8 Return

Relieved that I finally had company on the way back, I followed class 3 back to District 4. As usual, it was located within a fortress city. High walls of reinforced adamantium towered over us, fencing the entire city in what looked like a ring. As if the rows of automated turrets weren't enough protection, a shimmering curtain of energy formed a barrier that kept out all sorts of zombies and mutants.

The only point of entry was through the main gate, where a sensor swept over us before allowing us through the barrier. We walked through, and I felt a tingle as I passed the screen of energy. If I was a zombie or a mutant, the barrier would fry me instantly.

As it was, we living humans made it past the barrier and checkpoint without any incident. From there, we boarded a waiting bus that would ferry us toward the Fourth Evolver Academy.

Exhausted, I dozed off almost immediately when I climbed onto the soft, comfortable seats. As my head touched the window, my eyelids drooped and my consciousness slipped away. I wasn't sure how long I had fallen asleep for, but the next thing I knew, I woke up when I sensed the bus braking to a halt. Forcing my eyes open, I adjusted my glasses that had gone askew during my short nap and stared up at the gates of Fourth Evolver Academy.

Like the walls, they had been painted a pristine white. Students hung out in the courtyards, seemingly oblivious to the death and sacrifices that went on outside the walls of the city, chatting cheerfully amongst themselves. I watched them enviously, wondering if my classmates were among them.

"Zhi Ming! You're alive?!"

I heard a familiar voice and turned around to catch sight of Pang Fei running toward me. I raised a hand in greeting, but he ran into me, wrapping me in a hug and sobbing uncontrollably.

"You're alive! I can't believe that you're alive!"

"Yeah, well…I'm glad to see you too. What about you? Are you all right? Any injuries? What about the rest?"

"They are all fine. Thanks to you, we managed to get away from the grotesque. We were worried about you!" Pang Fei slapped my shoulder, laughing and weeping simultaneously from joy and relief. "Did you know that Lou Qian wanted to go back for you? She regretted leaving you behind and tried to return for you. However, Qi Ren persuaded her not to 'throw her life away meaninglessly and accept that you're dead.'" He wriggled his fingers when he said the last clause, as if he wanted to put them in quotation marks. "Unfortunately, most of his gang agreed, and since nobody had no idea where you were, and there were too many zombies to fight through, we had no choice but to listen to him."

"You guys didn't turn back and fight, right?" I asked, remembering the hallucination. I knew the whole thing wasn't real. People just didn't turn into villainous caricatures and murder main characters for no reason other than because they were "trash." That made no sense whatsoever. I guess the imp's mind had been distorted from reading too many edgy web novels when it was a human, prior to being mutated into a monster. Also, if that really happened, there was no way Pang Fei would be here talking to me. Obviously Qi Ren and his cronies would kill Pang Fei and set it up to look like an accident so as to silence him and ensure he didn't report their murder to the authorities.

"No, we didn't," Pang Fei said regretfully. "We all just went straight back to District 4. I'm so sorry." He bowed his head, but I shook my head.

"You have nothing to apologize for. You did the right thing. The most important thing is that you guys are still alive. That's all that matters to me."

"…thank you."

"What about Instructor Jiao? Is he all right?"

"Oh, we brought him to the infirmary immediately after returning. He's recovering fine now. Xin Xia did some emergency healing techniques on him, and he was able to regain consciousness once we were far enough to stop. He was the one who led us back here." Pang Fei sighed. "He agreed with Lou Qian, but we didn't know where you were, so he had to prioritize the safety of the rest of the class first. He said he would request for a search and rescue party the first thing he came back."

"Well, no need for that now."

"Oh, you're right! Follow me, we had best speak to Instructor Jiao. He almost went mad when he heard that you sacrificed yourself." Pang Fei cleared his throat. "Sorry, not sacrifice…uh, when you did that heroic thing."

"I only did what I should do."

"Yeah, you're a hero!" Pang Fei praised me. Wrapping an arm around my shoulder, he all but dragged me away. He nodded to class 3, who were already began to disperse, probably returning to their dormitories or going somewhere for a debriefing. Well, I wasn't in their class, so it wasn't my problem.

"Um…" Lisa spoke up timidly, trying to speak to me. Pang Fei stopped to stare at her.

"The…the goddess?!"

"Please don't call me that!" Lisa turned red and backed away. She took a deep breath and bowed. "Thank you very much, Feng Zhi Ming! I really appreciate it!"

"It's nothing. Take care of yourself. I've to go speak to my instructor."

"Y…yes! Um…" Lisa swallowed. "I will see you next time then."

I doubted I would see her again. Class 3 and class 4 had nothing to do with each other, and we rarely collaborated as teams. Each class had their own missions and training regimes, and so we rarely interacted. There was no reason for us to meet after this.

But I decided to be polite and nodded. Then I headed toward the infirmary. Beside me, Pang Fei leaned to whisper.

"Dude! When did you get so close to the campus's goddess?! Why is she so…intimate with you?"

"What intimate? She was simply thanking me."

"Yeah! What did you do to her? Why was she so grateful? I've never seen her actively approach a guy like this!"

"Oh, really?" I wasn't sure if that was the case. But I rarely paid any attention to gossip, so it was natural that I didn't know anything. "I helped her and her class on my way back, that's all."

"Ho…you really are becoming a hero. A rising star, eh?"

"Don't exaggerate." I rolled my eyes. "Anyway, let's go."

We hadn't gotten into the infirmary when we ran into the rest of the class. Lou Qian and the rest gasped and stared at me with wide eyes when I stepped into the corridor leading to the infirmary. They had been crowding around, probably for a debriefing or something.

"Feng Zhi Ming?!"

"How are you still alive!?" Qi Ren demanded, and I had brief flashbacks of the hallucination. I smirked.

"What, do you want me dead or something?"

"Of course not!" Qi Ren looked offended. "But I didn't think that you would survive the encounter with a grotesque! That was really dangerous! How did you escape it?"

He was assuming that I had escaped from the grotesque and not that I had defeated it. To be fair, that was only natural. I was not known for my strength or ability. Even Instructor Jiao Guan had trouble fighting against it, having been severely wounded by its immense power. How could a perfectly average student like me slay a warrior category grotesque?

Such an impossible scenario wouldn't even have passed through their minds.

"I lured it into a trap. I was lucky enough to stumble on a basement filled with a lot of volatile stuff, and then I blew the grotesque up."

Everyone stared at me in disbelief. Even though I was telling the truth, they couldn't help but be skeptical. Qi Ren burst out laughing.

"Sure, sure. Seems like you've learned how to brag now, eh, Feng Zhi Ming?"

Like I said, I was telling the truth. Whatever. There was no point arguing with them, so I simply stayed silent.

"I'm so glad you're all right." Lou Qian came forward to address me, her head bowed low. "I'm so sorry. I should have been the one to take the lead, but you ended up doing it. If you weren't lucky enough to have escaped, you might even have died back there."

"Don't worry about it. As you can see, I'm very much alive."

"Yes. In future, please don't risk yourself like that again."

"Huh?" Qi Ren snorted. "If Feng Zhi Ming didn't offer to distract the grotesque, I'm afraid we'll all be dead! He did the right thing!"

"Yeah!" Cheng Yan agreed. "We should be celebrating his heroic actions!"

"We got to treat him to a meal!" Lei Shu declared. "We owe him that much for risking his life to save us all!"

Yeah, this definitely was not the behavior of classmates who attempted to murder me through abandonment and sacrificing me by dropping me into an abyss with the grotesque. I guess anyone looking for an edgy revenge story with a ruthless protagonist was in the wrong place.

"Ahem."

At the sound of someone clearing his throat, everyone jumped. Turning around, we looked toward Instructor Jiao, who had risen from bed. His wounds appeared to be fully healed, probably because he had received treatment from Xin Xia and other healers in the academy.

He looked at me seriously.

"Sorry for all the ordeals you've been through, student Feng. As an instructor, I should have been more competent. I failed to protect all of you…especially you. This incident is totally my fault."

"It's nothing. As you can see, I'm totally fine. So please don't blame yourself, Instructor Jiao."

Rather, I wanted to thank him and everybody. If it weren't for this incident, I never would have encountered the Kill Count system. I still remembered what happened when I made contact with the weird machinery underground. That tingling feeling…

…that must be when everything started. The first time I saw the Kill Count number, it was right after that strange tingling feeling when I touched the seemingly broken machine. I wasn't sure what had happened, but maybe the people from a century ago were researching something before whatever it was destroyed their lab. They were forced to abandon their project, which ended up being picked up by me when I coincidentally fell into that crevasse.

Teacher Jiao studied me for a moment. I shifted, feeling a little uncomfortable, but I remained where I was standing. After what felt like an eternity, he finally nodded.

"Go get yourself checked up. Ask the doctor to examine you for any injuries – especially internal ones. Better be safe than sorry."

"Fine, fine." I was annoyed by his excessive worrying, but I knew he meant well. So I sighed and proceeded to the checkpoint with the nurse. The sooner I got the checkup done and over with, the earlier I could return to my dormitory room.

As it turned out, there were no physical or internal injuries. The doctor used both his ability and machines to scan my body, and nothing odd came up.

"In fact," he said, observing my past medical records. "You appear healthier and stronger than before. More muscle mass. Have you been working out or something?"

"Something like that," I replied vaguely. Probably the effects of increasing my stats. Not that the doctor would believe me. I waited for him to read the documented results of the medical machines a second time before he looked up in resignation.

"Yeah, nothing seems out of place. And you said you don't feel like there's anything wrong, right?"

"That's right, sir."

"Fine, you can go. But if you feel any pain or like something's wrong, then please come see me immediately."

"Yes, sir."

And with that, I was discharged. Finally I could return to my dormitory room.

However, before I could go anywhere near my room, I found my class waiting for me in the corridor.

"Let's go!" Lei Shu whooped, throwing an arm around me and roughly escorting me in a different direction. "Let's drink to our hearts' content tonight! We won't go home until we're drunk!"