AnalogHorror: Rule Kaidan 4016

Chapter 140: The Twisting Staircase Downwards_2


Lin Yi pondered, "Were you thinking about this just now? Then you dropped a layer?"

Li Huiyuan shook her head slightly, "Not exactly... When I looked at the staircase just now, the kind of light in it, I don't know why I got a bit distracted, and then I seemed to feel that those two steps were twisted like twists, and, I think I saw a step leading downward..."

"Are you sure it was... a step going downward?" Lin Yi asked curiously.

"I... I'm not sure." Li Huiyuan shook her head weakly, "I couldn't see clearly, I felt like the staircase I saw just then was like a paint pattern drawn on water, when the wind blew, the water rippled, and then the original lines were all twisted together..."

"I don't know what that step was about, but it seemed like it really existed..."

"I felt like I was drawn to that step, I wanted to walk towards it uncontrollably, but I hadn't moved my feet when you woke me up... I then realized I was hallucinating."

"That kind of hallucination... is that what you called 'dropping a layer'?"

Lin Yi nodded silently, "Basically, yes."

Li Huiyuan suddenly asked anxiously, "Classmate Lin, can you tell me what 'dropping a layer' means? Is it related to that 'contamination' I was exposed to?"

Lin Yi thought briefly, then said, "Do you remember the conversation I had with Young Master Tian? It's like a glass bridge spanned between high mountains, there's a layer above the glass bridge, and another layer below it, normally we walk on the glass bridge, and that glass is opaque."

"But when we are contaminated, the glass bridge becomes transparent, and we can see the things in the other layer. Some people who are afraid of heights can't handle this change and become anxious, breathe rapidly, or even show signs of going insane. Some might even accidentally fall down, plunging into another layer, never to be found..."

"You and I are now like those walking at the edge of the glass bridge, sometimes we can see what's below, sometimes one of our feet is hanging in the air, and if we can't step back in time, falling would mean no return."

"Even the robustness of the glass on this glass bridge is unknown, so sometimes I need you to walk ahead of me, to help me... test the danger. Sometimes when you're in trouble, I'm able to pull you back onto the bridge, but as the danger increases, there might come a time when I too cannot save myself, let alone save you... "

"'Cannon fodder'..." Li Huiyuan slowly uttered the two words.

Lin Yi, neither confirming nor denying: "The facts are harsh, but that is the case."

Li Huiyuan had already accepted this, and upon hearing these words, she merely nodded silently.

Meanwhile, Lin Yi fell silent.

"The staircase Li Huiyuan just saw... could it be the one leading to the basement of the Teaching Building?"

The real question is not this, but rather... the staircase going to the basement floor beneath the Teaching Building was actually seen by Li Huiyuan at this time.

What kind of person is Li Huiyuan? From an identity standpoint, she is an "Experience Student who has lost her Student ID card and been exposed to contamination."

And those who also saw the staircase to the basement floor of the Teaching Building, what was their status at that time?

From the conversation between the Dormitory Supervisor and the Art Teacher, it can be inferred that they were "Experience Students who haven't even obtained their Student ID cards yet.

As for the contamination, that certainly existed.

So this means—

"Experience Students without identity credentials and who have been contaminated can see the staircase leading to the basement of the Teaching Building?"

Lin Yi stroked his chin. If that's the case, it could also explain why Tian Bufan didn't find that staircase inside the Teaching Building on May 7th.

Because Tian Bufan had a Student ID card, he didn't meet the conditions necessary to see that staircase, even if he was already in the staircase, he couldn't access what was in that layer!

However, there's another point of doubt about Li Huiyuan's ability to see the staircase to the basement, and that's the time.

"How could she see that layer during the day?"

"Should I say that she can only see, but can't travel?"

"Hey, wait! Maybe that's really the case!"

Li Huiyuan had been standing in a location that was not directly in the sunlight, which was extremely similar to the situation when he had been thinking in the classroom and then fell through the layers...

This could be understood now!

When the state was unstable, being anywhere without direct sunlight could pose a problem!

Lin Yi looked down at his watch.

15:13.

With only 17 minutes left until the agreed time to return to the classroom, Lin Yi felt he no longer had the opportunity to go to the fourth floor for observation but decided to take one more look at the stairwell, trying to find the possible doorway between the layers...

He felt that this stairwell was extraordinary.

Not extraordinary in a good way, but in an extremely dangerous way.

He felt that on the stairwell of the layer level, there should be one or even two spiral staircases, one leading to the mysterious zone above the fifth floor of the Teaching Building, and another leading down to the basement floor.

Perhaps the stairs could also serve as another type of hub...

When walking inside the stairwell, a closed environment naturally formed a separate layer, which then drifted supernaturally between layers, only triggering the condition to leave the stairwell when the person walking met some condition that enabled them to anchor themselves.

Otherwise, they would end up endlessly descending like they had done before, or endlessly ascending like Mao Feiyang.

That being said...

Lin Yi suddenly thought of a chilling thing—he suddenly remembered that when he had followed Mao Feiyang through the stairwell in his dream, he had seen a group of sculptures of different forms, frozen in various poses, some struggling, twisting, as if fixed in some terrifying and extremely painful moment of death...

"Could they... be some creatures contaminated into nocturnal species, who fell through the layers upon entering the stairwell and then were never able to leave, ultimately dying alone in the stairwell and turning into one of the sculptures?"

Thinking this, Lin Yi suddenly had a burst of inspiration, and a vision appeared in his mind...

He saw Li Huiyuan drawn to the stairwell and then uncontrollably stepping inside.

Li Huiyuan's eyes were vacant, her spirit listless, as if sleepwalking, her steps rigid as she stepped onto the staircase. However, as she stepped out, the step that should have been higher than the ground suddenly twisted into a step lower than the level surface.

But Li Huiyuan did not notice anything amiss, step by step descending the stairs...

The image in his mind was like some kind of inspired extrapolation, following Li Huiyuan as she went down the steps, his "camera" also moving downwards with her...

Walking and walking and walking...

Not knowing how long she had walked, Li Huiyuan suddenly shivered and then came to her senses.

She glanced downwards, a Fibonacci sequence spiral staircase seemed endless, with no end in sight.

She then palely looked upwards, another identical Fibonacci sequence extended in her return path, as if there was no way to see where she had come from.

She stood there as if struck by lightning, looking dumbfounded on the original step, not making any movements.

Gradually, not knowing how much time had passed, she finally moved, starting to closely follow the wall on her right side, continuously walking up the steps.

Just walking and walking, not knowing how much longer she walked, her body started undergoing bizarre changes...

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.


Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter