AnalogHorror: Rule Kaidan 4016
Chapter 233 - 109: The Green Pocket Chef with a Severed Hand_2

Chapter 233: Chapter 109: The Green Pocket Chef with a Severed Hand_2

On the part of the arm that was tightly adhered to the pillar, one could still see a web-like spread of cracks radiating in all directions.

The entire arm sculpture conveyed a sense of immense power and explosive force, yet it was infused with a strong and sinister abstract style.

"That is...?!" Lin Yi’s pupils contracted slightly, as the memory of being chased by the green Pocket Chef the day before instantly surfaced in his mind.

That was the severed hand of the green Pocket Chef!

Damn... what kind of explosive force must it be to tear off one’s own arm?

But this also confirmed another scene he had witnessed, that is, when the arm of the green Pocket Chef was broken by the Sports Student with a baseball bat, it would transform at a terrifying speed visible to the naked eye, from flesh and blood into a plaster-like sculptural form.

"Exactly, exactly, this is just as I had hypothesized!"

"When the contamination exceeds the threshold that the body can bear, it turns the Polluter into a sculpture."

"So are those green Pocket Chefs sculptures from the start, or do they become sculptures after being injured or dying?"

"Wait... ’dying’?"

"But how should I define whether their state is ’alive’ or ’dead’?"

Just as Lin Yi began to think in this direction, a strong sense of crisis suddenly erupted in his subconscious. This feeling was all too familiar to him—it was the distortion and collapse of established cognition in reality that came when his cognition destabilized.

The shadowy area of the Student Cafeteria that wasn’t illuminated by the incandescent lights suddenly stretched at this moment. Accompanied by this stretching sensation, the dark shadows undulated, extending out like countless tentacles and entwining towards Lin Yi.

Lin Yi heard a sound like flowing water beside his ear, as if a puddle had appeared on the floor behind him, as though someone had accidentally dropped a hose, and the water was gushing out of it, spreading across the floor.

But this time, the sound did not come from behind Lin Yi. Rather, it was right in front of him, in the same direction as the white-armed sculpture and the pillar.

Consequently, he saw the twisting and writhing, the tentacle-like darkness spreading towards him, the black water flowing across the floor, and the space in front of him seemed to alter from a regular three-dimensional geometry to some kind of twisted line that had lost all regularity.

But if it were merely the collapse of straight lines, then at most it would become a tangled mess of yarn. However, the collapse of spatial planes was more abstract and mentally shattering; the mass of darkness was clearly spreading, yet the space seemed as if it had been flattened in the palm of a hand like a wonton wrapper, which was then viciously twisted into an indescribably chaotic surface.

It was a spatial distortion that could drive one insane, assaulting the eyes and triggering a sensation in the brain as if he were losing his center of gravity.

Although he had been on guard, and had even been pondering within the scope of his cognition, everything came without warning. By the time he realized something was wrong, the abyss seemed to have already opened its maw toward him.

"My name is Lin Yi, my student number is X0230506098, I am currently in the Student Cafeteria..."

"My name is Lin Yi, my student number is..."

Lin Yi thus recited his name, student number, and location in his mind, trying to imagine the pillar that had been devoured by the darkness in front of him.

Despite the darkness that had arrived before him, he still assured himself with unwavering conviction that he was right in front of the pillar.

"Right! Aren’t I just in front of the pillar?!"

Lin Yi suddenly thought of something; although the pillar with an arm sculpture on it was a short distance away, wasn’t there another pillar right by his hand?

Isn’t this the very Anchor?

"My name is Lin Yi, my student number is X0230506098, I am in the Student Cafeteria, and by my side..." he reached out his hand, groping towards a certain spot before the darkness could consume him, "...there’s a pillar!"

"Click."

His palm encountered two smooth, perpendicular planes.

The darkness about to swallow him suddenly stalled, then shattered into countless points of light, and his vision returned to normal. In his hands, he was holding a tray while touching the column.

"Ha! Just as I thought it would work!" A trace of joy appeared in Lin Yi’s heart.

Indeed, once he became aware of the issue, as long as he had a firm belief in his cognition and could find an anchor, he could instantly ground himself back to the original world.

Still, a shiver of fear reverberated through him. The him of today was no longer the novice who had first entered the school; even in this state, he had been influenced by the silent force of the campus area and had overstepped in his thinking, not to speak of last night.

But fortunately, he really was different now, at least he could free himself from the effects of falling through layers with the help of others.

Just as a smile spread across his face and he was reveling in his own improvement, a voice saturated with intense hatred resounded from behind the unseen column...

"You saw it, right? You saw my hand... it hurts so much! I’m truly in so much pain!"

The voice was hoarse and pained, as if someone had stuffed their throat with sand and was continuously scraping it. Accompanying the voice, a green Pocket Chef slowly emerged from behind the column...

It wore a white chef’s uniform with a tall hat, but both of its hands had been severed along with the sleeves of the chef coat. Not only that, but at the break of the arms, there was no sight of a gory flesh wound; all that was visible was a bluish-gray skin spreading down from the arms.

The surface of the break gradually turned whiter, finally appearing like some sort of plaster sculpture.

This was an extraordinarily abstract form, like those hybrid stone and creature figurines in 3D animations. The break extending from its shoulders looked utterly absurd yet existed genuinely—a transmutation from flesh to plaster sculpture.

Its eyes had become stony beads, yet its head still retained a human appearance. At that moment, with an especially malevolent, venomous, cold, and bloodthirsty stare, it looked at Lin Yi and said hatefully:

"One hand was torn off while chasing you, and the other was broken while trying to grab you..."

"It hurts so much..."

"I’m really in so much pain!!"

"I want your hand! Give me your hand!!"

"If I have your hand, I won’t hurt anymore!"

"It won’t hurt anymore!"

But it made no other move, only glaring at Lin Yi with a language full of loathing, as if... it was subjected to some regulatory constraint.

"I haven’t triggered its attack mechanism," Lin Yi instantly realized the problem with the green Pocket Chef. "However, as soon as I put down the tray and start walking towards the exit of the Student Cafeteria, it will probably launch an attack on me."

Lin Yi understood this, somewhat panicked but not excessively so.

"Old Lin, are you a freak? Caressing a column over there?" Wei Liang’s scornful voice came from not far in front of him. "A rounded and straight column is one thing, but could you also fantasize that a square column is a jade foot?"

"Jade foot my ass!" Lin Yi couldn’t help but retort and hurriedly picked up his tray to follow along.

At the same time, the classmates around them, who moved like the walking dead, had already surrounded them like a sea of people. Besides them, several unfriendly gazes were also cast from all sorts of gloomy and cramped corners, converging upon them.

In some corners, green Pocket Chefs were also smirking at them.

Soon, Lin Yi arrived at the tray return area; the green Pocket Chef with both hands severed also followed closely, the poisonous hatred in its eyes almost spilling over from its sockets...