Rules-related weird stories: 4016

"What? Eliminate attention...? What does that mean?" Wei Liang's eyes widened, a question mark practically hanging over his forehead.

Lin Yi explained, "It means finding a way to stop him from staring at me."

"Ah, oh, oh, oh! That's what you mean!" Wei Liang feigned sudden understanding. "You should have said so! Just divert his attention, right?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I mean." Lin Yi nodded. "Haven't you been here before? Have you ever encountered anything similar? Or heard any similar rumors?"

"No." Wei Liang replied without hesitation. After a pause, he added, "To be precise, even if I had, I would have pretended not to hear... Just like just now."

Wei Liang's words made Lin Yi pause for a moment, then he immediately understood. Wei Liang was playing dumb, even fooling himself.

「But can I really complete the seven-day trial just by doing that?」

Wei Liang shook his head, helplessly saying, "So, although I really want to help, I'm actually powerless to do so."

"But..."

"But what?"

"But if you really want to think about the problem, you can try this." Wei Liang stared at Lin Yi, speaking with utmost seriousness.

"Hmm?" Lin Yi narrowed his eyes. "Are you saying...?"

Wei Liang smiled mysteriously. "Didn't you used to fall asleep when you were thinking about problems? So, I can watch you, and as soon as I see you start to doze off, I'll quickly wake you up."

"How do you feel about that?"

"I can't experience that feeling of being stared at, but your feelings seem to be very bad..."

"If you really feel like you're in a desperate situation, how about... trying it?"

"This..." Lin Yi hesitated, then said honestly, "If I try, will I... die?"

Wei Liang didn't beat around the bush, but said seriously, "If I wake you up, you'll be fine. If I can't wake you up, you're dead."

"The key now is that you've been targeted by that person. Once the classroom lights go out again, it's hard to say what will happen."

Lin Yi fell silent.

The air suddenly became quiet. Wei Liang didn't urge him, and the only sound in the silent classroom was the swaying of the incandescent light hanging from the long iron chain above.

Lin Yi stroked his watch, closed his eyes, and took a few deep breaths.

The wind howled outside the window, and fine raindrops pattered against the glass, the cold air spreading into a white mist.

The ticking of the quartz watch rose and fell with Lin Yi's breathing.

On one side, there was a classmate whose actions depended on the environment and whose behavior pattern was still unpredictable;

On the other side, there was that indescribable feeling of being swallowed, of being pulled into the abyss, that appeared once he delved into deep thought...

It seemed like both paths had problems!

Lin Yi suddenly felt like he was racking his brains to choose a way to die.

Obviously... neither of these choices was what he wanted.

He wanted to live and get the 30,000 yuan trial bonus to subsidize his grandmother's medical expenses, so he couldn't take any risks, especially fighting this unknown and hopeless battle.

「The times I thought deeply before were all unintentional, so I was able to pull myself out in time with Wei Liang's help.」

「If I actively think, will I cross the red line of the rules in this environment?」

Everything was unknown.

「I can only find a solution within the rules. Obeying the rules is the way to protect myself!」

「Although the process just now was extremely dangerous, ultimately, I escaped because I followed the rules.」

「Once I violate the rules, the consequences are unimaginable.」

Lin Yi let out a long breath, opened his eyes, and, under Wei Liang's expectant gaze, shook his head and denied it:

"Forget it, I can't afford to gamble."

"This isn't a game. If something goes wrong, we—no, I don't have a chance to 'reload' ."

"Then I can't help you either." Wei Liang was both regretful and happy. "But I believe you can think of a solution yourself. Good luck!"

"Yeah." Lin Yi nodded.

Wei Liang comforted him, "Besides, maybe the classroom lights won't go out again until dawn, right?"

"You know how to talk..." Lin Yi said helplessly.

This Wei Liang always agreed with his decisions. One second he felt like he was desperately fighting to the death, ready to be reborn if he failed, and the next second he was seriously comforting him...

「Liangzi can only handle situations when things are going smoothly...」

Lin Yi gave up the idea of seeking a decisive opinion from Wei Liang.

He glanced at his watch.

23:55.

There were still 5 minutes until midnight.

0:00 was a very delicate time, especially in a strange environment, it was easy to associate with metaphysical rules such as not being able to look in the mirror.

The more something was in a strange place, the easier it was to have an aura of terror.

Imperceptibly, Lin Yi also felt a double pressure from time and his classmate.

"Lao Lin, I'm getting a little sleepy. I need to read a book to refresh myself. If you need anything, just tell me. Don't try to handle it alone." Wei Liang instructed, then flipped through the comic book in his hand.

Lin Yi nodded and said nothing.

「First, let's confirm one thing... It's actually okay to think about problems, but I can't think about those 'unreasonable' things...」

「Especially those problems that conflict with the rules I know.」

「So... I must find out why that classmate is focusing on me within the scope allowed by the rules, and I must find a way to resolve this crisis before things get worse.」

Lin Yi recited the student rules one by one in his mind, searching for all content related to the teaching building...

In the end, he only found one, which was also the last rule:

【Please pay attention to your health. If you experience symptoms such as dizziness, blurred vision, or nausea while at school, please find the dormitory administrator or homeroom teacher before overnight. He will take you to the infirmary, and the school doctor will take you to the school gate.】

But the teaching building rules also stated:

【After 21:00, it is forbidden to leave the classroom. Please study until 7:40 the next day. During this period, if you see any abnormal situations outside the window or someone calls you outside the door, please ignore them.】

「The rules are conflicting again...?」

Whenever this happened, he couldn't help but want to understand the connection between the rules, but having suffered several losses, he very decisively chose to prioritize following the teaching building rules based on his own location—the teaching building.

But other than that, he couldn't find any other rules from the official, that is, the school.

What remained for reference were only the homeroom teacher's few words and the brief minutes of conversation he had with Xu Shunkang and Xie Huayang.

「There are two key points in Xu Shunkang's words: the first is to obey the rules, and the second is not to think...」

「I have already understood the meaning of obeying the rules. As for not thinking, it should also be what I understand as not thinking about 'problematic things'...」

「Obviously, thinking like this now is fine. Xu Shunkang didn't explain clearly in order to avoid guiding me to think from the approach...」

It's like when A keeps emphasizing to B in a negative sentence, 'Don't buy a blue pen, don't buy a blue pen,' and in the end, B buys a blue pen.

The simplest way to prevent B from buying a blue pen is to not even tell B about the existence of blue pens.

Xu Shunkang's approach had the same effect.

He simply didn't explain things that he didn't have time to explain, so as not to make people think too much because they heard too much, which would lead to accidents.

"And then the homeroom teacher's words… The most important point in what the homeroom teacher said was actually 'ignore'."

Ignoring seems simple, but it's actually very difficult to do. People like Wei Liang only manage it because they've put their talent points into those kinds of strange and cunning skills.

"So, if we combine the limited clues together, what we get is—"

"Don't think about it ideologically, ignore reality in action… and then abide by the emergency rules for when accidents happen, and you can get a 'safe' environment!"

When he came to this conclusion, Lin Yi suddenly looked at Wei Liang, who was engrossed in reading a comic book, and a capital 'A' of 'Admiration' slowly rose from the bottom of his heart.

"This is… isn't this Liangzi's approach?"

The reaction that Wei Liang made subconsciously was exactly the same as the survival method that Lin Yi had painstakingly pieced together!

Chang Wei, are you still saying you don't know martial arts?!

Wei Liang felt Lin Yi's burning gaze and trembled subconsciously.

"What's wrong, Lao Lin? Your eyes are giving me the creeps…" He shrank his neck.

"It's nothing…" Lin Yi said.

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"Liangzi is truly wise and foolish… or just plain foolish? Is there really such a coincidence?"

"But, I always feel like something isn't quite right…"

Lin Yi felt that the phenomenon was like this, but the principle was not like this. There should still be some kind of logic in it, and he was just circling around the surface.

He wanted to think deeply, but he felt that as long as he went even a little deeper, that strange and indescribable sense of terror would invade his will, and then… induce him to think deeply!

Can't think too much…

He clearly had to keep thinking, but within the interval of thinking, there seemed to be a shackle, forcing him to only be able to carry out reasoning in a limited interval, and he couldn't think beyond the boundary at all.

"Damn it."

Lin Yi gently shook his head, unwilling to re-apply his half-baked conclusion to the entire incident after the classroom lights flickered, to simply review the situation and see if he could find the reason he was being targeted.

Just then, Lin Yi suddenly noticed that the light and shadow in the classroom flickered again.

"?!" Lin Yi's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly raised his head to look at the ceiling.

But this time he stared at the ceiling for a full half a minute, and still didn't find which incandescent light was flickering.

Just as he was feeling a little puzzled, the light in the classroom flickered again!

His pupils shrank suddenly, and he instantly reacted: "It's not the lights in the classroom that are flashing! It's… the corridor!"

He turned to look at the corridor, and sure enough, the lights in the corridor were flickering with some kind of strange frequency.

"How many lights are flashing together to affect the light in the classroom?"

Just as Lin Yi was feeling shocked, a subtle wave was transmitted along the wall bricks of the classroom and passed to the soles of his feet.

In the water dispenser at the back of the circular lecture hall, a subtle ripple also appeared on the surface of the water.

"Dong…"

"Dong…"

"Dong…"

It seemed that something was colliding outside. Each collision would cause the entire classroom to tremble slightly, and the incandescent lights in the corridor would also flicker.

He looked at the windows of the classroom. Due to the temperature difference between inside and outside, a layer of white water vapor filled the window glass.

Through the water vapor, he could only see a gray area. Under the light of the corridor, the thick fog was hitting the window glass like surging waves.

The entire classroom was becoming more and more like a ship sailing in the deep sea mist on a stormy night, as if it would capsize at any time.

Suddenly, he saw something stand up from the mist. The light from the corridor cast its shadow on the water-stained glass.

Suddenly, the rules of the student code flashed in his mind:

[During this period, if you find any unusual noises or see unusual figures outside the window, please ignore them, especially when they call you outside the dormitory or classroom.]

He quickly withdrew his gaze and buried his head in the comic book at hand.

He flipped through it casually, but he couldn't help but think of the scene he had seen before.

The shadow seemed to be formed by some creatures fighting together, and the "dong dong dong" sound was very similar to the sound of stone tools hitting each other.

Every time the collision sounded, it spread out like a shock wave…

"Lao Lin, you're holding the book upside down." Wei Liang's voice sounded in his ear.

Lin Yi was slightly stunned, and then suddenly came back to his senses.

Wei Liang's voice continued to sound in his ear: "Hey, after all, this is a remote mountain area, it's normal for there to be some small rockfalls in abnormal weather, don't think too much about it."

"Rock… fall?"

"It's just the kind of tremor just now, isn't it just a mountain rockfall, don't think too much about it, the night is long, only comics accompany you, read the book!" Wei Liang said.

Lin Yi's mind went around a few times before he understood what Wei Liang meant.

His expression straightened, and he immediately straightened the comic book in front of him, no longer thinking about the situation outside the classroom, and then slowly flipped through it.

At this moment, Wei Liang pushed a book in front of Lin Yi, and said seriously:

"Your 'Dragon X Tiger Fight' isn't Volume 1, the plot will be very uncomfortable to read, come, try this one, I just finished reading Volume 1, it's just right for you…"

Lin Yi took it and looked at it. The cover of the book was a nurse posing coquettishly…

His eyebrows raised slightly, and he looked at the title of the book.

"Night X Ward (Collector's Edition)."

"'Night X Ward' tells a pure love story between a patient and a nurse. Although the style is old, it looks good. The most important thing is that it can let you get rid of your worries and immerse yourself in the story… The most important thing is that this is a collector's edition."

Lin Yi opened it suspiciously, his mouth couldn't help twitching, and he hesitated: "H manga…?"

Wei Liang said disdainfully: "You're looking at it with colored glasses. This kind of manga often needs to be viewed with a dialectical perspective, starting from the style and plot, to think about what kind of philosophical ideas the author is expressing with such a story, etc., etc., okay?"

"Instead of being confined to the picture itself."

"Forget it, you wouldn't understand even if I told you this, just flip through it!"

After Wei Liang finished speaking, he lowered his head and started reading the book again.

Lin Yi was stunned for a moment, nodded, and silently started reading…

However, not long after flipping through this "Night X Ward", he was again affected by the flickering lights in the corridor and the constantly trembling ground.

A fierce battle seemed to have broken out outside the classroom, and the powerful shock wave was impacting the classroom like a wave.

"Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua…"

In the classroom, those strange students seemed to sense something. At the same time and with the same movements, they turned their heads in unison, gathering their gazes on the window glass.

In the depths of their empty eyes, different colors flowed.

Or longing, or infatuation, or madness, or…

Fear!

May 7, 2023, 0:08, Group B, Class 2.

Outside the classroom, terrifying figures were tumbling in the mist, and the terrifying shock wave seemed to destroy everything.

Inside the classroom, more than thirty strange students stared at the shadows on the window like marionettes, with different colors flowing in the depths of their empty eyes.

Or longing, or infatuation, or madness, or…