Volume 8 - CH 2

Chapter 2: Qualification

Atlantis  5:47 AM

On the day of the final competition, I woke up early in the morning.

“It’s still so early…” Looking at the sky that was still dark outside, I fell back on the bed.

In fact, it should be said that I was so nervous that I couldn’t fall asleep for the entire night; only when it was nearly dawn did I hazily fall asleep, but was immediately awake again. This sort of feeling was just like in elementary school when I was about to go on my graduation trip. I was nervous to the highest point, but after middle school, it didn’t happen anymore; because I knew that I was very unlucky, I stopped going out with my classmates to travel.

Can’t sleep, can’t sleep.

Can’t fall asleep no matter what!

I’m finished, I really have insomnia!

I jumped out of bed. Forget it, if I can’t sleep, then I can’t sleep. I might as well just get up to do some morning exercises, and leave it at that.

After I slowly got out of bed, I took out the washbasin and toiletries from under the table…Speaking of which, would Senior be awake so early in the morning? If I simply ran over to knock on his door and woke him up, would I be slowly put to death by dismemberment?

Looking at the toiletries and then thinking about the possibility of being put to death, I decided to first do some morning exercises, and next use the school’s bathroom to wash my face, and then wait a while before coming back to borrow Senior’s bathroom.

Nn, what a perfect plan!

Since I was once played around by unknown residents in the middle of the night before, this time I rushed straight downstairs as soon as I opened the door, and then punched the human face squeezed onto the door knob before escaping outside. This whole process was completed in a single breath, with not even half a second of staying in the same spot.

Because if I stopped for even half a second, I would definitely die…I had this sort of intriguing feeling.

In the early morning, there were extremely fresh air drifting around the school.

It was probably because I seldom left the dormitory early in the morning or at night that I always felt like the school’s temperature rarely had any changes due to the barrier. It’s regularly been at that adjusted, very comfortable kind of temperature. But now that I came out in the early morning, I could instead, very clearly feel a slightly-leaning-towards-cold kind of feeling.

The air was somewhat moist, surrounded by a thin morning mist.

I immediately quickened my pace and began jogging.

Ever since I was dragged down by Senior and joined the team, I started to make time to practice jogging, regardless of whether I had something to do or not. After all, in that team full of ghosts, I better have some self-reliance. At the very least, I should practice running faster a bit, otherwise if I need to escape one day, but couldn’t run fast enough, I’ll be done for.

Speaking of which, in fact, I feel like my speed is pretty quick. It’s probably thanks to me being so unlucky in the past, where I had to frequently run for my life and all, so when I ran, I seemed to be a little faster than other people. However, after I arrived at this school, it was instantly overthrown. Any random cat here could run several times faster than me.

Walking into the deserted school building, there was only the sound of wind in the huge, empty corridor. It’s different from the usual feeling of people coming and going during the weekdays, since there wasn’t even one person around here.

I suddenly felt that our school was actually so huge.

Slowly walking towards the first years’ classrooms, and then going past two corners, I went into the hidden bathroom. Right after I entered the dark space, the entire bathroom immediately lit up, and then a quiet aroma drifted over.

To tell the truth, I’ve always felt that there may be something living in the bathroom, but I wasn’t able to find it.

After washing my face a little, I immediately felt more awake and then walked out of the bathroom. As soon as I left, the light instantly dimmed behind me. According to the confirmation of numerous bloody cases, right now, it’s best if I don’t turn around and see if anything had followed me out, because the first time I went to the bathroom, I just forgot about those previous lessons and brainlessly turned around to look. As a result, I got chased halfway through the corridor by a poop worm.

It’s currently six o’clock. I took a look around. The whole school was still so quiet that I couldn’t hear any sound at all…Wait a minute, I seemed to have heard some sort of faint noise…

“Did it run over here?”

There was a girl’s voice from far away. I hurriedly found a random classroom to hide in, and outside the corridor came the subtle sound of footsteps, as if someone was walking slowly. “This is so hateful. There’s even a stinking bug that ran into the school during the competition period. If it wasn’t for the fact that this counted as a mission, I wouldn’t even have come here.”

I looked out through the glass on the door, and saw a girl, who I felt should be a little younger than me, standing not too far away. She was holding a compass-like object in her hands as she searched for some unidentified thing. Then, I saw that the girl was wearing a white robe.

Wait a minute, usually when a white robe appears in this place early in the morning, and holds a tool of the trade in her hands while searching for something…There seems to be only one answer.

I suddenly felt my back growing cold, with every one of my hair standing up.

“Liliya, did you find it?” Another person ran over here from far away. But from my angle, I wasn’t able to see who the second person was, though I could tell that it was a girl from her voice.

“Nope, so hateful, a biochemical worm just had to run into our school at a time like this! When I catch it, I’ll definitely claim a heavy compensation from the third district’s R&D!” said the girl called Liliya through gritted teeth.

“Let’s find it first before we talk about this. That Worm of Origin’s danger level is very high, and must be found before the general students enter the school, otherwise this mission will be immediately transferred to the purple robes.” Her companion’s voice sounded rather tense.

“Having it transferred isn’t such a big deal. It just so happens that I would be able to go see the competition today, and wouldn’t need to be so busy running around in circles.” Liliya snorted, “I really don’t understand how those teams in this competition had chosen their players. There’s obviously so much robe levels in this school, and yet both of the teams chose non-robed people; for example, that Rogeria assassin was chosen, the person with only Snake-Eyes was also chosen…And that damn newbie, who just entered the school and doesn’t know any spells at all, got chosen too. They’re simply treating all of us who signed up for the competition as dust!”

“Liliya, didn’t they already say that the people picked this time were the helpers that the selected black robes chose themselves…”

“That’s why it’s unfair! Other people could just enter based on their connections, right? Then those of us who are so dedicated and even have robe levels wouldn’t be able to enter the competition; this is what I can’t accept!”

“Hush, hush, don’t say anymore, let’s hurry up and find that thing…”

Maybe it was because her mouth was covered by her companion, after Liliya made a few vague noises, the sounds of both of their footsteps gradually grew further away, until I couldn’t hear them.

But, those words just now, I remembered every one of them without missing a single word.

I knew that there were always people saying these kinds of things behind our back, though it was probably due to Senior that no one dared to say them outright. Even so, to actually hear it is still…there’s a very hard to describe feeling…

In this competition, the most unqualified one to go up on stage, is me.

***

Just as I determined that the white robed girls had left, I carefully opened the classroom door and went out.

It’s probably half past six now. If today was a normal school day, then there would’ve already been some students that arrived in the classrooms. But on the days of the competition, the classes have always been cancelled. Today just so happens to be the final competition’s departure day, which is why the classes were also cancelled, and the corridor was still quiet.

I suddenly remembered what those two people had said just now. It seems as if some sort of bad worm had ran into the school building, and that the thing also had to be found before the general students come here.

If I could find it…

Uh, of course, it’s not that absolute certainty kind of self-confidence. Since I’m always very unlucky, if it doesn’t work, then the worm might be the one to catch me first. There’s a two hundred percent chance that this sort of thing would absolutely happen. If I could find it though, would it be able to change other people’s perception a little?

That way Senior and the others wouldn’t have people talking about them behind their backs?

I squatted on the ground and took out the illusionary soybean from my bracelet.

…

Oops, I forgot how to summon the weapon’s elf out from inside. Last time how did Miao Miao summon hers out to show me?

“Minas, Minas, if you can hear me, can you please answer?” I put the bean on the ground and it started rolling about. Sure enough, just as I expected, the bean didn’t have any response at all. Since calling didn’t work, then would a stronger measure work? Beans seem to grow when they’re soaked in water…Speaking of which, this is originally a water soybean, so soaking it in water would be rather pointless, right?

I thought for a moment, and then took out the fire charm that Andy taught me.

If water wouldn’t work, a fire attack would, right!?

I just don’t believe that I wouldn’t be able to summon her out under a high temperature burning attack!

“Please don’t engage in such a meaningless behavior.” Minas appeared floating in midair, a second before she turned into a burnt bean. I don’t know if I was just thinking too much, but there seemed to be black lines hanging on her face. “May I ask, what is it that you’d need for you to use extreme measures to summon my spiritual body out?” With a snap of her fingers, the fire charm that I just lit was immediately extinguished by a small jet of water.

“Ahaha…Sorry about that, it’s because I didn’t know how to summon you out.” I took the ashes and threw them into the classroom’s trash can.

“Why did you summon me?” Floating to the table at the side and sitting on it, Minas played with her long hair of water, as she looked at me with narrowed blue eyes. “Generally the users wouldn’t summon the spiritual body, unless there’s some major event.”

Speaking of which, I’m not sure if the thing I want to ask about counts as a “major event,” since right now, all I could think of here is to look her for help. “That, I’m sorry, I want to ask that if I wanted to find a whatchamacallit Worm of Origin…what sort of methods are there to do so?” The tracking spell that Chifuyu used before was too advanced, even the school didn’t teach it, so I have no idea how to find that stinking worm at all.

“To find…a worm?”

I feel like Minas’ expression right now was as if she thought I had played a trick on her. Usually if the person before me was Senior, he definitely would’ve fiercely kicked me to the end of the universe.

“Cough, cough, if it’s to find something, as long as it exists within the allowable range, its position can be approximately detected.” I don’t know if it’s a misconception, I feel that she seemed to have automatically omitted the word “worm.” “I should have told you this when we formed the contract before, even if it’s the water vapor in the air, it can become your weapon. Through me, you can turn the water element into your own weapon. This way if you wanted to track something, it should be very easy to do so.”

Which means that it works as long as there’s water?

To be honest, this sort of statement is still a little abstract.

“There are numerous possibilities for a illusionary weapon. It just depends on how you imagine and bring it into play. Right now you’re only treating me as a normal gun, but the power that you’re using doesn’t even reach one-tenth of mine…or even less than one percent. One of those gaps must be filled up with time.” Minas floated in front of me, and raised a finger to tap my forehead. “When you get to a hundred percent, you will know, how powerful your ability is.”

“Ability?”

Again with my ability. I don’t even know what my ability is, let alone that whatchamacallit bringing into play.

“Yes, your ability. It may bring you disaster or it may bring about a turning point for you. I am unable to predict what will happen in your future, and I don’t know how deeply your ability would affect you. Perhaps there will be a day when you look back and truly understand what your ability has brought you. And before that, you can only slowly, accept it as time goes by.” Her eyes looked as if she was staring into the distance. Minas seemed like she was saying it for me and also seemed like she was singing a song.

There was a second where I felt that Minas wasn’t like a spiritual body from an illusionary weapon. How should I put it…

She seemed like a human.

“Minas, you…”

“Spiritual bodies can’t be forcibly separated for too long. Let’s just pause our discussion here.” Cutting off the question that I wanted to ask, Minas withdrew her gaze, and then faintly smiled, “Next time you have a problem, please summon me out with a normal method, thank you.”

In the next second, Minas turned into water mist and disappeared before my eyes.

My illusionary weapon was lying on the table, quietly reflecting the beautiful morning light.

***

If it’s possible, I want to overtake the person I used to be.

“Yǔ wǒ qiāndìng qìyuē zhī wù, qǐng ràng yǐncáng zhě jiànshì nǐ de zhuīzōng.” I picked up Minas, and then placed her in my palm and chanted.

[T/N: The one who signed a contract with me, please allow the hidden thing to witness your tracking.]

If I am able to use anything with the water element through Minas, then as long as the air can reach that place, there definitely wouldn’t be any place that’s missed out.

The silvery blue gun appeared in my palm. I gripped the gun’s handle and then pulled the trigger while facing it towards the ground. A bullet fine enough to be a needle went into the ground with a bang. A sort of thing like a small light-blue glow slowly spread out from under the floor, and then spread outside the classroom, the entire corridor, extended to the staircase and climbed up.

Tiny chiming sounds rang out in the surroundings.

About a few seconds later, I heard a very strange noise approaching me at an ultra-high speed.

That…speaking of which, I just realized something. Tracking is one matter, but, in fact, if I actually do catch it, I don’t think I’ve decided what I was going to do yet…

At the same time that I had a very bad feeling, a huge sound abruptly came from outside the classroom door. I didn’t even have the time to scream when a large shadow directly crashed through the classroom door as it was dragged in by a pile of blue lights.

Can you guys please not have such a high efficiency!?

A large, round and black object was thrown heavily on the ground, and then it began trembling.

This I understand. When some unidentified object begins to tremble, at this time I have only one option, which is to quickly find the exit and escape!

During the half second that I was hesitating, that black thing that I heard should be a Worm of Origin, suddenly rose up at a lightning fast speed. Then the entire thing became about a story high. It had a long form that also came with two fly-like compound eyes.

Well, I suppose it has already confirmed itself as a worm…

Is that the problem here!?

Those compound eyes strongly rotated a couple of times, and then, they fixed on me.

Now I know why they had to get rid of it before the students arrive to school…

“Quickly…give up without a fight…or else I’ll shoot…” I used the silver gun to point at the big, black worm in front of me. I originally wanted to say those words in a threatening plus intimidating voice, but once they left my mouth, they completely turned into a trembling voice, which did not sound even a bit forceful at all.

The black worm just looked at me, and then I could sense an air of something called disdain from it.

“Don’t, don’t think that I wouldn’t dare to shoot!”

My body seemed to have moved simultaneously with my mind. Right when I uttered that threat, I also pulled the trigger at the same time. With a “bang,” before I could even see what kind of bullet was fired, that worm was already flipped over like a centipede with a whole bunch of black legs waving in the air, as it struggled for a long time to get up.

Uh, that’s not a bad result.

As the saying goes, “You must take advantage of the victory to pursue and attack, if there’s a first and second, only then will you win.” I hurriedly fired again, and directly sent the big worm flying with a “bang.” The impact totally sent the black worm flying towards the windows and its fat body fell on it heavily. The entire row of windows in the classroom broke in a very startling way, with glass shards flying all over the place.

This is bad, I’m definitely going to have a bill sent to me again.

After that worm crashed through the windows, I heard several “ping ping pang pang” sounds in succession, so it probably broke a couple of other things too. Adding them all up, there’s probably going to be quite a lot of money deducted from me.

Some sort of noise came from outside, and by the time I noticed it, that pair of compound eyes was already near the window frame. Its color wasn’t the same as just now, it were fully red.

I experienced this before. When it becomes like that, it indicates that I should hurry up and run for my life, because it’s now in extremely angry mode, and if I don’t run, I’ll die.

Wait, since the gun can knock it down, why do I have to be afraid?

Just like what Senior and the others had said, I can already deal with it, so why do I need to be afraid?

I don’t know if it was because there was Minas here to fill my courage or because I had a little experience dealing with weird creatures, I raised my hand and directly gave that black worm a third shot. That worm completely flipped backward and fell a very long distance away.

This should be enough, right?

I looked at the devastated classroom, with a I-don’t-know-how-to-explain-this-to-others kind of feeling.

And also, what am I supposed to do with that worm? I noticed that it went flying with every shot, but it doesn’t look like there was much of an effect, how am I supposed to get rid of a whatchamacallit Worm of Origin?

At the same moment that I started thinking nonsense, the black worm outside began to get up again, and I hastily shot again to make it flip over.

I can’t just keep doing this, right?

Come on, I still have to go back to the dorm later and borrow Senior’s bathroom to clean up, and then go to the player’s lounge to be on standby! If I’m late for a second, I’ll be sentenced to death!

Stop playing with me, alright!?

“The Worm of Origin belongs to the level five missions. Its weakness is its eyes. As long as you can accurately attack its eyes, you will be able to suppress the Worm of Origin from recovering.”

Just as my internal struggle reached the highest point, a very light voice suddenly sounded behind me.

Attack its eyes?

I saw that big black worm that just won’t give up continue to climb up with indomitable spirit and action, and I fired another shot, since its eyes, to be honest, were rather large, and I didn’t really need to aim to be able to hit it.

That worm issued a very supernatural sound right when the bullet hit its eye, and then the whole worm instantly rolled up into a ball, exactly like how it looked when it was thrown in just now.

“Worm of Origin undergoing recovery transfer, receiving location: third district’s R&D, transfer location: Atlantis Academy.” The voice that gave me a hint just now began to recite a long string of things. Next, a green light array that I’ve never seen before appeared underneath the curled up worm, and from the outermost circle of the array, popped up many green lines that tightly tied the worm up. Then it issued a glow and a second later, the array along with the worm throughly vanished without a trace.

Who is that?

I turned around, and saw an unfamiliar person.

***

“And like that the Worm of Origin mission has been completed.”

That unfamiliar person let out a sigh of relief, as if his work was finished and he started to relax. Then he took out a phone and dialed a number, “This is from the school building. The transferring mission has been completed just now, and the Worm of Origin has already been sent back to the third district’s R&D.” After he gave a rough explanation of the matter, he hung up. “Honestly, these days those young white robes are often not doing their jobs right.”

Just who is he…

Slightly sizing him up, it’s a youth who’s probably a little older than me, with long silvery purple hair, and purple eyes; he gives one a rather mild impression, and should be someone who’s fairly easy to get along with. However, he hasn’t looked at me since just now, and it felt like he was looking at somewhere else. Maybe he’s looking at how badly the classroom was smashed?

“Sorry to have troubled you, Student Chu.”

He actually knows me!

“I’m sorry, because the two white robes who were assigned to this mission had just transferred it, as a result, you had to step in before the purple robes could arrive,” said the mysterious figure with a smile.

“Uh, I just wanted to try…”

He turned around. His purple eyes seemed as if he was looking at me and yet also seemed as if he wasn’t, which gave me a kind of weird feeling.

“Your way of handling this is correct. First, you drove it out of the school building as to not cause further damage, and then, you restrained it so that the Worm of Origin was unable to escape. You’ve been quite a big help to us.”

Should I tell him that this was called a “blind cat coming across a dead rat”?

[T/N: Dumb luck.]

“That’s…just good luck…” A rare stroke of luck.

“You are very interesting. It looks like Icy Flame and Gasai have some good judgements. You guys should be able to obtain a good score in this competition.” Totally ignoring my face full of nervousness, that mysterious figure continued to talk to himself, “A typical Worm of Origin would need two white robes or one purple robe in order to be stopped, but you were able to suppress it all by yourself; that’s already considered very powerful.”

Is that true?

Is that really true!?

I suddenly felt a kind of psychological horror that I-really-should-have-already-felt-when-I-entered-that-life-or-death-situation-just-now.

“I…”

“Just a moment ago, the accounting department had already transferred this mission’s reward into your account. When you have time, you can go check it out.” The mysterious figure tilted his head, listening to some unknown sounds.

“That, the classroom got smashed by me, so shouldn’t it be deducted from me?”

I had a feeling that I might have to pay a lot of money.

He lifted his head and then smiled, “There’s no need. The classroom is within the maintenance range, therefore, you wouldn’t have any money deducted.” Then he lightly snapped his fingers.

A miraculous thing happened. I actually saw the things that were just smashed by me use a strange speed to start automatically repairing themselves. In just the short dozen seconds that I was stunned, the entire classroom had already self-recovered to exactly the way it was before it got smashed, with not a slightest bit of a difference.

I had a feeling of bumping into a ghost.

“Just like that.”

The mysterious figure clapped his hands, “Thank you for your help. It seems pretty late now. Are you going back to prepare for the competition? I heard that today seems to be the third competition’s departure day.”

It’s not “seems like,” it really is the departure day.

“That’s, thank you!” I hastily bowed at that unknown person as thanks for helping me fix the smashed classroom, and then hurriedly ran out the classroom.

After running three steps, I remembered something.

Who was that person?