"Maozi, put the Notebook away first."
"Okay." Mao Feiyang nodded, walked up to the desk that resembled old tree roots, picked up the Notebook with only two-thirds remaining, and tucked it into his green Art Student robe.
"This Notebook...? Is it already the 'Principal's Notebook' now?" Lin Yi asked.
Tian Bufan said, "Isn't it? The Principal didn't come back, but didn't we take the Notebook and jump over there to find him?"
"This Notebook was originally the one Celestial Worthy Wei Liang of Fortune and Life gave you, but in terms of the timeline, it was the notebook the Principal gave Celestial Worthy Wei Liang of Fortune and Life. It merely passed through our hands, which awakened its mission."
"Cause and effect connected... just like Ouroboros."
Lin Yi pressed his lips together. "So Maozi takes this Notebook, meets up with Kuai Kuai, leaves the arts category, then rejoins us and leaves the Campus, and our overt mission is over... right?"
"Our overt mission. A very accurate way to put it," Tian Bufan said. "This mission is an agreement between Celestial Worthy Wei Liang of Fortune and Life and the Authorities."
"Of course, the Side Job is our real focus."
Lin Yi instinctively followed up. "You can tell me what that 'side quest' is now, right?"
Tian Bufan shook his head somewhat helplessly, then said with an ambiguous smile, "Don't you already know?"
Lin Yi froze. "You mean...?"
As he spoke, those fragments of memories from the gray world finally followed, slowly flooding into his mind.
Tian Bufan also began explaining slowly. "Before the Black Moon Cataclysm, the First Apostles explored the existence of the 'Root' through great voyages. Through countless clashes with 'Angels,' they gradually discovered the nature of the 'Root' through those 'Angels'..."
"The nature of the 'Root'?" Lin