Only after the Little Genius sculpture turned and left did Lin Yi, who had collapsed on the ground, suddenly realize he had confused several questions:
"Were the clothes on the Little Genius sculpture part of the sculpture from the start?"
"If that was the Little Genius sculpture... then where was Liangzi?"
And the most crucial point was:
"If it was clearly the Little Genius sculpture, why had I kept thinking it was Liangzi before it turned around?"
"Was this sea wind interfering with my 'perception' of Liangzi?"
Lin Yi struggled up from the ground against the foul-smelling sea wind. The Little Genius sculpture was still walking ahead of him.
Watching its back, Lin Yi suddenly realized that when he had mistaken it for Wei Liang, he had barely sensed any danger at all.
But when it turned around and he faced it directly, that intense sense of danger had lashed his face with the sea wind, chilling him all over.
"Where did Liangzi go?!" The question suddenly leaped into his mind. Looking at the Little Genius sculpture, he suddenly noticed that at the end of the road it was walking along... there was no Gymnasium.
He froze.
"No Gymnasium?"
He hurriedly looked back.
There was no Teaching Building behind him.
Not only was the Teaching Building gone, even the notice board in front of the Gymnasium had vanished.
There was nothing around him.
Only wind.
Endless, foul-smelling sea wind.
It blew from somewhere unknown ahead of him toward his back.
"Wait...!" Seeming to realize something, he could not help looking around again.
Then he swallowed hard and froze in place.
There were no streetlamps around him.
Not even a single, solitary lamppost.
Not just no lampposts-there were no flowers, grass, or trees. Nothing.
In his entire world, only a Little Genius sculpture and endless raging wind remained, as though following the sculpture were the only correct path.
As he stood lost, a low rumble of thunder suddenly sounded deep in the sky.
Rumble-
Lin Yi looked up. The clouds hung low overhead, as though the sky were about to collapse.
Thick, dense layers of pitch-black cloud pressed down, and a terrifying eye of the storm slowly formed deep in the sea of clouds, like the sky opening a cold eye to gaze indifferently at everything below.
There was nothing below.
Only him.
Only Lin Yi.
Looking up at the sky, Lin Yi seemed to meet the gaze of the storm's eye overlooking the earth.
The vast, fathomless vortex distorted all light and shadow, distorting the entire world Lin Yi could see.
The raging wind seemed to acquire lines, the earth seemed to acquire contours, and beneath Lin Yi's feet lay a twisted road.
It was as though someone had pulled a strand from a tangled ball of yarn and tossed it into the storm without beginning or end, leaving it trembling ceaselessly in the tempest.
Lin Yi felt intensely dizzy. For some reason, the dim world became an irregular prism, and multicolored light and shadow filled his vision along the lines of the world, cramming his mind full.
His head felt heavy, terribly heavy. His limbs began to weaken, and he rolled uncontrollably onto the ground.
He instinctively reached out to brace his falling body, and the earth suddenly sank like cotton candy.
His face slammed against the ground. The earth, which had felt like cotton candy, suddenly struck his face like a boxer's fist, making him see stars and hiss with pain as he sucked in breath.
But the moment he inhaled, the foul sea wind mixed with the smell of decay filled his lungs. He felt an overwhelming urge to vomit, but the more he wanted to retch, the more sea wind he inhaled.
He felt he was going to suffocate in the sea wind.
Only the sound of wind remained in his ears.
He felt the world receding from him... no, it seemed the world had abandoned him long ago.
Only the sea wind remained, foul, filthy, chaotic, rotten...
He was about to lose consciousness. Through the howling sea wind, he faintly heard distant singing, like a sea demon singing after being swept onto a reef with the waves crashing against the rocks...
The sea was singing.
The abyss was calling.
The darkness... was embracing him.
Boom-crack-
Thunder roared. Pure white light tore through the chaotic world, illuminating Lin Yi's disheveled face.
Lin Yi's dark eyes caught sight of the lightning in the sky. As though a flame had been kindled in them, his vacant eyes regained their focus.
The lightning shattered the darkness, jolting Lin Yi's mind awake.
He struggled up from the earth, then hammered his head with all his strength, like a highly skilled master striking an old closed-circuit television at a forty-five-degree angle.
The static on the television vanished, and the signal returned.
Lin Yi's thoughts gradually cleared as well.
Deep in the sky, muffled thunder rolled, and the raging wind remained.
The storm's eye gathered into something even deeper.
He had a premonition.
"It's going to rain..."
This was the last calm before the storm.
Lin Yi struggled to stand in the sea wind. After checking his surroundings again, he had to force himself to accept a fact:
He had left the only road leading to the Gymnasium. The road he was on now was the very "road without streetlamps" specifically emphasized on the Gymnasium Notice Board.
[There is one and only one road leading to the Gymnasium. Streetlamps are installed along it, each with a streetlamp number. Do not set foot on any road without streetlamps.]
But clearly, "without streetlamps" was only one criterion for determining whether someone had stepped onto "this road."
This road did not merely lack streetlamps. It had absolutely fucking nothing.
Rumble...
Low thunder circled the horizon, seemingly reminding him that it was going to rain.
Lin Yi gritted his teeth, constantly reminding himself of the rules related to the Gymnasium.
First: [The Gymnasium was built in a somewhat unusual location, so the wind may be a little strong. Do not worry. As long as there is no rain or fog, this is normal.]
Second: [If you notice rain on the road leading to the Gymnasium, please decide where to go based on the first building you see...]
"Those are the only two concerning the Gymnasium. All the others are ways to respond to abnormal weather."
"But even the options for abnormal weather don't include 'looking around and finding no buildings at all'!"
Those four options corresponded to seeing the Gymnasium, the Teaching Building, a Western-style castle, or buildings other than the castle first when it rained.
The only situation that bore even a slight resemblance to his current circumstances was the fourth:
[If you see no buildings other than the castle, please follow the instructions in the Student Rules to find the nearest streetlamp. Hold tightly to it until a Gym Teacher or Security Guard appears.]
But... there were absolutely no streetlamps around him now!
"Wait, what was that rule about finding streetlamps in the Student Rules?"
Lin Yi's mind raced, but the sense of danger was so overwhelming that, to avoid missing anything, he could only silently recite them from the first rule onward, until-
[If you cannot immediately find a numbered streetlamp, please lower your head and stare closely at the ground beneath your feet. Find any reference point that allows you to confirm you are still on the road. If you notice the ground twisting, stretching, or undergoing any changes that defy common sense, immediately grip your Student ID and Map tightly in your hands and repeatedly remind yourself of your name and student number. Remember that you are a student. This sentence is bold and underlined.]
"Lower your head and stare closely at the ground beneath your feet. Find any reference point that allows you to confirm you're still 'on the road'..."
Lin Yi's eyes darted from side to side as he kept murmuring two words: "The road!"
The road! The road! The road!
So! At the very least, this had to be a "road"!
"Road! Reference point! Road! Reference point!!"
A flash of inspiration crossed Lin Yi's eyes, but he could not grasp it immediately!
He kept clutching his hair, his face contorted with the pain of struggling to think.
The sea wind grew stronger. An icy chill spread from the direction of the Little Genius sculpture, and a layer of frost seemed to spread across the ground.
With the appearance of the frost, faint wisps of fog emerged from somewhere unknown, gradually swallowing the Little Genius sculpture before spreading unhurriedly toward Lin Yi...
The sea wind blew hard, but the speed of the spreading fog was completely unaffected.
This eerie scene conveyed an intense sense of contradiction, but Lin Yi withdrew his gaze after only a glance.
Only one piece of information remained in his mind: the Gymnasium was built in a somewhat unusual location, so the wind might be a little strong. Do not worry. As long as there was no rain or fog, this was normal.
As long as there was no rain or fog, it was normal.
If there was rain or fog, it was abnormal.
And now... there was fucking fog!
He instantly recalled when he had first entered the Campus the previous night. The fog had been thick, the streetlamps had not yet come on, and he had encountered a female teacher whose behavior was very strange, along with a group of people dressed as students.
Things had seemed to lurk in the fog, but as long as he kept his back to them, he would not encounter any danger.
"No, that's wrong, wrong! It wasn't that keeping my back to them meant no danger, but... not turning around meant no danger."
And the prerequisite for not turning around was walking toward a streetlamp or something else.
There were no streetlamps now. Once something came looking for him with the fog, he could not guarantee that nothing would appear in front of him.
At that point, if there was no streetlamp ahead, there was no guarantee that whatever he would encounter by turning around would not be standing in front of him instead.
In fog this thick, the chances of walking forward and bumping into someone's back... might not be small at all!
The faint fog drew closer and closer, soon spreading across the ground beside his feet.
"What do I do, what do I do, what do I do..."
Lin Yi tugged painfully at his hair. He could distinctly feel that his intelligence was not quite enough.
The fog beneath his feet kept building up. At the end of the road, it grew thicker and thicker, vaguely resembling layer upon layer of mountains pressing toward him.
"Road... reference point! Reference point!!"
"This is a road, this is a road..."
He kept muttering, his brain spinning at high speed like an old tractor belching smoke.
He kept chasing the inspiration in his mind, repeating the sentence that had given it to him.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up.
"This is a road. At the very least, it's a road!"
"And the reason it can be defined as a 'road' is..."
He abruptly crouched and pressed a hand against his shod left foot...
His eyes fixed tightly on his left shoe. Then he slowly moved it aside...
There were several pebbles where the sole had been.
The instant he saw those pebbles, intense joy appeared in Lin Yi's eyes.
Every road on the Campus was paved with pebbles.
Even if the entire world disappeared, even if all he had left were these few pebbles beneath his feet, they were enough to prove that he was still "on the road"!
[Please lower your head and stare closely at the ground beneath your feet. Find any reference point that allows you to confirm you are still on the road.]
As though he had found a lifeline, he lay on the ground, protecting those pebbles like family heirlooms.
He riveted his gaze to those pebbles, then suddenly noticed an enormous problem with them.
All the pebbles should have been oval, but the ones before him were irregular, as though some strange force had twisted their original shapes!
Yet Lin Yi stared feverishly at the patterns on the pebbles.
The pebbles were twisted and deformed, like a maddened world.
Like... the world he saw!
Whoosh-
The sea wind howled in his ears, seeming to carry the distant song of a sea demon.
Rumble-
Thunder rolled overhead, and the storm's eye seemed poised to swallow the entire world.
Huff... huff...
The fog spread and gathered, like waves and even more like tides, one surge rising over another, slowly closing the distance as it swept toward him.
"Sea wind! Pebbles!"
He pressed his palm firmly against a pebble's surface, feeling its twisted patterns, and slowly closed his eyes...
The chilling white fog spread toward him, slowly enveloping him...
"My name is Lin Yi. My student number is X0230506098. I'm on the road to the Gymnasium..."
He strengthened his conviction through ceaseless murmurs. As he forced himself to relax, he felt the patterns on the pebbles and the direction of the sea wind.
Gradually, he shifted from facing the sea wind to turning his back to it.
Then his palm slowly slid outward along one of the patterns on the pebble...
"My name is Lin Yi. My student number is X0230506098. I'm on the road to the Gymnasium..."
He kept whispering.
Just as his palm left that pebble, his fingertips found a new pebble ahead...
This pebble was still distorted, but clearly not as absurdly distorted as the previous one.
Joy rose in his heart. He knew his deduction was correct.
Using both hands, his eyes tightly closed, he felt the sea wind pushing against his back and kept crawling forward, feeling his way along the pebbles.
Suddenly...
A scraping sound reached his ears.
He abruptly stopped and arched his back warily. His muscles slowly tightened, and his entire body resembled a blinded cheetah.
Scrape, scrape, scrape...
He could sense the sound coming from all around him, like someone dragging a stone across the ground.
He paused, then reached into his pocket and clenched his Student ID tightly in his palm.
Then he held his breath and kept shouting inwardly-
"My name is Lin Yi! My Student Number is X0230506098! I'm on my way to the Gymnasium!"
"Scrape, scrape, scrape-"
The sound of stones scraping against the ground around him grew louder and louder. He could almost sense cold stones brushing past his body one after another.
Every hair on his arms stood on end.
He shouted even louder in his mind.
And the scraping sounds around him grew more frequent.
He could almost sense something reaching toward him from behind, then hovering above his shoulder, seemingly wary of something and slow to come down.
"Rumble-"
Muffled thunder sounded, and the eye of the storm let out a joyous roar.
"Drip... drop... drip... drop..."
"Drip!"
A drop of rain drifted onto Lin Yi.
Just a single drop of rain made his body twitch involuntarily, as though it were an icy bullet!
An intense sense of death instantly enveloped him, and his scalp prickled violently-he sensed the thing hovering above his shoulder slam down at that very moment!
"Rain!!!"
"It's the rain!!!"
"The rain made me lose that 'can't be attacked' effect!!"
A chill ran down Lin Yi's spine, and his limbs lost contact with his brain in an instant.
"Fuck! Fuck you!"
He roared inwardly, and his limbs abruptly returned to his control!
"My name is Lin Yi! My Student Number is X0230506098!"
He pushed with his arms and kicked out with his legs, sliding a body length along the pebbles!
"I'm on my way to the Gymnasium!!"
The pebbles, which clearly covered only the area of a single footprint, appeared automatically in front of Lin Yi's hands as though they were endless, actually allowing him to slide away!
Just as he slid away, a bang! came from the spot where he had been.
It sounded like someone had raised a stone and smashed it against the ground.
There was no imagining what would happen if that thing hit him!
He swallowed, not daring to take a breath, open his eyes, or pause even for a moment.
Gritting his teeth, he continued feeling for the pebbles and crawling forward. The sense of death hunted close behind him, and the scraping turned into a rolling rumble, closing in on him from every direction!
Lin Yi moved like a swimming dragon, like a lizard crawling low along the pebbles.
"My name is Lin Yi, my Student Number is X0230506098, I'm on my way to the Gymnasium..."
His will was as firm as iron, his movements as elusive as a god's!
Until the distorted feel of the pebbles steadily corrected itself, finally returning to their normal oval shape.
He still did not open his eyes.
He was still crawling!
But gradually, he realized that the sea wind that had been pushing so hard against his back had weakened considerably.
He noticed the scraping sounds beside his ears steadily fading, until they disappeared completely...
Somehow, that eerie sense of death had vanished too...
He felt some warmth on his back.
"My name is Lin Yi, my Student Number is X0230506098, I'm on my way to the Gymnasium..." He slowly opened his eyes.
He found himself lying prone on a pebble-paved path, with the shape of a streetlamp pole just visible out of the corner of his eye.
He silently breathed a sigh of relief, then suddenly noticed a pair of feet wrapped in super-thick socks in his field of vision.
He froze for a moment, then slowly raised his head.
"What's gotten into you? I only walked a couple steps faster. Did you really have to throw yourself down to kiss my feet?"
Wei Liang looked down at him with a strange expression, a stretch of blue sky behind his head.
The sun shone just right in that blue sky.
5,200 words-that's my love for you! Enough said, over 1,000 extra words as a bonus update for Alliance Leader "Full Moon and Clear Radiance"! A little under 8,000 words to go before I hit 10,000. This chapter was really hard to write. I revised the beginning so many times, but once I got into it, I was afraid the inspiration would disappear, so I stayed up until now! I pushed through to finish it, then added just a tiny bit more! Because if I didn't finish this part of the plot and left it until tomorrow, I felt it would be a choppy, stop-start read for everyone. Boohoo, I'm far too conscientious...
Before you continue