Book 8: The Hunt
Chapter 382: A Large Tonic (Part 1/2)
Translator: Strivon
Luo Nan wasn't doing very well mentally the next day. He sat in the classroom, dispirited. It was as if his brain had dozed off during class. Half of whatever the teacher said didn't even enter his ears.
Xue Lei was only able to meet up with Luo Nan before the third class that day. He was very surprised by Luo Nan's state. "You broke your routine?"
"I was up all night," Luo Nan answered flatly.
He practiced the Dripping Sword all the way until midnight. Then, after his night session, he couldn't control himself and re-entered the out-of-body state. He walked through half the district, entered the cloud world from Gear, and continued the search for Snake Tongue. He was becoming more and more familiar with the environment there.
Luo Nan didn't obtain anything useful from his search. He didn't sleep the whole night. Instead, he tormented himself going back and forth. He could have became a lot more than just dispirited.
Xue Lei was a clever person. His first response was, "Did you push back your morning and night sessions?"
"I didn't," Luo Nan rolled his eyes and yawned.
Xue Lei spoke very seriously, "It doesn't matter that you did your sessions on time. Energy, blood, temperature, and consumption are very complex in their circulation. It's very demanding on your body for you to be playing around like this. At least half the efficiency is lost."
"Then what should I do? Maybe I should just sleep during class. Can you keep a look out for me?"
"...All right."
Luo Nan tapped him, "You're a bad friend!"
Luo Nan's head was already buried into his arms before Xue Lei could retort. A few breaths passed, and Luo Nan was asleep.
Honestly, Luo Nan had experienced far too many unexpected changes even though he never stepped a foot out of his home the last two days. He had taken in far too much information and learned far too many things. His brain was already at its limits. He really couldn't take much more. In any case, this was a general class - such a huge auditorium gave him the best cover.
Before falling asleep, possibilities of being awakened during his sleep flashed within his mind. For instance, Xue Lei calling him, Peony calling out to begin a search mission, a call from the Society, and so on...
But it was hard to predict the future in this world. What woke him from his sleep wasn't any of the above elements, but rather a stimulation coming from the mental plane. It came from a place that was seemingly close, yet ungraspable.
"The Wraith Sign?" Luo Nan's mind grasped the most crucial element, but before he could really understand this thread, a searing sensation suddenly exploded. The sensation followed the invisible connection on the mental plane, rumbling as it struck the God Gear.
The situation was akin to a meteorite plummeting through the sky and slamming atop a vast ocean glacier. The God Gear shook greatly, upheaving massive waves of soul strength. Several tidal surges were instantly formed, and they came pouring down.
"Whoa!"
Luo Nan was truly caught off guard, but the frame of the God Gear, constructed from the external neuron, remained quite stable. However, the feeling of pain and danger brought upon by the impact was true and real. Luo Nan screamed, and every single one of his muscles tensed, then exploded forward. His entire body jumped into the air.
Luo Nan's knee slammed against the bottom of his desk. The desk and chairs of the auditorium were fixed against the ground. Luo Nan's entire body crumpled into the shape of a shrimp after the large bang. He hugged his knee, sitting back down.
This gave Xue Lei, who was beside him, a scare. Xue Lei's first reaction was to jump over and act as a shield - he believed that Luo Nan had suffered from an assassination attempt from Headquarters or another organization of similar power. He had to prevent a second attack from landing.
The auditorium went quiet, and the lecturer on stage spoke coldly, "What are you two doing?"
The low murmurs that had filled the auditorium rapidly grew into an uproar of laughter in the next three seconds. The classroom discipline collapsed in an instant.
As one of the best schools in Xia City, Acumen College was never a place where one could spend their days in leisure, but the classroom discipline didn't go as far as to be like the military. Acumen College's method when dealing with rambunctious students was to penalize them with point deductions on exams for conduct and stringency.
For students like Luo Nan, who disrupted the auditorium or Xue Lei, who had jumped up in a manner as oppressive as a mountain. Not simply letting the blade fall and kill the chicken to warn the monkey was simply unfair to the class at hand.
The lecturer on stage was a middle-aged woman in her forties. Her facial features spelled good-nature, but her expression turned callous when taking in Luo Nan and Xue Lei's unruly behavior.
"Get off. I'm fine!"
Luo Nan struggled free from Xue Lei's grip, enduring the pain in his knee. This was none other than the scene he saw when he stood up. Luo Nan was more weary than ever. His reactions were quite lacking compared to how he was usually, leading him to become slow at speech. Luo Nan could only remain in his dumbfounded stance. He could do nothing else.
Xue Lei was more or less the same as before. He had yet to switch out of his bodyguard role!
At this moment, the young female teacher's assistant walked over to the lecturer's side. She whispered a few words, and the middle-aged female lecturer's anger was seemingly mollified. The lecturer said coldly,
"Can the two students please stand up."
Luo Nan and Xue Lei glanced at each other before standing up obediently.
"Your names."
Both Luo Nan and Xue Lei had accepted their fate. The spoke their names with their heads lowered, their voices a bit muffled.
The female lecturer didn't care. She merely said, "You two students. If one of you isn't feeling well, you can go to the infirmary. Get treated as soon as possible. There is no need to affect the other students during class."
"Yes, yes, he's gone a bit hysterical. I'll take him right away..." Xue Lei finally came to. He simply ad-libbed a story of Luo Nan being a mental patient with him as his assistant. He helped Luo Nan step down the stairs as the group of students laughed.
Luo Nan's knee really was injured. He limped as the two left the auditorium in a sorry manner, neither of them daring to raise their heads.
Right as they left, Luo Nan's dazed mind recovered. He noticed something. The young teacher's assistant who talked to the lecturer, was actually someone familiar.
Tian Si.
Luo Nan and Tian Si never made contact after the incident at Ocean Sky Cloud City. Luo Nan assumed that Tian Si needed some time to sort out her emotions, but he never thought that they would meet again in such circumstances...
It was an inappropriate time to say hello. Luo Nan and Xue Lei hurried away, but the end-of-class bell rang before the elevator could reach them. Luo Nan only realized it after Xue Lei - this was the final class for the morning.
This fact really hurt Luo Nan. It wasn't worth causing this much trouble for the sake of a few minutes.
Luo Nan's wristband vibrated at this time, revealing the caller ID.
Luo Nan answered the call in a hurry, "Senior Sister Tian, thank you for just now."
The caller was none other than Tian Si. Her tone was graceful and calm, like a friend who one often had contact with, "It's nothing. Professor Wu has a good character. She asked for your names, but didn't scan through the class system. She just wanted to give a warning. Otherwise, you would get points deducted due to conduct."
"That was thanks to Senior Sister's help. Let me treat you to a meal later."
Luo Nan had spoken without thinking, suddenly feeling that his words sounded very familiar. It seemed that he had said such things more than once in recent days. Actually, this was quite normal. His interpersonal relationships became more complicated as his social circle increased in size. It was inevitable for there to be social niceties. What else could he say besides words like these?
The moment that these thoughts formed in Luo Nan's mind, Tian Si sighed quietly and said, "It's just a small matter. If you're thanking me like this, how can I thank you?"