CH 115

After Lu Yibei left, Professor Ma stayed in the lab, flipping through the bamboo scrolls back and forth with complicated feelings.

“Damn it, why didn’t I show him the original scrolls? I should’ve shown him!”

Hand on his forehead, he stared at the bamboo scrolls and watched as the symbols danced in his vision.

They seemed to enthral him, forcing him to gaze at their intricate, distorted dance.

Suddenly, that disgusting stench broke into his nose again, and just like last time, it smelled very close to him once again.

Professor Ma couldn’t help but groan as he covered his mouth and nose, and the stench broke him free of the scroll’s enthrallment. Glancing at his watch, he realised it was already half past seven, and the sky outside was almost ink-black.

“No, no. I have to go home. Can’t let the cleaning lady babble again.”

He hurriedly stuffed the scrolls back into the box, tossed them into the storage closet, and left the lab in a hurry.

After locking the door to the lab, he frowned as he was greeted with an intense stench. It was much stronger, as if an invisible river of rot flowed through the corridor, accompanied by bursts of low-pitched singing.

He stood in the corridor, looking left and right. It was dimly lit, and it gave him a feeling of unease to be alone in the usually crowded corridor. Something tells him that something is hiding in the shadows of the corridor. Something that would bring danger to him.

He produced a copper coin from his suit pocket and could vaguely see the words [Kaiyuan Tongbao] engraved upon it.

This coin was dated back to 1,300 years ago and was obtained by accident. Because it was too worn out, he bought it from a villager with his own money and kept it as a keepsake.

Since then, he has carried this coin with him. When in doubt, he will flip the coin.

He doesn’t think the behaviour of coin-flipping is superstitious. It just helps him to overcome indecisiveness, but deep in his heart, he hopes that there is something magical within the coin.

‘Heads for left, tails for right.’

Flipping the coin, it landed on tails, and he hurried down the right corridor. Just as his figure disappeared down the right corridor, the lights in the left corridor turned a deep, scarlet colour.

On the empty cherry blossom avenue of the University, only the wind dances with the fallen leaves.

At this moment, a girl wearing a black and white baseball shirt with a large sun hat skipped in the distance. She carried a metal bat, and her legs were wrapped in black stockings, which, in turn, were wrapped in a pair of short boots. She skipped on each pile of fallen leaves, making a crisp sound with every bounce.

“Gu Qianqian!” her system reprimanded. “Could you keep quiet? We are supposed to be sneaking into the University!”

“That’s not what you said earlier! You told me that the University is empty and that I, as the protagonist, should be proud of every step I take! You’re so confusing!”

“Yes, I did tell you to be proud, but we’re sneaking in like thieves right now. Have you ever seen a thief walking in loud and proud to rob a house?”

“I suppose not,” she muttered as she took out a plastic mask of Sailor Moon from her coat pocket. “I’ll cover my face! Now, I really am a thief!”

“You’re attracting more attention with that sh*tty mask! And where did you even get that from?”

“I bought 500 of them from the market! I plan to sell them during the school celebration!” she beamed. “Don’t worry about it; I’ll make a lot of money for myself!”

She patted her chest with confidence, and the system cursed those two dazzling lumps of flesh that held a copious amount of milk within them.

Gu Qianqian argued with the system for quite a bit, and before they knew it, they arrived near the back door of the laboratory building of the Faculty of Arts.

Under the guidance of the system, she avoided the cameras, and with a great kick, she leapt from the ground, drawing an arc in mid-air, and landed gracefully into a window leading into a corridor on the 4th floor.

She leaned against a pillar and peeked her head out, observing the hallway.

“System.”

“Understood. Checking psychic fluctuations… 10%… 20%… Complete!”

“What’s the result?”

“Gu Qianqian, it’s not looking good.”

“Are there many enemies in the dark?”

“Too many.”

As soon as the system finished speaking, the faint sound of a horn tooted in the empty corridor. Then came the gongs, the drums, the flute, the pipa, the violin…

The music was harmonious in the hallways, and it played a festive tune of sacrifice. For some reason, the tone of the music was rather weird, and she swore she could hear silent laments and eternal sorrows embedded in the piece.

Immediately, a scarlet light appeared at the end of the corridor, and blood-red lanterns flickered into existence, shrouding the entire corridor in a deep blood-red.

A cloud of dense fog gathered in front of a laboratory, and the fog seemed to tangle itself into a vortex, like a portal leading into another world.

“Gu Qianqian, I’m uploading a task right now.”

The system felt a bit inhumane to not reward Gu Qianqian for something so dangerous.

“So you were lying! You told me you didn’t have any more tasks for me to do!”

“That’s not the point!”

A mechanical notification popped up in Gu Qianqian’s mind:

[Task: Surrounded by scarlet lights, you are to come into contact with the [Remnants of the Chronicles of Mangshan] and evacuate within five minutes! Reward: 1,000 masks.]

“These masks—you bought them behind my back?” Gu Qianqian interrogated.

“I believe in supporting small businesses,” the system replied. “You’ll be able to make a profit with these. One unit is priced at 2.5 yuan, and you can earn 1,600 yuan if you sell 800. After deducting the expenses, you can make a net profit of 1,572 yuan!”

Gu Qianqian’s eyes lit up, and she couldn’t help but cheer as she swung the metal bat in the air.

“It’s time to move the mountains and split the sea!” Her voice boomed throughout the corridor, and a dazzling light surrounded her body. A wave of psychic energy swept across the entire building, and the phantom of a giant blessed her with its powers.

“Boom!”

With a slight bang, she flew forward with the metal bat in hand.

Sensing the intrusion, the scarlet lanterns flickered like an alarm, and the air echoed with bursts of angry and resentful murmurs.

Foul-smelling limbs extended from behind the lanterns, waving their claws as they stained the campus walls a scarlet red.

The once-lively corridor for students and teachers to gather seemed to have turned into a playing field for alien creatures.

But in this sacred place where the festive scarlet lanterns hovered, Gu Qianqian was more than happy to skip around danger.

Splash! Splash!

The sounds of flesh and blood exploded one after another as she dashed in and out of vision down the corridor. She smashed every single limb that was in her way as if they were nothing, and she would crush them under her boots with vigour.

The system couldn’t help but be astonished. Even though she was bird-brained, she had a real talent for fighting.

She had already fought her way through half of the corridor, and when she came to the lab surrounded by dogs, she took a step into the dense grey and passed through without hindrance.

As soon as she entered the lab, the cacophonous music and scarlet light stopped instantly, and it was as if nothing that had happened a few moments ago had occurred.

“Gu Qianqian, did you bring the knife I instructed you to?”

“Of course, isn’t this it?”

The system frowned. She took a nail clipper instead of the knife she was instructed to bring.

“That’s not… it’s fine. Just scrape off a little of the…”

A crisp sound reverberated in the lab. Gu Qianqian held the bamboo scroll in one hand and a nail clipper in the other, cutting a small piece of the scroll using the nail clipper.