Rules-related weird stories: 4016.

Chapter 602 Beneath the Pool Layer, the Black Sea!
"With your current understanding, this is not something you can know." The leader gently tapped Li Huiyuan's smooth forehead.

Lin Yi is indeed gradually reclaiming the power he already possessed...

It seems he's the one the principal mentioned before setting sail... "has a backup plan"?
If that's the case, then it seems that his training can be even more aggressive.

Li Huiyuan silently shrank her neck, feeling the faint chill suddenly rising from the boss beside her, and she secretly glanced at the boss.

The leader stood with his arms crossed in front of him, his head slightly tilted back, and a chilling glint of light flickered in his narrow eyes…

Li Huiyuan hissed softly, instinctively gripping Lin Yi's swimming cap and goggles, and looked at Lin Yi, who was paddling, with great concern.

……

Lin Yi, on the other side, had been swimming in the pool for several minutes. Because his boss said to swim slowly to burn off energy, he wasn't in a hurry to paddle wildly.

Meanwhile, during this process, he pricked up his ears, listening to the conversation between the boss and Li Huiyuan like two receivers.

"So, my hallucinations back then were indeed part of building a dream...?"

"It seems that Young Master Tian's words also apply here. My will has just happened to capture a waveband from a higher dimension at certain special moments..."

"So, what I'm seeing comes from scenes at some point in the past, events happening in another dimension right now, and... a scene from some future that hasn't yet appeared?"

"Wait, is it possible that... the present me is actually a projection of my future self, created in the past using Dream Building?"

"The real timeline is actually what I saw while I was repairing the city wall?!"

The city walls collapsed, the art building was submerged by the black sea, and the boundless tsunami flooded the campus, destroying everything...

Could it be that the real me, unable to fight reality at that time, chose to use Dream Building to enter this point in time... in an attempt to reverse the future?!
Time is a curse.

The words of the security guard who had once instilled a strong sense of oppression in him suddenly felt like a sword hanging over his head, sending chills down his spine.

Did the security guards see through everything all along?!

Compared to the night watchmen who need to maintain "humanity" at certain times, the security guard is more like the embodiment of a certain protection mechanism of the campus. Could it be that his existence triggered such a mechanism, which is why the security guard conveyed such a message to him across the void and dreams?
Past... Present... Future...

Lin Yi was lost in thought and subconsciously stopped paddling, causing his body to sink slightly.

A mouthful of water splashed into Lin Yi's throat, causing him to cough violently.

"Cough! Cough cough cough! Cough cough..."

No, that's not it.

As Lin Yi gradually recovered, a fierce and determined look appeared in his eyes.

The past is past, the present is slowly unfolding, and the future... is yet to come!

"I am 'now,' right now! And! Only 'now'!"

Even if I saw something, those blurry fragments are perhaps just a glimpse into the ordinary flow of time and space... They can serve as warnings, but they cannot determine the future of me!

Lin Yi steadied himself and tried to continue listening to the conversation between his boss and Li Huiyuan, but he couldn't hear anything.

The eldest brother and Li Huiyuan were no longer speaking.

He then focused his attention on the end of the pool.

Strangely, he had been swimming for several minutes, but it seemed that he hadn't closed the distance to the other side of the pool much.

He swam for a while longer, but as he swam, the distance between him and the other side of the pool actually seemed to increase.

"What the hell?" He was stunned for a moment, and then he suddenly realized that the opposite bank of the pool was gradually disappearing into the darkness, and slowly he could no longer see the edge.

He narrowed his eyes, focused his mind, and golden flames rose in his eyes as "Vision Insight" was activated in real time!
"call out!"

As "Vision Insight" was activated, his field of vision began to rapidly zoom in on the other side of the pool. However, this zooming speed quickly diminished after only three seconds, and was replaced by a rapid retreat in visual distance!
"What's going on?! What's going on?!"

Lin Yi was terrified and decisively withdrew from the field of vision. However, it was too late. The moment he switched back to the normal perspective, everything around him had already become the environment he had just seen in the field of vision!

To make matters worse, the pool's boundaries were completely blurred, but on the so-called "horizon," a huge building resembling the walls of a swimming pool could still be vaguely seen.

"Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—"

There was nothing around Lin Yi except for the monotonous, agonizing sound of waves, which numbed his senses and perception while bringing a faint sense of dread.

The entire swimming pool seemed to be magnified countless times, and the LED lights on the ceiling looked like glowing eyes growing in the dark sky, giving Lin Yi a sense of dread as if he were being watched by some unknown creature or group of unknown beings.

"Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—"

The water surface rippled slightly, giving it a sticky, glue-like feel, but the sensation on Lin Yi's skin told him that the water was still water, without any other changes.

He gradually calmed down, recalling what his boss had said earlier, and then what his boss and Li Huiyuan had said, and couldn't help but wonder, "Could this be the kind of swimming pool that the boss was talking about after gaining deeper understanding...?"

Indeed, according to this view, he really wouldn't be able to swim to the other side.

He then gave up resisting and followed his leader's advice to maintain some observation and sensation—because this would help him quickly enter the state of sinking.

Danger was inevitable, but this action itself was a necessary part of his training.

He then slowly moved his arms and continued swimming in the pool.

Then, he even took a moment to glance at his watch.

He didn't deliberately raise his hand out of the water, but glanced at the watch face while paddling his arm.

The splashing water distorted the hands of the clock a bit, but the time was roughly right, it seemed to be 16:40.

"Wait a minute..."

Lin Yi's heart stirred slightly. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with the watch, but just now, when he checked the time, he vaguely saw a fleeting black shadow out of the corner of his eye.

"Is it just my imagination?"

He clearly doesn't believe in illusions.

The probability of experiencing illusions in such places is even lower than that of hallucinations.

He then slowly lowered his head, searching for some kind of figure in the pool below.

But it would have been better if he hadn't looked. Upon looking, the pool water beneath him visibly darkened, the LED lights dimmed, and the water grew increasingly dark...

At that moment, goosebumps suddenly appeared on his skin—he had developed thalassophobia in the indoor swimming pool!

"Thalassophobia? Oh no!!" Lin Yi's heart skipped a beat. He suddenly realized what was causing that persistent gloom that had been lingering in his mind!
Indoor swimming pool?
Infinitely magnified...?!

Layer illusion! No!
Spatial folding, layer transitions!

He must have just been performing a layer transition!

He is currently in a swimming pool, and also... a city wall on another layer!
And that's not even the worst part!
The worst part is that, unsurprisingly, he is currently in—

"boom--"

Lin Yi's pupils contracted first, then quickly dilated!

His sensory tentacles danced wildly, like countless octopus tentacles, each illusory sucker on them frantically capturing pheromones from the layers, and countless green grid lines continued to extend outwards...

Minecraft, go on a rampage at breakneck speed!
In his perception, the entire swimming pool began to change in the manner of the stadium evolving into a giant dome!

Since the stadium is part of the city wall, the underlying logic of the architecture must be the same!

as predicted!

As it continued to break and evolve, the entire swimming pool began to tilt and twist, and the buildings below began to emerge from the water, like submarines rising from the water, parting the seawater and not only rising above the surface, but also forming a majestic and towering city wall!

And he—following the parting seawater, kept sliding down into the dark abyss, becoming a piece of duckweed in the black sea that was blocked by the city walls!
That's right!

No surprise!

He was actually in the black sea outside the city walls!

……

May 11, X023, 16:41, below the layer, the black sea.

The towering city walls, every brick and stone etched with despair, left Lin Yi adrift in the black sea, like a desperate child falling into a deep well.

"Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—"

The black seawater, turning into wave after wave, kept pushing against his body, causing goosebumps to rise layer after layer.

Lin Yi silently paddled his arms to keep himself afloat on the sea so he wouldn't sink.

"Hu, hu, hu..."

He began to pant, and he began to understand more and more what the boss meant by drowning.

It turns out that it wasn't about swimming to exhaustion in a swimming pool, but about swimming to exhaustion in the black ocean... and then sinking.

Beneath the sea, shadowy figures dart about...

Purebred nocturnal breed!
"Is it a purebred nocturnal species?"

If that's the case, then it's alright.

But Lin Yi has already seen two powerful nocturnal variants.

One type is a symbiotic nocturnal creature that has invaded the outer wall of the art building's clock tower and can devour senses; the other type is a hound-like nocturnal creature that has broken into the interior of the art building.

In comparison, the first type of nocturnal species is more terrifying, but the second type is more disgusting.

He quickly sensed the undercurrents. At that moment, he was like a piece of bloody fat that had fallen into the Amazon River, attracting countless piranhas!

As expected, Lin Yi seemed to have triggered a mechanism in the Pharaoh's tomb, summoning scarabs. Countless dark figures swarmed in from the undercurrent, quickly eyeing him as a piece of fat meat!
He felt something touch his skin, at first just his soles and ankles, but before he could try to shake it off, his thighs, hips, and even his waist, abdomen, and chest... were all attached to this strange creature.

These mysterious creatures had very soft bodies, and Lin Yi had a hard time distinguishing whether the things entangled on him were hands, feet, or some kind of tentacles. On the surface of those things were some hard scales or keratin-like substances, which made Lin Yi feel pain in waves.

"What...what are these things?" Lin Yi gritted his teeth, sensing the tentacles gradually covering them.

These things seemed to be nocturnal creatures, but they were a type of nocturnal creature he had never encountered before.

They look like an alternative jellyfish or a strain of virus, with a core and many small branches radiating outwards.

Its core is a soft, jelly-like substance, while the twigs resemble both snakes and tentacles. The head is triangular and appears to have some mouthparts, while the rest of the body is covered with scales or keratin.

Lin Yi tried to break free, but there were simply too many of them. In just a few breaths, he felt as if he were being strangled to death by countless living vines.

His hands and feet were increasingly restricted, and soon he could no longer paddle.

"Gulp...cough! Cough cough!!"

From the moment he choked on his first mouthful of water, seawater kept gushing into his throat, causing him to cough violently and choke on a second, a third mouthful of water...

"Gurgle...cough...gurgle...gurgle..."

He was like a cage bound by iron chains, slowly sinking into the black sea...

"Grrrrrrrrrrrr..."

"puff……"

The black seawater completely submerged his head, and the turbulent sea surface turned into a crystal film with oil-like patterns.

Seawater kept pouring into Lin Yi's mouth and nose. His violent coughing felt like it was tearing his chest apart. But in the endless seawater, every time he opened his mouth, he was caught in a vicious cycle of seawater rushing in. His body became weaker and weaker, and his hands and feet could no longer struggle.

Lin Yi felt his body filled with seawater, and his consciousness began to blur. But just as it began to blur, a cold, stimulating sensation, like an electric current, coursed through his entire body, making him feel refreshed.

"I……?!"

Lin Yi's hazy consciousness suddenly became clear, and the intense suffocation and fear brought on by drowning suddenly disappeared.

He wasn't choking on water anymore—no, not that he wasn't choking on water anymore, but that he was already full.

He could clearly feel that his lungs were now filled with seawater...

However, he seems to be able to move around in the water without needing to breathe.

Yes... He was able to recover even when he was just a skeleton, so what are oxygen and breathing?
His source of survival has completely transformed into extraordinary matter.

Just now... he was merely expressing the instinctive fear of drowning that is inherent in human beings.

Only after surviving the drowning did he realize that drowning couldn't kill him at all.

Although drowning did not kill Lin Yi, he was still bound by the jellyfish-like nocturnal creature and could only silently sink towards the seabed.

He looked at the sea, and saw the dim light spilling down from the surface, like a giant spotlight falling on him.

(End of this chapter)