Chapter 328

“Of course.” Jiang Yan had no reason to refuse. She nodded and led everyone to the first floor. She first registered each person and issued them a point savings card. Then, she took them to another counter to look at the missions.

The missions in the Nightmare Beast World were generally related to Advanced Nightmare Beasts. There were missions for mapping unexplored territories, eliminating Advanced Nightmare Beasts, rescue missions…

Most of these missions offered around 10-20 points and were not easy. If the S-Class students were to do them, one mission might take two to three people half a day to complete. After splitting the points, it wouldn’t even be enough to cover their accommodation fees.

Working hard all day to complete two missions would barely earn enough points for accommodation. Fortunately, meals here could be paid for with regular money; otherwise, they’d truly be unable to make ends meet.

“It’ll be really hard to go back then,” Lan Subing remarked softly.

Jiang Yan had excellent hearing. After hearing this, she turned to look at her. “All of this is announced before you enter. Only those who believe in their strength, or are determined to spend a long time training here, choose to enter the Nightmare Beast World through our Tri-Academy Base entrance.”

“Tri-Academy Base”… Hearing this name, Su Bei couldn’t help but feel a little awkward. Does it literally mean a base built by the three academies? What a casual name.

Unlike his wandering thoughts, the others were carefully considering Jiang Yan’s words. As she said, given that they knew they wouldn’t be able to leave for a long time after entering, there were only two kinds of people who would come here.

“No wonder they say that Ability users who come out of the Tri-Academy Base are incredibly strong.” Si Zhaohua had heard of the Tri-Academy Base back when he was with his family. Now that he understood its internal mechanisms, he felt that its reputation was well-deserved.

At this moment, Zhao Xiaoyu suddenly thought of another question. “Teacher, for this map-drawing mission, can you not accept it if you don’t know how to draw maps?”

Before Jiang Yan could answer, a person sitting on the ground with a stall next to them suddenly raised their voice. “Professional cartographer for hire right here! Only 2 points to employ. Honest pricing for all, a great value for your money, first come, first served!”

Everyone: “…”

The mission area on the first floor was crowded, so Jiang Yan didn’t let them stay long. After looking at the missions, she led them straight outside.

Outside the Tri-Academy Base fortress, there was an open-air encampment, also within the base’s jurisdiction. One could see many tents, sleeping bags, and some campfires in the camp.

“They sleep here?” Ai Baozhu asked in surprise. “Aren’t there dormitories?”

Clearly, this young lady, ignorant of the world’s hardships, had never seen people suffering and sleeping on the streets.

Jiang Yan glanced at them and answered coolly, “Because they either can’t afford or don’t want to pay the 10-point room fee, so they choose to sleep outside.”

To save up points, one needed to increase income and reduce expenses. If their strength didn’t allow for increasing income, they could only find ways to cut back. Zhao Xiaoyu found these people very understandable; if she were in their shoes, she might also choose to sleep outside. But she had a question: “Is it safe to sleep outside?”

“The encampment is certainly a bit safer than other places in the Nightmare Beast World. After all, there are so many people here, and Nightmare Beasts that have been beaten back are unlikely to approach.” Seemingly having answered this question many times before, Jiang Yan replied skillfully, “But in reality, the base isn’t responsible for protecting the Ability users in the camp. At night, the entire fortress closes down. If there’s real danger, they can only fend for themselves.”

After her explanation, everyone understood. In short, this place was indeed a little safer than other parts of the Nightmare Beast World, but not by much. True safety was only found inside the fortress.

But this was normal. If the inside and outside of the fortress were the same, and 10 points only provided a more comfortable place to live, probably no one would choose to stay in the dormitories.

“Do we have to spend points to live here?” Jiang Tianming asked a key question.

This question was also within Jiang Yan’s expectations. She shook her head. “No, your accommodation is fully covered by the academy, and you can leave directly after one month. However, if you want to come back after graduation, you’ll have to follow the rules here like everyone else.”

After a moment of thought, she added with a rare smile, “But if you’re willing to work here after graduation, that’s another matter.”

These students were all top students from Endless Ability Academy. Recruiting even one of them would be a huge gain.

“We will consider it carefully,” Si Zhaohua nodded, although he personally had no intention of staying, and the Si family wouldn’t allow it either.

Mu Tieren, however, seemed a bit tempted. He didn’t really want to stay at the academy as a teacher and preferred to fight Nightmare Beasts on the front lines. From the looks of it, staying here seemed like a good choice.

Jiang Yan didn’t push the recruitment. After her brief remark, she clapped her hands. “I’ve shown you the general area of the base. Next is free time. There’s a clock in the first-floor lobby. A curfew will begin at midnight, meaning the base gates will close. They won’t reopen until five in the morning the next day. So, you need to enter the dormitory building before eleven p.m. and return to your rooms.”

As she spoke, she distributed keys with room numbers to everyone. Once she was done, she continued, “Since walking around as a large group can get in other people’s way, I’ll have you explore freely in pairs. If anyone gets into trouble, their temporary partner will also be punished.”

After announcing her system of collective punishment, she began to form groups. “The people I call can pair up and leave. Su Bei and Si Zhaohua, one group. Ai Baozhu and Lan Subing, one group. Jiang Tianming… Mu Tieren, Li Shu, and Zhou Renjie, you three are a group.”

Being called first, Su Bei and Si Zhaohua headed back together. By tacit agreement, neither of them wanted to explore the Nightmare Beast World just yet; instead, they planned to go back and learn more about the Tri-Academy Base.

After all, they would be here for a whole month. It wouldn’t do to be unfamiliar with the layout.

“Where to first?” Si Zhaohua asked Su Bei as they entered the fortress. “I want to check out the arena on the fifth floor.”

Su Bei had no objections. Because the Nightmare Beast World automatically suppressed feelings of happiness, he didn’t feel much curiosity about this colorless place.

Arriving on the fifth floor, they were met with endless shouts and cheers. The noisy racket made Si Zhaohua frown. “It’s so loud. Won’t this really affect the medical treatment on the floor above?”

“The floor above probably has soundproof walls,” Su Bei replied casually, tossing him a pair of earplugs. He then squeezed into the cheering crowd in a few steps, turned his head, and smiled at the awkward guy. “Come on, we’re here. Let’s watch a match.”

“We’re already here”—a classic and effective line used by Chinese people to persuade others, truly timeless. Si Zhaohua was indeed convinced. Although he really didn’t want to be squeezed in with other people, he ultimately endured his mysophobia and pushed his way in.

It was worth noting that although the two of them were considered tall in their class and even their grade, they were still teenagers. In this place full of scarred, burly men, they looked rather petite. Small bodies containing great power—if not for that, they wouldn’t have been able to squeeze in so easily.

Si Zhaohua’s expression was awful, partly due to the smells and partly due to his dissatisfaction with his own height. “I’ll definitely grow to be 1.9 meters tall in the future.”

“Ambitious,” someone next to him who overheard couldn’t help but laugh, praising him in a gruff voice. It was hard to tell if the praise was sincere or sarcastic.

Su Bei thought Si Zhaohua’s wish would probably be hard to realize. In the world of manga, handsome characters were rarely given brawny physiques. Except in gag manga, of course.

However, he didn’t shatter the other’s beautiful fantasy and just looked towards the arena. Two people were fighting on the stage—a ruthless, life-or-death battle. This kind of fight was far more interesting and useful than the sparring matches they usually saw at school.

And what Su Bei needed to do was to continuously absorb their techniques through observation, striving to learn them without having to fight himself. Others might not have been able to do it, but Su Bei was a martial arts genius personally endorsed by his teacher, so it was no problem for him.

He was watching with considerable interest, but Si Zhaohua, the one who had suggested coming here, was starting to regret it. After a short while, he began to zone out and brought up another topic. “What kind of mission do you think the teacher will assign us tomorrow?”

“Patrol duty, probably,” Su Bei answered nonchalantly, glancing at the crowded first floor. “There shouldn’t be a shortage of people for the other missions.”

“You’re wrong about that,” the burly man who had laughed at Si Zhaohua interjected again. “It’s crowded now because it’s morning. The crowd will thin out later. The Tri-Academy Base’s goal is to fully explore the entire Nightmare Beast World with the base as the center. No matter how many Ability users there are, it’s never enough.”

That was indeed a grand ambition, and it wouldn’t be rendered useless by the author’s planned ending for the Nightmare Beasts. Completely destroying the meteorite would mean no new Nightmare Beasts would be born, but it didn’t mean the existing ones would immediately disappear, nor would this dimension vanish right away.

For hundreds of years, the number of Nightmare Beasts had been countless, and the Nightmare Beast World was boundless. This exploration was very meaningful.

The burly man then added, “But from the looks of you, you’re still students, right? The academy wouldn’t assign students overly dangerous missions. It’ll probably be just as you said—they’ll assign you to patrol.”

The two thanked him and retreated from the area around the arena, returning to the stairwell. Si Zhaohua looked up, saw that Su Bei had no preference, and made a direct decision. “Let’s go to the sixth floor.”

When they arrived at the entrance to the sixth floor, two guards stopped them. One of them sternly shooed them away. “Kids, don’t come poking around. This isn’t a place for you.”

Unfazed, Si Zhaohua took out a high-grade item. “I’m here to sell something.”

Seeing the item, the guard didn’t continue to drive them away. He took out a simple quality assessment tool to test it. When the tool emitted a purple light, his attitude immediately became more respectful. He opened the door. “Please, come in.”

Although the trading platform on the sixth floor was much more high-end than the one on the second, it was only the items being traded that were superior. The essence was the same: transactions were made with money. Of course, some sellers also accepted points, but Si Zhaohua would definitely use money.

The young master of the Si family lacked nothing, especially not money.

Su Bei didn’t lack money either, but that was only true for his daily life. Faced with a venue where transactions easily ran into the millions, he couldn’t help but feel strapped. So this time, he didn’t plan on buying anything, just tagging along with Si Zhaohua to broaden his horizons.

Besides being man-made, the most important source of high-grade items was Advanced Nightmare Beasts; many dropped items upon death. Su Bei had encountered many Advanced Nightmare Beasts while following the main character’s group before, but he had personally killed very few, so naturally, he hadn’t obtained any high-grade items.

On the other hand, as far as Su Bei knew, everyone else in the main character’s group had at least one. Fortunately, he didn’t lack items himself; otherwise, he would have been furious.

Meanwhile, Si Zhaohua was on a shopping spree, throwing money around as if proving that one could be both smart and rich. After becoming the recognized big spender of the floor, he contentedly led Su Bei away to the third floor for a meal.

“Don’t you have a lot of items yourself? Why did you buy so many more?” Su Bei asked with some confusion after a yawn.

He had been spending his nights researching new abilities recently, leading to a severe lack of Mental Energy, which naturally made him feel tired. However, he couldn’t do it every day, or his teachers and classmates would notice something was off. He had experimented with his ability one last time yesterday, so his mental state wasn’t great today.

But he was often like this, so Si Zhaohua didn’t find it strange and calmly replied, “Can one ever have too many items? Besides, it’s not like I’m short on cash.”

“Being rich is truly amazing,” Su Bei said, giving a thumbs-up in admiration.

There were several restaurants on the third floor. The ingredients were mostly Nightmare Beast meat, used to make various dishes. Outside, such a meal would be very expensive, but here, it was the cheapest food available. Fresh vegetables, on the other hand, were rarely seen in the restaurants and were very expensive.

Su Bei and the others chose a braised chicken restaurant. However, the chicken here was a type of Nightmare Chicken, with tender and flavorful meat whose aroma filled the air. It could also replenish a small amount of Mental Energy for the consumer. It wasn’t much, but it made one feel more energetic after eating.

While ordering, Su Bei casually asked about the vegetables. “Boss, are the vegetables here bought from the outside, or are they grown here in the Nightmare Beast World?”

This was common knowledge here, so the owner had nothing to hide. “Plants can’t be grown in the Nightmare Beast World. So, the vegetables here are either bought from outside or are directly created by wood-element Ability users with the relevant abilities. As it happens, my humble ability is Plant Growth.”

That was indeed a perfect fit for his profession. But Su Bei had a new question. “Sorry if this is a bit offensive, but I have to ask, don’t you feel it’s dangerous to enter the Nightmare Beast World with an ability like that?”

Plant Growth sounded like a non-combat D-Class ability, or even F-Class. Let alone coming to the Nightmare Beast World, even surviving in the Ability World would be difficult. Yet, the owner had actually come here and was clearly living quite well.

Seeing that there was no contempt in his eyes, only pure curiosity, the owner replied, “You think my ability has no offensive power?”

He casually took out a seed and, with a slight push of his ability, a small piranha plant sprouted. The owner smiled and said, “As long as I have the right seeds, my ability can be used in all sorts of ways.”

Su Bei’s expression showed understanding. “Amazing. Thank you for the explanation, boss.”

After speaking, he first activated his ability to look at the owner’s Destiny Compass. Confirming there were no issues, he thought for a moment and placed a silver gear on the counter. “A token of my thanks. This is a gear that can find an opponent’s weak point.”

The Targeting Gear was only truly a “Targeting Gear” when used against powerful opponents who couldn’t be easily hit. However, Su Bei figured that when the owner needed to use this item, the enemy would likely be difficult to deal with, and the gear would naturally serve its purpose.

He had actually considered giving him a Wish Gear to give this ability a bit more presence. But he decided against it. Firstly, the Wish Gear was very powerful; giving it away just because someone answered a few unimportant questions would make it seem cheap.

Secondly, the Wish Gear had the drawback of a feedback effect an hour later. He didn’t want to explain this drawback, so he couldn’t just give it out and trick someone.

After lunch, the two unanimously decided to check out the dormitories. They would be living there for thirty days; if the environment was bad, they would be in for a miserable time.

Su Bei and Si Zhaohua’s rooms were right next to each other, which was also Teacher Jiang’s basis for pairing them up. After all, they had been together for a year and didn’t need to be grouped up to get to know each other. It was simply a matter of convenience.

Opening the door, they were greeted by a small room. But though the room was small, it had all the necessities. A bed, a small wardrobe, a table, and a chair—that was everything in the room.

The room didn’t have a private bathroom; the public restroom was in the middle of the hallway.

To be honest, it was a bit depressing. The room was already small, had no windows, and the color scheme was a monotonous black, white, and gray. Without a doubt, living here for a long time would definitely cause psychological problems.

However, for a short stay and just for sleeping, it was barely acceptable. At least it was clean and free of any small animals.

The day passed quickly. At eight o’clock the next morning, Teacher Jiang came to assign their tasks. Just as Su Bei had guessed yesterday, their mission was indeed patrol duty. They were divided into groups of four, with each group joining a different patrol team to cover a different area.

It was worth noting that Feng Lan was not participating in this mission. His main duty was to remain in the rear. Jiang Yan didn’t even plan on letting him leave the fortress during this month, which was a request made by the Feng family for this research study.

Walking over to his assigned patrol team, Su Bei looked at the others beside him and felt that his luck was pretty good for once. Si Zhaohua, Zhao Xiaoyu, Wu Jin—not a single member of the main character’s group. It was the safest team of all.

Naturally, the area they were assigned to patrol was also the safest one; they only needed to patrol within the encampment.

Seeing the student members assigned to him, the red-haired captain frowned and glanced at the three of them, subconsciously ignoring Wu Jin. The captain warned them concisely, “I know you’re here to pad your resumes. Just stay quietly in the middle of the team and don’t cause us any trouble. Otherwise, I’ll make sure you can’t get that ‘gold plating’. Understand?”

Oh boy, even a guy who couldn’t even notice Wu Jin right away is threatening us. Su Bei lowered his head, a smirk playing on his lips, trying his best not to scoff out loud.

At this moment, whoever spoke up would become the cannon fodder character in a face-slapping plot. Although it wasn’t a bad plotline, it was a bit troublesome, and Su Bei couldn’t be bothered to act. He preferred to watch his teammates show off their power.

As expected, the one who stepped up was Si Zhaohua. His blue eyes stared coldly at the man as he said, word by word, “I don’t quite understand. How exactly will you stop us from getting that ‘gold plating’?”

The red-haired captain didn’t notice his confidence, or perhaps he did but didn’t care. After all, as a captain, he had the right to reprimand, and even punish, disobedient team members. Furthermore, the Tri-Academy Base was relatively independent. Even if they went to complain, Endless Ability Academy wouldn’t pressure him just for their sake.

So, in response to Si Zhaohua’s question, he answered arrogantly, “By beating you to a pulp for being disobedient, of course, and then refusing to let you rejoin the team.”

However, as he said this, he overlooked one thing: these students he looked down on didn’t need the academy’s help to teach him a sufficient lesson.

Si Zhaohua glanced at Su Bei, who surprisingly understood his meaning immediately. Su Bei nodded slightly, indicating that he had recorded everything the captain just said.

Seeing him nod, Si Zhaohua confidently looked away, not worried at all that Su Bei might have misunderstood. He directly activated his ability and attacked the red-haired captain.

Wu Jin asked in a low voice, “Is this okay?”

“Who are you referring to?” Su Bei asked, confused.

If he was worried about Si Zhaohua, then Su Bei could only say that Wu Jin wasn’t very perceptive. The red-haired captain’s strength was clearly average. Despite knowing there were four new members, he hadn’t even noticed Wu Jin earlier, which was enough to prove his low Mental Energy. As an Ability user himself, Wu Jin should have been well aware of this. With Si Zhaohua’s strength, he was in no danger of being defeated by someone like that.

As for worrying about the captain, that was even more absurd. Su Bei didn’t think Wu Jin was that kind-hearted.

“He’s worried about others finding out about the fight,” Zhao Xiaoyu said, understanding Wu Jin’s thoughts perfectly.

Sure enough, Wu Jin nodded, tacitly agreeing with her explanation.

Su Bei understood then and replied, “Don’t worry. This is Ability user territory; it’s perfectly normal for fights to break out. As long as it doesn’t spill into the fortress and no Nightmare Beasts appear, other people won’t meddle.”

He had a basis for saying this. Just yesterday, a fight had broken out outside, and the onlookers had merely watched for entertainment.

Just as Jiang Yan had said, living in such a repressive environment for a long time meant many people needed an outlet for their emotions. Those who could control themselves could go to the sixth floor to let off steam; those who couldn’t could only start a fight right where they stood.

The fight over there ended quickly. Unsurprisingly, Si Zhaohua won. He didn’t even use his ultimate move, defeating his opponent with just his newly learned Angel’s Radiance skill.

Not just the red-haired captain, but even the team members who had been watching from the sidelines were all dumbfounded. They never expected that this student, who was clearly a minor and probably not even a third-year, could defeat their captain.

“How did you become a patrol captain?” Victorious, Si Zhaohua showed no joy, but rather a look of confusion. “I’m starting to doubt the patrol system of the Tri-Academy Base.”