The Space About to Split Apart

"Ah!!!"

"W-What is that thing?!"

"There's a monster! Run!"

Screams, wails, and panicked cries rang out without end.

The students had only come to collect their grades. Who would have wanted to suffer such a disaster?

When they saw a monster charging out of the teachers' office, everyone immediately screamed and fled. The scene instantly descended into chaos.

Yet everyone instinctively avoided the monster, leaving an open space around Ron instead.

Ron frowned as he looked at the monster that had burst out of the teachers' office, its entire body stained with something illusory, sprouting twisted features, and looking utterly ferocious.

What was this thing?!

The question had only just surfaced in his mind when he noticed distinct illusory fluctuations coming from the charging monster, as though it was resisting the erosion of some force.

Ron immediately realized what it was—the power of the "Void."

A "Void" monster?

Ron found it utterly unbelievable.

Had it escaped from the "Void"?

According to Irina, for a "Void" to erupt in the Inner City of Ideal City, someone had to be conducting some kind of experiment involving unknown technology and trigger the "Void." But what kind of experiment could possibly be taking place at some trash school in the slums of District D, like this high school? What a joke!

Unable to make sense of it, Ron shook his head and cast aside his doubts, turning his attention to the monster.

There was no massive hole in the sky spewing falling fire, so even if a "Void" had truly appeared, it could not be too large in scale.

Although he did not know where the "Void" was, there was only one monster in front of them for now. He only needed to deal with it first.

Ron might not necessarily be able to handle a genuine "Void," but dealing with a lone monster from one was practically effortless.

He yanked back the elderly teacher, who had been about to throw himself at the monster while urging Ron and the others to run, then pushed him toward An Hui.

"Take the old man to the infirmary. I'll handle this."

After saying that, Ron charged forward without hesitation and kicked at the "Void" monster not far away.

"Okay." An Hui nodded and immediately led the unconscious elderly teacher away.

At that moment, Lin De, who had been stunned by the charging monster, finally came back to his senses.

"Hey, don't!"

Seeing Ron rush forward, he instinctively tried to stop him.

He could not help feeling anxious. Old Ron, old Ron, why the hell are you, a Lv.0, charging in like that?!

We're all students. A monster that came out of nowhere should obviously be handled by the Patrol Bureau... And even if not, isn't An Hui right there?

Why send her away and go in by yourself?

You're an ordinary person without abilities. Aren't you just delivering yourself to the monster on a platter?

That thought had barely formed when he saw Ron kick the monster square in the chest, sending it flying backward. It slammed into the wall and slid limply to the ground!

What... was going on?

He stared blankly at Ron, only to see Ron pressing a hand to his head, rubbing his temples as though he were dizzy.

["Fantasy Dissolution" is being eroded by a trace amount of "Mysticism Influence".]

[Trait Damage: 10%]

Ron felt a wave of dizziness. He shook his head clear, and the next moment, he saw clouds of blood mist burst from the monster he had kicked away.

"Bang, bang, bang—"

Sounds like bursting bubbles rang out from its body as those illusory, twisted limbs that looked as though they did not belong to this world exploded completely.

They burst into blood mist and scattered through the air. The once-vibrant scarlet immediately seemed to be scorched by blazing heat upon touching the air, instantly carbonizing.

Before long, the blood mist turned charred black, then became burned-out gray-white ash—

The ash drifted down in a scattered shower.

Yet the monster Ron had kicked away did not turn to ash along with the blood mist. It had crashed into the wall, chunks missing from all over its body, and lay there like a rag doll.

Ash covered its face and head, while bright red blood gushed from its body, mixing with the ash into a pool of blood.

Vaguely, one could still make out obvious human features and torn clothing on its body—

On closer inspection, a school emblem from some high school could clearly be seen beneath the bloodstains!

What was going on? Ron's gaze immediately sharpened.

Everything that came out of the "Historical Hollow" was supposed to be those illusory monsters that seemed to originate from the "Potion Era."

It was said that all "Void" monsters lacked intelligence and acted solely on instinct, hunting every living creature they encountered.

They could never have put on a student uniform to disguise themselves. This was a student from some high school!

A human had turned into a "Void" monster?

How had that happened?

Ron furrowed his brow and briefly searched the corpse slumped in the corner, but found nothing useful.

Suddenly, he heard pained wails and cries coming from outside the teaching building.

Looking outside, he saw several "Void" monsters emerging from the building, indiscriminately attacking every student they could see!

There were more of them?

He turned around and saw Lin De staring blankly at the monsters outside, rubbing his eyes in disbelief before looking at Ron with a bewildered expression.

"What are you standing around for?"

Ron could not help giving him a heavy slap on the shoulder to snap him out of it.

"Call the police!"

"Oh, oh—"

Only then did Lin De seem to wake from a dream. He hurriedly called the Patrol Bureau's emergency line with Ron, but the next moment, they heard a cold, uniform response—"Sorry, the line you are calling is busy. Please try again later."

"Busy?"

Even the Patrol Bureau's emergency line could give a busy signal?

Ron frowned and dialed again.

After waiting for a long time, the call was finally answered.

A woman's voice, sounding extremely exhausted, came through and gave a practiced response.

"This is the Central Patrol Bureau of District D. I am operator D-16."

"Hello. Please briefly explain the reason for your report and the course of events. We will dispatch an agent team to the scene to investigate and handle the case."

"We're at a high school in District D, Ideal City. An attack has occurred here. The monster is dead now, and one person is seriously injured—"

Ron briefly described what had happened, only to receive the operator's despairing response.

"Another murder case?! And another monster murder case??"

She fell silent for a long while, then finally sighed deeply.

"I've reported the case to the central bureau. According to the task assignment, the nearest team will head over to support you as quickly as possible—"

"When will the nearest team arrive?"

Ron's tone was grave. The human student who had transformed into a "Void" monster deeply concerned him.

This was beyond anything he knew. Even a fool could tell that there was probably something seriously wrong behind this!

But the operator answered with self-mocking resignation.

"When? Hmm... Tomorrow morning? Probably."

"They still have 192 murder cases ahead of yours to deal with—"

One hundred ninety-two murder cases?

Ron was stunned when he heard that. What was going on?!

Xia Zhi had never imagined that she would encounter such a busy period in her career as a Patrol Bureau agent.

Theoretically speaking, District D of Ideal City did indeed have poor public order. All sorts of criminals were everywhere, and its crime rate far exceeded that of other districts.

But it was summer break. Many ability users were wandering the streets because of the holiday, so the petty thieves who normally dared to commit crimes did not dare act recklessly now, afraid they might run into some high school ability user on vacation.

Especially since it was the day College Entrance Exam results were released. Many outstanding students who could get into District B would also return to District D to collect their report cards. They might run into them just by walking down the street.

To avoid causing trouble, all the gangs and criminal organizations in District D had gone quiet today, hiding in their nests like quails. It should have been the calmest day of all—

But who could have expected the operator to report five murder cases to her in a single minute?!

This had already been going on for a full half hour!

Even the operators themselves could barely keep up with the emergency calls. They had no idea what was happening, only that every time they answered, they heard someone terrifiedly saying that people had died somewhere. What was this, the top murderers in all of Ideal City deciding to do something fancy and hold a serial killing competition in District D?

Honestly, if that were all, it would have been manageable. No matter how many murderers there were, Xia Zhi believed that the Central Patrol Bureau of District D could arrest every last one.

After all, they had their ace—her. With her Lv.3 spatial ability, wherever she spotted a criminal, she could teleport there the next second and cuff them before hauling them back to the Patrol Bureau. But then came the real problem.

Murder cases were one thing, but the most absurd part was that every camera capable of capturing the crime scenes had been temporarily damaged. Every feed was pitch-black!

Team C-112 had no choice but to drive to the scenes, picking a reported location and heading there. Yet every time they arrived at the place described by the caller, they found only a pool of blood and pale corpses lying within it. Those corpses all had identical faces, were not even wearing clothes, and had died in the same manner in different locations. That was what had caused so many citizens to panic and call in reports.

At first, they had diligently dealt with the bodies and followed standard procedure, but after doing it dozens of times, they finally could not take it anymore.

"How many people have suddenly dropped dead in the streets?!"

A pink-haired girl sat in the Patrol Bureau's standard-issue hovercar, irritably raking her fingers through her hair and turning her smooth pink locks into a mess.

"They all look the same, died the same way, and all committed suicide in the middle of busy commercial streets—"

"Come on, isn't this just someone buying ten thousand clones and using them for performance art?"

"I can't take this anymore, Senior! We're Patrol Bureau agents, not corpse collectors! How about we find a funeral home and let them take a job to handle this for us?"

"...You're right, Xiao Jin."

Xia Zhi let out a long sigh and gloomily stomped on the accelerator.

Today's cases were all eerily identical. None of the corpses had identifying information, and they all looked exactly alike. They were clearly a batch of clones.

Clones possessed no intelligence and had no human rights. Xiao Jin's guess sounded ridiculous, but it might not have been wrong.

But who was ordering these clones to commit suicide? Was someone using clone suicide cases to draw the attention of every Patrol Bureau field team in order to conceal something?

Was something unusual hidden behind all these clone suicides?

She could not help sinking into thought while the team members beside her continued complaining about the day's workload.

Suddenly, a series of beeps snapped her out of her thoughts.

She opened her brain-computer display, and a chat window popped up.

[Ron: Something happened. There are monsters attacking people.]

[Ron: At a high school in District D. After I called the police, the operator said the nearest Patrol Bureau team is still dealing with the previous 192 cases and might not get here until tomorrow morning.]

[Ron: I think this happened too suddenly. Something's wrong. You need to bring the team over and check it out.]

Ron? A high school in District D?

So he had gone back to collect his College Entrance Exam results. She wondered how he had done.

He really was unlucky, running into another attack—

But monsters attacking people?

Not suicidal clones?

Xia Zhi frowned, immediately recalling the deduction she had just made.

The clones that had suddenly appeared and committed suicide in the streets were clearly abnormal.

These clones were likely chess pieces pushed out by some mastermind to draw the Patrol Bureau's attention. In that case, this distinctly different incident appearing now might be what the mastermind behind the clone suicides was trying to hide!

After thinking for a moment, Xia Zhi immediately made her decision.

She turned the steering wheel. The hovercar spun around and sped off in the direction opposite their original destination.

"Whoa, Senior, your driving skills are really—wait, Senior, where are you going?"

Ji Jin held her dizzy head. She had just complained about Xia Zhi when she realized they had gone off course.

She immediately sobered up.

"I was only joking, Senior! If we really outsource this to a funeral home, the higher-ups will take our badges away! I haven't even saved up enough credits to apply for [Athena]'s computing Authority yet—"

She pouted and anxiously tried to persuade Xia Zhi. "Don't take it seriously!"

"No, we're not going to a funeral home."

Xia Zhi shook her head, parked the car in a roadside parking lot, and said to the team members.

"Let's go. We can't waste time on these pointless cases—"

As she spoke, she took out several game tokens and casually tossed them into the air, arranging them into four corners that enclosed everyone in Team C-112. The next moment, she muttered a string of fragmented coordinates, and the surrounding space instantly twisted—

Then they appeared out of thin air at the entrance of a high school.

The moment she arrived, she saw several somewhat illusory monsters with limbs growing from their bodies roaring madly inside the school, indiscriminately attacking students who were crying and fleeing for their lives.

If it had only been these monsters, it would not have been too bad.

After all, they looked like monsters that could be dealt with at Lv.2. Before a Patrol Bureau team like theirs, they would be easily subdued.

But Xia Zhi looked up at the sky directly above the school and could not help frowning.

There seemed to be nothing there, yet as a spatial ability user, her familiarity with space told her—

The space there was about to split apart.

It seemed that something was about to break out of space itself!