# 157
Chapter 157 – Something Strange
Outside the training camp.
Instructor Hong stared at the middle finger on the monitor, sighed in resignation, then lowered his head to the score sheet in his hand and quietly wrote “-1” next to the name “Shen Qingzhu.”
“Bad temper, acts on impulse—losing a point is only fair,” he muttered.
“Instructor Hong, is it really okay to dump three River Realm mysteries inside the camp?” Instructor Han Li couldn’t help walking over. “The highest realm among the recruits is only Pond Realm. What if someone gets killed?”
Instructor Hong’s mouth curved slightly. “Relax. This is one of our traditional events every cycle. Those three mysteries have been shackled; their strength has been greatly reduced. And if it really comes to a crunch, we can kill them remotely. Besides, we’ve got a few people hidden inside the camp—call them the ‘atmosphere group.’ They can step in at the critical moment. Nothing will go wrong.”
“Atmosphere group?” Instructor Han Li was bewildered. “Why that name?”
“You’ll understand when the time comes.” Instructor Hong smiled mysteriously.
……
Inside the camp.
Lin Qiye stood by the bed, swept Deng Wei’s body with mental power, and nodded.
“Same as Baili Pangpang—he’s in a deep sleep.”
“A Forbidden Ruins?”
“Most likely.” Lin Qiye walked into the corridor, puzzlement surfacing in his eyes. “But… why did they fall asleep while we didn’t…”
By now, all recruits still awake in the dormitory building had been gathered—about thirty-odd people. After all, Lin Qiye was the agent of two gods and a holder of the “Stellar” medal; in this situation he was probably the only one qualified to command everyone’s trust.
Lin Qiye’s peripheral vision swept the crowd. Cao Yuan, Zheng Zhong and Li Shaoguang—whom he’d seen that morning—were among them…
Wait!
Lin Qiye seemed to think of something and suddenly asked, “What time did you all wake up?”
Everyone was startled. Cao Yuan spoke first:
“Five-twenty. I went to wash up and ran into you.”
“About five-twenty-two,” Li Shaoguang answered hesitantly.
“Around five-forty,” Shen Qingzhu said.
“Five-sixteen.”
“Five-fifty.”
“Five-fifty-four.”
“……”
The thirty-plus people each gave their waking time. Lin Qiye’s eyes grew brighter and brighter; a conjecture formed in his mind…
“If I’m not mistaken, this has to do with when we woke up,” Lin Qiye exhaled. “Among everyone here, not a single person woke up after six o’clock. Six a.m. is very likely a cut-off point. Anyone who hadn’t woken up before six had their consciousness dragged somewhere and remains asleep…”
Frowns spread across everyone’s faces.
“Another instructor prank?” Shen Qingzhu asked.
“No idea, but this style of ‘sleep in and you’re screwed’ feels exactly like something the instructors would do…” Lin Qiye shook his head.
“So what do we do now?”
Lin Qiye fell into thought. If this whole thing was an “exercise” the instructors had prepared, what exactly counted as completing it…
Wake the others?
But if the mental trap had been set directly by the instructors, how could they undo it…
Or perhaps the ones who dragged the other recruits into the dream weren’t the instructors, but something else?
Thinking of this, Lin Qiye suddenly asked, “Where’s Mo Lan?”
When he’d gone to wash up this morning, Mo Lan was already awake. Yet among these thirty-odd people, he was nowhere to be seen.
“No idea. After he finished washing up, he disappeared,” Li Shaoguang said.
“Could he have gone to practice shooting?” Cao Yuan suggested.
“He left at five-thirty. If he practiced this long and still noticed no activity in camp, wouldn’t he find it strange?” Lin Qiye turned toward the training ground. Under the silent sky, the entire training camp seemed to exude an eerie aura…
Cao Yuan caught his implication. “You mean… besides us, there’s an enemy inside the camp?”
“We can’t rule it out, or this exercise would be pointless.”
“So what do we do now?”
“Does anyone have a Forbidden Ruins that can attack mentally?” Lin Qiye pondered aloud.
Everyone was quiet for two seconds, then shook their heads.
“I know someone who does,” Li Shaoguang suddenly said. “A girl named Zhang Xiaoxiao—her Forbidden Ruins is mental-type.”
“A girl…” Lin Qiye turned to Shen Qingzhu. “By the way, what’s the situation in the other two dorm buildings?”
There were three recruit dormitories in total. Lin Qiye and the others were in Building One; opposite was Building Two; all the girls lived together in Building Three, on the flank of One and Two.
“The people in Two have noticed something wrong and seem to have started searching other parts of the camp, but there’s been no movement at all from the girls’ Building Three…”
“No movement? None of them are awake?”
“Not exactly. Anyway… the atmosphere over there feels weird. See for yourself.” Shen Qingzhu shrugged.
Lin Qiye crossed the corridor to the eastern balcony and looked toward Building Three, brows knitting.
Building Three stood alone, every door and window tightly shut. Sunlight fell on the glass but reflected nothing, as if a深渊 swallowed the surrounding light.
Usually, standing here you could clearly hear the girls’ laughter drifting from Building Three, but now… dead silence.
“Something’s definitely happened in Building Three,” Lin Qiye said grimly. He turned, thought for a moment, and quickly ordered:
“Leave a few people to guard this building. The rest come with me to the armory for weapons, then we’ll see what’s going on in Building Three.”
“Got it.”
After brief discussion, they chose who would stay behind in Building One; the rest followed Lin Qiye and sprinted toward the armory.
The armory wasn’t close to the dorm area; they had to cross more than half the camp. As Shen Qingzhu had said, the whole place was empty—not a soul in sight.
They stopped at the armory door. Shen Qingzhu chewed gently, then blew a gum bubble that drifted to the metal doors.
Pop—!
He snapped his fingers; the air inside the bubble exploded, blowing the two metal doors off their hinges and sending smoke billowing.
Everyone hurried inside, grabbed their weapons, and walked back out.
Just then, several shrill screams tore through the air from afar.
“AAAAAAHHHH—!!!”
Lin Qiye and the others’ faces changed as they looked toward the sound.
“That’s… the cafeteria?” Shen Qingzhu frowned, turning to Lin Qiye. “Which way do we go?”