When Xu Shunkang saw that Lin Yi did not object, he continued, "We call those things 'Night-Walking Species.' As the name suggests, they're a bunch of malformed aberrations that can only come out at night."
After saying this, Xu Shunkang began watching Lin Yi's expression.
Lin Yi muttered the name "Night-Walking Species" several times, then asked in confusion, "Are they alive or dead?"
Xu Shunkang was somewhat surprised by the question. "Some are already dead, and some are still alive."
"Why can they still be alive after dying..." Lin Yi narrowed his eyes. "Is that power of 'contamination' driving their already-dead bodies? So... they're a kind of deeply contaminated... 'organism'?"
"'Organism'?" Xu Shunkang shook his head. "You can't define them as 'organisms.' They're aberrations. You can think of them as 'people' who've suffered intense radiation exposure or contracted a virus, existing in a state between 'life' and 'death.'"
"Some are still alive, but contamination has turned them into Night-Walking Species. Some are already dead, or are even husks pieced together from the corpses of multiple organisms. After being contaminated, they gain a certain ability to move and become Night-Walking Species."
Lin Yi began to understand. "So 'Night-Walking Species' is actually a general term for a certain range of organisms, or entities?"
"Right."
"Then can they turn into sculptures?"
"Holy shit!" Xu Shunkang jumped. "Your fucking scope of cognition has expanded that far? You even know about the sculptures?"
Lin Yi nodded, somewhat puzzled. Then he recalled how frightened Xu Shunkang had been by Basement Level One of the Teaching Building and asked tentatively, "So... is this something you guys can talk about?"
Xu Shunkang and Xie Huayang exchanged a look, then one nodded while the other shook his head.
After some more thought, they switched, with the one who had