Rules-related weird stories: 4016

“…” Tian Bufan was speechless, supporting his forehead. “No, how did your thinking suddenly jump to this point?”

“Could you ‘restrain’ yourself a bit? Your baseless guesses are giving me the chills.”

“Uh…” Lin Yi awkwardly scratched his nose. “Okay, my bad. You were saying?”

“What else is there to say? I finished talking about the No. 10 dining window.” Tian Bufan said.

“Then… there's one area issue left?”

“The area issue is just a concept for now.”

“Then… are we done discussing the cafeteria?”

“We've only been to the cafeteria twice. It's already pretty good that we've discussed this much.” Tian Bufan said, “The remaining information won't be so easy to obtain.”

“The student cafeteria is a place where dragons and snakes mingle. It seems like there are only students, but in reality, every department might have people there. Therefore, the cafeteria seems safe, but in reality, it's fraught with danger.”

“Given our intuition, trying to follow the cafeteria rule of just eating and running without caring about anything will definitely be more dangerous than safe.”

“So, overall, no matter how many times we go to the cafeteria in the future, we need to maintain sufficient caution.”

After discussing the cafeteria, Tian Bufan glanced at the pendulum clock.

23:23.

“There are 37 minutes until lights out.” Tian Bufan said calmly, “That leaves the gymnasium and our dormitory building.”

“Yeah.” Lin Yi added, “But it seems like there's not much to say about the gymnasium.”

“Let's talk about whatever little there is.” Tian Bufan said.

Lin Yi thought for a moment, then said: “There's a road in front of the gymnasium. I got lost on that road…”

He told Tian Bufan about how he walked onto that non-existent road and then came back, but he omitted the process of struggling through it.

After speaking, he got out of bed and glanced at Tian Bufan's position.

Seeing Tian Bufan looking at the ceiling with his hands behind his head, and then looking at him after hearing his movement: “What are you looking at me for? You must have some kind of answer in your mind, right?”

Lin Yi narrowed his eyes and said in a deep voice: “'A non-existent road, leading to a non-existent sea.'”

“'A non-existent road, leading to a non-existent sea.'” Tian Bufan repeated, a smile appearing on the corner of his lips, “Sounds really interesting.”

Lin Yi said: “I smelled the fishy smell of the sea breeze, heard the sound of the waves, and in the blink of an eye, I walked onto that road.”

“I suspect that the hallucination I keep seeing is the world after the layers have collapsed… or perhaps another world.”

“Tell me about it.” Tian Bufan added, “About that world… describe it.”

Lin Yi frowned. He lay on the bed with his eyes closed, recalling it, trying to find the feeling, and then slowly said: “In that world…”

“A black sun with a gold border hangs high in the dim sky, making it unclear whether it's day or night.”

“Dense fog shrouds an ocean, making the geographical location impossible to determine.”

“Near the shore, black seawater beats against steel-like reefs.”

“Beside the reefs, there is also a large swamp of mud. I don't know how many rotten fish corpses are buried in the swamp. The fishy and foul smell mixes with the sea breeze and drifts from the seaside all the way to that non-existent road…”

“That swamp is the source of the fishy smell in the school district.”

“And that sea breeze is the source of the sea breeze on the road to the gymnasium…”

He closed his eyes, filling in the details in his mind little by little. The originally fragmented patterns and details slowly pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle.

The hallucinations he had were also seemingly connected in some close way.

His words gradually turned into dreamlike murmurs, and he felt a sense of drowsiness slowly sweeping over him.

He seemed to hear the sound of the tide in his ears, and he felt… the bed was shaking, like a boat being pushed by the sea, swaying back and forth, lulling people to sleep.

「?!」

Lin Yi suddenly opened his eyes, and the pure white ceiling of the dormitory was visible.

“Huff! Huff! Huff…”

He gasped a few times. When he was recalling the other world just now, he relied on being in bed and was a little too “reckless”, and sure enough, he was affected a little negatively.

He glanced at his watch.

23:26.

“Very interesting.” Tian Bufan's voice rang in his ears. Lin Yi looked over and found that the other person's eyes were filled with deep curiosity.

So Lin Yi lowered his voice and asked: “Young Master Tian, what did my condition just now look like in your eyes?”

Tian Bufan thought for a while, then said: “I didn't look at you just now.”

Lin Yi frowned, not pursuing the question, but restating: “What are your thoughts on this road?”

“For the time being, we can only think about this problem from the direction of layers.” Tian Bufan said, “If the moss that your shoe soles stepped on really came from the cliffs in that world, then that proves the authenticity of that world.”

“My next reasoning will be based on the fact that that world really exists.”

“As you said, you got lost on the road, and then climbed back through that method, then that means…”

“First, the layers of the school district and the other world are actually always in some kind of unpredictable superposition state.”

“And the key factor that determines which layer you are in is your ‘cognition’, which is what we call ‘anchor’.”

“Your cognition will, to a certain extent, change the influence of the external layers on you, and may even cause some changes in the layers of your area, thereby causing you to fall down—if this conjecture is established, then it means that the entire school district, even during the day, has no safe areas.”

“Because, when you can control the ‘anchor’ to change the layer you are in, then it also means that the ship has broken free from the influence of the wind and waves, and it also means that you have come to the edge of being out of control.”

“There is also a guess.”

“Second, when the layers collapse, they will open a road to another world, and we may accidentally take the wrong turn and enter that road.”

“This road is also a conceptual thing.”

“Let me give you an example. Besides accidentally walking on that road when going to the gymnasium.”

“After the roads with streetlights are stretched and distorted to a certain extent, if we enter areas not illuminated by the streetlights, we may also step onto that road.”

“In other words, all unmarked routes within the school district may become part of the road when the layers collapse.”

Listening to this, Lin Yi felt that the possibility of the second point was greater: “Speaking of this road… I met Little Genius on the road.”

“Little Genius turned into a non-human classmate and disappeared on that road.”

Regarding Little Genius, Lin Yi had the latest version of his speculation.

Assuming that all the Little Geniuses he encountered were the original version of the Little Genius holding a mobile light source.

Then, the series of changes from last night to this afternoon should be:

One: The little genius was murdered by his inhuman classmate last night. His body was dragged out of the classroom and thrown into the green belt.

Two: After experiencing a series of unknown changes, his state changed from a little genius who was "dead" to a little genius "sculpture."

Three: The little genius "sculpture" then inexplicably turned into the little genius's "inhuman classmate", and then embarked on that non-existent path, disappearing from his sight after he saw it.

In other words, after being killed, the little genius still entered the "transformation path" mentioned by Tian Bufan in some form.

"Damn, is this considered not letting people rest in peace after death?" Lin Yi couldn't help but shiver.

In the end, Tian Bufan concluded: "All of these are just speculations. If you encounter this situation again, be sure to obtain as much information as possible while ensuring that you can return alive."

"Tell me about the gymnasium, the sports students, and the sports teacher."

Lin Yi glanced at the time. It was 11:30 PM, and there was only half an hour before the lights went out, so he had to hurry.

"I took swimming lessons for physical education…"

The newest novel is first published on 69shu.com!

Lin Yi had already told Tian Bufan about the swimming lessons, the boss, and the encounter with the green bib chef, so he briefly skipped over them. Then, he talked about the lights in the gymnasium.

The row of old kerosene lamps hanging in the corridor at the entrance of the basement, and the ancient green lamp at the end of the wall in the swimming pool.

He asked: "'Relics of a distant era'… I remember that's what you called them back then. So, what exactly are those things?"

Tian Bufan was silent for a while, and then slowly said: "I don't know."

Lin Yi was stunned: "How could you not know?"

"That's hilarious, how would I know?"

"No, didn't you talk to me eloquently in the gymnasium, making me feel like you knew everything?"

"Are you talking about the kerosene lamps?"

"Isn't that it?"

Then Tian Bufan said: "I saw it in the literature."

"Literature?"

"On the bookshelf behind the lecture hall, there are some books that record strange anecdotes. I took a few last night and happened to see them. I thought you were also interested in those things." Tian Bufan said, suddenly becoming serious, "However, there are many colorful books and some beauty photo albums in the classroom, Lao Lin, I don't think you're the kind of person who spends the whole night reading H manga and photo albums, are you?"

"What photo albums? No… Of course I'm not that kind of person, but I didn't notice those books. I'll pay attention to them during the day tomorrow!" Lin Yi's face turned red, and then he said seriously, "So, what does the book say?"

He was not giving up.

Tian Bufan thought for a while and said: "In the recorded human civilizations, almost all of them record a world-destroying flood."

"Our Chinese Nuwa patching the sky, Dayu controlling the flood, the European Noah's Ark, the Mayan world-destroying flood…"

"You remember all of these, right?"

"Yeah, and then…?"

"Culture is able to produce such similar records even when there are huge geographical differences, it's hard not to speculate about the existence of prehistoric life."

"These things may be remnants left over from that distant era."

"The Earth has existed for 4.5 billion years, and human civilization only occupies a small fragment of the three-dimensional space-time in such a time scale."

"Even, the Earth may just be a testing ground."

"Those beings beyond imagination watched the great explosion of life for a while, and when they got tired of it, they destroyed the world and started over."

"They looked at trilobites, and then they looked at dinosaurs. Perhaps they thought dinosaurs were more fun, so they watched them for a while longer, so the dinosaurs existed for a longer period of time, but in the end, they were still destroyed."

"Now it's the turn of human civilization… In the so-called age of mythology, some people tried to pursue 'destiny', tried to climb 'Kunlun Mountain', 'Mount Olympus', 'World Tree' and other places, exploring the traces of those incredible beings."

"They may have really found some traces, and then used knowledge to apply some kind of power beyond cognition, and finally created things like the 'Ancient Green Lamp'…"

"Relics like the 'Ancient Green Lamp' have had many names in history, such as the 'Philosopher's Stone', 'Magic Stone' in the mouths of those so-called alchemists in the Middle Ages, the tender branches of the World Tree mentioned in older cultures, the Breath Soil in Chinese mythology, the elixir, etc…"

Lin Yi swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and said in disbelief: "These things… really exist?"

"The end of science is metaphysics, and the source of metaphysics is the unknown." Tian Bufan said, "Moreover, in our era, it is clear that some people have found the laws of those certain extraordinary characteristics, and are trying to replicate those things…"

"The kerosene lamp in the security guard's hand."

"The kerosene lamps on the walls of the gymnasium."

"Even the street lamps all over the campus."

"Our student ID cards, various credentials that can represent identity."

"These things… may or may not carry some extraordinary characteristics."

"Of course, I'm not sure about the street lamps, but that kind of kerosene lamp is definitely not a normal thing."

"It's not only abnormal, but also a product of modern civilization, at least… it's something that only started to appear in the last few hundred years."

Lin Yi opened his mouth, muttering the four words "extraordinary characteristics".

He heard this concept for the first time, but… why did it feel familiar?

It was like a concept he had already known but forgotten, like a text he had learned in elementary school. After seeing the title again decades later, he suddenly remembered that he had learned it when he was in school.

But… would he really not remember something so important?

"Ex… traor… di… nary… cha… rac… ter… istics…" He muttered word by word, trying to awaken some memories.

But he failed.

He didn't remember anything.

"Young Master Tian." He said.

"Yeah, what is it?" Tian Bufan replied.

"Is there really such a book on the bookshelf behind the classroom?"

Tian Bufan was silent for a moment: "Maybe… your classroom has it too."

Lin Yi: "…"

The next chapter will be at 0:00 when the lights go out, and then, the plot of May 8th will begin! To be honest, this discussion is a bit long, I don't know if it will be criticized… How should I put it, the plot of this discussion part is actually a bit like a [daily summary], and another point is that I want to use Tian Bufan's mouth to lay out a few concepts, so as not to make everyone feel confused when writing later. In order to prevent everyone from spraying if I don't write clearly later, I'll point it out in advance now, it's better to be sprayed for a short time than for a long time!