Chapter 2, Stop 21: The Rules

Chapter 2: Station 21: The Rule

"Since everyone is here, I'll briefly explain the situation."

Yan Qiling spoke with elegance and a gentle tone. No one dared to object; they all listened intently, holding their breath.

"We are in the Realm of Eternity, existing between Yin and Yang. Death here means death in reality. There are many ways to enter, but only one way out - by boarding the return train."

He rolled up his sleeve to reveal the ticket, his cold, pale skin making the crimson mark even more prominent:

"Each of you will have this round-trip ticket. The countdown below indicates when the return train will arrive, entering the station five minutes prior."

Startled, everyone followed suit, rolling up their sleeves.

Sure enough, on the inside of their right arms were old-fashioned tickets, bearing each person's name and the place they came from. However, most had a fare for just one station.

The girl in the plaid skirt stole a glance at Si Shuhao's wrist and whispered,

"What does the fare mean? Why do some have one station while others have two?"

Yan Qiling explained gently,

"The ticket price refers to the number of stations you've experienced. The parity determines the difficulty of the Interworld - except for the first station, odd numbers indicate more challenging worlds, while even numbers are relatively easier."

"Especially when the last digit is 3, it will be a nightmare akin to hell."

Hu Zhicheng swallowed hard.

"Does that mean... we'll have to come back repeatedly?"

"Yes, as long as you're still alive."

The newcomers turned pale.

Ming Yiyang, with his hands in his pockets, scoffed lightly,

"If you're afraid, you can commit suicide now. Otherwise, once you enter, you won't have control over how you die."

"However, most of us are at the first station, so the difficulty of this world shouldn't be too high."

Their voices overlapped, and in the brief, tension-filled gaze they shared, an undercurrent of animosity seemed to spread like gunpowder in the air.

Hu Gaoming looked in the direction where the bus had vanished and cautiously asked,

"Does that mean if we wait at this station for three days, we can leave directly?"

Yan Qiling pointed to the nearby sign with closed eyes depicted on it,

"Did you see this symbol?"

"One-eyed closed is the entrance, one-eyed open is the exit. They're not at the same station. Our top priority here is to stay alive, followed by finding our way out."

He took out a handkerchief, folded it neatly, and offered it to the red-haired youth who was still lying on the ground,

"Get up and wipe your face clean."

The young man looked at him fearfully, his expression revealing humiliation. He stood up, took the silk handkerchief, and rubbed his face hastily while looking down.

On Yan Qiling's face, there was no expression other than a gentle smile.

His iridescent eyes, like glass beads, absorbed the emotions of those around him effortlessly, yet they didn't reflect anything back.

With a slight curl of his fingers, the silver cord bound around the red-haired youth's neck slithered back into his narrow sleeves like a living serpent, vanishing from sight.

"Let's go, the black fog is approaching."

Everyone was stunned, except for Ming Yiyang. Hu Gaoming even tried to crouch down to examine Yan Qiling's sleeve, hoping to unravel the mystery behind the illusion.

Generously, Yan Qiling rolled up his sleeve to allow him a view.

The rope coiled around the man's forearm like a thin serpent, extending into an abyss of darkness where its end could not be seen, instilling a chill in onlookers' hearts.

Hu Gaoming couldn't shake off the illusion that the rope might suddenly spring out and hang him, so he quickly averted his gaze and moved away.

They exchanged names along the way.

The red-haired youth was named Yao Kunrui, and the girl in the plaid skirt was called Subo.

After wiping his face clean, Yao Kunrui promptly got up from the ground.

Yan Qiling handed him a handkerchief, a moon-white one that was already soiled. He wanted to discard it, but considering the person was still beside him, he was afraid of provoking the other party. After much deliberation, he could only hold his breath and stuff the handkerchief messily into his pocket.

Then, he jogged over to Ming Yiyang's side and followed silently.

He felt that this man with white hair was more approachable than Yan Qiling.

Others seemed to share the same sentiment.

After the incident on the bus, Yan Qiling had become synonymous with "dangerous character."

His sudden bizarre actions and violent behavior were too terrifying, causing everyone to consciously or unconsciously keep their distance from him.

The black-haired man lingered at the back of the crowd, seemingly isolated.

However, he was oblivious to this, his expression calm.

They passed through an uncomfortable tree-lined path and arrived at the entrance of a school.

Yan Qiling gazed at the various buildings within, particularly the one with nearly half of its roof made of glass. His narrow eyes shimmered with interest.

The school's name was displayed above the entrance, but it wasn't written in Chinese characters; instead, it was composed of matchstick symbols.

Su Shuhao recognized it as Korean and couldn't help exclaiming, "I thought we were still in China, but it seems we've arrived in South Korea... What kind of school is this?"

Attempting to decipher it, she ventured, "A high school, perhaps?"

Upon hearing something potentially useful, everyone turned their attention to her. She froze for a moment, feeling a bit embarrassed, "I can't read the prefix, but I recognize that it says 'high school' at the end..."

This hardly qualified as useful information, merely providing a general setting.

Not expecting any groundbreaking insights from this group of newcomers, Ming Yiyang approached the gate for a closer look.

The school gate was small, with only a short retractable barrier, while the rest of the perimeter was enclosed by tall iron fences that disappeared into the depths of a dense forest, gradually swallowed by the encroaching mist.

Of course, this was the case for someone as tall as him, standing at over six feet.

The two girls stopped in front of the retractable gate and felt as if they were facing an insurmountable barrier.

Hu Zhicheng leaned towards the security booth but found it empty. He tried pushing the door twice only to discover that it was locked from the inside.

While they were examining the situation, Hu Gaoming suddenly tugged on his uncle's clothes.

"Uncle, the fog is really coming!"

An endless mist had silently enveloped the tree-lined avenue.

The color of the fog was unfriendly, a foreboding deep black.

The parts that had already drifted out took on the form of light purple smoke, rolling forward.

They surrounded them from all directions, gradually intensifying and eroding away their escape route.

Though unsure of what lurked within the dense fog, no one was eager to find out.

The sliding gate groaned as Ming Yiyang vaulted over it with the agility of a soaring eagle, his movements practiced and effortless, as if he'd done this countless times before.

Once inside the security booth, he unlocked the door from within. The others followed in succession, with Yan Qiling still bringing up the rear.

Ming Yiyang's dark eyes gleamed subtly as he feigned a gesture to leave the man outside, his tone laced with sarcasm, "You want to come in after extinguishing my cigarette?"

Yan Qiling maintained his composure, his expression mild, "I apologize, but smoking is indeed detrimental to one's health."

His politeness was impeccable.

So impeccable that it bordered on irritating.

Unnoticed by all, Si Shuhao, with her greater experience, managed to find seven student IDs within the security booth.

She speculated that these IDs might have been prepared for them, perhaps guiding them to a specific location since each ID had the prefix '1130'.

Suzhuo praised her, "You're so clever. So what do you think '1130' signifies?"

Si Shuhao ventured her guess, "I just checked, and there doesn't seem to be any buildings here with more than six floors. So '1130' could refer to Classroom 30 on the first floor of Building 1."

Yan Qiling glanced at the electronic clock hanging in the security room while flipping through other paper documents, "At what time do students usually have classes here?"

Suzhuo looked at him quizzically before responding,

"Eight o'clock."

She suddenly realized the time, glancing at the digital clock and exclaiming in surprise,

"It's already half past seven!"

Yan Qiling voiced out the concern on everyone's mind:

"Will we be punished for being late?"

Several people hastily put on their student IDs and were about to rush out when his casual yet gentle voice echoed from behind:

"In this situation, it's better not to wander aimlessly. First, let's find a campus map."

Ming Yiyang glanced at the person upon hearing this.

On the wall of the security booth was a large-scale campus map, incredibly detailed, but the dense array of unfamiliar words made one's scalp tingle.

He had noticed this item early on, though he couldn't decipher the writing, the map format was universal.

Gaining a general understanding, he was in the midst of studying the route when he overheard those fools planning to wander off aimlessly.

But he wasn't worried – if they couldn't find their way, they would eventually return.

It just surprised him that Yan Qiling would even bother to remind them of such a trivial matter.

What kind of kindergarten teacher was this?

His mood soured once more. With a casual movement, he took the map and rolled it up in his hand, saying:

"Follow me."

The meaning of 1130 aligns with Si Shuhao's analysis; it refers to a classroom beginning with Building One.

Number One Building stands majestically at the forefront of the campus, named "Dexi Hall."

The square "Hui" character-shaped design ensures that the lighting of all classrooms relies on the deep central courtyard.

The deeper one delves, the more impenetrable shadows linger, defying the feeble light's attempt to dispel them.

A dampness wafted through the air, and the floor was soaked as if it had just been mopped.

Si Shuhao gasped in disgust, "What's that smell?"

Ming Yiyang, who had been studying the floor plan, straightened up and glanced at her, "It's the musty scent of a humid day."

Striding forward with his long legs, Hu Zhicheng looked skeptically at the map twice before following, his nephew in tow. He couldn't help but feel a tinge of admiration.

As an experienced truck driver, navigating by maps had always come naturally to him.

Though Ming Yiyang had offered to lead the way after studying the map beforehand, Hu Zhicheng remained unconvinced and insisted on taking the map back, checking their route repeatedly as they walked.

Often, floor plans didn't perfectly match the actual layout, and getting lost or heading in the wrong direction was common – even he couldn't guarantee finding the right path. Yet, Ming Yiyang navigated with the ease of someone returning to their own home.

The journey to Building One was full of twists and turns, requiring them to detour around a basketball court cordoned off with barbed wire, and frequently confront intersecting tree-lined pathways.

Ming Yiyang led the way confidently, guiding them precisely into Dexi Hall through a side entrance.

Unbelievably, this side door was the sole access to the outside world for Dexi Hall!

Frankly, the architectural design of this school was rather peculiar.

A building situated right in front of the school didn't face the playground but had a side entrance, defying conventional architectural norms.

What was even more unusual was that the "H"-shaped building's classrooms featured a closed-corridor layout.

In a closed-corridor layout, a long corridor served as the main spine with classrooms on either side, and the corridor itself relied solely on vertically aligned windows for lighting.

Yet, in this H-shaped structure, both ends that should have been windows were converted into additional classrooms.

One could imagine that if all classroom doors were closed, the corridor would be pitch black even during the day.

Si Shuhao hugged her yellow windbreaker tightly and whispered her complaint:

"This building is so strange. The H-shape already hampers lighting, and they've made it worse with this corridor. If not for the open doors, we wouldn't be able to see our way."

Ming Yiyang seemed to adapt quite well:

"In the north, you have these enclosed corridors; otherwise, the heat would escape in winter, and the pipes would freeze. It's more common in the south to have open ones for better ventilation."

Hu Zhicheng ventured a cautious question:

"You seem to know a lot, Brother Ming. Have you traveled to many places before?"

Scanning the interiors of the classrooms, Ming Yiyang chuckled nonchalantly:

"No, I've just studied in both types of schools, so I know a bit about them."