The way to survive

"What? Erasing Attention...? What does that mean?" Wei Liang's eyes went round, a question mark practically hanging beside his forehead.

Lin Yi explained, "It means finding a way to stop him from staring at me."

"Oh, ohhh! So that's what you mean!" Wei Liang put on a look of sudden understanding. "Now I get it. Distract him!"

"Right, exactly." Lin Yi nodded. "You've been here before, haven't you? Did you ever run into anything like this? Or hear any similar rumors?"

"No," Wei Liang answered without thinking. After a pause, he added, "To be precise, even if I did, I pretended I hadn't heard anything... just like earlier."

His words made Lin Yi freeze for a moment before he immediately understood. Wei Liang was playing dumb despite knowing perfectly well, fooling even himself.

"But is that alone enough to get through the seven-day experience?"

Wei Liang shook his head helplessly. "So even though I'd really like to help, there's actually nothing I can do."

"But..."

"But what?"

"But if you really want to think things through, you could give it a try." Wei Liang stared at Lin Yi, utterly serious.

"Hmm?" Lin Yi narrowed his eyes. "You mean?"

Wei Liang smiled mysteriously. "Didn't you fall asleep when you were thinking things through before? So I can watch you, and the moment I notice you starting to nod off, I'll shake you awake."

"What do you think?"

"I can't feel what it's like to have someone staring at you like that, but from the way you look, it seems pretty awful..."

"If you really feel like you're trapped in a hopeless situation, why not... give it a try?"

"Well..." Lin Yi hesitated, then asked frankly, "If I give it a try... will I die?"

Wei Liang didn't dodge the question. He said seriously, "If I can shake you awake, you'll be fine. If I can't, you'll die."

"The key thing now is that person's got his eye on you. Once the classroom lights go out again, there's no telling what'll happen."

Lin Yi fell silent.

The air suddenly went still. Wei Liang didn't press him. The only sound in the silent classroom was the incandescent lights overhead swaying on their long iron chains.

Lin Yi rubbed his watch, closed his eyes, and took several deep breaths.

Outside the windows, the wind gusted, fine raindrops pattered against the glass, and the cold spread into a white mist.

The soft ticking of the Quartz Watch's hands rose and fell with Lin Yi's breathing.

On one side was a classmate whose ability to act depended on the environment, and whose behavior still fell within the realm of the unpredictable;

On the other was that indescribable, devouring sensation of being dragged into an abyss whenever he thought too deeply...

Both paths seemed problematic!

Lin Yi suddenly felt as though he was racking his brains to choose how to die.

Obviously... neither choice was what he wanted.

He wanted to stay alive and collect the thirty-thousand-yuan experience bonus to help pay Grandmother's medical bills. He couldn't take any risks, especially not fight a battle against the unknown with no prospect of winning.

The thinking I did before happened unintentionally. That's why I could pull myself out in time with Wei Liang's help.

If I deliberately start thinking, will I cross a red line in the rules in this environment?

Everything was unknown.

I can only look for a solution in the rules. Following them is how I can protect myself!

Although what happened earlier was incredibly dangerous, ultimately, I escaped disaster because I followed the rules.

If I break them, the consequences don't bear thinking about.

Lin Yi let out a long breath and opened his eyes. Under Wei Liang's expectant gaze, he shook his head and rejected the idea:

"Forget it. I can't afford that gamble."

"This isn't a game. If something goes wrong, we-no, I won't get a chance to 'reload.'"

"Then there's nothing I can do." Wei Liang sounded both regretful and pleased. "But I believe you can figure something out yourself. You can do it!"

"Yeah." Lin Yi nodded.

Wei Liang comforted him. "Besides, maybe the classroom lights won't go out again before dawn. Right?"

"You certainly know what to say..." Lin Yi said helplessly.

Wei Liang always went along with whatever he decided. One moment, it felt like a desperate last stand, with reincarnation as the only alternative to success; the next, he was earnestly offering comfort...

Liangzi can only play when his side's winning...

Lin Yi gave up on seeking a decisive opinion from Wei Liang.

He glanced at his watch.

23:55.

Five minutes until midnight.

0:00 was a very delicate point in time. In an eerie environment, especially, it easily brought to mind supernatural rules about not looking in mirrors and the like.

The more something seemed out of place, the more likely it was to carry an aura of horror.

Without realizing it, Lin Yi also felt the double pressure of time and his classmate weighing on him.

"Lao Lin, I can't keep this up. I'm getting sleepy. I need to read a bit to perk myself up. Tell me if anything happens. Don't try to tough it out alone," Wei Liang reminded him, then began leafing through the manga in his hands.

Lin Yi nodded without speaking.

First, let's establish one thing... thinking is actually allowed, but I can't think about things that 'defy common sense'...

Especially questions that conflict with the rules I know.

So... within the limits of the rules, I have to find out why that classmate is focusing on me, and find a way to resolve this crisis before things get worse.

Lin Yi recited the Student Rules in his mind, one by one, searching for everything related to the Teaching Building...

In the end, he found only one rule, which was also the last:

[Please take your health seriously. If you experience dizziness, blurred vision, nausea, or any other discomfort while at school, please find the Dorm Supervisor or Head Teacher before staying overnight. He will take you to the Infirmary, and the School Doctor will take you to the school gates.]

But the Teaching Building Rules also stated:

[After 21:00, leaving the classroom is prohibited. Please continue self-study until 7:40 the following morning. During this period, if you see anything unusual outside the windows or someone calls you from outside the door, please ignore it.]

The rules conflict again...?

Whenever this happened, he couldn't help wanting to understand the connections between the rules. But after suffering for it several times, he decisively chose this time to prioritize the Teaching Building Rules based on his current location-the Teaching Building.

Beyond that, however, he could find no other official rules provided by the school.

All that remained for reference were a few remarks from the Head Teacher and the brief conversations during those few minutes he had crossed paths with Xu Shunkang and Xie Huayang.

There were two key points in what Xu Shunkang said. First, follow the rules. Second, don't think...

I've already grasped what he meant about following the rules. As for not thinking, that probably means what I understood it to mean: don't think about 'problematic things'...

Thinking like this is clearly fine. Xu Shunkang didn't explain because he wanted to avoid steering me toward thinking about those things in the first place...

It was like an ordinary conversation where A repeatedly told B not to buy a blue pen, not to buy a blue pen, only for B to end up buying one.

The simplest way to keep B from buying a blue pen was not to tell B about blue pens at all.

Xu Shunkang's approach worked in much the same way.

If there wasn't time to explain something clearly, he simply wouldn't mention it, lest hearing too much make someone overthink and cause an accident.

Then there's what the Head Teacher said... the key point in his words was actually 'ignore it.'

Ignoring things sounded simple, but actually doing it was extremely difficult. Someone like Wei Liang only managed it because he had invested his talent in that sort of bizarre trick.

So, if I put the limited clues together, what I get is-

Don't think mentally, ignore reality through my actions... then follow the emergency rules when something unexpected happens, and I can obtain a 'safe' environment!

As he reached that conclusion, Lin Yi abruptly looked at Wei Liang, who was engrossed in his manga beside him. An enormous sense of admiration slowly rose from the bottom of his heart.

What the fuck... isn't that exactly what Liangzi does?

Wei Liang's instinctive reactions were identical to the method of survival Lin Yi had painstakingly pieced together!

Chang Wei, and you still claim you don't know martial arts?!

Sensing Lin Yi's burning gaze, Wei Liang instinctively shuddered.

"What is it, Lao Lin? You're giving me the creeps with that look..." He shrank back.

"Nothing..." Lin Yi said.

Is Liangzi really wise beneath his foolish exterior... or beneath outright stupidity? Could there really be such a coincidence?

But I keep feeling something isn't quite right...

Lin Yi felt that while this described what happened, it didn't explain the underlying principle. There should still be some logic to it, and he had merely circled around the surface.

He wanted to think more deeply, but he felt that if he went even the slightest bit deeper, that eerie, indescribable terror would invade his mind and then... entice him into thinking more deeply!

He couldn't think too much...

He clearly needed to keep thinking, yet there seemed to be a shackle restricting the range of his thoughts, forcing him to reason within a limited space and never cross the boundary.

Fuck.

Lin Yi gently shook his head. Unwilling to give up, he applied his half-baked conclusion to everything that had happened after the classroom lights flickered, briefly reviewing the situation to see whether he could discover why he had been singled out.

Just then, Lin Yi suddenly noticed the light and shadows in the classroom flicker again.

*?!!* Lin Yi's heart lurched, and he quickly looked up at the ceiling.

But this time, he stared at the ceiling for a full half minute without spotting a single incandescent light flickering.

Just as he began to feel puzzled, the light in the classroom flickered again!

His pupils abruptly contracted as he realized what was happening. It's not the classroom lights flickering! It's... the Corridor!

He turned toward the Corridor. Sure enough, its lights were flickering in some strange rhythm.

How many lights have to be flickering at once to affect the light inside the classroom?

As alarm gripped Lin Yi, a faint vibration traveled through the classroom's wall tiles and into the soles of his feet.

A faint ripple also appeared on the water inside the water dispenser at the back of the Circular Lecture Hall.

"Thud..."

"Thud..."

"Thud..."

Something outside seemed to be colliding with something else. Each collision made the entire classroom tremble slightly, and the incandescent lights in the Corridor flickered along with it.

He looked at the classroom windows. Because of the temperature difference between inside and outside, a white layer of condensation covered the glass.

Through the condensation, he could see only a gray blur. Illuminated by the Corridor lights, thick fog beat against the windowpanes like surging waves.

The entire classroom increasingly resembled a ship sailing through fog on the deep sea on a stormy night, seemingly ready to capsize at any moment.

Suddenly, he saw something rise from the fog. The Corridor lights cast its shadow onto the condensation-covered glass.

Suddenly, a rule from the Student Rules surfaced in his mind:

[During this period, if you hear any unusual noises or see any unusual figures outside the windows, please ignore them, especially when they call to you from outside the Dorm Supervisor's Office or classroom.]

He hurriedly withdrew his gaze and buried his head in the manga at hand.

He leafed through it at random, but his mind kept returning to what he had just seen.

The shadow looked as though it had formed from some creatures grappling together, and that thudding sounded very much like stone implements striking one another.

Every collision seemed to spread outward like a shock wave...

"Lao Lin, your book's upside down." Wei Liang's voice sounded beside his ear.

Lin Yi froze briefly, then snapped back to his senses.

Wei Liang continued speaking beside him. "Well, we're deep in the mountains outside town, after all. A few little falling rocks during Abnormal Weather are perfectly normal. Just don't overthink it."

"Falling... rocks?"

"Those tremors just now. That's just rocks rolling down the mountain, isn't it? Don't overthink it. It's a long night, and manga's our only companion. Let's read!" Wei Liang said.

Lin Yi had to turn it over in his mind several times before he finally understood what Wei Liang meant.

His expression grew solemn. He immediately turned the manga in front of him the right way up, stopped dwelling on what was happening outside the classroom, and slowly began reading.

Just then, Wei Liang pushed a book in front of Lin Yi and said in all seriousness:

"That copy of Dragon X Tiger Fight isn't volume one. The plot will be really awkward to follow. Here, try this one. I just finished volume one, so you can have it..."

Lin Yi took it and looked. On the cover was a nurse striking a seductive pose...

His eyebrow twitched upward as he looked at the title.

Night X Hospital Ward (Deluxe Edition).

"Night X Hospital Ward tells a pure love story between a patient and a nurse. The art style's old, but it's still pretty good. Most importantly, it lets you cast aside your worries and immerse yourself in the story... and the key thing is, this is the deluxe edition."

Dubiously, Lin Yi opened it. The corner of his mouth twitched, and he asked hesitantly, "Hentai...?"

Wei Liang said scornfully, "You're looking at it with a dirty mind. With manga like this, you need to take a dialectical approach. Start with the art and plot, and consider what philosophical ideas the author is expressing through this kind of story, and so on and so forth. Okay?"

"Instead of getting hung up on the pictures themselves."

"Forget it. You wouldn't understand even if I explained. Just flip through it!"

With that, Wei Liang lowered his head and resumed reading.

Dazed by what he had heard, Lin Yi nodded and quietly began to read...

But he hadn't been reading Night X Hospital Ward for long before the flickering Corridor lights and the constantly trembling floor distracted him again.

A fierce battle seemed to have erupted outside the classroom. Powerful shock waves battered the room like ocean waves.

"Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish..."

Inside the classroom, those eerie classmates seemed to sense something. At the same instant, with identical movements, they turned their heads in perfect unison, directing their gazes toward the windowpanes.

May 7, X023, 0:08, Group B Class 2.

Outside the classroom, terrifying figures tumbled through the fog, and dreadful shock waves seemed poised to destroy everything.

Inside the classroom, more than thirty eerie classmates watched the shadows on the windows like marionettes, different gleams flowing in the depths of their hollow eyes.

Longing, obsession, madness, or...

Fear!