On Their Knees

Enough with the snide remarks. What was she supposed to do now?

Little Whale grunted. "Easy. Make him willingly give up something. Just so you know, money won't work."

Ye Buyu looked at her senior with an awkward smile and forced herself to say, "You might have to pay me a price before you can get up."

"Huh?" Her senior pointed at himself. "I have to pay you?"

"Not money. Just give me something, anything." Sweat beaded on Ye Buyu's forehead, and she started speaking at top speed.

"The side effect of my ability forces whoever I heal to pay a price. As long as you give something willingly, the Compulsory Cost should be canceled."

The female senior beside them listened with relish. She gave the kneeling young man an intrigued pat, her face brimming with the excitement of discovering something new.

"Captain Hao Liang, don't get up yet. Let us test just how compulsory our junior's compulsory cost is."

Kneeling on the floor, Captain Hao Liang rubbed his chin and tilted his head. "Shall we try it, then? Surely it can't be an ability that works on the level of causality."

Professor Zhang Ying picked up a notebook and scribbled down the current situation. "It certainly warrants testing."

The other students were eager to try, too.

Only Ye Buyu remained at a loss. Were they really this dedicated to research? Wasn't this getting a little obsessive?

"You can't get anywhere without a little obsession. Any ability that can bring a turning point to this world deserves research." Zhang Ying waved a hand, directing the students behind her to try moving Captain Hao Liang.

"Go on. Purification, detoxification, healing. Bring out my level-seven artifact for removing negative effects. Let's see how far Ye Buyu's so-called compulsory cost can hold out."

Ye Buyu stood rooted to the spot, staring blankly as the crowd rushed over. Amid the ensuing chaos, she heard her senior Captain Hao Liang let out a scream worthy of Tom the cat.

Anyone who heard it would grieve; anyone who saw it would weep.

"Experiment all you want, but stop pulling my pants! Physical methods don't work! Try purification!"

"For fuck's sake, stop using this to settle personal scores! I can't get up, all right? Stop yanking my neck! Let go, let go! You're strangling me!"

Unable to bear watching, Ye Buyu closed her eyes. This was way too brutal.

Without lifting her head, Zhang Ying held out a hand. "Bring me my level-seven Soul-Returning Bell. I refuse to believe we can't break this!"

A clear, melodious chime drifted through the air. Captain Hao Liang's expression relaxed, and little flowers floated up around him. He looked down at his legs. His smile vanished, and the floating flowers plopped to the ground.

"Still nothing."

"Hiss..." The students and teacher in the classroom sucked in sharp breaths and turned to look at Ye Buyu.

"A side effect that even a level-seven artifact can't remove. Is there really no solution?"

Inside her mind, Little Whale lounged on the sofa, enjoying the show in perfect comfort. "There is a solution, but you'd need power involving rules. Level ten at the very least."

Ye Buyu opened her mouth, then looked earnestly at Captain Hao Liang. "Why don't you just give me something? I'll return it once you're up."

Captain Hao Liang pulled away the jerk of a friend who was strangling him. "Cough, cough... Here, take this level-three calamity remnant."

Ye Buyu caught the remnant.

Captain Hao Liang instantly felt the muscles in his legs come back to life. He stood up, grabbed the arm of the person behind him, and hurled them over his shoulder before locking an arm around their neck.

"You bastard. Had fun strangling me, did you? Come on, keep going now."

The person in his chokehold stuck out their tongue and pounded on Captain Hao Liang. "Urgh, cough, cough! Let go! Let go! I'm dying!"

Ye Buyu breathed a sigh of relief and returned the level-three remnant to Captain Hao Liang.

The instant Captain Hao Liang took the level-three remnant, he dropped to his knees again with a thud.

Their eyes met, awkwardness filling the silence.

Captain Hao Liang: ...

Everyone: ...

Ye Buyu: ...?

Little Whale scoffed. "It's no use. If the price you paid could be returned, why would I still be here?"

Without hesitation, Captain Hao Liang shoved the level-three material into Ye Buyu's hands. Then he silently stood up and put some distance between them.

"You don't need to give it back. Really, you don't."

The crowd stared in shock at the remnant in Ye Buyu's hands.

"A compulsory price that can't even be returned? Why would a god-tier skill like this be healing?!"

"It'd be perfect to use on enemies! Why did it have to be a healing type? Have you tried using your ability on a Calamity?"

"Right! I wonder whether a Calamity would have to pay a price. But wouldn't healing them make them stronger?"

Zhang Ying raised a hand to quiet the restless crowd. She looked at Ye Buyu, a sharp gleam flashing in her eyes.

"Why don't we try it and find out?"

Ye Buyu watched the crowd gather around her, feeling as though even the light had dimmed. Their oppressive stares made her break out in a cold sweat.

"Calm down. Everyone, please calm down. I only just awakened, and I've already used up all my power. How about we talk tomorrow?"

"No problem. We've got all the recovery potions you need. I'll cover the credits."

Zhang Ying twirled a potion between her fingertips. The blue liquid sloshed inside the tube, sending a chill through anyone watching.

After downing a tube of potion, Ye Buyu became a lab rat. Surrounded by her fanatical teacher and seniors, she roamed the school, catching Calamities for experiments.

Now Ye Buyu didn't dare tell them that the Calamities she saw looked different from the ones they saw.

One mutated version of [Life Breath] had already turned her into a lab rat. If she told them about her other bizarre ability, she could probably kiss any hope of rest goodbye.

As a newly minted Awakened, she couldn't take it.

And so she used her [Life Breath] on the Forest Monster, which her teacher said could imitate familiar people, but which looked to her like a very conspicuous tree.

Under everyone's gaze, Ye Buyu briskly slapped the Forest Monster, and the Forest Monster dropped to its knees with a thud.

"Holy shit! It's that powerful?"

"If the Forest Monster doesn't pay a price, does that mean it'll never get up?"

Under everyone's probing gazes, the Forest Monster severed one of its own arms, left it behind, and fled the scene as fast as it could, as though something terrifying were chasing it.

Captain Hao Liang sucked in a breath. "How did this Forest Monster know it could leave after paying a price?"

Ye Buyu bent down and picked up the Forest Monster's arm. "Maybe it was instinct."

Zhang Ying produced another tube of potion and poured it into Ye Buyu's mouth before she could react.

"Next target: the Shadow Wall. Once we've beaten it half to death, use your ability, Ye Buyu. Let's see what happens."

Ye Buyu sighed. She had a feeling that if they force-fed her a few more of these, she would reach tier one.

Arriving before the supposedly man-devouring Shadow Wall, Ye Buyu looked at the battered graffiti and slapped it with a dark expression.

Healing light spilled over the distorted graffiti. Before Ye Buyu's shocked eyes, the graffiti seemed to lose all ability to resist. It flowed straight onto the ground, becoming a puddle of moving liquid.

Like a frail old person on their last legs, it tremblingly spat out a piece of gel-like material, then slowly crawled away.

Captain Hao Liang's mouth twitched. "This is outright robbery, isn't it?"

He had seen plenty of powerhouses who could kill a Calamity with a single slash, but this was his first time seeing someone rob one-and the Calamity had handed over the material willingly. It was a real eye-opener.