After the Regret

"Sigh..." With a sigh, Jiu Ming put away the card in his hand and lay down on the sofa. He glanced at the time; it seemed that less than three hours had passed since he left.

Of course, it could also be the next day or the day after.

He'd go out to check after resting for a while. Yawning, Jiu Ming closed his eyes. He had never felt so weak before; even his soul body had become quite dim. Lying on the sofa, it was hard to tell there was a ghost there if you didn't look closely.

No matter what, this experience would leave him feeling uneasy for a long time.

Damn it... give this grandpa five more seconds! No, three seconds!

The next day.

"It really was only three hours." Looking at the time on his wristwatch, Jiu Ming completely confirmed how much time had passed in this world. It seemed necessary to get an electronic watch that could record dates from the Mysterious Shop.

He glanced at the dense red dots on his wristwatch and shook his head. How long had it been, and several of the small red dots were already gone.

The students' internship range was limited. Even if the area was vast, this wristwatch was specifically made to find them, so there wouldn't be any "signal out of service area" nonsense.

"What the hell!? What's going on!?" Jiu Ming's eyes suddenly widened. A large area of red dots on his wristwatch suddenly disappeared!!

At least dozens of them. And this was only the signal his wristwatch had detected; students from other academies were not included. What happened!?

At the same time, the other Hidden Supports frowned. The signal disappearance was too bizarre, vanishing in large numbers all at once. To be able to deal with so many students instantly, what kind of existence could that be? And without any massive commotion.

"This is insane!" Wang Hai's eyes were wide open, and even the teachers from other academies looked dumbfounded. This situation had never been heard of before, with such a large number of signal sources being wiped out in an instant... If they all died, the death toll would be at least 500 or more...

Who could bear such responsibility? Even if the difficulty of this year's internship had increased significantly, such a high death toll would require everyone present to give an explanation.

"Don't rush, don't rush. It's probably some kind of interference..." Li Rui Ming wiped the cold sweat that had suddenly appeared on his forehead when the emergency occurred. "The range is too large. Even a nuclear strike would cause a huge commotion, but this was silent."

His words made everyone present breathe a sigh of relief. Almost everyone had been on the verge of panic just now.

The disappearance of a large number of student signal sources was quickly reported to the commander of the temporary Camp. This commander was quite decisive and immediately ordered a temporary halt to the internship to search for the students whose signals had disappeared with all efforts.

"Alright, let's not talk about anything else. Mobilize your respective Hidden Supports that you can contact. This internship will be temporarily suspended and postponed."

The Camp commander frowned deeply. He knew about the increased difficulty of the internship. The strength of the Exotic Beasts had increased significantly compared to previous years. The cultivation of human strength absolutely could not fall behind, otherwise, the already unstable Scales would tilt. The result was this internship with suddenly much higher difficulty, and it wouldn't just be this year; it would be like this every year from now on.

This place was like this, and other places were the same.

Damn it, what bad luck. Why did the area he was responsible for have to encounter this problem!? The commander's expression was terrible, and no one present dared to provoke him. They could understand his mood; finding people was the priority now.

"What is this...?" Quickly rushing to the area where a large number of red dots had disappeared, as soon as he arrived, Jiu Ming felt his soul body being compressed, like the water pressure in deep water. The display screen of the wristwatch in his hand also fluctuated violently, finally flickering unstably a few times before the screen went completely dark.

Uh, it seems to be broken...

It wasn't just Jiu Ming; all the other Hidden Supports who had entered this area discovered this. They decisively threw away their broken and useless wristwatches and continued deeper to search for people. Some hesitated and chose to observe for a while.

Retreating a certain distance, Jiu Ming confirmed completely. It was indeed broken. The wristwatch was useless once it left that area.

Discarding the item, Jiu Ming no longer hesitated and went deeper into the area. There were no signs of massive destruction, and the anomaly on his wristwatch proved that the disappearing red dots were merely signal losses.

It must have been some kind of extremely strong electromagnetic interference.

Very strong, Jiu Ming's soul body felt unnatural moving here. Unlike others who had their physical bodies as a shield for their souls, he was the most directly affected by the anomaly in this area.

A crackling sound of electricity echoed, and a faint layer of current covered Jiu Ming's body. The sealed card he held between his fingers slowly faded and disappeared. With this barrier blocking the interference, Jiu Ming's discomfort subsided.

This was the benefit of being the shopkeeper. He only temporarily loaded the sealed card 'Defective Electricity' onto himself. Unlike others, once used, it wouldn't revert to its card form unless it was stripped away again through a 'transaction' with Jiu Ming.

The rules of sealed cards were unrestricted in Jiu Ming's hands, but they were single-use for others. This was the difference between a shopkeeper and a customer. Therefore, Jiu Ming had no need to permanently grant himself the ability of the sealed card.

There was no need. As long as he held the card, he could master the ability permanently, just like having it. Grasping too much would lead to nothing. Jiu Ming was already satisfied with his combat abilities. Any external abilities he used felt less natural than his own, so he treated them as extra support.

"Ignorance is bliss." Seeing a team of students, Jiu Ming felt relieved. Indeed, their signals had just disappeared; they were fine, or at least most of them were. This group of students was standing a distance away, looking a bit lost. The strong interference that could disable their wristwatches had little effect on them physically, but that didn't mean they wouldn't notice.

"Yang Zhi Yu, why don't we leave here first?" one of the students said to the boy next to him as the group conversed.

"...It's just some abnormal interference. Who knows, maybe some Mysterious Object has been born," Yang Zhi Yu hesitated for a moment. His words were normal. Mysterious Objects born from nature weren't unheard of, especially in those High-Energy Crystal mines. Besides the normal High-Energy Crystals, there was also a 'Mutated' variety. While they could still be used as High-Energy Crystals, no one with a brain would do that!

Those Mutated High-Energy Crystals could slightly boost an Ability User's abilities. Who would use such a thing as a consumable?!

Not even a prodigal son would do that!

"Mysterious Object!?" Yang Zhi Yu's words made the other students' eyes light up.

"..." Hidden in the shadows, Jiu Ming scratched his cheek. You guys are planning to go on a treasure hunt? But thinking about his identity, Jiu Ming couldn't just reveal himself.

"What if we encounter danger..." someone in the group also expressed concern about such an action. Generally, even if rare treasures were born, there would be powerful guardians around them, most of them Exotic Beasts.

"Danger? Internships have dangers. If you're always afraid of this and that, how can you become strong?" Yang Zhi Yu glanced at him disdainfully. "Don't forget, after the internship, university will be even more demanding. It's better to earn more Academic Credits now; you'll get more preferential treatment after advancing!"

Good students, of course, should receive more preferential treatment than ordinary students. This applied everywhere, so Yang Zhi Yu's words weren't baseless.

Everything experienced during the internship would, to some extent, affect their final Academic Credit score.

As for danger, he was a little worried, but he also knew another inside scoop: Hidden Support. Perhaps an unknown entity was lurking around them right now...

In fact, he guessed correctly. Jiu Ming was indeed lurking there.

"If you're scared, you can back out now." Without saying more, thinking that the longer he delayed, the more likely the 'Mysterious Object' would be snatched by others, Yang Zhi Yu couldn't wait any longer and resorted to splitting up the group.

You don't want to go? Fine, no forcing. If you don't want to go, leave.

Students often felt embarrassed to back out when faced with certain situations. Seeing that most of the team had no intention of leaving, the remaining few gave up the idea of leaving. Treasure hunting had dangers, and internships had dangers too, right?

"Maybe there really is a treasure?" Scratching his head and watching the team that had already started moving, Jiu Ming quietly followed. Greed moved people's hearts. If there really was some treasure, then among the Hidden Support that might show up, one or two unscrupulous individuals would be enough for this group of students to handle.

Ultimately, Jiu Ming still had many things he didn't understand about this world. Hmm... a treasure that could cause such a wide range of strong interference, it might be something very formidable... Of course, if it were an Exotic Beast, tsk tsk.

Risk and opportunity go hand in hand.

As a Mysterious Merchant with strong principles, Jiu Ming would absolutely not resort to outright robbery. However, if certain students happened to find something, he would play it by ear. If it wasn't theirs, they shouldn't force it. What if, after obtaining that unknown something, they encountered mortal danger—if he saved their lives, what would they offer in return?

For some reason, the people in Yang Zhi Yu's team shivered.

Those outside the Death Forest also acted swiftly. Soon, news of the situation in that area returned, and while everyone breathed a sigh of relief, they couldn't help but quicken their pace.

This situation either meant rare treasures were appearing or a powerful Exotic Beast had somehow arrived. Regardless, neither was good news for the students there.