Rules-related weird stories: 4016.

Chapter 600 The Call of the Swimming Pool
Lin Yi said seriously, "I feel you might become a rather special kind of 'student'."

"That's all thanks to you!" Li Huiyuan grumbled, but there seemed to be no dissatisfaction in her tone.

Before they knew it, the two had arrived at the swimming pool.

"Then I'll be going now, see you by the pool~" Li Huiyuan waved to Lin Yi, took a deep breath, and headed towards the women's changing room.

Lin Yi thought for a moment, glanced at his watch, and then turned and walked into the men's changing room.

The process of changing into his swimsuit went incredibly smoothly, without a single hiccup, leaving Lin Yi with a dreamlike, unreal feeling.

After passing through the water curtain and arriving at the poolside, Lin Yi glanced at the pendulum clock on the wall.

16: 26.

He glanced in the direction of the women's changing room; Li Huiyuan was changing a little slower and hadn't come out yet.

Lin Yi then walked to a spot closer to the women's quarters, so that Li Huiyuan could see him as soon as she came out, and of course, the boss as well.

After walking over there, Lin Yi glanced around the swimming pool and found that there were quite a few physical education students swimming. However, he couldn't see Wei Liang anywhere.

"That's strange, where did Liangzi go?" Lin Yi couldn't help but mutter to himself.

Wei Liang wasn't there, nor was Xia Lian.

These two people, who both openly embrace swimming, were not present at the swimming pool, as if they were engaged in their own little scheme.

But then again… Lin Yi couldn’t help but show a strange expression. Liangzi and Xia Lian, these two guys, isn’t this a different kind of tacit understanding?

Li Huiyuan hasn't arrived yet, and it's even less likely that the boss will. Lin Yi waited by the pool for a while, not knowing what to do.

He remembered his boss's repeated warnings not to swim without permission, so he found a lounge chair by the pool, lay down, and stared at the pool, waiting in a daze.

This swimming pool was larger than any swimming pool he knew. The athletes practiced swimming in the water, and wave after wave collided and canceled each other out, forming new ripples. There was order within disorder, and from the disorder, countless ripples beyond cognition and calculation arose...

"Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—"

The sound of the waves varied in depth, like a distant song, sometimes near, sometimes far.

Lin Yi looked at the non-slip flooring at his feet. After the water from the pool washed ashore, it broke into countless bubbles on the non-slip flooring, just like seawater surging onto the beach with the tide and turning into spray.

Lin Yi's gaze fell on the edge of the pool, staring blankly at the chaotic splashes of water caused by repeated collisions, gradually losing focus.

In a daze, he noticed that the lights in the pool suddenly dimmed, and the blue pool water turned gray and murky. In just a few ripples, the water in the entire pool turned into black tide.

The surging tide grew ever more turbulent, wave after wave pushing forward.

The boisterous sounds of the athletes in the pool were gradually broken by the sound of the waves, mixed with some rapid wind, low murmurs, distant songs, and some ancient chants that could not be described in words...

【……Nr den……】

【…svarte m…nen vissner…】

【…kom…mer srge…moerne…】

【…… det uendelige……】

[Nr den... svarte mnen... vissner... kommer srgemoerne... tilbake fra... det uendelige dyphavet...]

Lin Yi subconsciously captured the keywords, triggering a cognitive effect in my mind. The characters gradually pieced together the admonition he already knew—

【Nr den svarte mnen vissner, kommer srgemoerne tilbake fra det uendelige dyphavet.】

The admonition reads: "When the dark moon fades, the mourners return from the endless depths of the sea."

"How did the commandment come from the pool?" Lin Yi couldn't help but feel a little confused. He looked at the pool, but it seemed as if an endless black sea appeared before his eyes.

As his view expanded, the swimming pool seemed to disappear, replaced by a beach that felt somewhat familiar to him, with the black sea stretching out in front of it.

At that moment, Lin Yi was shocked to find that the floor beneath the deck chair was not made of non-slip tiles, but rather a sandy beach covered with pebbles.

As if sensing something, he turned his head and saw that the towering peak, which rose like a sharp blade, was no longer visible on the distant horizon. On the cliff of the peak, the black castle stood majestically.

"Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—"

The black tide surged continuously, like the ebb and flow of the tide, wave after wave, and soon the spray reached his recliner.

Amidst the waves, that admonitory shout grew increasingly urgent and louder, gradually drowning out everything else.

【…Nr…den…svarte m…】

【……nen vissner……om……me……】

【…kr srge…moerne…】

【Rr…… ved mine……】

【...dypbl pupiller... sprekker...】

【…mitt stjerneskelett…】

【…forsyner min rmne…】

"Wow——"

A wave surged up and submerged Lin Yi's legs.

Lin Yi suddenly shuddered; there was something in the waves!

He looked down and saw that as the waves receded, a grayish-blue, broken hand was being pulled away along with the receding water!

He felt a chill run down his spine, and the next moment, the tide surged in again, and beneath the waves lay countless broken sculptures!
[...mine...dypbl...pupiller...sprekker...mitt...stjerneskelett...forsyner min...]

This time, the water surged up to his waist, and the broken sculptures clung to his body like barnacles, as if they wanted to grow on him.

[…Brenn min… beinfla…mmende ild… gjr min blgeornament…uendelig…]

The calls grew louder and louder, then, like a choir, drowned out the splashing water, making his heart tremble!
Another wave surged in, and the tide rose to his chest!
Countless broken sculptures climbed up to his chest, and the calls rose like ivy, almost exploding in his ears, threatening to drown him out!

【…store stjerner…store stjerner…】

The repeated calls caused Lin Yi's spirit to tremble. His eyes gradually rolled back, and in his mind, invisible brushstrokes began to trace strange trajectories, imprinting hazy patterns onto the dark world! Countless broken sculptures, accompanied by surging black tides, chanted this admonition to him!
"Rr ved mine dypbl pupiller... sprekker mitt stjerneskelett... forsyner min rmne..."

"Brenn min beinflammende ild... gjr min blgeornament uendelig..."

But as he became confused and lost, the new admonitory texts began to be captured and imprinted in his mind!
At the same time, he gradually began to understand the meaning of these admonitions!

"Touch my abyssal gaze... shatter my star's remains... corrode my decaying moon... burn my bone flames... obliterate my tide's patterns... shatter me..."

"Lin Yi... Lin Yi... Lin Yi..."

He began to hear a woman's voice calling his name.

"How strange..." Lin Yi murmured softly, "Why is there a woman's voice coming from inside the broken sculpture..."

Suddenly, he shuddered!
His rolled-back eyes suddenly regained their sparkle!
"Li Huiyuan's voice!"

"Li Huiyuan!"

"stadium!"

Thinking of this, the whole world seemed to be torn apart by a dazzling thunderbolt, and the white light rendered everything Lin Yi saw into a black and white line picture!
The world has recovered, and he has reappeared in the stadium!
The splashing sound of water echoed in his ears wave after wave.

In front of him was a pair of fair and delicate pink legs, and Li Huiyuan was squatting beside him, shaking him anxiously.

"Li Huiyuan, I...?" Lin Yi came to his senses and slowly spoke, but his voice was a little hoarse, as if his throat had been practicing dark rap for a long time.

"Didn't the boss say that we weren't allowed to enter the pool without permission before she left? What happened?" Li Huiyuan's face showed seven parts worry, two parts reproach, and one part pure unhappiness.

Lin Yi was stunned when he heard this, and then realized what was going on with the angle at which he was looking at Li Huiyuan—he had actually reached the swimming pool, and the water was now just over his chest!
Just like... the black seawater that had just reached his chest!
"Whoosh—!"

He quickly climbed out of the swimming pool, first glancing at the time on his watch, and then, disregarding his image, lay down on the non-slip floor and began to pant heavily.

16: 29.

Including the time it took him to find a deck chair and sit down, he had only been in the water for less than a minute.

However, in the world where he lost his layer, it seemed as if a very long time had passed...

Thinking about that time difference, he suddenly felt a chill of fear. Luckily, Li Huiyuan arrived in time; otherwise, if she had arrived even a minute later, wouldn't he have been submerged on the other layer?!

He hadn't realized a problem when the layer was removed, but now he's come to his senses—in that layer, he seems unable to leave that recliner!

If the seawater of the Black Sea were to rise above his head, wouldn't he drown?!
This time, let's just hope they don't drown.

The words the leader said to him before he left the gymnastics hall struck him like a proverb, leaving him stunned for a moment.

"You might not believe it, but I didn't even know what happened!" Lin Yi's face was full of lingering fear. "I mistook the swimming pool for black seawater, and by the time I realized what was happening, it was already time for you to wake me up!"

Upon hearing this, Li Huiyuan's pretty face became serious: "I understand."

She stood up, her smooth, cartoon-like legs glistening with water droplets, reflecting a hazy glow under the LED lights of the swimming pool.

“I was like that last night too! But… I only started sleepwalking because I heard you calling me. What was it for you?” Li Huiyuan asked, puzzled.

Lin Yi narrowed his eyes: "They are some... broken sculptures."

“A broken sculpture…? That’s really strange… I’ve never heard of it. Maybe the boss knows. Should you ask her later?” Li Huiyuan said.

Lin Yi nodded: "We should ask."

He actually had quite a few questions to ask.

For example, the matter of lighting up old kerosene lamps.

And... was that staircase we just saw leading to the stadium's basement?

He had initially thought it was a path on a floor leading to the basement, but after seeing the shower room on another floor in the shower area, he realized that the staircase... might not necessarily lead to the basement.

But if those aren't steps leading to the basement, where do they lead?

Moreover, he had observed that place during his very first physical education class, before his understanding of it had even begun to deepen...

Too bizarre, too strange.

“Hey, the boss is here! Perfect timing, you can ask her!” Li Huiyuan suddenly said.

Lin Yi immediately turned around and looked at the exit of the women's changing room. He saw his boss, who had changed into a dark blue one-piece sports swimsuit, walking towards him with her fair and slender legs.

But he noticed that the boss's eyebrows were furrowed and his expression was somewhat serious!

"Oh no, boss's expression... does it mean things are really bad over in the shower area?"

Lin Yi sensed something was wrong: "Boss..."

He had just opened his mouth when he was ruthlessly interrupted by the boss's cold voice: "You just went into the water? Do you think my words are just going in one ear and out the other?"

“No, boss, Lin Yi just had a hallucination and then sleepwalked, just like I did last night,” Li Huiyuan quickly defended Lin Yi.

"I guessed a thing or two too." The eldest brother wasn't angry; a slight smile curved his lips. "He didn't utter a single word, yet you're in such a hurry to explain for him."

Li Huiyuan blushed and lowered her head, muttering softly, "But... it's true that it went in one ear and out the other."

I told you to call me Huihuizi! I told you to call me Huihuizi! But you won't listen to a word I say! It's infuriating! Li Huiyuan was filled with impotent rage.

The eldest brother looked at Lin Yi and asked, "Tell me, what happened this time?"

"I came out to wait for Huihuizi first, and then..." Lin Yi then told her in detail how he fell from the deck chair to the art building deck while lying on the deck chair, and also told her about the broken sculpture in the black sea.

"It seems I was right to choose the swimming pool for this training session," the leader said slowly.

"Looks like there's more to it than meets the eye!" Lin Yi's eyes lit up, and he quickly asked, "Boss, it seems you already knew? Is this related to my training?"

"There is a tiny bit of a connection," the eldest brother said reluctantly. "Your situation just now was mostly due to the Dream Building stage, which is different from Huihui's situation."

She glanced at Li Huiyuan and continued, "Your will jumped over first, and then your body reacted. Your body and will were not synchronized at the layer level... This is a very dangerous behavior. If your will dies in the layer, who knows what will take advantage of the situation and seize control of your body."

(End of this chapter)