Rules-related weird stories: 4016.

Chapter 678 Illusion of Total Annihilation
"Hehe, yeah, we can't miss this opportunity," Lin Yi said with a grin.

“That works.” Kuai Hongji nodded. “But we need to let Young Master Tian know about this step.”

"Okay, let's go then. Come back to the dorm with me first."

"Clang... Crack!"

The elevator doors opened, and Kuai Hongji, carrying an old kerosene lamp, slowly stepped out of the elevator with Mao Feiyang.

Just as the elevator doors closed, a crack suddenly appeared in the red cover with an "X" mark on the floor panel, and an eyeball popped out, blinked twice, and then quickly disappeared...

The elevator doors closed, and the covers and buttons returned to normal, but an indescribable eerie atmosphere lingered in the air.

……

On May 12, 2023, at 4:52 AM, the clanging of chains echoed through the dark dormitory corridor.

At this moment, the dormitory building corridors no longer looked twisted, and you didn't end up walking up to the ceiling. Everything seemed to have returned to normal.

After walking for a while, Kuai Hongji led Mao Feiyang to dormitory number 1414.

After using his authority as the "dormitory manager" to open the door, Kuai Hongji slowly walked into the dormitory.

The dormitory was not much different from when he left, except that the bed that had been flipped 180 degrees was now upside down again.

They are now standing normally on the floor.

The window glass next to the washbasin was still covered with a thick layer of moisture, but the violent wind and rain had completely stopped, leaving a peaceful atmosphere after the storm.

Mao Feiyang's gaze slowly moved around the dormitory room, finally landing on Tian Bufan.

Tian Bufan's body, exposed beneath the bedding, had a faint bluish-gray texture, making him look like a dead sculpture.

"Young Master Tian, ​​everything went smoothly. Old Lin and I are back." Mao Feiyang walked to Tian Bufan's bedside and said softly.

Looking at Tian Bufan's appearance, Lin Yi suddenly showed a look of surprise, because Tian Bufan's current state was very similar to how Wei Liang lost consciousness in the dormitory area.

This discovery confirmed his suspicions about Wei Liang—at those times, Wei Liang's will had undoubtedly left his body, or it was a wave of "dream boundaries" that went to intercept the angels for him.

No wonder Wei Liang is always so tired when he wakes up... Now that I think about it, if all he's done is feel tired, it just means that Wei Liang is ridiculously strong...

Just as he looked at Tian Bufan, a force of attraction suddenly arose within Tian Bufan's body, and his will naturally floated out and then entered Tian Bufan's body...

Sensing the fluctuations in Lin Yi's aura, Kuai Hongji and Mao Feiyang looked at Tian Bufan's body with some surprise.

"Why did he go there?" Kuai Hongji asked.

"I don't know... It didn't say anything, it just shot right past me..." Mao Feiyang said.

Kuai Hongji said, "Let's wait and see. If Old Lin didn't say anything beforehand, it definitely wasn't premeditated. Maybe he'll shoot it back from Young Master Tian's side in a flash."

"Ugh, you're disgusting."

"You were the one who felt disgusted first."

"Okay, okay..." Mao Feiyang shrugged, then looked at a bed on the other side, "Is that Wei Liang's bed?"

"Yes, what, want to go up there and roll around?" Kuai Hongji sneered.

"You're still so bad at chatting..." Mao Feiyang was speechless and simply shut his mouth.

"Communication is too tiring." Kuai Hongji shook his head and fell silent.

He only seems to be "normal" when discussing serious matters or interacting with non-human entities.

Or, to communicate serious matters with non-human beings.

……

On the other side, as soon as Lin Yi's will touched Tian Bufan's body, he felt himself lying down, as if he had merged into Tian Bufan's body.

Before he could even settle into a comfortable position, he felt as if the blankets beneath him had been suddenly pulled away, and he was plummeting into the unknown...

"What's going on? Is this dream building, or...?"

"No, my will was absorbed into Young Master Tian's body, how could it be Dream Building?"

Lin Yi looked around and found that everything around him was blooming like flowers. Countless blurry images became clearer and clearer as they unfolded. He also began to see some of the things he had experienced on campus, as well as the things that Mao Feiyang, Wei Shan, and even Kuai Hong had experienced on campus.

Lin Yi quickly realized that these images were some of their memories, and that he was in Tian Bufan's dream.

Perhaps Tian Bufan saw their experiences through such images back then.

However, compared to his almost personal dream experiences, such scenes appear more objective and seem to lack the same depth of immersion.

Lin Yi guessed that this might be related to Tian Bufan himself.

Tian Bufan's rationality outweighs everything else, so even when it comes to "his own" affairs, he can observe them with an almost indifferent attitude from a god-like perspective, and he can even say that he is willing to scheme against himself in order to achieve his goal.

But besides that, there were many blurry images. The things in those images were completely indistinct, yet they faintly exuded some extraordinary aura, as if they were extremely important.

As he tried to observe these blurry images closely, one of them suddenly became clear.

The scene was almost still, showing Tian Bufan pinned to the ground in a void, a spear burning with black flames piercing his chest...

From other angles within that void, Wei Shan knelt on both knees, his head hanging limply, his whole body like a statue.

Beside him, Mao Feiyang was completely dead, his body covered in cracks, like ice-cracked porcelain.

Before them, there seemed to be a slender figure engulfed in blue-gold flames…

In the firelight, only a backlit silhouette remained, but the supreme crown atop his head was exceptionally eye-catching, making it immediately clear that he was the leader…

Lin Yi's pupils contracted sharply, and in that instant, his vision suddenly went out of focus, and he could no longer see the scene clearly.

But another scene became clear...

However, the scene still depicts the deaths of Tian Bufan and others...

One image after another went from blurry to clear, then out of focus, and then replaced by a new image...

Every scene depicts their deaths...

Finally, with a "boom," he was ejected from Tian Bufan's body...

Mao Feiyang's body trembled.

Lin Yi's will has returned.

"Holy crap, did I just have a sudden jolt?!" Mao Feiyang looked embarrassed.

Kuai Hongji said, "Five seconds. Old Lin, what was wrong with you just now?"

Lin Yi was silent for a moment, then said without hiding anything, "I don't know how I entered Young Master Tian's body just now, and then I saw countless scenes of our deaths..."

Both Kuai Hongji and Mao Feiyang were taken aback upon hearing this.

After a moment of surprise, they both remained remarkably calm, showing no extra emotion whatsoever.

"You...don't you find it strange at all?" Lin Yi asked.

Kuai Hongji said quite naturally, "Before setting off, we rehearsed many times, and most of the endings were not good. What you saw was probably the scene that Young Master Tian had predicted in his mind..."

Kuai Hongji's words failed to convince Lin Yi, but Lin Yi didn't know how to refute them. Surely they hadn't died countless times before?
Thinking of this, Lin Yi suddenly paused for a moment.

In fact, they are all alive, but he is no longer the ordinary person he once was.

Having experienced a dimensional leap, the essence of his life has changed, even leading to a different understanding of "time"...

He had a bold guess: they might have gone through countless time loops, and in each one they ended in failure.

What Tian Bufan called a deduction might not be a deduction at all, but rather a real, tragic failure that actually happened.

After their failure, one of them—or perhaps Wei Liang—reversed "time" in some unknown way, or rather, "penetrated" time, to rewrite the past...

Countless rewrites resulted in countless failed attempts, yet they never succeeded. And perhaps, this time... is just one of countless cycles...?

So... the price of countless rewrites of time is that Wei Liang died countless times?!

This may be the reason why Wei Liang's corpse pile was formed!

Having failed countless times, will they be able to succeed this time...?
"Have we... died?" he suddenly asked slowly.

Kuai Hongji paused for a moment, then said, "No."

"Really?" he asked again.

Kuai Hongji hesitated for a moment: "Really."

Lin Yi suddenly smiled and said, "Okay, I understand."

He floated out of Tian Bufan's body and returned to Mao Feiyang's body.

This time, Tian Bufan's body no longer held any appeal.

After that, Kuai Hongji took Mao Feiyang and left dormitory 1414.

But just before closing the door, Kuai Hongji's gaze pierced through the closing door and landed on Tian Bufan's bed, his brow furrowing involuntarily.

……

X023年5月12日，5：12，宿舍楼楼道。

Kuai Hongji turned a right angle quite naturally and stepped into a corridor enveloped in darkness as thick as ink.

"Hmm? Did we just turn a corner?" Lin Yi squinted.

Kuai Hongji said, "Those are the corners of the layers. There are many such layer corners in the spatial plane of S City University."

Have you heard of Monument Valley?

"Two intersecting layers, that is, the surface and the inner layer, or two completely unrelated layers, intersect for some reason, which allows a person with certain qualifications to meet the requirements."

"You have to go through this kind of path to get from the dormitory manager's office."

Lin Yi suddenly realized, and thinking back to the "Dormitory Rules," he immediately understood the situation: "So some people have the ability to pass based on their own conditions, while others need to rely on that little card in the 'Dormitory Rules'?"

"And what if someone who has nothing accidentally enters this place, and meets with misfortune?"

Kuai Hongji nodded and said, "In the darkness here, there are many nocturnal creatures that cannot invade the campus. They fear all high-level pollution forces, including light, but they will naturally feast on those who are powerless."

In the darkness, the strong prey on the weak, and there is no mercy. The more "safe" a being is, the more "dangerous" it is.

Before long, a small house with a soft orange light came into Lin Yi's view in the darkness.

A small sign hangs on the door of the small room, which reads "Dormitory Management Rules".

"That's the dormitory manager's office...wait a minute..." At first glance, it seemed perfectly normal, but when Lin Yi looked closer, he noticed a problem.
But upon closer inspection, Lin Yi exclaimed, "This dormitory manager's room... something's not right! Why are there no walls?!"

The "dormitory manager's room" wasn't very big, only about the size of a living room. After Kuai Hongji left with his old kerosene lamp, the darkness compressed the space, leaving the four sofas crampedly squeezed into the darkness.

Behind those four sofas, darkness flowed like tangible asphalt. Further into the darkness, with Lin Yi's current perception and eyesight, he could even see the silhouettes of some sculptures.

Humanoids, humanoids, lost souls, nocturnal creatures... it seems that all kinds of strange creatures hidden in the darkness can be found here.

"Where exactly is this place?!" Lin Yi felt a chill run down his spine. A picture flashed through his mind—a corner in the dormitory building's stairwell, filled with twisted and broken sculptures!
“It’s just an abandoned place,” Kuai Hongji said. “There are different levels of depth. In the depths of the layers, even time loses its meaning, while in the shallower areas, some of the lost units are still struggling to survive…”

"The light and shadow in the dormitory manager's office illuminate them to some extent. Some half-dead units may be able to find the light in the dormitory manager's office through this, and then return to reality through the dormitory manager's channels."

Upon hearing this, Lin Yi's heart skipped a beat: "The dormitory management approach... isn't just about rescuing lost experience students?"

"In the abyss of fog and darkness, lost souls seek phantoms. If they can find the light in the dormitory manager's office, they may be redeemed. That is an opportunity given to them by the campus."

Lin Yi pursed his lips. The campus really has remained true to its original intention of saving people since its establishment. They don't even give up on lost souls and want to try to save them.

Kuai Hongji said, "It's both a rescue operation and... making use of waste."

"Uh..." Lin Yi was speechless for a moment. Waste utilization? Kuai Hongji's words sounded really hurtful, but they also seemed extremely reasonable...

Oh well, let's just make use of this trash, anyway, I'm not criticizing him.

(End of this chapter)