Rules-related weird stories: 4016.

Chapter 603 The Golden Body of Bones Shattered
"Gurgle...rolling..."

His cochlea was also filled with seawater, which rubbed against his eardrums, sending strange bubbling sounds into his ears.

He felt a slight itch on his body and couldn't help but struggle again. However, this time, he actually felt a loosening sensation—he had broken free from the jellyfish-like nocturnal creatures' entanglement!

"Wow——"

The jellyfish-like nocturnal creatures disintegrated, carrying some broken material. Lin Yi quickly paddled with his hands, trying to return to the surface of the sea.

But as he paddled, he felt a strange sensation as the seawater touched his body, like sandpaper scraping his skin.

He was stunned for a moment, and suddenly realized that all the flesh on his body had been torn off by the jellyfish-like nocturnal creatures, and now he was just a skeleton.

He has no muscles or blood vessels, no skin, and his hands are only bones without palms, so he can't paddle at all.

He paddled a few times, but his body was still sinking.

The surrounding light grew dimmer, and even the spotlight-like brilliance cast upon the sea had very limited penetrating power.

Soon, all he could hear was the muffled gurgling of water, and all around him was pitch black; he couldn't see anything at all.

He tried to extend his sensory tentacles, only to find that the surroundings were empty, filled only with that jellyfish-like nocturnal creature...

They surrounded him like a school of fish in the sea, their snake-like mouths holding pieces of flesh torn from his body.

His flesh and blood are a treasure; they're flesh and blood infused with ash, not ordinary food.

In fantasy novels, it would be considered a precious blood and medicine that could be used to refine some elixirs.

Thinking about this, he suddenly felt it was a bit of a waste.

Such good stuff should be eaten by myself to avoid waste.

Wait a minute... what do you mean by "eat by yourself"...?

Is it like eating yourself, or self-destructing?
Heh...that's really stupid...

Strange thoughts kept popping up in his mind, and suddenly, the image of self-devouring formed the image of an ouroboros in his mind.

Ouroboros...eating itself...

Destruction is rebirth...

This……

He seemed to have some strange inspiration, but it flashed by and left no trace for him.

He then thought of the World Tree artwork in the lobby of the art building, titled "Living Towards Death," a creation that seemed to be frozen in time. Could it be that it was not just a simple work of art?
Many things popped into his mind.

But none of them have anything to do with the Black Sea.

It seemed that at this moment, he was consciously blocking out everything about the black sea from his mind.

He could no longer see what was around him, and his sensory tentacles had lost their ability to judge space.

The jellyfish-like nocturnal species disappeared, replaced by numerous, finer, symbiotic, flocculent organisms.

These things began to stick to his golden bones like cotton wool, and gradually adhered to his surface like a thin film covered with down.

"What is this...?"

Lin Yi was surprised to find that once the fuzz adhered to him, it was as if it had grown on his body, and no matter what he did, he couldn't remove it.

Just when he thought the fluffy substance was about to accumulate on his body, a faint sound rang in his ears.

"Click..."

The sound was so faint, yet so clear.

In this endless black sea, it sounded as loud as thunder.

"Click..."

Lin Yi was horrified to discover that the cracking sound was actually coming from his own body!
It comes from his skeletal golden body!
At this very moment, his golden body was cracked by these fibrous substances!

"What?! I'm going to split open?!"

Before he could feel too much shock, those fine cracks spread across his skeletal body, like radial cracks on glass, and covered his entire body in an instant!

"Click-clack click-clack...!"

As the cracks spread, the sound of dominoes falling echoed from Lin Yi's bones. The process was so brief, yet so painful and long.

Finally, with a loud "bang!", his golden skeleton shattered completely, breaking into countless fragments in the black sea. Adhesive to the fluffy, downy material, the fragments slowly sank into the depths of the ocean.

After his skeletal golden body shattered, Lin Yi was stunned.

If he no longer has a body, then where is he now?
If only a wisp of will remains, can the boss still bring him back?

"What kind of state am I in right now?" He looked at "himself" but could see nothing. At this moment, he was like a void of will, merely "existing" without any "trace of existence".

He is lost.

In the depths of this dark sea where even light cannot reach, let alone the fact that he no longer has a body, even if he did, it would be pitch black.

He lost his sense of space.

The darkness and the tide enveloped everything, making it impossible for him to see the marks on his watch, and even his perception of time became blurred.

He seems to have lost the ability to define time and space.

"Is this... what it feels like to be exiled?"

"Young Master Tian..."

"Weisang..."

"Kuai Kuai..."

When he was at a loss, he subconsciously called out to his roommate in his mind, but his calls still went unanswered.

He truly seemed to have been forgotten by the world.

He seemed to have lost even the sensation of sinking.

His will, which is nothingness, floats here like a ghost.

"what do I do……?"

"Boss...wait, boss!"

Just as he was trying to call out to the boss, he suddenly remembered what the boss had said before:

"Normally speaking, 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 you."

"You don't need to go too fast. Just keep a normal pace and swim slowly. Then... you can fully experience the changes in the pool, the changes in yourself, and even many other unexpected changes."

"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 death. Always believe that I will come to save you." The boss said, "I can fully experience the changes in the pool, the changes within myself, and even many things beyond reason... This process is my training and improvement..."

"At all times, I must firmly believe that the boss will come to save me..."

Lin Yi felt a sense of clarity and relief.

All of these changes were within the leader's expectations. In other words, the leader knew about all of this from the very beginning. He knew that the swimming pool would change, that he would be devoured by the jellyfish-like nocturnal creatures, and that his body would be annihilated by the flocculent matter...

There were also many other unexpected changes...

What will those changes look like...?
Lin Yi was unaware of this, so he tried releasing his sensory tentacles.

Strangely, when he extended his senses, the pitch-black seawater didn't seem completely invisible anymore. He could clearly see the distribution of his skeletal golden body fragments in the black sea, and he could also sense the flesh and blood fragments that had been devoured and digested by the serpentine tentacles of the jellyfish-like nocturnal creature...

He seemed to be able to sense everything about him...

Eaten, uneaten, decomposed, undecomposed...

Floating, sinking...

Everything was somehow connected to his sensory tentacles...

These things tormented him to death, but now they have become the fulcrum of his sensory tentacles, allowing them to radiate continuously.

However, no matter how hard one tries to sense it, the black sea seems to be nothingness, and nothing can be found.

This place is like an endless abyss filled with seawater; there is nothing but water.

Moreover, his sinking speed is unknown, but judging from the situation, it doesn't seem to be very fast. The idea of ​​him sinking to the bottom of the sea is simply a pipe dream.

He didn't even know if the Black Ocean actually had a seabed.

He didn't know how much time had passed when he suddenly heard some clanging sounds.

That was the sound of iron chains scraping against the ground...

His mind went blank for a moment, and somehow, he felt a sense of grounding.

He noticed that the surrounding light had become brighter, and the once boundless deep sea seemed to have turned into a cage.

A... wooden cabin.

Lin Yi was slightly startled, but as the only thing that appeared in the black seawater, all he could do now was to try his best to sense and explore—no matter what happened, his boss would come to save him!

The cabin was utterly decayed, with only a few faint rays of light struggling to penetrate through the cracks in the rotten wooden planks. The planks were covered with the fibrous material that had covered his golden skeleton, and there were also some nocturnal creatures of unknown form, clinging to the corners or some broken objects like octopuses.

He drifted slowly in the wooden cabin, where there seemed to be some blurry portraits and works of art on the inner walls...

The overall atmosphere is gloomy and terrifying, with an air of endless loneliness. It's a bit like an art gallery in an art building, but the gallery doesn't have this corrupt atmosphere.

"Clang clang clang... clang clang clang..."

The rattling of chains returned, and a figure draped in a tattered, dark green hemp cloak slowly appeared at the end of the cabin.

"Could this scene be... of a quartermaster?!"

Lin Yi suddenly realized that it was in this very environment when he first discovered the quartermaster!
At least, the elements are almost identical!
Rotten planks, dilapidated cabins, iron chains, and a tall figure...

However, there did not seem to be any black seawater in the cabin where the quartermaster was!
But... it seems so! It really seems so!

It was as if the quartermaster was standing in front of him!
The dimly lit cabin was actually quite large, but it still felt very cramped in front of that figure. The more cramped it felt, the more the figure resembled the quartermaster in Lin Yi's mind!
"Clang clang clang... clang clang clang..."

These iron chains even sparked when rubbed together in the black seawater!
[This aura... is it Lin Yi...?]

The figure spoke slowly; it was indeed the quartermaster's voice, the deep tone causing the entire cabin to tremble.

Lin Yi was shocked, his scalp tingling. He tried to respond, "You...you are...the Quartermaster?"

The figure fell silent, as if it hadn't heard his voice.

For some reason, a sense of disappointment welled up in Lin Yi's heart.

But just then, the figure slowly moved and came into the dim light.

['Quartermaster'...?]

[Still using the same form of address... It seems... it was you from that time...]

I see... I see... Was it around that time...? I see...

But... never mind...

[...It doesn't matter anymore...]

You've arrived...

You've finally arrived...

All these years... I've kept my promise... I've been waiting for you...

Dim light shone on it through the cracks in the rotten wooden planks.

Its silhouette was finally revealed in the black sea.

Not a "quartermaster".

At least, not that mobile armory "quartermaster" equipped with countless extraordinary creations.

However, its voice and the feeling it gave Lin Yi were no different from that of the "quartermaster".

It slowly removed its tattered cloak, revealing its true form to Lin Yi.

Upon seeing the other person's true face, Lin Yi's pupils contracted sharply, and he was so shocked that he could barely speak: "You...you...?!"

Before him, beneath the cloak, lay a gigantic humanoid skeleton, each part of which shimmered with iridescent light, resembling the appearance of a "primordial Ash Apostle," as if pieced together from countless shards of glass.

A thick, rusty iron chain was also bound around the waist of the crystal skeleton, dragging on the ground and extending into the dark corner of the cabin.

There seemed to be something hidden around that corner, but Lin Yi's attention was completely drawn to the crystal skeleton.

"Your shock makes me a little uncomfortable... but... I understand you..." The crystal skeleton spoke in a deep voice, a voice that was actually transmitted through will. "At least... after all these years, you still came..."

You've arrived...

This demonstrates your commitment to keeping your promises...

Everyone will be happy... even if you've changed into someone else...

Lin Yi suppressed his shock and slowly asked, "What did we agree on?"

A cold, eerie candlelight flickered in the eye sockets of the crystal skeleton, like fireflies in a summer night's cemetery: 【Nr den svarte mnen vissner…… kommer srgemoerne tilbake fra det uendelige dyphavet……】

Lin Yi already had the precept in his mind. Upon hearing it, his mind stirred, and he blurted out, "'When the black moon fades, the mourners return from the endless abyss'? Isn't that a precept?"

(End of this chapter)