"No, that's not right... I didn't have a Student ID card when I first started school either, did I? And still, they followed right behind me,"

"So, the Student ID card isn't the real reason, then what is the real reason...?"

Lin Yi anchored himself within the range of a streetlight, moving forward while pondering in his mind; while thinking, he also conveniently ignored the calls of those Human Sculptures behind him.

Finally, he and Li Huiyuan stepped into the range covered by the streetlight's light.

He reached out and grabbed the lamppost, his body which had been tense like a drawn bow, then gradually relaxed a bit.

He leaned against the lamppost and looked towards the Human Sculptures chasing his back, but all he saw in front of him was the rolling white mist, layer upon layer like steam, just like on May 6th, with no figures visible at all.

He could only faintly discern some human silhouettes, sneakily lurking within the mist, wandering restlessly, seemingly eager to move forward, yet they stopped in their tracks.

It was an awkward state, completely opposite to Fang Tangjing's "I come in, and then I go out, hey come hit me" demeanor, and more like "I want to come in but I dare not, hey can you lend me a hand wah wah wah."

Something was amiss, very amiss.

"They are repelled by the light yet drawn to it, just like... moths to a flame?!"

The moment he thought of this, Lin Yi's mind seemed psychically enlightened, and a vision of countless moths fluttering their wings around a paper lantern emerged, just like someone attaining enlightenment.

The paper lantern kept enlarging, then suddenly shattered, the light inside it bursting into countless sparks as well.

These sparks spun in the air and eventually extinguished, turning into bits of ashes that fell like snowflakes.

The ashes slowly floated down, floated down… Lin Yi's attention moved with them, then he saw a sky filled with grey snowflakes and his focus falling with the snowflakes, he saw a wildly churning black ocean below…

Huge waves rolled on the surface of the ocean, smashing piece by piece against the rocks on the shore, and in some marshy area mixed with silt and yellow sand near the coastline, twisted humanoid forms smeared with mud were crawling out, moving forward in messy and malformed shapes, whether running, crawling, or wriggling, they rushed to the base of a cliff…

They spread their limbs, clinging to the moss-covered, slippery rock walls in an attempt to scale up, but the walls were too slick to support their efforts.

Yet their numbers were too great, swarming out from an area indistinguishable from the waves, marsh, or the dimly lit yellow sand, and seemed driven by either instinct or some mad command, they relentlessly pushed to the base of the rock wall and trampled over each other, desperately climbing up the wall.

Eventually, some units climbed up the wall. They issued hoarse, dry roars, as if shouting some sort of painful yet mutually exhilarating tune, and they crawled on the wall, like ants discovering fruit on a rotting tree branch, racing to get there first…

Under the dim sky, amidst flying heavy snow, beside the surging ocean, a group of Nocturnal species crawled on a cliff almost vertical to the horizon, some of them, exhausted after climbing up, fell back down powerlessly.

This scene, it seemed like… moths to a flame, yet it eerily made Lin Yi's heart pound.

This scene... wasn't this the scene he saw when he fell from the cliff, while standing perpendicular on it?

He vaguely remembered, standing on the cliff, there was the supreme being named "Night Watchman" by the rules of the Art Department.

"Whirrrrr—"

The images in Lin Yi's eyes flipped rapidly like pages in the wind, his mind's visions swiftly collapsing. He shook his head, refocused, and the scene before him returned to the mist and the sneakily lurking shadows outside the light.

"Huff, huff, huff…" Lin Yi breathed slowly, glancing at Li Huiyuan by his side.

Li Huiyuan also had a serious expression on her face, hesitating to speak several times, but finally asked, "What's wrong, Lin Yi? Your body temperature was very low just now, but then it recovered immediately…"

"I... It's nothing, I just had a bit of a hallucination, I'm fine now," Lin Yi shook his head slightly, not wanting Li Huiyuan to worry more, but suddenly, he noticed something, his gaze falling on Li Huiyuan's foot.

"Your foot... "

Li Huiyuan's stance was somewhat strange, her right foot showing a hint of unnatural stiffness.

She pressed her lips together: "After stepping into the light, it lost sensation again..."

Lin Yi fell silent for a moment.

"It's okay, Lin Yi... I'll get used to it," she said.

"..." Lin Yi took a few deep breaths, then glanced at his watch.

18:03.

"It's only been a minute or two, it seems I was only distracted for a moment."

"Good thing we're under the streetlight..."

He pushed himself up, looking around, quickly searching for the positions of other lampposts through the fog.

The fog was already thick, but still not as dense as on May 6th. Lin Yi looked and saw several lampposts, some as close as ten meters ahead with their numbers faintly visible on them, while others appeared in the distance like a hazy little sun.

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