Tian Bufan said, "I needed to confirm what behavior the nocturnal species inside the elevator would exhibit before the sun completely set."

"According to the Art Student Rules, we can infer that the elevator in the teaching building must be emptied at night, so that art students can take the elevator to leave. In other words, they would leave the elevator at an appropriate time."

"Have you troubled another elevator's nocturnal species?"

"Not this time, it was only observation."

"So, what did you see?"

"Wei Shan and I were squatting outside the elevator corridor. At first, we didn't notice anything until I saw a non-human classmate dragging his feet past us, and then he went to open the elevator."

"That was around 17:50, which is when the sun completely sets and the layers of the campus begin to fall."

Tian Bufan described the scene unhurriedly. A non-human classmate opened the elevator, and the night walkers, looking like rotten flesh, began to squirm out of the elevator and then started twisting apart, turning into independent blobs of rubbery, human-shaped substances.

"Some of them still retained the appearance of shapeless rotten flesh, while others began to mold their forms, transforming into something with human shape, and after 18:00, as the lights on the floor turned on, became 'non-human classmates.'

Upon hearing this, Lin Yi immediately thought of the human sculptures entering the light from the mist and the changes they underwent, and couldn't help but gasp, "Human sculptures can also become non-human classmates!"

Tian Bufan nodded, "I saw it too. They are nearly the same life form, a fact I gathered from chatting with the Sports Student while grilling barbecue. I'll tell you more about it later."

"The nocturnal species that can't become non-human classmates slither like leeches to the exterior of the school building's stairs before 18:00, hiding in the darkness far from any light poles and where the lights cannot reach."

Lin Yi thought about the entity that lacked human form but still clung tightly to his silhouette during his return to the dormitory building, it looked like that could be one of those night walkers.

He asked, "However, why is it that some nocturnal species can become non-human classmates while others cannot? What causes this differentiation? Could it be related to identity anchors?"

"You're right, only those nocturnal species that have anchored an identity can become non-human classmates," Tian Bufan said, "or rather, any nocturnal species that has anchored an identity can become non-human classmates."

"Non-human units can act like humans under the lights after they leave their sculpture form, but their mobility is greatly affected by the strength of the light."

"Whereas ordinary nocturnal species do not have the 'right' to enter the light at all and are only able to hide in places away from light."

"According to the information I got from the Sports Student, all non-human units need to leave the lit areas before daylight comes to avoid being scorched by the sun."

"When evacuating, they will hide in the nearest elevator. Those who can't make it to the elevator in time will flee the school building area and hide in the Green Forest Belt."

"It is said... deep inside the Green Forest Belt, there exists a gray world enshrouded in mountain mist all year round, where even sunlight cannot penetrate."

"When daylight comes, the non-human classmates at the edge of the Green Forest revert to the form of human sculptures, while the night walkers hidden inside the elevator, having not been exposed to sunlight, can still maintain their muddy state."

"I see," Lin Yi said with a sudden realization. Understanding the differences between night walkers, non-human classmates, and human sculptures, plus having witnessed the transformation of human sculptures into non-human classmates, helped him comprehend many details at once.

"By the way, did you ask where the night walkers come from?" Lin Yi asked. He had wanted to ask Xu Shunkang, but Xu Shunkang and his group were vague, mentioning only the concept of night walkers without going into detail.

Tian Bufan nodded and then added, "In fact, just talking about life and death, the hierarchy of night walkers can be divided. One type comes from living people being transformed, and the other comes from the dead being transformed."

"It's easy to understand transformation from the dead; it's situations like with Little Genius."

"People killed and contaminated have their flesh mutated and transformed into white powder particulates, reborn in another form, but this type of night walker does not have much in the way of thought, possessing nearly a pure instinct and a strong yearning for an 'identity.'

"In the classroom, there are non-human classmates with empty eyes and devilish smiles. These are the non-human classmates transformed from the deceased."

"They gradually lose the ability to maintain a human appearance and turn into clay-like, human-shaped sludge... but if they can acquire an identity anchor, they can maintain their human form."

"As for these, I'd rather call them 'deceased non-human classmates.' They have no chance of transforming back and will either be taken out by a Sports Student, or be cleared away by a Security Guard while wandering in the campus."

"Transformation from living people is also easy to understand, though the concept is a bit more complicated. Take, for instance, people like Li Huiyuan."

"Experience Students, for various reasons, lose their student ID cards and their identity anchors, which then renders them susceptible to the campus's strange phenomena. They may face self-doubt due to layer fluctuations and other problems, leading to an unstable state and absorbing the contamination from white powder particulates, consequently transforming into night walkers."

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