"You’re right," Mountain Man nodded, "heading to the Dormitory Building now, can’t use the elevator, the best outcome is to stay in the corridor on the first floor and then wait for the elevator to start. If luck is worse, you can only wait under the street light..."
"What if I can take the stairs up to the dorm?"
"Take... the stairs?" The Experience Student was stunned for a moment, then his mind buzzed—not because he was deeply shocked, but because he vaguely remembered there was a rule about taking the stairs. Regrettably, his memory was a bit poor, and he hadn’t managed to memorize it.
"I’m off." Mountain Man patted his shoulder, "Good luck, kid, luck favors fools... as long as you’re foolish enough."
He squeezed out a smile resembling that of someone from his motherland, waved his hand, and opened the classroom door.
The thick mist outside seeped through the door gap and quickly dissipated when the light hit it, as if what Mountain Man had opened was not a door, but a zero-degree refrigerator.
Mountain Man left the classroom with his big and small packages and closed the door behind him.
With the "bang" of the closing door, Mountain Man had completely left the classroom.
The corridor lights cast his shadow on the slightly misty window glass, indicating he descended the steps in just a few strides.
Lin Yi silently watched the classroom door.
Slowly, the rules regarding the staircase of the Dormitory Building surfaced in his mind:
[The Dormitory Building is equipped with numerous elevators for students to use, available freely between 6:00-7:40 and 21:00-22:00.
Do not attempt to understand how the elevators work...
Note: In case of emergency, dorms below the 10th floor may be accessed via the staircase. However, our school still discourages the use of stairwells in the Dormitory Building.
"’Emergency situation’, ’still not recommended’..." Lin Yi narrowed his eyes.
"So the only explanation is that Mountain Man’s dorm... is on the 10th floor or below." Lin Yi pondered silently, "Does that mean if the reserved dorm is below the 10th floor, one could exploit a bug to enter and leave the Dormitory Building outside of normal hours?"
"Wrong." Wei Liang shook his head, negating Lin Yi’s statement, "Based on my second playthrough experience, Mountain Man’s method is not feasible."
"At this point, even if he really could enter the Dormitory Building, the hallways would have no lights."
Dormitory Building Regulations—[The power supply system within the Dormitory Building is centrally controlled by the school authorities, with no switches available in any area.
Between 6:00-7:40 and 21:00-22:00, the Dormitory Building maintains a lit condition. It is forbidden to enter dark areas that are not illuminated by light.]
"’Forbidden to enter dark areas not illuminated by light.’" Wei Liang cited this particular regulation from the Dormitory Building Rules.
"Liangzi, you mean, Mountain Man plans to hunker down under the ’Dormitory Building-096’ lamp post until the lights come on at 21:00?" Lin Yi guessed correctly.
It must be said, the serious Wei Liang did indeed carry the aura of someone from a second run-through strategy group, it’s just a pity that the grandmaster vibe lasted only as long as it took to say that sentence. He immediately spread his hands and said, "He might also deliberately break the rules and then try to survive in the Dormitory Building!"
The final rule in the Dormitory Building Regulations: [Please adhere to the rules above with firm awareness. If you accidentally violate any of these rules within the Dormitory Building, seek help from a Security Guard based on luck.
Furthermore, based on the fact that ’the Dormitory Building is one of the most dangerous areas in the school,’ the school will not and cannot provide any assistance to you.]
Nearly every regulation has a mention of "please follow the rules" and "if you break the rules, something will happen," but those who are committed to adhering to the rules believe they can follow them and subconsciously ignore the consequences of violating them...
Lin Yi ignored what Wei Liang said afterward, instead weighing the feasibility of hanging out under the streetlight for nearly two hours...
"Hey, Old Lin, you’re not thinking about following in Mountain Man’s footsteps and standing under the Dormitory Building’s streetlight until 21:00, are you?" Wei Liang accurately predicted Lin Yi’s thoughts as soon as he spoke.
Lin Yi opened his mouth, then shook his head slightly, "I considered it, but it doesn’t seem feasible."
This wasn’t Lin Yi trying to throw Wei Liang off; he genuinely had given it some thought.
With his current inspiration level and Contamination level, walking on the campus roads during layer collapse would make him an easy target for the Human Sculpture, and even if he ignored those Sculptures all the way to the ’Dormitory Building-096’ lamppost, he couldn’t guarantee his safety during the subsequent wait.
As everyone knows, fog is just the beginning of a layer collapse under abnormal weather; the real danger is the downpour that signifies the full onset of the abnormal weather.
Suppose he reached the ’Dormitory Building-096’ lamppost before 21:00, and then it started to rain heavily, and the Dormitory Building’s lights were not on, what would he do then?
Not to mention, what if it started raining before he even got to the Dormitory Building?
And if he stayed in the classroom, he still didn’t know what dangers he might encounter; if it were just a power cut, then, even if a Conceptual Rank Sculpture came in, the danger probably wouldn’t exceed that of an open campus area in a downpour, right?
Lin Yi looked up at the clock.
If there was no abnormal weather, he would even have an extra half hour to explore the Teaching Building’s elevator.
Lin Yi gently shook his head, dismissing the idea, gathered his notes, and flipped through the H-comics in his hand.
But now, he couldn’t get into the H-comics, bored, he took out Pan Jian’s digital camera from his bag on a whim and suddenly decided to flip through the photo album.