Rules-related weird stories: 4016

On those dining tables, some food scraps seemed to remain, but upon closer inspection, those scraps appeared to be wriggling and twisting, like snake meat that had just had its head removed and skin peeled off, still twitching due to nerve signals.

In some soup-like leftovers, green fluff floated, the overall color presenting a murky gray, with some black flocculent matter floating on the surface, as if something were rotting inside.

At the end of the cafeteria, the always-closed window of the food service area was now open, ajar.

Through that door, one could seemingly see even more bizarre scenes, such as a ghostly green light like that of the underworld, dark red viscous liquid flowing on the floor, wriggling and crawling pieces of minced meat, and the occasional sound of iron chains clanging in the wind…

In the thick and viscous darkness, something seemed to be struggling desperately, trying to break free.

Lin Yi stood in the middle of the cafeteria, still able to feel as if countless eyes were watching him in the darkness. All the entities queuing in the shadows were looking at him, but when he scanned his surroundings, those entities seemed as if they had never moved, rigidly standing in line.

A large number of entities were queuing in the unlit areas, with only a small number of people queuing in the lit areas. They kept their heads down and remained silent, simply following the queue forward, hoping to get their food sooner.

These people exuded an aura of fear. Lin Yi knew that these people were the "original" test subjects, easily consumed materials on campus—living college students (testers).

When he joined the queue, no one lined up behind him. The queue he was in seemed to be blocked, and all the students who later entered the student cafeteria lined up at the "only" food service window—Window No. 4.

He realized this, but he didn't stop it. He just continued to look around boldly, observing everything in the cafeteria, watching the various changes that were taking place.

For him, this student cafeteria really seemed to have new changes every time he came.

He turned his gaze to the dark and shadowy area where no one was, the area that the 'Cafeteria Rules' explicitly prohibited going to, and also the area where he felt a strong sense of suffocation when he observed it last time.

Now that his will and body had been comprehensively improved, he felt that he could try to observe that area again.

Of course, the only problem was that he was alone now. If he did something wrong, no one would be there to back him up.

Therefore, he would just take a look and stop there.

He carefully released his perception, and invisible ripples spread out like ripples, extending towards the dark area.

«Whoosh…»

As soon as his perceptive tentacles probed into the shadowy area, a hollow and eerie whooshing sound appeared in his mind…

The next moment, a faint sense of dizziness surged into his heart.

His steps faltered slightly, but this did not have too much of an impact on him.

His main body was still silently moving forward with the queue of food buyers.

«Lin Yi…»

«Lin Yi…»

«Come to me…»

In the darkness, his perception captured intermittent, ethereal murmurs. The voice was indistinguishable as male or female, like a boy and a girl, or like a mixed call, with a sense of déjà vu from the Black Mountain Old Demon's voice in A Chinese Ghost Story.

Even so, such a voice still revealed a strong flavor of bewitching people's hearts, like an invisible palm grabbing Lin Yi's perceptive tentacles, and then dragging his perception little by little into the abyss of darkness…

«Whoosh…»

«Whoosh…»

The ethereal sound echoed in the darkness, like the wind turning in a tunnel and the snow drifting in a passage, gloomy, lingering, and unpredictable.

Suddenly, a ray of dim light was cast into the abyss of darkness, and the abyss was suddenly painted with a touch of color.

Lin Yi keenly captured some traces of the abyss.

In that instant, he seemed to see some mottled and ancient cyan stone bricks, as well as some tan giant bricks, and he seemed to see some moss-covered, damp inner walls, and the faint sound of water flowing, and some… the sound of waves.

«Splash…»

«Splash…»

«Splash…»

It was the sound of waves crashing against the stone walls.

And… that intermittent call.

«Lin Yi…»

«Come to me…»

«Here…»

«Come… come…»

Endless whispers drilled out of the abyss, like magic sounds swirling on his forehead and lingering in his ears.

A sense of weightlessness swept over his heart, seemingly to make him fall into that dark abyss.

But Lin Yi was no longer what he used to be. He held his forehead and shook his head lightly, and then withdrew his will from it, and eliminated the restraints brought by the sense of weightlessness.

Endless darkness still spread behind him, as if tentacles extending from the void were trying to grab his body, but he ignored it, and with a simple act of following the food-buying queue forward, he threw it all behind him.

The darkness receded like a tide, and soon stopped entangling Lin Yi, and a thought flashed in Lin Yi's mind.

He seemed to know what the dark area corresponded to…

«It's that well.»

The well in the art building!

Stone bricks, moss, tide, calls…

Everything, everything, seemed to link everything with that well.

But Lin Yi felt that this was just a connection brought to him by some kind of environmental perception, and there was no real connection between the layers.

Otherwise, with Lao Mo's level of layer leaping, it would be good to directly leap into that ancient well from here, right?

As soon as this thought came out, Lin Yi suddenly fell into doubt again.

Perhaps… it's not like that?

He shouldn't deny this guess all at once.

What if it's real?

There is indeed a connection between the layers, but the depths of that ancient well are burying the 'first apostle'. Lao Mo can indeed leap over, but wouldn't that be directly packaging himself and sending himself to the door?

It must be safer to leap over to the coastline again!

That's true… Lin Yi wiped a handful of cold sweat awkwardly.

Moreover, Lao Mo may not even know about the well. He also used the surge of the 'Sanctuary' and the escort of Night Watcher-02 to peep into the existence of those areas. Lao Mo certainly cannot pass without knowing the situation at all.

Then, let's go back to the point…

As the last line of defense on campus, how could the cafeteria be related to the ancient well in the art building layer?

Was there a real connection between the layers, or... was it simply because his will was influenced by the Law-Maker, creating a connection with the Art Building, thus linking many areas directly to the Art Building or clues related to the Law-Maker?

He could vaguely sense the Law-Maker infiltrating his subconscious through that sigil. This influence was silent and imperceptible, even surpassing his habits and instincts, always subtly digging a pit for him, bringing him small "surprises."

Perhaps this wave of perception was also the Law-Maker digging a pit for him.

Thinking of this, he regained his senses and continued to walk forward with the group for a while.

But this time, as he walked forward with his head down, a large face suddenly appeared, occupying his entire field of vision.

A pale, bloodless face with a strange smile, like a green-aproned chef who had given himself a vertical, upward-shining, ghostly green light.

The green-aproned chef, late but present!

Lin Yi was startled, but quickly calmed down.

The first time he saw the green-aproned chef, he would be startled. The second time, he would also be startled. But now, he would just "oh" and move on.

"Student, would you like to try our newly launched set meal... Tomato Meat Sauce Noodles?" The green-aproned chef uttered a dry, lengthy, and somewhat eerie voice.

The surrounding students were quite frightened, their bodies tense, subconsciously squeezing towards the front of the line.

Lin Yi didn't pretend to ignore it, but simply glanced at it indifferently, then withdrew his gaze.

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Seeing this, the green-aproned chef wasn't annoyed, but continued to pester him like a fly, constantly promoting his Tomato Meat Sauce Noodles.

Soon, it was Lin Yi's turn to order. He casually ordered a few dishes, then watched the cafeteria aunt in the serving window, wearing a green apron, skillfully serve him a dish with tomato elements...

「Chef-0256」... He silently noted the cafeteria aunt's name tag, then nonchalantly took the plate and quietly went to the card reader.

He covered the side with his identity information with his palm, then slowly took out his student ID.

As a result, this simple act of taking out his ID caused even those probationary students who had already gotten their food and hadn't walked far to shudder, as if they had caught some kind of aura, and turned their heads towards him.

「Damn... a Pseudo student?」 The actions of those probationary students really startled Lin Yi. He only felt that those people were strange, but he didn't expect them to be this strange.

As a result, with such a simple test, they all revealed their true colors.

「But these should be new Pseudo students... When were they transformed?」

「Could it be that they encountered abnormal weather at night and followed the principle of proximity to the cafeteria for shelter?」

The "Student Rules" state that the first choice for nearby shelter in the cafeteria area is the cafeteria, but if that time is not during the cafeteria's open hours as written on the notice board in front of the cafeteria, a time conflict will arise.

In that case, entering the cafeteria would violate the rules.

The correct approach should be the "as if entering" that Wei Liang mentioned—going to the door but not entering.

I'm hiding under the eaves. You ask if I'm in the cafeteria. I am. You ask if I went inside. I didn't.

As if entering.

Those probationary students may have been killed after breaking the "as if entering" state.

Of course, there is also the possibility that they did do that, but saw something they shouldn't have, and were directly killed after falling into a different layer.

Lin Yi's thoughts raced. Under the gazes of countless fiery and greedy eyes, he silently swiped his card, then put away his student ID and went to the yogurt.

He picked up a box of yogurt and slowly placed it on his plate.

A green-aproned chef appeared beside him at some point, and taking advantage of his "inattention," replaced the yogurt in his hand with a tomato before it was placed on the plate.

Thus, Lin Yi put a tomato on his plate.

Lin Yi suddenly "noticed" that there was an extra tomato on his plate. He frowned slightly, then realized that he hadn't taken the yogurt yet.

So he picked up another box of yogurt and reached towards the plate.

The green-aproned chef's eyebrows curved in a smile, and he secretly replaced it again.

Lin Yi didn't say a word, just kept repeating this action.

The green-aproned chef just silently followed...

Before long, Lin Yi yolo'd all the yogurt.

Emmm... accurately speaking, he turned all the yogurt into the green-aproned chef's tomatoes.

With a single arm, he held a plate of tomatoes in each hand, still invincible in the world... ah, no, still calm and composed.

Finally, after fiddling with all the yogurt, Lin Yi silently looked at the green-aproned chef's hand.

The green-aproned chef's feet were already covered in yogurt...

Lin Yi pursed his lips, held the plate with one hand, bent down, picked up a box of yogurt from the ground, and reached towards the plate...

This time, the yogurt was placed on the plate.

Lin Yi's movements paused slightly.

He pursed his lips, seemingly wanting to pick up the yogurt again and see if the green-aproned chef wanted to exchange it...

The green-aproned chef didn't make any movements.

Lin Yi didn't say a word, just silently looked at the green-aproned chef, his eyes seeming to say, Why don't you reconsider? Get another tomato?

Who knew that the green-aproned chef wouldn't budge, just looking at Lin Yi like that.

Lin Yi's gaze didn't shift either, just staring at the green-aproned chef.

The green-aproned chef's gaze didn't shift either.

Their eyes met.

The green-aproned chef was slightly stunned. It seemed to have thought of something, and its remaining, meager intelligence, which transcended its instinctual mechanisms, began to slowly turn its brain.

But soon, Lin Yi seemed to have triggered another mechanism in it. It began to reveal a symbolic, evil, and eerie smile, and slowly handed over a tomato.

Its mouth didn't move, still wearing that smile stretched to the roots of its ears, but a hoarse and deep voice slowly floated out: "Student... eat toma..."

Before the words "to?" could be uttered, Lin Yi reached out and took the tomato from its hand.

Lin Yi was overjoyed. He should have said there was this mechanism earlier...

Green-aproned chef: "? ? ?"

Lin Yi took the tomato and put it on the plate, but looking at the mountain of tomatoes piled on the plate, he couldn't help but frown.

It seemed, maybe, perhaps... it was a little too much to hold now!