Page 37

Qi Yue: "..."

Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey! Hopefully he was just overthinking things.

They still had several hours to spend on the plane, and with nothing else to do, the students chatted about anything and everything. Before they knew it, the conversation turned to the clothes they were wearing for the trip.

"Actually, I've been meaning to ask for ages. Why is everyone wearing a cloak? Are cloaks fashionable in the high-level classes this year? When I went to get my clothes, I heard the teachers in the supply room say they'd all been taken. Beixing used to be the only one who wore something this ugly."

Esper academies received a certain amount of funds to maintain their operations by clearing Aberrants from the world. The higher an academy's level and the more high-level esper hunters it had, the more funding it received.

The Esper Ability User academies that enrolled Esper Ability Users took full responsibility for their students' food, clothing, housing, and transportation. Students could collect everything they needed with their student ID Cards.

Of course, even within the same academy, high-level students cleared more Aberrants, so the items they could collect naturally differed from those available to the lower-level classes.

"It's not a high-level class fashion trend. It's because of Qi Yue. The teachers said he looked great in one, and word spread, so everyone went to get..."

Qi Yue: "..."

When he collected his clothes, he had pretended to try one on for size and deliberately worn it for the teachers in charge of the storeroom to see, hoping to get Class F to copy his look. It had worked.

The gossip continued.

"Hand on your heart, can you honestly call that cloak ugly when Qi Yue's wearing it?"

"...You know what? You're right. Qi Yue looks so cool and handsome in it. Even with the hood covering most of his face right now, he's handsome enough to make me swoon."

"Strongly agree. They're both cloaks, so why does Zhao Yu look so much uglier in his? Is it because Qi Yue's cloak is black and Zhao Yu's is gray?"

Zhao Yu, who had suddenly been insulted, tugged at his cloak, which was the same as Qi Yue's except for its color. He silently pulled up his hood and struck a pose like Qi Yue's, muttering, "Hey, go easy on me. I'm still right here..." He was already trying his best to copy Qi Yue's pose!

"Is it a question of color? It's obviously the person wearing it, okay?" Wu Anyi was speechless. "How does that saying go? Someone with a different bearing could wear a sack and people would think it was custom-made."

Zhao Yu, wounded again: "...Fine. If it's Qi Yue, I admit defeat."

"Anyway, that's Qi Yue for you. Even his taste in clothes is amazing!"

"Agreed! With the upper half of my face covered, I feel like I've gotten a little more handsome. That's it, guys, I'm welding this cloak to my body!"

"+1."

Qi Yue, overhearing the discussion: "..."

The truth was—

It had nothing to do with his taste in clothes.

There were only four reasons he had chosen a black cloak.

Reason one: black made it easy to look inscrutable.

Reason two: black was slimming, at least visually. Beneath the cloak that looked so flowing and elegant to everyone else, he was strapped with all sorts of tools made in his little dorm-room workshop.

Reason three: since he had no Esper Ability, he might get hurt during the Weekly Assessment. If he bled and left marks on his clothes, they wouldn't be as conspicuous.

Reason four: Beixing. Without knowing whether there were ordinary people on the island or whether they meant Beixing harm, the more people imitated him by wearing cloak hoods, the harder it would be for the assassins to identify him. Beixing aside, even an F-level Esper Ability User could easily withstand bullets fired by ordinary humans. Given how abstract the Manga World's setting was—"only ordinary people can hurt Beixing, while Esper Ability Users are stronger than ordinary humans"—ordinary humans wouldn't act rashly if they weren't sure who Beixing was, lest they attract the attention of other Esper Ability Users. In any case, it was better for him to take precautions than to regret it when it was too late.

That was all.

The corners of Qi Yue's lips lifted slightly as he glanced out the window. That was a good misunderstanding. I'll do it again next time.

Beixing, whose attention had wandered, saw Qi Yue smile as he looked toward the window: "..."

Wait... did something just happen?

Why did Qi Yue suddenly smile?

Could it be... like the others said, big shots' moods are unpredictable and hard to read?

After a day and a night of travel, the cruise ship carrying the Seventh Hunter Academy's students arrived at Katebis Island at six the next morning.

To maintain order, the six classes disembarked in order of rank, as before, and headed to their respective areas, which had been divided according to Esper Ability level.

By the time Class F's turn came to leave the ship and set foot on the island, it was already seven in the morning.

The light of the rising sun had long since passed over the horizon. Dawn had arrived.

The aberrant species from the YR Research Institute were different from those elsewhere. No one knew what had happened during the research, but the aberrant species produced by the YR Research Institute were active from sunset to sunrise, during the night.

Now, apart from the faint metallic scent of blood and the stench of decay carried on the damp, salty sea breeze, not a single aberrant species could be seen anywhere.

Katebis Island was eerily quiet.

Because of Beixing's unusual circumstances and their wariness of Qi Yue, the Class F students quickly left the cruise ship's deck as soon as it docked, without needing to coordinate.

Thanks to Qi Yue's deliberate guidance, "Beixings" could be seen everywhere.

Qi Yue and Beixing were the last to leave the ship.

The place where the cruise ship had docked was the least dangerous part of the entire island: Area F, which had been assigned to Class F.

Once all the students had left the ship, a mechanical announcement sounded from it: "Students, the Weekly Assessment begins now. We will see you again when dawn arrives five days from now."

Amid the sound of the waves, the students watched the cruise ship sail away. Once it had disappeared from sight, they gradually looked away.

"...It's a little cold."

"We're by the sea, and it's early morning. Of course it's cold."

"True..."

"Let's split up here. See you in five days."

"Bye."

Only the six people with the highest point totals recorded on their wristwatches would qualify to participate in the Seven Academies' Joint Monthly Assessment. From the moment the Weekly Assessment began, they were not only classmates but also competitors.

The Class F students went their separate ways, following Qi Yue's earlier advice and heading to the places best suited to their respective Esper Abilities.

Soon, only Qi Yue and Beixing remained on the beach.

"Qi Yue, where... are you going?" What Beixing really wanted to ask was where he himself should go. He still remembered Qi Yue saying he would "make arrangements" for him.

But Qi Yue had been silent ever since leaving the ship. Standing to the side, Beixing couldn't see his expression beneath the cloak, and he grew cautious.

Qi Yue looked away from the distance and started forward, speaking to Beixing as he went. "...From now until the assessment ends, keep your hood up. Follow me."

When the cruise ship docked and he came out of the cabin onto the deck, Qi Yue had used the edge of his hood as cover and, out of habit, quickly scanned everything he could see on the island.

The images he had once imagined from the descriptions in the YR Research Institute's information booklet overlapped with the reality before him.

A beach soaked with dark brown blood, vegetation and rocks covered in dried and fresh blood and rotting flesh, the lingering stench of decay in the air...

Neither the backgrounds in the booklet's photos of aberrant monsters nor what he had imagined came close to being as shocking and nauseating as seeing it in person.

"Okay." With his hood up, Beixing silently followed behind Qi Yue.

Thinking of Qi Yue's icy voice just now, Beixing looked at his back and hesitated to speak.

Qi Yue had seemed cold ever since they boarded the plane, and now that they had reached the island, he felt even colder to Beixing. Could Qi Yue really be connected to this place?

That must be it.

Watching Qi Yue lead the way without a moment's hesitation, Beixing felt certain his guess was right.

As they went deeper, the soles of Qi Yue's once-clean shoes became stained with grime. Without looking back, he could sense Beixing watching him. But he wasn't in the mood to talk to Beixing right now.

Qi Yue still remembered that the information booklet issued by the academy expressly prohibited approaching the area where Number 8792 was located. And judging by the way the Aberrants had spread outward from higher to lower levels according to the booklet, it wasn't hard to infer that the source of the entire outbreak or infection was the place marked as a forbidden zone.

That meant that as long as Number 8792 existed, the island would never know peace. The number of Esper Ability Students who might be injured or killed coming here to clear the Aberrants would also keep growing.

When all it would take... is to completely destroy the island and let all this evil sink to the bottom of the sea. That would permanently solve the problem here and put an end to the deaths.

It was such a simple solution. He didn't believe the Esper Ability User hunter academies, which had managed to gather all the Esper Ability Users, could be unaware of it.

Still less did he believe that, even without using Esper Abilities, the island could survive an all-out physical bombardment.

And yet approaching it was forbidden.

Then... there's only one truth.

Number 8792 held some enormous benefit they wanted. Given that possibility, everything here was undoubtedly more than just the aftermath of a mutation; it was the trace left behind by evil.

At that thought, Qi Yue's brow furrowed more deeply beneath his hood. He didn't much like the feeling that "esper hunters fight believing it's to grow stronger and pursue their ideals, when in reality they're all just puppets manipulated by the masterminds behind the scenes."

Although Qi Yue was thinking, he continued to observe his surroundings. When they reached their destination, he stopped and spoke to Beixing. "We're here."

Recommending the most suitable places to the Class F students had one obvious benefit for Qi Yue: right now, without any effort, he quietly had a grasp of every student's location in Area F. When he needed to act in secret, he could avoid them perfectly without being discovered.