Chapter 29

But Zhou Ziyao knew that no amount of rain could wash away the damp, bone-chilling fear Qi Yue had brought him, which clung to him like a maggot to the bone.

No one understood better than the five of them that as long as they were alive, there was still hope for everything.

Only death meant truly losing everything.

Besides, there was no shame in backing down before Qi Yue.

After all, even Atas was afraid of Qi Yue, and Old Man Li had "bowed" to him, hadn't he?

Zhou Ziyao wiped the rain haphazardly from his face, comforting himself with those thoughts. He bitterly regretted coming here to "pick up scraps," even if Bian Dun's injury had kept him from participating in this Weekly Assessment, leaving Class E unable to use its collective combat system and forcing them to split up.

On the boulder.

Qi Yue watched Zhou Ziyao retreat, his mosaic face still turned toward him. "..."

Seeing a mosaic face retreating in the intermittent flashes of lightning was genuinely creepy.

When Zhou Ziyao's mosaic face finally disappeared from sight, Qi Yue breathed a sigh of relief. Not only had he gotten rid of Zhou Ziyao for the moment, but there was also a good chance Zhou Ziyao would never come near him again.

A misunderstanding was a misunderstanding. There was no way he was going to explain himself.

He was going to Class E after the Monthly Assessment anyway, and building a reputation there in advance could "scare off" many of its students. He actually hoped Zhou Ziyao wouldn't protect his "gentleman" image, which he didn't care about at all, and would spread what he had seen today directly among the protagonist group and Class E.

Fear meant they wouldn't come near him again, and Qi Yue thought that was an excellent outcome for him. Throughout history, people who weren't members of the protagonist group but had close ties to them never came to a good end. He didn't want to go anywhere near the protagonist group, nor did he want them coming near him.

Something else struck Qi Yue: until Zhou Ziyao disappeared, the Panel had never sounded a warning that the "protagonist group's hatred value had increased."

Do they bully the weak and fear the strong?

Qi Yue couldn't help making that guess.

Whoosh—

Before Qi Yue could make sense of it, he heard another sound from his left.

This time, Qi Yue calmly looked to his left. A level-three Aberrant with a red health bar over its head was approaching his position.

He had his scene of "sitting indifferently on a boulder to welcome the Aberrants." Now... it should be time for the image of him "standing coldly as he watched the Aberrants die gruesome deaths."

Yes, even with the interruption from a member of the protagonist group, Qi Yue had never forgotten his "main quest"—

To carry "strong" through to the end.

With the experience from his first encounter, Qi Yue was even more at ease facing the Aberrants again. At the very least, he no longer let his thoughts run wild over his lack of combat experience.

In the latter half of the night, after accumulating enough scene material for dealing with Aberrants while "sitting," "standing face-on," "standing sideways," and so on, Qi Yue decisively summoned the Panel to exploit the comic's visual bug and secretly slack off and relax. He still had four more days of this miserable ordeal ahead of him, and he had no intention of honestly seeing the whole thing through on the first day and exhausting himself in body and mind.

Even while slacking off, Qi Yue remained alert to his surroundings at all times, on guard against the appearance of more students.

The rain cleared, and with the arrival of the light, the Aberrants went dormant once more and disappeared from the island.

The first night of the Weekly Assessment was over.

Everything that had been hidden by the darkness was now clearly exposed to human eyes in the light.

The transparent threads that had originally controlled every device, spreading out in all directions from the boulder, had now become piles of rotting flesh and blood. After a night soaked in rain, the transparent threads had vanished, just as Qi Yue had expected.

When the sea breeze blew, the air held nothing but the rotten, bloody stench rising from the melted and exploded chunks of flesh on the ground.

Unable to vomit because of his persona, Qi Yue was glad this was an open area; for now, the stench lingering in the wind was still bearable. He was even grateful for last night's rain, which had washed away the pus-filled flesh and skin crushed against him.

Qi Yue did his best to control his pupils and swept a dispassionate gaze over the "battlefield" before finally stepping down from the boulder where he had stood for almost the entire night.

Whether for the Class F students or the comic's latest update, his performance had drawn to a close. It was time to vacate the "stage."

Next, it was the turn of the Class F students around this area to come and inspect the damage caused by his Esper Ability out of curiosity.

Tap—

As his combat boot came down from the boulder, Qi Yue could feel the creepy, scalp-tingling sensation of stepping onto the ground through a layer of flesh.

Suppressing the urge to vomit and quicken his pace, Qi Yue continued to tread steadily across the foul-smelling flesh, gazing calmly ahead. He looked cold and ruthless, utterly unafraid of the "bloody" scene before him.

Only Qi Yue himself knew that amid this mountain of corpses and sea of blood, every step made the hair on his body stand on end.

Just as Qi Yue was about to leave this "mountain of corpses and sea of blood," an obviously wrapped-up strip of paper as thick as a little finger caught his attention.

After the rain had washed over the area, a length of something that appeared to be a strip of paper protruded conspicuously from between the scattered teeth, impossible to ignore.

What's that?

Puzzled, Qi Yue walked over and bent down. With fingers clad in black leather gloves, he picked it up from among the shattered rotting flesh and teeth.

It was indeed a strip of paper. The paper seemed to be specially made, as the bloody water had neither rotted nor soaked through it.

His face expressionless but his heart full of curiosity, Qi Yue didn't forget to maintain his style. Lowering his eyes slightly, he used his long fingers to unroll the wrapped strip of paper with elegant, unhurried movements—

Chapter 29

The real world.

It was Friday once again, and the second season of "Chronicles of the Young Hunters" had another update.

The previous extra-long update had left Chu Yun full of anticipation as she opened the latest installment.

When the comic finished loading, Chu Yun's eyes widened in disbelief at the scroll bar, which showed the end at a glance, and she cried out in protest.

"So short?! I protest!"

Muttering her dissatisfaction with the length of this update, Chu Yun opened the bullet comments at the top and switched to full-screen reading mode. After that smooth little sequence, she finally began reading the new installment in earnest.

The previous installment had ended with Qi Yue, his entire body wrapped in a cloak, strolling toward the cave housing the Flint Family's teleportation receiver.

At the start of the latest installment, just as Chu Yun had predicted while discussing it with other readers on the forum last time, Qi Yue's tall figure appeared in the cave, and he went after the Flint Family's teleportation receiver without any hesitation.

"Just as I thought!!!" As she had imagined, Qi Yue had already foreseen the existence of the teleportation receiver in the cave before he arrived. That was why his expression had never changed.

After all, he had already "foreseen" it. How could he be surprised?

Chu Yun felt the excitement of a prediction coming true.

"As expected of Qi Yue, he never does anything without a reason. He came prepared for everything! His ability to foresee the future is settled beyond a doubt now. Let's see who dares question it after this!"

"I can't wait to see the looks on those two killers' faces when they come back to this cave and find the teleportation receiver destroyed.

Having successfully predicted it, Chu Yun briefly looked away from the comic to check the bullet comments at the top of her phone.

[Boss Qi's 'foresee the future' Esper Ability is confirmed!]

[Help— I'm getting more and more curious about the true identity and purpose of the king of BKings!]

[Surprised? Didn't see that coming, did you? (doge) @Third @Fifth]

[Can't wait to see those two killers' faces (shy)]

Chu Yun liked the bullet comment that shared her train of thought, then looked down and continued reading the comic.

In the comic, Qi Yue walked through almost all of Area F. Throughout, he kept his cloak's hood up, revealing only the lower half of his face.

Of the part left visible, beneath the high bridge of his nose were perfectly shaped lips whose curve never changed in the slightest.

"Seriously, author, there isn't a bit of narration explaining this part. Even when I could see Brother Qi's whole face, I couldn't guess what he was thinking. Now he's only showing his tightly pressed thin lips—how am I supposed to guess what Brother Qi's feeling?!"

Still dissatisfied, Chu Yun looked at the scrolling bullet comments again.

[I'm so curious what Boss Qi is feeling as he walks across this island right now.]

[Probably a heavy heart.]

[Agreed. There's this oppressive feeling of 'returning to an old place where everything has changed,' which is why Boss Qi kept his face covered with his hood almost the whole time, expressing his gloomy, heavy mood.]

[As someone who's read ahead, I can say he's definitely feeling that 'everything has changed.' Boss Qi definitely has deep ties to the YR Research Institute. He knows all about the YR Research Institute's shady dealings and has returned to Katebis Island in a gloomy mood, 'not wanting to face everything but having no choice.' That's why he looks up at the sky when he finally has to act.]

[Shut up with the spoilers!!! Babies, hurry and bury that spoiler]

Although many people hated spoilers, perhaps the readers felt, "I can't be the only one getting spoiled." In the end, the spoiler received a lot of likes anyway.

Seeing the highly liked spoiler, Chu Yun grew more and more curious about what happened later, and her gaze returned to the comic.

In the comic, as the last glimmer of sunset faded, Qi Yue walked purposefully toward a boulder in the woods near the edge of Area E and sat down on it gracefully. His movements were unhurried throughout, fully displaying his calm disregard for the danger that would soon arrive with the night.

The scene changed to the other Class F students, every one of them staring intently at the last glimmer of sunset, their expressions tense and anxious.

What descended with the night were not only the Aberrants that lay dormant during the day, but also the lightning and rain that were commonplace on Katebis Island.

As the rain began to fall, Chu Yun saw the scene that had been spoiled earlier.

Facing the dangers lurking all around him, Qi Yue remained as calm as ever. He casually removed his hood, revealing the stern face beneath, and raised his head to look at the rain falling from the night sky, his eyes dark.