AnalogHorror: Rule Kaidan 4016
Chapter 85 - 39 Sea Breeze and Thunder and... Sculpture_2

Chapter 85: Chapter 39 Sea Breeze and Thunder and... Sculpture_2

As he crossed the signboard, something crossed his mind, and he looked down at his wristwatch to note the time.

14:14.

...

May 7th, X023, 14:15.

Lin Yi and Wei Liang were walking together on the road leading to the Gymnasium, along with many other classmates.

Lin Yi remembered the warnings on the signboard and observed the streetlight numbers along the road as he walked.

After walking for 2 minutes, Lin Yi suddenly sniffed.

"Liangzi," he whispered, "do you smell anything?"

Wei Liang, as if he hadn’t heard him, continued walking forward.

"Huh?" Lin Yi frowned subconsciously, rushed forward, and tapped Wei Liang on the shoulder, "Liangzi!"

Wei Liang startled, turned his head with a puzzled expression, and asked, "What’s up?"

"I asked, do you smell anything?" Lin Yi inquired, "Also, did you not hear me calling you just now?"

"You called me?" Wei Liang pointed to his nose, "I might not have been paying attention just now, and as for the smell, I didn’t notice anything. What are you talking about?"

"You didn’t smell it..." Lin Yi suddenly thought of how he could not see the Teaching Building just before and hesitated, then said, "Then maybe I shouldn’t tell you about it?"

Wei Liang slightly shocked, his expression suddenly became serious.

He squinted at Lin Yi for a while, then handed over another set of raincoats to him.

Just as Lin Yi was wondering if Wei Liang had a deeper meaning with his actions, Wei Liang cautiously ventured, "Why don’t you smell... could it be the scent from the raincoats? They might have absorbed some smells from their location..."

Lin Yi: "..."

The atmosphere suddenly turned strange, and Lin Yi, with a trembling hand, wished he could stuff the raincoat into Wei Liang’s mouth.

"Get lost!" he said irritably.

Wei Liang shrank his neck and, with a resigned look, took back his raincoat and continued towards the Gymnasium.

Lin Yi glanced at the raincoat in his hand, hesitated for a moment, but ultimately couldn’t bring himself to smell it forcefully.

He closed his eyes, focused on his sense of smell, and then took a deep breath...

The air, like clouds of smoke, drilled into his nostrils, went through his respiratory tract into his lungs, roiled around there, and then slowly surged out through his lips...

"There is indeed a smell..."

He smelled a faint fishy odor mixed with a slight putrid scent.

It was as if someone had slapped the silt with a shovel upstream, and then the smell of fish corpses mixed with the mud drifted down, reaching his nose.

He opened his eyes, feeling somewhat puzzled.

At that moment, he heard the rustling of leaves in the woods, and gusts of wind swept through the treetops, the noise of the leafy waves unceasing.

The wind had picked up.

According to the signboard, this was a normal occurrence and nothing to fuss about.

But as the wind hit his face, Lin Yi couldn’t smell any elements related to "trees."

There was no scent of earth or fragrance of flowers in the wind, only an increasingly intense fishy and putrid smell.

It was like seafood that had been left to rot under the Sun, tossed into the silt and stirred around.

"Huh——"

"Huh——"

"Huh——"

The wind grew stronger, a salty and wet yet arid breath slapped against his face with the breeze.

He suddenly realized, this was not just any wind, this was...

"It’s sea wind!"

"It’s a fishy-smelling sea wind!"

The smell of the rotten seafood was explained; since it was sea wind, naturally, it would carry some fishy smell.

All from fish and shrimp that had been washed ashore by the waves and died from the Sun’s scorching before emitting such a smell.

Lin Yi found his answer.

But he also abruptly realized a severe issue:

"That’s not right!"

"I’m in the mountains, where’s the sea wind coming from?!"

He looked around and suddenly noticed that many students had disappeared from the long path.

Only he, and Wei Liang ahead of him, remained.

"Where are the others? Why has everyone vanished?!"

"Liangzi? Liangzi! Liangzi!"

He quickened his pace to catch up with Wei Liang, but before he could take a few steps, the winds around him increased visibly with a speed one could see.

"Whoosh... Whoosh—"

The gale rampaged like a thousand soldiers charging directly in front of Lin Yi, pushing against him, preventing his advance.

The leaves in the woods rustled, sounding like countless people emitting awkward, icy laughter.

"The wind! The wind has picked up!!"

He suddenly realized that the light around him had dimmed, and he looked up sharply at the sky.

The clouds by the mountain had somehow drifted over his head!

"Did they come with the wind?"

"Or...?!"

He glanced down at his watch.

14:18.

"Just one minute, only one minute has passed!"

Could it have grown dark in just one minute?!

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

"Liangzi... Liangzi! Liangzi!!!" Lin Yi took a deep breath and ran against the gale with all his might, charging towards Wei Liang’s figure.

Wei Liang walked through the gale as if on level ground.

It seemed as if the wild wind only targeted Lin Yi himself.

Lin Yi couldn’t concern himself with this situation, he sensed something was wrong but didn’t know what.

"Whoosh—"

"Whoosh... Whoosh—"

Only the sound of the wind and rustling leaves reached Lin Yi’s ears. The fishy sea wind poured into his mouth and nose, filling his lungs and creating an oppressive sensation of near suffocation.

He braved the wind, one shoe-clad foot and one bare foot alternating, each step leaving a footprint as he closed the distance to Wei Liang.

Wei Liang truly seemed unaffected by the gale all of a sudden, and Lin Yi couldn’t tell if the problem lay with him or Wei Liang.

"Liangzi!"

With great difficulty, he caught up to Wei Liang, clenched his teeth, and reached out with great effort to pat Wei Liang’s shoulder.

Wei Liang’s body was incredibly stiff, as though Lin Yi had touched a piece of hard stone.

Lin Yi was startled.

And Wei Liang suddenly stopped.

Then, he slowly turned around with a stiff motion, like a pair of invisible hands were twisting a huge piece of rubber.

A stranger’s face appeared where "Wei Liang’s" face should have been, now capturing Lin Yi’s gaze.

Little Genius.

"?!"

Lin Yi’s pupils dilated, he stumbled and lost his balance, staggering backward in the wind, rolled twice, and finally, fell to the ground with a thud.

The person who should have been "Wei Liang" had turned into a Little Genius wearing Wei Liang’s clothes in the blink of an eye!

More precisely, it was a sculpture of Little Genius.

That sculpture, with a face filled with intense fear and horror, twisted in fright!

The same one that had disappeared in the Green Forest Belt!

At this moment, the Little Genius Sculpture faced Lin Yi, motionless as if it were inanimate.

Suddenly, it began to move its feet slowly, like an energy-deprived robot, laboriously making its way towards Lin Yi.

However, it couldn’t lift its feet and could only shuffle forward bit by bit with difficulty.

It reached out its hand, as though to strangle Lin Yi, but standing some distance away, it could only extend its arm from the sleeve.

It was a sculpted arm, which as it moved, was covered in fine cracks, then like peeling skin, ’crackle crackle,’ thin pieces of plaster flaked off.

As soon as the plaster fragments met the wind, they shattered into countless white powder particles and vanished.

The gale grew fiercer, and in the sky, the sound of distant thunder grumbled.

"Rumble... Rumble..."

A dreadful storm was gathering, and the muffled thunder seemed like the sky’s final roar before the storm’s arrival.

"Boom—Crack!!"

Lightning tore through the storm, and a dazzling white arc flashed across the leaden sky.

The movements of the Little Genius Sculpture froze midway, and for some unknown reason, it slowly and stiffly turned around and continued on its original path.

The howling wind had no effect on the Little Genius Sculpture.

Lin Yi suddenly understood why he saw "Wei Liang" moving so effortlessly.

Because the texture of the sculpture was frozen, no amount of wind could move it.