The darkness here was impenetrable by light, but with explosives, it was possible.
For a moment, the light was a little dazzling. It pierced through the ruins shrouded in darkness, illuminating half the sky.
You Huo suddenly recalled the day when the vision in his eyes were restored. The gauze over his eyes had not yet been completely removed but the light that he had not seen for a long time penetrated through those meshes. Although it couldn't be said that it brought him joy, it allowed him to slacken and relax.
...….
"Laughed?" Qin Jiu glanced at You Huo. He picked up another explosive and skilfully loaded it.
He squinted his eyes and again fired another one at the sky.
The recoil from it caused dust around him to scatter.
Even while standing in a safe area, he could still feel the heat from the explosives.
You Huo patted Qin Jiu's shoulder.
The other turned his head with a deep smile on his lips. This man's arrogance was cleverly wrapped up and concealed by his clothes. He seemed to possess a different kind of madness.
"Why? Want to play with it too?" He asked.
"Let me try." You Huo reached for it.
Qin Jiu jokingly moved it away: "I know our top student is very skilled, but this is something you shouldn't play around with."
You Huo who's hands grabbed thin air: "...…"
"Aren't you being childish?"
"I'm okay. Overall quite mature." Qin Jiu nodded solemnly: "I just wanted to let you know that without professional training, you can easily die from playing around this."
You Huo glanced at the marking on the side of the barrel.
This was a cheaper and simpler version of AT4CSRS so it was slightly heavier compared to the original. It has a range of 300 metres, can be reloaded and has the advantage of being able to be used in a closed space but, if there were anything obstacles behind it, the recoil would likely harm the user.
It was indeed something that could result in death if used incorrectly.
Qin Jiu may have appeared to have fired it casually, but he didn't overlook anything. In one glance, you could tell that he was experienced.
This was a classic example of putting ones skills into use.
"You've been in the military?" You Huo asked.
"Four years in the military academy and three years in the military." Qin Jiu said: "Then I came here."
"My stay in the military was shorter than yours but I was in the military academy longer than you. Because I skipped grades, I'm also younger than you."
You Huo glanced at him and placed the launcher onto his shoulder. He then kicked Qin Jiu a few times to indicate for him to move aside.
"So, if you didn't die from this, I won't die either."
He half closed his left eye and fired one in one go.
Qin Jiu raised his eyebrow. His eyes glanced over at You Huo's earring before finally settling on the corner of his pursed lips.
Another burst of light illuminated the sky.
You Huo lowered his hands. The launcher slammed onto the ground.
"Will the ship collapse?" He asked.
"It's hard to say." Qin Jiu lied and made seem as if he was telling the truth, "Perhaps seawater would pour in later. Are you good in water? If you're not good, I can consider lending you a hand."
You Huo: "...…"
After being stared at by those cold eyes for several seconds, invigilator 001 changed his words and said: "You can just regard the current confinement room as a separate examination centre connected to the invigilator's ship. The commotion we made wouldn't result in the ship collapsing. At best, they will just feel a small tremor."
***
After three "small tremors" passed, two plates were broken, three cups of coffee were spilt, and an oil lamp fell and shattered on the second floor of the invigilator's ship.
The four invigilators searched everywhere to find the source of the quakes.
The sea was as usual a frozen mass. There wasn't anything suspicious floating around.
There also weren't any sea monsters seeking death below the ship.
After searching around for a long time, they finally....in disbelief…..found themselves standing in front of the door to the second confinement room.
"It's really this place?" 078 was still not convinced: "Can a confinement room cause this? Why haven't I seen it happen before?"
922: "I also haven't—–"
Before he could finish, there was another bang.
The invigilators expressions all fell.
922: ".....I have now seen it."
154 said calmly: "Go open the door."
922 was dissatisfied: "Why me?"
154: "You're energetic."
922: "......"
***
After a moment of silence, the door was opened by 922.
He cautiously stuck his head in only to find himself next to a blackened wall. Thick smoke filled his nose.
"Boss....what the hell are you holding?"
Qin Jiu: "....."
The moment before the door opened, someone had just finished firing the fourth explosive before shoving the launcher into his hands in attempt to push the last two explosions onto him.
It was the classic move of someone playing their fill and then turning their back.
Qin Jiu snorted. Holding the launcher, he stepped forward and said to 922: "You came just in time. I need you for something."
922 was startled by the launcher: "What happened? Is there a problem with the confinement room?"
"No....."
"Then could there be another system bug?" 922 was even more worried.
"What?! System bug?!" 154 who was outside also stuck his head in, "Boss, are you okay?! Anyone hurt?"
078 and 021 were also startled. They all grabbed the door and rushed in.
For the first time, You Huo saw the invigilators expressions change one after another. One after another, their faces turned pale with shock.
Qin Jiu however said: "Don't panic, the system is okay. There are no bugs. Those grabbing the door can let go."
"Really okay?"
"Really."
922's neck seemingly grew another inch. He stretched his neck out and looked around.
Seeing that nothing strange appeared to be going on, he let out a sigh of relief.
Qin Jiu saw their startled behaviour and couldn't help but say: "Even if there was a bug, did you have to be so anxious?"
"Of course..." 922 said: "Even you couldn't deal with a bug and had to recuperate in the ICU for two years so how could we not be anxious..."
154 tugged furiously at his sleeve but he was unfortunately a little too late. This stupid colleague of his had already finished speaking.
Qin Jiu glanced at 922 before asking 154: "922 came here rather late so how did he know about it? Did you tell him?"
154 silently covered his face. He then said with a guilty conscience: "We touched on that topic during one of our conversations."
078 this idiot also tried to join the excitement: "Isn't it normal knowing about this? I heard about it as soon as I joined our team. I heard it was very scary and dangerous and you were even announced dead several times. There was blood everywhere and even several plates of metal...…"
He found himself met with Qin Jiu's cold and indifferent gaze. He then reacted and stopped himself: "Uh....It was something like that."
"The creativity and embellishment is not bad. It exaggerated the dangerousness of a system bug." Qin Jiu added calmly.
078 said: "It's indeed a little.....the system bug is one thing but the legendary invigilator A may have also played a role. If not, you wouldn't have been hurt that ba———Ow——–"
This punching bag suddenly yelped in pain. When he looked down at his foot, he saw the heel of Miss 021's high heel pressed down onto his toes.
"Miss, you...…"
021 stopped and gently let out an "ah": "Sorry, I was too anxious trying to get in."
078 slid down against the door frame clutching his foot. He quietly uttered out: "It's alright..."
"Your team is unexpectedly quite concerned about me. I'm a little flattered." Qin Jiu pulled 078 up, "What else did you chat about? Tell me?"
His attitude was quite good, and there was also a hint of playfulness in his words.
078 hopped a few times before finally recovering from the pain: "That was about it. In fact, we only just talked about it a few times when I first entered the team. I was new after all...so I was curious about everything. We tried guessing what the bug was like, how you dealt with it and also where invigilator A may have gone. After going through all kinds of possibilities and no longer having anything else to guess, we stopped talking about it."
Qin Jiu who heard those words of his suddenly found it a little funny.
As the person involved, he would occasionally remember that incident over the past few years. It appeared that this was the same for those outsiders——–
They would similarly try to guess what could have possibly happened that day, guess how everything was resolved and guess what may have happened to invigilator A.
He had no memory about the first two and there was no data he could access left in the system. Just purely speculating wasn't enough.
As for the last one....
Although he couldn't remember and he couldn't find the relevant information, but based on the system's usual operations, to an extent the answer could be inferred.
That invigilator A was either dead or abolished. Since he was removed from the system, his memory should have also been wiped.
A long time ago, 154 had rashly asked him about that incident.
"Boss, what if...I'm only asking what if. What if that invigilator is not dead and you meet him again one day?"
At that time Qin Jiu said: "Meet him? He doesn't remember me; I don't remember him. Something like this can't be called meeting. It's strangers sharing the same path."
154: "Then if you recognised him?"
"Give him back a few critical condition notices?" Qin Jiu replied casually. After a while, he also lazily added: "...I would probably ask him to stay away. Regardless of whether or not we got along, nothing good seems to come from us being together."
.
Qin Jiu blinked a few times before returning to his senses and said to 078 and the others: "Alright now. The others should go back and rest. I just needed 922 for something. I don't need such a big audience here."
All the invigilators there internally said: Your actions earlier clearly didn't mean that!
922 asked: "What do you need me for?"
Qin Jiu stretched his hand out: "Did you bring your portable charger? Lend it to me."
922: "...."
922: "........."
922: "..................…"
At this moment, 078 finally realised what a terrible idea it was to confine them together.
In order to avoid wasting more time, he brazenly separated the two great masters. You Huo was sent back to the first confinement room while Qin Jiu continued to stay in the second confinement room.
Before turning around and going over to the room next door, You Huo pulled Qin Jiu over and tried to say something.
But he then remembered 078's words from earlier including the mention of all the death notices and the metal plates. He felt that it was inappropriate telling Qin Jiu that he was invigilator A at a time like this...
For once the atmosphere between them wasn't bad. Why bother ruining it?
Moreover, he still didn't have conclusive evidence to prove that he was once invigilator A.
If he had not yet clarified it, why bother dragging someone else in?
.
The second half of this round of confinement was extraordinarily long.
At the very least, time seemed to be particularly long for Qin Jiu as he waited for the phone to come back to life.....It almost felt like a century.
The phone seemed to be deliberately playing with him.
It chose to suddenly turn on just before 922 returned to reopen the door.
Qin Jiu didn't waste any time this time and quickly clicked into that video.
As soon as the play button was selected, the street in the video came alive.
KK has something to say:
The video finally plays!