And besides, wouldn’t water evaporate when exposed to sunlight?
Come evening, it could absorb moisture and recover its vitality.
Moreover, contamination manifests itself as mist on campus, and mist is in itself a part of water!
Furthermore, abnormal weather isn’t scary when it first starts; it’s when rainfall begins that truly terrifying weather occurs.
So that kind of "rain" is a stronger contaminant?
Everything seemed to make sense!
Nocturnal species even have "water" characteristics!
Indeed, Jia Baoyu didn’t lie to me; things made of water are dangerously compelling!
Lin Yi expressed all his hypotheses in one breath, and after hearing them, Tian Bufan laughed, "You’ve thought so much just from the formation of the alien sculptures? However, a guess remains a guess; don’t rush to conclusions..."
"As for the concept of ’super’ nocturnal species, I find it very interesting, but I feel that the source of contamination within the campus doesn’t seem to be an aggregate of nocturnal species of that rank, unless they can really transition from quantity to quality. Otherwise, no matter how many ants there are, when they gather, they’re just a large ant cluster."
"Imagine stuffing an elevator full of nocturnal species; that’s already a lot, isn’t it? Now imagine filling a whole campus with nocturnal species. Although numerous, no matter the amount, they still perish upon encountering sunlight."
"Such creatures that cannot endure the sun have too low a level of life form... I even believe that when speaking of the source of contamination, conceptual-level sculptures fit the criteria better."
"Conceptual-level sculptures..." Lin Yi pondered for a moment, then nodded, "That’s true, but back to the main point, did you get several sports students to carry mirrors and shine them on nocturnal species, attempting to drive them out of the elevator?"
Tian Bufan sneered, "I originally thought I could chase them out of the elevator, but interestingly enough, they kept retreating further inside it."
"They probably thought that once the outermost layer of nocturnal species was dried by the sun, it could become a protective membrane."
"I had to shatter their naive notion, so I asked a zealous sports student to smash the dried outer layer with a baseball bat, exposing the fresh bodies of nocturnal species again..."
"In the end, we eliminated an entire elevator’s worth of nocturnal species, and I successfully entered the elevator."
"What was it like inside the elevator?" Lin Yi asked curiously.
"I’m afraid the truth might disappoint you," Tian Bufan shook his head slightly, "The interior of the Teaching Building’s elevator isn’t much different from the one in the Dormitory Building, the only difference being the button panel."
"The Teaching Building’s elevator panel shows there are a total of 8 floors, and above floor 8, there’s a ’↑’ button covered by a red glass shield, also marked with an ’×’, just like the button panel in the Dormitory Building elevator."
"Entering the elevator is actually safe; as long as you don’t press the floor button, the elevator doesn’t operate, or if you stand at the edge, the door doesn’t close, giving me enough time to observe the inside of the elevator."
"I think the reason school rules forbid Experience Students from riding the elevator has to do, in part, with a fear that the floor buttons won’t match the number of floors listed in the rules, creating a contradiction that could lead to cognitive conflict and doubt about the rules among the Experience Students..."
"You must know, once you doubt the rules, it’s no different from courting destruction."
"The other reason is, when an ordinary Experience Student presses the elevator button and the door opens to reveal an entire elevator full of decayed nocturnal species, that shock can easily cause a mental collapse."
If one’s sanity points plummeted to zero in an instant, it would be no different from dropping dead on the spot.
Lin Yi fell silent for a brief moment. He had imagined many different environments inside the Teaching Building’s elevator, even more bizarre scenarios, but he never expected the Teaching Building’s elevator to be so unexpectedly ordinary.
"So that would mean... the Teaching Building elevator and the Dormitory Building elevator are the same, which is why they have the capability to travel to the Art Building, and even their operating principles might be the same."
"However, it seems the Teaching Building elevator can only be used during abnormal weather..."
Tian Bufan speculated, "If the reasons for the prohibition on using the Teaching Building elevator are the two I mentioned, it means that as long as we have sufficient understanding, we can also use the elevator freely, provided we only use the 1st to 4th floors of the elevator, and during abnormal weather, once the layers start stretching, we can reach the 5th to 8th floors through the elevator."
"Of course, this is just my guess. In principle, I do not recommend any of us to attempt it... because so far we still don’t have more information related to the elevator, and it’s also questionable whether the 1st to 4th floors reached by the elevator are still the same as those under normal conditions."
Lin Yi thought for a while and then nodded his head. Exploration requires a gradual approach and a step-by-step strategy. The risks associated with a place could be greatly reduced with sufficient intelligence and understanding before entry.
"Besides, the transformation pathways of nocturnal species, aside from becoming sculptures, could also turn them into non-human students," Tian Bufan slowly said, "Today, Wei Shan and I had dinner together; after that, we left the cafeteria around 16:30 and returned to the Teaching Building."
"That early?" Lin Yi was surprised; at that time, he was still circling the Student Cafeteria trying to find the location of the Convenience Store.