Chapter 247

Hearing this, Jiang Tianming and Lan Subing looked at him in surprise. “What is it?”

“Do you remember the dust and gravel in the air when we went to the Nightmare Beast World?” Wu Mingbai said, nodding affirmatively under their disbelieving gazes. “That’s it.”

Jiang Tianming’s eyes widened. After taking a moment to process the information, he asked doubtfully, “How do you know that?”

Knowing Wu Mingbai, it was unlikely he would have idly researched the material composition of the gravel floating in the Nightmare Beast World’s air.

“Su Bei specifically asked me about it before,” Wu Mingbai replied. “I suspect he might have known something in advance.”

After speaking, he recalled another matter. “Not long ago, he also had me test a fragment of a Life Stone. He probably suspected that Life Stones were also made from meteorites. But I’ve already tested it; that thing is just a Life Stone, unrelated to meteorites. So, to completely eradicate the Nightmare Beasts, we probably just need to find a way to clean up all that gravel dust in the air of the Nightmare Beast World.”

“‘Just?’” Lan Subing stared at him in disbelief. “You make it sound so easy.”

Although she was just making a sarcastic comment, all three of them fell silent. Just as Lan Subing said, this method of completely eradicating the Nightmare Beasts was far from easy; in fact, it was completely baffling.

To them, the air and the black gravel in the Nightmare Beast World were practically one and the same. How could it possibly be cleaned up? How was that any different from being asked to clean all the dust off the face of the earth?

No wonder those two Nightmare Beasts were so confident. Even incredibly powerful Ability users couldn’t accomplish such a feat!

The situation on the field didn’t allow them much time to think. The Cockroach Nightmare Beast and its large group of minions caught up in an instant. As for the Nightmare Spider, it should be dealing with Qi Huang and the others now.

The three of them had no time to continue their discussion and immediately started running again. The dark movie theater was definitely not an option. Although the two Advanced Nightmare Beasts inside had left, who knew what they had been doing there? It was best to stay away.

Only after Jiang Tianming and the others left with the pursuing Nightmare Beasts did Su Bei walk out of the movie theater. He used an Invisibility Talisman and followed them at a slow pace.

Since his mission was complete, there was no need for him to stay in the theater. He continued to follow Jiang Tianming’s group because he was worried they would rashly leak what they had just learned. Whether they told the government, their teachers, or even the Nightmare Beasts, it was not an outcome Su Bei wanted to see.

As mentioned before, there was a time lag for his designed plots to become reality through the manga. This time, the manga would probably update tonight or tomorrow at the latest. But for his ‘performance’ to become completely true, he had to wait for the next manga update, which would be at least a few days from now.

Any slip-up during this period could cause the final adaptation to fail.

Once the human and Nightmare Beast factions learned of what had just happened, they would immediately launch an investigation into its authenticity.

Without a doubt, their investigation would conclude that no such thing had occurred. If they then announced the truth, his plan would be ruined. Even if the recent plot was already drawn in the manga and all the readers believed it, the author could still easily reverse it in the next chapter.

After leaving the movie theater, Jiang Tianming’s group fought as they retreated. They had already been to the first floor. The once-empty space was now filled with low-tier Cockroach Nightmare Beasts, and the ground was covered in a purple liquid, most likely venom from the Nightmare Spider.

It was safe to say that the first floor was now a place where one couldn’t even set foot. Even flying out was not an option, as the doors had long been sealed. If they tried to force their way out, they would be swarmed by Nightmare Beasts before they could even open the doors.

So, it was clear that Jiang Tianming’s plan was to wait—wait for two hours until Wu Jin and the others outside called for reinforcements. This wasn’t too difficult for them. Although Advanced Nightmare Beasts were powerful, unless it was in a specific environment, killing them wouldn’t be so easy.

With Jiang Tianming having already prepared an escape route, it might have seemed like they were on the defensive, but in reality, it was the Nightmare Beasts who were in the passive position. All the students had to do was keep running.

However, running was also physically demanding, especially with enemies in pursuit. Lan Subing soon began to show signs of exhaustion. She had the least stamina of the three, and she had consumed the most Mental Energy along the way, so it was natural for her to be the first to falter.

“I… huff, I can’t go on. Let’s find a place to rest!” Lan Subing gasped, speaking quickly before trying to regulate her breathing to avoid getting a stitch in her side while running.

The other two had no objections. The trio immediately found a relatively high platform, where Wu Mingbai used his [Earth Element] to create a fortress, forcing them to turtle up inside.

The reason for choosing a high platform was that the Cockroach Nightmare Beasts could often burrow up from underground. It seemed to be some kind of special ability they possessed, as not even concrete could stop them from breaking through the ground.

To this, Lan Subing commented that’s just how cockroaches are.

After successfully constructing the fortress, the three hid inside, enjoying a brief rest. Wu Mingbai couldn’t maintain the ability for too long; they would have to leave by the time the fortress broke at the latest. Suqi City was dangerous, and he had to conserve some Mental Energy for his own safety.

“Let’s use this break to discuss what happened earlier,” Jiang Tianming brought up the topic again. “About that method to completely eradicate the Nightmare Beasts, should we report it directly to the government after we get out?”

“‘Let there be light,’” Lan Subing uttered a simple [Word Spirit], and the dark space instantly brightened.

Knock, knock, knock!

Before the three could even begin their discussion, a knocking sound came from outside. It was clearly made by a person, as the low-tier Nightmare Beasts around them wouldn’t knock so rhythmically, and the Advanced Cockroach Nightmare Beast probably wouldn’t try to trick them into opening the fortress with a knock at a time like this.

But the question was, who would show up at this moment?

The three exchanged glances, seeing the confusion in each other’s eyes. Driven by curiosity, Wu Mingbai eventually opened a small door in the stone fortress, just large enough for one person to enter.

The next second, Su Bei suddenly appeared at the entrance and quickly slipped inside. Wu Mingbai promptly closed the door again and gave the unexpected visitor a strange look. “What are you doing here?”

“I saw your fortress and came to join the fun,” Su Bei said nonchalantly, not seeming to think his behavior was odd at all.

In reality, he had risked coming over mainly because he could no longer hear their conversation while they were inside the fortress. He had to come in personally to monitor their discussion, lest they quietly decide to hand over the information to the officials. With him present, he could steer their thinking in a different direction.

Although the three were speechless at his excuse, they didn’t dwell on it and returned to the previous topic. With a new person joining in, the discussion couldn’t just pick up where it left off.

Jiang Tianming asked Su Bei directly, “Why did you ask Mingbai about the composition of the gravel and the Life Stone twice before?”

If he were facing someone less familiar, he definitely wouldn’t have asked so directly, but would have tried to fish for information indirectly. But this was Su Bei, so there was no need for that. A direct question was an effective way to avoid wasting time beating around the bush.

Hearing this, a look of realization flashed in Su Bei’s eyes. “It seems you’ve found something out.”

He really does know! This was the first thought that popped into all three of their minds, followed by a collective sigh of relief. The fact that Su Bei knew about this, while not necessarily useful, at least made them feel less in the dark.

“We just overheard a conversation between two Advanced Nightmare Beasts. We learned that to completely eradicate the Nightmare Beasts, we need to clean up the Fallen Meteorite that brought both the Nightmare Beasts and Abilities to this world. And the gravel in the air of the Nightmare Beast World are fragments of that Fallen Meteorite.” Jiang Tianming succinctly recounted what had happened and then looked expectantly at Su Bei, waiting for an explanation.

Su Bei had no intention of hiding anything and replied with an honest look, “I did know about this for a while. I asked Wu Mingbai before to determine what the meteorite had turned into.”

His answer dispelled the last shred of doubt in their minds. Lan Subing’s blue eyes were filled with joy. “It’s so great that there’s a way to completely eradicate the Nightmare Beasts!”

No matter how difficult the method, its mere existence brought hope.

“Speaking of which, the Nightmare Beasts came from the Fallen Meteorite. The logic that getting rid of the meteorite would make the beasts disappear doesn’t seem that hard to figure out. Why hasn’t anyone discovered this after all this time?” Wu Mingbai’s mind suddenly went off on a tangent.

Over the years, countless people must have researched how to completely eradicate the Nightmare Beasts. The origin of the beasts wasn’t some huge secret; even a group of students like them could stumble upon related information.

How could no one have thought of this?

That’s because this method is completely fake, Su Bei thought to himself. However, this question could be used to his advantage. A glint appeared in his eyes. “How do you know the higher-ups don’t know how to eradicate them? They just can’t do it.”

That was a possibility. Wu Mingbai was convinced. The method was incredibly difficult. The Nightmare Beast World was vast, its area no smaller than a continent. No matter how strong Ability users were, they couldn’t possibly clear an entire continent of meteorite fragments.

As the wielder of the [Earth Element] ability, Wu Mingbai could relate to this feeling even more deeply. Just thinking about it made him feel it was hopeless.

“If the higher-ups already knew… then we don’t need to report it, do we?” Jiang Tianming successfully fell into Su Bei’s trap, abandoning the idea of reporting it.

Lan Subing and Wu Mingbai also tended to agree with him. If some high-ranking officials already knew about this, then there was really no need for them to say anything. The information must have been passed among the upper echelons; those who didn’t know were likely not high enough in status. As for why they didn’t publicize the information, they probably had their reasons, just like how they kept the fact that Nightmare Beasts were formed from the grievances of the dead a secret.

“Should we tell Baozhu and the others?” Lan Subing asked, referring to the other members of S-Class.

After a moment’s thought, Jiang Tianming shook his head. “Let’s not. We should tell Teacher Meng first. After we get back, we’ll tell Teacher Meng Huai about this and let him decide whether to inform the other students.”

This was the safest approach. If Meng Huai didn’t know, he could ask Principal Wu Di. As the principal of Endless Ability Academy and a leader of one of the top powers in the country’s Ability World, the three of them believed he certainly knew about this.

“After this battle ends,” Wu Mingbai added. Regardless of whether they had a chance to see Meng Huai in Suqi City, it was best to wait until after the battle to tell him.

Although this battle wasn’t as dangerous as the previous one, that was only for ordinary Ability users like them. It was still very dangerous for the powerful Ability users who had to fight Advanced Nightmare Beasts head-on. After all, to hold them back as much as possible, the Nightmare Beast side had dispatched a large number of Advanced Nightmare Beasts this time. If they distracted their teacher, it would be their fault.

Zhao Xiaoyu had actually informed them of this via a message. Due to her ability, even though her ability and Mental Energy weren’t strong, she was still assigned to deal with Advanced Nightmare Beasts—covertly, of course, not on the front lines.

It was worth noting that Ling You had not made an appearance at all. This was very strange, considering her ability was perfectly suited for this kind of battlefield. Especially when the Nightmare Beast side was planning to use a swarm tactic with low-tier beasts, a single use of her [Plague] could wipe out thousands upon thousands of them.

Even if she was researching a method to deal with all Nightmare Beasts at once, it shouldn’t prevent her from showing up to help control the situation, right?

Unfortunately, Zhao Xiaoyu didn’t know where Ling You had gone either, and they hadn’t seen Meng Huai for the past two days. So, despite their confusion, there was nothing they could do.

Hearing their discussion conclude, the weight on Su Bei’s heart finally lifted completely. By the time the battle ended, the next-next manga update would surely be out. By then, the matter would be set in stone, and they could tell whomever they wanted.

Since that matter was resolved, there was no need for Su Bei to stay here any longer. Sorry, but he was just that kind of little boy who liked to burn the bridge after crossing it.

As soon as the fortress vanished, Jiang Tianming was about to lead everyone to their next planned location when he suddenly noticed someone was missing from the team. “Where’s Su Bei?”

Su Bei had already used his Invisibility Talisman to leave the group and return to the movie theater. There weren’t many Nightmare Beasts there, so he could quietly slack off until everything was over.

If nothing unexpected happened, the absence of Nightmare Beasts in the theater was likely the result of an agreement between the Nightmare Spider and the Cockroach Nightmare Beast; they didn’t want to provoke him right now. But that didn’t mean they didn’t want to kill him. It was simply because they hadn’t even dealt with Jiang Tianming’s group yet, so they naturally didn’t have the spare energy to take on another enemy.

Taking advantage of the downtime, Su Bei also uploaded the information about completely eradicating Nightmare Beasts into the database of the ‘Destiny’ organization, marking it as top secret.

This was an extra layer of security. If the matter was exposed before the next manga update, someone might try to obtain information from ‘Destiny’ as an intelligence organization. If they found the relevant content in the organization’s files, it could buy him a little more time.

After finishing all this, Su Bei rested there peacefully. When the two hours were up, he leisurely left the movie theater. Su Bei was confident that Li Shu and Wu Jin wouldn’t wait for exactly two hours before seeking reinforcements; they would surely have noticed something was wrong earlier and sought help in advance.

Therefore, leaving at this time was just right. He might even run into the support team after fighting for a bit. As the saying goes, don’t pick on the diligent or the lazy, only on those who lack awareness. No matter how much work he had done before, being seen working when the reinforcements arrived was what mattered.

By the time he got out, the others had already successfully killed the Nightmare Spider. The Cockroach Nightmare Beast, however, was a different story. Its regenerative ability was extremely formidable. Although they had killed it once, it quickly revived and fled, its whereabouts unknown.

Since the Advanced Cockroach Nightmare Beast wasn’t dead, its subordinate cockroaches were naturally fine, and everyone still had to patiently clean them up. However, this wasn’t a difficult task. Even though everyone was low on Mental Energy, eliminating the low-tier Cockroach Nightmare Beasts wasn’t hard.

Su Bei, who had been slacking off for almost the entire time, finally played a small part. A few gears shot out from his hand, acting like a lawnmower, and reaped the lives of a large number of Cockroach Nightmare Beasts in an instant.

But not everyone was cleaning up cockroaches and finding the task easy. For Ai Baozhu and Si Zhaohua, it was undoubtedly a form of torture. Ai Baozhu had completely given up fighting and had used her [Glorious Domain] to create a small safe house in a nearby shop, allowing tired people to rest inside.

Si Zhaohua, on the other hand, spent the entire time flying in the air, launching ranged attacks. There was no way he was going to land.

Seeing this, the others couldn’t help but get mischievous. They would let Ai Baozhu be; forcing her out would be a bit unkind. Besides, a cockroach-free safe house was indeed what they needed, so they wouldn’t make things difficult for her.

As for Si Zhaohua…

He watched as Jiang Tianming manipulated objects, ostensibly to smash cockroaches from above, but in reality, he was intentionally interfering, trying to drag him down from the sky.

Qi Huang, who could also fly, was covertly harassing him in the sky, pushing him downwards.

Lan Subing was even more ruthless, using her [Word Spirit] for an indiscriminate attack. She claimed she wanted to gather the cockroaches together for an easier attack, but in reality, Si Zhaohua could also feel the power of the [Word Spirit]. If she hadn’t been holding back, he really would have been pulled down.

“Hey, that’s enough, you guys!” Si Zhaohua couldn’t take it anymore.

The others simultaneously stopped what they were doing and looked at him with innocent expressions. Ai Baozhu was bent over with laughter in her little shop. She didn’t forget to speak up for the others, “What did they do? Isn’t everyone working hard?”

If anyone else had said that, it would have been one thing, but hearing it from Ai Baozhu, Si Zhaohua was about to die from anger. If he hadn’t been drawing all their fire, would she be able to watch the show so peacefully?

“If you keep this up, I’ll lead the cockroaches to storm your domain later,” Si Zhaohua threatened. He really disliked these Cockroach Nightmare Beasts, but not to Ai Baozhu’s extent; he was capable of fighting on the ground before. This was also why the others chose to harass him—he wasn’t completely intolerant, just being dramatic.

“My bad, my bad,” Ai Baozhu promptly admitted her mistake, making a zipping motion across her lips to signal that she would stay quiet.

After dealing with the gloater, Si Zhaohua turned back to the others and complained resentfully, “Can we work properly or not? If you guys keep this up, I’m going to slack off like Su Bei!”

Su Bei: “…”

He looked incredulously at the mountain of cockroach corpses at his feet, then looked up at the blatantly lying Si Zhaohua. “Hey, don’t drag me into this! I’ve been working hard the whole time!”

It was a rare occasion for him to be working so diligently.

Everyone couldn’t help but laugh, and they stopped their antics. “Hahahahahaha, we’ll stop. Let’s all work properly.”

As they were cleaning up, the main doors were suddenly kicked open. It was Li Shu and the others, arriving with reinforcements.

Seeing that the students in the shopping mall were unharmed, the several Ability users who came as support breathed a sigh of relief. These were the future flowers of the motherland; they absolutely could not let anything happen to them here.

It was already an apology to them that the main battlefield of a campaign had to rely on students. If anything happened to them here, the Ability Government’s reputation would surely take a major hit.

With these people joining the battle, Jiang Tianming and the others no longer had to rush to eliminate the cockroaches.

They briefly explained what had happened, focusing on the conspiracy of the two Advanced Nightmare Beasts. They omitted the part about what they had overheard, not even mentioning the appearance of those two beasts.

“From what you’re saying, it seems like they were specifically waiting here to ambush you…” the leading staff member said suspiciously. “Could it be that they’re deliberately targeting you?”

It had to be said that his judgment was accurate. The Nightmare Spider was indeed deliberately targeting Jiang Tianming and the others, setting up an ambush here. It was Su Bei who had passed on the intel, cooperating with the Nightmare Beasts to lead everyone to the shopping mall.

However, Su Bei wasn’t panicked by the fact that the man had guessed this. Their group from S-Class had always been a thorn in the side of the Nightmare Beasts; being targeted was completely logical.

Sure enough, the staff member quickly dismissed his own doubts. “That makes sense, they should be targeting you. For the next few days, try not to leave the vicinity of the Safe Zone. Just be responsible for clearing out the Nightmare Beasts outside the Safe Zone.”

After hearing what he said, the students also felt they were being targeted and naturally had no objection to the arrangement. “We understand. But sir, with these Advanced Nightmare Beasts appearing here, did the government not detect anything at all?”

The question came from Jiang Tianming, who had just thought of it. Normally, Suqi City should have been equipped with devices that could detect Advanced Nightmare Beasts. Otherwise, letting them lurk in the city would be too prone to chaos.

But there were two Advanced Nightmare Beasts in the shopping mall, yet the government hadn’t detected anything, and there weren’t even many Ability users nearby. This struck him as very strange.

Hearing this, the staff member’s expression also turned grim. Just as Jiang Tianming thought, they had indeed prepared tools to detect Advanced Nightmare Beasts. But these tools had failed to detect two of them here. Could it be that the Nightmare Beasts had some kind of countermeasure?

As the saying goes, when you find one cockroach in your house, there’s bound to be a whole nest. A bad feeling rose in the staff member’s heart. He had to report this anomaly immediately!