Rules-related weird stories: 4016.

Chapter 612 Streetlight Pole Ride
If Wei Liang were here and saw Lin Yi touching the lamppost, he would definitely mimic Er Kang's gesture and shout: "Old Lin, no way! This thing is hard and thick, it's not for men to play with, oh, no, not even women!"
But Wei Shan would only ask, "How fun is it?"

Lin Yi then said, "At night, the campus's layout changes, and the lampposts go from a disordered state to an orderly one, right?"

"Hmm...yes, and then?" Wei Shan asked, puzzled.

"Hey Wei Sang, why haven't you figured it out yet?" Lin Yi realized that he only seemed smart when he was with Wei Shan; at other times, his intelligence wasn't very noticeable.

"I think we don't need to move at all. We can just stand next to this 'Gymnasium-009' lamppost, and after the layer changes, we'll only need to walk 8 lampposts to reach the teaching building area, right?"

"Old Lin, you're a genius!" Wei Shan praised.

"Uh... don't say that." Lin Yi scratched the back of his head a little embarrassedly. He wasn't being polite; he was genuinely very awkward...

He has some self-awareness; at least the word "genius" has absolutely nothing to do with him.

He then called on Wei Shan to hug the lamppost together. In order to eliminate the influence of the old kerosene lamp on the changes in the coating, he also asked Wei Shan to put the old kerosene lamp away.

Then, he deliberately closed his eyes.

Vision is actually a basic function for anchoring layers, but Lin Yi no longer needs to rely on the five senses to anchor the world.

Closing your eyes also helps with the movement and changes of layers.

Otherwise, he would be stuck at this progress like a screw.

Having made the decision to "hitch a ride" on the changes in the campus, he carefully extended his sensory tentacles to see how the campus was changing.

Strangely, as his sensory tentacles slowly seeped out from his will, a "rustling...rustling..." sound emerged between the layers, as if a nocturnal plant were rubbing and crawling on the ground...

Under the lamppost's light, the cobblestone road looked perfectly normal, but in his perception, each cobblestone seemed to come alive and begin to roll, and then the surrounding green belt also began to twist and change.

The entire campus, even the part that Lin Yi could perceive, seemed to slowly unfold like the folds of the cerebral cortex, gradually expanding from its original form into an even larger layer.

In this layer, old kerosene lamps drift slowly like lighthouses at sea.

The campus was changing at a moderate pace, the kind of pace that some people wouldn't even notice, while others with keen senses would feel something was off. This was the feeling that Lin Yi had when he first entered the school – that something was definitely not right.

Because the cobblestone paths on campus are constantly changing and updating their previous state as they move, people moving on the path will not notice these things at all—how could someone who can't even tell two chimpanzees apart carefully observe what the ground under their feet looks like?
Especially when a light mist begins to permeate the entire campus.

Gradually, the "Gymnasium-009" lamppost came to its "right" position.

"We're here!" Lin Yi opened his eyes and said with a smile.

Right in front of them was the "Gymnasium-008" lamppost.

Wei Shan also let go of the lamppost and said with a smile, "Old Lin, you're really amazing."

"Stop praising me, stop praising me! If you keep praising me, I'll grow wings and turn into a grinning angel."

Lin Yi smiled helplessly and led Wei Shan to the notice board in front of the gymnasium. Then, they crossed the lamppost with the words "Gymnasium-001" and passed through the increasingly clear boundary between the gymnasium area and the teaching building area, entering the teaching building area.

Lin Yi suddenly stopped the moment he stepped into the teaching building area, and then said, "Wei Sang".

"What's wrong, Lao Lin? Have you found anything?" Wei Shan asked.

Lin Yi shook his head slightly, glanced back at the stadium area, his gaze fixed on the stadium and the giant dome, now obscured by the mountains, and murmured, "Do you think I'll ever see them again?"

Wei Shan was puzzled: "Why not? If you want to see him, just go during the day. Do you need to worry about whether or not you have a PE class?"

Lin Yi was taken aback for a moment: "What you said seems to make sense!"

“Yes.” Wei Shan nodded seriously. “That’s why I don’t understand why people are so sad.”

"Oh yeah...maybe I just unintentionally limited myself?"

"Yes, I think so," Wei Shan said.

Hearing Wei Shan's words of comfort, Lin Yi felt much more at ease and continued walking with a smile.

Looking at Lin Yi's back in front of him, a look of loneliness flashed in Wei Shan's eyes, completely different from his usual simple and honest demeanor.

He silently followed.

……

X023年5月11日，18：16，「教学楼-080」路灯杆处。

Lin Yi gradually discovered that there seemed to be few nocturnal creatures lurking in the surrounding green belt, and the entire teaching building area exuded an unprecedented sense of leisure and tranquility.

Or rather... a sense of impending crisis.

Because, after the nocturnal creatures stopped following him, the rustling sound in the air didn't disappear. Instead, it seemed as if his sensory tentacles had replaced them, and the rustling sound began to emanate from the layers...

"Weisang, do you think there are any students in the classroom who were transformed from the humanoid sculptures? Are those nocturnal creatures still huddled together deep in the greenbelt?"

During the day, the nocturnal creatures seemed to have been summoned and were entrenched deep in the green belt. Now, regardless of whether those pseudo-human sculptures have turned back into pseudo-human students and returned to the classroom, it doesn't seem like a good thing.

Their refusal to return is as if they are plotting something in the greenbelt.
Returning is like a pre-arranged plan, a process of casting and reaping the rewards.

Either way, it's not a good thing.

Wei Shan calmly replied, "I don't know what the situation is like in your classroom, but there shouldn't be any fake human students in my classroom."

Lin Yi's lips twitched violently.

He understood perfectly well that when Wei Shan said "nothing," it must mean that everything had been cleaned up by the latter.

Wei Shan added, "Even if it exists now, I can deal with it immediately."

"While we're at it, let's see what happens if we deal with it."

Upon hearing this, Lin Yi said, "But didn't Young Master Tian say we should try to avoid unnecessary complications? Wait, do you mean..."

Wei Shan grinned, but his smile was full of murderous intent: "Indeed, we shouldn't cause any unnecessary trouble. However, the plan is about to be implemented, and we will inevitably encounter them. My suggestion is that if they are not in the classroom, it will be fine. But if they are in the classroom, we should strike first to test the waters."

Lin Yi's eyes lit up: "Okay, I'll listen to you!" Wei Shan chuckled and rubbed his fists, making a series of cracking sounds: "Hehe, good, consider this a warm-up."

Before long, the two arrived in front of the teaching building.

Lin Yi looked up and saw the teaching building under the night sky revealing its true form before him.

The eight-story teaching building has four real floors and four illusory floors. The real four floors are surrounded by ivy and vines growing on the walls, and the gray-white wall powder looks like lime in the wind and rain.

Grayish-white mist billowed around the teaching building like rolling clouds, occasionally crashing against the building's walls like waves.

The four-story teaching building above the gray mist appears to be pieced together from glass, but its shape is not a square building. Instead, it is a supernatural geometric shape full of regular lines, yet it completely defies the laws of physics.

Its shape resembles a toy built by a child with blocks based on pure imagination. The four floors are independent of each other but present completely different physical stress points. It looks like it could collapse at any time, but it stands there firmly.

"Every time I look at the teaching building, it feels a little different," Lin Yi muttered. "Wei Sang, do you think it will change as my perception of it changes?"

"Really?" Wei Shan said, "A teaching building is a building, and it should have looked the same from the moment it was built. The reason you feel it's different is probably because you didn't see the whole picture at the beginning."

Lin Yi thought it made sense: "So it's always looked like that? Wei Sang, can you see it?"

Wei Shan glanced at the area above the fifth floor of the teaching building in the direction Lin Yi was pointing and said, "I can't see it, but I can 'observe' it through your senses."

"That building... is indeed a bit abstract. I don't know what those people who built it were thinking. If you don't know how to build, don't mess around with it..."

Wei Shan even made a comment.

"Uh..." Lin Yi didn't know what to say about this.

The two of them then climbed the steps and stepped into the warm light.

As they entered the corridor, both of their bodies emitted large amounts of mist under the corridor's incandescent lights, making it seem as if the words "those who chase the light through the mist" had come to life.

"Then I'll head back to the classroom first," Wei Shan said. "Call me before we move out tonight; I can hear you."

"Okay," Lin Yi replied.

After saying that, Wei Shan picked up an old kerosene lamp and walked towards Class 3 of Group B.

Watching Wei Shan's retreating figure, Lin Yi, in a daze, seemed to see a phantom: a burly security guard in a trench coat, carrying an old kerosene lamp, slowly walking through the endless fog.

Lin Yi arrived at Class 2 of Group B, checked the door number, and then pressed the doorknob.

“Crack!”

For some reason, Lin Yi felt that the doorknob was heavy in his hand, as if he had to use some effort to press it down.

"Is this door rejecting me? Or... is it the 'door property' of the classroom that's rejecting me?" Lin Yi was puzzled. Why would the classroom reject him?

As if he had just thought of something, he took his student ID out of his pocket and looked at it.

He paused for a moment, noticing that the handwriting on his student ID had faded somewhat, and the number was also a little blurry. Although it wasn't completely illegible, it was indeed showing signs of fading.

"Am I losing my 'experience student' status?" Lin Yi was taken aback. There was still one thing left to do: he couldn't tell whether the problem with his student ID stemmed from a change in himself or from a matter of time.

Or perhaps... it's because of some other problem?
Surely it's not because Wei Liang wasn't with him?

If the change in the student ID is not due to the approaching end of the school term, then it means that the student is losing their identity.

Losing your identity on campus is a terrifying thing.

Although the eldest brother said he could act according to the rules for "sports students" or "art students," that was not an accurate identity.

Once he loses his identity, what identity should he remain in?

Could it be the "Apostle of Ashes"?
But is this the identity a "human being" should have?
He pushed open the door.

I don't know if the authorities sent anyone into the campus today.

At this time of day, they probably won't be sending anyone else in, right?
At least that's what Lin Yi thought.

However, the moment he pushed open the door, the commotion that gradually rose from inside made him frown deeply.

Make up the difference! Make up the difference, damn it!
That familiar clamor, that eerily heated atmosphere…

Lin Yi's heart skipped a beat. Even a fool could tell that the authorities had let in yet another group of people.

Wait... are we really going to let people in at this hour and give them away for free?
Lin Yi was full of questions, then he looked at the podium.

The homeroom teacher-040 was sitting on the podium. From his angle, he could see that the homeroom teacher-040 had his legs crossed and, out of the sight of the students in the lecture hall, was swaying back and forth on the edge of his black high heels.

Upon seeing Lin Yi and sensing the direction of his gaze, the homeroom teacher-040 pursed her lips, silently lowered her stiletto heel, and then her foot slid smoothly into it.

Stop looking and come over here to sign in.

The homeroom teacher's words were like a razor's edge, severing Lin Yi's undisguised gaze.

Lin Yi walked over silently.

They don't even observe the situation in the classroom first, as they used to.

For him now, whether he observes or not doesn't make much difference; he can wait until he's interested and then take a look.

When he walked to the podium, the homeroom teacher-040 gently brushed his hair behind his ear and then smiled contemptuously: "What, you're staring at other people's feet as soon as you walk in? Do you want to get kicked by me?"

"You'd better not say 'eat' in that sense..." Lin Yi said weakly.

"Get lost! Lin Yi, you've got some nerve! What about Wei Liang? He's got all his lustful desires on you now, hasn't he?" said Class Teacher-040.

Lin Yi pursed his lips and sighed softly, "Sigh, every glance is one less, teacher. I've noticed my student ID is fading... Do you think I'll turn into something inhuman?"

(End of this chapter)