CHAPTER 109: CHAPTER 109: FOOTSTEPS

Li Ang hung his head, staring at the concrete floor for a while before suddenly flying into a rage. He had always been the one taking advantage of others; never before had anyone managed to take advantage of him. "All day shooting at geese, only to have my eyes pecked by one!" Li Ang gnashed his teeth, rolled up his sleeves, and pulled out the small shovel from his military knife. He smashed it violently onto the ground. "Come out, you son of a bitch! Give me back my remote control!"

A hard-fought supernatural event had just seemed to settle, but it was about to erupt into chaos once more. The Black Trojan and Plague Doctor hurriedly stepped forward to block Li Ang, trying to calm him down. "Brother Li, let it go. Don’t stoop to his level."

After a tense standoff, Li Ang backed down. He put away his military knife and huffed twice in dissatisfaction. "I’ll let you off this time."

The Black Trojan responded dryly, wiping the cold sweat from his brow. He exchanged a barely perceptible glance with the Plague Doctor. The meaning in their eyes was quite clear: This Brother Li Rising... why does it feel like... his thought processes are a bit abnormal?

The Plague Doctor nodded, returning the glance. You get used to it.

Regardless of the intense glances exchanged between his two teammates, Li Ang brushed off imaginary dust from his clothes and said in a deep voice, "Where do we go now?"

The Plague Doctor glanced at the mission log.

[Mission Objective: Resolve seven supernatural events. Current progress: 1/7]

He thought for a moment, then said, "We can’t be sure there’s only one Monster in a building. For safety’s sake, I’ll search the Comprehensive Building again."

Li Ang agreed, letting the Plague Doctor go in first while he followed behind to test if the air wall still existed. The Plague Doctor entered the hall. As Li Ang stepped one leg inside, he instantly felt an invisible force pushing him away. He clicked his tongue and let the Plague Doctor search the Comprehensive Building on his own.

A few minutes later, the Plague Doctor emerged from the hall and shook his head at his two teammates. "There’s nothing left in this building."

Li Ang mused, "Hmm... the air wall still exists even after the supernatural event was resolved. That means the air wall is either a setting implemented by the System or a ’rule’ of this place."

The Plague Doctor couldn’t help but ask, "Is there a difference between the two?"

"Of course, there is," Li Ang explained. "If it’s set by the System, there are two possibilities. First, it could be to isolate players with the air wall to increase the mission’s difficulty. Second, it could be to protect players from supernatural events where having more than two people present means certain death."

He paused, then continued in a gloomy tone, "Based on my understanding of the System’s typical behavior, it’s very likely both possibilities are in play simultaneously..."

The Black Trojan mulled over this somewhat complicated statement before asking, "What if the air wall is an inherent restriction of this place?"

Li Ang snorted coldly. "Then it gets interesting. The reason the air wall exists might just be the key to us clearing this safely."

The Plague Doctor smacked his lips. "Whatever the reason, we still have too little information. It’s best to continue gathering intel before making any judgments."

"Mm," Li Ang nodded. He then turned to his two companions. "We’ve searched the Comprehensive Building. Where to next?"

After a brief discussion, the three decided to use the Comprehensive Building as their starting point and search the entire school clockwise.

Since the Plague Doctor had just resolved one supernatural event, the search of the Administration Building and the Lecture Hall fell to Li Ang and the Black Trojan.

Whether it was luck or misfortune, the two searched the buildings for a long time but found no trace of any Monster. Ibaraki Middle School had twelve large buildings, but only seven supernatural events, meaning some locations would be empty.

Time ticked by, but their progress in clearing the mission remained stagnant. Watched by his two teammates, an irritated Black Trojan entered the school’s academic building.

The layout of Ibaraki Middle School’s academic building was just like those seen in movies and anime from the Japan Islands: all classroom desks were individual, with no "deskmate" arrangement.

The Black Trojan held a flashlight, its beam sweeping across one classroom after another. His round-framed glasses not only helped obscure his facial features, making it hard for others to remember his face, but could also detect so-called "abnormal data" in the form of information streams.

In terms of reconnaissance capability, these glasses surpassed even the Plague Doctor’s "[Echo Pathfinder]" skill and Li Ang’s equipped "[Strange Eye]."

After all, the Black Trojan was a member of a player organization called the "Whale Song Organization," allowing him to utilize a resource network unavailable to individual players. As far as the Black Trojan knew, the Whale Song Organization only accepted programmers or players with a computer science background. He was still in the dark about the organization’s true nature, goals, and specific leaders. All he knew was that its internal management structure was rather loose. It was less an organization and more a spontaneous collective where programmer players offered each other mutual aid and support.

A bunch of harmless programmers who, at most, gathered to discuss health and hair care could hardly cause significant societal harm. Even official bodies like the Special Affairs Bureau weren’t very interested in the Whale Song Organization. The state apparatus was wary of extremist player organizations flourishing in Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia.

In any case, these glasses, named "[Code Observer]," were something he had obtained by exchanging merit points within the Whale Song Organization. They had helped him through numerous perilous situations.

He hoped he could get through today safely as well...

As the Black Trojan was thinking this, he suddenly heard the sound of high heels tapping on the floor in the corridor behind him.

TAP. TAP. TAP.

The sound was crisp, pleasant, and rhythmic, instantly conjuring the image of a beautiful female teacher in a tight skirt suit, with a tall figure and long, fair legs. But in the deathly silent academic building, these footsteps sounded terrifyingly out of place.

The footsteps echoed for a moment, then abruptly stopped.

The Black Trojan took a deep breath. He didn’t rush to turn around. Instead, he quickly took a mirror from his backpack and looked behind him at its smooth surface.

Reflected in the mirror, a tall male figure in high heels and a red cloak stood behind him, having appeared there at some unknown moment. By the moonlight, the Black Trojan could see the figure’s face clearly.

It was a dirty, grimy man’s face, perhaps thirty or forty years old, with a square jaw and a wild, unkempt beard. His eyes were wide open, his murky pupils shot with blood, exuding pure madness. The corners of his mouth looked as if they had been slit by a blade, stretching all the way to his earlobes.

The man in the red cloak and high heels bent down, breathing heavily. His slit mouth opened, and he asked in a hoarse voice from behind the Black Trojan, "Do you prefer blue, or red?"