Another wave surged, the tide reaching his chest!

Countless broken sculptures climbed to his chest, and those voices calling out rose like ivy on a wall, almost exploding in his ears, ready to engulf him entirely!

[...store stjerner...store stjerner...]

The constant calling made Lin Yi's spirit tremble incessantly; his eyes gradually rolled back in their sockets, while in his mind, invisible strokes began sketching strange paths, imprinting disordered patterns in a dark world!

Countless broken sculptures, accompanied by the surging black tide, sang these cautions to him!

「Touch my deep blue pupils... crack my star skeleton... devour my raw moon...」

「Burn my bone-flaming fire... make my wave ornament endless...」

But as his confusion and hesitance grew, newly captured cautionary words began to engrave themselves into his mind!

At the same time, he gradually began to discern the meaning within these cautions!

「Touch my abyssal gaze... shatter my starlit remains... corrode my decaying moon... incinerate my bone flame... obliterate my tidal patterns... crush my...」

"Lin Yi... Lin Yi... Lin Yi..."

A woman's voice began to call in his ear.

"How strange..." Lin Yi murmured faintly, "in broken sculptures... how is there a woman's voice..."

Suddenly, he gave a jolt!

His rolling eyes suddenly regained their radiance!

"Li Huiyuan's voice!"

"Li Huiyuan!"

"Gymnasium!"

With this thought, the whole world seemed torn apart by a dazzling bolt of lightning, white light rendering everything Lin Yi saw into black and white lines!

The world reverted, and he found himself back in the Gymnasium!

The splashing sound of waves resonated in his ears one after another.

In front of him was a pair of fair, pink legs squatting down; Li Huiyuan was beside him, anxiously shaking him.

"Li Huiyuan, I...?" Lin Yi regained his senses and spoke slowly; his voice was hoarse, as if his throat had practiced dark rap for a long time.

"Didn't Boss say that before she left, we were not allowed to enter the pool on our own, so why did you?" Li Huiyuan's face showed seventy percent worry, twenty percent reproach, and the remaining ten percent of pure unhappiness.

Lin Yi was stunned upon hearing this and finally realized what the angle of looking up at Li Huiyuan meant—he was already in the swimming pool, with the water just over his chest!

Just like... the black sea water over his chest earlier!

「Splash——!」

He hurriedly climbed out of the swimming pool, first checking the time on his watch and then laying on the non-slip mat nearby without regard to his image, gasping for breath.

16:29.

Counting the time it took him to sit on the lounge chair, he had been floating in the water for less than a minute.

However, in the world where he fell into the layer, quite a long time seemed to have passed…

Considering this time discrepancy, he suddenly felt fear; thankfully, Li Huiyuan came just in time, or if she had come a minute later, wouldn't he have been submerged in another layer?!

When falling into the layer, he hadn't realized one problem until now—within that layer, he seemed unable to leave the lounge chair!

If the sea water from the black ocean had covered his head, wouldn't he have drowned?!

[This time, just make sure not to drown.]

Boss's words before leaving the Gymnastics Hall resonated in his mind like an admonition, making him pause strongly.

"You won't believe it; I didn't even know what happened just now!" A look of lingering fear was evident on Lin Yi's face, "I mistook the pool for the black sea water, and the next thing I knew, it was when you woke me!"

Li Huiyuan's face turned serious upon hearing this: "I can understand."

She stood up, sleek, slim legs with glistening water droplets refracting a shimmering feeling under the LED lights in the Swimming Hall.

"Last night, the same thing happened to me! But… it's because I heard your calling voice that I 'sleepwalked,' so why did you?" Li Huiyuan asked, puzzled.

Lin Yi narrowed his eyes, "It was some… broken sculptures."

"Broken sculptures...? That is really strange... I've never heard of such a thing; maybe Boss knows. Do you want to ask her later?" Li Huiyuan said.

Lin Yi nodded: "I should ask."

He had quite a few questions in mind.

For example, regarding the lighting of the old kerosene lamp.

And… the staircase he just saw, is it leading to the Gymnasium's basement?

Originally, he thought it was the way to the basement layer, but since he saw a shower room outside the layer in the shower area earlier, he realized that the staircase… might not necessarily lead to the basement.

But if it isn't leading to the basement stairs, where else could it lead?

Moreover, he noticed that place during his first PE class before his cognition began to deepen…

Too bizarre, too eerie.

"Hey, Boss is here! Perfect timing, you can ask her!" Li Huiyuan suddenly said.

Lin Yi immediately turned to look at the entrance to the women's changing room, where Boss had just donned a dark blue one-piece athletic swimsuit and was stepping towards him with fair, long legs.

Yet he noticed, that Boss's willow eyebrows were already furrowed, her expression somewhat stern!

「Oh no, Boss's expression, could the situation in the shower area be very bad?」

Lin Yi sensed something was wrong: "Boss..."

He just opened his mouth but was ruthlessly interrupted by Boss's icy voice: "Did you get into the water just now? Did my words to you mean nothing?"

"No, Boss, Lin Yi had a hallucination just now and sleepwalked, just like what happened to me last night." Li Huiyuan quickly defended for Lin Yi.

"I had a hunch." Boss didn't get angry, her lips curving slightly with a hint of amusement, "He hasn't even given a peep, and you're already eager to explain for him."

Li Huiyuan immediately blushed and lowered her head, muttering softly: "Though… the ear-side breeze part is true."

Letting you call me Huihuizi, letting you call me Huihuizi! You didn't even hear a single word! This is just infuriating! Li Huiyuan simmered inside.

Boss looked at Lin Yi and asked: "So tell me, what exactly happened?"

"I came out to wait for Huihuizi just now, then…" Lin Yi recounted every detail about the incident where he fell into the Art Building Layer while lying on a lounge chair, sharing about the broken sculptures in the black sea too.

"Seems like what I predicted. Choosing to hold the training in the Swimming Hall this time was the right call." Boss said slowly.

「Looks like there's a reason!」Lin Yi's eyes lit up. He quickly asked: "Boss, you knew all along? Is this related to my training?"

"It bears a tiny bit of relation." Boss said reluctantly, "Your situation was likely a dream build, differing slightly from Huihuizi's experience."

She glanced at Li Huiyuan, then continued: "Your consciousness made a leap first, followed by your body reacting. The body and consciousness didn't synchronize at the map level… This is highly dangerous; if your consciousness perishes in the layer, who knows what might take advantage of that, claiming control of your body."

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