Chapter 329

Let alone him, even Su Bei was doubtful. Si Zhaohua’s strength was indeed not to be underestimated, but this was the Nightmare Beast World. Shouldn’t those who actively came here to train, and were even selected for the official patrol team, be very strong Ability users?

To be defeated so easily gave one the feeling that the good guys were about to be finished.

“You’ve misunderstood.” Not wanting outsiders to misunderstand the Tri-Academy Base, a spectating teammate quickly explained, “Our team is only responsible for patrolling inside the camp during the day. It’s the safest of all patrol teams, so naturally, it’s also the… ahem, weakest team. You can think of us as the well-connected individuals he was talking about, the ones here for show.”

Everyone: “…”

So that was it. It was a case of the thief crying ‘stop thief.’ Because he himself was a well-connected freeloader, he got annoyed seeing a new one and wanted to exercise what little authority he had.

But he hadn’t expected that while the new well-connected person was indeed well-connected, he wasn’t a pushover like himself. Instead, he was a rose with thorns, pricking his hand until it bled with a single touch.

Exposed completely, the red-haired captain’s face turned beet red with anger. He shouted furiously, “How could you attack a teammate? I’ll report this to my superiors and have them send you back to the academy!”

“You don’t think the people around us are dead, do you? You provoked us first. No matter how you look at it, we’re not the ones at fault,” Zhao Xiaoyu said, speechless. “Even if we can’t testify, these bystanders can.”

“What can they testify to? What did they see?” the red-haired captain said arrogantly. “They only came over to watch the commotion after we started fighting. But you are the troublemakers who disobeyed your captain’s command and even fought with him.”

Under the pressure of his authority, if they fought for an unknown reason, the blame would ultimately fall on the team members. After all, the captain did have some authority to discipline his team.

And from the look of the red-haired captain, it was clear he was very confident that the other team members who had witnessed the whole thing wouldn’t expose him.

If they had no evidence, they might have had to swallow this injustice.

But unfortunately for him, they had evidence. Under Si Zhaohua’s trusting gaze, Su Bei took out a recording pen and said with a faint smile, “What if I have evidence that you started it?”

The next second, the red-haired captain’s voice came from the recording pen: “I know you’re here for show…”

This recording undoubtedly proved that the captain had started the trouble, and that it was deliberate.

Who the hell records things at a time like this!

Now, the red-haired captain couldn’t act arrogant anymore. He didn’t want to lose this job at all, so he was very flexible and immediately begged for mercy: “I’m sorry, my mind was clouded by greed just now. If you’re willing to let me go, I can give you…”

It had to be said, this ability to change faces was quite impressive. There was a powerful sense of someone who had abandoned all self-respect. If he were facing someone soft-hearted or greedy, perhaps they would have agreed.

But unfortunately, he was facing Young Master Si, who was not short on money at all. Before he could finish his sentence, Si Zhaohua interrupted him without hesitation: “No need.”

He turned and left with Su Bei and the others. The other team members gave their captain a look of helplessness and ignored him. After all, although they had some vested interests, it was only a small amount, not worth taking a risk for him.

Si Zhaohua went straight to the office area on the 7th floor, quickly found Jiang Yan, and gave her the recording.

After listening to the recording, Jiang Yan’s expression turned serious. “Don’t worry, the base will definitely handle this matter.”

“Then what about our mission for today?” Zhao Xiaoyu was naturally most concerned about this.

The red-haired captain’s presence was the base’s mistake, so Jiang Yan immediately relaxed the mission requirements: “You can resume your patrol with a team this afternoon. I’ll get you a new captain.”

Being able to get a whole morning of rest for free, Su Bei and Zhao Xiaoyu were very satisfied. Wu Jin also seemed to be in a good mood. After saying goodbye to Jiang Yan, he curiously asked Su Bei, “Is your recorder always on? Or did you predict something in advance?”

It seemed like Su Bei could always get a useful recording at the perfect time. It was one thing to have a recording after something happened, but this time, he had been with the team the whole time and still managed to start recording in advance.

“It was a precaution,” Su Bei answered without hiding anything. “After all, we were meeting someone new. Isn’t it normal to be a little extra careful when you don’t know their temperament?”

Being extra careful was somewhat normal, but being so careful that you have a recorder running at all times wasn’t quite normal. Wu Jin wore a complicated expression. “Whatever makes you happy.”

Slacking off in the morning, patrolling a safe spot in the afternoon. Su Bei felt that it was great not being with the protagonist group; it was rare to have such a comfortable time during an event.

However, he was also well aware that this was mainly because this event was very long, a full month. With so much time, there was naturally no need to rush into any trouble on the first or second day.

In the evening, everyone gathered to chat about their mission experiences for the day. Su Bei’s side had nothing much to say; aside from the incident with the red-haired captain, it was truly uneventful.

As for the others, Jiang Tianming and Wu Mingbai’s group had encountered Nightmare Beasts, a type of rat-like Nightmare Beast. They had encountered plenty of rat-type Nightmare Beasts before and knew their purpose well. This type of Nightmare Beast generally had only two uses: digging tunnels and spreading viruses.

Of course, that was only if they appeared in groups. One or two posed no problem. After all, although rat-type Nightmare Beasts didn’t reproduce like normal rats, their numbers were indeed the greatest. Coupled with their small size, it was normal for them to appear among humans.

Lan Subing’s group, on the other hand, had run into students from Houde Ability Academy who were here for a research study. They had gotten into a conflict with them over mission assignments.

“I don’t know what they were thinking,” Ai Baozhu complained, exasperated. “Instead of going after the academy that made the decision, they came to trouble us. They’ve really mastered the art of bullying the weak and fearing the strong.”

Patting her on the shoulder, Lan Subing calmly soothed her, “In their eyes, we are the beneficiaries. It’s not very smart, but it’s understandable.”

Although it was a case of one man’s meat being another man’s poison, they didn’t need any special treatment at all. But since they hadn’t communicated in advance, they appeared to have taken advantage in others’ eyes, so retaliation was to be expected.

Ai Baozhu was a little confused. “That doesn’t sound like something you would say.”

Although kind-hearted, Lan Subing was not one to morally guilt-trip herself.

Wu Mingbai, standing beside them, sneered, “Did you win the fight?”

“Of course,” Ai Baozhu replied, tucking her chin in smugly. How could they possibly fail?

Wu Mingbai threw up his hands. “That’s the reason, then.”

Jiang Tianming, who also understood Lan Subing well, nodded. “If she had lost, she wouldn’t be saying this.”

She was completely seen through. Lan Subing smiled shyly, not thinking there was anything wrong with her way of thinking. They had taken a psychological advantage over the other party and won the fight. The other side had practically lost the lady and the soldiers, so she was naturally willing to be merciful with her words.

But if they had lost, there would be no talk of mercy. She would have immediately reported the other party for bullying the weak and fearing the strong, disrespecting the teacher’s arrangements, and bullying classmates in the Nightmare Beast World, asking the academy to make a judgment.

Of course, it would be in written form. If she had to say all those things sentence by sentence to the unfamiliar Teacher Jiang, she would die on the spot.

If this were the outside world, this scene would have already drawn laughter. But now they were in the Nightmare Beast World, which suppressed happy emotions. They couldn’t laugh, but their spirits had lifted considerably.

For the next few days, they focused on adapting. Their presence here was already a bit like forcing shoots to grow, so Jiang Yan naturally wouldn’t assign them any particularly difficult tasks.

The plot didn’t advance for a long time, but Su Bei wasn’t anxious. With the author controlling the pace from behind the scenes, a crisis was only a matter of time.

At the end of the first week, Su Bei and the others finally received their first independent mission. The thirteen people in their class, excluding Feng Lan, were divided into two groups, one of six and one of seven, to complete their tasks.

Both missions were map exploration tasks, but in different directions—one to the east, and one to the west. To ensure their safety, Jiang Yan also gave each of them a teleportation sphere. Crushing it would return them to the base and simultaneously grant them a one-time healing spell.

According to Jiang Yan, the teleportation spheres were from Lei Ze’en, but the healing spell within them likely came from Ye Lin’s ability.

Just from the natural way she mentioned the name, everyone guessed that Jiang Yan probably didn’t know about Ye Lin’s defection. However, they didn’t spoil the mood by bringing it up. Instead, they asked curiously, “Teacher, are you very familiar with Teacher Lei and the others?”

The one who asked was Lan Subing. After a week of interaction, she could now speak naturally in front of her.

“Didn’t your teachers tell you?” Jiang Yan was a bit surprised. Seeing them all shake their heads, she finally answered with a sigh, “We were in the same class. I was our class president.”

So she was the class president. No wonder she took care of them. She must have gotten used to looking after Teacher Meng and the other two back then, so taking care of their students was second nature to her.

Su Bei thought mischievously, the position of class president really is for the mother-hen type.

With the gossip over, it was time to get back to the mission. Su Bei, along with Jiang Tianming, Wu Mingbai, Ling You, Zhao Xiaoyu, and Si Zhaohua, was to head to a coordinate east of the base and continue exploring eastward from that point as the center.

The remaining people had the same mission, but their coordinate was to the west.

The entire area around the base was dotted with such coordinates. In the vast, boundless Nightmare Beast World, the people of the Tri-Academy Base relied on these coordinates to determine their location and draw maps.

After accepting the mission, Su Bei and the others immediately went to the person who had previously offered to help draw maps for points. Since they hadn’t learned this skill yet, no one in their class knew how to professionally draw maps, so they had to rely on others.

After paying the points, the person immediately handed them a blank piece of parchment. “This is my ability, 【World Map】. Just carry it with you, and every hour, unfold it. It will automatically draw a map of the route you’ve traveled.”

It was a truly profitable business with no costs. A seemingly useless ability could play a major role at times. Indeed, there were no useless abilities, only useless Ability users. After sighing with emotion in their hearts, they unhesitatingly paid the points and took the item.

The so-called exploration of the Nightmare Beast World involved finding effective natural coordinates or artificially creating one, then scouting or clearing out nearby Nightmare Beast clusters.

Scouting was the basic mission, while clearing them out could earn extra points and bonuses. If they couldn’t be cleared, the Tri-Academy Base would post a related mission for other Ability users to complete after receiving precise intelligence.

With two members of the protagonist group present, Su Bei already had a premonition that there would be trouble on this mission. The team’s formation had Jiang Tianming at the very front, with Si Zhaohua and Wu Mingbai on his left and right. The two girls with weaker self-preservation skills were in the middle, and Su Bei followed unhurriedly at the rear of the team, cautiously using his Mental Energy to scan the surroundings.

With his current level of Mental Energy, he could already probe without being detected by others, provided he was prepared. Of course, the premise was that he would immediately retract his Mental Energy upon sensing another’s. Extending it for even a moment longer would risk detection.

But this was sufficient. At least he didn’t have to constantly worry about his Mental Energy colliding with someone else’s and alerting the enemy.

Nothing went wrong the entire morning. Everyone just normally explored the map and cleared out Nightmare Beasts.

Perhaps because they knew there was a human base nearby, even as they expanded outward, no Nightmare Beasts gathered to target them. After all, if they could just hold on for a little while, reinforcements would arrive.

This was also why Jiang Yan dared to assign them this mission.

“How about I just activate my ability?” Si Zhaohua said with a frown, looking at the gray-black wilderness devoid of any Nightmare Beast tracks.

The hidden characteristic of the ‘Angel’ ability was that it was extremely attractive to Nightmare Beasts. Once used, a large number of Nightmare Beasts would be drawn to the scent, and they wouldn’t have to search around so painstakingly.

“Are you serious, Young Master?” Zhao Xiaoyu asked, tilting her head with a helpless tone.

Taken aback by the title “Young Master,” Si Zhaohua rubbed his nose. “Don’t call me that. Is there a problem with this method?”

Seeing he still hadn’t realized the problem, Zhao Xiaoyu became sarcastic. “I seem to recall our mission is to explore the map, not to eliminate… no, to actively pick a fight with Nightmare Beasts!”

Exceeding the mission requirements was great, of course, but actively looking for trouble wasn’t so great. Zhao Xiaoyu hadn’t had enough of peaceful missions and had no desire for this one to suddenly turn into hard mode.

Su Bei expressed his full support for her idea. “Exactly, exactly! Why look for trouble when there is none? Trouble already loves finding you guys, and now you want to meet it halfway, is that it?”

“Pfft!” Zhao Xiaoyu couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Ling You, standing beside her, also had a smile in her eyes.

But the other three couldn’t laugh. They all felt like they were being targeted by the remark.

When it was time for lunch, Zhao Xiaoyu took out a picnic blanket, a grill, Nightmare Beast meat… all prepared in advance in her Storage Ring, and they had a DIY barbecue in the Nightmare Beast World.

Among S-Class, the best cook was Mo Xiaotian, who had now become a Saint of the Black Flash Organization. The second best, surprisingly, was Si Zhaohua. The young master really had a knack for cooking. The others felt no sense of camaraderie and decisively handed the grilling duty over to him.

Forced to become a temporary chef, Si Zhaohua first tied his ponytail up high. Then, while flipping the cut pieces of meat on the grill, he glared at Su Bei, who was adding green peppers he had prepared at some unknown time onto his grill.

However, Su Bei was unrepentant and, without changing his expression, pulled out a skewer of enoki mushrooms and placed it on top.

This time, Si Zhaohua was so angry he laughed. “Are you for real? Why do you even have this stuff in your Storage Ring? And didn’t you do the least amount of work? You sure aren’t shy when it’s time to eat!”

Four rhetorical questions in a row, each more forceful than the last. Unfortunately, this forcefulness had no effect on Su Bei. He patiently answered each question one by one: “I’m fine. It’s always good to be prepared. I did my fair share of work; using my Mental Energy to guard the surroundings is part of my job. You can’t ignore my contribution just because you can’t see it and we didn’t encounter any danger. Food is the staff of life; one can’t be careless when it’s time to eat. Are you capable or not? Why so many questions?”

His reasoning was clear and logical. If he weren’t the one being rebutted, Si Zhaohua would have applauded him.

“Is he deliberately trying to annoy him?” Even the usually detached Ling You noticed something was off. After all, under normal circumstances, Su Bei wouldn’t typically argue with the person cooking for him, as one doesn’t bite the hand that feeds. He wasn’t the type to curse someone out right after finishing a meal they made.

Zhao Xiaoyu gave her a knowing look. “You forgot that earlier, when Zhaohua was rushing Su Bei to walk faster, he asked him if he was ‘incapable’.”

A trace of confusion flashed in Ling You’s eyes. She remembered this little episode, of course, but didn’t think there was anything wrong with it.

Understanding her confusion, Zhao Xiaoyu saw her explanation through to the end. “A man can’t be told he’s incapable.”

Ling You remained confused and turned to look at Jiang Tianming and Wu Mingbai. The two nodded gravely, indicating that Zhao Xiaoyu was right.

Ling You was baffled, but Ling You accepted it.

Having checked the Destiny Compass once in the morning, Su Bei activated his ability again after lunch. With just one glance, his eyebrows shot up; he realized something was going to happen in the afternoon.

At that moment, the Major Pointer above everyone’s head was pointing to the “Go Out” position.

To “go out” in a place with no houses meant either they were about to leave the Nightmare Beast World, or they were about to find a new territory.

It had to be said that the “Go Out” position was very practical in Su Bei’s opinion, appearing far more frequently than positions like “Injured,” “Eating,” or “Studying.”

After finishing their lunch on the spot, everyone continued their exploration.

“Hold on, something feels wrong.” As they reached an open area, Jiang Tianming, who was at the front, suddenly raised his hand to stop the others, his brow furrowed. “We haven’t encountered a single Nightmare Beast for quite a while.”

Although it was a dead end for Nightmare Beasts to cause trouble near the Tri-Academy Base, only Advanced and some Intermediate Nightmare Beasts were aware of this fact. Most Nightmare Beasts were not; they were simply drawn instinctively to the scent of humans.

Therefore, they had actually encountered quite a few Nightmare Beasts along the way, mostly low-tier ones that were easily dealt with. They were the most useless but also the most numerous creatures in the entire Nightmare Beast World.

Yet, for such a long time just now, they hadn’t encountered a single one of these numerous low-tier Nightmare Beasts. This was clearly a problem.

After he mentioned it, the others finally realized something was wrong. Just a moment ago, they were listening with relish to Zhao Xiaoyu’s gossip about their homeroom teacher’s student days, and in their boredom, they had failed to notice the anomaly.

It had to be Jiang Tianming, able to multitask, listening to gossip while still keeping an eye on the surroundings.

“Everyone, let’s look around and see if we can find anything unusual. Ling You, you go with Zhaohua. Xiaoyu, you go with Su Bei.” Jiang Tianming quickly made a decision. Searching for the problem together was inefficient; it was better to split up.

Su Bei was probing with his Mental Energy. He, too, had subconsciously ignored the anomaly while listening to gossip. But now, focusing his mind, he immediately discovered what was wrong—there seemed to be something underground.

His Mental Energy couldn’t detect anything when probing underground, which was one reason Su Bei hadn’t noticed the problem earlier. But upon reflection, he finally realized what was wrong.

How could there be nothing underground?

Soil, gravel… none of that was there. There was only a void that Mental Energy could easily sweep past.

Undoubtedly, there was something beneath this land that could block Mental Energy probes.

And what was down there should be the place they would go to after “Going Out,” as indicated by the destiny above their heads.

Just then, Wu Mingbai also made a discovery. “Look here! Doesn’t this look like man-made tracks?”

Following his voice, the others saw that the spot he was pointing to had distinct tire tracks, the kind that would be left if someone had parked a vehicle there for a long time.

“It could also be because the vehicle was very heavy that it left such obvious marks,” Si Zhaohua offered a different opinion. “The size of the wheels also supports this.”

Indeed, these wheels looked even larger than those of an off-road vehicle or a truck. The only vehicles Jiang Tianming could think of that would require such large wheels were those found on construction sites.

But the problem was, this was the Nightmare Beast World! Why would something like that be here?

“Could it be a potential site for the Tri-Academy Base that was later abandoned?” Zhao Xiaoyu guessed.

Su Bei couldn’t be bothered to watch them talk in circles and gave the answer directly: “There’s something under this area.”

As soon as he said this, everyone looked at him. Jiang Tianming looked down at the flawless ground beneath his feet, not doubting Su Bei’s words, and asked with some caution, “What is it?”

“I don’t know.” Su Bei shook his head honestly. “But it’s probably something that can’t see the light of day.”

In the Nightmare Beast World, buried deep underground, and shielded from Mental Energy probes—of course it was something that couldn’t see the light of day.

Now everyone was interested. As mentioned before, where could the protagonist group go without stirring up trouble? With a blatant secret staring them in the face, it would be strange if they didn’t explore it. As for reporting it to the base and letting them explore, that would be very reasonable and correct, but very un-protagonist-like.

Clearly, none of the protagonist group members present had any intention of doing so. Even Zhao Xiaoyu only suggested, “Let’s set up a delayed distress signal. If we’re not out in two hours, it will automatically send a message for help to Teacher Jiang.”

With provisions in hand, her heart was at ease. They had the teleportation spheres made by Lei Ze’en and could return to the base at any time. With their safety guaranteed, Zhao Xiaoyu’s innate desire for exploration was also ignited.

Naturally, Su Bei had no objections. This was an inevitable part of the author’s plot. If he actually managed to persuade everyone to report this to the base first, a horde of Nightmare Beasts would appear the next second, forcing them to pry open the underground space and hide inside anyway.