Rules-related weird stories: 4016

"The earliest apostle… ‘Designer’… Amon?" Lin Yi murmured, as if he wanted to chew these words thoroughly. But what truly shocked him wasn't the title of the earliest apostle, but the solid ‘result’—

“The builder of over 90% of the Black Moon Outpost?!”

Old Mo said faintly, "Strictly speaking, the entire Black Moon Outpost was designed by him. However, according to the Codex, during the actual construction phase, apostles like ‘Star Builder’ and ‘Divine Craftsman’ made subtle adjustments based on certain circumstances, resulting in the Black Moon Outpost differing slightly from Amon's original design."

“That time is too far removed. We can only find fragmented records in the Codex, making it impossible to verify the actual situation back then.”

“But objectively speaking, there's no problem in simply saying ‘Amon is the designer of the Black Moon Outpost.’”

The shock in Lin Yi's heart grew. He just didn't know why, but the title ‘Star Builder’… Although he was hearing it for the first time, he inexplicably felt a sense of familiarity, as if he had known this title before.

“This is amazing. I never thought that the Black Moon Outpost would be designed by one person…” Lin Yi had preconceived that the Black Moon Outpost was designed through the combined efforts of many apostles.

“He did the design, but many apostles worked together to build it. After all, his main focus is ‘design.’” Old Mo shook his head slightly, dropping a bombshell, “But if you think of ‘Amon’ as just a ‘Designer,’ you'd be terribly wrong. Almost all the ships used by the apostles for offshore exploration throughout the ages came from his hands.”

“His design works are numerous, including but not limited to buildings, as well as some special works of art, such as…”

“That music box.”

Lin Yi's mind stirred slightly.

Old Mo said, “That music box… From design to finished product, there was no participation from anyone else. It was designed and created by Amon himself.”

The wind in the corridor whistled, and the candlelight flickered, as if drawing some strange and distorted shadows in the corridor. It seemed that just discussing Amon's existence was enough to cause some strange phenomena to occur in the art building.

“‘Amon's Music Box’ is not just a broadcasting tool, and it doesn't even play sounds. It was installed on those ships going out to sea, and it followed the apostles on several voyages. After each return, Amon would upgrade and adjust it… But precisely because of this, that music box possessed an unimaginable pollution tolerance. Later, it seemed to have been affected by the ‘Source,’ resulting in some unknown, transcendent mutations, gradually self-forging into a kind of ‘Forbidden Artifact.’”

“Amon's ‘terror’ is something no one has personally experienced. His designs never have problems outside of ‘design,’ so the people who compiled the Codex retained some conservative guesses about the mutation of the music box, believing that it might itself be a kind of ‘design’—Amon's design.”

“Amon used his own method to collect some of the characteristics of the ‘Source’… Just like a stone tablet rubbing, each voyage would make the traces on the cloth deeper. After several times, the existence of the music box had become far beyond conventional understanding.”

“The music box would run automatically from time to time, but there was no regularity to it.”

“It made a sound when we approached just now… I hope it was just a coincidence.”

Lin Yi subconsciously pursed his lips: "What if it wasn't a coincidence?"

Old Mo turned his head and glanced at him: "Your little mouth is really as sweet as honey at critical moments…"

Lin Yi quickly shrank his neck.

The two walked deeper and deeper into the corridor, and damp chill gradually floated in the air.

“By the way, Old Mo…” Lin Yi suddenly asked.

“Hmm?”

“Amon… is he a girl?”

“Huh?” Old Mo was stunned again, “Why would you ask such a question?”

Lin Yi hesitated for a moment, but still said, “I had a hallucination in the corridor. In the hallucination, I saw a little girl covered in dirt, holding a music box… You don't know, I often have some inexplicable ‘visions.’ I see strange things…”

“For example, when I first entered the school, I saw the cliff just now in a vision, and I saw the night watchman on the cliff…”

“I don't know if that little girl might be Amon… and is actually watching us from somewhere in the layers…”

“Hiss…” Old Mo shuddered subconsciously, reached out and stroked his arm, “Although I'm a dead man, your words still gave my already dead flesh goosebumps…”

“Don't say such things anymore… Also, whether Amon is male, female, or some other humanoid or non-human thing, the Codex doesn't record…”

“He occupies a place in the Codex, and the Codex won't waste limited text on recording his gender…”

“As for the little girl you mentioned…”

“I don't know…”

“Why don't you try to get her contact information and start a pen pal relationship next time you have the chance to see her?”

“Old Mo…” Lin Yi's face darkened, “That's not funny at all.”

“You know it's not funny!” Old Mo said seriously, “Kid, you already know what ‘Amon's Music Box’ is. Now you're telling me you saw a little girl holding that music box and coming to find you?”

“I was just praying that the thing just happened to start running, but now you're telling me that thing made a sound because of you… You wouldn't be the embodiment of the Gray Mist, would you?”

“Uh…” Lin Yi looked ugly, with a bitter smile on his face, “Don't scare me, Old Mo…”

“You…” Old Mo wanted to say something several times, but swallowed it back, “Forget it, your existence is already beyond my comprehension… Be careful when you go back later. Although I don't want to break my word, it seems your own problems are quite big.”

“If you see that little girl again, try to ask for some clues…”

Hearing this, Lin Yi couldn't help but be surprised: "Really?"

Old Mo nodded solemnly, and the words that followed almost choked Lin Yi to death: "After you ask, try every means to write it down, so that later people can add it to the corresponding rules in time after discovering the clues… So as not to screw people over."

Lin Yi's old face turned dark.

Dude, you're sure I won't survive and want to maximize my value…

“What exactly is that little girl? So terrifying?”

"I told you, I don't know. But you should know, what even I don't know… that's the real horror." Old Mo said, "When you meet the Night Watcher later, if there's a chance, I can help you ask about the situation."

"Night Watcher?" Lin Yi was inwardly shocked. The words 'Night Watcher' appearing here were more effective than a lifeline. In the Art Building area, the words 'Night Watcher' represented absolute safety.

Because once a situation arises that even the Night Watcher can't guarantee, then it truly becomes a matter of life and death left to fate.

"Old Mo, are you saying… there's a Night Watcher on the clock tower?"

"Otherwise, what do you think Mu Daxian is doing up there? With just him alone, going up the clock tower is just asking for death, right?" Old Mo retorted.

Lin Yi thought, 'Why didn't you say something like 'Mu Daxian is looking for death' from the beginning?' but naturally, he remained silent.

"That guy heard about something related to the 'Night Watcher' from somewhere and has been trying to find a way to become a 'Night Watcher'… This time, he's probably going there for that purpose."

"'A way to become a Night Watcher'? Can an art student become a Night Watcher?"

"Theoretically speaking, there's no lower path for Night Watchers. Even security guards, who are the closest to Night Watchers in terms of extraordinary characteristics, don't actually have any intersection with Night Watchers." Old Mo shook his head and said, "The Night Watcher… is a completely independent path. Theoretically, anyone can become a 'Night Watcher' as long as they meet the requirements for that path. A security guard can become a Night Watcher, but that doesn't mean a security guard is a lower-level Night Watcher…"

"Any identity can be a lower level of Night Watcher."

"But so far, only old Night Watchers have fallen. No new Night Watchers have ever been born…"

"In the history of the Black Moon Outpost, there have been a total of six Night Watchers. At most, there were four Night Watchers guarding the Black Moon Outpost at the same time. During that time, the Black Moon Outpost was indestructible."

"When the campus was established and the Black Moon Outpost was rebuilt into the Art Building, only three Night Watchers remained."

"Theoretically speaking, Mu Daxian is probably looking because three 'Night Watcher' positions have opened up in the campus…"

"Speaking of which, just last year, there seemed to be another guy who wanted to access this path, but he died miserably and implicated many sports students…"

"Within the Art Building area, whenever the gray fog invades, the Night Watchers must use all their power to prevent the descent of angels…"

"The art teachers use 'light' as much as possible to prevent the infiltration of the Grinning Angel and the Night Walkers into the Art Building…"

"And the art students are divided into different teams. Some, like those in the hall, go to different areas of the Art Building to form matrix-reinforced layers. Some lead the seedlings to safety, and some confront those completely morbidly twisted fanatics…"

"Of course, the path I'm taking you on won't encounter fanatics. The level of pollution here is the shallowest in the entire Art Building…"

"Because of the Night Watcher?" Lin Yi asked.

"Smart." Old Mo said, "Although the Night Watcher's domain doesn't cover here, not many dark and evil things dare to offend this place."

"That's not right, Old Mo. Aren't there many Night Walkers entrenched outside the door?" Lin Yi asked, "The moment the door opened just now, those things swarmed in."

"They drill into any hole they see. By the time their instincts sense something's wrong, it's too late to run." Old Mo explained, "Even if I don't kill them, they can't survive here. But if I don't kill them, they'll缠着 us and bite us like crazy, which is quite annoying."

"Almost there…" Old Mo said, then focused his attention ahead.

Deep in the corridor, a secluded iron door gradually appeared in the dim vision.

The wind seeping through the door lightly fluttered the sign hanging on it, occasionally making a crisp 'clang' sound. The echoing wind raged in the world behind the door, making some 'woo woo' sounds, as if someone was crying.

"Anyway, I'm not very clear about some things. Whether there's danger or not, let's ask the Night Watcher. Of course, the Night Watcher may not necessarily help us." As Old Mo spoke, he had already walked up to the iron door.

Getting closer, Lin Yi noticed that there were some chiseled patterns on the iron sheet, like some kind of ancient symbol.

Old Mo reached out and gently touched the iron sheet, muttering: "This is a maxim from the 'Iron Law of the Night Watchers'. It roughly means, 'The Clockless Tower, brightly illuminates the dark, its resounding voice echoes through the nine seas and eight wastelands.'"

"'The Clockless Tower'?"

"No clock, no end, no beginning and no end… This is the creed that the Night Watchers have adhered to for generations, guarding from that unknown era with almost no recorded time, until a certain day in the future…"

"No beginning and no end…" Lin Yi muttered to himself, reaching out and gently touching the iron sheet.

"Ding!"

A crisp sound rang in his mind when his palm touched the iron sheet, then a second, a third…

"Ding! Ding! Ding…"

It was like someone was hitting some kind of iron sheet with a hammer in a cave. It was very rhythmic, and Lin Yi's fingers subconsciously tapped lightly on the iron sheet.

At this moment, the world before his eyes flickered without warning. In that world of interlaced light and shadow, he seemed to see a picture…

He saw a thin figure forging something next to a stove. With each strike, some marks appeared on the iron sheet. His attention slowly zoomed in on the iron sheet and found that the marks on it were gradually corroded, as if they had been baptized by countless years.

Soon, the iron sheet in front of him became exactly the same as the one he saw before him now.

He was slightly stunned, and suddenly realized that he had already broken free from the illusion. Now, his face was just coincidentally close to the iron sheet…

"You're so close… Do you recognize this kind of writing?" Old Mo asked.

Lin Yi shook his head: "I don't recognize it."

He didn't say anything about seeing the thin figure forging iron, after all, that picture… seemed to be just a picture.

Old Mo didn't ask any more questions and started trying to open the door.

Lin Yi pondered to himself. Among all the illusions, this one was the least sense of crisis. Of course, it also had the least amount of information…

"That's really strange…"

At this moment, Old Mo slowly pushed open the door.

"Squeak—"

Accompanied by a sharp scraping sound that made one's teeth ache, the heavy iron door, full of rust, was slowly pushed open…