Chapter 6

Only after finishing the run could he feel at ease fishing for information.

"...Huh?"

Beixing's eyes widened.

Beixing didn't move. Although the mosaic on his face had shrunk, it was still a block of mosaic, so Qi Yue couldn't see his expression. Qi Yue lowered his gaze, pointedly looking at Beixing's feet.

Beneath the cloak, the skin was in an abnormal state.

Seeing his own feet, Beixing belatedly understood. It wasn't disgust, but concern... was it? Beixing lowered his head and looked at his feet, their skin having softened at some unknown point. He seemed to hear the beating of his heart, which had become viscous like the rest of his body.

His fingers trembling with excitement, he took off his wristwatch and handed it to Qi Yue. "Th-thank you."

He had never expected that one day he, too, would experience something that had happened to his classmates: a friend running in his place out of concern for him.

"There's no need for courtesy between us." He made use of Beixing often enough.

Besides, he couldn't wait to confirm what Beixing's superpower was, so he needed to finish the run quickly.

Beixing: "!"

Did Qi Yue mean... they were friends, so there was no need for courtesy?

Even after Qi Yue put on his wristwatch and ran off before his eyes, Beixing still hadn't asked him to confirm it.

Qi Yue's agile figure moved along the track. Zhou Ziyao pressed down the fence around the field with his fingers and peered through the gap, asking the person holding his hand beside him in a low voice, "Brother, did you see that? That's Beixing. Not even we can get close to him. What exactly is the transfer student Qi Yue's superpower?"

Zhou Zifu's gaze was inscrutable. "Tomorrow is Superpower Testing Day, which comes once a month. When the time comes, the truth will reveal itself."

Chapter 6

The transfer student, Qi Yue.

Through the wind, they had learned his name and everything that had happened in Class F.

They knew that Qi Yue had disguised himself behind the gentlemanly mask he was so adept at wearing, using his approach to Beixing to stir up and toy with the emotions of the Class F students, enjoying their comical, ugly reactions.

A gentlemanly, proper manner, but outrageous and provocative actions. He was telling everyone that even if he was in Class F, they couldn't underestimate him.

As Jin Yuxuan had said, the transfer student's arrogant, dangerous behavior was impossible for the students in the advanced classes to ignore or dismiss.

They believed that after today, many advanced-class students would have their eyes on the transfer student Qi Yue and buy information about him from them. They could make another fortune.

The scorching summer was approaching,

and the orphan

age should have air conditioning installed. Whether they were New Humans or Old Humans, they couldn't get anywhere without money.

"After the test tomorrow, I'll wait for you in the restroom." Zhou Ziyao made an arrangement with Zhou Zifu.

Seven... no, the Seventh Hunter Academy had no S-rank students, so there were six classes. Different people were responsible for testing each class's superpowers. Unless something unexpected happened, each class's homeroom teacher would record the test results. Until testing was complete, the homeroom teachers wouldn't allow them to leave the classroom, but they couldn't stop them from using the restroom as an excuse. They couldn't go to Class F to sneak a look at the results either, so they needed to meet in the restroom, clasp hands tightly, and sense the information carried by the wind.

Zhou Zifu nodded. "All right."

At Esper Hunter Academy, information as important as a superpower couldn't possibly be left out of the information they sold about the transfer student Qi Yue.

More importantly...

"Duck!" Zhou Zifu turned and quickly pulled his younger brother behind him.

Bang! A heavy book slammed into Zhou Zifu.

"Zhou Zifu, Zhou Ziyao! Why are you two together again during class?!" Li Qin, the dean of the Seventh Hunter Academy, leaned on a cane and stood hunched over, but he was full of vigor as he scolded them with his hands behind his back.

At the sight of the dean, the red-haired twins visibly stiffened with guilt. They glanced at the little old dean, who was bristling and glaring, quickly let go of each other's hands, and exchanged a look.

The dean must have been drawn over by the transfer student too. Even the dean had been alerted. Qi Yue was no ordinary person. Would he affect Lu Zhaobei?

A feeling of unease settled over the twins.

No one could blame them for thinking that way. To the Seventh Hunter Academy, Beixing was special. Likewise, the Artificial Esper Lu Zhaobei was a special existence too.

If only Qi Yue had transferred to another hunter academy and left the Seventh Hunter Academy alone.

"Ah, what's that? A kite!" Shaking off his thoughts, Zhou Zifu was the first to shout and run away.

"Ah... I think I heard a teacher calling my name. Goodbye, Dean!" Zhou Ziyao waved and ran off too.

Clearly, this wasn't the first time the brothers had been caught by the dean. They knew full well that he wouldn't really be angry with them, just as he had long known they sold information at the academy and turned a blind eye.

"Both of you, get back to your classrooms!"

The dean's voice followed the two red-haired boys as they ran into the distance.

"Roger!"

"Okay!"

The wind carried the twins' playful replies back to him.

Liao Yuanliang adjusted his black-framed glasses, walked over, and picked up the book the dean had thrown at Zhou Zifu. He dusted it off and handed it over. "Dean, your book."

How lenient of him, choosing to throw it at the physically strong Zhou Zifu. Liao Yuanliang wondered if it was because the dean himself had been an orphan.

"Hmph!" The little white-bearded old man snorted in displeasure. Holding the book in the hand that wasn't gripping his cane, he walked to where the red-haired twins had stood and looked through the dense fence Zhou Ziyao had pulled down.

On the track, the young man's expression was calm, his somewhat long, snow-colored hair sweeping up in an arc as he ran.

After watching for a few seconds, Li Qin put the fence back in place and turned sideways toward Liao Yuanliang. His tone was calm. "I don't see anything unusual. Just treat him normally."

Liao Yuanliang: "..."

The transfer student had appeared in the Seventh Hunter Academy's

system

without even his enrollment registration passing through the dean's hands. Weren't the words "unknown" filling most of the blanks in his enrollment records unusual enough?

Liao Yuanliang had finally managed to drag the dean over for a look, only to get an answer like that. To him, it was no different from having a hot potato left in his hands.

"Dean, thinking of the long term, Qi Yue should transfer..."

Li Qin interrupted him. "He's spending time with Beixing. Isn't that a good thing?"

If this continued, he was curious to see what would happen too. He hoped his curiosity would be satisfied; perhaps Beixing would gain something in the process as well.

"Dean..."

Liao Yuanliang wanted to say more, but Li Qin cut him off. "All right, goodbye."

Li Qin waved casually and left with his cane.

Liao Yuanliang: "..."

How much longer did he have to keep holding this bomb that could go off at any moment?

While running, Qi Yue had known that the red-haired twins were spying on him from behind the field's fence. Under normal circumstances, Qi Yue wouldn't have had any objections to the protagonist's group, but he hadn't forgotten that the last time he had remained polite to them, the result had been [hatred value +5%].

Qi Yue didn't want to deal with them.

He just had to ignore them. No interaction might be a good thing. How much worse could it get...

[Warning! Hatred value from the red-haired twins of the protagonist's group +1%. Current hatred value: 6%.]

At the confirmation panel that popped up before him, the smile vanished completely from Qi Yue's eyes.

"..."

Showing goodwill increased the hatred value; ignoring them made it rise too.

They were nuts. It was maddening.

So maddening that Qi Yue paid no mind to the mosaic eyes spying on him from behind. In any case, he hadn't sensed any ill intent from him.

Eight hundred meters for each of the two wristwatches made 1,600 meters in total. Qi Yue quickly finished the run.

He stopped, breathing steadily, and went over to the chair at the side of the field where Beixing was sitting.

Beixing had his head down, his body wriggling with intense concentration beneath his oversized cloak. He was slow to react to begin with and didn't notice the approaching footsteps.

Qi Yue heard the sticky sounds made by playing with Slime.

"Beixing." Qi Yue stood at a polite distance.

He held the wristwatch out in front of Beixing. "It's done."

Beixing could never mistake Qi Yue's voice. The wriggling cloak froze. Beixing spoke in a low voice. "Um... please wait a moment. I'll be done soon."

If he was seen a second time, Qi Yue might think he was disgusting.

"There's no hurry." Even through the cloak, Qi Yue sensed Beixing's unease.

Perhaps he should give Beixing some

space

alone. Qi Yue looked up at the students handing in their wristwatches one after another and spoke again.

"I'll hand these in to Teacher Jian first."

"...Okay, th... thanks for the effort." Remembering what Qi Yue had said, Beixing thought that if he was too polite, Qi Yue might be unhappy and think Beixing didn't consider them friends. He had never thought that at all, so he hurriedly changed his words.

Hearing Qi Yue's footsteps recede, Beixing breathed a sigh of relief and concentrated hard on controlling his body parts, which were as soft as noodles and always wanted to melt together into a puddle.

Qi Yue helping Beixing run the remaining distance had already caused a small stir among the students. When they saw Qi Yue also hand Beixing's wristwatch to Teacher Jian for him, it inevitably sparked another round of discussion.

"Even Beixing's family has never paid him that much attention."

"Will he take Beixing with him when he leaves?"

"Look at Beixing. He's melted again, hasn't he? He can't even control his own body. No wonder he's always hurting people. Teacher Wu is still lying in a psychiatric hospital. Why does he deserve all this..."

Amid the many curious discussions, Jin Yuxuan's scornful malice was all too obvious.

"Perhaps..." Qi Yue stopped as he was leaving and turned to look Jin Yuxuan straight in the eye.

"Wh-what?" Under the scrutiny of those icy scarlet eyes, Jin Yuxuan swallowed.

Zhao Yu had once said that without Beixing, they would have died in the last trial.

There was no emotion left in Qi Yue's eyes. Was this the right thing to do? Before Qi Yue could think much about it, the words were already out.

"When Beixing devoured the monster last time, you shouldn't have been among the people he saved."

It was true that Teacher Wu, whom they spoke of, had lost his mind. Beixing would be blamed, but none of the students he had chosen to save should have been the ones to blame him. They had no right.