AnalogHorror: Rule Kaidan 4016
Chapter 205 - 95 "Welcome to the Art Building"_2

Chapter 205: Chapter 95 "Welcome to the Art Building"_2

If that’s the case, it means Art Students need to find a reverse transformation pathway from "Art Student" to "Experience Student" in order to leave the campus.

"Eh?!" Lin Yi’s eyes suddenly brightened.

It seems that there really was something about this mentioned in the Art Student Rules!

[When you are studying in the self-study room of the Teaching Building and encounter a student with malice attacking an Experience Student, please remain silent. Wait until the Sports Student steps forward, then cooperate with them to eliminate those students exuding malice.

In the meantime, if an Experience Student suffers a fatal injury, please find an opportunity to find the "Student ID card" on them and keep it carefully. After returning to the Art Classroom, tell the Art Teacher, who will inform you of what you should do next.]

This rule mentioned a key clue: it’s essentially telling Art Students to loot bodies, to retrieve unclaimed "Student ID cards" from deceased Experience Students, and then to find the Art Teacher. If all one had to do was hand over the Student ID cards to the Art Teacher, the rule wouldn’t read "the Art Teacher will tell you what to do next."

Lin Yi boldly speculated that the Art Teacher must know at least one way for an Art Student to transform into an Experience Student.

Mao Feiyang chanted like a young monk, reciting and flipping through the pages, while Lin Yi memorized as he recited, and time quietly passed, soon reaching 4:00.

"That’s about it," said the Art Teacher standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows, retracting his gaze from the outside world and looking towards Mao Feiyang with a smile, "Finished reading the rules? Anything you want to ask?"

Mao Feiyang took a deep breath and then closed the notebook.

In the next three minutes, Mao Feiyang asked a series of questions that sounded like he was looking for trouble, including but not limited to "Is the outside world really a virtual environment?" "Are the sculptures really just sculptures?" "I’ve never heard of castle-like buildings in S city," and so on.

The questions made the Art Teacher’s mouth twitch uncontrollably, while Lin Yi’s eyelids twitched violently...

"Alright, you’d better stop asking," the Art Teacher said somewhat speechlessly, thinking to himself where this relentless kid came from, asking these kinds of questions right off the bat, truly fearless, huh?

"The progression and transformation of ’cognition’ is an ongoing and long process. Until you accept it yourself, whatever I say is useless."

"Your curiosity and skepticism are really strong. I can only tell you that after you leave the office, it would be best for you to keep your tail tucked in a bit. Don’t try to meddle in everything. Just follow the rules, and those not-so-normal things will come to find you on their own..."

"Not that..." Mao Feiyang couldn’t help but interject, "If I follow the rules, will they still come find me? Isn’t that the same as me looking for them?"

The Art Teacher gently adjusted the brim of his beret: "If they find you, you at least have some light. If you go looking for them, you’re really forcing yourself into the darkness. Can it be the same?"

"Uh..." Mao Feiyang was stunned and then nodded thoughtfully, "I see..."

"Anything else you want to say?"

Mao Feiyang’s eyelids twitched fiercely again.

What else can I ask? You didn’t answer any of my previous questions!

"I won’t ask anymore..." Mao Feiyang shook his head in resignation.

"Then you can leave. In half an hour they will be back." The Art Teacher smiled, glancing at the other desks.

Mao Feiyang suddenly shivered. For some reason, he felt that the look the Art Teacher gave just then was so chilling it could freeze the entire office, cold enough to make his hair stand on end.

But Lin Yi caught on to a different phrase.

[They will be back soon.]

"’They’? Is it ’they’ or ’it’?"

Thinking of the non-human classmates and anomalous Art Students who left the lecture hall at 4:30, Lin Yi wondered if the ones the Art Teacher referred to were them?

So Mao Feiyang did not linger, and soon left the Art Office with the Art Building Rules and Art Student Rules in hand.

"Mao Feiyang," the Art Teacher called out to Mao Feiyang, who was about to open the door handle.

"Teacher, is there anything else?"

"Keep both sets of rules safe, especially the Art Student Rules. When you really want to read the rules, try to make sure you are in the Art Classroom, or in a safe area under some light."

"After you leave the office, find the notice board. I will help you for a stretch."

"Okay, Teacher." Mao Feiyang nodded and then pushed open the door of the Art Office.

Just as Mao Feiyang closed the door of the Art Office, Lin Yi suddenly noticed the Art Teacher’s eyes narrowing slightly.

...

May 7, X023, 4:08.

Mao Feiyang looked around the environment of the Art Office, and he couldn’t help feeling as if he were in a dream.

Even though he kept telling himself that it was all a "virtual environment", he still couldn’t help but believe that such a place must actually exist somewhere in the world.

In front of his eyes was a "reality-defying" Gothic castle.

In the pitch-black night, the high pointed roofs of the castle reached up to the sky, adorned with spike-like turrets.

Amid the pale white mist, the ancient bell tower intertwined with the thick stone walls, creating an eerie atmosphere that sent chills down one’s spine.

Behind the heavy iron bars of the windows in the shadows lay an array of glass panes inlaid with intricate and beautiful patterns.

The dim candlelight shone through the glass onto the ground, forming mysterious patterns that seemed to correspond with the positions of ancient stars outside the long night.

What shocked both Lin Yi and Mao Feiyang was that the Art Office was not inside the castle but in one of the watchtowers that branched out from the castle.

To reach the castle from the watchtower, one had to cross an ancient and mottled stone bridge.

Below the stone bridge was a cliff, and below the cliff were pitch-black reefs and dark sea water. The moaning sea breeze churned the water against the rocks into froth, with the moisture permeating the sea mist and air, carrying a salty, damp, and chilling breath.

In the relentless howling of the sea wind, flames flickered on both sides of the stone bridge, emitting a "hurrah" sound, as if they could be extinguished at any moment.

At the far end of the stone bridge, huge stone columns supported the arch above, with strange symbols carved on the stone beams and porticos, exuding a heavy and long history.

And in front of him stood a wooden signpost nailed to a stone pillar, reading:

[Welcome to the Art Building!]

Below the signpost hung a rusty iron plate, suspended by a rusty iron chain, which clanged in the sea wind.

Mao Feiyang approached, steadied the iron plate with his hand, and discovered that it was actually a notice.

Lin Yi and he looked closely and saw that the notice read:

"When you see this notice, it means you have entered the territory of the Art Building."

"Do not try to return the way you came, you have no choice but to move forward."

"There is no conventional way to escape the call of the Art Building, but the Artistic Journey will be kind to every visitor."

"Before entering the Art Building, please remember:"

"Art comes from life and is above life, discard your perceptions, use an ’artistic eye’ to reinterpret everything in the Art Building, and tell yourself that things are as they should be."

As he was looking at the iron plate, a twisted beam of light suddenly came from behind him, like a spotlight on a stage, completely enveloping him and the notice underneath.

Mao Feiyang was slightly startled and turned to look towards the source of the light, only to find the Art Teacher standing on top of the watchtower, using glass to focus the light of some burning object on him.

"Walk towards the Art Building, my light will keep shining on you until you reach the archway!" the Art Teacher, holding the glass, his trench coat rustling in the sea breeze, resembled a captain from the Caribbean Sea, rakish and dashing.

Mao Feiyang let go, allowing the notice to continue clanging, took a deep breath, looked towards the castle’s archway at the end of the stone bridge, and proceeded.

Watching his leaving figure, the Art Teacher sighed softly, "The ’Supernatural Traits’ of the stone bridge candles have almost been eroded by time, relying only on them might not cover him..."

"The Experience Student became an Art Student before getting his Student ID card..."

"Heh, that’s somewhat interesting..."