafeteria Rules" and then walked towards the student passage.

As Lin Yi approached the student passage, his brows furrowed slightly.

Under his gaze, the burial roots on the inner wall of the student passage seemed to have increased significantly compared to when he had breakfast. Although the growth of these burial roots had not yet had much impact on the interior space of the student passage, he still felt a strong sense of resistance towards them.

He discovered that some of the steps were still being covered by the roots of the burial body.

"Phew..." Wei Shan exhaled heavily, his teeth grinding together, making a "crunching" sound.

"Weisang, can you sense the contamination in the student passageway?" Lin Yi asked.

Wei Shan nodded, his face grim: "Fine, I really want to burn them all!"

"Fire attack works?" Lin Yi's eyes lit up.

“It’s useless,” Wei Shan said. “It just looks like vines, which reminds me of burning… If we want to eradicate it, we only need to kill the 'burial body' itself.”

"'Just need'?" Lin Yi's lips twitched involuntarily. "Is this matter really that simple?"

“It’s not simple, but none of the things we’re doing are simple,” Wei Shan said. “However, Young Master Tian instructed that the canteen is not part of our operation…”

"Let's go then," Lin Yi said, leading the group into the student passage.

[Lin Yi, oh Lin Yi...]

[Lin Yi, oh Lin Yi...]

As soon as he entered the student passage, the call of the broken sculpture reappeared, as if the lingering spirits had gathered again and were lingering in his ears, singing a line or two every now and then.

In the layers below the layers, countless broken sculptures swayed and rocked in the tunnel, laughing eerily as they watched Lin Yi.

Lin Yi ignored this and silently walked towards the exit.

"Ignoring" is increasingly becoming a science, but "turning a blind eye" is an even more profound skill.

Lin Yi felt that Wei Liang's strange skills might be based on this principle, and he had developed even more outrageous techniques on the basis of "turning a blind eye", and even mastered the combo moves.

As they were walking, Lin Yi suddenly said, "Wei Sang."

"What's wrong, Lao Lin?" Wei Shan asked.

Should we prepare some tomatoes?

Upon hearing this, Wei Shan's somewhat simple and honest face immediately lit up with excitement and cruelty: "Sure, let's wipe them all out!"

"Hiss..." Seeing the madness and cruelty hidden deep in Wei Shan's honest eyes, Lin Yi gasped and quickly said, "It's not like this morning..."

Wei Shan nodded seriously: "I know, picking tomatoes! Yin Bi loves it the most!"

"I see you like it quite a bit too...!" Lin Yi had a black line on his forehead and quickly explained, "It's just a sweep, that is, taking all the tomatoes from their plates, not killing them. Didn't Young Master Tian say that the cafeteria wasn't in our plans?"

However, you can sweep up a bunch of tomatoes just in case.

Wei Shan was stunned for a moment, seemingly not quite understanding the meaning behind Lin Yi's words, so he said, "Alright then... let me see how you do it, and I'll do it the same way."

"Don't worry, it's very simple. I did it just like that yesterday, and you just need to do it the same way today," Lin Yi said.

Suddenly, he froze.

He saw Old Mo at the end of the passage.

Old Mo is watching him.

Although it was still the same as in the morning, that familiar sight reminded Lin Yi of how he had gone to great lengths for Mu Daxian back then.

Unfortunately, Lao Mo has once again become the last drop of blood in the cafeteria, and it's unknown how long it will take for him to return to his free-roaming self.

He composed himself and arrived at the exit of the student passage.

After glancing at Lao Mo one more time, he turned and headed towards the student cafeteria.

But just then, he heard Old Mo's voice in his ear: "...repeating...machine...kid..."

(End of this chapter)