Chapter 13: "So, is fire okay?"

Chapter 13

"What? What's going on?"

The person in charge of the third round of the actual battle hurried out in his robe, his face a mixture of bewilderment and confusion, "What happened?"

"It's Officer Mu on the phone."

The man in charge picked up the phone, his expression becoming increasingly stunned and stony.

After hanging up, he snapped, "Quick! Shut down the live zone simulation! Evacuate all students in the test!"

"No, it won't work!" The staff member panicked, beads of sweat covering his forehead, "It's impossible to shut down the simulation from the outside ...... Everything inside seems to be, it's out of control!"

The man in charge craned his head to look aside at the monitor console.

Just five minutes ago, there was a terrifying spike in an unusual magical response in one of the zones in the live simulation.

Immediately afterward, all of the students' communication devices went offline.

The GPS collars of all the demons are all out of order.

It was as if ...... in just a few minutes, the area where the simulated actual battle was engulfed and isolated by some kind of powerful force, becoming an isolated island that no one could enter and no one could leave.

The man in charge was pale, his hands and feet were cold, and his mind was blank.

He craned his head to a staff member, a hint of vague wariness and fear in his unsteady voice: "Hurry ...... up and get the Administration Crisis Management Office on the phone."

This matter has developed beyond their capacity and there is now no other option but for the Administration to intervene.

*

Lin Yanming lifted his head dazedly and gazed at the sky in front of him.

It was still a pitch-black color, but it seemed to be subtly different from earlier - the original simulated night sky was dark, but still had hidden starlight flickering, but now it had turned into pure spectral blackness, as if all the light was swallowed up by the black-hole-like sky in front of it, giving people an unpredictable sense of danger.

This is ...... What's happening?

He turned on the alternate light source and lowered his head to his wristwatch.

The wristwatch's scoreboard was still lit, but the map and communications could no longer be called up.

This means that ...... can't contact the outside world to find out where they are.

For the first time, Lin Yanming was alarmed.

"Crap, it should be that there's been too much magical activity in this area in recent times, and the abyssal rift has expanded early."

The Demon Worm shrank into Shi An's sleeve and said quietly.

Shi An lowered her eyes, her long, dark lashes drooping masterfully as her obscured pupils slowly returned to their human state.

He looked to his palm, the five fingers were slender and white, not half abnormal.

"But the concentration here is still too low."

Shi An said with some disappointment as she touched her palm which hadn't changed much:

"Still not enough."

"Well ...... after all, this area has actually only been preliminarily alienated, and the concentration is definitely not comparable to that inside the Abyssal Rift."

The Demon Worm paused and continued, "In fact, if we wait here for a bit longer, we can wait until the degree of alienation deepens to a state similar to an abyss, but I'm worried that this gap won't last that long."

After all, the area of the outbreak is so central that humanity must be taking it very seriously.

So presumably the gap will have been closed by Administration over there before the alienation is complete.

"Or does ...... Lord still follow the original plan and enter the interior of the abyssal rift?" Devil Worm proposed.

Shi An thought for a moment, "I like this one."

But it seems to suddenly think of something, the mood suddenly lowered, said, "Then ...... do we have no time to find the gray crow nest?"

The corner of Devil Worm's mouth twitched, "...... Yes."

Shi An's whole body is frustrated.

"But ...... but ......" said the magic worm racking his brain, "The Gray Crow's Nest can be searched for at any time can't it? Now the most important thing is to restore your strength first, what treasure can't arrive at that time, right?"

As the Demon Worm described it, a silver-haired figure flashed through Shi An's mind.

He finally pulled himself together, "You're right."

--What treasure can't be grabbed when the original body is restored!

Shi An turned his head to look at Lin Yanming, who was not far away.

Lin Yanming is fiddling anxiously with his wristwatch.

But no matter how hard he tried, the positioning mode and communication device could not be called ...... This is finished.

Generally, emergency exits are provided right in the center of each area.

But ...... they are now at the junction of three districts, the Forest District, the Rainforest District, and the Scorched Earth District, and are far from either side.

Now it's dark and it's impossible to recognize the direction, so if you search blindly, you'll only end up dead.

Shi An turned his head to Lin Yanming : "Do you still want to go to that district in the east now?"

Lin Yanming's eyes lit up, "You know the way?"

Shi An let out a "hmmm" and nodded, saying in a serious voice, "I have a great sense of direction!"

Using the alternate light source, Lin Yanming looked up at Shi An, who stood not far from him.

The young man's brow was soft and calm, his dark eyes looking back silently from the shadows, as if nothing could make him lose the calm demeanor he had now, inexplicably giving him a strange sense of reliability.

I don't know why, but even though everyone had rumored that Shi An was a rare waste, after spending so much time with him, Lin Yanming always felt that there was a kind of indescribable mystery about the other party, or even a strange feeling that was subtly different from the ordinary people - which made him want to believe in the other party's words. This always made him want to believe in what the other party said.

And most importantly ......

Aside from following Shi An, the only option left was to stay put and wait for rescue - and who knows what the situation is out there right now, and whether or not it will be possible to locate each and every one of them, rather than leave it up to fate like this, it's better to beat a dead horse.

Lin Yanming, after thinking about it, slowly took a deep breath and seemed to have finally made up his mind, saying:

"...... Okay! I believe you!"

--Maybe Shi An really does know the way to the Forest District!

Shi An cheerfully smiled at Lin Yanming.

--Of course he knew how to get to the gray and black area to the east, after all, he had a magic bug up his sleeve to show him the way.

*

In the silent darkness, Lin Yanming trudges forward.

Contrary to what happened on the way in, Shi An was at the forefront this time.

The young man's back was straight and slender, always staying within Lin Yanming's line of sight, the darkness seemed to have little effect on him, and his steps were always smooth and steady, without hesitation.

But it was just too quiet around me.

All that could be heard was the thumping of his heart and the rustling of the grass beneath his feet.

Lin Yanming swallowed and carefully broke the silence by saying:

"That ......"

He didn't really think to say anything, he just couldn't stand the unbearable dead silence a little bit.

But the moment he uttered his voice, Lin Yanming heard a strange echoing sound against the back of his neck, repeating the words he had just uttered in an eerily raspy voice: "That ......"

Lin Yanming's hair stood on end.

He snapped his body short, and the arrows condensed from his magic immediately struck in the direction from which the voice came!

The arrow landed in the air and was swallowed by the darkness.

The alternate light source on the watch illuminated a small area behind it, the pale light seeming so small and faint in the overwhelming shadows around it.

It was a three-meter tall demonic creature, its body as thin and long as a noodle, with a huge and heavy head falling from its neck, which hung low, exactly at the height of the back of Lin Yanming's head.

It swiveled its head, the seven irregularly arranged eyes on its pitch-black face staring deathly at the two humans in front of it.

The same weird, hoarse voice came out of his mouth, and he repeated it mechanically:

"That ......"

Lin Yanming felt his hair rise at first, and a strange chill rose from deep within his spinal cord.

He had never seen such a demonic creature in all his life.

And even scarier ......

Lin Yanming's eyes fell on the demon's neck and he swallowed hard.

--that's empty up there.

No school collars, nothing.

Lin Yanming wasn't sure if it had broken free or ......

What about the demons that weren't caught by the school at all?

Either option gave him the creeps.

The demonic creature shook its slender body and flew closer in a strange posture, the seven eyes on its face blinking at different frequencies, and its face split open into a huge mouth, inside which a circle of sharp teeth flashed with a cold light.

"Run!"

Lin Yanming cried out in horror, turned and dragged Shi An away.

"Run ......" "Run ......"

The demonic creature behind them mechanically repeated what Lin Yanming said over and over again while chasing after them.

Lin Yanming was sweating profusely, the only sounds he could hear in his ears were his own sharp gasps and the insidious murmurs behind him.

The darkness consumed his sense of direction, making him feel as if he were running through a swamp with no end in sight.

Suddenly.

Footsteps came from all directions, and the exact same mechanical murmurs overlapped each other and rang in the ears:

"Run for it ......" "Run for it ......" "Run for it ......" "Run for it ......"

Lin Yanming stopped dead in his tracks.

His pupils were clenched, his face was pale, and beads of sweat slid down his cheeks.

With the alternate light source, he saw that the thin strip of demons, dozens of them, were encircling them from every direction, each heavy head staring intently at them, repeating two words, "Run."

But ...... there is no way out.

"Try, try a light magic attack, it should, it should work on something like this."

Lin Yanming said incoherently to Shi An.

He unleashed it at the one closest to him, but it was effective, but it only forced it back for a few seconds, and after the magic subsided, the demon began to approach again.

It's over, it's over, it's over, it's over--

Only the last two words remained in Lin Yanming's mind.

"So, is fire okay?"

At that moment, he heard the soft, even slightly curious voice of a teenager from beside him.

"......"

What?

Lin Yanming didn't react.

"Something like that."

The moment the words fell, searing flames rolled up like waves, instantly setting the darkness ablaze, wrapped in astonishingly high temperatures, furiously lunging towards the demonic creature in front of them!

The raging flames roared as if they possessed divine intelligence, devouring the slender figure one after the other.

In a matter of seconds, though, the leaping flames circled around the pair, locking them firmly in the semi-center.

The rushing fire dispersed the gloom and lit up the vast plain as bright as day.

In the blazing fire, the demonic creature let out a miserable scream, its slender figure shaking and struggling frantically in the scorching heat, but it was unable to escape from it no matter what.

"......"

--how devastating, overwhelming, aggressively powerful that was.

Lin Yanming stood still.

His face was reddened by the firelight, and despite the distance, he could still feel the temperature of the flames not far away on his skin, so hot that he could barely think.

After I don't know how long.

Maybe it's only a few seconds, maybe it's centuries.

The fire went out along with the heat.

It was as if everything was just a cruel and grand illusion in his head.

In the pitch blackness, only the faint brightness of the alternate light source remained.

The light vaguely illuminated a clearing not far away and a pile of ashes on the ground.

Wait, not a hallucination?

Lin Yanming felt like his head had turned to mush.

After a long time.

He twisted his head around with difficulty, could almost hear the cackle his neck made, and looked incredulously, stiffly, at Shi An beside him.

The teenager seemed to notice the sight of him and twisted his head to look back.

The lines of his features looked softer and softer in the darkness, and his eyes were rounded in outline, giving him a mood as if he were pampering himself when he looked intently at someone.

Only Shi An pursed her lips in embarrassment:

"I really don't know how to do light system, I only know this one."

Lin Yanming: "........................ "

*

"The Administration is here!"

"What? Please come in quickly!" The person in charge was startled and quickly took a step to welcome him.

Mu Hang's eyes were lowered, his long hair tied meticulously behind his head, and his coat and gloves covered his pale skin in a regimented and ascetic manner.

Wen Yao stood not far away, having changed into her combat attire, her skin light brown and her brow heroic and sharp, and was in the middle of an intelligence exchange with a staff member, whispering about something.

Those who came with us this time were the best of the best from the Administration's combat division, specially trained to deal with this particular situation.

The man in charge held out his hand with an anxious face, "Mu sir ......"

Mu Hang swept his downcast eyes over the other man's outstretched hand and made no move.

The person in charge then suddenly remembered the other party's habit of not wanting to have physical contact with people, and withdrew his hand with some embarrassment, "I'm sorry ...... I was also really in a hurry."

He asked, "What are you going to do next?"

Mu Hang's voice was cold and deep, seemingly half-affected by his opponent's panic, "Have you set up emergency entrances and exits within the actual battlefield?"

"Of course! Right in the middle of each area!"

Mu Hang nodded slightly and continued, "Are there any teachers, or staff, who are familiar with the terrain of the actual battlefield?"

"There there there!"

Mu Hang : "Arrange one in each area and have them follow my squad in and rescue the trapped students."

Head: "So ...... what are you going to do about that abyssal rift in the scorched earth area?"

"Shut it down from the inside." Mu Hang said calmly:

"I'll go myself."

Head: "Then I'm with you ......"

Mu Hang cut him off, "No need."

The chief froze, "Why ......?"

Mu Hang put it succinctly, "It's too dangerous."

The abyss would continuously release poisonous gas outwards, so one had to use magic to apply protection to oneself at all times, and even he would lose his home-field combat advantage and be weakened to some extent after going deeper into the rift, not to mention others who were even less capable of defending themselves.

"What's more, after the alienation began, the closer the area was to the Abyssal Rift the deeper it was transformed, and even having a guide wouldn't help."

The person in charge, though still disgruntled, could only sigh and obey the other party, "You're right."

Mu Hang nodded and turned forward.

The person in charge hurriedly took a step to follow closely, "Eh ...... Then there is nothing else you need?"

Mu Hang's silver-blue eyes were calm and indifferent, without any hint of arrogance, as if they were simply stating a fact:

"No need."

"I'm good enough on my own."