Chapter 43
[User “Pure Love Warrior” praises your audacity.]
[User “Scarecrow’s Straw” is shocked by your robbery tactics.]
[User “Bronze Player” admires your shamelessness.]
[User “Strongest King” eagerly awaits your demise.]
Yu Zhi glanced at the live chat feed and jabbed Nie Yue’s temple lightly with the tranquilizer gun. “Hurry up.” He added, “My hand’s injured; one slip, and this gun might go off.”
Nie Yue closed her eyes briefly, biting her molars as she retorted, “I suggest you don’t act rashly. Even if you kill me, you won’t make it out alive.”
“Then I have even more reason to kill you,” Yu Zhi said, lifting his eyelids to scan the surroundings. “If I’m going down, I’m taking someone with me.”
Nie Yue: “…”
Yu Zhi casually pulled a notebook from Nie Yue’s belongings and placed it in his [My Items] inventory. “Now hand over all the universal coins on you. Quickly.”
With clenched teeth, Nie Yue reluctantly complied.
[Your opponent has transferred 5000 universal credits. Do you accept?]
Yu Zhi accepted the credits and frowned. “That’s it? Spies only make this little?”
His words carried no malice, only pure curiosity and confusion.
The speaker might have been nonchalant, but the listener took it personally. Nie Yue felt humiliated and gnashed her teeth. “We’re not in it for such shallow things!”
Yu Zhi chuckled. “Oh? Then what are you in it for?”
“For the future of humanity!” Nie Yue snapped.
Yu Zhi raised an eyebrow. What nonsense. It sounded like something a cultist would say.
He scrutinized Nie Yue more closely. Her delicate features now bore a fierce, contorted expression as her teeth ground audibly in frustration. Her eyes burned with anger and indignation, utterly devoid of fear or panic.
It was as if she genuinely believed she couldn’t die here.
Or rather, that he wouldn’t dare to kill her.
A sudden foreboding crept into Yu Zhi’s heart. He glanced back at the chat:
[User “Strongest King” eagerly anticipates your death.]
[User “World’s Cutest Girl” is curious about how you’ll die.]
[User “Lord of Fire” awaits your demise.]
The live feed was flooded with comments gleefully predicting his death.
Something was wrong. Clearly, he had the upper hand.
The tranquilizer gun was potent enough to knock out even the protagonist of the novel. Nie Yue shouldn’t stand a chance.
Yu Zhi’s heart sank. Nie Yue must have allies nearby.
Taking a deep breath, he steadied himself and feigned composure as he addressed Nie Yue. “Embrace truth and reject heresy. Protect your mind from corruption.” He added solemnly, “Promote science and development. Oppose cults and ignorance.”
Nie Yue: “???”
What kind of lunacy was this?!
Her eyes turned red with fury, each word spat through gritted teeth: “We are NOT a cult!”
Yu Zhi remained on alert, pretending to be at ease. “Oh, sure, sure.”
Nie Yue: “…!”
Yu Zhi stole a glance at the fissure they had entered through, its fleshy, pink hue faintly visible. Guiding Nie Yue in the opposite direction, he tried to flush out her hidden comrades.
“Hold on. I need to tie you up first,” he said. “Handing you over to the Bureau might earn me another payday.”
Nie Yue: “…”
Dragging her to the farthest corner of the room, Yu Zhi sat her in a chair and tossed a jacket over her head to obscure her vision. “Don’t move, or I might accidentally pull the trigger.”
With that, he opened a nearby cabinet. In the split second the door shielded him from Nie Yue’s view, he bolted toward another exit.
Yu Zhi didn’t dare pause for a moment, flinging energy orbs behind him as he sprinted ahead.
The grotesque transformation of Classroom 5 had not reverted despite the removal of the pollution source. The walls and floors remained fleshy, though they now lay still, as if lifeless.
In a flash, Yu Zhi reached the classroom door. In another, he was in the corridor.
Before he could open his eyes fully, he crashed into someone.
Looking up, he saw Zuo Feiyang and Lu Liming.
Both had faces that were vaguely blurred.
“Run!” Yu Zhi shouted, dragging them along.
As they hurried downstairs, the corridor above grew darker, shadows pooling and thickening ominously.
“Well, well. Running so soon?”
A deep voice echoed, and a black-robed man materialized in the corridor.
He surveyed the bloodstains trailing to the stairwell, inhaling deeply. A sly smile crept across his face as he licked his lips. Addressing the live feed, he said, “Catching up is easy. But those pesky flies from the Bureau of Operations are also on their way. I’d rather not meet them just yet.”
With that, he turned and faced the emerging figure of Nie Yue.
Nie Yue’s face turned pale as she scanned the corridor and realized Yu Zhi and the others were gone.
She immediately admitted her mistake, “I’m sorry. I underestimated the situation.”
The black-robed man enumerated her failures with cold precision: “The pollution source was cleared, the salvageable material was not recovered, and you let someone escape with knowledge they should never have had.”
An icy chill crawled up Nie Yue’s neck, and she shivered involuntarily. Panic crept across her ashen face. “I’ll take care of it right away.”
The man replied calmly, “No need.”
His gaze shifted to the SUV speeding away from the school grounds. “At least you’ve shown me something interesting.”
“Your former captain will know all about you soon.”
Nie Yue’s exposure meant the Bureau of Operations would zero in on her, digging deep into every facet of her activities.
Every move they made carried the risk of discovery.
A deeper, bone-chilling cold enveloped Nie Yue, as if the air itself was being stripped away bit by bit. Her back was drenched in cold sweat as she cautiously offered a solution, “Turn Zuo Feiyang into the Bureau’s traitor? I’ll pin everything on him.”
The black-robed man’s lips curled into a smile. “Acceptable.”
Nie Yue barely sighed in relief when he spoke again.
“But it’s too much trouble.” His voice took on a casual, almost cheerful tone. “I have a simpler solution.”
Nie Yue glanced at him in trepidation.
He grinned and said, “You just need to die.”
“Fool.”
As the words left his lips, razor-sharp black shadows surged from the ground and pierced through Nie Yue’s body in an instant.
In the blink of an eye, her body was sliced into pieces, the severed parts falling to the floor with dull thuds.
*
Meanwhile, Yu Zhi didn’t feel the ominous gaze trailing him lift until the SUV left the grounds of Taijiang High School.
Exhaling slowly, he glanced at his right hand.
Though it wasn’t broken, the bite marks were deep, leaving him in no state for a quick recovery.
Facing Lu Liming’s blurred face, Yu Zhi pried the man’s hand away. “I’m fine, not dying anytime soon. Can you heal yourself?”
Lu Liming sluggishly wiped the sweat dripping down his neck but didn’t respond.
Of the three, Lu Liming had suffered the most severe contamination. His body exhibited the highest degree of external distortion, and his speech and actions were sluggish, as though he had lost a step in intelligence.
Zuo Feiyang, less affected, answered for him, “No. We tried while we were trapped.”
Yu Zhi frowned deeply. “Even though the source of the contamination has been dealt with, the prior damage doesn’t just disappear?”
Zuo Feiyang nodded. “Correct.”
Yu Zhi studied his face, which looked as though it was obscured by a heavy filter, and got straight to the point. “Can you two still be saved?”
Zuo Feiyang nodded again. “Yes. Mental contamination will need to be assessed back at base. Once they evaluate our condition and the contamination levels, researchers can devise a purification and treatment plan.”
Before he finished, Lu Liming spoke up slowly, “Can’t be cured. Already tried.”
He was answering Yu Zhi’s earlier question.
Yu Zhi clapped him on the shoulder. “Trust me, you can be treated.”
Lu Liming turned his head slightly. His nose, stuffed with tissue paper, had been flattened to a faint impression, while the contrast of the tissue made his otherwise blurred features even more indistinct.
Yu Zhi stared at him for two seconds. “If they can’t restore your original face, get a plastic surgeon to give you a handsomer one.”
Lu Liming fell silent, as though pondering the viability of this solution.
Yu Zhi pressed on, “Anywhere else bothering you?”
Lu Liming said, “Headache.”
Zuo Feiyang hesitated. “Probably brain contamination—”
Yu Zhi interrupted, “You overused your ability.”
Lu Liming added, “My whole body feels weirdly uncomfortable.”
Yu Zhi declared firmly, “That’s from all the running we just did.”
In short, nothing could possibly be attributed to contamination.
Zuo Feiyang caught on.
Yu Zhi continued addressing Lu Liming, “Take a nap. Rest, and you’ll be fine.”
Lu Liming responded quickly, “Okay.”
In fact, his responses seemed to be growing faster with each of Yu Zhi’s questions.
Zuo Feiyang couldn’t help glancing at the rearview mirror, his gaze halting.
Was it just him, or did Lu Liming’s face look slightly sharper?
Maybe he was imagining things.
Yu Zhi asked, “Xiao Zuo, after I lured those mouth-monsters away, what happened to you two?”
Zuo Feiyang snapped out of his thoughts. “We got stuck in a ghost-loop between Class 6 and Class 7 of the first-year hallway. No matter what we did, we couldn’t reach Class 5.”
“But even after the pollution source was eliminated, the ghost-loop remained. Luckily, a blind box from the dungeon rewards gave us a tool that let Xiao Ming and me escape. Then, you came out of Class 5.”
Yu Zhi acknowledged with a soft hum, falling into thought.
Nie Yue had mentioned feeding three espers to Chen Tingting.
If there were no surprises, those three espers were likely the other members of Zuo Feiyang’s team.
Zuo Feiyang and Lu Liming were probably also intended as offerings for Chen Tingting.
But…
Yu Zhi couldn’t wrap his head around one thing—why didn’t Nie Yue and her accomplice show up before he killed Chen Tingting?
Logically, an experimental subject like Chen Tingting was far more valuable alive than as a corpse.
Did they not want to intervene? Or were they unable to?
Zuo Feiyang waited for a while, but Yu Zhi never shared what had happened in Class 5. Unable to hold back, he asked directly, “Brother Yu, what did you see in Class 5?”
He genuinely couldn’t understand how Yu Zhi, an S-rank esper, could have been so rattled after eliminating the pollution source.
Yu Zhi pressed his lips together and chose not to hide it. “I saw Nie Yue.”
Zuo Feiyang thought he’d misheard. “Nie Yue?”
Yu Zhi nodded. “Your vice-captain.”
Zuo Feiyang froze. It was really Nie Yue? She was alive?
Wait—why would seeing Nie Yue leave him so panicked?
A thought flashed through his mind like lightning, and his expression instantly changed. He sucked in a sharp breath, his voice trembling with disbelief. “You—you saw a ghost?”
Yu Zhi: “…”
“…Well, in a sense, yes. A ghost in your organization—your mole.”
Zuo Feiyang: “…???”
Thank you for the chapter!