Arc 5Chapters 102–126
No recap yet.
No recap yet.
Lin Yi watched Mu Daxian guide Mao Feiyang through the Art Classroom and onto the Lookout, where the dream’s setting matched the vision Lin Yi had seen earlier. He expected Mao Feiyang to sketch and connect across Layers with his past self, but the chapter ended before that happened.
Mao Feiyang’s painting drew Lin Yi into a vision linking their perspectives across time, revealing Lin Yi’s past contamination and a possible purpose for Swimming Class. The vision ended with Mao Feiyang finding a painting of the Clock Tower he did not remember making.
Lin Yi experienced Mao Feiyang’s stormy night, where the Night Watchman defended the Castle from climbing creatures, before falling out of the dream and waking in the Dormitory. He left the other students curious about his dream, while the chapter ended with the author explaining that illness was slowing the writing.
Lin Yi and the others left their dormitory after finding blood transformed into plaster-like powder, then encountered strange contamination and sensed something following them through the elevator shaft. As they headed out, Lin Yi realized that everyone in the group might already be contaminated, even if they still appeared normal.
Lin Yi and Tian Bufan discussed the strange elevator and how to rescue Mao Feiyang from the Art Building by finding a route that could change his identity from an Art Student to an Experience Student. They decided to use self-study periods to explore the Campus, starting with the simpler areas around the Teaching Building and Cafeteria.
Lin Yi and Tian Bufan discussed using the Campus’s rules and resources to expand their safe territory, while Lin Yi endured a wave of darkness and began questioning his memories and purpose. The group continued toward the Cafeteria, and Wei Liang privately wondered why Lin Yi kept looking back at him.
Lin Yi and his companions crossed into the Cafeteria area and discussed their encounters with its strange inhabitants. They investigated signs of shifting layers in the Student Passage, then reached the Blue Apron Chef, whom Tian Bufan warned them to ignore.
Lin Yi and his companions entered the Student Dining Hall, where Wei Liang narrowly avoided a Green Apron Chef by pretending to tie his shoelace. Over breakfast, Tian Bufan advised Lin Yi to investigate clues from Maozi’s Art Building route while following rules cautiously; Lin Yi then noticed a tomato-eating person in green seated opposite him, possibly an Art Student or another contaminated entity.
Lin Yi resisted the Art Student’s attempt to communicate, then used a nearby pillar to anchor himself when the Student Dining Hall’s space distorted around him. He discovered a Green Apron Chef with both hands severed was restrained by a rule, but it followed him toward the Plate Return Area as hostile students and chefs surrounded the group.
Lin Yi and his friends escaped the Student Dining Hall after Wei Shan knocked the Green Apron Chef aside, while the Cafeteria’s lights began failing and its Nonhuman Classmates were consumed by a growing Tomato Sauce horror. Outside, Lin Yi learned the Cafeteria had seven minutes before closing, and Tian Bufan led him and Wei Shan toward the Staff Passage as Kuai Hongji and Wei Liang split off.
Lin Yi witnessed Wei Shan absorb strange white particles and glimpse the Security Guard's Shadow as Wei Shan discarded his jacket at the Staff Passage. After separating from Tian Bufan to investigate their classrooms, Lin Yi sensed tomato-like residue and blood inside the Teachers' Office lock, and Wei Liang opened the door to reveal a faintly still breath.
Lin Yi and Wei Liang entered their classroom to find Head Teacher 040 replacing their previous teacher and discovered that many students were missing. Lin Yi found Pan Jian’s digital camera, which might contain footage of the deadly events after lights-out, and picked it up despite a frightened student’s warning.
Lin Yi watched Pan Jian’s recovered camera footage, which showed the classroom’s attack during the blackout and hinted at figures outside the windows. He realized Head Teacher 040 was using sign-ins for more than counting survivors, but did not discover what the roll-call list meant.
Lin Yi discovered a formation of full-body sculptures in the Wooded Belt and tested how sunlight affected their Void Targeting. He returned to his seat and copied the Art Department rules for Tian Bufan.
Lin Yi discovered that twelve Experience Students had disappeared overnight, including New Students and returning students who had gone to the Dormitory Building. As he and Wei Liang headed to the Cafeteria, a frightened New Student tried to join them, and Lin Yi left Wei Liang to decide whether to help her.
Li Huiyuan realized the Campus was dangerous and tried to team up with Lin Yi and Wei Liang, who reluctantly let her follow under strict conditions. While they waited outside the Cafeteria, Li Huiyuan briefly turned cold after noticing Lin Yi’s watch, but the cause remained unclear.
Lin Yi waited with Wei Shan and Li Huiyuan for Tian Bufan at the Cafeteria, where he observed that most students passed through the Blue Apron Chef as if he were not there. Tian Bufan revealed that the chef had been watching Li Huiyuan because she had little time left, leaving Lin Yi alarmed and uncertain what made her a target.
Lin Yi and his companions navigated the Student Dining Hall, where a Green Apron Chef tried to tempt them with dangerous tomatoes. Lin Yi and Wei Liang ruined the tomatoes, and Wei Shan crushed them underfoot, drawing the attention of the cafeteria’s sinister patrons.
Lin Yi and his companions discovered that the cafeteria lady at Meal Window No. 3 had vanished, then tried to escape the Student Dining Hall as Green Apron Chefs pursued them. Lin Yi pulled Li Huiyuan through the exit, but a Green Apron Chef clawed her back as they fled.
Li Huiyuan lost her student ID when a Green Apron Chef swallowed it, and Lin Yi tried to reassure her by interpreting the university rules. After realizing their group’s arrival and first night had deviated from the intended Experience Student routine, Lin Yi suspected they had been pushed into a dangerous situation and questioned Tian Bufan about his earlier remark concerning Li Huiyuan.
Lin Yi and Tian Bufan discussed Li Huiyuan’s contamination and proposed using her to test campus rules, while also developing theories about cognition and the Blue Apron Chef. As they returned to the Teaching Building, Li Huiyuan began experiencing a strange transformation in the world around her.
Li Huiyuan lost her Student ID and nearly followed a ghostly voice off the Pebble Road, leading Lin Yi to suspect that the ID was necessary for an Experience Student’s safe state. After reporting the loss to Head Teacher 040, Lin Yi noticed the corridor wall might conceal clues about how the school’s abnormal layers distorted space.
Lin Yi pieced together how contamination might turn dead students into moving sculptures and suspected the nonhuman classmates were dead, while identifying a possible route to the Art Building. The Long Winter then arrived, and an Eldritch Abomination seemed to notice him as he fell into another layer and heard the ancient cries again.
Lin Yi was pulled back from a dangerous trance by a vision of Wei Shan, then learned that Li Huiyuan had lost her Student ID and needed time to decide what to do. After Li Huiyuan explained that Head Teacher 040 had told her to buy a Student Commemorative Coin, Lin Yi suspected it could shift her onto the Art Student path.
Lin Yi investigated Li Huiyuan’s contamination and discovered a hair-thin wound on her back that released green vapor, along with a strange fragment hidden beneath her tank top. Wei Liang returned and mistook their examination for an intimate encounter.