Chapter 280

Just as Su Bei was fighting the second wave of Nightmare Beasts, he suddenly heard a scream from the distance.

It seemed something had happened. Su Bei decapitated the Nightmare Beast in front of him with a single gear and retreated into Ai Baozhu’s [Glorious Domain], turning his gaze in the direction of the scream.

If he remembered correctly, that was the exam area where Jiang Tianming and his group were. As expected of the protagonist, he thought, his trouble-making ability is truly top-notch. He just didn’t know what had happened or if it would affect them.

Thinking of this, Su Bei glanced up at the Destiny Compass above everyone’s heads and then raised an eyebrow in surprise. In the blink of an eye, everyone’s Minor Destiny Pointers had shifted to the left, moving directly into the second quadrant of the compass. In other words, their luck had improved!

What kind of strange blessing in disguise was this? Su Bei’s expression instantly turned peculiar.

Suddenly, Ling You’s cool voice sounded out: “What did you discover?”

Her light purple eyes, somewhat similar to Su Bei’s, looked at him with clear intensity—or rather, at the strange expression on his face. She repeated her question: “What did you discover?”

It was rare for Ling You to be so talkative, but unfortunately, Su Bei had no intention of answering seriously. He just smiled and said, “Our luck is pretty good. We weren’t affected.”

Sensing he didn’t want to answer, Ling You naturally followed his lead and changed the subject. “Mm.”

Suddenly, Ai Baozhu, who was beside them, remembered something and asked nervously, “Then who was affected?”

Of course it was Jiang Tianming’s group. Su Bei grinned slyly. “Naturally, whoever is unlucky gets affected.”

The two girls didn’t know about the ‘unluckiest unlucky devil’ inside joke Su Bei had with Jiang Tianming, but after spending so much time together, they had a good idea of who in their class had good luck and who had bad luck.

Lan Subing and Mo Xiaotian clearly had good luck, while those with obviously bad luck, besides the person standing before them, included Jiang Tianming.

Jiang Tianming was in the control specialization, and many of their classmates were in the control specialization! Ai Baozhu’s expression immediately soured. “Should we go check on them?”

Before she could finish, the teacher in charge of their exam area began to control the scene with a megaphone. “All examinees, please wait quietly. Do not leave the exam area. The exam is temporarily suspended. We are currently investigating the situation.”

The screams from the other exam area were so loud, it was impossible for them not to have been heard. Therefore, the academy didn’t intend to hide anything and proactively informed everyone of the situation to maintain order and prevent the students from panicking.

Just a moment ago, Ai Baozhu had wanted to suggest they go check on Jiang Tianming’s group, but now it seemed that was impossible. She sighed. “Looks like we can only wait for the results here.”

Hearing this, Su Bei gave her a strange look, then took out his phone from his pocket and called Jiang Tianming right in front of her.

The phones they had were almost all special models for Ability users, capable of functioning without a network signal and even making calls within other dimensions. In fact, this was the very reason such phones were created. Of course, their functionality in other dimensions was limited to calls; playing online games was out of the question.

Therefore, making a call in the Nightmare Beast World was naturally possible.

Most notably, because a ringing phone could be extremely dangerous in another dimension, these special phones for Ability users didn’t ring when receiving messages or calls. Instead, the phone would emit a unique signal wave that only the owner’s Mental Energy could perceive, allowing them to feel it immediately and be easily awakened even while sleeping.

After a short while, the call connected. Under the dumbfounded gazes of Ai Baozhu and the other two, Su Bei got straight to the point. “What’s the situation over there?”

At the same time, the ‘Manga Consciousness’ notification sounded in Su Bei’s ear: “King of Abilities has been updated. Please check for the latest chapter.”

The timing of the manga’s update surprised Su Bei slightly, but it was understandable. The portion of the final exam before the incident, both in terms of the plot itself and the foreshadowing within it, was more than enough to form a complete chapter. Splitting the events into two chapters was very reasonable.

It was just a pity he couldn’t read the manga right away. Given the current situation, he probably wouldn’t be able to read it until he returned. Regardless of whether they would be affected by the danger, now was not a good time to be reading comics.

Jiang Tianming’s voice quickly came from the other end of the line. “Good thing you called. I almost forgot you could make calls in the Nightmare Beast World. Please pass the phone to Teacher Lei as soon as possible. We’re on the run right now.”

On the run? Hearing that phrase, Su Bei raised an eyebrow, not particularly surprised. It seemed Jiang Tianming and his group had ultimately left the [Death Graveyard]. Su Bei was just curious what kind of accident had forced them to leave the exam area, and it seemed likely that only their group had left. Just how bad did their luck have to be?

The ‘we’ he mentioned probably referred to all the S-Class students in the special specialization, including Zhou Renjie, Lan Subing, and Wu Jin. He just wondered if Wu Mingbai had been affected; Su Bei had been planning to find time to watch his exam later.

But the most important thing now was to resolve the matter at hand. Su Bei immediately found the teacher in charge of their exam area and explained the situation to him.

Since the real troublemakers in S-Class were someone else, Lei Ze’en hadn’t stayed in Su Bei’s exam area during the group exams but was instead in the control specialization’s area. Now that they couldn’t leave, they naturally needed their supervising teacher to find him.

After hearing him out, the supervising teacher immediately led them to Lei Ze’en. Su Bei handed the phone to Lei Ze’en, not forgetting to turn on the speakerphone so he could hear the firsthand information as well.

“Teacher, we’re running and hiding from Nightmare Beasts. The academy’s base is completely surrounded by them, so we can’t get back for now. Is there any way you can teleport us back?” Jiang Tianming succinctly described their current situation. The sound of hurried footsteps and his own panting from intense running could be faintly heard.

Lei Ze’en’s brow furrowed, clearly showing his worry. However, his voice remained gentle, carrying a soothing tone. “I need you to find a safe place. Then I can figure out a way to use my [Teleportation] ability to bring you back.”

If this were the real world, they would know their location. Then, even if they were constantly on the move, Lei Ze’en could pinpoint their position through their trajectory, have them run to a designated spot, and set up a Teleportation Array there in advance to retrieve them.

But this was the Nightmare Beast World, where there were no coordinates to speak of. The only way was for Jiang Tianming’s group to find a safe place first so he could lock onto their coordinates precisely.

There was no other choice. [Teleportation] wasn’t omnipotent. If he himself were stranded, he could easily transport himself even without knowing the geography of any location. But now that he wasn’t with Jiang Tianming’s group, the matter was much more difficult.

Seeing that Lei Ze’en couldn’t bring them back immediately, Jiang Tianming fell silent for a moment before replying, “Okay, Teacher, I understand. We’ll call again once we find a safe place.”

Sensing that he was about to hang up, Lei Ze’en quickly stopped him. “Wait. How many Nightmare Beasts are chasing you? Can you still hold out? If not… turn on your phone’s location services. I’ll bring a few teachers to meet you.”

Don’t assume this was an easy task. The area outside was swarming with Advanced Nightmare Beasts. Leaving the protective shield was no different from suicide, so going out now would be taking a huge risk. Furthermore, they would have to travel a great distance to rendezvous with students being pursued, which made the difficulty even greater.

It was important to know that Lei Ze’en couldn’t use his [Teleportation] ability from within the protective shield. To prevent any Nightmare Beasts that might get inside from using their abilities to do something unexpected, one of the functions of the shield was to block all abilities. That is, abilities cast inside would not affect the outside, and abilities from the outside would naturally not get in.

Therefore, even if he wanted to [Teleport] out of the Nightmare Beast encirclement, he would first have to venture outside, and that alone was already extremely dangerous.

Jiang Tianming also knew how difficult this was, and that the teachers might not even be able to reach them. There was no telling how many Nightmare Beasts would join the chase after Lei Ze’en and the others along the way. It would be terrible if they failed to rescue the students and ended up in trouble themselves.

With this in mind, he refused while still running on the other end of the line. “No need, Teacher. Wu Jin managed to shake off those Advanced Nightmare Beasts. They’re searching for us nearby, so we’re hiding and running. We’re safe for now. I have to go, I’m afraid they’ll discover us.”

Without giving Lei Ze’en a chance to object, Jiang Tianming hung up immediately after his refusal.

Lei Ze’en sighed and looked at Su Bei’s group. “I’m going to report the news of the missing students to Teacher Wang, the third-year dean. You all stay here for now. I’ll be back in a bit.”

After speaking, Lei Ze’en turned and left, while Su Bei’s group remained behind under the sympathetic gazes of the other students. Neither Ai Baozhu nor Su Bei felt uncomfortable, but Ling You disliked being the center of attention with such looks and voluntarily moved into the shadows.

Noticing this, Ai Baozhu glanced around and, with a flash of insight, understood the source of Ling You’s discomfort. She immediately walked conspicuously up to an older female student. “Senior, may I ask how Renjie… I mean, how those missing students disappeared?”

“Of course, no problem.” Startled by being called out, the senior student quickly nodded. She had been in the exam area the whole time and naturally knew exactly what had happened.

Through her account, Su Bei’s group learned what Jiang Tianming and the others had encountered.

When the final wave of Nightmare Beasts entered from the north, one of them possessed a swapping ability. As mentioned before, no ability could penetrate the protective shield from the inside, so it was impossible for the Nightmare Beast to swap Jiang Tianming and the others directly outside. However, it was possible to swap them to the edge of the shield.

At that point, another Nightmare Beast coordinated with it, using a small flaw that the Nightmare Beasts had painstakingly created in the shield to knock the students, who had been moved to the edge of the arena, straight out.

And Jiang Tianming’s group was just that unlucky. Because a group of people gathered together was more conspicuous, they were precisely selected from among all the examinees in the field and were swapped and knocked out together.

“That luck…” Ai Baozhu’s mouth twitched, rendered speechless.

The number of examinees in the control specialization wasn’t particularly large, but there were still forty to fifty people. To be chosen so precisely… what could she say? She could only mourn for them.

Su Bei shrugged and looked up at Meng Huai, who was walking back after finishing his report. “Teacher, can we go rejoin the rest of our class? I think they must be very worried about the missing students too.”

If Meng Huai had been here, he would have immediately become suspicious upon hearing these words and asked Su Bei since when he had become so considerate. But the teacher here now was Lei Ze’en, who didn’t know Su Bei that well. So, although he found it a bit strange, he nodded since what Su Bei said made sense. “Alright, I’ll take you to them.”

Since the exam was suspended anyway, Lei Ze’en decisively led all the S-Class students away from the exam area and back to the one where the control specialization was located. Along the way, everyone quickly understood what had happened through Ai Baozhu’s explanation.

“So are we just going to let them be hunted by Nightmare Beasts?” Mu Tieren asked anxiously. “What if something really happens to them?”

Lei Ze’en was silent for a moment, his tall frame slumping slightly, a clear sign of his terrible mood. But he still answered truthfully, “There’s nothing we can do. The Nightmare Beast World is inherently fraught with peril. The life-and-death waiver you signed before the exam was no joke.”

Two days before the final exam, the academy had issued them a life-and-death waiver, stating that they were responsible for their own lives and deaths upon entering the Nightmare Beast World. Of course, it wasn’t a mandatory deal; the academy didn’t force students to enter the Nightmare Beast World. Students could choose not to go and only take the written exams. As long as they passed, they would receive a passing grade of 60.

Although that score was a bit low for the final exam of their third year, it was actually very reasonable upon reflection. The purpose of an Ability Academy was to cultivate Ability users to fight against Nightmare Beasts, and a large part of their grades depended on their ability to combat them.

Students who didn’t dare to enter the Nightmare Beast World even under the school’s protection would be even less likely to enter after graduation. In terms of both courage and ability, they lacked the capital to fight powerful Nightmare Beasts. It was normal for such Ability users to receive poorer grades.

Everyone knew he was right, but this harsh reality couldn’t help but dampen their spirits. The only one unaffected was probably Su Bei. He was even in the mood to ask Wu Mingbai, “Don’t you elemental types have different exam content? Wu Mingbai, have you finished your exam yet?”

Seeing him casually chatting at a time like this, Wu Mingbai glared at him fiercely. But before he could retort with a sarcastic remark, he suddenly remembered something. His eyes lit up as he asked, “Right, didn’t you say you’d answer one of my questions unconditionally? Fulfill your promise now. Will Jiang Tianming and the others be okay?”

Coincidentally, the question he asked was one Su Bei knew the answer to. He pretended to ‘calculate’ for a moment, then shook his head with feigned disappointment.

Wu Mingbai’s heart sank. He pursed his lips and asked cautiously, “Are you shaking your head because you can’t tell?”

That was the best outcome he could imagine, far better than Su Bei shaking his head in pity.

“Ah, weren’t you asking me if they’d be alright?” Su Bei put on an innocent expression, as if he wasn’t the one who had just been playing a prank. “My shaking my head obviously meant they won’t get into trouble!”

Everyone: “…”

Although they were happy to hear this news, Su Bei was being a bit too punchable. Their hands started to itch, feeling a strong urge to clench their fists and punch something.

Lei Ze’en was the first to fulfill their wish. As expected of Meng Huai’s good friend, his method of hitting people was exactly the same as Meng Huai’s.

“Ouch!” Su Bei cried out, clutching his head and protesting indignantly, “You misunderstood on your own, how can you blame me?”

“Did we misunderstand on our own?” Lei Ze’en didn’t fall for it, asking with a mixture of amusement and exasperation. However, having received Su Bei’s affirmative answer, he felt a sense of relief.

It was a huge relief that the students were okay. He really didn’t want to lead a group of students for once only to return with some of them missing. Although it was an accident, it would still be a dereliction of duty on his part as a teacher.

“Anyway, they can’t come back right now. Wu Mingbai, hurry up and answer my earlier question!” Su Bei sat cross-legged on the ground, looking utterly bored, as if his question had just been an offhand remark to pass the time and he wasn’t particularly interested.

In reality, however, Su Bei genuinely wanted to know whether Wu Mingbai had taken his exam and what the content was. He had originally thought this would be Wu Mingbai’s time to shine. After all, if his judgment about the academy’s purpose for this final exam was correct, then Wu Mingbai was bound to play a huge role in clearing the meteorite fragments, being the only Earth Element user in the class and a member of the true protagonist’s party.

But this time, only Jiang Tianming’s group was involved in the incident, and Wu Mingbai wasn’t with them. This made Su Bei doubt his own judgment. Could it be that Wu Mingbai really had nothing to do with it this time?

That wasn’t entirely implausible. During the upcoming summer vacation, Wu Mingbai was planning to invite them to the Afei Nation. That would probably be his dedicated arc. Speaking of which…

But according to his previous deductions, this final exam should have been related to the main plot. What on earth was the author planning?

If he couldn’t figure it out, he wouldn’t dwell on it. He could probably guess most of it after reading the manga later. But he was still very curious about Wu Mingbai’s exam. Su Bei watched him calmly, waiting for an answer.

There was nothing secretive about the exam content. Since Su Bei had said Jiang Tianming and the others would be fine, Wu Mingbai relaxed and sat down cross-legged with him. “We’ve already finished. The order for the elemental specialization exam was Fire, Earth, Water, Wood, Metal. The incident happened right after I finished my test.”

He couldn’t help but sigh at the last sentence, unsure if his luck was good or bad. If you said his luck was bad, he had at least finished the exam smoothly and hadn’t done poorly. If you said his luck was good, the students who were supposed to take the test after him probably wouldn’t have to stay in the Nightmare Beast World, and the exam difficulty would likely be reduced significantly.

“The Earth Element exam was to eliminate one hundred Nightmare Beasts without letting a single speck of dust or rubble touch your body.” As he spoke, Wu Mingbai casually used [Earth Element] to gather the surrounding dust and debris, forming a small rock that floated in his hand. “It was probably testing our mastery over our ability and our capacity to multitask.”

No, Su Bei silently retorted in his mind, it was testing your method for clearing meteorite fragments.

However, he had to admit, the exam question Endless Ability Academy came up with was sufficiently plausible. If he hadn’t already guessed the inside story, he probably wouldn’t have detected any issues upon hearing the question and would have just thought it was a simple test.

“What about you, Qi Huang?” Having asked Wu Mingbai, it wouldn’t be right to neglect the other, so Su Bei turned to look at Qi Huang.

Qi Huang also sat down cross-legged with them. Although she was also a young lady from a prominent family, she rarely put on airs and was more carefree, like a wandering martial artist from the jianghu. “Our exam was really annoying. Those whose abilities can create fire had to eliminate one hundred Nightmare Beasts without using open flames. Those who can’t, like users with abilities such as [Magma], had to use open flames to eliminate them.”

That certainly sounded annoying. Everyone’s expression became hard to describe. Who would like such a twisted exam? A moment ago, they thought the Earth Element exam was a bit demanding, but after hearing about the Fire Element exam, they understood what truly demanding was.

With the two of them starting the conversation, the others also began to recall the exam content they had encountered in their respective areas. Su Bei listened for a bit and gathered that, apart from the special and elemental specializations, the exam questions in the other areas were unrelated to the main plot.

This was within Su Bei’s expectations. To clear the meteorite fragments, the most relevant Earth Element specialization and the most unpredictable special specialization were indeed the most likely to achieve the goal.

After everyone had chatted for a while, Endless Ability Academy finally made a decision—they would evacuate the students from the Nightmare Beast World and return to the academy ahead of schedule.

The official reason given was that since students had already been involved in an incident, it was no longer appropriate to remain here. Of course, there was nothing wrong with this reason, but it didn’t quite align with the academy’s usual procedures in the comic.

But Su Bei estimated that the real reason was likely that the students who truly needed to be tested here had already completed their tests. As for simply eliminating Nightmare Beasts, that could be done in other dimensions or even in the real world, so there was no need to stay here and face immense danger.

“If we leave first, what about Jiang Tianming and the others? They haven’t returned yet!” Hearing the dean’s announcement over the broadcast, Wu Mingbai’s face changed as he asked anxiously.

But he was truly too close to the situation to see clearly, losing his rationality out of excessive worry for Jiang Tianming and the others. Lei Ze’en calmly reassured him, “Don’t worry. The academy will leave some teachers behind, including myself, to wait here. The moment they call, we’ll launch a rescue mission immediately.”

Hearing this, Wu Mingbai realized he had been overthinking it. Both logically and emotionally, it was impossible for Endless Ability Academy to openly abandon students while they were still alive. They would definitely leave people behind to rescue them.

“Can I stay here and wait too?” Now that the misunderstanding was cleared up, he couldn’t help but ask. With Jiang Tianming and Lan Subing still missing, he couldn’t rest easy returning to the real world alone.

As someone who also had close friends, Lei Ze’en could understand his feelings, but he couldn’t grant his request. “No. All students must go back. That way, we teachers can carry out the rescue without any other worries. I know you’re very worried about them, but I promise you, we will do everything in our power to bring them back safely, okay?”

Looking at his earnest expression, Wu Mingbai knew there was no room for negotiation on this matter and could only nod in disappointment. “Okay, I understand.”

Don’t be fooled by his compliant appearance now. The moment Lei Ze’en turned to leave, Wu Mingbai urgently asked, “I want to stay behind in secret. Do any of you have a way?”