Feeling something cold splash onto his face, Arno snapped his eyes open and drew a great, gasping breath—like someone coming to after nearly drowning, greedily gulping down the air around him.
"Thank God, boss! You finally woke up."
The voice Arno heard belonged to the dormitory caretaker, the man secretly working for him.
"I saw that young lady leave again in a hurry, but I didn't see you, so I decided to check your room. Then I found you passed out on the sofa." The caretaker hurriedly explained some of what had happened while Arno was unconscious.
Arno instinctively touched his neck. From his scattered memories before blacking out, he could tell that an electric shock had knocked him unconscious... He surveyed the room.
Suddenly remembering something, he patted himself down, but finally found his wallet beneath the sofa—the money inside was gone, and another, far more important item had clearly vanished as well.
"Boss, I didn't take your money..." the caretaker hastily explained.
Arno hurled his wallet away and seized the man by the collar, his eyes widening as though he wanted to devour him. "Where did she go?"
"Toward the south gate. Maybe she was leaving?" the caretaker hurriedly said.
"How long ago?"
"About... about seven or eight minutes?"
Arno shoved him aside and dashed straight out the door, ignoring the caretaker's calls.
A university was a place that could be teeming with people when it was busy, yet become utterly deserted when it wasn't... so deserted that the emptiness felt lonely.
Among its enormous cluster of buildings, there always seemed to be somewhere to hide where no one would come—such as the teaching buildings after classes ended and the lights were switched off.
The south gate was the quickest way out. Having decided to leave