The Border Abyss

Her lovely fantasies shattered in an instant. In a daze, Ye Buyu took out the recommendation letter Si Weijian had given her.

The scruffy senior pulled out the letter. When she saw the special seal on it, she rubbed her eyes in disbelief, looked down, looked up, looked down, then looked up again.

Her eyes bobbed up and down five or six times before she studied Ye Buyu with one eye wider than the other.

"Recommended by the Social Security Bureau?"

"Mm-hmm." Ye Buyu nodded.

"Did they tell you who to look for?"

"Principal Lan Huaiyu?"

Faced with the senior's questions, Ye Buyu couldn't help feeling dazed.

She even began to wonder whether the person she'd met earlier had been a scammer. Or was she actually awake right now? Was she still in the Present World?

Could all this be a dream before I die?

With that thought, she pinched her arm hard. It really hurt.

Seeing Ye Buyu hurt herself, the senior sucked in a breath and abruptly clapped her hands. "Got it. A genius's little quirk."

Ye Buyu pressed her lips together, her expression indescribable. "I'm just here for the first time. I don't know my way around."

The senior smacked her forehead. "Sorry, sorry! I just woke up, so I'm still a little out of it. You're looking for the Principal, right? I'll call her for you."

As she spoke, she craned her neck, opened her mouth toward the school grounds, and drew herself up to shout at the top of her lungs.

Ye Buyu instantly sensed disaster. Quick as a flash, she clapped a hand over the senior's mouth, her eyes filled with shock. What are you doing? Just what are you trying to do?!

One shout from her, and I'll die of embarrassment on the spot and ascend straight to heaven.

She gave an awkward smile and lowered her hand. "Please, you don't have to go to all that trouble. I just need a map. Can I go find the Principal myself?"

The senior raised an eyebrow, grabbed a campus map, and shoved it into Ye Buyu's hands, waving her off casually.

"Go on, then."

Watching Ye Buyu walk away, the senior leaned against the window and yawned.

"She's got guts. First time at Four Symbols Academy, and she dares to go looking for someone all by herself. She must be really confident."

Whether she was confident was debatable, but Ye Buyu certainly felt like shutting herself away now. Before she'd even taken a step, a vine that suddenly sprouted tripped her to the ground.

"Uh..."

The senior froze, her gaze slowly dropping. Sprawled in a heap, Ye Buyu rubbed her knee and slowly climbed to her feet. She looked around in confusion, scratched her head, and continued forward.

"She's... a complete novice. Wait, no! Hold on, don't go any farther! I'd better call the Principal for you!"

Afraid of troubling anyone, Ye Buyu turned back with a smile and hurried farther inside. "It's fine. I'll take my time finding her. Sorry for the trouble."

The senior reached out a hand in a dramatic plea for her to stay, but still failed to stop her.

"Is she really going to be okay? Don't tell me she doesn't know Four Symbols Academy is a blue-label level area."

After more than five hundred years of exploration, the Present World Joint Headquarters had named the areas outside the Present World the [Borderlands], also known as the Border Abyss, dividing them into three zones and fifteen levels according to danger.

Levels 1-3 were blue-label level, controllable areas. Although anomalous phenomena could still occur and raise the chaos value, they weren't particularly dangerous to the Awakened.

Levels 4-8 were red-label level, the War-Torn Zone, currently the main focus of prevention and containment efforts by the heavily armed military and the Social Security Bureau. If the [Calamities] and [Man-Made Calamities] that appeared there entered the Present World, they would cause moderate disasters.

The Man-Made Calamity [Streetlamp] had originated in the War-Torn Zone.

Levels 9-15 made up the Black-Label Zone, also called the forbidden zone. Every known large-scale Calamity and Man-Made Calamity had originated there, and the Present World had to commit vast numbers of elite personnel to exploring it.

Human exploration of the forbidden zone had currently only reached Level Ten. Exploration of the other level regions hadn't even reached ten percent.

And Four Symbols Academy had been hauled back from the Blue-Label Zone by Principal Lan Huaiyu herself. This school hadn't originally been in the Present World.

Anyone entering Four Symbols Academy for the first time had to be careful, even a third-tier Awakened. One careless moment could leave them severely injured in the jaws of a disguised Calamity. That would teach them to behave.

A passing student asked, "Hey, she doesn't even look like she's reached the first tier. You're just letting her go in like that?"

The senior rolled her eyes. "How could she be an ordinary person? She's a talent recommended by the Social Security Bureau. Who knows, she might have some ability that conceals her aura. Besides, she said she could handle it. If she's that confident, there's no need for us to worry. Let's get on with our own business."

The concerned passerby thought that made sense. "True. Even ordinary people should know that Four Symbols Academy is in the Blue-Label Zone, right?"

But no one had imagined that Ye Buyu was precisely the kind of unlucky soul who had long resigned herself to her fate and paid little attention to news about such things.

If she hadn't believed she would never have anything to do with the Awakened in her lifetime, she wouldn't have been preparing to take a part-time job before even sitting the Gaokao.

So she really didn't know Four Symbols Academy was in the Blue-Label Zone. She simply thought this school was bizarre: not only was it huge, it was also full of traps.

There were black vines that wriggled out from time to time, trying to wrap around her feet, things plastered against walls pretending to be graffiti, and trees that followed people. Even the desks could hop around.

And then there was the basketball hoop currently blocking her path.

When Ye Buyu moved left, it moved left with her. When she moved right, it moved right too.

It gave off a distinct air of a highway robber demanding a toll before letting her pass.

Ye Buyu sighed. "What do you want? Could you move aside?"

Seeing that Ye Buyu was engaging with it, the basketball hoop abruptly bent ninety degrees, bringing its nearly rotten rim close to her. It also produced a battered basketball, signaling for her to throw it through the hoop.

Ye Buyu frowned, picked up the basketball, and tossed it into the knotted net right in front of her.

"Will that do?"

The basketball hoop caught the ball in its net and scampered away in delight.

Ye Buyu successfully entered the office building and headed toward the Principal's office. But the students leaning out from the teaching building had witnessed the entire scene, and quite a few of them gaped.

"That's not right, is it? Is that how you're supposed to deal with the Headless Corpse? That thing was practically in her face, and not only did she not react at all, she snatched the Headless Corpse's head and hurled it back. How does that make any sense?!"

"Have any of you seen her before?"

Everyone shook their heads like rattles.

"Never seen her. A new student, maybe."

Someone beside them scoffed. "Bullshit. This year's Gaokao hasn't even started. Where would a new student come from? Unless she's a genius special admit like Mu Bingge."

Two other students turned their heads thoughtfully. "Hmm... is it possible she's exactly that-a special admit?"

Student One said, "I'll bet one Level Five material she's a special admit."

Student Two said, "Only Level Five? Are you that broke? I'll bet a Level Six one she is!"

Student Three said, "You two are trying to set me up here. I'll bet a Level Fifteen one! She definitely is!"

Student One rolled his eyes. "Level Fifteen? Are there even any Level Fifteen materials in this world? The Level Fifteen Region hasn't even been explored! You couldn't produce so much as a cabbage from the forbidden zone."

The three shook their heads helplessly, each finding the others ridiculous, then slung their arms around one another's shoulders and headed out.

"Come on, let's go study that Headless Corpse fellow. This is a new discovery."