Volume 8 - CH 3

Chapter 3: Set Off!

Atlantis 7:10 AM

“If I’m not mistaken, you should have encountered one of the school managers.”

Early in the morning, when I returned to the dormitory, Senior was already awake as he sat in the first floor’s hall drinking his coffee, and then read something that might be a newspaper. After I told him what happened just now, he answered me in a pretty certain manner.

“School managers?” The janitors?

Speaking of this, I know that there are dorm administrators. The elf, Restua, who manages the entire school dormitory, is the head administrator, and I heard that he’s also able to give orders to several other departments under him, which puts him in the same position as Zachary from the Accounting Department.

“Not janitors!” I don’t know where Senior had taken out a rubber band from and shot it at me; fortunately, I was already very experienced as I barely dodged it, “They’re the managers for all the school buildings in the entire school. The managers have a total of three departments, with three people in charge, respectively. The person who you encountered is one of them.”

School managers… Speaking of them, in the end, just how many are there in our school? That number still remains a mystery to this day.

“There are a total of three school managers, Di, Hou, Chen.”

Three people, alright, I got it…

Wait a minute, what was that just now, “Whose name did you just say?” Why did it sound like some kind of merchandise?

Red eyes glared over at me, “I’ve said all of them already.”

“Aih?” That’s all of them? Did you really say all of them?

“ ‘Di,’ ‘Hou,’ ‘Chen,’ three people, one word for each person.” Senior was rarely being so kindhearted as he emphasized them for me.

“So it’s actually three separate names. Then the one I met this morning…” Long silvery purple hair should be very rarely seen, right? That’s rather unusual, or at least, I haven’t seen that kind of hair color before. Even Senior’s hair is silver with a streak of red.

“If it’s silvery purple, then it’s Di. He rarely appears. The chances of seeing him are hard to come by, so count yourself lucky.” After Senior finished reading that newspaper-like thing in his hands, he smoothly folded it, and placed it back into the public cabinet before finally standing up. “Usually the school’s problems are all single-handedly taken care of by either Hou or Chen, unless there’s a major accident or he’s in a good mood. Otherwise, Di wouldn’t take the initiative to appear.”

Rarely appears?

But when I met him in the morning, why did I get the sort of feeling that this person was probably someone who has nothing better to do than to stroll around?

“Who cares if he has nothing better to do, you still haven’t washed up! Hurry up and go get ready, we’ll be staying in Lake Town for the next several days, did you finish packing your luggage yet!? And you still dare to chitchat with me over here!” I didn’t even notice that Senior had already appeared behind me when he kicked my ass, causing me to fall forward awkwardly, and run a few steps until I could steady myself. “It won’t be long until it’s a full month, so before you leave, remember to put an offering for the Light Shadow Village, otherwise, when your electricity gets cut off, it’ll be too late for you to regret it!”

Light Shadow Village…

I remember that I seemed to have been afraid that I’d forget to put the offering, so ever since that day, the biscuit had already been placed on the paper to wait for them to collect it themselves when the time comes, so that shouldn’t be an issue.

Dragging my feet as I climbed up the stairs, I began thinking about whether there was anything I’d left out.

Spare clothes, dry rations, water, toilet paper and whatnot, I had already prepared them the night before. Other than those, there’re pretty much enough explosive charms, wind charms, and basic charms that I’d stuffed in, so it seems like there’s not really anything else I could prepare.

After going back to my room to get the washbasin, I suddenly thought of another matter.

If both of our school’s representative teams will be in Lake Town, then would I be able to meet Chifuyu and Ryan over there too?

At the same time that I’d thought of this matter, that phone that only rings every ten thousand years suddenly rang loudly without restraint, causing me to be startled and think that there was something wrong with the phone.

“Is this Yang Yang?”

Picking up the phone, from the other end came the questioning voice of someone I hadn’t seen in a long time.

“Chifuyu?” To be honest, in regards to him calling me, I had a feeling of being surprised enough to see a ghost. I’ve always thought that he was the type of person who probably sends pigeons or shoots arrows to deliver his messages.

“Nn, later we’re going to gather in your lounge before we set out. You should be able to go there too, right?”

Gather in our lounge?

Shouldn’t he tell this to Senior?

Or is it that he didn’t have Senior’s phone number so instead he just called me?

“Yeah, is something wrong?”

“Nah, I just wanted to tell you about this. I was afraid that you wouldn’t come.”

I wouldn’t come?

Ah, speaking of this, I really am a little unwilling to go. Rather than saying I’m unwilling to go, I might as well say that I don’t dare to go. Because I have no idea what will happen once I enter that strange town, especially since Andellar, that face-changing person, is also coming along, I kept having a vague feeling that this time, something big is going to happen in Lake Town…

I feel that it’s very terrifying.

Once Chifuyu mentioned this, I finally remembered that I should be extremely scared.

“That…Actually, you don’t need to worry too much. Ryan and I will be working alongside you, and in addition, there’s going to be medical team bases in the town, so nothing will happen.” Chifuyu was speaking in a rather strange voice.

Then, what was he trying to tell me?

Nothing will happen in Lake Town?

I don’t know why, but I was suddenly in the mood to laugh out loud.

“What the hell are you laughing about!?” The classmate at the other end of the phone obviously heard my laugh too, and his tone instantly became very irritable.

“It’s nothing, you can continue.” No wonder Chifuyu had used the phone to talk to me, I finally understand.

“There’s nothing else! Don’t be late!”

In less than half a second, the phone was immediately hung up, and not even a bit of sound could be heard.

In fact, nothing will go wrong, there definitely won’t be anything that goes wrong.

I put the phone down, and walked towards Senior’s room while humming a song.

Because I’m not alone.

***

Approximately after I’d finished breakfast together with Senior, we arrived at the lounge at twenty to eight. There was still quite some time left before we had to leave.

Gasai had already arrived. I guess he might’ve even arrived here at six in the morning, because when we came in, he was reading a large, thick book, and about half of the book was already flipped through.

The five-colored rooster head hasn’t arrived yet, and speculating from the various information in the past, he should be the type of person who only appears at the very last second.

“Morning.” Putting the book down, Gasai stood up.

I noticed that today they’d already changed into their formal robe clothing, and then that their luggage was a bit more than usual…It really was only a “bit,” just slightly bigger than the usual little backpack. Compared to my big backpack, it seems so insignificant…

It can’t be that I’m the only one who brought a huge amount of things!?

I turned back to take a look at my big traveling bag. Actually, it’s only my two sets of clothes and a jacket that took up most of the space. The rest of them are still fine, but the volume really is somewhat big.

“Randall still hasn’t arrived yet?” Glancing around and apparently also knowing that they would be coming, Senior casually asked.

“It should be about time now.”

Right after Gasai said that, a knock immediately sounded at the door behind me. The nearest one to the door was me, so, of course, I obediently went to open the door. However, outside the door wasn’t the group of people that we were thinking about but another group of people-

“Yang Yang! Long time no see!” The grinning maniac, Leido, rushed in, “I heard that your illusionary weapon has been formed, so when you have time, let’s have a look at it!”

Following behind him was his twin brother, and his older brother, Yido.

“Uh, okay.” I suppose there still might be a lot of time later to see him throw up.

Yido gave a slight bow to Senior, “We haven’t seen you for a long time. We returned to our clan to make some preparations, and later on, we will be handling the mission at the same location, please advise us.”

He’s still so polite.

“Same here.” Senior also returned the nod.

Leido was looking all around him, “That’s weird, where’s Ziray?”

“Not here yet.” I threw this sentence at him. At any rate, he’s only looking for that steel brush head, so it’s definitely not any major or important matter.

“It’s so rare for me to go back to my clan that I made a work of art that resembles him a lot and was planning to give it to him.” Leido had a look of regret as he shook the little box in his hand.

Work of art?

I heard that fairies all loved beautiful crafts. It looks like it should be a pretty nice item.

“See, I spent a whole day to make this.” Handing the box over to me, there was a moment when I felt that Leido looked as if he was wagging his tail and waiting for someone to praise him.

“Yang Yang, I suggest it’s best if you don’t look at it.” Yado, who had stayed silent, suddenly hurled out this sentence.

For a second, I had the thought of backing out.

But due to Leido’s fiery gaze, I still bit the bullet and slowly opened the box…

There was a second where I really wanted to throw away the box in my hands.

At the same time that I’d opened the box, something like a hedgehog abruptly popped out. If I hadn’t been frightened so frequently that I got used to it, I might’ve cried out right there on the spot, because that damn thing almost hit my nose. The thing that flew out of the box bounced twice before it became motionless. I carefully looked at it. It was a jack-in-the-box…Stuffed inside was a very skillfully carved hedgehog, and then on top of the hedgehog’s spikes were many supernatural colors.

In fact, I think that the instant the five-colored rooster head receives this, he’d probably beat you into a meat patty.

“It’s beautiful, right! This is something that I made using Ziray’s image.” Like a duck in the middle of July, Leido was completely unaware that he might be killed as he entered the midst of over-enthusiasm.

[T/N: July fifteen is the Ghost Festival, and on that day, livestock are slaughtered. It means that the duck has no idea of the danger it’s in.]

I was speechless as I silently passed it back to him. I finally realized that Yado had given me the suggestion out of goodwill, because right now, I feel rather regretful for opening that box; I believe Yado must’ve experienced the same thing as me.

You used the five-colored rooster head’s image to create a five-colored hedgehog?

That’s great, now I’m beginning to doubt a fairy’s judgement.

“Whose luggage is that at the entrance?” A familiar voice drifted over, and one by one, we shifted our gazes toward the entrance. Sure enough, it was Chifuyu’s group that came in. Including Geng, Ryan, and Randall, it was a total of four people.

Four?

I remember that their team should have other players too, right?

“Mine!” As soon as Leido heard that, he immediately ran out. Next I heard a heavy noise, and then he walked in, dragging a huge suitcase with him.

That’s great, turns out my luggage was actually considered little.

“Nn…? There’re only four of you going?” Senior had the same question as me, and directly asked their team’s leader, Randall.

“Just four, too many people will only cause problems.” Randall replied in a very simple and neat way.

Senior nodded without saying anything.

If we’re talking about less people, then shouldn’t Yido’s group be the one with the least amount of people? Their school doesn’t even seem to have backup players, with just exactly three people, and felt quite poor.

Gasai and Chifuyu still haven’t said a word to each other, and both of them were standing at different sides. Meanwhile, Chifuyu was whispering something to Ryan and had been discussing it for a rather long time.

I randomly found a place to sit down. The room was stuffed with a bunch of people talking about their own matters. It felt pretty lively. The whole thing was just like one of those scenes of a tour group about to go traveling as they waited for a tour bus.

It’s rather refreshing.

Only when there were roughly five minutes left before we were going to set out for the venue did the five-colored rooster head come sweeping in leisurely, with even a bucket of fried chicken in his arms. And then we fully understood where he had gone to just now.

“Hallo, are we leaving yet?”

“It’s almost time.” Looking at the time, Senior nodded. The few people who were still discussing immediately stopped, and then took their already prepared backpacks and put them on themselves.

“Ziray~~”

Leido saw that his target had appeared, and very excitedly ran over.

I could probably already predict his fate.

The instant the five-colored rooster head received the box and opened it, the long-lost beast claw once again returned to the world!

“Go to hell, you bastard!”

There was an idiot who got beaten into the wall.

***

The last gathering point before our departure was still at that General Assembly venue.

For some reason, when I took a look around, I felt like there’s more people here today. The entire audience seating area was packed until it was super full. Even the street vendors that had previously appeared were gone. The place was filled with people from different schools everywhere.

“Ladies and gentlemen, sorry for the long wait! Today is the gathering for the start of the final competition. Let’s take a look at the scene of all the ten teams clustered together, where the experts chosen by their respective academies are once again gathered here! Before them are two missions of the highest alert zones, waiting to be solved by them. After the final competition begins, the General Assembly will assign various fixed points to send back videos to be played here. Audience members can also be informed in advance of the statuses of the long-distance missions, please look forward to it!” The announcer flying high overhead was just as usual as she loudly and excitedly said. The surroundings immediately rumbled with the tremendous sounds of the audience, where most of them were shouting the name of their school or the names of their players. All of a sudden, the entire venue burst into a clamor, the ground was shaking, and the sky was constantly echoing with sounds.

“For the final competition, we will split the ten teams into two groups. Each group will have five teams respectively, to carry out different competition missions full of many unknown dangers, in order to test the players’ abilities.” After the audience section quieted down a little, the announcer started to explain again, “The first area, Black Willow Ridge, has been identified as a high-risk area by more than a dozen robe levels. Black Willow Ridge is filled with numerous poisonous gases and different creatures from other worlds. As soon as you set foot into the area, you’ll be hit with various attacks. And legend has it that within Black Willow Ridge, there is an ancient treasure capable of confining its evil influence. In this competition, the mission of the first group’s players is to locate the ancient treasure that suppresses evil influences, and reseal Black Willow Ridge. Do not underestimate this mission. So far, there has already been several robe-level experts who met their ends there. This mission can be handled by joining hands or on one’s own. We will dispatch three groups of medical teams ready to help at any time; the General Assembly will definitely provide assistance.”

“The second area is Lake Town. I believe there should be many people who are unaware of the reason why this place has been marked as a dangerous area. Around a few weeks ago, Lake Town started having ‘disappearances,’ and in just a short night, everyone in the town disappeared without a trace. We’ve sent countless experts there but it was in vain. Included among the people who disappeared were a number of robe levels in the town as well as the robe levels who were later sent out. All of them disappeared without a sound. We have no information, no way of dealing with it, and all we can do is wait and see whether or not these teams will be able to solve this disappearance mystery. In terms of analysis, its danger level may be able to compare with Black Willow Ridge, or even surpass it. This mission is similar to the first one as it can also be completed with cooperation or on one’s own. We will dispatch three groups of medical teams ready help at any time, and if you have any requests or need the latest information, the General Assembly will definitely provide it.” The announcer used a very quick way* to give a rough introduction of the two locations, and the surroundings once again resounded with the low sounds of discussions.

[T/N: I know this isn’t very short in English but it is a lot more concise in Chinese.]

I secretly glanced at Senior. He looked like he was listening very attentively to the announcer, but it was also very likely that he was just staring blankly. Then, red eyes turned toward me and revealed a murderous glare.

I’m sorry, I said the wrong thing.

Carefully taking a look, I found out that I wasn’t the only one looking left and right. As the announcer began her brief safety explanation, there were already several people impatiently looking all over the place, in particular, the most obvious being the five-colored rooster head, who was lined up in front.

Just as I decided to go back to focusing on what the announcer was saying, a sort of icy feeling came from my back, and immediately covered me with goosebumps.

Someone is looking at me.

And that someone is looking at me with a very terrifying gaze.

Even though I really don’t want to turn around, but there is something called a damn curiosity that won against my reason. I turned around almost subconsciously, and then met the eyes of someone standing not too far away.

That face-changing person was looking at me with the kind of gaze that a snake would use to look at a frog. After he was caught looking, he was even more arrogant as he exposed a cold smile, totally not making any move to avoid me at all; then he stretched out a finger and lightly drew it across his neck, the standard throat-cutting gesture.

…

Mom…

I shouldn’t have looked.

I felt cold from the bottom of my feet to the top of my head, and my whole body was numb. I was completely stiff as I slowly turned back to the front.

As the saying goes, “curiosity will cause you to die without a complete corpse,” I once again re-experienced this. Then I realized that I might be the type of idiot who wouldn’t be able to remember the lessons he learned, because I have probably experienced this countless of times already; but every single time, I still turned around brainlessly to look, and got myself scared half to death.

“Yang Yang, is something wrong?” Standing beside me, Ryan kind-heartedly issued a soft question, and then behind me, Chifuyu also heard it, and casted a concerned look.

“No, nothing,” I quietly replied to him.

Otherwise, should I say that there’s a perverted* face-changing person behind me, who’s sending out evil vibes?

[T/N: Perverted as in corrupted. I can’t find any better words so don’t get any weird ideas.]

“Don’t be nervous.” Ryan kind-heartedly patted my shoulder.

No, I’m really nervous, especially after I just saw Andellar. Even my hair is standing up on end.

“Alright, since the explanations are finished, we won’t be taking up any more of the players’ time. The players will be sent to different locations on the stage. Dear players, please don’t go into the wrong one!” As soon as the announcer finished her words, two vertical, large-scale arrays appeared on the left and right of the venue stage. One was golden and the other silver, and then in the array’s opening was the legendary black hole where you wouldn’t be able to see the other end of it.

The surroundings instantly resounded with a huge applause, and then the cheers of the audience shook the entire venue once more.

Nn, it’s time to set off.

“Chu, don’t get lost.” Senior turned around, and then walked over to the silver array while dragging me by the collar. Beside us, Gasai immediately followed.

“Let’s go, let’s go!” The five-colored rooster head issued a loud cheer for finally being set free, and was the first to rush toward the teleportation array and quickly disappear.

“I really do envy that idiot.” Removing his glasses, Chifuyu tidied up his red robe, put on his mask, and walked over there side by side with Ryan. “Hopefully when he comes out of the array, nothing happens to him. Otherwise, it really would be amusing if he was the first one to die.”

Uh, nothing should’ve happened to him, right…maybe….

I watched as the array grew bigger and bigger before me, and stepped into it, tightly shutting my eyes at the last second. There was a faint breeze blowing across my cheeks, and I felt completely relaxed.

“Student Chu, do your best.”

At that last second, I seemed to have heard someone talking to me, and then it was immediately replaced by another voice.

And so, we set off.

The final competition’s mission at Lake Town is right before me.