Rules-related weird stories: 4016

It was a little after 4 AM, and the elevator entrance in the teaching building was shrouded in darkness. Without light, the pseudo-human students appeared as statues.

When the light from the old kerosene lamp fell upon them, their illuminated sides began to emit white smoke with a "sizzle," as if they were on a barbecue grill, and they started to transform into pseudo-humans. However, perhaps the light from the old kerosene lamp was too intense for them, as their somewhat "fleshy" bodies immediately began to shed numerous tiny white particles with a "rustling" sound.

At the same time, the pseudo-human statues emitted low, cow-like moans, instinctively shielding their eyes with their hands, hoping to avoid the light in a self-deceiving manner.

They jostled backward, only to be pushed back by the pseudo-human statues behind them, who were unaware of the situation. After a few breaths, they turned into lifeless statues.

The light spread out, instantly clearing a path through the pseudo-human statues around the elevator.

Lin Yi suddenly remembered that in the dream, he had seen those pseudo-human statues leaving the classrooms one after another around 4 AM from Maozi's perspective, lining up and walking down the corridor towards the stairwell. Now, looking at it again, they were actually coming to take the elevator!

"Wait... 4 AM!"

【You must take the elevator and leave the Arts Building before 4 AM, or you'll have to wait until the next day.】

Lao Mo's words also surfaced in his mind.

Does the 4 AM time node correspond to the pseudo-human statues leaving the teaching building?

Lin Yi initially thought that those pseudo-human statues would take the Green Belt path to leave the campus, seeking out the Arts Building, but now it seemed that they would collectively leave via the elevator at 4 AM. Only when they couldn't leave that way would they choose to escape to the Green Belt.

"Not taking the elevator after 4 AM, is it because of this reason?"

"Or... are there more other reasons?"

If it was only this reason, then he could completely get off the elevator at the teaching building. Why did Lao Mo specifically emphasize going to the library?

Could this not be a normal "layer" of the campus?

He seemed to have guessed some of the reasons.

After all, if it were just pseudo-human statues, then he wouldn't have any problems as long as he had the old kerosene lamp. Even without the old kerosene lamp, with his physical strength, he could run parkour in the teaching building with Maozi, like Mu Daxian did, until six o'clock when the sun came out.

"Could it be... related to that concept-level statue?"

As if there was a telepathic connection, just as Lin Yi thought of this, a strange light came from an unknown void, emitting a multicolored glow that transcended ordinary human perception, so dazzling that it made people yearn for it...

Somewhere in the teaching building, a floating orb of light, wandering erratically, suddenly sensed something and floated towards Building B of the teaching building.

Within that orb of light was a blurry figure. Lin Yi's perception could only observe that its shape was the silhouette of a "person." Other than that, it was just emptiness, except that outside its silhouette, there seemed to be some familiar auras floating around—"ashes."

"It's it... the concept-level statue!!"

Sensing the approach of the concept-level statue, Lin Yi, relying on muscle memory, groped for the button panel and frantically pressed the only button—the "↓" key.

Finally, just as that hazy orb of light was about to appear in front of the elevator, the elevator trembled slightly and then closed with a series of "clangs."

The elevator slowly started moving.

Sensing the departure of the elevator, Lin Yi breathed a long sigh of relief and slumped to the ground.

It had been a long time since he had experienced such a rapid life-or-death situation, drenched in sweat.

The oppressive feeling that the concept-level statue gave him had not diminished at all due to his increased understanding. On the contrary, after returning from the Arts Building layer, because his understanding had deepened, his perception of the concept-level statue had also deepened.

Its terror was restrained. The orb of light and that multicolored glow were just its self-protection. It lurked in the campus, seemingly with an unknown purpose.

"Wait..." Lin Yi suddenly paused. "That orb of light... is the concept-level statue?"

"Doesn't that mean that what Mu Daxian looked at with such fanatical expression, even willing to die for a glance, was this concept-level statue?"

"And then..." Lin Yi rested while quickly thinking. "The one who expelled the concept-level statue was the so-called convenience store owner who disappeared and then returned...?"

Everything seemed to fit together!

But Lin Yi always felt that something was missing here.

The convenience store owner seemed to have returned on the morning of May 8th, but this concept-level statue was already wandering around the campus on the evening of May 6th...

That's right!

It's "ashes!"

This concept-level statue was stained with "ashes!"

And "ashes"... that's something only "angels" have!

"It's because the 'ashes' are from 'angels' that the teacher initially thought it was an 'angel'!"

It was evident that homeroom teacher -039 must have established relevant knowledge during her official training. That's why she could confirm the other party's "identity."

"Then the question comes... according to the teacher's tone, she was also fighting on the evening of the 6th, and the concept-level statue entered the classroom because she didn't stop it..."

"How could she stop it?"

It wasn't that Lin Yi looked down on homeroom teacher -039, but that thing was only expelled when the convenience store owner came. With the authority of the "homeroom teacher" level, how could she do it?

Moreover, it seemed that the security guard also took it out of the classroom before...?"

Lin Yi was a little confused. The combat power of this concept-level statue seemed to be a mystery. Could it be a reverse Sha Wujing, with its combat power being a mystery, becoming weaker when facing the weak?

"Perhaps it's not reflected in direct combat power... perhaps the pollution it carries is of a very high level?"

That was possible. After all, it was "ashes." Even the boss would have a hard time with it, let alone others.

Looking at it this way, homeroom teacher -039 was very likely polluted by the ashes. The food sent by the cafeteria was not the root cause.

The elevator continued to run, and Lin Yi continued to think.

He thought that perhaps the existence of that concept-level statue was the reason why Lao Mo didn't want him to appear in the teaching building.

That thing was much harder to deal with than the Smiling Angel. If he were targeted by it, shouting precepts with a zhenjin mouth until he was hoarse might not be of any use.

The female dormitory administrator looked at the elevator door with lingering fear, gently patted her chest, and exhaled a breath: "Scared me... it's so scary every time... the teaching building is really dangerous at night..."

She secretly glanced at Lin Yi and found that he was also drenched in sweat, which made her feel much more psychologically balanced.

"Senior, are you soft?"

“Cough…” Lin Yi steadied himself against the elevator wall and corrected, “Strictly speaking, I'm just a little tired, so I'm taking a break. Damn it, good thing I slammed the elevator shut, or we'd both be screwed if that thing got in.”

“What thing?” the female dorm manager asked, slightly taken aback.

“That ball of light, didn't you see it?” Lin Yi retorted.

The female dorm manager's expression changed: “Senior… you, you looked outside just now?”

“Huh…?” Lin Yi paused, realizing something was wrong. There seemed to be a rule about this. Could it be that the Dorm Manager's Regulations stipulated that you had to do that while staying in the teaching building, and that you weren't allowed to look outside?

To protect one's cognition, that was entirely possible.

But the dorm managers were already like that, did they still need to protect their cognition?

Lin Yi thought briefly, then spoke off the cuff: “Don't panic. My senior told me that once I understood the underlying logic of the regulations, I could be flexible to a certain extent. You haven't reached that level yet, you still need to work hard!”

“Oh…” The female dorm manager opened her mouth, then muttered softly, “I don't want to be a dorm manager, I must leave the campus…”

“Keep it up, you can definitely do it,” Lin Yi said.

The female dorm manager pursed her lips and didn't speak. She actually already knew whether it was possible or not, but she was just unwilling to accept it.

After a period of silence, the elevator began to slow down again.

As the elevator came to a stop, Lin Yi quickly locked his eyes on the floor display, his heart gradually becoming tense.

Please, don't let anything else go wrong…

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「Ding!」

A sound rang out, and words appeared on the floor display:

「Library - 1F」

「The library's here!」 Lin Yi's eyes lit up. He quickly took out the dorm manager's badge from his pocket and threw it away. At the same time, he grabbed his student ID card in his hand, and his other hand reached towards his face. The sky-blue aura surged, quickly evaporating and overwriting his appearance with that milky white gel-like substance of 「Dorm Manager - 0X0221119003」.

「I am Lin Yi, my student ID is X0230506098, I have arrived at the library by elevator…」

「I am Lin Yi, my student ID is…」

He repeatedly anchored his identity in his mind. The gel-like substance on his face quickly solidified, then turned into powder and fell off with a "shua shua shua" sound, as if he was rubbing off a large amount of dead skin from his face.

And his appearance also returned to his own.

He knew the time was short, so he wiped it off quickly.

The female dorm manager was frightened by Lin Yi's actions, looking at this senior who had suddenly behaved strangely with extreme horror. As soon as the elevator door opened, she quickly led the boy out of the elevator.

Lin Yi wiped for a while, and only when the elevator started to close did he throw the old kerosene lamp into the corner of the elevator, disregarding that he still had some white gel-like substance that hadn't been completely removed, then rushed out with his backpack in a fish-like leap.

As soon as he rushed out, the elevator door closed.

Lin Yi glanced at the elevator behind him, only to see a sign next to the elevator that read: 「Library - Forbidden - 056」

He stared at the word "Forbidden," his brow furrowed, lost in thought.

He got up from the ground, then took off his tattered sneakers, from which his toes could poke out, and took out the clean sneakers from his backpack and put them on.

These sneakers were what Wei Liang had specifically told him to put in on the morning of the 9th. Unexpectedly, they finally came in handy at this time.

“Oh!” Lin Yi was pleasantly surprised, almost forgetting that there was also food and water in this backpack.

He quickly took out a roll of bread and a bottle of water, then put the backpack on, and also moved Lao Mo's bag, which had been placed in front of him, to his back.

He ate while looking at the environment of the library.

However, he only glanced out, and his whole person was directly stunned in place.

“This… is this the technology that this era should have?!”

What was now in front of Lin Yi was a science fiction creation that far surpassed his understanding of current technology!

This was a building that only existed in science fiction films, much like the kind that the protagonist saw in the Murphy space station when he returned in "Interstellar."

What was presented in front of him was a super-huge curved building. Countless bookshelves grew on the curved surface like hair, each bearing gravity from different directions but all perpendicular to the ground below.

He was like an ant, entering the inside of a giant sphere covered with bookshelves. If he walked straight ahead, he could walk to the bookshelf area above his head!

On this curved surface, no, spherical building, there were also many circular hollows. Through the hollows, Lin Yi saw the world below, and that lower layer… was actually a similar situation to this layer.

And at that hollow, there were actually… stairs!

At this moment, the long-lost content of the Student Regulations appeared in his mind:

【You can only use the stairs to go up and down the teaching building, and you can only take the elevator in the library. If you see an elevator in the teaching building or stairs in the library, please pretend you didn't see them, even if you see a classmate using them.】

【When a classmate invites you to take the elevator in the teaching building, or persuades you to take the stairs in the library, please ignore them and immediately stay away from them, they are not your classmates.】

In the Student Regulations, the overview of the library was as simple as only one sentence: "You can only take the elevator in the library," but unexpectedly, the library was actually like this!

He suddenly felt that the Student Regulations were more reasonable than ever, but it turned out that a simple sentence, when reflected in the actual situation, was so absurd and bizarre.

Who would have thought that the floors of this library would be concentric circles, one layer nested inside another?

This was simply a multi-layered ivory ball!

What was outrageous was that in this "multi-layered ivory ball," the gravity distribution of each layer was so uniform and unbelievable.

This was not the level of technology that X023 should have!

Before, Lin Yi felt that the exoskeleton armor was a bit outrageous, but now that he saw this library, he suddenly felt that the exoskeleton armor was just child's play.

「How… how was this built?」

Lin Yi was stunned by the shock, but compared to the scene of being invaded by the weirdness in his heart when he saw the Art Building, he now felt more shock in his heart, as if he had traveled into a science fiction movie.

There was no fear, and the cognition was not collapsing. Could it be that the boy's romance for science fiction diluted the weirdness brought about by the unreasonableness?

Lin Yi didn't know, but at least he didn't feel weird.

Just then, a scream interrupted his initial understanding and observation of the library environment.

“Ah—”