Erasing Attention

"How did you kno... ahem! Don't go making things up!" Wei Liang coughed into his fist. "You're being way too imprecise. Don't forget I have other classes too. I only read manga outside those!"

"Otherwise, there's nothing to do in class. Sure, classes at S City University are just a formality, but I can't play video games, so what else can I do besides read manga?" Wei Liang argued.

Lin Yi felt Wei Liang had a point.

So he quietly took One Knight Against X and X Demon Ninja and began leafing through them with a perfectly serious expression.

As he immersed himself in reading, his brain's awareness of the outside world slowly began to weaken.

Soon, he was absorbed in the manga's story.

The Classmate who had previously used "Void Targeting" on Lin Yi had been directing his vacant gaze at the reflection in the classroom window. Suddenly, as Lin Yi became engrossed in his manga, he sensed something, stiffly turned his body, and slowly swept his gaze over the rows of seats in the Circular Lecture Hall.

He looked left and right, his face passing over Lin Yi's position several times, but never found anything.

Lin Yi had successfully erased that Classmate's attention toward him, but he was completely unaware of it.

In fact, he did not need to know.

Because once he knew, he would enter that paradoxical loop again.

After finishing the first volume of One Knight Against X, Lin Yi stretched at length, rolled his neck, and checked his watch.

1:39.

Over an hour passed without me noticing... Manga really is great for killing time.

His thoughts returning to his surroundings, Lin Yi instinctively thought back and realized his memories of that Classmate had already become very blurry.

Turning his head, he discovered another stack of books beside him.

They were the subsequent volumes of One Knight Against X that Wei Liang had found for him.

Lin Yi smiled, picked up the second volume, and began reading.

By the time he had immersed himself in three volumes, it was already 4:27. Thinking back on the night, Lin Yi found that his impression of that Classmate had been reduced to a blurry shadow.

The sensation of being watched had vanished completely, too. Apart from feeling a little sleepy, he felt no mental discomfort whatsoever.

Physically, though, he felt somewhat cold, especially in his lower body, where a chill had developed, as though the cold from the floor had crept up his legs.

This was the result of staying up reading without moving around.

Lin Yi stretched, yawned, and stamped his feet.

After loosening up a little and adjusting his sitting position, he prepared to keep reading.

Just then, however, some movement around him caught his attention.

Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap...

Someone had left their seat-not just one person, but a whole group.

Those perfectly synchronized movements undoubtedly belonged to the abnormal Classmates.

Lin Yi checked his watch.

4:30.

Four thirty in the morning...

Lin Yi did not know whether there was any significance to this time, but immediately jotted "4:30" in the little notebook beside him.

By now, more than four hours had passed since the Security Guard had begun grappling with that thing.

The Security Guard, who had rolled down the steps with that thing, was now nowhere to be seen.

The Classmates who had stood up to stare at the window had all returned to their seats, but now they were standing up again, one after another.

Lin Yi maintained his manga-reading posture, but his eyes shifted about. Sitting in the lecture hall, he observed the movements around him through his peripheral vision, using his hearing to fill in the details.

He dared to do this because, according to the killing mechanism he had deduced for these Classmates, he would not attract their attention as long as he did not look at them after lights-out.

One Classmate after another dragged their stiff bodies along with wooden steps, descending the lecture hall stairs step by step before heading toward the classroom door.

Are they leaving the classroom at this hour?

But the Teaching Building Rules prohibit leaving the classroom after 21:00, and the Head Teacher gave the same warning...

Wait a second. I think I've got it!

If the Head Teacher's warning was meant to "protect" us, wouldn't the sources of danger be those abnormal Classmates inside the classroom and the unidentified creatures in the fog outside?

Those abnormal Classmates weren't affected when the classroom door opened, so perhaps I can put them in the same category?

The only difference might be that the Classmates who stay inside the classroom still have some "student" characteristics.

At this thought, Lin Yi could not help shivering.

Sure enough, spending the night in the classroom is only an "option," not the "correct answer."

No wonder Xu Shunkang said he hoped he'd see me tomorrow...

Lin Yi was pleased with his new discovery, but just as he was about to switch books, he caught sight of a foot slowly entering his peripheral vision.

Huh?

The other person wore a pair of Old-Fashioned Sneakers, with what appeared to be some reddish-brown substance on the laces.

Lin Yi's first reaction was that they looked familiar, but as the other foot entered his field of vision, memories he had thought dead began assaulting him furiously.

The hairs on his arms instantly stood on end, and a chill shot up his spine.

What...?!

His gaze shifted upward, and his pupils shook, first dilating, then instantly contracting to pinpoints.

That Classmate was standing right in front of him, only three seats away!

The Classmate stared vacantly at Lin Yi's position, his face devoid of any other expression.

The eerie grin that had stretched almost to his ears in the darkness was gone now.

Like a walking corpse, he slowly approached Lin Yi.

Lin Yi's back went rigid, every hair on his scalp stood on end, and his eyes filled with disbelief.

He clearly couldn't notice me anymore, so why is this happening?!

He just won't leave me alone! It's like he can fucking sense I'm here!

Lin Yi dared not make any rash moves, but one thought after another raced through his mind.

The Classmate moved with stiff steps, slowly passing seat after seat and closing the distance between them.

Lin Yi's pupils shrank further and further. He clenched his teeth, so tense that he forgot to breathe.

But in his state of absolute concentration, he suddenly discerned something in the Classmate's behavior.

A bold conjecture appeared in his mind!

He hurriedly gathered all the manga beside him, then carefully folded up his seat.

"Liangzi!" he whispered to the guy beside him, who was peering between the pages.

Wei Liang was so absorbed that he had not even noticed Lin Yi standing up.

Hearing Lin Yi's voice, Wei Liang hurriedly pulled himself out of his thoughts.

"What is it, Lao Lin... holy #￥%@&%*..."

Wei Liang glimpsed the Classmate advancing behind Lin Yi, and his unfinished sentence instantly turned into the incoherent screeching of a monkey from Mount Huaguo...

"Shh, shh, shh-"

With difficulty, Lin Yi freed one hand and raised a finger to his lips, then whispered, "Grab your books and run! Quick, quick, quick!"

The Classmate was now only two seats away from Lin Yi. An overwhelming pressure surged from him like a tide, crashing down on them.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck..."

Wei Liang babbled incoherently, his tongue tied with anxiety.

As the Classmate drew closer and closer, under that overwhelming pressure, he suddenly gritted his teeth and pulled off a move astonishing enough to make Lin Yi's eyes pop out.

He had more than three times as many manga as Lin Yi, yet he managed to scoop every last one into his arms at once!

Then, under Lin Yi's almost incomprehending "Old Man Looking at Phone on the Subway" stare, he folded his seat back without a sound using nothing but precise control of his glutes and inner thigh muscles!

Lin Yi was utterly stunned. Only one phrase remained in his mind:

Useless fancy tricks!

Holy shit, nothing but fucking useless fancy tricks!

"What are you staring at? Move!" Wei Liang glared fiercely at Lin Yi and snapped in a whisper.

"How the hell am I supposed to move if you don't?" Lin Yi signaled with his eyes.

"Ugh! Go, go, go, go!"

And so Crouching Dragon and Young Phoenix hugged their manga tightly and picked their way through the seats of the Circular Lecture Hall as though walking on thin ice, looking rather like two buddies walking along a field ridge.

Only after leaving the row of seats did Wei Liang dare look back at that Classmate, unable to keep himself from asking worriedly, "Lao Lin, what's going on? Wait, fuck... Lao Lin, you fucking..."

Lin Yi had not left the row at all.

To be precise, he had only walked a short distance from his original seat before stopping at the second seat to Wei Liang's left.

Then he calmly watched the Classmate's every movement.

The Classmate arrived at Lin Yi's original seat and stretched out a pair of pale, withered hands, continually feeling around that area as though stirring water.

He looked exactly like Xiao Qiao in King's Canyon after three exclamation marks appeared over her head, unleashing all her skills at a patch of empty air with "top-tier prediction."

After his efforts proved fruitless, the Classmate slowly withdrew his hands, then silently left, merging into the stream of people descending the steps toward the classroom door.

Lin Yi narrowed his eyes, and a gleam suddenly appeared in the depths of his calm gaze...

Like a complete gaming novice who had successfully figured out a level mechanic through his own efforts, his eyes lit with excitement!

The sight of Lin Yi calmly and composedly watching the Classmate startled Wei Liang. Everything he had been about to say flew out of his head, leaving him with just one question:

"Lao Lin, what just happened? That guy..."

Lin Yi glanced at Wei Liang and raised an eyebrow. "Now you're curious about things outside the rules again?"

"Heh, curious my ass! I'm not letting you drag me into a trap," Wei Liang said with a curl of his lip and a sneer. "I mean, did you find a way to erase that guy's attention?"

Lin Yi nodded and was about to tell Wei Liang that the other party probably possessed some degree of "sensing ability," but Wei Liang interrupted him in time. "Okay, okay, stop right there. As long as you know how, don't tell me."

Lin Yi understood Wei Liang's concerns, but still said, "Liangzi, I think you should know a little about the 'mechanism,' just in case..."

"Fuck, stop! Don't you go planting death flags for me!" Wei Liang hurriedly said. "There's no 'just in case.' He never noticed me before, he won't now, and he definitely won't in the future..."

"If I knew how to erase it, I'd probably slip up and attract his attention instead."

"..." Lin Yi opened his mouth, finding himself speechless. "Then... all right. All I can say is that reading manga really is a good method."

"Huh???"

"Erm... nothing."

"Oh, okay... Oh, right, Lao Lin!" Wei Liang suddenly remembered something and grew excited. "Did you see that move I pulled off?"

"That one, that one, that..." He put down his manga and gestured, pointing at his thigh muscles one moment and patting his rear the next, looking more and more like a monkey from Mount Huaguo.

"Maxed out! My execution was absolutely maxed out!"

Lin Yi rolled his eyes and could only play along. "Yeah, pro gamer stuff..."

Then he unfolded a seat and sat down, set down his manga, and looked toward the classroom door, checking both the Grandfather Clock hanging above the podium and his watch.

Both read 4:46.

Just one flight of steps, and it took a full sixteen minutes!

Their speed can't compare to how fast they were after lights-out!

Lin Yi glanced at the ceiling.

Looks like "light" restricts them a great deal...

He thought of the Corridor. When the lights had gone out and come back on, the figure curled up in the darkness had disappeared.

He also thought of the streetlamps in the thick fog, which all seemed capable of driving away those unknown creatures.

At this thought, he immediately shook his head, stopping himself from thinking further along those lines. At the same time, he opened his little notebook and wrote "light" beside "4:30."

This was a shorthand note to prevent himself from forgetting a key clue. Once he reached a time and place where he could think properly, he would consider the question.

Wei Liang carried his manga back and followed Lin Yi's gaze to the classroom wall.

"Almost five. It'll be light soon. Want to get breakfast at the Cafeteria together later?"

"Sure." Lin Yi nodded, but then asked, "Will we have enough time, though?"

A Map was tucked inside the Teaching Building Rules, with the Cafeteria's opening hours marked on it: 5:40-8:00, 10:40-13:20, and 16:00-20:00 daily.

"Why wouldn't we?" Wei Liang said instinctively. "It opens at 5:40!"

Lin Yi corrected him. "But the Teaching Building Rules say that if we spend the night here, we have to study until 7:40 before leaving the classroom. We can only leave at six if we spend the night in the Dormitory."

Wei Liang froze again before realizing the problem. He rubbed the back of his head and laughed awkwardly. "Oh man, I almost remembered the time wrong. Good thing you reminded me!"

"Now that I think about it, though, we really might not have enough time..." Wei Liang muttered.

Lin Yi waved a hand and reassured him. "It's fine. We'll see when the time comes. Worst case, we skip a meal and eat more at lunch."

"Yeah, that's all we can do..."

Just then, the abnormal Classmate at the front reached out and grasped the classroom door handle.

Click! Click!

After the Security Guard had dragged the unidentified creature away, the classroom door had not been locked. Although the Classmate moved very slowly, he still opened the door quite naturally.

"Beep, beep, beep..."

The door opened. The mountain's morning breeze, carrying dew and the fragrance of flowers and grass, flowed in like a stream, dispersing the stale air that had accumulated in the classroom overnight.

As the door opened wider, Lin Yi saw a deep-blue world filled with drifting mist...

May 7, X023, 4:53.

The faintly bright sky reflected the blue of the ocean, and thin mist drifted through S City University, as though it had sunk into the deep sea.