1:20:00 PM.
Ding ding ding—
Accompanied by the preparatory bell of Northern Isle High School, boys and girls screamed and shoved each other as they poured out of the school gates as if pursued by zombies, baring their teeth and wailing.
The few who ran ahead, even when they collided with the arms of the rescue workers, were still panic-stricken.
"Nether Domain! Nether Domain!"
"Don't block me!"
"Is this the Secret Realm? Is this the outside? Are you real?!"
Inside the campus, conscientious teachers were organizing the evacuation, while a good number of instructors had already run a couple of streets away.
Many others were between the two, scrambling to set up police lines within a safe distance.
Amid the chaos, a black government-customized SUV accelerated, swinging its tail into the cordoned area.
After parking steadily, the man in the driver's seat with sunglasses turned to the woman in the passenger seat, waiting for further instructions.
The woman, dressed in the standard government white shirt and black trousers, the fit of which was astonishingly perfect, had her left arm in a cast, slung around her neck together with a large piece of gauze covering half of her exquisite curves.
She also had the lazy long hair characteristic of a young housewife, tied into a casual ponytail, accentuating the lines perfectly. The elegant strands that fell beside her temples allowed one to see her delicate face and the unmistakably aloof look in her eyes.
At that moment, seeing boys and girls flee the campus as if surrounded by zombies, she finally showed a hint of interest and stretched her single arm with a yawn, "High school girls are cuter than they used to be."
"Mhm." The man with sunglasses nodded in agreement.
"We'll go over when it's quieter," she yawned.
"Alright." The man with the sunglasses then took off his glasses and pulled out a comb, carefully straightening his pompadour.
"You really care about your image in front of high school girls?" the woman asked with a smirk.
"Exactly," the man with sunglasses nodded vigorously.
"So that's why you patrol around the high school?"
"That's right."
"Useless. No matter what you do, you're just one of the standard government men, like a signboard background, no one will take a second glance at you."
"Hmph." The man with sunglasses turned away, pulling out a razor.
"Although at this rate, I'm going to become one of the standard government women," the woman turned sideways, resting her face against the back of the seat, and patting her cast, "Didn't I tell you to apply for other positions a long time ago? Sending resumes to corporates is fine too. If you stick with me, unless we run into a once-in-a-millennium crisis, you'll only have routine patrols until you die."
"Oh." The man with sunglasses continued to shave as he responded.
Meanwhile, an overly serious young female voice came from the back of the SUV, "Chief, the report is ready."
"It's 'Team Leader' now," the woman replied, opening the car window and propping her elbow on the ledge, resting her cheek in her hand as she surveyed the crowd, "but the same rule applies, stick to the highlights."
The woman in the back started her report:
"Three seconds after the Secret Realm outbreak at Northern Isle High School, the monitoring AI has categorized it as β1-2103257 and provided an initial analysis.
"Like the three previous Secret Realm outbreaks this month, this one is also extremely limited in scope, covering only one classroom.
"There were 46 individuals involved, 45 of whom were students from Senior Year 4, Class 3, and one was their homeroom teacher.
"None of the 46 have any Vanguard training records, past encounters with the Secret Realm, and of course, no Vanguard qualifications.
"Among them is a student related to a well-known corporate executive, but the familial connection is distant, and it's believed that the executive won't care much.
"Next, the estimated parameters of the Secret Realm—
"The type of the Secret Realm is 'Rule-based', with an intensity level of 1, the same as the previous three times, which is the lowest.
"Considering the quality of those involved, the AI's predicted success rate for clearance is 2.7%, and the individual survival rate is 1.4%.
"Although the situation in rule-based Secret Realms can be complex, the intensity of this realm is very low, and a team of role-less Vanguards can ignore the rules and destroy the Secret Realm by eliminating its master. However, this would also damage some of the treasures.
"Taking into account the involved students and the expected modest returns from a level 1 Secret Realm, the Nether Domain Safety Bureau's Xin Hai branch has issued orders to assemble the nearest Vanguards to carry out the clearance by destroying the master.
"Xiu Fu, you're also on the assembly list, better get in there quick."
"Let's go!" The man with sunglasses was speaking and swiftly put away the nose hair scissors he hadn't had the chance to use yet.
"No rush." The woman in the passenger seat was still enjoying the view outside, pouting slightly, "A low-intensity rule-based Secret Realm is exactly the fertile ground for wild seedlings to sprout. If we burn down the mountain before giving them time to germinate, the safety bureau is making another splendid decision."
"Chief... group leader, I need to remind you," the woman in the back row advised, "If you were still at your former rank, you would have the authority to have the rescue team hold off, but it is precisely this kind of decision that led us to our current situation. Moreover, for the agency, the safety of the citizens absolutely takes precedence over Vanguard training."
"When is anything absolute? It's all a matter of weighing pros and cons," the woman countered, fiddling with her fingers, "It's worth the gamble to risk forty or so lives for a shot at a rogue monster. Otherwise, we'll end up with standardized Vanguards trained in batches and the number of unconquerable Secret Realms will only increase until we all descend into Hell together."
"Exactly," the man in sunglasses said, nodding vigorously as he sprayed his breath freshener.
"Gou Xiufu, don't mess around!" the serious woman in the back row scolded, then hurriedly reminded the woman in the front passenger seat, "Group leader, you must not say these things in public. The deputy director specifically instructed me to keep an eye on you."
"What did he instruct?"
"The director, he... he hopes that I fulfill my duties as a subordinate and offer advice when necessary."
"I want to hear the exact words."
"'You keep an eye on that crazy bitch, and if anything happens, you're fired too!'"
"..."
"I remembered it wrong, it was 'You keep an eye on that crazy beautiful girl'."
"Enough," the woman sighed, grabbing her trench coat and pushing open the car door, "I can accept being called a crazy bitch, I just hate that he emphasizes gender. That's why I only call him a fat fly, not a fat male fly."
With that, she leaped from the car, her trench coat billowing in the wind.
"β1-2103257, commence cleanup."
...
1 minute 07 seconds after the outbreak of β1-2103257.
Inside the Secret Realm, the first wave of panic had gradually subsided; people began to try using their phones and other electronic devices, and upon realizing they didn't work, they started to observe their surroundings.
But this slowly calming mood was soon shattered by a sound.
Clatter—
A crisp noise of glasses falling to the ground came from the stage.
Looking towards the sound, they saw Han Chun kneeling on the ground, eyes bulging, grasping his neck with his left hand and digging desperately into his mouth with his right, as if trying to pull something from his esophagus.
Between convulsions and retching, his tears, snot, and the blood oozing from the corners of his mouth mingled into a sticky mess, trailing to the ground.
As everyone watched in shock, there was another loud "thud," and Han Chun's body lost all strength and collapsed, his chin hitting the floor hard, soaking in the mess on the ground, struggling clumsily like a snail.
Yet he still frantically looked around, stretching out his left hand to grasp someone, "Ugh... Uggh... Help... Help me..."
At that moment, everything went silent.
This oppressive silence lasted a full 5 seconds.
Then—
"Ahhhhhh!!!"
"What is that thing!!!"
"Get away ahhhhhh!!!"
The second wave of panic struck.
People surged towards the door like mad, kicking at the windows, occasionally glancing back at Han Chun, terrified he might crawl towards them.
But the door wouldn't budge, and the glass wouldn't break.
Zheng Ruixing scrambled to grab a fire extinguisher, swinging it at the windows to smash them.
Other burly men were already red-eyed and snotty, desperately ramming against the door.
The women wanted to do something too, but the men had already taken all the available actions, leaving them to only wail helplessly behind.
At moments like this, no one remembered the "three prohibitions and one wait" policy.
All that existed was panic, panic, and more panic.
But for Li Qingming, the situation was quite the opposite.
Every day he spent here was torture.
Only now did he finally experience the joy of school life.