Rules-related weird stories: 4016

"L-Lao Mo...?" Lin Yi's eyes widened, and he looked at Lao Mo in front of him in shock. "Just now...?"

Lao Mo nodded calmly: "You were just having auditory hallucinations, right?"

Lin Yi was greatly shocked: "You know?"

Lao Mo shrugged: "I'm more than familiar with it. It's all the 'same old routine.' You get used to it after seeing it a lot..."

"When any creature crosses the safety boundary, it will sense some special fluctuations due to the differences between the layers. It's normal that you can hear it... But then again, can you tell what that call is coming from?"

"I... I can't tell for a moment." Lin Yi shook his head. Those voices were both strange and familiar, but he couldn't react in time. "What's wrong? Is there something to it?"

Lao Mo patted the pig-slaughtering knife hanging behind his waist: "This is what it is. It doesn't matter if you can't tell. Let's go. This road will be very interesting."

As he spoke, he continued to walk forward. After crossing the safety boundary, the entire surrounding world felt hazy and precarious in Lin Yi's perception, as if he had walked into an underwater tunnel. Looking out through the tunnel's glass, everything in the water was distorted, like swaying seaweed.

Thick mist piled up on the ground like cotton wool. From time to time, the soles of his feet would hear the "rustling" sound of soft sand and fallen leaves. Occasionally, a breeze would blow through, and the leaves would move with difficulty, making a dry, rustling sound.

Speaking of which, Lin Yi suddenly realized that he didn't seem to have encountered any Nightwalkers or Pseudo-human sculptures along the way.

He didn't know if it was like before, where they were all deterred by Lao Mo's aura and didn't dare to invade.

And after passing the safety boundary, if Lin Yi remembered correctly, he should be entering the Barren Land... right?

"Is the 'interesting scenery' that Lao Mo mentioned the Matrix?"

Confusion arose in Lin Yi's heart, but what did that have to do with the Art Building?

"Could it be... that the Barren Land is a certain area on the road to the Art Building?"

He thought of the scene when Lao Mo used a twig to gesture. Could it be that the Barren Land was also one of the branches?

"That's not impossible... Moreover, the Zealots' base camp is also in the Art Building. They must have gone to the Barren Land through the Art Building. If that's the case, it's not unreasonable for Lao Mo to come to the Art Building from that side..."

Thinking of this, Lin Yi felt a little more at ease, keeping his guess to himself and waiting for Lao Mo to reveal the answer.

The two of them moved forward slowly...

And not far from their path, in the weeds shrouded in mist, some wriggling and struggling figures could be faintly seen. These figures were crawling on the ground with difficulty, and their bodies were hardening at a rate visible to the naked eye, eventually turning completely into hard stone.

This scene was extremely abstract, because the night was originally the home of Nightwalkers and Pseudo-humans, but now they were being "killed" in their own territory, and the way they died was even more incomprehensible, as if all the moisture in their bodies had been drained.

May 9, X023, 21:12, outside the "Safety Boundary."

Lin Yi followed Lao Mo forward, but he never encountered a single Pseudo-human, until...

"Crack!"

A crisp sound came from under Lin Yi's feet.

Lin Yi was startled and quickly lowered his head to push away the mist. He saw some broken, pure white fragments and dregs under his feet, as if he had crushed the already broken sculpture fragments even more.

"This is... sculpture fragments?!"

Lao Mo stopped and looked back, glanced at the sculpture fragments, and said calmly: "Yes, let's keep going."

His tone was very calm, without any urging, as if everything was extremely normal to him.

Lin Yi quickly followed: "Lao Mo, how did these fragments appear? Only sculptures that have just died tonight will form fragments, right?"

If they died during the day, they would turn into white powder particles and annihilate once exposed to sunlight.

"Yes," Lao Mo said, "These are all the Pseudo-humans that stood in our way."

"Stood in our way?" Lin Yi was shocked: "Did you take them out?"

Lao Mo's expression was indifferent, seemingly acknowledging Lin Yi's guess.

"But... when did you strike?" Lin Yi couldn't help but look at the pig-slaughtering knife hanging at Lao Mo's waist. "Is there really that kind of invisible killing intent?"

The corner of Lao Mo's mouth twitched fiercely: "Idiot... think again."

Lin Yi shrank his neck and quickly closed his mouth. Then, thinking of something, he tentatively asked: "Could it be... a domain?"

Only then did Lao Mo withdraw his gaze, noncommittally saying: "Something like that."

Lin Yi was immediately in awe. Although he had some guesses in his mind, it was not until Lao Mo confirmed that he also had a domain that he smoothly produced a feeling of "That's right."

Just then, Lao Mo stopped, frowning slightly, and muttered: "Huh, that's strange..."

"What's wrong?" Lin Yi asked softly.

Lao Mo's empty gray eyes swept around, and then he said: "Someone has been here..."

"Here...?" Lin Yi was slightly stunned. Under the shroud of mist, he couldn't see the road ahead clearly, and could only vaguely see overlapping branches and those faintly twisted ancient trees.

"Could it be... that Lao Mo is talking about Kuai Kuai?"

But Lao Mo's words turned the spearhead towards Mountain Man.

"Some of the Pseudo-humans here were not killed by me. It's like someone came here with some equipment containing extraordinary characteristics..."

Lao Mo bent down and reached into the mist that had submerged his calves, picking up a broken Pseudo-human corpse.

This Pseudo-human sculpture was tattered, as if it had been directly smashed by some force.

"Only a sports student has this kind of brute force..." Lao Mo said in confusion, "But... if a sports student came here, it would be impossible to walk out alive."

Lin Yi quickly said: "Could it be that some Contaminated Ones are wearing some specially made armor... I mean, exoskeletons or something?"

He suspected that Mountain Man had done it.

Unexpectedly, Lao Mo actually knew about exoskeletons, and then shook his head: "That's unlikely. Do you know what the core material of an exoskeleton is?"

"I don't know. What is the core material?"

Lao Mo was about to speak, but he didn't know what he thought of, and suddenly stopped.

Lin Yi: "???"

"Why don't you say it?"

"I'm afraid it will affect your appetite," Lao Mo said weakly.

Lin Yi was stunned: "Huh? No... just tell me?"

Old Mo then said, "Let's put it this way... using exoskeleton armor against pseudo-humans is like 'using their own spear against their own shield.' Moreover, under normal circumstances, exoskeleton armor itself cannot inflict fatal injuries on nocturnal species or pseudo-humans."

He flicked the pseudo-human corpse beside him: "And to achieve that... you'd need at least a second-tier physical education student."

"Plus, with the night factor, the conditions become even more difficult..."

Although Old Mo said this, Lin Yi still thought of Mountain Man. He still believed this was Mountain Man's work—if this road really led to the desolate land.

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Otherwise, who else could have done it?

After Old Mo looked at it, he threw it aside like trash, and then continued forward, and the direction of his advance was exactly where the gnarled ancient trees twisted and intertwined!

When Lin Yi followed Old Mo to the end of the ancient trees, as Old Mo pushed aside the tangled branches, a vast and desolate land, just like in the dream, appeared before Lin Yi.

Floating mist, a slightly sunken terrain, a pit at the end, large plaster bodies covering the land...

It really was that desolate land!

Before Lin Yi could recover, Old Mo had already pushed aside the tangled trees and walked out, stepping into the territory of the desolate land without any hesitation.

He didn't bother to conceal himself at all, walking out openly, which surprised some of the zealots closest to him.

"Chef... could it be that he got separated from the group and went to the wrong place?" The zealot glanced at Old Mo, then ignored him and continued to busy himself with the large plaster bodies at hand.

Lin Yi was dumbfounded.

What the hell was going on?

They just took one look and that was it?

Had the zealots become so easy to talk to?

Were they judging people by their appearance?

The most crucial thing was that not only this zealot didn't react, but even the other zealots who noticed Old Mo glanced at him and then looked away, as calm as classmates seeing someone from the next class passing by.

Just as he was dumbfounded, Old Mo started walking on his own. He came to the nearest large plaster body and knocked on it: "Busy?"

The zealot lowered his head and quickened his pace, dipping the solid extraordinary substance in the container and then smearing it on the large plaster body, completely ignoring Old Mo.

However, Lin Yi noticed that the zealot's body seemed to be trembling slightly, as if he had an indescribable... fear of Old Mo?

"Hey?" Old Mo knocked on the large plaster body again, asking several times, but seeing that the zealot didn't react, he frowned, then walked to the zealot's side and lifted him up like he was picking up a chick.

"Stop! Stop!!"

Just then, a hurried voice rang out from the depths of the desolate land.

Before Lin Yi could react, a chill swept over him, and Lin Yi sensed that the mist was surging ahead, and some dark figures were rapidly approaching.

When the mist cleared a little, Lin Yi noticed that the newcomer was still a zealot, but from the perspective of status and position, he seemed to be one of the leaders of this group of zealots.

Beside the zealot leader, there were two people, one on each side. To Lin Yi's surprise, one of them was actually his "acquaintance"—the strange art teacher.

However, she wasn't wearing that professional attire now, but was draped in the zealots' "uniform" dark green robe. If it weren't for the hood being tattered and riddled with holes, he wouldn't have been able to recognize her at a glance.

Seeing the strange art teacher, Lin Yi subconsciously thought of the scene where Mu Daxian removed one of her legs, so his gaze subconsciously fell on her legs...

At this sight, a hint of hidden, slightly appreciative light flashed in Lin Yi's eyes.

Under the tattered cloak skirt of the strange art teacher, her legs, with a complexion that was white with some bluish-gray, were revealed... These two legs were not wearing stockings or high heels, but were just walking barefoot on the sandy soil of the desolate land, somewhat dirty, but seemingly with a different kind of feeling.

Of course, after Lin Yi's careful observation, he could still find some subtle differences between these two legs. At least compared to the left leg, the "original feel" of the right leg was less—her right leg was the one that was removed, then overwritten by Mu Daxian into a large chicken leg, and finally she personally threw her "chicken leg" off the stone bridge.

And now, she had obviously reattached one herself.

「These zealots... indeed cannot be judged by common sense.」

And just like that, an even more bizarre thought emerged in his mind...

Someone like the strange art teacher, who had one leg removed, could actually create another one for herself and still maintain so-called "sanity." If such a case were to spread, would it be misinterpreted by some people with ulterior motives as a "medical miracle"?

Is it possible that some people with diseases that current medical methods cannot cure, after learning that there is a method of "efficient regeneration," would try to become zealots in order to "reborn" in another way?!

This...?!

If only from a one-sided level, apart from those who died on the "glorious evolution" path in the mouths of the pseudo-human art students, those "people" who appeared under the survivor bias seemed to be indeed like this...

At least, they were "surviving" in this way.

Thinking of this, Lin Yi couldn't help but feel a chill, as if a cloud called "philosophical dialectics" had enveloped him...

Just as Lin Yi was about to let his thoughts run wild, the strange art teacher also noticed Lin Yi, especially the look in Lin Yi's eyes that was full of "appreciation."

So she narrowed her eyes slightly, then reached out and lifted the hem of her cloak...

A hint of spring light seemed to dazzle Lin Yi's eyes like the white snow in the spring sun, and his eyebrows twitched subconsciously.

Then, Lin Yi suddenly reacted, his gaze suddenly shifting to the face of the strange art teacher.

Under the tattered cloak, the strange art teacher's face no longer had that creepy smile that stretched to the ears, but only a strange, disgusted expression: "So you like this kind of thing... If I had known this earlier, I might not have let you escape..."