Rules-related weird stories: 4016.

Chapter 601 Never Heard of a Broken Sculpture (600 chapters already!)
Upon hearing this, Lin Yi felt a surge of intense fear: "How could something like this happen?!"

"I can only say that it happened," the leader said. "Fortunately, it was discovered in time. Otherwise, if such a unit were to escape from the campus, it would truly be like letting a tiger return to the mountains, with endless troubles in the future."

"Then, boss, do you know what those broken sculptures are?" Lin Yi asked. "I've been troubled by them for a long time, especially in the last few days. My hallucinations of them have become more and more frequent... whether it's those calling voices or other sounds they're talking about."

"A broken sculpture?" A hint of doubt appeared in the boss's eyes. "What kind of broken sculpture?"

Lin Yi's heart skipped a beat. Oh no, the boss doesn't know?
Could it be something from the boss's memory blind spot again?

He quickly explained the broken sculptures and then added, "I initially found them while exploring the area on the 5th floor and above of the teaching building. They were hanging upside down in groups from the ceiling, tightly bound by iron chains, with less than half of their bodies able to move."

"Later, I also saw them in the library and student corridors..."

"Later on, I would often hear their voices and calls..."

The leader frowned as he listened to Lin Yi's description: "First of all, I need to make one point clear."

“Since the campus began construction, there have been some damaged sculptures on campus, but there is no such thing as the damaged sculpture you described, hanging upside down from the ceiling by iron chains.”

"At least, I've never heard of it."

The statement, "I've never heard of it," may seem simple, but if it comes from a veteran figure whose history predates that of the campus, then there's a big problem.

Lin Yi felt a little heavy-hearted. He had actually been entangled by a mysterious creature—no, a whole group of these things—that even the boss didn't know about!
Moreover, they are now hiding in the black ocean, playing these terrifying games with him!
He felt a little nauseous.

The eldest brother said slowly, "If it's not a problem with the campus, then it must be something wrong with you or something around you."

"But as for what the problem is, you'll have to ask yourself."

"Ask me... I don't know either." Lin Yi sighed softly. There were too many questions, and he didn't know where to begin thinking.

If I calm down and sort things out properly, maybe I can manage, but right now, I simply can't come up with even the slightest clue.

The eldest brother didn't want to dwell on this topic for too long, so he gestured, "Let's go into the water first. Huihui, you don't need to go in."

"Huh? Then I've worn this for nothing?" Li Huiyuan lowered her head, seemingly disappointed that she couldn't swim with Lin Yi.

"You can't participate in Lin Yi's training, but you can watch and learn from the sidelines," the leader said calmly. "Everyone is wearing a swimsuit; there's no question of whether it's a waste of their time."

Upon hearing this, Lin Yi put on his swimming goggles and prepared to go into the water.

"Wait, take off your swimming goggles and cap this time." The eldest brother stopped him. "...Take them off and give them to Huihui."

"Huh?" Lin Yi was slightly taken aback, but still immediately did as instructed.

Li Huiyuan obediently took the swimming cap and goggles from Lin Yi's hands, and then secretly sniffed them when no one was looking.

Lin Yi looked at the leader in confusion, and the leader slowly said, "Swimming goggles are to prevent trainees from closing their eyes while swimming for unnecessary reasons, and swimming caps are to protect their heads... but you don't need them."

"You need to be exposed to the water as much as possible; it will make it easier for you to get into the zone."

"To the maximum extent?" Upon hearing this, Li Huiyuan's eyes lit up. She glanced at Lin Yi and then her gaze settled on his swimming trunks.

Lin Yi gasped in shock. No, Huihui, are you serious?

"Forget about that..." The boss was speechless, but his next words made Lin Yi want to crawl into a hole and disappear, "Didn't you get enough of watching him get exposed and forced to reorganize?"

Li Huiyuan was stunned for a moment, and a look of surprise was visibly revealed in her eyes. She really hadn't seen what her boss was talking about.

Damn it, the boss saw everything!
But it's strange, she remembers that when Lin Yi was exposed, his gymnastics uniform also exploded, but after the reconstruction, it seems that the gymnastics uniform was also repaired...?
"It's alright if you didn't see it," the leader comforted him. "Once you've mastered a more advanced level of perception, you can try to sense it secretly."

"Oh dear, boss, what are you saying!" Li Huiyuan covered her cheeks with both hands, her hair slightly steaming. "I'm not that kind of person!"

Boss: "..."

"Alright, stop listening, let's get in the water." The leader glanced at Lin Yi, who was listening intently. "A skeleton with flesh is nothing more than a shell. It's just a pink skeleton with a different gender. There's nothing to care about."

Lin Yi noticed that his boss's expression was calm when he spoke, which didn't seem fake, so he didn't say anything and silently went into the swimming pool.

Of course, Wei Liang definitely disagreed with his boss's statement. After all, even with the same chicken, there can be differences between Laoxiangji (a local chicken brand) and Korean fried chicken.

But it seems that in the boss's eyes, everyone only has slight differences in their "biological appearance".

A thought popped into Lin Yi's mind: Could it be that the boss views them the way they view chimpanzees in the zoo?

To them, every chimpanzee seemed to look the same.

He shook his head slightly, trying to clear his mind of these random thoughts, and then asked, "Boss, what's the next step in my training?"

"Swimming." After a pause, the leader, worried that Lin Yi hadn't understood, added, "It only requires swimming."

"Start from here, swim to the other side, keep swimming without stopping... until you have no strength left and sink."

"Swim until...sink? Uh, are you going to make me drown?" Lin Yi asked to confirm.

"I suppose so." The eldest brother nodded slightly. "But normally, you shouldn't drown. Even if you were to drown, I would save you before you do—no matter what happens to you, I can help."

The leader's calm and confident tone made it seem as if he were stating a perfectly normal fact, rather than describing an emergency response plan.

Lin Yi glanced at the opposite side of the pool. Although it was larger than a regular pool, it was so big that you could see the end at a glance. With his current physical strength, he could probably crawl across even if he were a dog.

—If nothing unexpected happens.

Seemingly seeing through Lin Yi's thoughts, the eldest brother said calmly, "Don't worry, you definitely won't be able to swim to the other side."

Lin Yi felt a chill run down his spine, and his expression immediately changed. It seemed that the unexpected had occurred here!

He was somewhat skeptical, so he let loose and started paddling in the water.

The leader said slowly from the shore, "You don't need to go too fast. Just keep a normal speed and swim slowly. Then... you can fully experience the changes in the pool, the changes in yourself, and even many other changes that are beyond reason."

"The whole process is the kind of training you have to go through to reach the point where you can compete with the Night's Watch."

"Don't worry about dying. Always believe that I will come to save you." After saying this, the leader shut his mouth and quietly looked at Lin Yi in the pool without saying another word.

Li Huiyuan, on the other side, secretly leaned closer: "Boss... what you just said, when Lin Yi's body was reconstructed, did you really see everything?"

The eldest brother, unusually, revealed a look of genuine speechlessness: "Flesh and blood remodeling, that's how it is."

"Boss, then you mean..." Li Huiyuan pressed on relentlessly.

“I don’t have any of your quirks,” the eldest brother interrupted Li Huiyuan.

"I don't believe it, boss." Li Huiyuan looked suspicious. "Women understand women best..."

The eldest brother reached out and gave Li Huiyuan a flick on the forehead.

"believe it or not."

Li Huiyuan shrank her head and stuck out her pink tongue.

"I believe you... Boss, you have no desires, your heart is only for the future of the campus, and worldly love has nothing to do with you..."

The eldest brother's attention was always on Lin Yi, but he was still amused by Li Huiyuan: "Where do you get so much sweet talk? Instead of wasting your time, observe Lin Yi more. He's about to lose his edge."

"The layer is falling off? That can't be right, boss..." Li Huiyuan immediately suppressed her infatuation. "Isn't the pool water supposed to wash away green pollution? How could it cause Lin Yi's layer to fall off?"

The old man said, "Right now, you haven't even come into contact with this level of power... Everything in the world has the saying that quantitative change leads to qualitative change."

"If you swim in the pool for less than an hour, it can indeed purify the green pollution. But if you swim for too long, the original pollution contained in the pool water will seep into your body and begin to deepen or cover up the pollution. If you cannot absorb this part of the extraordinary power, the pollution will deepen and you will fall into the blue category."

Li Huiyuan asked in surprise, "Boss, how come I've never seen any abnormal individuals in our physical education department?"

The art department has bizarre art students and fanatics, but the physical education department doesn't have any bizarre physical education students. Li Huiyuan is genuinely curious about this.

The eldest brother said calmly, "Yes, you should have encountered it too."

"Those students whose pollution levels exceeded the threshold were already thrown into the basement and locked in a dark room by me."

"If you can get out, you're a second-tier sports student."

"If you can't get out, you'll just be locked up until you die."

Upon hearing this, Li Huiyuan's expression changed slightly, and a hint of paleness appeared on her face.

She was thrown into the basement back then. If she can't be transformed into a sports student, wouldn't she become one of those people who "can only be locked up until they die"?

Thinking of this, she instinctively shuddered.

She believed that the eldest brother would really do that.

Because when it comes to principles, the boss is really... domineering and ruthless.

She suddenly looked at Lin Yi with some worry and couldn't help but ask, "Boss, what will happen to Lin Yi next?"

"That depends on how far it can sink," the eldest brother said calmly.

"What secrets does this swimming pool hold?" Li Huiyuan asked.

The eldest brother shook his head slightly: "You'll find it unbelievable, but this swimming pool... only the edge belongs to the 'gymnasium'."

Li Huiyuan was suddenly jolted.

She didn't actually understand, but she was still deeply shocked.

His intuition told him that there was a big problem here!
"The edge... could that be the area we swam to before? And what's further into the center of the pool? Wait a minute, boss, didn't you tell Lin Yi to swim to the other side? Then this..."

Li Huiyuan's little brain couldn't quite understand it.

The leader said, "Now you know that the entire stadium is actually a small part of the infinite wall that blocks the gray fog on a certain level."

"But what you don't know is that at the very bottom of the city walls lies a vast, black sea."

"This ocean is not an ordinary sea, but exists in a higher dimension that we cannot understand. It permeates countless unknown dimensions and layers, and exists in the form of 'ocean' in the perception of many creatures."

"When the original architects were building the stadium, they couldn't completely stop the pollution from the black sea, so they could only keep a small part. This part... went through countless revisions to form the swimming pool you see today."

"From a macro perspective, if you jump from above the swimming pool, it doesn't matter whether you land in the center or on the edge of the pool, it's all the same in a sense."

"Even if you replaced Lin Yi, he could still swim across the pool."

"This is because, whether it's you or anyone else, all you're touching is the surface of the pool."

"You're still just a beginner-level athlete. Your progress in physical education courses and your understanding of the world are still quite limited. Once you reach the second-level athlete level or higher, you'll be awestruck by the 'infinity' of this swimming pool. Entering it will feel like facing an endless ocean."

"That's because people feel fearless when they are 'ignorant,' and the more knowledge they gain, the more fear and insignificance they feel."

"Once you have enough knowledge, what you see and feel will be a completely different story."

"Lin Yi's will can now penetrate into higher dimensions, which is a manifestation of dream science."

“Dream builders don’t just lie down and sleep, or wake up from daydreaming. Instead, they use special methods to let their will merge with the world, to perceive the fluctuations in dimensions, and to feel the mysteries hidden beneath the layers.”

"The more you want to achieve this, the more you need to keep your mind calm. And entering a dream is precisely the simplest way to efficiently achieve this condition."

Li Huiyuan murmured, "No wonder he often acted strangely before, it turns out he accidentally created a dream..."

The eldest brother said in surprise, "He's already showing such signs so early? It seems my guess was correct."

"A guess? What guess?" Li Huiyuan leaned closer suspiciously.

(End of this chapter)