Rules-related weird stories: 4016

Chapter 230: "Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell" Plan

Mu Daxian, with his back to Mao Feiyang, turned half his face upon hearing this and sneered, "That's why I said… you are the key to this second step!"

"Hiss…" Mao Feiyang gasped inwardly, "Brother Xian, why do I feel like I'm in a situation where I'll have nine deaths and only one chance of survival…?"

"'Nine deaths and one chance of survival'?" Mu Daxian pondered for a moment, "Nine Smiling Angels want to kill you, and you only have a chance to survive if you listen carefully to what I say… Tsk, it really is 'nine deaths and one chance of survival'. You're quite aware of the situation!"

"Brother Xian, stop joking around at a time like this. Please get to the point quickly," Mao Feiyang was on the verge of tears.

Mu Daxian, having completed his masterpiece, seemed much more relaxed, forming a stark contrast to Mao Feiyang's nervousness.

"Don't panic, listen to me."

"The Smiling Angels' target, from beginning to end, is you. So, I'll create a 'Fake Person - Mao Feiyang' and personally deliver it to the Smiling Angels, attracting their attacks. Then, we'll take the opportunity to leave the teaching building via the elevator and return to the art building."

"From now on, I'll use your identity credentials to anchor it as you. Only if it believes it is you can our plan succeed."

"If it becomes me, then who am I?" Mao Feiyang realized the key issue.

Mu Daxian narrowed his eyes and said with utmost seriousness, "Therefore, this is the crux of the matter."

"You must listen carefully to every word I say from now on. You won't have any margin for error!"

Mao Feiyang's expression immediately became solemn.

"Brother Xian, tell me, I'm listening."

Mu Daxian nodded slightly, "First, you need to hand over your student commemorative coin, but don't rush, not now."

"Oh…"

"We need to make the fake version of you completely replace your identity, so we need two things." Mu Daxian held up two fingers, looking like he was making a peace sign, but Mao Feiyang couldn't smile at all.

"First, identity credentials, which is the student commemorative coin with your art student number."

"Second, unwavering self-awareness."

"Third, unique characteristics of your aura."

"That sounds complicated…" Mao Feiyang muttered.

"Of course, it's not simple," Mu Daxian said, "If it were easy to do, I wouldn't go to so much trouble."

"What I just said was the principle of anchoring it as you. Next is the implementation focus of the entire plan. We'll talk as we implement it."

As Mu Daxian spoke, he took out a blank student commemorative coin from his cloth bag, and then took out a mini carving knife from his pants pocket, and began to carve Mao Feiyang's art student number on the student commemorative coin.

Lin Yi opened his eyes wide. He had seen the art teacher carving art student numbers in the previous dream, but he didn't expect Mu Daxian to have this ability as well.

He glanced at Mao Feiyang's face and found that there wasn't much surprise on his face.

He was slightly stunned, and then he understood—his dreams were disjointed, skipping some segments.

Judging from the fact that Maozi already had a student commemorative coin engraved with his name, Maozi should have already witnessed Mu Daxian's methods once.

After Mu Daxian finished carving, he threw the student commemorative coin to Mao Feiyang: "You take this one, and give the one you had before to the fake version of you."

"Oh…" Mao Feiyang did as he was told and handed over the previous student commemorative coin.

"Don't give it to him now, I'll give it to him later," Mu Daxian took Mao Feiyang's student commemorative coin and continued, "When the student commemorative coin is handed to it, it is 'Mao Feiyang', not Fake Person Mao Feiyang, but 'Mao Feiyang', do you understand?"

"Then what about me?" Mao Feiyang pointed to himself.

Mu Daxian pointed to the dark green art student uniform on the ground: "You put on their clothes and carry my drawing board."

"Later, we'll first agree on a code, and then from the moment I go to wake up the fake version of you, until we take the elevator back to the observation deck of the art building, and I repeat that code, you can regain the identity of 'Mao Feiyang' and can communicate with me, understand?"

"Throughout the entire process, you only need to hold your student commemorative coin tightly, and treat yourself as an ordinary art student who came to the campus with me."

"No matter what happens, just follow me. And, throughout the entire process, all my communication with 'Mao Feiyang' is not talking to you."

"How is it, do you understand the steps?"

Mu Daxian stared at Mao Feiyang with burning eyes.

Mao Feiyang recalled the steps and then nodded: "Understood."

Mu Daxian finally breathed a sigh of relief and then said: "The charged streetlights will automatically light up at 18:00, but we need to wait here until nearly midnight, or until He appears, before leaving…"

"The light from the discarded light bulbs will affect the Smiling Angels' judgment, coupled with the fake version of you, we are enough to deceive and escape. Throughout the entire process, the most difficult thing is not acting according to the plan, but you being psychologically prepared to fight loneliness, and believing that even if the Smiling Angels are by your side, they will not attack you."

"Moreover, no matter what the fake version of you becomes, don't empathize. Once you resonate with the fake self, then the fake becomes real, and I don't have the ability to pull you back in front of the Smiling Angels."

"Okay, Brother Xian, I… know… it…" The originally normal Mao Feiyang suddenly slowed down when he said this, as if he had eaten a slow beam.

Lin Yi initially thought something had happened to Mao Feiyang, but he immediately realized that it wasn't a human issue, but… a vision problem, or rather, a dream problem.

The entire dream, when it came to this point, suddenly became slow, even the surrounding flowing mist seemed to slow down…

"Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang…"

Lin Yi suddenly heard a noisy sound in his ears, like someone in a tunnel, a train chain passing by, the sound of steel rails clanging…

Immediately afterward, he found that the vision in front of him began to flicker and skip frames, and the entire world seemed to be accelerating like a slideshow…

"Start the operation… let's call it the 'Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell' plan, the code is…" In a flickering fragment, Mu Daxian said, "I say 'Lin Daiyu uproots the weeping willow', you say 'Zhang Fei cross-dresses and rivals Xi Shi'."

"Brother Xian, isn't your code a bit…heavy…?"

"Clang, clang, clang…"

Fragment flashes.

Mu Daxian had already come to the side of the fake Mao Feiyang, and beside him was Mao Feiyang, who had already put on the dark green art student uniform.

"Wake up, Little Mao, you'll catch a cold if you fall asleep here…"

The fake Mao Feiyang woke up groggily after being shaken, and said dizzyly while touching his head: "You are… I am… this… I…"

"Little Mao, you were attacked by the Smiling Angels yesterday, and we escaped with nine deaths and one life, have you forgotten?"

"Oh dear, look, you've lost your student commemorative coin again. How many times have I told you? You can't just丢了 this thing anywhere. Even if someone doesn't pick it up, it's not good to lose it in the bushes..."

"Oh dear, look at you, still confused. Let's hurry back, it's getting late!"

Mu Daxian stuffed the student commemorative coin into the hand of the simulacrum Mao Feiyang. Originally confused, its eyes lit up when it grabbed the student commemorative coin, instinctively clutching it tightly in its hand. Then, it looked at the number and began to mutter...

"I am Mao Feiyang, my art student number is 'Moon-X02305070323'..."

"That's right, that's right... I seem to remember... I am Mao Feiyang..."

"Then who are you...?"

"I'm your Brother Xian!" Mu Daxian winked, spouting nonsense. Apart from the words used to overwrite the simulacrum Mao Feiyang's cognition, every sentence was half true, half false. "I taught you how to draw tomatoes in sketching class, and how to sculpt beautiful partial human figures in sculpture class!"

"Tomatoes... sculpture..." The simulacrum Mao Feiyang looked dazed, as if these keywords had awakened some elements...

Mu Daxian continued, "Once you didn't bring a pen to class, and I helped you steal Old Du's, which resulted in Old Du smashing your nose flat. Remember?"

"I seem... to remember something..."

The newest novels are first published on 69shu.com!

"Alright, alright, enough dawdling, let's go, let's go! Time waits for no one!"

He carried a cloth bag and familiarly pulled the simulacrum Mao Feiyang down the green belt.

The real Mao Feiyang quickly lowered his head and followed.

Watching their backs, Lin Yi's vision flickered again...

"Clang clang clang -- clang clang clang --"

As his vision jumped, he seemed to sense something. He turned his head and directly saw the face of a half-real, half-illusory grinning angel...

"Clang clang clang clang clang..."

Before he could be shocked, the wind was already howling in his ears, and his vision began to flicker rapidly. The outline of the grinning angel became more and more solid!

Immediately after, this grinning angel flickered like a ghost, chasing after Mu Daxian and his group in the direction they left...

"The grinning angel appeared?! Is it almost midnight now?" Lin Yi was shocked. Did that vision flicker just now "fast forward" so much?

"Clang clang clang clang clang..."

The vision continued to flicker. He seemed to see bursts of mist surging out of the depths of the dense forest like a flood from a burst dam, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, like a videotape with a scrambled playback speed...

"Shasha shasha... shasha shasha..."

In the depths of the gray mist, there seemed to be a huge shadow, like the outline of some huge and slender ancient creature...

"Clang clang clang clang clang..."

Lin Yi's vision changed drastically again, but this time the sound of the wind finally stabilized somewhat...

After his vision recovered, he found Mu Daxian leading the simulacrum Mao Feiyang through the teaching building, with Mao Feiyang following closely behind.

"Already heading to the elevator! It seems the timing is right!" Lin Yi thought to himself, thinking that this point was almost some moment close to 0 o'clock.

"Wait, doesn't that mean...? !"

He suddenly thought of something and subconsciously looked towards the dormitory building...

"This point is tonight! That is to say, I am actually traveling back in a dream to some moment before the dormitory building lights out..."

"'Time'!"

"Putting aside dreams and reality, the 'me' now and the 'me' who is actually sleeping in the dormitory, in fact... there is only a time difference between them!"

A strange thought popped into Lin Yi's mind—if his perspective could break away from Mao Zi and return to the dormitory building, what would he see?

If he couldn't distinguish between dream and reality, would it cause him to get lost in the dream, and then his body would sleep indefinitely...?

Just as this thought emerged, Lin Yi was pulled back by Mu Daxian's voice.

"Xiao Mao, don't look around, we're almost at the elevator. You must hold onto the student commemorative coin tightly, don't lose it!"

Mu Daxian earnestly reminded the simulacrum Mao Feiyang, actually speaking with a double meaning, also reminding Mao Feiyang, who was wearing a dark green art student uniform and covering his face with a hood.

"Poof... hiss!"

Affected by it, the corridor lights in the teaching building flickered from time to time.

In the alternating light and shadow, the grinning angel floated around Mu Daxian and the other two like a ghost.

Strangely, so far, they had only attracted two grinning angels, one of which happened to be the one that floated out from the green belt at the beginning.

"Today, they only attracted two grinning angels?" Thinking of the nine grinning angels plus two student commemorative coins last night, and looking at the present, Lin Yi suddenly felt that the situation was much better...

"Perhaps it's because Mao Zi's arm is no longer bleeding today, so it no longer attracts grinning angels?"

"Then this is good news!"

Lin Yi didn't notice, however, that Mao Feiyang's arm being healed by Old Mo was one thing, but the more crucial point was that Mu Daxian had opened a gap in the cloth bag. The orange-colored light gushed out from the gap like golden brilliance, forming a field comparable to the illumination range of a street lamp.

Under the background of the corridor lights, this field was not obvious, but when the lights flickered, this field seemed particularly clear, as if an extra layer of Xuan paper had been laid.

Affected by the lights, the outline of the grinning angel was not so clear when the light and shadow alternated. The unique coldness, weirdness, and persistent blood-sucking characteristics that belonged to them were also diluted somewhat.

Mu Daxian constantly guided the simulacrum Mao Feiyang forward through language, while he fell half a step behind, silently shrinking behind it, and Mao Feiyang followed at the very back.

Around them, two grinning angels hovered around the simulacrum Mao Feiyang. Their faces, which were indistinguishable whether they were petrified or just had that skin texture, were full of enjoyment and joy. They closed their eyes, raised their eyebrows, like two mountain gods and ghosts who were absorbing the fireworks of the world, floating and lingering...

"Da da da da..."

In the quiet corridor, only the sound of hurried footsteps remained. Mu Daxian and Mao Feiyang didn't dare to breathe, just invisibly pushing the simulacrum Mao Feiyang forward, adding a strange dynamic picture to the silent scene...

Passing the corner of the corridor, the elevator room and the bathroom were in the somewhat dim corner ahead.

But at this moment, Mao Feiyang seemed to be attracted by some kind of aura, or as if he had suddenly received some kind of call, a strange feeling suddenly arose in his heart, and then he looked towards the direction of the bathroom as if possessed...

Thank you to book friend "usjdnshhs" for the reward!!

A little extra update, not reaching the first charging tier, so it's free, just consider it a gift to everyone~