Arc 8Chapters 178–202
No recap yet.
No recap yet.
Lin Yi and Tian Bufan discussed how nonhuman classmates might emerge from unstable corners in the Campus and follow students through identity-based anchoring. After reconsidering Song Rentou’s paper, Lin Yi realized its contents were suspicious, leaving the mystery unresolved.
Lin Yi and Tian Bufan analyzed Song Rentou’s contradictory note and reconstructed how suspicion and the Humanoid Sculptures might have led to the deaths of his roommates. Kuai Hongji emerged from the bathroom with a darker interpretation, challenging their assumption that the Nonhuman Classmates had to drag anyone out to kill them.
Kuai Hongji reconstructed how Song Rentou deliberately used the Nonhuman Classmates to kill his roommates, then wrote a confession that concealed his responsibility. The group settled in for the night, while Lin Yi wondered whether the Bathroom could serve as a shelter before he shuddered after leaving it.
Lin Yi and his roommates discussed the mysterious Song Rentou and the rules for surviving the fog, then examined footage of a being the Digital Camera could not record. Tian Bufan described perceiving the entity as a shifting, incomprehensible “concept-level sculpture” and called it “He.”
Lin Yi discussed Li Huiyuan, Zhou Yuting, and the Teaching Building with Tian Bufan and Kuai Hongji, who warned him to prioritize his own survival as contamination and abnormal weather worsened. The chapter left Lin Yi realizing that the Dorm Supervisor’s lamp might grant him the same overwhelming power as a Security Guard.
Lin Yi and Tian Bufan compared theories about Building D and Lin Yi’s new deduction ability, while Tian explained what he learned by exposing the elevator’s night-walking species to sunlight. Their findings led Lin Yi to suspect that the Campus’s contamination source was a colossal night-walking species connected to the Nonexistent Ocean.
Lin Yi and Tian Bufan compared their observations to map how night-walking species, humanoid sculptures, and nonhuman classmates transformed, while considering how lost Student IDs and contamination might change Experience Students. They ended by suspecting the campus was facing a broader invasion led by a powerful source of contamination and that the concept-level sculpture might not be unique.
Lin Yi and Tian Bufan theorized that supernatural contamination and the Nonhuman Classmates’ attacks on streetlamps were connected, while uncovering more of the campus’s strange layered geography. The chapter ended with Tian Bufan revealing that his search for the Library had led him to the Wooded Belt instead.
Lin Yi and Tian Bufan connected the Library to Building D of the Teaching Building and analyzed how supernatural waves might affect the Campus’s lights. They ended the night planning to investigate the Gymnasium, while Wei Liang panicked at the prospect of swimming class.
Lin Yi fell asleep as the dormitory lights went out and entered a lucid dream in Tian Bufan’s perspective, watching the athlete students destroy night-walking species and Tian Bufan turn their remains into mirror glue. Old Du explained that the creatures’ blood-vessel-like frameworks let them absorb contamination and regenerate, while Tian Bufan learned that their humanoid sculptures could become impersonators but not real humans.
Lin Yi watched Tian Bufan learn about night-walking species and impersonators, then noticed that Tian Bufan’s strange choices in the elevator seemed to reveal details meant for Lin Yi to see. After falling through a dream transition, Lin Yi arrived beside a streetlamp labeled “Library-102.”
Lin Yi watched Tian Bufan and Wei Shan investigate the area by the Library-102 Streetlamp Pole, while he reconsidered what lay beyond Teaching Building C and memorized the surroundings. As Tian Bufan and Wei Shan left, Lin Yi’s dream shifted into a fleeing investigator’s perspective, revealing a strange tree covered in eyes.
Lin Yi dreamed through a Micro Camera recording of Kuai Hongji encountering a wounded cameraman near the Cursed Tree, then woke in the dormitory to the sound of someone showering after midnight. Realizing Song Rentou’s roommate may have been the supernatural target, Lin Yi stayed in his Safe State and used his Minecraft perception to map the unseen things in the dormitory.
Lin Yi endured a supernatural presence whispering beside his bed while he tried to remain asleep and preserve his safety. The Dorm Supervisor arrived with the Old Kerosene Lamp, driving back the chill and beginning to deal with the intruder.
Lin Yi survived a night of horrors in Dormitory 1414 when the Dorm Supervisor returned with the Old Kerosene Lamp and helped him fall asleep again. In Wei Shan’s dream perspective, Lin Yi discovered that Wei Shan emitted sky-blue steam and eagerly faced a Black Leather Apron Chef in the Staff Passage.
Lin Yi resumed watching Mao Feiyang’s perspective in the Art Building and saw Mu Daxian prepare to escort him to dinner with a concealed weapon disguised as a drawing board. As they left, Mu Daxian warned Mao Feiyang away from sealed areas and explained the hall’s mysterious artwork, while Lin Yi grew wary of his advice about the rules.
Mu Daxian explained how Mao Feiyang had arrived at the Art Building and revealed that he had once worked as a Dorm Supervisor. As they crossed the stormy bridge, Mu Daxian protected Mao Feiyang from an Impersonator Art Teacher and used his paintbrush to change the creature’s perception of its severed leg.
Lin Yi watched Mu Daxian guide Mao Feiyang from the Art Building through the Library and into Teaching Building A, then take him off the Pebble Road to maintain Streetlamp Poles. Mu Daxian explained that the poles needed their numbers replenished before the Day of Destruction, and Mao Feiyang suddenly screamed as they continued along the mountain path.
Mu Daxian brought Mao Feiyang through the Other Passage to the Student Dining Hall and explained contamination, supernatural power, and the choices involved in becoming an Art Student. As Mao Feiyang learned how supernatural traits varied with talent, Mu Daxian identified Van Gogh and Da Vinci as exceptional Art Students, leaving Mao Feiyang questioning whether he meant the famous artists.
Mu Daxian explained the histories and dangers of the Art Student and Athlete Student paths to Mao Feiyang, then led him through the Student Dining Hall. Lin Yi discovered another hidden layer containing an Impersonator meal window, and the chapter ended with him sensing that the apparently peaceful dining hall beyond the curtain was terrifyingly silent.
Lin Yi continued watching Mao Feiyang’s perspective and saw him and Mu Daxian flee through the Teaching Building after Mao Feiyang’s wound began releasing contamination. They escaped an attack in the Bathroom, where Lin Yi spotted a pupil-less Wei Liang among several identical figures.
While following Mao Feiyang through Building B, Lin Yi noticed his wound stirred a dangerous appetite and saw him suppress it through concentration. Lin Yi then perceived Purebred Night-Walking Species covering the Teaching Building’s walls and connected the experience to a theory that expanding cognition could raise a person’s contamination threshold, leaving him to wonder whether this could let an Experience Student use powers usually associated with higher stages.
Lin Yi realized that his expanded domain of cognition let him withstand more supernatural contamination, then saw a vision revealing why Mu Daxian and Mao Feiyang had stayed out of classrooms. He learned that Mao Feiyang’s wound carried unusually strong supernatural power and that an Angel might be drawn to it, while Mu Daxian prepared to hide him through the night.
Mu Daxian explained to Mao Feiyang why Impersonators and other supernatural beings could not be eliminated inside the Art Building, while Lin Yi realized sunlight made them vulnerable on Campus. As the Security Guard arrived to take Head Teacher 039 away, Mu Daxian warned Mao Feiyang that the Guard’s rules and supernatural traits made him dangerous to approach.
Lin Yi watched the Security Guard escort Head Teacher 039 and a queue of chefs through the fog, while Mu Daxian kept Mao Feiyang from following too closely. Lin Yi discovered that he carried both green and blue contamination, while Wei Liang appeared to have none; the chapter ended as the Security Guard revealed the Building D Covered Bridge and called the group after him.