AnalogHorror: Rule Kaidan 4016
Chapter 123 - 56: The Sports Student Who Didn’t Wear a Tracksuit (Extra 1100 words!)_3

Chapter 123: Chapter 56: The Sports Student Who Didn’t Wear a Tracksuit (Extra 1100 words!)_3

"Let’s go!" Lin Yi said in a low voice, and no sooner had he spoken than he picked up his tray and decisively followed the actions of the Sports Students.

Wei Liang also hurriedly extricated himself from the plastic chair.

The journey to the tray return point went exceptionally smoothly; throughout the process, Lin Yi didn’t even experience that eerie feeling of being watched, nor did he encounter any ominous signs that made his spine chill and his hair stand on end.

But the smoother it went, the more he felt that something was off—the Student Cafeteria shouldn’t be this quiet.

Suddenly, he noticed that the sound of Wei Liang’s footsteps behind him had changed...

They now had a "shasha" quality to them.

"Damn it..."

"Liangzi?" he tentatively asked, "Is the tomato tasty?"

"Tasty," came the wooden, dry, and utterly emotionless reply from behind him.

At that moment, the chill he had not felt began to surge forth, like a bucket of cold water dumped over his head, drenching him completely and chilling him to the bone!

"Motherfucker... is it Phantom Vision? Or is something just not right again?!"

Wei Liang couldn’t possibly have touched a tomato—he had milk!

So the correct response would have been something like, "What tomato? Are you out of your mind?" or similar.

He glanced at the floor tiles beneath his feet.

The ceiling of the Cafeteria was lined with rows of incandescent lights, and the light from different angles cast various shadows. Among the myriad of overlapping shadows, Lin Yi quickly identified one particular shadow.

A shadow with a chef’s hat.

Behind him wasn’t Wei Liang, but a chef.

From the shadow alone, he couldn’t tell if it was a blue or a green apron chef, but regardless of which type it was, according to the Cafeteria’s rules, neither should be present in the area of the Student Cafeteria.

He looked at the silhouettes of the Sports Students ahead of him and then realized that there was nothing wrong with them.

"So what’s going on here...?!"

"The Student Cafeteria in front of me is normal, but the one behind me is... not normal?"

"Am I, fuck, the dividing line between normal and abnormal?!"

"Old Lin, it looks like you haven’t touched your tomato?" the "Wei Liang" behind him said.

But this time, Lin Yi didn’t dare to answer.

Because speaking up earlier was his "request for interaction," and now that the other party was speaking, it represented "any stranger’s request for interaction," to which he couldn’t respond.

So he lowered his head and silently followed the Sports Students toward the tray return point.

But as soon as he looked down, the box of milk that was on his tray had been swapped out for... a tomato!

This persistent tomato, clinging to him like a curse!

Yet he was certain it was not a tomato, but milk.

If it were a tomato, would those off-kilter guys have started popping out from every nook and cranny of the Student Cafeteria from then on, congregating around him like human gravestones, eyeing his every move with a mad gaze?

But he hadn’t felt this way since the beginning and up until now.

"Stop messing around, it’s milk! It’s milk! It’s milk! Fuck the tomato!" he cursed inwardly, shifting his gaze to the silhouette of the Sports Student and then looking down again—the tomato had indeed vanished, and the untouched box of milk was once again perched on his tray.

"Heh, mere child’s play," he scoffed arrogantly.

"Old Lin, why aren’t you speaking?" the "Wei Liang" behind him asked again.

"Speak to your sister."

"Old Lin, don’t scare me!"

"Turn around and look at me!"

"Ah!!! What is this?! Ah... Old Lin! Old Lin... I, I..."

"Your sister’s drama," Lin Yi thought, having seen through the green apron chef’s trick; although he was still very nervous, his state of mind had somewhat calmed down compared to before.

"Could this be what Young Master Tian referred to as ’within the range of cognition’?"

Because he had "accepted" the fact, because he "understood" the other side, was it that his knowledge of the enemy gave him courage?

At least—until he put down his tray and prepared to leave, their relationship should maintain this state.

As for the real Wei Liang... Lin Yi couldn’t say he wasn’t worried, but considering that Wei Liang hadn’t lost a hair whether on the way to the Gymnasium or in front of the Cafeteria’s notice board while himself having experienced nine close calls to death, he felt it was superfluous to worry about Wei Liang.

His Wei Liang wasn’t even on the same layer.

Despite being marked by the green hat chef again, Wei Liang might well be walking along with his tray, perfectly unbothered.

With such free time, he might as well think of a way to save himself.

He steadied his spirit, ignored the calls from the "Wei Liang" behind him, and focused on the silhouette of the Sports Student and the shadows.

Soon, the Sports Students walking in front of him stopped at the tray return point. They dumped the remnants in their trays without any further action.

He paused slightly, a sense of dread rising from within, "Not good... this spells trouble!"

He noticed all the Sports Students struck the same pose—just shy of fulfilling the concept of "preparing to walk away after releasing the tray."

He was shocked, realizing something, and rushed over to adopt the same posture—entering the state of being about to put down the tray, yet not completely letting go.

The four Sports Students glanced at him in wonder, and then the leading muscular man began to count down quietly:

"Three, two, one..."

"Release!"

"Clang—"

Four "clang" sounds nearly synchronized, with one "clang" coming half a beat late.

Then, the Sports Students burst forth with an unprecedented terrible speed, scattering and running towards the exit of the Student Cafeteria.

"Shit!" Lin Yi’s scalp exploded, but the image of Thor with the catchphrase "I knew it!!!" popped into his mind.

He swiftly grabbed his Student ID card in his hand and then took off running as fast as his legs could carry him.