AnalogHorror: Rule Kaidan 4016-Chapter 1490 - 711: Li Huiyuan in the Gymnasium Basement...?! (2)
The entrance to the gymnasium’s basement is an ancient portal that flickers. Along the way hang old kerosene lamps, several times the number found in other places, resembling a seal that binds spirits and wards off demons.
Beyond the portal lies a super massive bunker labyrinth.
The main structure of this labyrinth is formed by a large number of crystals coagulated on the flesh’s surface layer.
The entire labyrinth isn’t a flat layer; instead, it’s like a spherelike structure, with gravity distributed very irrationally, making people inside feel like ants crawling through a hollow tree.
In the labyrinth are numerous secret chambers, but what surprises Lin Yi is that those imprisoned within these chambers are not outsiders; they’re either Sports Students or Physical Education Teachers.
On the labyrinth’s floor are countless sculpture fragments, nearly the pieces shattered after the Chef in the green apron’s death. Their contamination has been drained, turning them into mere stone-like remnants.
Lin Yi’s Perception Tentacles landed on the Sports Students and Teachers.
Each person is held in a separate room, wrapped in chains, suspended like bugs stuck in a spider’s web.
In front of them is a Yu Tong, slowly releasing contamination, leaving it unclear whether it’s providing them supernatural power or further contaminating them.
Lin Yi noticed that all the Sports Department units imprisoned here were on the brink of collapse from contamination.
On the edge of collapse, they are resisting contamination using their Will, constantly absorbing and transforming contamination, raising their threshold to endure it and synchronizing it, making it their own power.
If successful, they could advance further, but if they fail, they’d become a powerful pollutant comparable to a Rage Angel, and then the chains that bind them would turn into blades that kill them.
Seeing this, Lin Yi secretly sighed, thinking perhaps Li Huiyuan transformed into a Sports Student under such circumstances.
Yet oddly, despite Li Huiyuan following this path, there isn’t a single Experiential Student undergoing a similar transformation in the gymnasium’s basement.
A question arose in Lin Yi’s mind: "Is it because the surface-level Grey Mist Invasion has receded, making the campus safer for Experiential Students?"
Nonetheless, while there are no Experiential Students, there are many deformed monsters present.
These monsters probably stem from human bodies or other things contaminated by Extraordinary Material, gradually deforming into bizarre entities, confined in dungeons and bound by chains, continuously subjected to the washing of Yu Tong. Some transform into more collapsed, eerie forms, while others appear to revert to normalcy...
The name "Pioneer" flashed in Lin Yi’s thoughts, recalling Li Huiyuan’s mention of it.
That’s what Li Huiyuan’s mystical genealogy teacher referred to, supposedly those affected by supernatural or unknown powers that walked ahead on the mystical genealogy map...
In Lin Yi’s current understanding, they are unmanageable deep Polluters.
These entities occupy most of the dungeons in the gymnasium’s basement, periodically causing disturbances, intensifying the already cold, damp, sinister, and eerie atmosphere into something even more spooky and horrific.
After some insights, Lin Yi found the gymnasium’s basement situation, though strange and terrifying, not particularly significant given his current cognition depth.
This exemplifies the power of "Adaptation"; with the elevation of cognition, fewer things can exceed his acceptance range.
Yet when he felt assured he had thoroughly investigated the gym’s basement, a subtle inspiration swept over him like a fleeting glow from the sky.
His pupils contracted sharply, and all his attention poured towards the source of that inspiration.
Meanwhile, Lin Yi, not far from the gym’s entrance, suddenly halted, as if his soul had left his body, becoming motionless.
His Will Body had exited his shell, plunging into the source of that inspiration along with his Perception Tentacles’ extension.
As his Will Body moved, the layer barriers belonging to the gymnasium’s basement continued to expand, the sinister walls quickly vanished, leaving a domain of sheer darkness around him.
"What’s happening?" Even though Lin Yi knew this was a layer within the gymnasium, he instinctively became vigilant.
Beneath layers, many things are unpredictable; his Instinct would surely trigger retreat at any inkling of danger.
Gradually, faint breathing sounds intermittently emerged from the darkness, light and evenly distributed, like someone deep in a beautiful, dreamy slumber.
Soon, countless dim, yellow-brown stone walls began appearing in the void, seemingly emerging from beneath the water, slowly assembling around him, ultimately forming a huge cage.
As the cage materialized, the previously uniform breathing became clearer, accompanied by the sound of iron chains clinking.
Lin Yi mused: "It seems these things aren’t forming, but rather my Will Body is gradually penetrating here."
The process of stone walls piecing together precisely reflected his Will Body pressing into this place bit by bit from the void.
But where is this place? Is it deep within the gym system’s basement layer, or is this still within the range of the gymnasium?
Just as thoughts began to take shape, he suddenly noticed a Yu Tong placed on the ground before him.
Yu Tong?
Doesn’t this imply it’s still a dungeon within the gym’s basement?
As he scanned around, the corner of his eye caught the base of the chains on the stone wall. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎
Following the chains’ direction, Lin Yi saw a person tightly bound by the chains.
Just from seeing the corner of this person emerging through the chains, a wave of familiar feeling surged within him, nearly making him exclaim the identity!
"Li Huiyuan?!"
How could it be Li Huiyuan?!
If this person is Li Huiyuan, then who has been by his side for so long as Li Huiyuan?
"Time! Could it be the timing is off?"
He glanced down at his watch.
12:56.
His time was accurate.
"No, no, it’s not my time that’s wrong, could I be seeing the past Li Huiyuan? Is this the scene from her first night in the gym?"
However, his assumption quickly fell apart.
Because he found that the Yu Tong before Li Huiyuan seemed to have already been swapped several times.
And the condition she displayed didn’t match her description of the first night.
Her first night was spent in prolonged fear, helplessness, and anxiety, only eventually falling asleep. So could what he sees now be the "later" Li Huiyuan talked about?
But could she use up so many Yu Tong?
The contamination from just one Yu Tong was enough to decimate Lu Zhao’s team; given Li Huiyuan’s state on that night, how could she endure so many?
If it truly were the case, it wouldn’t be the Chef in the green apron contaminating her, but her contaminating the Chef.
Apart from the explanation that Li Huiyuan was continuously trapped here, deepening her contamination, no other logical rationale came to mind.
Yet such reasoning circles back to the initial problem: if Li Huiyuan is here, then who is the Li Huiyuan outside?
