Chapter 864



Nora: “…”

When she saw Oscar actually open his web browser and type in the search term, she asked in surprise, “You hadn’t seen any before?”

There were indeed news stories about her in the United States, but she and Justin had deleted them from the internet after each incident, after all, she didn’t want to reveal her face. If one checked the news in time, one could still catch a photo of her, but now….

“Why no pictures?”

Oscar was surprised. “I heard that she is trending on social media and even has a stormy relationship with the richest man in America! I also heard that Anti has two children but I don’t know if it’s true or not.”

Nora: “…”

As they chatted, Epson had completely forgotten about the crisis that would come that night. Dejected and discouraged, he gestured to the students around him and said, “Let’s all go back for now!”.

The time…

Nora checked that the time was exactly one o’clock in the morning.

She stopped everyone and said, “Right now we are in a time crunch. If we split up at this hour, we’ll be in even more danger. I think it’s best that we stay in the lab. This way, if something happens, at least we can work together…”

Barbarian may be powerful, but surely even he couldn’t attack the thirty-odd students in the lab, could he?

But as soon as she said that, Epson vented his anger at her. He yelled at her, “Murderer? What murderer? The SWAT team is just trying to scare us! I told you there is no murderer. You just want to stay here to laugh at me, don’t you?”.

Nora: “?”

Her reaction scared Oscar and he ducked to the side. The rest of the students looked at Nora.

Nora narrowed her eyes. “Professor Epson, have you ever heard of a medical condition known as persecutory delirium? You seem to suffer from it. Do you need me to contact a doctor for you?”

Epson: “!”

That woman didn’t even need to use profanity when she insulted someone!

She pointed at Nora angrily and continued to rant. “You think I lost to Anti just because my experiment didn’t succeed? Besides, she didn’t even try! If you look at it like that, I’m still better than her!”.

Nora: “…”

She ignored the lunatic and looked at the students. She said, “It’s freezing outside and the police have already closed the entrance to the dorms a long time ago. Even if they leave, there is nowhere for them to go. On the contrary, it is safer here and the police have also tightened security measures around the laboratory building. In my opinion, everyone should stay here until dawn! But, of course, everyone is free to choose what they want to do.” Nora’s voice was full of sarcasm when she mentioned ‘freedom’.

They all looked at each other. Finally, Oscar took the lead and approached Nora. He said, “I…I’m staying.”

The rest split into two factions at once. Some approved of staying there for the time being, but gave very grandiloquent reasons for their decision, of course.

“Professor, our dorm has already closed, so we can’t go in now anyway. I don’t want to disturb the dorm supervisor, so I’ll stay. I’ll be back at five o’clock.”

“Yes, that’s right, I live relatively far away, Professor, so I won’t be back either.”

There were also some who wanted to leave.

“Ha, you’re all cowards who have allowed that woman to scare you! Professor Epson, I’ll be leaving. I’m going back to the dormitory now. Isn’t it more comfortable to go back and sleep in a comfortable bed instead?”

Everyone quickly split into two factions. In the end, however, only two male students left with Professor Epson.

Epson looked at his favorite students and then at the rest. He snorted and said, “What a bunch of cowards! How are they going to create miracles for the pharmaceutical industry? They don’t even have the courage to go back to their rooms! They are not suitable at all to conduct research with me.”

After scolding them, Epson sneered. “Let’s go!”

“Okay.”

The two students followed Epson. One even said, “Professor, we’ll escort you to the staff dormitory before we go back!”

“Well done!” After the voices of the three men gradually faded into the distance, Nora and the rest of the students each found a comfortable spot in the lab, planning to leave once it was light.

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Epson and the two students entered the elevator.

Because of the failed experiment, Epson had a long face and wore a very serious expression. He was staring straight ahead, his eyes behind his glasses full of anger and embarrassment.

The two students behind him reaffirmed his opinion and consoled him. They said, “Professor Epson, you don’t have to worry about them! They are all cowards.”

“Professor Epson, you don’t have to worry about the failure of the experiment! This method may not have worked, but at least we have ruled out the possibility, which is also a kind of test of the theory. We have still made a contribution to the pharmaceutical industry!”

“Professor Epson, although Anti had already proposed a year ago that this method did not really work, he did not carry out the experiment. Instead, we came to the final step and proved that this method really doesn’t work. Academics should have the spirit to get to the bottom of things. From this point alone, you are much better than Professor Anti! At least, when you discovered obstacles, you did not overcome them but chose to give up. You lack too much of a spirit of scientific inquiry.”

Each of the two was more eloquent than the other and their persuasion gradually made Epson’s horrible look change for the better.

However, they were completely oblivious to the fallacy of his words.

If one already knew that the road led to a dead end, why waste time delving into it?

However, they were not going to bring that up at that time.

Instead, they began to ridicule others.

“Americans are so timid that they don’t have the courage or the spirit to break new ground. It’s as if Lisa believes SWAT’s claims. Besides, even if a real killer comes, will we three men be unable to beat him in a fight when he’s alone? Hahaha, but they just insist on spending those four hours in the lab instead. They are so stupid.”

Epson even sarcastically scoffed and said, “What killer? I think it’s probably just a burglar or a mugger. Professor Mayer was probably killed because he was too thin and weak. Not only do I work out every day, but you two are very strong and have the necessary corpulence. If we come across a killer, let’s catch him and throw him in SWAT’s face! This way, we can even embarrass them!”

The two students nodded again.

By then, the trio had reached the first floor.

They stepped out of the elevator with big smiles, ready to exit the lab building. None of them noticed the man in black standing in the corner in the dark.

He had almost blended into the night.

Only a pair of red eyes glowed in the darkness.

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Above.

After Epson and the two students left, everyone found a suitable corner for themselves and prepared to rest.

At that moment, someone suddenly asked, “Will Professor Epson hold a grudge against us and refuse to give us credit for this subject because we decided to stay?”

“Surely not…?”

“Actually, when you think about it, it doesn’t seem so scary. The killer they were talking about didn’t show up at all. Maybe this is all really a joke like what Epson said!”

“People will just make fun of us and call us cowards if we stay here. That exchange student is too shy. The moment there’s any sign of trouble, she immediately tells us to stay and not to go out….. How much does she cherish her life!”

“I also think we have been deceived by Lisa. I suddenly regret staying, I should have left with Professor Epson right now…”

Of course, apart from these people with 20/20 hindsight, there were also those who defended Nora.

“Why didn’t you say so then, what does this have to do with Lisa? You made your own choice, so don’t blame others!”

“Exactly. Besides, the police have made a fuss at the school. That officer was so resolute when she said she’d leave if nothing happened by tomorrow, Which means something is definitely wrong! What’s the problem with us staying here? It’s only four hours, is it so hard to go through that? I didn’t see them complaining so much when we were doing experiments overnight!”

When the person blaming the situation on Nora heard those defending her, she stood up and replied, “What’s wrong with me complaining a little bit? Why are you so protective of her? Is it because she’s beautiful? Is that why you’ve developed protective feelings towards her? Heh, if you have time to have tender and protective feelings for the weaker gender, then why don’t you think about how to appease Professor Epson’s anger instead?”

The few who stood up for Nora turned out to be men. Not that they had developed tender and protective feelings for the weaker gender, but there were only a pitifully small number of girls in the lab. Including Oscar and Nora, there were only four.

The other two had kept quiet, that was all.

Seeing that they were crossing the line with their words, Oscar immediately said, “That’s enough, guys! Lisa is an exchange student. Do you plan to make her tell everyone when she returns to the U.S. that this is how we treat exchange students at Staav University? Where is their value as students at Staav University? Have you forgotten the school motto?”

Oscar’s words calmed both sides.

The boy who had blamed Nora said, “Okay, I was wrong, but I shouldn’t have offended Professor Epson. He’s notorious for being mean. It’s clear that we stayed because we were afraid something would go wrong, but really, there being so many of us here, even if a murderer shows up, what’s there to be afraid of?”

As soon as he said this, the rest nodded. “Yes, what is there to be afraid of? Come on, let’s go. If we hurry and catch up with Professor Epson, maybe we can salvage our image a little. We can go back to our respective dormitories later…”

Two-thirds of the remaining students were up in an instant. “Yes, sounds good. Let’s go back to the dorms. This place gets really cold in the middle of the night, even with the heat on. The lab building is old after all, it was freezing the last two days.”

“Yes, let’s go together. Even if we run into the killer, I think our number will give him a good scare. We’re not inept…. Besides, the killer may not even exist!”

They all headed for the exit as they spoke.

However, it was at that moment that someone opened the door from outside!

Immediately afterwards, one of the students who had left with Professor Epson a moment ago appeared at the entrance.

The student who had just criticized Nora immediately said, “Why did you come back? We were planning to go and catch up with you…”

But before he could finish, the student collapsed on the floor!

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