Volume 15 - CH 9

*Now adding college application to my growing list of reasons why I procrastinate translation*

Chapter 9: Questions

Location: Atlantis Time: 2:48 PM

“The red team’s sixth group is out!”

A report came from the announcer.

Then the griffin that was about to kill was forced out.

I suddenly felt a bit bad for Senior who was facing him, because there wasn’t much you could say when you have this kind of opponent.

Just when I was distracted by looking at Senior, a strong tremor suddenly came from the ground like an earthquake, before many staglamite-like things emerged in our surroundings, piercing through the ground and growing upward nonstop.

“Yang Yang! Come quick!” Miao Miao shouted at me from not far away.

It was then that I realized, and saw at the same time, that there were different groups trying to attack us with basic spells.

After regrouping with Miao Miao and the others, Jules pulled out a silver charm that I’d never seen before: “Bastards, you dare to attack me, go down to hell!” His face that was originally cute became as vicious as a small demon. Then he pressed the paper charm toward the ground and lots of little silver orbs suddenly rolled out.

I thought he only wanted to make people fall, that kind of cute trick, but a few seconds later, I immediately overturned this extremely naive thought.

Those little silver orbs rolled around. Clearly having the same thought as me, the opponent let out a happy and condescending laugh, before stepping on it.

Often, tragedies happen under excessive carelessness.

The instant he stepped on it, the little orb suddenly burst into a large needle flower like a hedgehog, and then the person who stepped on it instantly turned into a kebab. The terrifying part wasn’t even this; as soon as they saw one of them being trampled, the other orbs scattered around the place also exploded, chasing after that group and even crowding up to them nonstop. It didn’t take long for one team to be eliminated.

I looked at Jules in fear and deeply felt that I must never have him as an enemy. I could more or less understand why Elma didn’t dare to refute him.

After a period of fighting, there were a lot less groups on the field, in fact, scattered here and there. Even Olivia was already sitting outside the field with a big sundae, leisurely watching as she ate.

At the same time, I also turned my gaze back to Ryan and Chifuyu. The two of them had been fighting for quite a long time and already got blood stains on themselves, cutting somewhat sorry figures.

Three of Chifuyu’s companions remained. One of them had disappeared somehow, probably from getting injured amidst it all and left the field. We scattered before, so we all survived by chance.

After we gathered together, Ryan did a backflip and jumped back on top to rest.

Taking advantage of this, Miao Miao immediately helped him heal some of the more severe injuries, and on the opposite side, Chifuyu’s group did the same. Both sides got a short break.

Ryan bent down and leaned toward us to whisper: “When I attack later, you guys trip those three below and I’ll pull Chifuyu down.”

Elma gave him a thumbs up.

Wait, this is our battle plan?

Before I could get the words out of my mouth, I felt my body lighten, and Ryan suddenly vanished above again. In the blink of an eye, he had appeared in front of Chifuyu, the red broadsword swiftly swiping toward Chifuyu’s neck in coordination with his movements.

Quickly dodging to the side and counterattacking at the same time, Chifuyu aimed a fierce kick at Ryan’s stomach and jumped back onto the arrows on the ground.

Aware that he threw down his dual swords, Ryan chased after him.

“Now!” At the same time the two people jumped away in tandem, Elma suddenly pulled out his Illusionary Weapon and charged forward, followed by Jules from a distance away and Miao Miao, who attacked at close range. Seeing that they didn’t hesitate at all, I also braced myself and took out Minas, firing wildly at those three. But, as people chosen by Chifuyu, of course it was impossible to randomly knock them down. While defending themselves, they actually even tried to attack us back.

Tossing a short knife as he leaned toward me, Jules humphed: “There’s even a white robe. Tut, wouldn’t it be nice if they could just fall down obediently?”

…You’re actually complaining about them!? You’re also a white robe. I bet the other side must be thinking the same thing as you right now.

At the same time, not resting after stopping on top of the sword, Ryan immediately rushed toward Chifuyu not far away. In an instant, he pulled out a different pair of swords from his waist and slashed them in the direction of his prey one after the other.

Flipping back and dodging the attack, Chifuyu once again shot a large amount of arrows from the air. Most of them were used to greet Ryan, though not even half of them succeeded. A few were left to pierce the ground as a foothold.

“I can’t beat you in a short time.” Unexpectedly, Ryan abruptly sighed. It was clearly noisy around us, but this sentence sounded particularly distinct.

Chifuyu froze and looked at him, a bit surprised. Maybe he didn’t expect his own partner would suddenly say this. His expression instantly became slightly complicated.

“So I’m going to use a bad trick.” Shrugging once, Ryan suddenly tore off his ponytail tie in one move.

“Ryan!” Knowing what he wanted to do, Chifuyu roared resentfully, before kicking off and rushing back toward us all of a sudden.

Time seemed to stop in an instant.

Ryan vanished from his spot, no clue where he went, and that strangely big sword just now erupted from the ground with a boom, blocking Chifuyu’s return path.

A second later, Ryan abruptly appeared on the hilt of the blade, and before Chifuyu could avoid it in time, he’d already pounced over with one hand around Chifuyu’s neck, the other about to pull off the headband.

Naturally, it’s impossible for Chifuyu to be so easily overcome. He narrowed his eyes and with a flip of his hand, a wind-charm short knife emerged and pierced Ryan’s shoulder to force him to let go.

Without dodging at all, Ryan took the knife head on and gripped his opponent’s neck hard. His free hand swung out and his Illusionary broadsword shot into the sky, before landing vertically.

A few collision sounds later, the two simultaneously fell on the ground.

After the dust passed, I saw the fallen sword beside Chifuyu’s face, a red blood stain continuously sliding down the edge of the sword, dripping into the soil bit by bit.

Hid hand had grabbed the hem of Ryan’s clothes, however, so Ryan fell next to him. It wasn’t a good pose. Clearly, when Ryan was about to jump on the sword, he was pulled, directly dragged down by Chifuyu on the ground.

Upon closer look, the red group’s headband was already in Ryan’s hand.

[Red team’s eighth group, white team’s ninth group! Eliminated!]

“Get up.”

Climbing up first, Ryan stretched a hand out to his partner on the ground. Lying supine, Chifuyu coldly snorted, then took his hand and stood up: “Ryan Scar, next time we fight, if you use the vanishing trick to slip by again, be prepared to pay the debt back.”

Saying that, he wiped the blood on his face with the back of his hand while being led off the field by the staff.

Standing at the same spot, Ryan scratched his face with a confused expression, before turning toward me: “I obviously can’t vanish…”

No, you vanished, the kind of “vanished” where you completely evaporated into the air.

We were led to the other side by the staff to leave the field. There were actually almost no groups left on the field now. Looks like the winner will be determined soon.

As soon as we exited, Miao Miao immediately helped Ryan treat his shoulder wound, with Elma standing by and continuing to bring up the partners-shouldn’t-be-so-heavyhanded topic and whatnot.

Jules yawned and said he was going to find a drink before disappearing.

Ignoring the auditory bombardment beside him, Ryan counted on his fingers for Miao Miao: “Getting the headband is two points, falling down is minus a point, so we still made a profit.”

Miao Miao laughed while poking fun at him, but her hands didn’t stop moving. Soon Ryan was completely healed.

Meanwhile, the game on the field finally ended. The last one remaining on the field was Senior’s group. The other groups were all wiped out, and our side cheered.

Because they needed to calculate the score, we had some time to rest for now.

“Chu, can you help me with something?” Just when I was going to find Ran, Aslaine hurried over.

“What is it?” I was a bit puzzled looking at the person running over.

Asking Miao Miao or Ryan for help was normal, but this was the first time I heard someone who wanted me to help. The hell, maybe he’s looking for another person? Who just happened to have a name similar to mine?

Yikes! Then I shouldn’t have answered, it’d be embarrassing if he was really looking for someone else!

Unexpectedly, Aslaine actually stood in front of me with an expression like he had specifically come to find me: “It’s nothing big, don’t worry. The medical team’s Julian was suddenly looking for you. Do you want to go now to take a look?”

The glasses-wearing cactus is looking for me?

Him and I should have little in common, right? Why is he in such a good mood today that he wanted to find me?

And if I remember correctly, I probably hadn’t seen him when I went to the medical team today. Could it be that he came directly from the medical team’s headquarters?

With my head full of questions, I first thanked Aslaine before using a teleportation array when no one paid attention to me and abruptly teleported to the medical team for the second time today.

Sure enough, as soon as the scenery changed, I saw that the glasses-wearing cactus was already waiting for me in the healthcare center’s doorway, though he was crouching instead of standing.

He was inspecting the victims of the sports competition with a joyous expression.

“Don’t steal any students’ corpses!” Flinging the door open and roaring at him, the assistant then noticed my presence at once.

“Yang Yang, you came. The medical team is looking for you for something and sent Julian over. Try asking him, and in the meantime, help me keep an eye on him so that he doesn’t carry off any meat scraps.”

I nodded at the assistant, and then he said a few more words of complaint and withdrew to the healthcare.

At this time, Julian had stood up and walked straight toward me: “Hi, Chu kiddo.”

“Hello.” After politely greeting him back first, I looked up at this person whom I actually haven’t met more than a few times: “Are you looking for me for something?”

Julian nodded once and spoke seriously with a completely unreadable expression: “While examining something, I discovered a strange thing. If you don’t mind, can I borrow a strand of hair or fingernail from you?”

Borrow hair?

I guess my current expression must be full of questions: “J-just hair is enough?”

“I would also be happy to receive your whole head if you want to give me it.” Julian immediately pulled out a wide knife.

“No need, please don’t be impulsive, thank you.” I instantly stepped back a big distance, afraid that he would chop that knife directly at my neck a second later.

Who would give their whole head!? It’s not like I want to die to talk!

Seeing how he didn’t seem to have the desire to put the knife away, I quietly moved back a little again, so that I could gain a bit of time even if I had to escape.

“I’ll give you my hair.” I rapidly pulled a strand out and gave it to him. My other hand clutched the Illusionary Weapon in my pocket that I hadn’t withdrew yet, feeling a chill down my spine.

“Thank you.” Taking the hair, Julian finally gave up on the wide knife. After putting it away, he took out a tiny glass bottle from his pocket before placing the hair in.

“Can I ask if there’s something wrong with my hair?” Seeing his careful movements, I also began to feel doubtful.

Julian turned to look at me: “Sort of, at any rate, this matter hasn’t been prohibited, so it’s fine to tell you this.” He paused and spoke again: “When I was examining something, I discovered that thing’s microscopic genes were very similar to the human data I have…The Guild’s data includes this school and other schools, so it was easy to check.”

I was honestly a bit confused: “So it has something to do with me?”

“Correction, it actually has something to do with four people.” Julian put away the bottle and told me: “But, in fact, because you guys have all approached the thing I’m examining, I don’t know whether or not it was truly dropped at that time.”

I frowned and looked at him: “What are you examining?” His words were strange, strange enough to make me feel a little uneasy.

Glancing at me, Julian slowly opened his mouth—

“That sarcophagus from Lake Town. After the corpse inside was snatched, I was in charge of testing all the remaining things. Everything, including a small ancient bacterium, must be thoroughly investigated. However, during this, I found something very interesting.” Taking off his glasses, Julian slowly rubbed it on the hem of his clothes: “The remaining stuff actually corresponded with four people in the data. As soon as I saw that they are all people I know, I immediately destroyed the new data. You should know that, if the data is released, it will be very troublesome for the people on it.”

Hearing the glasses-wearing cactus’ words, I vaguely understood that he was secretly shielding us, doing us a favor that may or may not be big: “Thank you, I’m sorry to have troubled you.” Even in the original world, tampering with data isn’t a good thing. I gulped and looked at the other person: “If one of them is me, who are the remaining three people?”

I guess that, if it was just me alone, he probably wouldn’t have gone to that extent. The other three must be important in some way, important enough that they can’t be affected now.

“One of the other three has a current identity that I can’t let you know. He requested this after I told him first just now. The other two, one is your previous guide, Prince Icy Flame.”

To be honest, I was really taken aback when I heard Senior in that moment. I don’t know why the test result of that sarcophagus would have something to do with us.

“The other is Seven Hills Academy’s Bai Ling Ran. Since you three were all participants during the athletic meet, I can’t rule out the possibility that it dropped when you came into contact with the sarcophagus. But, the problem lies with the fact that the thing I took out to examine seems to be quite old and unlikely to be new, which is why I wanted to get something from each of you to recompare.” The corner of Julian’s lips twitched. He roughly explained the situation without holding back.

“Uh…I mostly understand the situation, so just this is enough?” It sounded like Senior, the others and I have become suspects to some extent, but since Senior is also involved, I should be able to discuss it with him a little, no matter how serious it is.

“Yes, this is enough, thank you for cooperating.” After saying that, Julian immediately vanished in front of me as if he was in a hurry.

I suddenly felt like I was really unlucky, getting that result just by doing nothing. The other two are also unlucky enough. We simply attended one athletic meet…

Wait!

What did Julian just say?

I abruptly came to, and realized that Julian just said something very, very important.

He just said the three of us were all participants in the athletic meet?

Correctly speaking, the participants should be Senior and I, the two of us, according to logic. So the extra person…

Bai Ling Ran was also a participant in the athletic meet?

“Yang Yang.”

Just when my mind was in a mess, a certain voice appeared not far away just like this morning.

I turned my head, and saw Ran standing a short distance behind me. The location didn’t change at all, though his hands were missing the lunchboxes: “How much did Julian tell you?” His expression was a bit strange.

Whenever I see Ran, he always carried that relaxed smile. It was rare to see him also have an ashen look.

Stepping back slightly, I felt a bit odd: “Julian only said that he found out it has the four of us’ data…Why didn’t you say that you were a participant in the athletic meet?” I suddenly felt that it turns out Ran hid a lot of things from me. During the athletic meet, he clearly almost became the opposing side, yet didn’t say a single word about it.

Ran narrowed his eyes and stared at me for a long while before speaking: “That’s right, I was one of Seven Hills’ representatives. Someone asked us, that’s why Wei Tian* joined the competition this time. I kept silent because I thought we were enemies at that time. You would be bothered if I said it. Later, so many things happened and it became too late to tell you.”

[T/N: Seven Hills’ team leader from V9C5]

For some reason, I instinctively felt that Ran was avoiding the main issues, even to the point of being a little ambiguous, not wanting me to know more.

“Who asked you guys?”

Ran shook his head and refused to answer this question: “I can only say that he is good to you. Because of his request, if we faced your team, we would automatically give up and avoid direct conflict.”

Him saying this made me remember that Seven Hills Academy did indeed give up suspiciously, but I didn’t expect it to be because of this. I just thought they were strange at the time.

But, who would ask for something like this?

I felt like my head was a bit dizzy with an overall sense of disbelief.

Quickly thinking, I still couldn’t understand who would go to all that trouble of making Seven Hills Academy, which didn’t want to join the competition, move. A few rather familiar names flashed by, but they were knocked down one by one.

There was simply no need for the person next to me to do this at all.

Standing nearby and watching me, Ran slowly opened his mouth: “For the sake of what is going to happen soon, we must have you learn how to protect yourself in the shortest time possible. The fastest way is to increase your combat experience. Although Atlantis Academy has enough space and missions for you to quickly learn, it is still not enough. You’ll only be able to keep up if you join the sports competition and open your eyes.”

“What is going to happen soon?” I felt as if my eyelid jumped a few times and had a strong foreboding sense.

Currently standing in front of me, Ran was completely foreign, like a different passerby. He spoke words that I didn’t understand, and his expression was extremely unfamiliar, so cold that I couldn’t approach him.

“What we have tried to avoid for a long time.” Ran looked at the sky for a while, then turned toward me: “I must tell you, don’t hate the people around you. At the most dangerous time, they still won’t give up hope.”

His words became more and more strange, to the point where I thought, for a moment, he wasn’t talking to me at all.

I don’t understand what Ran wants to tell me.

After saying these, he suddenly fell silent, only speaking again after some time passed: “I must go back now. Since Julian has already noticed this, it means that it will soon be time. Yang Yang, you have to be careful while staying here alone. Very soon, I will have to help you with a second opening of the eye. Please make sure to adjust your body well. Besides that, don’t be on your own with an window of attack, okay?”

He looked at me with a sincere gaze, and even though I barely knew what he wanted to express, I still nodded.

Director Shan had also spoken about something similar. She said Senior and I can’t be alone, but I don’t understand why either.

Ran snapped his fingers and a teleportation array appeared on the ground. He nodded at me: “Then, see you next time.”

Before I could say goodbye to him, he had already vanished.

I looked at that empty ground and was suddenly at a bit of a loss.

Ran and Julian were both weird today, weird enough to make me recoil a little and want to shudder.

“Chu?”

Abruptly turning my head, I unexpectedly saw Aslaine standing not far away. I couldn’t be sure if he heard our conversation.

He looked at me with a bemused face, and then Aslaine slowly walked over at a steady pace: “The last game is about to start. Do you want to stay here?”

I immediately shook my head: “It’s fine…” In reality, I didn’t know what had happened either.

Aslaine nodded and didn’t continue the topic: “Let’s go back now.”

“Nn…Oh right, Aslaine.” I raised my head to look at the Class C Senior who was a few centimeters taller than me: “Bai Ling Ran participated in the athletic meet, did you know?” Regardless of whether they knew each other or not, I asked this question almost subconsciously.

As if he didn’t expect me to suddenly throw out this sentence, Aslaine froze for several seconds, before nodding: “I knew, there was definitely a participant named Bai Ling Ran in the athletic meet. Because Seven Hills Academy is a natural school, it doesn’t like having names that represent living things to be made public. Except for the team leader, the rest all use code names, but there was someone like this on the Guild’s list.” He paused and looked at me with a strange expression: “I also knew that you guys are familiar with each other. Is there a problem with this?”

I immediately shook my head quickly.

“No, let’s return to the sports field.”