"Forced regression?"
"It's like this..." Zhuo Rong gave a general description of the situation Jiang Zhi and the others encountered in the Knotted Rope Maze last time.
Wen Jing knew immediately that many details had been omitted, but he could still roughly deduce what had happened from the logistics director's description.
No wonder those two were seriously injured, while the others were unharmed.
If anyone is to blame, it's their insatiable greed. If they hadn't been so eager to seize the opportunity, a Calmness Analysis would have easily revealed the secret of PayShell.
Of course, at this point, Wen Jing wouldn't take the blame for the world collapsing before the other party even had a chance to use the seashell.
"I see... But why the forced return?" Wen Jing asked after listening.
"This is exactly what we need to investigate and research. Nothing like this has ever happened in our past explorations of the Ancient Wilderness," Zhuo Rong added. "And we just had Brown use the Locator Stone once, and it failed."
"This situation could be due to some locational factor affecting his body during the last exploration, or it could be... a problem with the Ancient Wilderness itself!"
At this point, Zhuo Rong Gao Shi, the vice dean who had been sitting silently beside him, spoke up with a serious expression, "This involves the Ancient Wilderness, and concerns every one of us Awakened, so we hope everyone can cooperate with us to fully reconstruct the situation in that area."
Upon hearing this, everyone present became serious.
Every Awakened must explore the Ancient Wilderness; every piece of information and change within it is significant.
Among them, only Wen Jing felt a complex mix of emotions. In her memory, the Ancient Wilderness was mysterious and anything could happen, but she never expected that this kind of spacetime collapse was something no one else had ever encountered before, and that it would attract so much attention...
Before the students arrived, the investigation team had already watched the video of the Student Council's post-war meeting.
After explaining the situation, Zhuo Rong began to ask Wen Jing and the other three about the details of their previous exploration.
Wen Jing, Ji Shuang, and the other two answered normally.
As the questioning was drawing to a close, Zhuo Rong suddenly remembered something and asked, "By the way, Wen Jing, could you sell us the seashells you obtained after participating in the last exploration for our research?"
After Ji Shuang and the others' shells returned, they were converted into Integral distribution, and now they have naturally all been transferred to this temporary investigation team.
Faced with this question suddenly, Wen Jing was clearly taken aback.
Zhuo Rong narrowed his eyes slightly. "What's wrong?"
The next moment, under everyone's gaze, Wen Jing scratched his head somewhat awkwardly. "Um... I lost the seashell in the Ancient Wilderness Land."
This answer clearly surprised everyone present, even Ji Shuang and the other two looked at them with astonishment.
The spoils brought back from the Ancient Wilderness are not Wilderness Weapon, so it is obviously unreasonable to bring them back to the Ancient Wilderness.
"Oh? Why is that?" Zhuo Rong continued.
Wen Jing seemed to have been caught off guard, but under the intense scrutiny of the investigation team, she exhaled, glanced at Song Zhi, and said with a "what's the use" attitude, "Because the Student Council kicked me out of the next exploration, I concealed my guess about the function of the seashell at the time."
Upon hearing this, Song Zhi, who was standing to the side, widened his eyes, seemingly wanting to speak but holding back.
"What guess?" Gao Shi was seated at the head of the table, leaned forward slightly.
Wen Jing pursed his lips and said, "Because that place involves spatial transformation, and the shells can only be obtained by killing the Wilderness Beast tied to the rope, I suspect that these shells might be like the initial trial, serving as 'tickets' to that space."
Ji Shuang and the others standing nearby looked on in realization—no wonder Wen Jing had been looking at seashells the whole time at the post-war meeting!
The members of the investigation team exchanged glances, some of them suppressing laughter, clearly amused by the student's whimsical idea.
And the result?
Wen Jing shrugged. "After taking it there, I encountered more valuable ores during my exploration of the Ancient Wilderness, so I threw away the shells. I can only take so much now, and the shells aren't worth many Integral anyway."
She sold her ore to the research institute three days ago, and the academy has records to prove it.
As for Wen Jing's behavior, one can only say that the student had a wild idea, but if we really want to investigate, there's nothing to criticize.
After asking a few more trivial questions, the investigation was concluded.
After all, the team that explored last time was only involved in the incident, not actually involved. Asking them questions was mainly to learn more details.
Brown and Jiang Zhi, who were the parties involved in this incident, are the ones who are receiving the most attention.
Unbeknownst to those present, the investigation team had conducted multiple professional mental health tests on them, ruling out the possibility that they were collectively hallucinating. They also conducted individual questioning throughout the process to prevent collusion and lies.
After the students left, the survey minutes popped up on the personal terminals of the mentors in the conference room.
The investigation report not only detailed the holographic video recordings of each student who heard the news, but also included accompanying simultaneous lie detection and behavioral deviation Analysis.
"Dean."
After seeing the students' data, Zhuo Rong, the logistics director, suddenly let out a soft exclamation, then quickly walked to Gao Shi's side and whispered, "This Wen Jing..."
The simultaneous lie detector test showed that none of the students present were lying.
However, lie detectors primarily rely on physiological responses for judgment. As Awakened physical abilities exceeding those of ordinary people, one can easily control their physiological responses when prepared.
In this case, another value, 'behavioral deviation value', can serve as an important reference.
The behavioral deviation value is the deviation between citizens' daily behavior and temporary behavior as statistically analyzed by the Mastermind Big Data platform.
At this point, the backend system showed that Wen Jing's deviation rate reached 56% in the recent survey.
This falls right on a Threshold. If it exceeds 60%, the other party will be directly marked in red and listed as a key suspect. Between 50% and 59%, it depends on the investigation team's internal decision on whether to continue the investigation.
Gao Shi glanced at it only once, then shook his head.
"Which Awakened doesn't have secrets they don't want to reveal? She's a genius valued by Dean Bai, so naturally she has her own opportunities that she doesn't want to talk about, which have nothing to do with this incident."
Zhuo Rong was taken aback, and after a moment he nodded in admiration, understanding the unspoken meaning in Gao Shi's words.
This investigation occurred while Dean Bai was exploring the Ancient Wilderness. Xie Ming, the second-in-command of the reform faction who also held real power, was seriously injured in the previous exploration, which allowed the conservative faction to take the lead legitimately.
Such a golden opportunity is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. If the investigation yields results and is eventually submitted to the Federation leadership, it will mark the moment when their faction regains its footing in the academy.
Given the current favorable situation, adding Wen Jing to the list of suspects would only give Dean Bai a legitimate reason to intervene and thus gain access to the investigation team.
So, Zhuo Rong had an idea and crossed out Wen Jing's name along with the others.
The relevant reports from this meeting were collected and compiled into a high-priority top-secret document called the ' Ancient Wilderness Collapse Incident,' which was sent to the Federation Parliament of Mystic Radiance Star along with other materials.
Chapter 81
After the last college investigation, Wen Jing was worried that it might cause some trouble, but unexpectedly, nothing came of it.
However, she was naturally happy with it.
For the next few days, she continued to explore the Ancient Wilderness at a frequency of once every two days, heading to the giant tree the following day.
Sunlight filters through the green foliage, illuminating the giant trees with vibrant life.
After Knotted Rope Maze, Wen Jing's attribute values increased again, and his sensing range expanded accordingly. With a little sensing, he discovered that there were many new prey nearby.
After a period of absence, the ecosystem here has recovered, and all kinds of creatures have become lively again.
"I'm a little reluctant to finish eating this place..."
That's what they said, but the next moment, the little insect shot towards the lower part of the giant tree like a transparent bullet.
I stopped by the Fluorescent Flower Field for a drink, then headed straight to the bottom to eat the newly grown red mushrooms.
"Huh? It's mutated?"
While eating mushrooms, Wen Jing spotted a poisonous frog that was entirely white, larger than the others, and clearly not to be trifled with.
When Wen Jing, the white poisonous frog was under the crimson mushroom, swallowing a purple poisonous frog whole.
Not only does it approach the red mushroom unharmed, but it can also prey on other poisonous frogs, showing signs of becoming the new overlord of this area.
Wen Jing maintained her speed along the way, and since she was no longer invisible, the mutated poisonous frog quickly spotted her.
What Wen Jing found even more interesting was that when it encountered this small creature that it could swallow whole, the mutated poisonous frog's first reaction was not to flick out its long tongue like other ordinary poisonous frogs.
Instead, as if sensing something, it took a step back, its crimson eyes fixed on her warily.
"You seem to have a strong sense of crisis."
Seeing this, Wen Jing didn't immediately eat the mutated poisonous frog. Instead, he paused for a moment before turning and leaving.
A moment later, the little bug used its Energy-Shaping Weapon to bring a skewer of nearby poisonous frogs and lizards, like skewers.
"Eat!"
Wen Jing threw a pile of fresh food in front of the mutated poisonous frog, intending to train it from an elite monster into a mini-boss before slaughtering it.
The benefits she could gain from eating these lizards and poisonous frogs were negligible; it would be better for her to evolve her Digestion abilities and focus on devouring giant trees.
The insect came and went like the wind, casually tossing some food to the mutated poisonous frog before continuing to eat mushrooms.
Although it didn't know why the terrifying enemy it sensed didn't attack it, it instead dropped a bunch of food.
But the mutated poisonous frog, which had no concept of 'fattening up before slaughtering', remained wary for a moment before slowly jumping out and carefully swallowing the food in front of it.
As for the previous BOSS, Black Serpent, who was once caught in the "supply shortage" trap here, one can only lament that he was born at the wrong time...