Chapter 30

The owner of these teeth, right?

The words written by the owner of the teeth took up very little space compared to the coordinates above, tucked right up against them. A large blank space had deliberately been left below, presumably so the writer could continue writing later.

But by the time he got the piece of paper, no third line had appeared beneath it.

Qi Yue briefly lost control of his strength, creasing the little note for an instant, but it soon smoothed out again.

Back in his original world, Qi Yue often heard his teammates say something between training sessions: "What respectable person still keeps a diary these days?"

Whenever they said it, they were looking at him.

Every time, Qi Yue would simply smile without a word and look back at them with an inscrutable air. Later, he would write every last one of them into his diary.

Of course, Qi Yue had never made a habit of keeping a diary, except when he wanted to "tattle." After all, who would readily suspect that something written in a diary was false, especially a diary written by him?

And everyone he had ever written into his diary would go out of their way to avoid him for a long time afterward.

Under what circumstances would someone feel the urge to keep a diary?

The old Qi Yue would have answered without hesitation: when they were bored.

But from this note, whose writer had squeezed the words right up against the hateful owner of the note just to leave a large blank space for writing more later, the only scene Qi Yue could imagine was one of despair and pain, with a faint glimmer of hope...

After studying the handwriting, Qi Yue turned the note over and examined the texture of the paper.

His fingers rubbed over the familiar texture, and beneath his cloak, Qi Yue frowned slightly.

He had handled paper of exactly the same material in Yan Feichen's Aberrant dissection laboratory. It had been an anatomical notebook about Aberrants produced by the YR Research Institute.

Yan Feichen was an Aberrant dissection researcher frequently sent on assignments by the Seventh Hunter Academy, and the academy provided him with all the materials he needed for his research unconditionally. Even he was reluctant to use paper so finely made and expensive.

The notebook Qi Yue had handled, made of the same material as the paper before him now, had been a gift to Teacher Yan from Yan Feichen's teacher, a teacher at the First Hunter Academy.

There was no doubt that the YR Research Institute had close ties to the First Hunter Academy.

Following that line of reasoning, how could the "test subjects" possibly have had access to this kind of special paper?

There was only one explanation—

It was stolen.

A "test subject" at the YR Research Institute had stolen this paper from an institute member responsible for keeping records and written those words on it.

There was the researcher responsible for keeping records, and the test subject, who was full of anger and hatred toward the researcher but had to conceal those feelings, venting them on the stolen note instead. Unfortunately, the test subject seemed to be on the verge of being caught stealing the paper, and quickly stuffed it into his mouth to hide what he had done.

But the paper was too precious for him to bear swallowing it, so he kept it in his mouth. The paper wouldn't be damaged anyway. In the end, before he had a chance to take it out, something unexpected happened. Perhaps... it wasn't an accident, but something done deliberately.

In any case, he completely lost his human thoughts and consciousness and, carrying the note he had stuffed into his mouth and couldn't bear to swallow, fused with many other people's bodies. He never managed to take it out for another look, or write so much as another word in the space he had deliberately left blank...

Qi Yue recalled the Aberrants he had seen in the lightning last night, each with a single health bar but more limbs and heads than one body should have, and his stomach churned.

It wasn't because of the Aberrants' tangled, twisted bodies grown together, but because of the nauseating truth behind them, one he didn't even need to think about to recognize.

A Weekly Assessment was held on Katebis Island almost every month, meaning that one of the seven Hunter Academies cleared it out once a month. Even so, the Aberrants kept coming in an endless stream. The number of test subjects that had once been here was beyond Qi Yue's imagination. He also didn't believe that, in such desperate circumstances, there would be only one note like this.

There had to be many more.

Before him, the esper hunter trainees who came here had been intent on clearing out the Aberrants. No one paid attention to them, beings that could no longer be called human and existed only as monsters. It was perfectly normal to leave after clearing them out.

Even if someone found a note like the one in his hand during the cleanup, no one would care.

After all, it involved the First Hunter Academy, which controlled the greatest concentration of esper hunter resources, and they were no longer human. No matter how many abnormalities someone found, what point was there in speaking out, other than making themselves a target for everyone?

"That's right. That's how it is..."

Whether he regretted becoming a test subject or regretted not having had time to hand an unknown thing to an unknown person, the person who wrote the second line had now been reduced to blood and minced flesh. Soon, beneath the scorching sun and the pounding rain, he would rot into the mud and vanish from the world without a trace.

Even if Qi Yue went to the location marked by the coordinates and tried to find the thing he had once regretted failing to deliver, it would be like looking for a needle in the ocean.

His only mission here was to take first place in the Weekly Assessment. Everything else had nothing to do with him.

Qi Yue's eyes darkened slightly. His hand, clenched around the note, dropped to his side, and as he scanned the minced flesh on the ground for "other useful information," he kept warning himself not to meddle.

In the end, having found nothing else, Qi Yue left the hell on earth where every leaf and blade of grass was stained with blood, his face expressionless.

Twenty minutes later, Qi Yue, who had repeatedly told himself it was "pointless," stood at the location marked on the note.

Looking at the building that had collapsed into ruins, Qi Yue was speechless.

But as the saying went, since he was already here, what could possibly happen in Area F?

Besides, this was a place where third-level Aberrants appeared, and he had originally planned to deal with them here on the fourth night. He was merely changing the order of his objectives and scouting the area in advance to prepare for killing the Aberrants here tonight.

Qi Yue shamelessly made excuses for himself in silence.

But...

He had come because of the words on the note, curious about what the thing the writer "regretted not having time to deliver" actually was.

And now, just one wall away from him was Lu Zhaobei, the comic's protagonist, who should have been in Area A but had appeared at the border between Areas F and E instead. What had he come here for?

He had crossed so many areas just to get here, which meant that while killing Aberrants last night, Lu Zhaobei had been making his way from Area A toward Area F.

Standing silently against the wall and watching Lu Zhaobei's every move through the ruins, Qi Yue was wondering whether Lu Zhaobei might already know about him "being mean" to Zhou Ziyao last night, and whether he should lie low for a while, when he heard Lu Zhaobei muttering to himself.

Lu Zhaobei said, "I distinctly remember the entrance being here..."

Chapter 30

Entrance?

What entrance?

Beneath his cloak's hood, Qi Yue narrowed his eyes slightly and decided to stay hidden in the dark corner, watching Lu Zhaobei's every move. As a visitor from another world, he would rather "know and understand more" about anything in this world than "know nothing."

If Lu Zhaobei hadn't been here, he could have summoned the Panel with a boring question and exploited the comic's visual bug. While exploiting it, he could have thoroughly familiarized himself with the surroundings, then walked to the entrance and closed the Panel. He could have proceeded with the steps of someone familiar with the place, creating the illusion that he "knew everything" about it and maintaining his persona.

But now, something unexpected had happened.

The comic's protagonist had arrived here almost on his heels, leaving him nowhere near enough time to learn everything about the surroundings. In other words, he was familiar with every landmark on the island that was openly shown to outsiders, but knew nothing about the layout inside these collapsed ruins.

In these circumstances, he couldn't move skillfully through the ruins and show the audience how well he "knew" the place. Naturally, he couldn't show the comic's protagonist that he had the place "under control," either.

Qi Yue would never allow himself to "barge in while knowing nothing."

If he had seen Lu Zhaobei arrive before entering the ruins, Qi Yue would have chosen to wait outside until Lu Zhaobei left before going in. Unfortunately, he had entered the ruined building ahead of Lu Zhaobei, and now it was as though Lu Zhaobei had blocked him in.

Without absolute certainty, if he tried to leave now, one misplaced step could make a sound. Not only would that draw Lu Zhaobei's attention, it would also "ruin his mysterious and powerful persona." After all, what kind of "big shot" would be discovered because his footsteps made noise?

What was more, he might end up interacting with Lu Zhaobei and risk being "questioned about this and that" by him, and he couldn't lie. All things considered, his only choice now was to make his presence as inconspicuous as possible and silently observe everything. As his gaze followed Lu Zhaobei's every move, he would naturally take the opportunity to sweep his eyes over the interior of the ruins and learn more about the surroundings he hadn't had time to study.

Wherever the comic's protagonist appeared, there were bound to be plenty of comic panels. Even if only for the sake of looking "inscrutable" in the shadows when he was drawn into the same panel as the protagonist, he couldn't act rashly.

He hoped Lu Zhaobei would never notice his presence and would leave quickly after finding what he wanted, freeing him from this "awkward" predicament.

Qi Yue prayed silently.

"Is it below?" Lu Zhaobei got up from the ground, brushed the dust off himself, and frowned as he murmured his guess.

"?"

Where exactly was Lu Zhaobei trying to go through the "entrance" he was looking for? Another question arose in Qi Yue's mind.

"That makes sense. The original entrance was on the first floor. After the branch facility collapsed, the ground could indeed have subsided." Lu Zhaobei lowered his gaze, staring at the gap below, held open by concrete floor slabs, steel reinforcement bars, and the like.