AnalogHorror: Rule Kaidan 4016
Chapter 331 - 154: Sweating Profusely for 10 Minutes_2

What kind of major is this?

"And you? What’s your major?" Li Huiyuan retorted.

"I’m studying dragon-slaying at Cassell College!" Lin Yi originally intended to say something normal, but since Li Huiyuan put it that way, he blurted out his response impulsively.

"Dragon-slaying?!" Li Huiyuan’s eyes widened.

Lin Yi’s lips twisted, thinking to himself, I’ve got you good now.

To his surprise, a hint of thrilled excitement gradually appeared in Li Huiyuan’s widened eyes, "I knew it involved ’dragons’! My mentor didn’t believe me, claiming that ’dragons’ are greatly varied between the East and the West and are a category in ’Mystical Genealogy’ based on speculation and unverified."

"No way, are you really getting into this?" Lin Yi was speechless internally, but Li Huiyuan’s attention was genuinely diverted, so he continued to chat with her about the topic sporadically.

After all, the distraction tactic he initially thought of was to ask Li Huiyuan, "Li Huiyuan, do you prefer wearing black or white stockings, or wearing nothing at all...", but this question, full of strong XP characteristics, was too abstract, like watching one last movie at the end of the world.

While the current topic was also a bit abstract, it was definitely uniquely intriguing.

Lin Yi chatted with Li Huiyuan while silently counting the passing time in his mind—he dared not look at his watch because he needed to keep his eyes fixed on the faint outline of the Teaching Building in the mist.

At the same time, he was observing the movement trends of the human sculptures surrounding them, to avoid accidentally looking at their faces.

What surprised Lin Yi was, despite the phalanx of sculptures encircling them, none of the human sculptures seemed to show any malice towards them.

It was strange, so strange that Lin Yi almost questioned his understanding of their behavior logic.

Time slowly passed, ten minutes felt like a century.

Finally, the moment in Lin Yi’s mind arrived at 17:59. If his perception of time was correct, there was only one minute left until the campus lights turned on.

seconds...

seconds...

seconds...

Lin Yi’s heart slowly rose to his throat.

"What if the streetlights in the campus don’t light up after the time is up... Could we end up walking this road indefinitely with the phalanx of sculptures?"

Imagine, in a fog-enveloped, twisting cobblestone pathway, a phalanx of sculptures ceaselessly moving toward a mirage-like building.

A glint flashed in Lin Yi’s eyes, "The phalanx of sculptures isn’t hostile to us, could it be... they see us as ’one of their own’?

This thought chills him to the bone, making every fiber of his being shudder.

He couldn’t bear to imagine such a scene.

Countdown 20 seconds...

seconds...

seconds, 4 seconds...

3, 2, 1...

Lin Yi held his breath.

18:00:00.

"Time’s up!"

As if responding to Lin Yi’s call, a clump of orangish-yellow light suddenly "pop" illuminated in the distance below the thick mist.

The light, like a mini sun, hung there, its glow forcibly expanding a domain not too big or too small in the world full of mist, like a balloon being inflated in the darkness.

Under the mini sun was a dark circular base, beneath which a dark pillar was marked with a number written in white paint:

"Teaching Building-105".

"It’s lit! Finally lit!"

"And it’s the 105th lamppost, after all. We had already walked most of the way, just falling short at the end. If only the sun hadn’t set a bit too early, we really had a chance of making it back to the Teaching Building safely."

With a sigh of relief, Lin Yi smiled inwardly, and then began subtly leading Li Huiyuan, moving covertly out of the phalanx of sculptures, heading towards the direction of the lamppost.

At that moment, he suddenly realized another issue. He and Li Huiyuan had actually been walking on the edge of the cobblestone path, deviating from the main body of the pathway. If he hadn’t been anchoring his position using the outline of the Teaching Building, they might have already been lost. Even if the lamppost had lit up, they wouldn’t be in the area of the campus with scattered lampposts!

Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but break out into a cold sweat, filled with a sense of dread.

However, as they were heading towards "Streetlight-105", the human sculptures, that had been unusually quiet along the way, suddenly started to ’shush-shush-shush’ their movement. Those walking in front of Lin Yi and beside him slowed their pace and began to curl their bodies towards the edge of the road, away from the area affected by the streetlight’s light, as if they were avoiding these beams.

Meanwhile, those which had originally been behind him began to push and shove, crowding together directly behind him...

Not exactly behind him, but within a certain range behind him. Since he couldn’t turn back, Lin Yi could only gauge their approximate positions through the ’shush-shush-shush’ of their footsteps.

"Are they hiding behind me?"

"If they were just avoiding the light, there’s no need to run behind me, they must have another plot?"

At the surging of the mist, he had no thoughts of his own; but after the light illuminated, they began to stir restlessly.

Lin Yi couldn’t quite figure out what they were thinking, and the only reason he could think of was the mechanism itself.

Gradually, he felt a gaze as tangible as reality, snakelike, slithering out of the darkness and then climbing onto his back, slowly wrapping around his throat.

It was a somewhat "long-lost" feeling, sinister, malicious, covetous, murderous, desperate, maddened... A net of countless negative emotions twined together, making every step he took towards the streetlight pole intensely uncomfortable, as if there were needles pressing against his back.

"Lin Yi..."

"Lin Yi..."

A deep calling voice arose from behind him, as if imbued with a certain magic power to beguile him into turning around.

"Don’t look back, Li Huiyuan, no matter what calls you hear, ignore them," Lin Yi admonished with clenched teeth.

"Okay, but Lin Yi..."

"You say."

"I... I didn’t hear anyone calling me."

"?"

"?!"

A roar suddenly resounded in Lin Yi’s mind, deafening, as if the sky were falling and the earth splitting.

"Li Huiyuan didn’t hear the call of the human sculptures?"

"Li Huiyuan isn’t their target?"

"Their target is me?!"

"I’m screwed..."

A strong sense of hierarchy and collapse emerged within Lin Yi, his brain slightly dizzy for the first time with a gnashing resentment towards the surreal reality.

It was like the T800 Terminator protecting John Connor throughout an entire movie, fighting a deadly battle with the big villain, the metal liquid robot, and just when it seemed they would succeed, the villain suddenly twisted the plot with a "Killing you completes my mission."

The joke’s on me?!

This is really, damn it...

Lin Yi’s mind was swirling with simple but highly vivid curses, yet he slowly realized—it wasn’t that he was the fool, but that... he had been confused from the start.

Li Huiyuan was a target in the cafeteria, and he also was partly a target, which was not wrong.

But back then, both of them were targeted by the Nocturnal species and the green Pocket Chef.

However, on this return path to the Teaching Building, having left the Cafeteria area, to put it simply, they had left the [Cafeteria instance] and entered the [Teaching Building instance], where at least on this road, the danger from the Nocturnal species and green Pocket Chef had shifted to the human sculptures.

At first, neither he nor Li Huiyuan were the targets of the human sculptures.

So what exactly had changed that?

Was it... because the streetlight turned on, or because they started walking towards the streetlight?

No, no, maybe neither!

It was...

"The Student ID card!"

"Li Huiyuan doesn’t have a Student ID card... and I have a Student ID card!"

"Are they after my Student ID card?"