AnalogHorror: Rule Kaidan 4016
Chapter 176 - 81: The Negative 1st Floor of the Teaching Building is Just a Concept_2

Chapter 176: Chapter 81: The Negative 1st Floor of the Teaching Building is Just a Concept_2

Lin Yi immediately followed Tian Bufan’s line of thought concerning the issue with the Teacher’s Office.

At the same time, Tian Bufan spoke:

"The people who enter can’t see the people who entered before them."

"The people who leave, appear next to the class that matches their own."

"But in terms of entering and exiting, what have you noticed?"

A glint of contemplation flashed in Lin Yi’s eyes. Tian Bufan had mentioned an issue with the Teacher’s Office during a PE class once, but it was just a speculation at that time, yet now it seemed they had found the answer.

After Tian Bufan’s summarization of the issue with entering and exiting the office, Lin Yi experienced a special sensation.

It was a very familiar pattern, so familiar that he felt as if he had just experienced it not long ago.

This was a vague feeling, like a tree hidden behind mist, which he cleared away with his thoughts, and then a spark of realization flashed before his eyes!

"It’s the elevator!"

"The dormitory building’s elevator!"

Exactly! The pattern of entering and exiting the Teacher’s Office, to some extent, shares a curious similarity with the dormitory elevator!

You enter at Point A, then move to Point B to exit!

Moreover, the next person to enter cannot see the person who entered before them!

That is to say—

"The Teacher’s Office is indeed an independent and active space!"

Tian Bufan nodded and said, "Exactly, that’s just what I surmised."

"Think about it, what do you need to do when you leave the Teacher’s Office? You need to firmly believe ’when the door opens, it leads to our own classroom.’ Doesn’t this seem like a process of anchoring?"

"The Teacher’s Office fluctuates within the layers, and only by opening that door with firm belief can we return to the correct layer."

"It’s like when we encounter abnormal weather, we need to find a way to anchor ourselves in the normal layer."

"Only, when we are outside, it’s just us, whereas when the homeroom teacher is in the office, it’s a state of ’person-room unity.’"

Although Lin Yi had already speculated a vague outline, the shock in his heart was indescribable when Tian Bufan spoke it out loud.

Lin Yi had been to the Teacher’s Office and ridden the dormitory elevator, and he had even entered the office more times than Tian Bufan. However, with equal information, Tian Bufan had inferred so much more!

Without Tian Bufan guiding his thoughts, with his own intellect, he might still be trapped in the Teacher’s Office experiencing nine deaths and one life before he could comprehend it.

Tian Bufan remained silent, glanced at the clock on the wall, then waited for Lin Yi to digest the information.

Seeing enlightenment slowly dawning in Lin Yi’s eyes, Tian Bufan continued, "The other issue is with the Teaching Building’s staircase."

"A separate, enclosed spiral passage... It’s indeed too good not to write about."

"However, I’ve only had one experience of entering the staircase, and since then, I haven’t been able to locate it again, unable to gain more information."

"But I guess, the principle of the staircase might be similar to those areas twisted and compressed in the crevice of a crumpled paper. When the layers of the Teaching Building begin to fall, the staircase appears, and the length or distance of the staircase is related to the degree of stretch."

"If we’re lucky, we might immediately reach the ’transfer point’; if not, we will have to walk a long way."

"And Maozi... clearly lost his cognition while descending and fell into a trap at some point, losing the chance to anchor himself."

"He could only follow the last rule on the Teaching Building’s notice board, and that rule... remains a mystery without any clues as of now."

"The only certainty is, Maozi will lose his identity and become an Art Student."

"No, Maozi didn’t even obtain a Student ID card, so his layer had issues from the very beginning."

Lin Yi fell silent; mention of Mao Feiyang’s name made his heart feel congested.

The last notice on the sign in front of the Teaching Building read:

[If the situation you encounter does not match any of the above, and you feel you are getting lost, with some uncomfortable symptoms appearing, do not continue downstairs. Immediately ascend the stairs on your left hand, and leave when you see the sculpture at the stair entrance.

You will meet an Art Teacher, and begin an Artistic Journey.]

Thinking of Mao Feiyang, who had been missing for a while, Lin Yi felt an indescribable sense of emptiness, as if something complete had lost a part.

At that moment, Tian Bufan’s voice came: "Let’s set aside the matter of Maozi for now."

"Consider that one issue addressed, and let’s move on to the next one."

"Okay," Lin Yi nodded.

Point Five: [The basement level of the Teaching Building is the conceptual layer, the Teacher’s Office is a separate space, and the stairways of the Teaching Building might be a compressed, folded space.] ——√

Lin Yi wanted to mention something about the head teacher alone, but since he had brought up the Teaching Building, he decided to discuss the other three buildings as well: "Let’s talk about the Cafeteria’s issues next..."

"First, my conclusion, to speak in terms of your ’game theory,’ the Cafeteria is a building with ’purification and healing’ functions."

"However, since Art Students also go to the Cafeteria to eat, and considering the presence of green-aproned chefs, the Cafeteria is fundamentally still a very dangerous place."

Tian Bufan affirmed: "To us, the most important function of the Cafeteria, as you said, is to provide us food while purifying some of the contamination we have been exposed to."

Lin Yi was slightly startled: "’Contamination’—this concept...I learned it from the head teacher; Young Master Tian, how did you know about it?"

"A Sports Student told me."

Unable to judge if Tian Bufan attributed everything known to the Sports Students, Lin Yi said, "Continue."

Tian went on: "Due to issues with information gathering, there are only a few things we can discuss about the Cafeteria right now: One, the issue of passages; two, the issue of staff; three, the issue of purchasing windows; four, the issue of food; five, the issue of areas..."

Lin Yi: "..."

"Does this still count as ’not much’?" Lin Yi was embarrassed.

"Let us proceed in order," he said.

"There are three passages in the Cafeteria, corresponding to students, staff, and others. But the staff passage belongs to the chefs of the Cafeteria; apart from this, neither Sports Students nor Art Students belong to ’students,’ but are categorized as ’others.’"

"This is a thought-provoking issue."

"The student passage, in fact, invisibly divides the properties of various ’units’ within the school area."

"This is a new way of division..."

"If we divide the units entering the Cafeteria into ’normal’ and ’abnormal,’ then Sports Students and some Art Students should be able to use the student passage, but they are uniformly categorized as ’others.’

"So this division is not precise."

"But if we stick to definitions, then the student passage would naturally belong to those holding a ’Student ID card,’ and the staff passage should belong to those wearing a ’chef’ badge and others categorized as staff, while those without any identity credentials should be classified as ’others.’

"According to the analysis of the sign in front of the Teaching Building, people like Maozi are likely to become Art Students; hence they are ’others.’

"And according to the sign in front of the Gymnasium, it’s known that Sports Students have no student IDs.

"Therefore, if we judge this way, the division of passages is understandable."

"However, obviously, some other ’units’ would enter the Cafeteria through other passages, like those non-human students."

Lin Yi shivered, instantly thinking of that group of off-key students that had appeared in the Cafeteria—now referred to by Tian Bufan as the non-human students.

These non-human students have an almost frantic pursuit of anything containing Tomato Element, and viewing the Tomato Element as human flesh and blood, those things... are a bunch of bloodthirsty creatures!

Tian Bufan then said: "There is another argument."

"The Cafeteria Regulations state: [If you find someone entering a passage other than the ’Student Passage’ and there is a Security Guard nearby, you can inform the Security Guard at once, or you can choose to ignore it.]"

"This seemingly comprehensive rule, why do you think it was written?"