"After 21:00, do not leave the classroom. Please self-study until 7:40 the next day. You may browse any books, but remember not to sleep in the classroom! (This last sentence is bolded, underlined, and marked with numerous conspicuous exclamation points)."
"During this period, if you see anything abnormal outside the window or someone calls you from outside the door, ignore it."
"6, Theoretically, the classroom's power supply should not be cut off, so the lights should not go out. If the lights start flickering, squat down before they go out, hold tightly to the legs of the desk and repeatedly remind yourself of two things in your mind: first, your name and Student ID card number; second, that you are studying in the Teaching Building classroom, not sleeping in the dorm."
"7, If you violate any of the above rules, please try to seek help from the head teacher as quickly as possible, inform them of the details, and then unconditionally trust and follow the head teacher's instructions."
"As long as you follow the rules of the Teaching Building, it will be the most reliable shelter for you during your time at school. I wish you pleasant studying and safe entry and exit."
The rules weren't plentiful, but before Lin Yi had finished reading them for the first time, a chill had already begun seeping through his back.
He stared solemnly at the second rule: The Teaching Building has only four floors; it has no basement, no elevator, and certainly no Building D. If you inadvertently discover an area other than the four floors of the Teaching Building, do not proceed to it.
He then recalled the scene when he first saw this Teaching Building...
The massive Teaching Building rose into the dark and oppressive sky like a mountain, its layers unclear but brightly lit, like a torch standing upright in the night.
Visibly, there were seven floors!
Then, they had also followed the signs into the basement!
But, the Teaching Building doesn't have a basement at all. So where did they enter?
Mao Feiyang was still in the stairwell!
He tried hard to recall the scene when he entered the stairwell and then came out...
Enter on the first floor...
Rushed downstairs for over twenty minutes...
Then pushed the door out...
And then, the scene outside the door was still the first floor!
"Could it be just going in and coming out?"
"How did the door to the stairwell change to the classroom entrance?"
"Could the problem be with the stairs?"
He fell into doubt.
While he kept recalling and thinking, grappling with the past, a wave of exhaustion once again slowly rose within him, and then crazily eroded his will.
He felt the circular classroom starting to distort...
He felt the Teaching Building becoming surreal...
"Old Lin! Old Lin!"
Wei Liang pressed on Lin Yi's shoulder, shaking him vigorously.
"Don't fall asleep, sleeping is not allowed in the study room!"
Lin Yi was shaken awake, and the weak, tired feeling was also shaken off.
"What just happened to me...?"
He felt something was leading him into a certain train of thought, this guidance was incredibly smooth, so much so that even he himself didn't realize it. By the time he did react, he could only feel a weakness arising from within his heart. By then, Wei Liang had already shaken him awake.
He looked at Wei Liang, confused, "Did I look like I was asleep just now?"
"You were just short of a pillow from falling completely asleep."
"..." Lin Yi's mouth slightly opened, "Ah, this...?"
He had felt he was deep in thought, at worst a bit dizzy, but in Wei Liang's view, he seemed about to fall asleep?
Just at that moment, Lin Yi suddenly noticed the light dimming, an unknown shadow blocking part of the light.
He looked up, and the next moment, he felt a cold chill shoot up from the sole of his foot, piercing through his leg bones, sweeping up his spine, and shooting straight into his apical bone, then passing through it!
He and Wei Liang were surrounded by people without them noticing when they had gathered.
These classmates were densely packed around them like obelisks, completely enclosing them.
When he lifted his head, his eyes met theirs looking down.
All the surrounding classmates were smiling with their eyes narrowed, each one's mouth curving up at the same angle. Despite their different features and body types, they looked like countless face-carved tombstones watching him.
Under the dim light, Lin Yi could still clearly see their pallid, malnourished-looking faces.
Seeing Lin Yi had regained consciousness, they didn't say anything, just moved with somewhat stiff steps, slowly dispersing back to their respective seats.
However, some students, even after sitting back down, still stared straight at Lin Yi.
Lin Yi lowered his head to glance at his watch.
20:13.
It seemed he had been pondering for a while since he finished reading the Student Rules, but...
"When did they come over?"
"Moreover, with so many people gathered around me, it was impossible for there not to be any noise!"
Lin Yi looked towards Wei Liang, trying to find an answer on his face.
Under the brim of Wei Liang's baseball cap, his eyes were also filled with fear.
"Liangzi, did you notice when they came over?" Lin Yi asked.
Wei Liang stiffened his neck and nodded, his breathing slightly hurried, clearly also clueless about what had just happened.
Wei Liang lowered his voice and said, "Old Lin, all I know is... you can't sleep during self-study time, so I woke you up because you seemed a bit sleepy."
"I didn't expect it to turn out like this, it's too shocking." He looked around nervously.
One of the students made eye contact with him and even flashed a standardized smile at him.
Wei Liang's hair stood on end, and he quickly withdrew his head.
Lin Yi whispered, "Do you know them?"
Wei Liang responded flatly, "I know your milk... Know your leg! There are some not quite normal people in every classroom, you must not provoke them."
"Why would I provoke them for no reason?" Lin Yi said, paused, and then continued, "So... we have to spend the next seven days with these people?"
Lin Yi was very resistant to these classmates, especially since their gathering around him earlier had given him a strong sense of suffocation.
"No choice... they are classmates after all." Wei Liang shrugged, then added, "I don't like them either, although I know it's not nice to say this, but I feel like they're not quite... human."
His hand fidgeted with the Student ID card in his pocket, and he couldn't help muttering, "Do you think this Student ID card might really be an enchanted treasure?"
Lin Yi touched his forehead, "Why don't you think of something normal, how did you get through it the last time you were here?"
Wei Liang innocently said, "The first time I was here, I had no experience, of course, I strictly followed the rules..."
"Every day I was just dorm, Cafeteria, Teaching Building, three points in a line... and then somehow it just ended."
"But my dizziness and confusion last time might have been because of too many days of such a monotonous life, plus the heavy miasma in the mountains in the early morning and late evening, otherwise I wouldn't have felt dizzy and confused at the end of the last two days."
Lin Yi widened his eyes, surprised, "Three points in a line? Didn't you tell me you explored every part of the campus over the seven days, and there was nowhere in the campus you didn't know about before you came?"
Wei Liang opened his mouth, then awkwardly smiled, "That was just me trying to show off a little bit..."
Lin Yi looked at Wei Liang, initially not knowing what to say.
"So... explore?"
Wei Liang silently pulled out a small booklet of the Teaching Building rules and tucked out the last page...
Lin Yi widened his eyes.
No wonder the Teaching Building rules booklet only had a few rules, but needed a booklet—it turns out that it can open out... into a map.
Wei Liang slowly tucking out the map looked as though he was offering it, his focused demeanor almost as if he was looking for a dagger hidden in the folds of the map.
"This is a map of S City University, I've 'cloud visited' lots of times during boring self-study classes..." Wei Liang said without a hint of embarrassment.
"Cloud... visited?" Lin Yi blinked, a question mark slowly forming above his head until it eventually condensed into three words.
「You motherfucker.」
Eventually, under Wei Liang's awkward, chuckling gaze, Lin Yi slowly raised a thumbs-up: "Nice."
But suddenly, he noticed something, grabbed the map from Wei Liang's hands, and started observing it closely.
His eyes widened, but his pupils violently shook.
Lin Yi's sudden seriousness startled Wei Liang, who leaned in to look at the map, only to hear Lin Yi muttering nonstop:
"What's going on? How could it be like this?!"