The moment they turned, a strong gust blew up behind them, scattering the mist and the school’s anomaly along with it.
Lin Juan walked through the mist for half a minute before it cleared around him. Footsteps approached. He turned to see students coming and going, backpacks on.
He had seen photos of the missing students beforehand. These were basically all the ones from the pictures.
“You must be classmate Lin.”
The voice came from behind. Lin Juan turned.
“I’m the Class Monitor from Class A. The teacher asked me to show you to the classroom.”
The Class Monitor was a girl with a ponytail and glasses, fitting the image of a model student.
Lin Juan followed her to the classroom.
“Is Class A the only class in session right now?” Lin Juan asked as they walked.
“Yeah, we’re the elite class. We start earlier than the others. In a couple days, all of senior year will begin.”
Class A’s classroom was on the first floor. The senior year building was a standalone structure, isolated from the outside world by surrounding buildings, forming its own little realm.
Knowing Lin Juan was a new transfer student, the Class Monitor added a few details. “We mostly stay in this area. Studies are intense, and the teachers demand high scores. During breaks, no one really leaves the classroom.”
In the classroom, the homeroom teacher briefly introduced Lin Juan and had him take a seat.
Lin Juan counted—about thirty-two students in the class. Three fewer than the number of missing students reported outside.
Where were the other three?
He didn’t see the remaining three even during the big break.
Among the missing was Xiao Ping, whose parents he had met yesterday.
According to them, Xiao Ping had been a middling student before, but aced the finals and got selected for the elite class. When the school mentioned extra remedial classes, they agreed without hesitation.
They never imagined he’d vanish as soon as he arrived.
After reporting to the police, officers searched the school several times but found no one. Not only Xiao Ping, but all the remaining thirty-four students had mysteriously disappeared.
The police reported the incident upward, realizing something was amiss, and the case landed in the hands of the Anomalous Affairs Bureau.
Director Liu also dispatched several ability users to investigate, but they failed to locate the missing students.
“We suspect that this time we’ve encountered an A-Rank Anomaly. Anomalies at A-Rank and above can form domains of varying sizes. If the domain’s master doesn’t wish it, outsiders can’t detect the domain’s existence. These missing students are very likely trapped inside a domain.”
Director Liu spoke these words with a very grave expression.
An A-Rank Anomaly wasn’t just one rank higher than a B-Rank Anomaly. Once anomalies at A-Rank and above formed a domain, they became far more difficult to deal with.
Because everything within the domain was under the domain master’s control, entering put them at a severe disadvantage. Moreover, they couldn’t enter just because they wanted to—they had to meet the rules set by the domain master.
After several attempts, they finally figured out the rules for entering the domain.
After weighing the options, to ensure the smooth rescue of the thirty-five trapped students, Director Liu and the higher-ups unanimously decided to call on Lin Juan.
When they approached Lin Juan, Director Liu’s tone was helpless. “There are too few ability users at A-Rank and above in the Anomalous Affairs Bureau. The few we have don’t look like high school students at all. Tianzong and Xingchen have already tried, but they didn’t even meet the first requirement.”
They could falsify grades, but not age.
Though Lin Juan was over eighteen, he had just turned twenty and looked young. In a school uniform, he blended in perfectly as a high schooler.
Zhuang Yufeng, having experienced the future, knew how tough domains were to handle. But in that future, the domain hadn’t appeared this early. To draw the higher-ups’ attention and avoid repeating the mistakes of his previous life, he compiled a document using his Precognitive Dream ability and submitted it overnight.
In the document, he detailed the difficulties of domains. With a domain’s enhancement, an A-Rank Anomaly was a hundred times harder to deal with than a B-Rank Anomaly. The higher-ups took notice and, upon learning that Upward Middle School might have a domain, dispatched several ability users for Director Liu to command.
Before entering the school, Director Liu and Zhuang Yufeng repeatedly reminded Lin Juan to be careful. Lin Juan wouldn’t underestimate the threat. He didn’t act rashly and planned to observe first to understand the domain’s nature.
For now, aside from the teachers and students acting like NPCs, there were no other anomalies.
Lin Juan could sense the pollution permeating the air, filling every corner.
High school seniors had grueling schedules. As soon as one class ended, the next teacher arrived. The students spun like tops, never getting a moment’s rest.
The classroom was deathly quiet, with only the sounds of flipping pages and pens scratching paper. The teacher was stern, sticking strictly to the lesson without a single extra word. The whole atmosphere felt oppressively stifling.
By the end of the day, even Lin Juan couldn’t take it.
No school, no matter how strict, should be like this.
Teachers and students alike acted more robotic than NPCs. Swept up in it all, Lin Juan felt dizzy and bloated.
He couldn’t stay in this damn school another day!
Finally, the day’s classes ended.
Lin Juan slipped out of the dorm and wandered the school grounds.
He planned to use the simplest method: find the anomaly and subdue it directly.
With raw physical force.
The campus at night was eerily silent, streetlights dim, the sky shrouded in a heavy veil as if sinking downward.
“Wuu wuu wuu.”
A suppressed crying sound came from nearby. Lin Juan paused.
Following the sound, he discovered it came from underground.
“Is anyone there?” Lin Juan stood on the lawn and shouted.
The crying stopped abruptly at the sudden voice.
“I heard a sound. Where are you? Underground? Want me to dig you out?”
Underground.
It was an abandoned dry well. The class monitor had fallen in while fleeing a monster. She dodged the monster but couldn’t get out.
She considered calling for help but feared attracting the monster, so she endured her fear, huddled in the corner, and waited.
Time ticked by. The temperature underground plummeted, biting cold seeping into her body. The class monitor hugged herself and, in the endless darkness and silence, couldn’t hold back her sobs.
No matter how tough she was, she was just a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old girl.
Before today, her greatest hardship had been dropping out of the top fifty in her grade.
But that night, she first survived a monster attack, barely escaped, then fell into this bottomless dry well. She couldn’t climb out and no rescue came.
Am I going to die here?
Darkness bred negative emotions. The class monitor grew more despairing. At first, she controlled her sobs, but soon she couldn’t.
She thought being eaten by a monster might be better than waiting endlessly in the dark for death.
Will I starve or freeze to death?
If I die, Mom and Dad will be heartbroken.
I shouldn’t have gone out after lights out.
But Huimei still hasn’t been found.
Why can’t I do anything right?
Negative thoughts flooded her mind. The class monitor hugged her knees in the corner, tears streaming down.
At her most desperate moment, she heard a voice from above.
A somewhat familiar male voice.
A hallucination?
The class monitor held her breath, afraid to hope.
She had been disappointed too many times.
Getting no response, the voice called out again.
This time, she recognized it—the transfer student’s voice!
Whatever.
The class monitor gritted her teeth and shouted back, “Someone here! I’m down below. Is that Lin?”
“It’s me. Wait a sec. I’ll find something to pull you up.”
Lin Juan spotted the dry well hidden in the grass.
The voice came from inside.
Lin Juan stood at the well’s edge and peered down. He vaguely saw a figure. The well was deep; he couldn’t pull her up directly.
Fortunately, the area was overgrown with vines. Lin Juan selected several sturdy ones, twisted them together for strength, and tossed one end into the well.
“Can you reach it?” Lin Juan had gauged the depth; the rope should be long enough.
“Yes!”
Lin Juan lowered it further. “Tie it around yourself, tight. I’ll pull you up.”
Rustling sounds came from below. Soon, her voice followed.
“I’m tied.”
“I’ll pull up a bit. Check if it’s secure.”
“Okay!”
Lin Juan pulled the rope taut.
The Forest Cabin was handy—no need to worry about this.
But the Forest Cabin was only a B-Rank Anomaly. Fearing it might alert the school’s domain master, Lin Juan hadn’t brought it.
Confirming the rope was secure, Lin Juan pulled with force.
His strength was immense; hauling up one girl was easy. In less than ten seconds, the class monitor was out of the well.
“I’m out already?” The class monitor sat on the ground, tear streaks still on her face.
She wiped her face, stood, and thanked Lin Juan. “Lin, thanks for saving me.”
She didn’t dare imagine what would have happened without him.
She would have broken.
Under the hazy moonlight, the young man stood against the wind. In her eyes, his figure seemed extraordinarily imposing.
“Lin, be careful.” After hesitating, the class monitor gritted her teeth and warned him.
Lin had saved her. Though the monster wasn’t here now, she didn’t want to see him hurt.
“You just transferred, so you might not know. You can’t wander the school after lights out. You’ll run into monsters.”
Afraid he wouldn’t believe her, the class monitor showed her arm, which bore a long scratch. “This is from the monster. I fell into the well fleeing it.”
“The school is really dangerous…” Before she finished, she spotted the massive figure behind Lin Juan. Her pupils shrank, fear surging, her voice trembling. “Behind you… it’s behind you!”
Lin Juan turned and saw a small-mountain-sized object moving toward them.
“Did it scratch you earlier?”
The class monitor nodded, grabbed Lin Juan without thinking. “Lin, let’s run!”
Her only thought was they absolutely couldn’t get caught.
The monster was still some distance away. If they ran fast enough, they could escape.
“Wait here first.”
“Wait for what? We can’t wait!” The class monitor’s tone was urgent. “We need to hurry, or the monster will catch us!”
At a time like this, what was there to wait for? Didn’t Lin have any sense of danger?!
The class monitor was frantic. If she could have dragged him, she would have run off with him.
He had just saved her; she couldn’t abandon him.
Fine.
The class monitor gritted her teeth. Worst case, she’d lure the monster away later. At least, she couldn’t let Lin get caught.
The light was too dim to see clearly. Lin Juan narrowed his eyes. “There seem to be people over there.”
“What?” The class monitor looked toward the monster.
There really were people!
No wonder Lin said to wait—he was going to save them.
“I’ll check it out. Hide here.” Lin Juan looked around, found a concealing bush, and had her duck into it.
By then, the monster was closer.
Lin Juan finally saw clearly: three students fleeing the monster, one of them Xiao Ping, whom he’d searched for all day without finding!
These three were likely the ones who hadn’t shown up in class.
Why were they chased by the monster?
What had happened to them?
“Roar——”
The monster’s roar echoed. The white mist thickened, and from its depths came several more roars.
More than one monster!
Three monstrous figures emerged from the fog, faster than expected.
In an instant, they were upon them.
In extreme fear, people lose all reactions.
That moment, the class monitor froze, watching as the monster opened its gaping maw and lunged at her.
A foul stench enveloped her.
At the critical juncture, Lin Juan moved.
He leaped up and kicked the two-meter-tall monster.
Boom! The monster flew dozens of meters away.
Lin Juan didn’t stop, charging the remaining three.
One kick per monster. All four flew in different directions, crashing to the ground and kicking up dust.
After kicking away all the monsters, Lin Juan turned to the disheveled Xiao Ping and his companions.
The three shuddered, helped each other stand, eyes full of hope. “Are you the immortal here to save us?”
Lin Juan’s mouth twitched. “I just have a bit of strength. Not an immortal.”
The class monitor, snapping out of her daze, screamed inwardly: You call that just a BIT of strength?!
