Rules-related weird stories: 4016

Chapter 304: "Those Who Accept the Power of Angels Will Eventually Become Phantoms of Angels"

"'Shell'... ?"

"A vessel, understand?" The boss gave him a deep look. "Those who accept the power of angels will eventually become phantoms of angels."

"Those who accept the power of angels will eventually become phantoms of angels..." Lin Yi muttered to himself, his intuition telling him that there must be a 'precept' version of this sentence.

"That's not right, boss. Did you see the Wrathful Angel chasing after me?" Lin Yi suddenly slapped his forehead in surprise.

"Your movements were too big; it was hard not to notice," the boss said calmly. "Besides, seeing a Wrathful Angel... isn't that difficult."

"Oh... then what does 'shell' mean? Is it like a game account, where the Wrathful Angel can log in, and the teacher only killed one of its 'accounts'?"

"'Game account'?" The boss was puzzled. "What's that?"

"Uh..." Lin Yi was stunned, not expecting the boss to have never touched a game before. He couldn't help but feel a sense of awe. "It's like, its true form is very ethereal, and when needed, it enters the body of other... people or other creatures, and then that thing becomes the 'Wrathful Angel'. Is that how it is?"

The boss nodded upon hearing this. "That's an acceptable way to understand it."

"Angel sculptures each have their own characteristics. After a Wrathful Angel is born, it possesses an origin. Whenever it acts, it first hides a small portion of its origin in a safe place, and then controls an avatar to take action."

"For example, if it leaves behind 30% of its origin, then the avatar will have 70% of its origin. If the avatar is killed, it will lose that 70% of its origin, but the remaining 30% will still allow it to regenerate, and it can replenish itself to 100% after a period of accumulation."

"The Wrathful Angel who brazenly charged into the gymnasium must have been fearless. I estimate that the Wrathful Angel avatar that was chasing you contained less than 20% of its origin; otherwise, it wouldn't have been instantly killed by the teacher."

"The Wrathful Angel... so that's how it is," Lin Yi murmured. "Then, if you want to kill it, wouldn't you need to destroy its entire origin?"

"That's right."

"What if it splits into several origins, each becoming a Wrathful Angel, and acts separately? Wouldn't that be very powerful?"

The boss glanced at him. "The total amount remains the same. Spreading out makes it easier to be defeated one by one. Moreover, there are always some creatures that can use a portion of its origin to track down the rest of it... In short, this isn't something you should be considering."

"Boss, could you tell me more about the Grinning Angel and the Aberrant Angel? After all, I'm a thorn in their side... no, food in their eyes."

"It's not too late to talk about it later; let's swim for a while first." The boss patted the hand that Lin Yi was using to hold onto the edge of the pool. "Go swim by yourself; I don't need to throw you in again, do I?"

Lin Yi consciously let go and silently swam towards the distance.

"Go check on him; don't let him swim to the deep end." The boss glanced at Lin Yi's back, which occasionally surfaced, and felt a faint compulsion to kick him down.

"Okay!" Li Huiyuan responded and swam over nimbly.

Lin Yi, who was swimming ahead, suddenly felt waves behind him. He turned his head and saw Li Huiyuan chasing after him, quickly hovering not far from him.

"You can return after swimming a little further. The boss said not to go to the deep end."

"The deep end?" Lin Yi was slightly stunned. "I almost forgot; it seems I've always been in the shallow end?"

"You know that too!" Li Huiyuan curled her lips. The feverishness had subsided, and she couldn't help but say, "What was wrong with you just now? You could even sink to the bottom in the shallow end? And you saw the abyss... I feel like you're very normal sometimes, and sometimes you seem even more abnormal than I was yesterday."

"Are you saying... I just sank to the bottom of the shallow end?" Lin Yi didn't pay attention to Li Huiyuan's吐槽; he only heard the key point of "sinking to the bottom."

Li Huiyuan said, "Yes, you were swimming and suddenly stalled, then you sank. I saw your appearance; you weren't moving at all, and it didn't seem like you had a leg cramp!"

"Then I swam over to call you."

"It's ridiculous to say, the shallow end is only so deep. Even if you're in the shallow end close to the deep end, your tiptoes should be enough to get your face above water, right? You're such a big person, and you still managed to sink..."

Lin Yi didn't bother to argue. Experiencing hallucinations... he was already used to it. And judging from Li Huiyuan's reaction, he should just be hallucinating, not falling out of the layer.

The way of falling out of the layer is very simple. Like the first time he came to the gymnasium, he saw some people disappearing as they walked, that was falling out of the layer, going to that non-existent road.

If you fall out of the layer, there will also be changes in the physical space, such as disappearing.

If it's a hallucination, the person is still there; there are some problems with the mental aspect, but the "main body" is still in the original place, such as... becoming a vegetable.

Lin Yi glanced at the direction of the deep end.

There is a buoy between the deep and shallow ends, and there are also text markers on the shore. In addition, the bottom of the pool uses a different color of blue tiles, which divides the pool into two distinct areas.

Compared to the shallow end with white tiles, the deep end with blue tiles feels more like a lake, a river, or even... a corner of the sea.

Moreover, the shallow end of the pool is the part close to the exit of the swimming pool, while the deep end... is close to the end of the swimming pool.

Lin Yi couldn't help but look towards the end of the swimming pool.

There is a wall there, and an old kerosene lamp hangs on the wall, with dim and faint light.

But in the previous hallucinations, what he saw was not a wall, but a dark hole, or rather, it was not a hole at all, but a dim environment. It seemed that behind the wall was the cliff in front of the watchtower, and on the cliff was a night watchman carrying an ancient green lantern.

The water in the pool flows towards the end like a waterfall.

He shook his head, refocused, and saw that the wall was still a wall, and the light was still dim, but the old kerosene lamp flickered inexplicably.

When he looked again, he saw that there seemed to be some people swimming in the deep end.

"Is there any difference between the deep end and here?" he asked.

Li Huiyuan shook her head slightly. "I don't know... it's my first time at the swimming pool, but the rules say that only first-stage sports students can swim in the deep end."

"That side has a stronger effect of expelling and transforming the green mist, more pure, but the negative effects it causes are also greater."

"Okay, don't go over there; stay a little further away from the buoy." Li Huiyuan stopped Lin Yi and directed him to swim back.

"Okay, but I thought I saw someone swimming in the deep end..."

"Oh, really?" Li Huiyuan was visibly stunned for a moment, subconsciously saying, "You must be seeing things. There's nothing in the deep end..."

"Uh... okay, never mind that."

"Okay," Lin Yi responded and started swimming back.

But just then, he heard that intermittent call again.

【Lin Yi...】

He looked back at Li Huiyuan.

Li Huiyuan was speechless, extending her hands from the water and shrugging at Lin Yi.

Lin Yi's gaze drifted behind her...

The few people he had initially seen swimming had all disappeared without a trace, replaced by some unknown creatures floating on the surface...

They seemed to be splashing water with 'pa pa pa' sounds, but the water in the deep end was like a rapid torrent, pushing them backward towards the far end of the pool.

The far end of the pool... in his vision, had once again transformed into a dark, lightless cave, with fierce and rapid wind sounds inside, like the interior of a hollowed-out mountain wall, where the wind rushed in and swirled around, creating a sound.

The 'woo woo woo' sound was like the wails of ghosts and wolves, making one's scalp tingle and goosebumps rise all over.

"Pa!"

A hand patted him on the shoulder.

"Stop looking, hurry back!" Li Huiyuan's voice followed.

He shook his head violently, and found that everything was back to normal, except that no one was swimming in the deep end.

"Glug..."

He swallowed hard, suddenly realizing that Li Huiyuan had just been going along with his words to prevent his perception from conflicting?

Her original words seemed to be... "You must be seeing things. There's no one in the deep end"?

He secretly gasped, then started swimming back.

Li Huiyuan glanced at Lin Yi, then looked back at the deep end, muttering, "No one there," then she looked at Lin Yi's back, a hint of worry appearing in her eyes.

"His hallucinations seem to be getting worse..."

Lin Yi maintained his pace as he swam forward, but he kept hearing calls in his ear from time to time. The calls were extremely monotonous, just calling his name repeatedly.

He felt a little tired of hearing it.

But as he continued to swim towards the shore, he found that the pool's water had become turbulent for some reason.

He found that the pool was still the pool, and there were still people swimming, but he always felt a strange, indescribable feeling, like a well-made dish where you suddenly notice the taste has changed, even though the dish was just brought out of the pot.

"Splash... splash... splash..."

The pool water pushed wave after wave onto the shore, seeping into the grates under the non-slip floor, leaving a few scattered bubbles.

"Splash... splash... splash..."

Waves rose without wind, and the waves grew bigger and bigger. Lin Yi felt as if he was drifting, pushed by the waves.

Gradually, he began to feel that the waves were getting bigger, and the whole swimming pool was like a basket hanging in the air, swaying back and forth. The water in the basket was the surface he was feeling now.

The sense of tilt and subversion became stronger and stronger, and the waves of sound became more and more turbulent.

【Lin Yi—Lin Yi—】

The sound grew louder and louder with the windless waves, like a sailor standing on the deck of a ship in a storm, calling out to him who controlled the mast.

He was a little confused, feeling a little dizzy.

Just then, a wave rolled over, overturning him and throwing him into the water.

"Glug glug..."

He spat out a few bubbles, but unlike last time, although he was a little dizzy this time, he had control over his body.

So he adjusted his rhythm and started to break out of the water.

Li Huiyuan was right, a shallow end of a swimming pool couldn't drown him, could it?

However, the scene that entered his vision after he adjusted his rhythm almost made his soul fly away.

He did see the bottom of the pool, but it wasn't under his feet. It seemed to be a considerable distance from his soles.

However, what frightened him wasn't the distance, but that he actually saw... moss at the bottom of the pool!!

"Mo-moss...? !"

An icy aura seemed to be drilling into his body from all directions, then rushing out through the top of his head. The bone-chilling cold seemed to penetrate his body and reach the depths of his soul.

He also discovered that the bottom of the pool... didn't seem to be tiled.

The moss seemed to be growing on some kind of wooden plank...

"Wooden plank...?"

"How could it be... wooden planks?!"

Could it be that because he felt the calls sounded like sailors on a deck just now, his perception created... a shipwreck?

A ship that had sunk for who knows how many years, the wooden planks at the bottom of the cabin were already rotten, and the surroundings were covered with moss.

Time seemed to be at a standstill here, and the dim light fell little by little through the surface of the water, with a damp, musty smell permeating the water.

The moss glowed with a faint green light in the dimness, and accompanied by the movement of the water, there seemed to be a low creaking sound. The whole world was filled with an oppressive atmosphere that made people feel crazy.

In such a space, time seemed to become blurred, and every second seemed to be stretched, as if everything could be buried in the deep sea...

"No, this is a swimming pool."

"This is a swimming pool!"

"Stop messing around!"

Lin Yi's will was extremely firm, his thinking was extremely clear, his... his... wait!!

Since his will and thinking were fine, how could he have such a problem...? !

"My perception... is instinctively rewriting to save me?"

"That thing... that thing is something my current perception can't touch? Something I absolutely can't see right now!"

"Glug glug... glug glug... glug glug..."

The sound of bubbles rang in his ears.

He looked around, the sparse and scattered spots of light falling from the surface of the water made it look even dimmer and more turbid, and he seemed to hear the sound of iron chains rubbing again.

"Clang clang clang... clang clang clang..."

That thing is coming again!

It's coming again!

This time it seemed to be tied to somewhere deep here, dragging the heavy chain, searching for his location little by little in the water, and closing the distance between them.

No, it's not it closing the distance between them.

But him closing the distance between it!

In the last hallucination, that thing was still in the abyss, but this time, it seemed to be in this wooden cabin.