Rules-related weird stories: 4016.

Chapter 669 Collecting Layers
“Aba aba…” Mao Feiyang barked, but this time with some explanation, “Difa likes to eat pudding. These are the words she carved. Amon dug them out of the mountain and used them as a tombstone…”

“Uh…” Lin Yi clicked his tongue. “This ‘designer’ Amon seems to know a thing or two about tombstones… but this English…?”

“Wei Liang has been there, so it’s normal for him to leave a word or two in English, isn’t it?” Mao Feiyang said. “Besides, with him there, you can find not only pudding, but also your favorite food if you really want to eat it.”

"Huh? What do I like?"

"Sweet glutinous rice lemon tea".

"Get lost! That's what Liangzi likes!"

"Stop arguing." Kuai Hongji interrupted Mao Feiyang and Lin Yi. "Maozi, come to my side. I need to decipher the matrix and see what the backdoor left by Amon is."

Mao Feiyang quickly shut his mouth and shrank back to the tombstone.

Kuai Hongji placed the old kerosene lamp at his feet and then reached out and placed it on the tombstone.

"Buzz——"

A ripple spread outwards from him, and the wet grass beneath his feet twisted and contorted as if someone were tucking him in.

The ripples continued to spread, and soon reached the old cowboy's side.

He tripped, broke one of his legs on the spot, and fell to the ground.

"Oi~ This is terrible..."

The old cowboy got up from the ground, used a shovel as a cane, and continued to approach Kuai Hongji.

However, most of the "Mist Chasers" behind him were annihilated by the ripples.

The ripples are not just one, but rather spread out one after another like ocean waves.

Soon, the entire cemetery was activated, and countless strange patterns flowed beneath the surface of this layer, making the entire cemetery look like a precision circuit board covered with fine hairs.

As the extraordinary properties surged, the tombstones began to flicker, each displaying different secret runes, thus activating the matrix hidden within the cemetery.

"Buzz—!"

The space began to fluctuate violently, causing an earthquake throughout the cemetery.

The old cowboy kept groaning on the ground, but couldn't get up, while the remaining "Mist-Wearing Light Chasers" were constantly being annihilated.

Finally, when one of the "Mist Chasers" vanished, a clear sound rang out in the space.

"bite……"

Then, more and more sounds began to ring out, like a clear, melodious bell performance.

"Ding-dong...ding-dong..."

Upon hearing the melody, Lin Yi suddenly shuddered and exclaimed in horror, "This...this sounds like...the sound of 'Amon's Music Box'?!"

Kuai Hongji's expression remained unchanged as he silently activated the matrix's power. Then, as if sensing something, he turned his gaze to the old cowboy: "Strange..."

"What's wrong? Is there a problem with that old cowboy?" Mao Feiyang asked.

Kuai Hongji said, "If I'm not mistaken, this layer should be related to Amon's little toy..."

"He has so many toys, which one are you talking about?"

“That music box,” Kuai Hongji said.

"A music box?" Mao Feiyang exclaimed in surprise. "You mean...?"

"Hmm." Kuai Hongji nodded. Just as Lin Yi was still trying to figure out the problem, he said, "The power of the music box permeated dimensions and layers, gathering the lost souls from those layers, forming that old cowboy and those 'Mist-Wearing Light Chasers.'"

"But the problem is... the main theme seems incomplete, and something seems wrong with that old cowboy."

Upon hearing this, Mao Feiyang seemed to realize something, and his expression immediately changed.

Kuai Hongji keenly noticed the change in Mao Feiyang's expression and quickly asked, "What do you know?"

"I didn't do it! Old Lin broke its leg!" Mao Feiyang raised his hands and shouted that he was innocent.

Lin Yi got anxious when he heard this, "What does this have to do with me?"
"Hey, don't try to smear me with all sorts of things, I don't know anything about this... Oh, it was around that time, right!"

Kuai Hongji rolled his eyes speechlessly: "Fine, I know everything..."

He easily found the old cowboy's severed leg, and used the power of the Matrix to stitch them back together before finally eliminating the old cowboy completely.

After the old cowboy's death, the music box's melody was finally completed, as if it had been infused with the soul of a real piece of music.

Suturing before eradication is an absolutely necessary step.

This is like playing with a master-level Transformer; only a complete toy can transform. If it's missing an arm or a leg, some steps simply can't be completed.

The logic behind turning the old cowboy back into his original form and transforming him into the melody of a music box is the same.

As the melody is completed, the earthquake intensity in this layer begins to increase exponentially.

"Boom! Boom! Boom..."

The layers shook violently, tombstones collapsed and crumbled, but the golden patterns became increasingly solid in the void, unbound by space and unaffected by the layers.

This golden pattern is like a design blueprint that no one can understand, sealed here due to long-term accumulation of dust. Kuai Hongji's arrival shook off all the dust that had accumulated on it.

"Go!" Kuai Hongji suddenly picked up the old kerosene lamp at his feet, and as he spoke, he removed his hand from the tombstone and started running.

"Just leave like this? Wouldn't that be a complete failure?" Mao Feiyang asked, puzzled.

"Stop talking nonsense, leave now, immediately!" Kuai Hongji said. "I need to collect the gift Amon gave us. If we don't leave, we'll all be trapped inside!"

Upon hearing this, Mao Feiyang immediately turned tail and ran across the distorted ripples, yelling, "Damn it, Amon is so ruthless! He gives you a gift and then digs a pit for you? That's so unfair!" "Idiot!" Kuai Hongji cursed, "If it weren't for this trick, this layer would have been taken by some other being long ago!"

"This is the last line of defense. To capture it, you have to get involved! But if you're not someone familiar with Amon and don't understand his design, you'll definitely be captured along with him at the last moment, becoming a spirit within the layer, and then this layer will unfold again!"

"Otherwise, where do those 'Mist-Wearing Light Chasers' that aren't just transitions between notes and melodies come from? Are they just attracted by layers?"

Mao Feiyang realized what was happening and felt a wave of fear: "Damn it, those conditions were really harsh!"

“That’s how it is. If people from outside the designated area come here, we definitely can’t just let them take it away like that.” As Kuai Hongji spoke, he had already followed Mao Feiyang into the boundary of the layers.

The seaweed growing in this layer is extremely lush, and even if Kuai Hongji and Mao Feiyang are very close, they can easily lose sight of each other because of a simple corner.

But they moved at a remarkable speed, darting through the wildly growing seaweed.

Behind them, the cemetery was collapsing continuously in the earthquake, and the melody of the music box echoing in the layers was like a requiem for the end of the world.

The collapse's shockwaves also spread outwards, constantly eroding the layers behind them. Countless seaweeds had already been swept up, and if they had been any slower, they would have been annihilated by the layers.

"Aren't we setting the tempo too rigidly?!" Mao Feiyang shouted as he ran. "I feel like we're playing a doomsday-like rhythm game!"

"Shut up!" Kuai Hongji shouted, "Run if you don't want to die!"

"I've always heard that Amon has some prank designs, but I never thought he'd kill someone!" Mao Feiyang barked incessantly.

Suddenly, the seaweed in front of them transformed into a swirling vortex, and a white point of light appeared deep within the vortex.

"Exit!" Mao Feiyang shouted, speeding up as he rushed inside.

As he passed through the white dot of light, everything around him suddenly turned into a hydrogel-like state, and an unknown force enveloped him, making the entire layer thick and difficult to walk on.

Time oscillated between freezing and flowing, his body trembling repeatedly, as if constantly being pulled between mosaic and high definition.

"What's going on?" Lin Yi was shocked. Mao Feiyang's condition was clearly perceived by him. Not only Mao Feiyang, but even his own will body seemed to be fluctuating violently. A piece of his body would disappear from time to time, as if it were being erased by an invisible force.

"I don't know either!" Mao Feiyang exclaimed.

"Take it easy..." Kuai Hongji's voice rang out, "This is convergence and correction at the layer level."

He also appeared in this hydrogel-like world, his whole body twisted like Wang Luffy. He held an old kerosene lamp in one hand, and in the other hand he was pulling a terrifying net-like vortex, which was the convergence of the entire layer before!
"This layer has been here for a long time. Suddenly being contracted will change the layer's 'tension'!"

"Imagine you put a heavy object on a Simmons mattress, and now you remove the object. The Simmons mattress will slowly recover. But if you amplify this recovery rate many times over, won't the force of the rebound also be amplified?"

"The same logic applies to the current situation, let's go!"

After saying that, Kuai Hongji put the handle of the old kerosene lamp in his mouth, and then used his free hand to summon the "Star Dream Crystal".

Seeing Mao Feiyang moving at a snail's pace, Kuai Hongji urged through gritted teeth, "Stop talking, you guys go first. I've fixed the exit; it should lead directly to that 'bedroom.' I'll just grab this layer and come over!"

"I didn't look! I was just walking slowly!" Mao Feiyang barked. "The layers are too unstable; I dare not walk fast at all!"

"You're such a troublemaker!" Kuai Hongji sneered, then kicked Mao Feiyang in the butt.

"Ouch, be gentle!" Mao Feiyang barked, instantly closing the distance to the exit.

As Mao Feiyang crossed the boundary of the exit, the whole world fell silent instantly. Lin Yi also clearly sensed that the destruction and collapse behind him suddenly left him.

He glanced back and saw Kuai Hongji, who was gathering layers, looking like a fisherman pulling in his nets in front of a sea full of irregular tsunamis. Countless waves twisted and surged, like gaping maws of abyss swallowing Kuai Hongji's figure.

The white light engulfed Mao Feiyang and Lin Yi, and the world fell silent.

In this silence, Lin Yi could vaguely sense that time around him was like sand rubbing against his non-existent skin, as if they were traversing, diving, or rising in some dimension.

After an unknown amount of time, a cool sensation flowed through Lin Yi's soul like ripples.

"This feeling...?"

Lin Yi was slightly taken aback. He had the same feeling when he first came into contact with the rusty iron door of the little girl's bedroom—a feeling that didn't exist at all, like "coming home".

But the warm feeling didn't last long before a deep roar sounded in his ear:

"Roar--!"

A deep, resonant roar echoed from beneath the white halo, and a pair of large claws appeared out of nowhere, slamming down on his soul!
In a daze, Lin Yi seemed to see the illusory form of a white giant bear in the void. Its body was larger than imagined, and its towering figure was like a majestic mountain.

Within its form, every muscle seemed to be a boulder rolling beneath its fur, containing the power to destroy everything. Its eyes were small, yet they gleamed with a fierce and crazed light. It opened its blood-red maw at Lin Yi, revealing a row of sharp, yellowed fangs. Saliva dripped continuously from between its teeth, and the foul breath mixed with the fierce palm wind, like a giant knife slashing towards Lin Yi's face...

"It's it again!" Lin Yi exclaimed. Before he could react, a golden-green wave of energy forcefully cut into the void like two mountain ranges.

"I come!!"

Mao Feiyang's voice emerged from the golden-green air currents.

"A day apart feels like an eternity!"

Mao Feiyang shouted and, empty-handed, caught the blade with both hands!

"boom--!!"

In an instant, an overwhelming sense of eeriness and terror seeped out from those claws. Countless negative emotions, like venomous snakes in the shadows, burrowed into the depths of the soul along the hairy hands. The white light forest twisted and contorted, revealing countless figures, as if cursing and mocking...

Lin Yi's face turned pale. In a daze, he felt like he was being condemned by everyone. If his willpower was even slightly weaker, he would probably have become depressed and despondent.

"Are you alright, Lao Lin?" Mao Feiyang muttered. "This little bit of stuff shouldn't be enough to break your Dao heart, right? Damn was fine last time it came, I wonder what it's up to this time..."

After he received the white bear's claw strike, the bear's form slowly faded away.

"It's alright, it's alright, I'm fine," Lin Yi said.

As the giant bear's form faded, the white light also gradually dimmed, and Mao Feiyang felt a solid ground beneath his feet, as everything around him gradually became clearer.

(End of this chapter)