Rules-related weird stories: 4016.

Chapter 585 The teaching building is… “alive”?! (Early month, please vote with monthly tickets~)

"Holy crap! It really works?!" Lin Yi's expression changed slightly. Tian Bufan's will had indeed penetrated the layer and descended upon him. His face immediately showed a look of wild joy.

"Is there something you need?" Tian Bufan asked.

Lin Yi was overjoyed, but upon hearing this, he paused for a moment before blurting out, "Hey, have you had lunch yet?"

Tian Bufan: "..."

"No, I mean..." Lin Yi quickly came to his senses, "I just found the locations of the Nightwalker species and the sculpture array! Can you see them?"

He turned his gaze back to the "dumpling".

“I saw it,” Tian Bufan said.

"What's your opinion, or do you know what's going on?" Lin Yi asked.

"Let me see," Tian Bufan said, then fell silent.

After a moment, he spoke: "Kuai said that they are assembling into some kind of component—some kind of component used to build a matrix."

"A matrix?" The only matrix Lin Yi knew was the Stonehenge in the desolate land. "This can form a matrix?"

Tian Bufan said, "It's not called 'this is also possible,' but rather, they are themselves part of a certain 'matrix.'"

"Think about it, those pseudo-human classmates and nocturnal creatures in the elevator, isn't it as if there's some underlying logic that allows them to interweave with each other in an unconventional way, forming a bizarre hybrid state?"

"Their clay-like appearance may not be an inherent characteristic of theirs, but rather a 'shape memory effect' that they acquire after becoming part of the matrix."

"If you think about it carefully, the Forest of the Dead also has this characteristic."

Lin Yi was shocked: "Could it be that the lineage of these strange creatures is a huge river that eventually flows back to the sea?"

“Isn’t that right?” Tian Bufan countered. “The current discovery is that they can form ‘matrix modules’ or ‘matrix units,’ but Kuai Kuai hasn’t figured out its underlying logic yet.”

"Kuai Kuai..." A thought suddenly flashed through Lin Yi's mind, "Could Kuai Kuai have been tinkering with something these past few days?"

"Perhaps," Tian Bufan said.

"'Perhaps'? Aren't you sure?"

“Matrix design is a mysterious and complex thing. To give a simple example, it’s like a city. A matrix in a barren land might be a building, and what you see might be another building. The buildings are independent of each other, but they are very likely all part of a larger matrix.”

Lin Yi suddenly realized: "Oh—I see!"

"Is there anything else? If not, I'm leaving."

"Uh... should I say goodbye, or should I hang up now?"

"...Whatever you want."

Tian Bufan's voice disappeared.

Lin Yi hung up the phone, initially worried because of the discovery of the matrix, but immediately became happy because he could indeed summon Tian Bufan.

Judging from this, it seems that they have formed some kind of "local area network".

Perhaps the methods used to transmit pollution have been upgraded?

I don't know, but it doesn't matter.

Before long, Lin Yi and his group arrived in front of the teaching building.

For some reason, Lin Yi now feels a faint sense of aversion when he looks at the teaching building, as if the building has been tainted by some ominous aura.

He looked up at the eight-story building and vaguely felt that there was something strange about the building's boundaries.

"Hey, why are you stopping again, Lao Lin?" Wei Liang couldn't help but ask when he saw Lin Yi stop.

Lin Yi shook his head: "I'm a little resistant..."

"Resist? What are you resisting?" Wei Liang asked, puzzled. They were almost at the teaching building, what was there to resist?

"Resistance...to the teaching building."

"Huh? No, what... what the hell is this? Is this teaching building some kind of monster's cave? What's there to object to?" Wei Liang was speechless.

Wei Shan nodded in agreement: "Old Lin, aren't you overthinking this?"

Even Wei Shan said so, so Lin Yi narrowed his eyes. Just as he was about to dispel his doubts, he suddenly noticed that the walls of the teaching building were strangely distorted. The source of his previous discomfort was this.

As the visual perception deepened, the creeping sensation on the exterior wall of the teaching building became more and more pronounced. The pale, slightly dirty wall paint resembled swollen skin, and the tiny bumps looked like blisters.

Lin Yi silently walked up the steps to the corridor of the teaching building, then reached out and gently touched the wall of the teaching building.

Back then, when he leaned against the wall, he could feel a kind of wriggling, wrinkled sensation, as if the entire wall was a living creature. But now it seems that although the wall is not a living creature, its essence is still not something from reality.

At the very least, this thing has a serious problem with its layer hierarchy, like... the folds of a brain!

"And this wall...?!" Lin Yi's pupils contracted sharply. As he touched it, he felt that the material of the wall was very similar to solid supernatural matter, but it was not just supernatural matter. It also contained... powder particles!
"The way this wall plaster was applied is exactly like the way I used to construct my puppets!"

"Is this what architecture is?!"

Plastering, civil engineering, feng shui...

Does the architecture in mysticism involve using supernatural substances and powders to create "supernatural concrete" and then using it to build things?
If that's the case, then his actions of repairing the city wall in the stadium seem to conform to "architecture" to some extent.

"But……"

Lin Yi felt that there was still something he didn't understand. The strangeness of the teaching building seemed to go beyond this, and the writhing walls seemed to be just the tip of the iceberg of the real mystery.

Suddenly, Lin Yi felt a subtle vibration in his palm...

His heart felt as if it had been clenched, and his chest suddenly skipped a beat!
"This wall... is it 'alive'?!"

"No, not 'alive,' but... more like a cafeteria!"

What's the cafeteria like?!

The body was found in the cafeteria, in the student passage, other passages, and deep inside the No. 10 food purchase window. And now, this feeling has appeared in the teaching building!

A pure white, dazzling light suddenly flashed behind Lin Yi's head.

"Could it be... that the school building has also been parasitized by some mysterious creature resembling a burial body?!"

"That's not all!"

"And... the stadium!"

"The floor in the gym office felt like flesh and blood, and the gym teacher radiated a scorching heat!" "Could it be... the gymnasium is like that too?!"

"Hiss... Wait! Wait, wait, wait! Could it be that the entire campus is a mixture of flesh and architecture?!"

The rain made me feel like a mushroom cloud suddenly exploded in my head, right there in the dormitory building!

The dormitory buildings too!

"When I first saw the dormitory building, it felt like a mysterious giant... Could it be... that wasn't an illusion, but... my premonition?"

"Or... in my lost memories, even though I've forgotten, my instincts still allow me to sense the...essence of the dormitory building?"

None of the buildings on campus are purely inorganic.

He never expected that he would come to such an illogical yet realistic and terrifying conjecture!
Thinking about it this way, could the area on the 5th floor and above of the teaching building be interpreted in a deeper way?
The more he thought about it, the colder he felt and the more he struggled to breathe, as if he were trapped inside a sealed metal can.

This leap in cognitive depth led to a further shift in his thinking and gave him a profound understanding of the campus...

He felt as if the entire teaching building was a man-eating monster, and each classroom was a closed mouth that would devour him and leave him never to rise again.

In a daze, Lin Yi vaguely felt his palms itching. He subconsciously withdrew his palms, only to find that the wall where his palms had been in contact was writhing with countless teeth, like the mouthparts of worms, slowly gnawing at his palms!
"?!?!"

Lin Yi's pupils dilated in shock. He felt waves of cold air washing over his head, and his scalp tingled as if worms were gnawing at his brain.

He quickly pulled his hand back and shook it violently as if it had been smeared with feces.

"Old Lin! Old Lin, are you alright?" Wei Liang's voice rang in his ears.

"Ah...? I... I'm fine." Lin Yi regained his senses, his breathing slightly rapid, but his complexion had improved considerably. "I feel like this building has come alive..."

"Hiss—" Wei Liang's expression changed drastically upon hearing this. "Holy crap, you're talking about the Black Mountain Demon?!"

"But my title of Heavenly Venerable Fusheng Weiliang is just for show. I can't possibly use my blood to create a golden statue for you like Zen Master Baiyun did and throw it into the clouds to absorb sunlight and kill them!"

"I was just saying, why are you reacting so strongly..." Lin Yi pursed his lips, his expression gradually calming down.

Nevertheless, he was deeply shaken, and the itching sensation on his hands from the wall's biting sensation had not yet subsided.

After climbing the steps, Wei Shan said goodbye to them and then returned to Class 3 of Group B.

Lin Yi glanced at Wei Liang, then looked down at his watch.

13: 03.

"Ryoko."

"Ok?"

"You go back to the classroom first."

"Are you going to see Teacher Lin again?"

Lin Yi's expression was serious: "Yes, I happen to have some questions I want to ask."

"Okay, go ahead, remember you have PE class this afternoon," Wei Liang reminded Lin Yi, seemingly worried that he would come back too late.

Lin Yi nodded: "Don't worry, I know."

Wei Liang glanced at the door sign, then pushed open the classroom door and went inside.

Lin Yi took a deep breath, then walked to the teachers' office, "Group B, Class 2," and knocked on the door.

"Teacher, are you there? It's me, Lin Yi."

"Open the door yourself."

"Oh..." Lin Yi responded, grasped the doorknob, and after communicating with the door's attributes, the door opened with a "click".

As soon as Lin Yi opened the door, he found that his homeroom teacher, 040, was having lunch.

"Are you cooking... Sorry to bother you," Lin Yi blurted out.

"What new discovery have you made?" Upon seeing Lin Yi's furrowed brows, the homeroom teacher-040 knew that something was amiss. He immediately put down his plate and politely looked at Lin Yi, who was speaking.

Lin Yi organized his thoughts and then said, "I can't say I've made any new discoveries, I just wanted to ask you, do you really know anything about things related to the construction of the campus?"

"Participation in the construction of the campus...?" Class teacher-040 was slightly taken aback. "That was more than twenty years ago. Why are you asking about that?"

Lin Yi then said, "I've made a small discovery... but I don't know if you'll have any cognitive issues if I tell you about it..."

The homeroom teacher's eyes lit up: "Now that you mention it, I'm actually more interested. What have you discovered this time?"

She genuinely felt that Lin Yi was like a snake-patterned bear, always managing to bring back some treasures every time he was let out for a stroll.

"I've noticed... the teaching building has some similarities to the cafeteria, I mean, in terms of the relationship between a burial site and a cafeteria." Lin Yi stopped there, looking at his homeroom teacher-040's face, wanting to see her reaction.

But the homeroom teacher-040 didn't react at all, and just said, "Continue, Needle Rat, ah no, Lin Yi."

"What needle rat?" Lin Yi was taken aback.

The homeroom teacher, 040, whispered, "It's nothing..."

Lin Yi suddenly remembered something and couldn't help but say, "Teacher, are you playing a pirated version of Pokémon? I think that thing is called Zigzagoon."

"What do you mean by pirated or genuine? Back then, I called it 'Pokémon'," the homeroom teacher-040 retorted.

“That’s true…” Lin Yi said subconsciously, “Pokémon was only officially re-announced and confirmed as its name a few years ago. Before that, it was called Pokémon or Pokémon…”

"No, what are you talking about? What Pokémon? What years ago? Little Life has been gone for over 20 years, how can there be an official announcement?" Class teacher-040 looked at Lin Yi with a serious expression. "Is there something wrong with your understanding?"

Lin Yi was taken aback. He then realized that the history in the story seemed to be different from his understanding—no, from his preconceived notions. So he quickly said, "I misspoke just now... Teacher, please don't dwell on that question. Let's continue talking about the teaching building, okay?"

That's true, but his heart still skipped a beat.

In his mind, life is going well, and the international situation seems to be somewhat different from the alliance that most people are familiar with.

There's a huge secret hidden here, perhaps related to his own memory problems, but he can't delve into it now.

Before he saw the homeroom teacher-040, he had no idea about the relationship between the burial body and the cafeteria. Now, after testing the waters, he found that the homeroom teacher-040 had indeed not discovered that the teaching building was "alive".

So he slowed down his speech, carefully observing the homeroom teacher's expression to avoid shocking the teacher's understanding, and slowly revealed the conjecture he had just come up with...

As the homeroom teacher listened, at a certain moment, her expression suddenly changed drastically.

"So that's how it is!" she exclaimed in surprise.

(End of this chapter)