Rules-related weird stories: 4016.

Chapter 677 "The Librarian"

As soon as he finished speaking, his aura quickly became more subdued, just like a rookie dormitory supervisor tiptoeing around with that old kerosene lamp.

On the other side, Mao Feiyang was even thinner. He lowered his head timidly, his dark and thin body trembling, like a monkey that had just been pulled out of the water.

He looked exactly the same as when he got lost on the night of May 6th.

"Hiss... This?" Lin Yi was stunned by the two's superb acting skills, especially Mao Feiyang's performance, which did not seem like acting at all—but he knew in his heart that it was acting!
Damn, these guys are all Oscar winners!

Lin Yi gritted his teeth and looked outside the elevator.

On the black and white brick surface, which was shrouded in a light mist, a figure arrived in front of the elevator, accompanied by the sound of footsteps, "tap...tap...tap...tap..."

This was an exceptionally burly middle-aged man, who looked exactly like the Night Watchman. He wore a tattered, jet-black trench coat, the hem of which was ragged like a bat.

In a daze, Lin Yi seemed to see layers upon layers of secret runes surrounding his body. These were complex runes that intertwined holiness and evil, exuding a hint of heresy within the holiness. They gave him the feeling of someone who had transformed from a "vampire" into a "vampire hunter."

A sentence suddenly popped into Lin Yi's mind:

The boy who slays the dragon ends up slaying the dragon, and the dragon who survives becomes the savior.

"Huh...huh...huh..."

The man's breathing was very heavy, with a long, swirling sound, like the whisper of some ancient beast.

Suddenly, Lin Yi's gaze sharpened, for through the swaying, tattered hem of the clothing, he saw an identity tag on the figure's chest.

"……curator".

"Library Director".

"It's the 'Library Director'!" Lin Yi and Mao Feiyang didn't need to speak to communicate because they were in "driver" mode, so they could communicate with just their will.

“This can’t be faked, it seems to be real,” Mao Feiyang replied. “Be careful, this is probably not a ‘living person’.”

"Not a living person?!" Lin Yi's heart skipped a beat.

"I'll stop talking to you for now and observe the situation first," Mao Feiyang said, then fully immersed himself in portraying a trembling newbie.

“Huff…huff…” The “library director” let out a low breath, his cloudy eyes seemingly piercing as he scrutinized Kuai Hongji and Mao Feiyang in the elevator.

He showed no inclination to enter the elevator, merely standing at the elevator door, coldly observing everything inside.

The elevator doors seemed stuck, showing no sign of closing.

Everything was so strange.

Lin Yi could clearly sense that in this short period of time, the "librarian's" ethereal gaze moved back and forth over them no less than a hundred times.

An invisible sense of oppression slowly emerged, making the entire elevator seem like a submarine that was diving.

Finally, the "librarian" let out a soft sigh.

"You trust them... but... you don't trust me?"

Lin Yi was taken aback.

What the hell is going on?
Kuai Hongji, true to his "newbie dormitory manager" persona, couldn't ignore it, and looked at him blankly upon hearing this.

Mao Feiyang, true to his character, remained huddled in a corner, trembling with fear.

The "librarian" looked at them for a long time before turning and leaving.

Before leaving, he left behind these words: "If you ever need me... I'm willing to sacrifice myself..."

"Oh right... pay attention to the 'time,' senior."

""Nr den svarte mnen vissner, kommer srgemoerne tilbake fra det uendelige dyphavet."

(When the black moon fades, the mourners return from the endless depths of the sea.)
Although the "librarian" had left, his soft chanting seemed to echo in the air, and as his figure disappeared, the almost motionless elevator suddenly started moving.

"Clang... Crack!"

The elevator doors finally closed, but the atmosphere inside was terrifyingly heavy.

Only after the elevator resumed operation did Kuai Hongji mutter two words: "'Time'...?"

Suddenly, his expression changed drastically.

"Old Lin, give me some time!"

Lin Yi quickly glanced at his watch.

"4:24...Where did the problem occur?"

He was actually always able to spot some problems, but due to a lack of understanding, he always fell short at crucial moments.

Kuai Hongji pressed on, "When did we get into the elevator?"

"Get in the elevator?" Lin Yi was slightly taken aback. He remembered that it was 16 minutes past the hour when he left the art building and arrived at the arched stone door, and about 21 minutes past the hour when he entered the elevator shaft. He waited for the elevator for a while longer.

"I entered the elevator around 22 minutes past the hour... hiss—!"

He took a deep breath.

"The problem lies here!"

He instantly realized that he had entered the elevator at 22 minutes past the hour, and more than two minutes had passed since then, yet the time displayed was 4:24!

"Time just now...it was almost frozen?!"

Time seemed to stand still, which is why the elevator doors didn't close for so long!

It wasn't that the elevator malfunctioned; rather, they experienced several minutes in the ten or so seconds it took for the elevator doors to open!
On that timescale, the actions of anything normal should be slowed down many times over...

Kuai Hongji's face darkened: "How could we have overlooked such an important detail!"

"It seems fortunate that it didn't attack head-on, otherwise it would have been like the enemy being in the dark while we were in the light, and we would have suffered a great loss!"

Lin Yi asked, "That 'librarian'... I feel like his condition is very strange? The Russian said he can't sense any 'life' in him, and I also seem to see chains made of secret runes covering his body?"

Kuai Hongji said, "Some people are dead, yet they still live on." Lin Yi asked, "What exactly is going on?"

Kuai Hongji said, "I'm stating the facts. That 'librarian' from earlier is actually dead. Its physical form has long since decayed; it's only alive because of the framework of the secret runes, like a paper doll held together by quantum ropes."

"Moreover, it carries the aura of the Night's Watch... If I'm not mistaken, it should be a transformed member of the Night's Watch."

"Could it be... 'Night Watchman-01'?" Lin Yi blurted out.

His speculation was not a sudden whim or a flash of inspiration, but was based on evidence.

According to "Night Watch-02", the "Master Craftsman" and Amon and other "First Apostles" created the three supreme-level extraordinary artifacts, which were then entrusted to the Night Watch One, Two and Three respectively.

The one who controls the time compass "Time Zero" is "Night Watchman-01".

However, since the Time Compass was dismantled by the Principal, the "Night Watchman-01" who was in charge must have died, which is why Lin Yi made this conjecture.

Of course, it's also because he doesn't have many options to guess, and guessing other ones is even less reliable.

Kuai Hongji said, "That's unclear. Throughout history, many 'Night Watch-01's' have died; any one of them could be the culprit."

"Many? Any one of them?" Lin Yi was taken aback.

Kuai Hongji explained, "You've misunderstood something. 'Night Watchman-01,' 'Night Watchman-02,' and 'Night Watchman-03' are actually hereditary titles. When the previous 'Night Watchman-01' dies, the new successor becomes 'Night Watchman-01,' not 08, 09, or anything like that."

"Huh? I see!" Lin Yi opened his mouth, "Another strange piece of trivia has been added to my knowledge..."

"Furthermore, every generation of 'Night Watchman-01' has wielded the Time Compass 'Time Zero.' Judging from the 'Librarian's' reaction just now, he is indeed highly likely to have been transformed from one of the 'Night Watchman-01s,' but it's impossible to say for sure which one it is."

Mao Feiyang fumbled around in the book, pondering, "Besides, regardless of his situation, he seems to know something about us..."

Kuai Hongji said, "You mean... his era is very ancient?"

Mao Feiyang rubbed his chin: "The predecessor of the 'Night Watch' was the 'Mourners'... After that period, it was almost impossible for the 'Night Watch' to know us. Otherwise, the 'Night Watch-02' in the clock tower today might have knelt down and kowtowed the moment he saw Old Lin..."

“That’s strange…” Kuai Hongji frowned. “The lifespan of the ‘Night Watchman’ shouldn’t have been designed to be this long. Besides, his identity is ‘Librarian’… which means he at least participated in the construction of the campus and knows the ‘Principal’.”

"There is no record of this in official documents."

"Such an important matter, the authorities would not have kept it from Wei Liang... The only explanation is that the authorities were also unaware of this matter."

"The only person in the know... should be the 'principal.' Is that kid also making some kind of backup plan?"

Upon hearing this, Mao Feiyang couldn't help but yell, "Oh dear, this is troublesome! This is really troublesome..."

"Everyone has their own ideas, and everyone has moved a tiny bit in what they believe to be the 'right' direction... But any tiny difference, magnified on a macro time scale, becomes a very considerable amount of time..."

"My head hurts, it really hurts my head..."

Kuai Hongji, on the other hand, seemed quite calm: "History is like that, it can't be written. You should have gotten used to it by now. If every move could go according to our plan, then everything would be too idealistic."

"It is precisely human nature that causes the impact on the predetermined outcome, and it is precisely human nature that provides infinite possibilities in desperate situations."

Mao Feiyang curled his lip and glanced at Kuai Hongji: "It's so ironic to hear you say that."

Kuai Hongji paused, then glanced at Mao Feiyang indifferently: "Do you know what's even more ironic?"

"What is it?" Mao Feiyang asked.

"Right now, I really want to beat you up."

Mao Feiyang: "..."

"Oh, right!" Lin Yi said, "Kuai Kuai, do you know what 'timestring hyper-fluctuation' and 'specific extraordinary fragments' mean?"

Kuai Hongji was taken aback for a moment: "What are you trying to ask by suddenly uttering those two nouns?"

Lin Yi scratched his head. The "Master of Creation's" words were too technical and a bit convoluted. He thought about it carefully before slowly saying, "It's roughly... what exactly does 'Time String Excess Fluctuation' mean, which requires 'Specific Extraordinary Fragments' to fuse with in order to achieve relative completeness and stability in reality?"

He had actually wanted to know this question for a long time, but he hadn't been able to find a suitable opportunity along the way. Now that he had the chance, he was finally going to ask it properly.

“The ‘Time String Excess Fluctuation’… requires… the fusion of ‘Specific Extraordinary Fragments’… to… approach relative completeness and real-world stability…” Kuai Hongji chewed on the text with a strange expression. “What is all this nonsense? What makes you think I should understand this stuff?”

Lin Yi said, "I see that you seem to know a lot about esoteric arts and astrology, so I wanted to ask if you know anything about these..."

"As for the 'time' part... you can ask Wei Liang, but he probably won't be able to communicate with you normally until the mission is completed," Kuai Hongji said.

"So, I have no way of figuring it out?" Lin Yi asked.

"Yes," Kuai Hongji replied affirmatively.

As they were talking, the elevator suddenly began to slow down.

The three of them then focused their attention on the floor plan. Lin Yi just hoped that this time they could go straight back to the dormitory building and not linger in any strange places. Otherwise, it would be troublesome if something else went wrong.

After the elevator came to a complete stop, with a "ding," the floor panel finally displayed "Dormitory Building - 14F."

"Phew..." Lin Yi let out a long sigh of relief, "Finally back!"

“We are safe now.” Kuai Hongji nodded. “There’s only one question left.”

He looked at Mao Feiyang, or more accurately, at Lin Yi.

"You need to return to your original body now. However, it is a process full of variables for your will to leave the dormitory building and return to your physical body. The best way is for your will to enter Young Master Tian's body."

"Then, you hang inside Young Master Tian's body, and Wei Shan carries your body on his back. After you meet on campus, you switch back."

Because Tian Bufan's state is different from his, he cannot control Tian Bufan's body, while Tian Bufan controls his body, resulting in a soul exchange after their meeting.

Don't forget, Lin Yi used the "gravity slingshot" to launch his entire will from his body, and after a layer jump, he arrived at the art building.

As for Tian Bufan? His will is still within his body; he infiltrated through the "Dream Boundary" by building dreams.

Lin Yi thought for a moment and said, "This method is not bad... but Young Master Tian can wake up on his own, and we will definitely meet. It would be better if I stayed in the Russian's body and returned to my original body when we meet."

"You want to go and see the dormitory manager's office?" Kuai Hongji immediately guessed Lin Yi's idea.

(End of this chapter)