Rules-related weird stories: 4016

Seeing the mist gradually eating away at the limited space in the cabin, Lin Yi adjusted his breathing to keep himself as calm as possible. Then, his brain raced, searching through all the details like a human-shaped computer.

‘Status!’

To answer the question, you must solve the stem. To save yourself, you must understand the stem—that is, your current state!

‘The old kerosene lamp is in my hand, and the flow of time is normal. This indicates that I am not in a dream and am still in reality...’

‘But the gallery is distorted and stretched, and the surrounding environment is clearly not right... Obviously, it's not very accurate in reality either...’

‘Is there a state where I am both in reality and not in reality...?’

It seems... there really is.

‘My World’?!

Lin Yi suddenly realized that at some point, his consciousness had left his body!

He had repeatedly seen the little girl appear not far from him, which must have been at that moment!

His consciousness left his body, and he instinctively pulled his consciousness back into his body. After repeated attempts, he saw the little girl multiple times!

It's not that the gallery is endless, but that he is trapped in that limited distance!

To verify this conjecture is very simple!

‘Go back!’

Lin Yi's thoughts turned. If he could go back, it meant he had answered correctly. If he couldn't go back, he would continue to solve the problem!

Sure enough, the surrounding environment, which was still slowly changing, directly solidified. Then, the thick fog receded. The speed became faster and faster, until it was like a table of food that was being enjoyed when suddenly someone grabbed the tablecloth and pulled it away.

His perspective became blurred, and then he felt the location of his body.

He looked back and saw his body running and scraping flesh from its bones at the starting point of the rewind.

However, the current body has slowed down a lot, almost no different from standing in place.

With a ‘whoosh’ like a gentle breeze, Lin Yi's consciousness returned, and without saying a word, he immediately ran.

This time, he didn't run for long before he saw the end of the gallery.

[Lin Yi... Lin Yi...]

The call echoed faintly behind him, seemingly unwilling to let him go, but it couldn't change the fact that he was about to escape the gallery.

He held the old kerosene lamp and charged forward, like a school bus with its headlights on in the fog.

The end of the gallery was getting closer and closer, and finally—

‘Boom—’

He rushed out of the gallery!

He glanced at his watch.

3:32.

He remembered entering the gallery at 3:14, which meant it took him 18 minutes to get out of the gallery this time.

And last time, he followed Lao Mo through the gallery in 16 minutes...

The difference of 2 minutes is actually okay.

Lin Yi knew that these two minutes were spent on deciphering the secret纹 to saw off his arm and escaping from ‘My World.’

He glanced at the gallery's sign and ran in the opposite direction.

The road ahead, with the old kerosene lamp by his side, should be smooth sailing. All he had to do was run out of the art building, cross the stone bridge to the observation deck, and then return to the campus via the elevator.

The wind in the corridor was strong, causing the already dim candlelight to flicker on the verge of extinction. Dense fog flowed through the air like fine sand, and where it overlapped, changing light and shadows resembled faces and figures, suddenly staring at Lin Yi.

Moreover, since he appeared, there had been rustling sounds all around...

Obviously, the dog-like nocturnal species were gathering after smelling his scent.

In the shadows of the corridor, countless nocturnal species perched on the walls and ceiling like swarms of bats. They made low growls, staring at Lin Yi with fierce eyes.

Some landed lightly on the ground, sneaking along, carefully following behind Lin Yi, hiding in his shadow, and making rustling sounds.

Lin Yi knew everything. When Lao Mo took him before, it was safe because of the big eyeballs as lanterns. This floor has the old kerosene lamp's light providing a safe state, in order to satisfy the [Ensure you are under at least one source of light when moving] rule in the Art Student Building Rules.

After only a few steps, Lin Yi stopped as if he had sensed something, moved the stone box that was a little uncomfortable against the inside of his thigh, and then continued running.

At the same time, in the shadows behind him, the grinning angels slowly emerged, as always hovering around him, greedily sucking the aura in his body.

And his arm also returned to its original state because he no longer suppressed it.

It is worth mentioning that there were no scars from the secret纹 on the restored arm, but Lin Yi could feel the burning sensation.

He knew that the secret纹 had been engraved there, but it was invisible to the naked eye.

But fortunately, he had already left the gallery, and the ‘Law Weaver’s’ penetration of the layers didn't seem to have exceeded the scope of the gallery.

Continuing along the corridor, Lin Yi quickly saw the faint light of the art building lobby. He was overjoyed and sped up.

‘Whoosh—’

As he approached the art building lobby, the wind tunnel effect began to appear. The strong wind seemed to be raging in the lobby, and some of it was blowing him so hard that he couldn't move.

He knew that this was the last hurdle before reaching the art building lobby.

Based on his experience coming here, this hurdle was not difficult to overcome.

He moved forward against the strong wind. The clothes exposed outside the tattered and ragged school uniform couldn't shield him from much moisture. He was like a person exposed to a spray-type shower, and his body was immediately soaked.

After his body was soaked, a strange feeling appeared. The moisture began to penetrate his skin, like countless flesh-eating ants falling on his skin, slowly gnawing at his skin, and gradually penetrating his flesh and blood. For a time, he was attacked from all sides, and his whole body was itchy and painful.

He gritted his teeth, but had no time to care about his situation.

The sky-blue aura repaired his body, directly counteracting the erosion of the moisture, causing his flesh to be constantly in a state of being decomposed and regenerated... a state of ‘living towards death.’

‘Moisture?’

‘How could there be moisture?!’

His heart skipped a beat, and an ominous premonition enveloped his heart like a strange mist.

‘Damn... could the art building lobby have fallen?’

He quickly rushed towards the art building lobby against the wind pressure of the wind tunnel, like an Inuit struggling through a blizzard.

‘No, please, no!!’

If the art building lobby was breached by the nocturnal species, wouldn't Maozi be in danger?!

And his way back would have a big problem!

He could only hope that the art students could hold on.

The closer he got to the exit of the corridor, the stronger the wind blew, making it difficult for him to walk. His eardrums were swollen by the returning wind, almost bleeding. His face was distorted by the wind, as if the wind didn't want him to reach the lobby.

He raised the old kerosene lamp, and the dim yellow light seemed to cleave through the mist and storm like a giant axe.

He rushed out of the exit and arrived in the art student lobby.

Everything was normal in the art student lobby. There was no wind, no people, and no sign of a major disaster. It was so normal that it felt strange.

‘Not this floor!’ Lin Yi felt a little more at ease. This scene in the art building lobby showed that the art students' rewriting was still in place, so they were still fighting the pollution.

So he resolutely returned to the corridor and walked towards the lobby again.

He had to confront this invasion directly, at least to determine the level of disaster it posed. If it threatened the Russians, he would have to think of a solution.

After all, Mu Daxian wasn't the Russian's bodyguard, and no one in the entire art building's layers would individually take care of them.

His entire dormitory shared the pollution brought about by supernatural powers, so with his current depth of pollution, the Russian was definitely the one receiving the diverted share.

He couldn't imagine what that dog-like, cheap-mouthed Russian would look like after being targeted by hound-like night stalkers and grinning angels, let alone the high probability of encountering the "Lawmaker" near the gallery…

And alleviating the crisis in the art building's lobby could at least effectively reduce the probability of grinning angels appearing in the art building. This was the only thing he could do for the Russian before leaving.

With this thought in mind, he broke through the art students' overwrite and saw the true appearance of the art building's lobby beneath the overwrite!

The broken wound in the dome of the art building's lobby had indeed grown larger, as if it had been smashed by a giant wielding a wolf-tooth club. The huge crack resembled a desperate mouth, open towards the dark sky.

Fierce winds and rain, like surging bullets, poured in madly from the broken area, indiscriminately covering the entire lobby. The artistic chandeliers beneath the dome were wildly swayed by the wind, colliding in the air like fragile toys, making "ding-a-ling" sounds.

Papers flew all over the place with a "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh," like white ghosts struggling desperately, and then were soaked by the rain, sticking to the walls, candlesticks, or the ground, becoming patches of mottled traces.

A large number of grinning angels rampaged and flew around the lobby, absorbing the green aura that permeated from the art students' bodies. Some art students had already begun to show signs of petrification.

In this lobby, ravaged by the storm, despair clung tightly to everyone like a thick black fog. The art students' clothes were already soaked, clinging tightly to their bodies, and their hair was disheveled by the rain, sticking to their pale cheeks in strands, but their eyes still burned with an unyielding flame.

Some art students had their foreheads cut by falling chandelier fragments, and blood mixed with water vapor trickled down their cheeks. Due to the extreme environment, their bodies began to tremble incessantly, and their teeth were chattering, but they still clenched their paintbrushes.

Facing the empty canvas, their whole bodies trembled and shivered, but only the arms gripping the paintbrushes were taut, as if stretched into a bow.

Several girls supported each other and stood up. Their hair was plastered to their faces by the rain, and their bodies had begun to be eroded by the water vapor, but they couldn't care less. Their fingers moved quickly on the virtual canvas, their eyes focused and fervent. Some students with already damaged bodies picked up their drawing boards and guarded them, trying to weaken the impact of the storm for them.

Those art students who had fallen out of the overwrite state, exhausted, but still with strength in their bodies, gathered the scattered drawing boards to reduce the pressure on other students.

Some students gritted their teeth, and in order to fix the drawing board, they moved step by step against the gale, working together to stabilize the wooden board, and used their bodies to resist the constantly pouring wind and rain. Although every muscle in their body was trembling, they did not give up, and their trembling lips seemed to be shouting encouragement not to give up.

These art students, sticking to their positions, under the doomsday-like storm and gray fog, used their actions to interpret the spirit of not giving up, like the candlelight in every corridor of the art building, although weak, they were trying their best to bloom every ray of light on the verge of extinction.

"Rumble——"

Suddenly, a thunderclap sounded, and lightning tore through the night sky. The entire lobby was briefly illuminated into an exposed world outlined by white lines. In that instant, Lin Yi seemed to see the secret patterns carved on the walls, the constantly wriggling fleshy murals, and the "obsession sculptures" in the corners.

The thunder sounded like the drums of doomsday, each sound heavily striking the hearts of the art students. The entire lobby was filled with a dark and depressing atmosphere, supported only by an unyielding will on the verge of collapse.

Once the art students were crushed, endless despair would flood the art building's lobby like a tide!

As the art building's lobby fell, the balance, which had already tilted towards the gray fog invaders, would tilt even further. Once the balance was completely lost, the butterfly effect would blow the gale to the entire world!

[Screech——]

At this moment, the grinning angels' screeching suddenly caught his attention.

Lin Yi also suddenly remembered that he had been so busy rushing and observing the environment of the art building's lobby that he had almost ignored the group of grinning angels hiding in his shadow!

As soon as he left the gallery, these grinning angels had crawled out of his shadow because of the little girl's disappearance, but because he had consumed a lot of energy resisting the venturi effect and the erosion of the rain, he had subconsciously ignored the sucking from these bloodsuckers, and now they were reminding him.

And as the grinning angels called out, all the grinning angels in the art building's lobby noticed this newly appeared Lin Yi. Their floating golden eyes suddenly curved, as if they had seen the most delicious food.

A large number of grinning angels also seemed to have received a signal, appearing in the dark sky outside the dome, and began to cross from the broken window, pouncing towards Lin Yi.

"Good, good, good!"

Faced with such a huge tide of grinning angels, a layer of sweat oozed from Lin Yi's forehead, but his eyes also became fanatical.

If it were somewhere else, he would really just have to wait for death, but don't forget that this is the art building's lobby—the art building's lobby, known as the first line of defense of the art building!

He ran towards the dark corner that even the art students themselves dared not approach—the corridor with a large number of "obsession sculptures".

The art building's lobby is known as the first line of defense of the art building, but it's not just relying on the art students.

After all, there are not many situations where art students can fight. The limit is defending the base against the wind, but now it is already a crystal melee, and the base's blood is also dropping little by little, and it cannot be defended at all.

So what's left depends on the "obsession sculptures" and fleshy murals, but it's a pity that the attack range of the "obsession sculptures" and fleshy murals is really limited. If you don't lure the monsters over, you can only treat them as a passive.

And the art students are not good enough to attract hatred. As Lao Mo said, under the gray fog invasion, king against king, general against general, every bit of the art students' combat resources must be used on the edge, and they even hate to break a combat power into pieces.

In such a situation, it is already not easy to gather a group of art students who can go into battle, after all... more art students are used to fill other areas and intercept fanatics.

And now, Lin Yi himself is undoubtedly the best piece of meat!

As he sprinted, a group of grinning angels followed him.

With disaster looming, Lin Yi's eyes were fanatical. At this moment, he looked like the guy who was frantically running around the dragon's nest wielding a kitchen knife, and even excitedly shouted the classic line in his heart—

"I am—Leeroy Jenkins!!!"