I Upended Yet Another Campus Urban Legend

Lin Yi’s belongings were all confiscated. 

Social bull senior walked in front, dragging Lin Yi’s suitcase while Lin Yi reluctantly followed behind him.

He had no choice but to hand over his things; else the senior would have turned him over to the police station. If he had been sent to the police station and made to explain why he was carrying restricted knives under the watchful eyes of the police, his toes would have curled so strongly, he could have dug out an entire Barbie fairy castle under his feet.

Although the moment his suitcase burst open, he had already died once of embarrassment.

Lin Yi followed after the senior, the very picture of a well-behaved junior, but under the surface, his mind was running nonstop. He was weighing the possibility of knocking out the senior with a karate chop to the back of his neck and reclaiming his belongings. 

Otherwise, there was no other way. He could tell at a glance that this senior was not the type to be open to persuasion. He also couldn’t act spoiled to get the senior to pity him.

While thinking about the feasibility of this method, the senior suddenly turned around and looked at him.

Lin Yi temporarily suppressed his thoughts and looked guiltily at the senior.

“Have you thought about it?” the senior asked suddenly.

Lin Yi: “Huh?”

He dismissed the thought that his thoughts had been seen through. He wasn’t the kind whose thoughts were written all over his face.

“We’ve been walking for so long, I’m tired.” The senior leaned lazily against the telephone pole and set down the dilapidated suitcase at his feet. “So, out with it.”

He took out a cigarette and lit it. 

The end of the cigarette flared scarlet for a moment and then died down.

Lin Yi didn’t know what the senior wanted him to say so he could only bow his head.

“Leniency for those who confess and severe punishment for those who refuse to acknowledge their crimes. The police station is 500 meters ahead.” The senior blew out a curl of smoke and raised his chin lightly. “Either you tell me the reason you’re carrying so many knives or you go to the police station and be detained for three days. It’s not a difficult choice, little junior.”

It’s really wasn’t a difficult choice. Lin Yi whispered, “Self-defense.” 

The senior went silent for a while and it took a long time before he asked, “How tall are you?”

“Ah?” Lin Yi: “182.”

“En.” Senior: “Self-defense.”

Lin Yi: “It really is for self-defense…” 

The senior glared at him for a while longer then threw the cigarette butt on the ground and stomped it out. “Stay here, someone will pick you up later. You go with him and follow all his arrangements.”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Olc Tl: “Sc.”

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Olc Tl: “…”

Lf jrxfv atfw ab teggs jcv joafg j ktlif, atf rbecv bo tegglfv obbarafqr mbeiv yf tfjgv.

Two people came and the senior threw another glance at Lin Yi. “This one’s actively looking to get killed. Have someone keep an eye on him. If he doesn’t listen, send him to the police station. The reason? Carry restricted knives.”

Lin Yi: “…” 

The senior left and Lin Yi saw him get on the bus from the bus stop again.

The name of the bus stop – Unnatural Engineering University.

Unexpectedly, they had already reached the university.

But as far as the eye could see, it was undeveloped land. Lin Yi couldn’t see any sort of university erected there. 

The two people who came took him to an inn, the kind where he didn’t even need to register his identity information.

There were several bunks in a room. Lin Yi walked in. The room was already full of people. None of them cast a single glance towards Lin Yi, staring instead at the two people at the door.

Someone said, “Seniors, this is illegal detainment.”

“That’s right, that’s right. Why are we being locked up!” 

“Your admission letter said to come report to the school with the letter after daybreak on August 29. It is now nine in the evening on the 28th. It isn’t yet the 29th and the sun isn’t even out.” Amidst the endless complaints, one of the seniors said, “The letter repeatedly emphasized that you should not arrive early. It seems that you have not taken the campus rules seriously.”

Lin Yi walked to an empty bed and sat down. He then raised his head to look at the two seniors at the door.

“Aren’t the campus rules some sort of joke?”

“Please, who would take this kind of campus rules seriously?” 

“So what if I violated the rule? Is it going to trigger some sort of mechanism to kill me?”

“Stop pretending to be in contact with supernatural beings. I just went to the school gate earlier and saw a teacher posted there to welcome students who arrive early. If were aren’t allowed to arrive early, why was there a teacher at the gate?”

“Are you sure what you saw was a teacher?” the senior said coldly.

When he said this, the lights in the room flickered before brightening. The atmosphere in the room turned strange. 

The weird atmosphere silenced the room for a moment. The senior said, “You haven’t seen it with your own eyes so you don’t believe it. We’re saving you this once because you don’t know anything. Of course, it’s only this once. In the morning, you’ll learn to abide by the rules by yourself. Sweet dreams.”

He’d said it so seriously, causing the already weird atmosphere to sink into an even deeper silence. When the two seniors left, most  people in the room still couldn’t understand, they just felt creeped out.

Lin Yi listened to them discussing quietly what the senior had just said.

“Is he for real? Is it really that scary?” 

“Probably just joking…”

“But honestly, what kind of university’s campus rules would be so outrageous?”

All around were the sounds of rustling, of the campus rulebook being rifled through. “What is this…  There is only one gate on campus. If you find multiple gates, stay where you are and contact your advisor. Do not try to walk through the gate. ”

If, while walking along the paths within campus, you accidentally start sinking into the cement, please take off your shoes and leave there. If the cement reaches your thighs, please immediately call the principal’s hotline and the infirmary. 

“All the windows on the campus are sealed shut. What’s this? Why is there only this vague bit for this rule?”

The absurd campus rules were read out. The voices of those who reading it grew smaller and smaller. Finally, the voices quietened along with the rustling of flipping through the booklet, leaving only the sound of nervous breathing in the cramped room.

Lin Yi listened carefully and seeing that the other freshmen weren’t going to read aloud any more, he took out his mobile phone and looked at it. There was no signal.

There was no wifi in the inn either. 

Actually, he wanted to push the door to see if it really had been locked from the outside by those strange seniors. But he suddenly thought of how, given how weird the atmosphere way, his every move would be noticed and if in case, someone asks his intentions, he would have to open his mouth to explain.

The social phobic had no choice but to give up. It seemed that his plan, deliberately buying a ticket to arrive a day in advance and get to the school early, had fallen through.

His knives had also been confiscated by the seniors. Lin Yi gave up trying to get out of here. He took out the MP4 player, put the earphones in his ears and the noises recorded in the MP4 poured out. Listening to his homemade white noise, he lay down on the cramped bed, trying to get comfortable.

The day passed into the 29th and while they were sleeping, the 29th quickly passed from darkness to daylight. 

When the first ray of sunlight refracted from the small broken window into the room, Lin Yi woke up.

He wrapped the headphone cable around the body of the MP4 player, ready to get up and get out of here. As soon as he put away the MP4, he glanced down and noticed the eye-piercing blood red coming from the upper bunk opposite.

Tick ​​tick tick.

Beads of blood dripped from the soaked through bedding of the top bunk to the bottom bunk. 

There was someone sleeping on the bottom bunk and the drops of blood landed on his forehead one after the other. Feeling uncomfortable, while still asleep, he reached out a hand to wipe off the blood on his forehead.

With such a swipe, the thick blood spread and the viscous discomfort caused the sleeping person on the bottom bunk to open their eyes.

“Aaaaahhhhhh–”

A scream exploded in the room. 

Lin Yi seemed to be able to make out screaming from the next room as well. The simultaneous screaming from inside and outside woke up all the people in the room which followed with all kinds of noises ringing out. Some fell from the bed, some joined in the screaming and some were pounding on the door, wanting to leave.

But no matter how loud their actions, the door was still locked from the outside. Those outside must be determined to make this ignorant group of freshmen realize something. The door remained tightly shut; not a single indication of it being opened.

Lin Yi listened to the shouting in the room. It an all-boys room he had stayed in last night. The seven or eight boys in the room were terrified by what they saw. It was the first time they’ve seen such a shocking scene. None of them noticed the silent Lin Yi in the corner.

After a long time, the room grew quiet and someone said, voice trembling, “He died? What… what’s going on?” 

Another trembling voice replied, “What they said… it seems to be true.”

The person who died was the one who scolded the senior last night. He said he had already gotten to the school, that he had seen a teacher welcoming the early-arriving students.

“Even if you don’t enter the school, just walking around the school gate already count as… an ‘early arrival’?

“So, because he violated the rules…he died so miserably…” 

The way the man died looked absolutely terrifying. His lower body was crushed into a bloody pulp; a single glance could send one’s stomach rolling.

“F*ck, I want to go back.” Someone couldn’t take it anymore and rushed to the door of the room and pounded on the door: “Let me out! I want to go home!”

They were all agitated and several of them rushed to the door. There was even someone trying to knock it down.

The wooden door groaned. The flimsy door was unable to hold up for long and was quickly knocked open. 

Lin Yi jumped out of bed. He touched his pocket and after making sure the MP4 player was in his pocket, he was ready to leave.

Just as he took a step forward, the people in front, who led the charge out of the room, stopped like wooden stakes. Lin Yi raised his eyes and saw a man half a head taller than him standing in front of these wooden stakes.

It was that social bull senior.

Social bull senior was leaning against the wall, staring at the wooden door being stepped on by wooden stakes. 

Someone next to him got into their room then went out again. “Zhou Ge, one person died in this room.”

Hearing this, social bull senior glanced at the stakes. “Someone’s died already, do you still not understand? Didn’t the rules also say that you can’t be late and that you can’t not come? Are you all rushing to reincarnate?”

The stakes turned pale in an instant.

Lin Yi looked at the social bull senior who seemed to have not rested at all last night. Under his eyes were swaths of dark blue. He yawned numbly as he listened to the reports of the deaths in each room. 

After the report was over, all the freshmen who had rested in the small inn the night before were brought to the front. He stood lazily in front of them and while yawning, said, “Do you now understand the situation? So, now, will you all be going home looking for your mom? Or will you obediently report in for school? It’s up to you.”