Rules-related weird stories: 4016

“No,” Lao Mo shook his head. “The ‘Apostles’ speculate that Van Gogh didn’t ‘leave something at the coordinates,’ but rather ‘used these coordinates to locate something.’ The ‘Apostles’ firmly believe that it might be the coordinates of ‘His’ location, or the location of the ‘Source’ in the ocean.”

“Over the years, no one has deciphered it. Everyone who has delved into ‘The Starry Night’ has become a fanatical believer. Therefore, ‘The Starry Night’ has become one of the most contaminating representative works.”

“Someone even went to study ‘The Starry Night’ with an old kerosene lamp…”

Lin Yi pressed on, asking, “What was the outcome?”

“The outcome was… the lamp went out, and he was still there,” Lao Mo said. “’The Starry Night’ doesn't harm people, but no one can resist the contamination suffered during in-depth research.”

“The observatory was therefore closed, and ‘The Starry Night’ has never been exhibited since.”

“However, Van Gogh had anticipated this, so he left behind a normal-sized ‘Starry Night,’ allowing it to circulate… It’s like throwing out a copy of a treasure map.”

Lin Yi asked, “Does that painting, ‘The Starry Night’… have the same effect?”

“Of course not, otherwise how could it be allowed to circulate… The contamination characteristic carried by a ‘Starry Night’ is enough to transform an area into a ‘Dark Zone.’ No one would dare to take that risk…”

“That painting, some people call it ‘Starry Sky,’ while others retain the name ‘The Starry Night.’ It doesn't possess any transcendent characteristics, but the ‘charm’ it contains is enough for people to study.”

“Some people who feel a connection to it will specifically run to find the original.”

“Of course, only a small number of people who have passed the official assessment are qualified to view ‘The Starry Night.’”

Lin Yi looked at Lao Mo, asking curiously, “Have you seen it?”

Lao Mo shook his head: “I haven’t seen it.”

Although Lin Yi felt it was normal whether Lao Mo had seen ‘The Starry Night’ or not, he still felt a little regretful when he heard Lao Mo say he hadn’t seen it.

Even Lao Mo hadn't seen it, so it seemed that seeing 'The Starry Night' was really not an easy thing.

Lin Yi curiously observed the surrounding environment. These vortexes, one after another, looked extremely interesting, as if they had permeated space.

After walking for a while, Lin Yi noticed that the surrounding vortexes seemed to have become looser, and the tightly intertwined lines had also become looser.

He understood that these vortexes were gradually returning to that twisted appearance. In other words, he was “rising” in the layers, returning from that bizarre world to a relatively normal layer…

He glanced at his watch, trying to check the time, but found that the hands on the watch were constantly swinging between the 15th and 16th seconds of 22:48…

「What's going on… Why isn't the watch working?」

As soon as he thought of the "accurate timekeeping" he had boasted about to Lao Mo just a moment ago, he felt a burning pain on his face. Fortunately, Lao Mo didn't notice his situation at all and was still concentrating on moving forward.

This process lasted for a while, and then the watch resumed its timekeeping, but Lin Yi always felt that a few minutes seemed to have been "stuck" here for some reason.

May 9, X023, 22:52, Lin Yi was again surrounded by irregularly wriggling ancient trees like seaweed and dense fog. The scene of the 'Bone Forest' was no longer visible, leaving only an environment similar to the misty forest near the barren land.

Lao Mo's voice came from ahead: “Keep this pace, we're almost there!”

“Okay!” Lin Yi quickly responded.

Soon, the twisted environment around gradually returned to normal, but the ground beneath his feet became inconsistent with his stride frequency again.

Lin Yi was secretly startled. Just then, Lao Mo's guidance sounded in time: “Don't panic, this is a normal phenomenon, just like an airplane putting down its landing gear when landing to adapt to the runway. It will pass quickly. Even if you're not used to it, it's okay, just wait a moment.”

Lin Yi immediately calmed down when he heard this. After all, as a loser with a wealth of dark crawling experience on twisted roads, it was easy to adapt to this change.

The reason he was startled at first was because he thought there was a new problem again.

After walking for a few more minutes, the twisting sensation on the road also disappeared, and the surrounding dense forest returned to that intertwined appearance of tangled branches and roots.

Lin Yi began to feel some loose feedback under his feet. He found that the fog in the dense forest seemed to have become particularly thin, leaving only some ankle-deep fog floating on the ground, like a stage filled with dry ice.

「Whoosh… Whoosh…」

Some sounds of wind blowing and the "crashing" sound of waves pushing towards the shore faintly came from the front of the road.

Lin Yi said in surprise: "Are we going out?"

Lao Mo nodded: "Yes… It's been relatively smooth."

Lin Yi couldn't help but smile when he heard this, but Lao Mo immediately poured cold water on him: "Don't be too happy… The real business is next."

Lin Yi immediately understood. At this time, the Art Building should be under attack by Nightwalkers and Grinning Angels, and the Art Building itself is the closest building to the Source in the entire campus.

As the sea breeze and the sound of waves increased, a white spot of light faintly appeared in front of Lin Yi.

He had seen this spot of light in several visual hallucinations. He knew that it was the exit of this dense forest.

Under the leadership of Lao Mo, they got closer and closer to the white light…

Finally, they rushed into the white light!

「Boom—」

At the moment of passing through the white light, Lin Yi's vision and hearing were impacted to a certain extent. His vision was filled with a dazzling white light, and he heard a sharp, piercing sound that made his hair stand on end, like falling into another world.

Fortunately, this discomfort quickly disappeared, and his vision and hearing began to recover quickly.

While his vision was still blurry, his cheeks felt gusts of salty and humid sea breeze on his face, and his ears heard the sound of waves crashing on the rocks one after another.

「Splash—Bang!!」

「Splash—Bang!!」

「Splash—」

His blurry vision quickly cleared up, and he found that his location was somewhere on the coastline.

Behind him was a dense forest, and in front of him was another gloomy and depressing terrifying picture.

The sky was like a thick cotton quilt filled with water, heavily pressing on the coastline. Dark clouds piled up like mountains, crowding and rolling, filling the entire sky, and there was also a tendency to spread towards the horizon, as if wrapping the entire world tightly.

In the depths of the clouds, there were a few faint, almost imperceptible rays of light, pale like a light erasure on a drawing board filled with charcoal powder.

The entire coastline presented a stern and rugged appearance, with jagged reefs abruptly emerging from the sea, their dark brown surfaces covered with traces of time's erosion, uneven and pitted, like the wrinkles on the face of a weathered old man.

Some white sea salt crystals remained on the reefs, shimmering in the faint light, like frost flowers congealed on withered branches on a winter morning.

On the beach, a stretch of gray sand, the grains coarse and cold, was swept by the sea breeze, forming irregular patterns like cracks in the earth, some unrecognizable seaweed or plant matter, mixed with the remains of unknown creatures, washed ashore by the waves, lying wetly on the sand, emitting a salty, fishy, and decaying odor.

The black ocean seemed to be boiling, churning up wave after wave, surging towards the shore, each wave carrying immense power, crashing against the reefs and the beach with what seemed like venting rage, emitting a dull roar, as if it was the ocean's fury.

White foam rolled and broke on the crests of the waves, then was quickly swallowed by new waves.

The sea breeze howled past, like a sharp knife cutting across the face, bringing a piercing cold, the wind mixed with fine rain, these raindrops were cold and damp, hitting the body and instantly penetrating clothing, making one feel a chill that went deep into the bone marrow.

However, after looking around, Lin Yi still couldn't see the Arts Building.

“Where is the Arts Building?” He couldn't help but ask, looking at Lao Mo, who was not far from him.

Lao Mo's already unpleasant expression turned even worse: "There have been some deviations, we haven't arrived near the Arts Building."

“Ah? What do we do then?” Lin Yi asked anxiously.

“The storm must have affected the stability of the layer port, coupled with some other factors, causing our exit to deviate… It seems the situation over there is more unfavorable than I thought…”

“Then…”

Lao Mo waved his hand: “Don't speak yet, let me 'lock' the location… then we'll go straight in.”

After Lao Mo finished speaking, he fell silent.

‘Go straight in?’

Lin Yi's heart skipped a beat, and then he noticed that Lao Mo seemed to be focusing his attention on a certain part of the coastline.

‘Huh, there…!!’

In that direction, the celestial phenomena seemed to be different from here!

«Poof~»

A cluster of golden firelight emerged in Lin Yi's eyes, and then his vision rapidly zoomed in on that direction on the coastline, as if a magnifying glass had been applied…

Soon, he saw a huge and terrifying storm!

The dark clouds in the sky, like enraged beasts, surged in with overwhelming force, squeezing and colliding with each other, emitting a low roar, the heavy color as if black soil had been piled up in the high sky, constantly pushing forward.

In the clouds, lightning bolts darted wildly like sharp blades, and deafening thunder rumbled through the heavens and earth.

Each thunderclap tore the dark clouds into countless fragments, the white light illuminating the earth, turning the nearby world into a brief, pure white.

In that pure white world, a cliff that was taller than the coastline was particularly eye-catching, and even more eye-catching was the castle standing on the cliff, piercing through the dark clouds like a sharp blade…!

‘Arts Building!!’ Lin Yi's pupils contracted violently.

“Lao Mo!!!” He suddenly came back to his senses, the magnified view shattered directly, “The Arts Building is over there!!”

At this moment, Lao Mo was firmly locking onto that direction, but was unable to completely determine whether the Arts Building was there due to the storm. Hearing Lin Yi's call, a hint of surprise appeared in his eyes.

“Are you sure…?” Lao Mo couldn't help but ask.

Lin Yi nodded vigorously: “Absolutely, I saw it!”

“You… saw it?” This was the first time Lao Mo was stunned, he looked at Lin Yi strangely, “You mean… you can see through that storm?”

“Yeah…” Lin Yi was a little unsure at first, but immediately felt certain about what he had “personally seen,” “I saw it, a castle, and an observation deck, isn't that the Arts Building?”

Lao Mo was shocked, but he restrained himself from showing too much on his face, and simply said calmly: “I understand what the boss meant a little, if it were me, I wouldn't want you to take risks with me either…”

“Huh?” Lao Mo's sudden change in attitude made Lin Yi confused. What was so surprising about seeing the Arts Building?

Besides, wasn't it Lao Mo who observed it first?

Lin Yi didn't know that even if Lao Mo had 70% confidence that it was the Arts Building, he wouldn't dare to bet on the 30% possibility that it wasn't.

“Since that's the case, let's go.” Lao Mo believed Lin Yi's words, “Come to my side!”

“Oh, coming!” Lin Yi didn't understand what Lao Mo meant, but he did as he was told.

Because in his mind, the distance was so far that the day lilies would be cold by the time they arrived, Lao Mo must have some special means of travel, otherwise it definitely wouldn't work.

However, Lao Mo didn't rush to leave, but instead took out the scale and crushed it in his hand.

After the scale was crushed, it didn't turn into countless fragments as Lin Yi had imagined, but instead the surface was damaged like xylitol, but inside there was a layer of soft, highly flexible milky white gelatinous substance.

Lao Mo began to tinker with the scale like an artist pulling maltose, and said: “Give me your scale too, let's squeeze out the remaining value.”

Lin Yi was originally a little anxious, but when he saw Lao Mo's strange calmness, he couldn't help but ask suspiciously: “Lao Mo, aren't we leaving yet?”

“Now that we're sure, there's no need to be so anxious. There will be gaps in the storm, and we'll go over then.” Lao Mo added, “Originally, I could only wait for the gap to appear to have a chance to peek at the internal situation, and then have a chance to decide whether to leave, but now… there's no need to be so troublesome.”

“I'll get you some life-saving things first.” As Lao Mo said, he began to smear the maltose-like substance on Lin Yi's face…