Chapter 84: Is this book really there?

Chapter 84: Is this book really there?

Chapter 84: Is this book really there?
"..." Tian Bufan held his forehead in silence, "No, how come your thoughts suddenly jumped to this point?"

"How about you restrain yourself a little? I feel a chill down my spine when I hear your baseless guesses."

"Uh..." Lin Yi touched his nose awkwardly, "Okay, my bad. Can you continue?"

"What else is there to say? We've finished talking about the food purchasing window number ten." Tian Bufan said.

"So... there's still one area problem left?"

“Regional issues are only concepts at the moment.”

"So...are we done discussing the cafeteria matter?"

"We've only been to the cafeteria twice, and it's great that we can discuss these things." Tian Bufan said, "The rest of the information is not so easy to obtain."

"The student cafeteria in the cafeteria is a mixed place. It seems that there are only students, but in fact, any unit may be there. Therefore, the cafeteria seems safe, but in fact it is full of dangers."

"From our perspective, it is definitely more dangerous than safe to follow the cafeteria's rules and eat and run without caring about anything."

"So, in general, no matter how many times we go to the cafeteria, we must remain cautious."

After discussing the cafeteria matters, Tian Bufan glanced at the pendulum clock.

23: 23.

"There are 37 minutes left before lights go out," Tian Bufan said calmly, "The only ones left are the gymnasium and our dormitory building."

"Yeah." Lin Yi added, "But there doesn't seem to be much to say about the gym."

"Just tell me what you have to say." Tian Bufan said.

Lin Yi thought for a moment, then said, "There is a road in front of the gymnasium, and I got lost on that road..."

He told Tian Bufan about how he had taken that non-existent road and then came back, but omitted the difficult struggle involved.

After finishing speaking, he climbed up from the bed and glanced towards Tian Bufan's position.

Seeing Tian Bufan looking at the ceiling with his hands under his head, and then looking at him after hearing his movement: "Why are you looking at me? You must have some answer in your mind, right?"

Lin Yi narrowed his eyes and said in a deep voice: "'A non-existent road leads to a non-existent sea.'"

"'A non-existent road leads to a non-existent sea.'" Tian Bufan repeated, a smile on his face, "That sounds really interesting."

Lin Yi said: "I smelled the fishy smell of the sea breeze, heard the sound of the waves, and in the blink of an eye, I walked to that road."

"I suspect that the vision I've been seeing is the world after the layers fall off... maybe it's another world."

"Tell me about it." Tian Bufan added, "About that world... describe it.

Lin Yi frowned. He lay on the bed with his eyes closed, recalled, tried to find the feeling, and then said slowly: "In that world..."

"The black sun with a golden rim hangs high in the dark sky, and it is hard to tell whether it is day or night."

"A thick fog covered the ocean, and it was impossible to tell the geographical location."

"Close to the shore, the black water laps against the steel-like reefs."

"Beside the reef, there is a large swamp of mud. There are countless rotten fish carcasses buried in the swamp. The fishy smell mixed with the sea breeze and drifted from the seaside to the non-existent road..."

“That swamp is the source of the sea smell on campus.”

"And that sea breeze is the source of the sea breeze on the road to the gymnasium..."

He closed his eyes and filled in the details in his mind bit by bit. The originally broken patterns and details were slowly pieced together like a puzzle.

The hallucinations he had seemed to have some close connection.

His words gradually turned into a dreamlike murmur, and he felt a sleepiness slowly sweeping over him.

The sound of the tide seemed to ring in his ears, and he felt... the bed was shaking, like a ship pushed by the sea, rocking back and forth, making people fall into a long sleep.

"?!"

Lin Yi suddenly opened his eyes and saw the pure white ceiling of the dormitory.

"Hoo! Hoo! Hoo..."

He took a few breaths. Just now, when he was thinking about the other world, he took advantage of the fact that he was in bed and was a little "unbridled". As expected, he suffered some negative effects.

He glanced at his watch.

23: 26.

"Very interesting." Tian Bufan's voice sounded in his ears. Lin Yi looked over and found that there was a deep curiosity in the other's eyes.

Lin Yi lowered his voice and asked, "Mr. Tian, ​​what did you think of my state just now?"

Tian Bufan thought for a moment, then said, "I didn't look at you just now."

Lin Yi frowned, but did not pursue the question. Instead, he asked again, "What do you think about this road?"

"For now, we can only think about this problem from the perspective of the layers." Tian Bufan said, "If the moss on your soles really comes from the cliffs in that world, then it proves the authenticity of that world."

"My subsequent inferences will be based on the fact that that world really exists."

"As you said, if you got lost on the trail and then climbed back that way, then that means..."

"First, the layers of the campus and the other world have always been in some unpredictable superposition state."

"The key factor that determines which layer you are in is your 'cognition', which is what we call 'anchor'."

"Your cognition will, to a certain extent, change the impact of the external layers on you, and may even cause some changes to the layers in the area where you are, causing you to fall. If this hypothesis is true, then it means that there will be no safe areas in the entire campus, even during the day."

"Because, when you are able to change the layer you are in by controlling the 'anchor', it means that the ship has been freed from the influence of wind and waves, and it also means that you are on the verge of losing control."

"There is another guess."

"The second point is that when the layers fall, a road leading to another world will open up. If we are not careful, we will go the wrong way and end up on that road."

“This road is also a concept-level thing.”

"Let me give you an example. Except when I was going to the gym and accidentally walked onto that road."

"After a road with street lights is stretched and twisted to a certain extent, if we enter an area not illuminated by street lights, we may also set foot on that road."

"In other words, all routes on campus that are not marked may become part of the road leading to that one when the layer falls."

Lin Yi listened and felt that the second one was more likely: "Speaking of this road... I met a little genius on the road."

"The little genius turned into a non-human classmate and disappeared on that road." Lin Yi has a latest version of speculation about the little genius.

Assume that all the little geniuses he meets are the original little genius holding the mobile light source.

So, the series of changes from last night to this afternoon should be:
1: The little genius was murdered by his inhuman classmates last night. His body was dragged out of the classroom and thrown into the green belt.

2: After undergoing a series of unknown changes, his state changed from a little genius "dead" to a little genius "sculpture".

3: The little genius "sculpture" somehow turned into the little genius "non-human classmate", and then walked onto that non-existent road. After being seen by him, it disappeared from his sight.

In other words, after being killed, the little genius still entered the "transformation path" that Tian Bufan mentioned in some form.

"Damn, is this what it means to die without peace?" Lin Yi couldn't help but shiver.

In the end, it was Tian Bufan who made the final conclusion: "These are all just inferences. If you encounter this situation again, you must obtain as much information as possible while ensuring that you can come back alive."

"Let's talk about the gymnasium, the gym students, and the gym teacher."

Lin Yi glanced at the time. It was now 23:30 and the lights would be turned off in half an hour. He had to hurry.

"My physical education class is swimming class..."

Lin Yi had already told Tian Bufan about the swimming lessons, the boss, and the encounter with the green bib chef, so he just briefly mentioned them. Then he talked about the lights in the gymnasium.

The row of old kerosene lamps hanging in the basement entrance corridor and the ancient green lamp on the wall at the end of the swimming pool.

He asked, "'Relics from a distant time'... I remember you called it that at the beginning. So, what exactly is that?"

Tian Bufan was silent for a while, then slowly said: "I don't know."

Lin Yi was stunned for a moment: "How come you don't know?"

"That's so funny, how would I know that?"

"No, so why did you talk to me in the gym and make me feel like you knew everything?"

"You mean something about the kerosene lamp?"

"Isn't it?"

Tian Bufan said, "I saw it in the literature."

"literature?"

"There are some books with strange stories on the bookshelf behind the lecture hall. I took a few of them last night and happened to see them. I thought you were also interested in those things." Tian Bufan said, and suddenly he became serious, "However, there are many colored books and some beautiful photo albums in the classroom. Old Lin, I don't think you are the kind of person who reads H comics and photo albums all night, right?"

"What photo album? No... I'm certainly not that kind of person, but I didn't notice those books either. I'll keep an eye out for them tomorrow!" Lin Yi's face flushed, and then he said seriously, "So, what does the book say?"

He didn't give up.

Tian Bufan thought for a moment and said, "Almost all human civilizations that have records have records of a catastrophic flood that destroyed the world."

"Our Chinese Nuwa mended the sky, Dayu controlled the flood, Europe's Noah's Ark, Maya's world-destroying flood..."

"You remember all this, right?"

"Well, then what...?"

"It is hard not to speculate on the existence of prehistoric life when cultures have such similar records despite huge geographical differences."

"These things may be the remnants left over from such a distant era."

"The Earth has existed for 4.5 billion years, and human civilization only occupies a tiny fragment of the three-dimensional space-time on this time scale."

"Even the Earth may just be a testing ground."

"Those beings beyond imagination watched the explosion of life for a while, and when they got tired of it, they destroyed the world and started over again."

"They looked at trilobites, then at dinosaurs, and perhaps thought dinosaurs were interesting so they looked at them a little longer, so dinosaurs existed for a little longer, but they were eventually destroyed."

"Now it is the turn of human civilization... In the so-called mythological era, some people tried to pursue 'heaven's destiny', tried to climb places like 'Kunlun Mountain', 'Mount Olympus', and 'World Tree', exploring traces of those incredible existences."

"Perhaps they really found some traces, and then used knowledge to exert some power beyond cognition, and finally created something like the 'Ancient Green Lamp'..."

"Relics like the 'Green Lantern Ancient Lamp' have been called many things in history, such as the 'Philosopher's Stone' and 'Sorcerer's Stone' by the so-called alchemists in the Middle Ages, the young branches of the world tree mentioned in more ancient cultures, the Xirang (Xiran) and the elixir in Chinese mythology, etc..."

Lin Yi swallowed his saliva and said in disbelief: "These things... do they really exist?"

"The end of science is metaphysics, and the source of metaphysics is the unknown." Tian Bufan said, "What's more, in our time, it is obvious that some people have found the laws of certain extraordinary characteristics and are trying to replicate those things..."

"The kerosene lamp in the security guard's hand."

“Those kerosene lamps on the gym walls.”

“Even, the street lights all over the campus.”

"Our student ID cards and other credentials that represent our identity."

"These things...maybe they carry some extraordinary properties to a greater or lesser extent."

"Of course, I'm not sure about the street lamps, but that kind of kerosene lamp is definitely not a normal thing."

"Not only is it abnormal, it is also a product of modern civilization. At least... it is something that has only appeared in the last few hundred years."

Lin Yi opened his mouth and muttered the four words "supernatural characteristics".

This was the first time he heard of this concept, but... why did it feel familiar?
It was like a concept he had known but forgotten, or like a text he had learned in elementary school. He saw the title again decades later and suddenly remembered that he had learned it in school.

But... is it really possible that I have forgotten something so important?

"Extraordinary... special..." He muttered word by word, trying to recall some memories.

But he failed.

He doesn't remember anything.

"Mr. Tian." he said.

"Well, you say." Tian Bufan replied.

"Is there really such a book on the bookshelf at the back of the classroom?"

Tian Bufan was silent for a moment: "Maybe... your classroom has it too."

Lin Yi: “…”

The lights will be turned off at 0:5 in the next chapter, and then, the plot of May 8th will begin! To be honest, this discussion is a bit long, and I don’t know if it will be criticized... How should I put it? The plot of this discussion actually has a bit of the flavor of [One Day Summary]. Another point is that I want to use Tian Bufan’s mouth to lay out a few concepts, so that everyone will not feel confused when writing later. In order to prevent being criticized for not being clear in the later part, I will say it all in advance now, even if I get criticized. After all, it’s better to be short than long!


(End of this chapter)