Translator: ThatLazyPotato
Translation Checker: 7qqy
Editor: yuki_shuichi
Bai Chunian was shocked. The severed hand on his shoulder slipped to the ground, and blood splattered on the ground. However, there wasn’t a lot of blood and the color was also dark. It could be seen that the hand wasn’t severed just a few seconds ago.
There was a ring impression on the severed hand’s ring finger. Except for the bluish-black oxidation, the skin color was consistent with that of Bai Chunian. Its fingertips were black, with faint burn marks, and it also smelled slightly burnt.
“This is my hand. I threw it in the trash can next to the stairwell on the first floor. Who brought it here?” Bai Chunian immediately looked around and checked every nook and cranny in the test room, but came up empty.
He looked up; there was still no suspicious being found, but he was still determined. “Something is following us.”
Yet the test room had no gap whatsoever that would allow creatures to pass through. The only path that wasn’t closed was the hallway leading to the incinerator.
Puppet Master furrowed his eyebrows. He looked at the end of the hallway from which they came. Sporadic flames rose in color—the incinerator was moving in their direction.
“We don’t have time left.”
“Tsk.” Bai Chunian also knew that time was running out and there was no time to think. So, he kicked the severed hand on the floor against the wall to get it out of the way, and the severed hand smeared a trail of blood on the ground.
Looking at the room again, there were a total of one hundred cube blocks of different materials placed inside. They were used to test the crushing force, which meant that it must be crushed one by one. Bai Chunian calculated based on his own strength that it would take three seconds to crush each block, and four seconds would be needed between charging up and hitting two blocks. It would take ten minutes to crush all of the blocks. Judging from the time it took for the incinerator, which was gradually spreading heat, to catch up with Rimbaud and Eris, it would take no more than five minutes for the incinerator to crush and burn them.
Bai Chunian pushed the rows of blocks as far forward as possible but discovered that each block was nailed to the floor and couldn’t be pushed. If he made the Dead Sea heart rock into a hammer and smashed the blocks into pieces, then it should be enough time.
He was thinking while rubbing his hand on the granite block surface. Puppet Master leaned over and asked, “Using Annihilate? Does it even recognize its name as granite?”
“Let me do it.” Puppet Master was fairly calm, taking out a silver square key from his leather apron pocket. The Sacred Wind-Up Key mechanically stretched and changed shape, with the head flattening and the end becoming pointed, forming a mechanical spike.
He leaned over and pushed the spike against the block. There was a micro-machine in the silver mechanical spike’s body that was centrifugally moving up and down. The speed was getting faster and faster, and the vibrating hum assimilated to the granite. The cube blocks resonated and shook together, causing cracks to suddenly appear all over the block along with a cracking sound. The granite shattered into a few fragments.
“That’s freaking awesome. It can turn into a centrifugal spike. Your thing is pretty good,” Bai Chunian praised sincerely. He took the collar around his neck and molded it into a long-handled hammer, then smashed different types of blocks along with Puppet Master.
The two of them immersed themselves in work and also began secretly criticizing each other. It sucked to be randomly assigned to a group. Many abilities and weaknesses that you didn’t want to expose to the other person were now forced to be publicized. It would be even more difficult to win now when two parties cross paths with each other again and fight to the death.
This can’t go on, Bai Chunian thought.
It was better to take care of Puppet Master first while Eris wasn’t here. Since he was human, as long as his Dead Sea heart rock touched him, he would be heavily injured.
The two of them broke the blocks into pieces together, and it was much faster than expected. It took less than two minutes for them to clear more than half of them.
Bai Chunian calculated the time and how many blocks there were left. When there wasn’t much left and it was enough to pass the test, he forged the Dead Sea heart rock into a blade and hid it in his palm.
Judging from the size of the map, there shouldn’t be many tests left. Once he took care of Puppet Master, he would get rid of Eris with Rimbaud. In any case, the Sacred Wind-Up Key wasn’t on Eris, so killing him was a piece of cake.
He glanced slightly at Puppet Master, calculating the angle for when he took action in his head. He looked up unintentionally and suddenly froze.
“Fu…ck.”
The tip of the Sacred Wind-Up Key, which Puppet Master was holding, tilted towards Bai Chunian, but he was interrupted by Bai Chunian’s exclamation. Puppet Master silently retracted his hand, and moved his gaze toward where Bai Chunian was looking in a daze.
The severed hand that was kicked against the wall had vanished.
“Oh my god, seriously? I had it there just now.” Bai Chunian sped a few steps over to check—not only had the hand disappeared, but even the blood on the floor was gone as if it had inexplicably evaporated into thin air.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
He rubbed his fingertip on the floor. No matter who had come, they didn’t leave any traces. It was as strange as the observation platform having no fingerprints.
“Pa’r gfjiis ubcf. P vlvc’a tfjg jcsatlcu, atbeut.”
“Ofa’r cba ybatfg jybea la olgra.”
Klwf kjlar obg cb bcf; atf lcmlcfgjabg kjr ufaalcu mibrfg jcv mibrfg. Djl Jtecljc gjc yjmx ab ygfjxlcu atf yibmxr, klqlcu atf rkfja bc tlr obgftfjv.
Cii atf meyf yibmxr kfgf mgertfv, jcv atf kjii ja atf fcv bo atf gbbw, ktlmt kjr alutais rfjifv, gbrf ribkis. C gfqbga oibjafv bea.
“Score: 91. Evaluation: S. Passed the test.”
Bai Chunian stepped on the report, walked directly along the hallway, and went deeper into the room. “Are the scores calculated based on the passing time? Us two together only got us 91 points, so 100 points must be unbelievable.”
Puppet Master put the Sacred Wind-Up Key back in his pocket, walked behind him, and said quietly to the communicator, “Eris, say out the topic.”
Eris obediently said it.
He spoke in English. The questions should have translations into different languages, but luckily he knew them. His pronunciation was very British, with a distinct Glaswegian accent.
“Please briefly describe the calculation method of the share reform consideration and warrant price. Please briefly describe the medical equipment financing leasing method.”
“Help.” Bai Chunian rubbed his face. “It wouldn’t be that they need to write the answer to the question by hand, right?”
Rimbaud, “It has voice recognition.”
“That’s great.”
Luckily, he learned a lot of things from Uncle Jin at the company. Bai Chunian tried his best to recall the content of the books. “I say a line and you repeat after me. The theoretical value of each warrant is calculated by the B-S formula…”
Rimbaud, “Each portion of human bones is steamed whole, the value is calculated by the mortal formula.”
Bai Chunian, “Wife, bring the communicator to the voice recognition port, it should recognize it more accurately than you.”
Puppet Master calmly answered the second question.
The intelligence test questions were much faster to complete than the force tests. Bai Chunian used his time to pass a few more of their tests.
Eris read out the third question, but he was doing it with difficulty. It took the two of them a bit of guesswork to figure out the problem.
“Expand the function f(x) = e^x to the power of x. Expand f(x) = sinx to the power of x.”
“Hold on, let me think.” Bai Chunian rolled up his sleeves and used his finger to write the calculation in the air. The problem wasn’t hard, but this kind of problem would be difficult even if the answers were laid out on the floor for Rimbaud and Eris to copy, saying it would be even harder.
Puppet Master had already begun to recite the problem-solving process to Eris. There were many terms that Eris didn’t understand, but Puppet Master took the trouble to explain them to him in a calm voice. This reminded him of his college career. At the end of every semester, he always answered the questions, handed in the paper first, and then read the answers to his roommates through headphones. The roommates, who were usually unlearned and unskilled, wouldn’t understand what he was saying, so he could only repeat it over and over again.
Bai Chunian taught Rimbaud to finish writing the process, then started to figure out his own questions while chatting with Puppet Master.
Puppet Master admitted that he often liked to cheat when he was younger, and he enjoyed seeing the grateful expressions of his roommates toward him after the exam. That was his greatest pleasure.
“Oh, you like being thanked,” Bai Chunian briefly summed up.
Puppet Master wanted to refute it at first but acknowledged it after thinking about it.
“Why do you guys have to go around killing people? You guys have a lot of experimental subjects under your command. Why can’t you do anything good? Are you short on money?”
“Not lacking money. The Red-Throated Bird’s properties are all in my hands.”
“Then what are you planning?”
Puppet Master pensively answered, “Humans have been at the top of the food chain for a long time and had forgotten that there was a set of rules in nature such as the weak prey to the strong. I’m just helping remind them again so that they don’t get carried away. If you think it’s wrong, then I won’t try to convince you. Living and death are just two states of life. My only crime was making them fear before they died. Other than that, I am a good person.”
Bai Chunian was aware that he wouldn’t be able to persuade him, so he didn’t bother to speak any more nonsense.
The third force test they faced was the penetration test. The room in front of them was sealed by several layers of translucent bulletproof fiberglass panels. The material was as strong as the shell of a Tiger tank. Each fiberglass panel was about two meters apart. It looked like they had to use their bodies to break through the layers of reinforced fiberglass panels.
Bai Chunian tried to break the fiberglass panel with a sledgehammer made of the Dead Sea heart rock. The digital display lit up red as a result. Using a sharp or blunt object to assist in breaking the panels was not allowed.
“These crappy tests can really exhaust people.” Bai Chunian breathed deeply, powered up, and hit the fiberglass panel’s surface with force.
A banging noise resounded, and the room trembled along with it. Half of Bai Chunian’s body became numb, but there were only a few cracks on the reinforced fiberglass panel. He could only bite the bullet and rely on Bone Armor to continue hitting.
After relying on inertia to smash four fiberglass panels, the fifth panel didn’t break from the impact. There were only a few tiny cracks on it, with some blood on it.
“Ouch, ouch, it hurts…” Bai Chunian’s left side of his body was bleeding, with a scratch on his cheeks from the broken glass piece.
“Not going to take off the collar?” Puppet Master’s tone was slightly teasing. When they fought at the Berna Pharmaceutical Factory, the sight of Bai Chunian using the Dead Sea heart rock shackle was still vivid in his mind.
“It’s not that I don’t want to take it off.” Bai Chunian sat down, took a breath to rest for a moment, and let his broken flesh and damaged bone be repaired. He thought for a while, then said, “Yes, it is because I don’t want to take it off.”
Puppet Master had already slightly turned around to ask Rimbaud and Eris about their question.
Then Bai Chunian heard Eris shout through the communicator, “After we went in, the floor opened up, and two Rubik’s cubes popped out. The colors were mixed up, so I turned all six sides on the floor until the color matched, yet they only gave me six points!”
Rimbaud’s voice sounded like he was suppressing his anger to the greatest extent, and he was grinding his teeth. “I bit it apart and arranged the cubes by color, but the report gave me five points. It said I failed, and another Rubik’s cube jumped out. Why is my score lower, wei?”
“So amazing, very awesome,” Bai Chunian happily praised him. “I mean it. You actually arrange it back, that’s unimaginable. The system must be malfunctioning, you should be the one with a higher score than Eris.”
Rimbaud listened to his breathing gradually become heavier and suddenly put away his anger. He asked warmly, “Randi, are you tired?”
“I’m fine, wife. Put the cube on the floor, tell me the colors in order, and I’ll tell you how to turn it.” Rimbaud sat down and saw the flames spreading further at the end of the hallway. He silently calculated the time in his mind.
Rimbaud obediently put the cube in front of him and read the colors on each side in order.
It wasn’t until he finished reading the first line that Bai Chunian realized that this was a V-Cube 7 Rubik’s cube. It was a lot more challenging compared to a 3 x 3 cube, and he didn’t have the actual object in his hands, so he had to rely on imagination and what was being told to him—that was, if Rimbaud could twist the cube exactly in the order as he was told.
“Wife, pick up the Rubik’s cube and don’t change its direction. Twist it according to what I say. Don’t turn it around at all cost.”
Rimbaud sat on the floor with his tail curled up, earnestly twisting the cube. Listening to Bai Chunian’s tired voice through the communicator made him a little anxious.
He got distracted for a moment and the cube in his hands changed direction.
“It’s fine.” Bai Chunian paused and smiled helplessly. “No need to rush. Put it on the floor and tell me the colors again.”
“It’s too time-consuming.” Rimbaud interrupted him. “Have you come out yet? How far is the fire away from you? Is it about to burn you?”
“Don’t worry, I know what to do.”
Eris heard the sound of clothes’ hem being slapped from Puppet Master’s side.
“Knicks?”
Puppet Master answered, “Wait a moment, the fire is approaching. First, put the cube on the floor and don’t move it.”
Eris put down the Rubik’s cube impatiently, stood up, and walked back and forth. “I’ve had enough, I seriously had enough. There are endless questions, I can’t understand them. I’m so weak that I can’t even use my strength. I have to have Knicks teach me every question. I hate this the most.”
Rimbaud also put down the Rubik’s cube, looked around, and noticed the spot where the cube popped out.
It was on one side of the room. There were two built-in Rubik’s cube display stands. They were given a failing grade after placing the last one on the display stand. There was a square gap on the ground five meters opposite the display stand, from which the cube was ejected just now.
Rimbaud pressed on the gap with his long, pointed finger, but it was as hard as the material of the ground and didn’t budge at all.
“Unlucky guy.” Rimbaud raised his chin at Eris. “Come here.”
Rimbaud stretched out the tip of his tail and wrapped it around the Rubik’s cube on the floor, then threw it to Eris, saying, “Put it on.” He pointed at the display across from them.
“You’ve only finished half of the puzzle and you’re handing it over already?” Eris walked over nonchalantly and slapped the Rubik’s cube on the display stand.
Once the display stand lit up red, and it would probably spit out another fail report.
As usual, when it showed that he failed, the system automatically popped up a new cube.
Rimbaud’s entire body was lying on the ground, focusing on the small square gap in an ambush and predatory posture. The moment the Rubik’s cube popped out of the small opening, Rimbaud grabbed the small square cover raised from the ground and jammed it firmly.
The two webbed hands quickly turned into scales, turning into powerful blades covered with scales like dragon claws. Rimbaud held the little opening, his dorsal fin raised its spikes, and his fish tail turned a fierce red.
There was a loud hissing sound, and the entire thick metal used for flooring was torn open by Rimbaud, exposing the ejection mechanism and the dense cable wires.
Rimbaud crawled into the crack of the steel floor headfirst and walked along the wall like a gecko.
“Nice, now this is what I like.” Eris saw what he was doing and also jumped in.
¤¤¤
Bai Chunian and Puppet Master were still trying every means to destroy the fiberglass panel; they could only hear the sound of Rimbaud whispering through the communicator. “Both of you stand aside.” Then there was only the loud sound of glass breaking, as well as Rimbaud’s calm breathing.
From the end, the glass was punctured one by one, like tissue paper, separated by several translucent fiberglass panels. Bai Chunian vaguely saw a shadow appearing at the end. The shadow was rapidly breaking through the glass panel. Suddenly, the entire glass in front of him exploded, and the flying glass fragments were like splashing waves, surrounding the blue merman leaping out from the middle.
The digital display score on the wall began to go up. After reaching the end, it showed the garble ∞ positive infinity symbol. The penetration test report fell out, “Score: 100. Evaluation: SSS. A passing score on this test.”
“Wow! Amazing! My wife is really amazing.” Bai Chunian lowered his head to pick up the report, but Rimbaud wrapped his tail around his neck and pulled him back.
“Let’s go.”
The flames behind him were about to touch Bai Chunian’s back. Rimbaud picked him up by the collar with his mouth and dragged him out of the fire like a kitten. He became blue lightning and rushed toward the end of the hallway.
Puppet Master heard noises on the ceiling. A hole was made in the sturdy and thick slab of carbon nitrate above his head. Eris was hanging upside down, his face appeared right in front of Puppet Master, and his silver hung upside down. He was holding a report with a full score, and the corner of his lips was raised proudly up to his ears. “I fight from later levels and work my way backward, how is it?”
“It’s useless.” Puppet Master put his hands in his windbreaker pockets and slowly walked forward. He walked past Eris’ ear, bringing a gust of wind with him.
¤¤¤
“Rimbaud! The hollow floor in front collapsed, there’s a ditch!”
A dark gap had appeared at the end of the hallway. Rimbaud let go as they drew near, and Bai Chunian rolled over and landed on the floor, then jumped up. His two hands hung on the raised edge on the opposite side, his arms tensed and swung upwards, and he flexibly climbed up to the opposite side of the platform. Rimbaud also jumped over and drew a blue arc in the dark air. His hands caught Bai Chunian’s stretched-out hands and he was pulled up.
Eris followed, holding Puppet Master and running forward. When he arrived at the gap, he jumped with all his might. When he was about to land, Puppet Master raised a hand and released his J1 ability, Pawn Substitute, and switched places with Eris, landing on the opposite side of the platform. Eris jumped again, and Puppet Master released a spider silk puppet string which wrapped around Eris’ legs and pulled him over.
When Rimbaud landed, he knocked Bai Chunian over, and they both rolled on the ground a few times before stopping.
Their surroundings once again had lost lighting, becoming dark. Bai Chunian laid on the floor, panting. When he opened his eyes, he faintly felt something pass by his cheeks. The slightly warm, soft, dirty touch rubbed against his cheek, instantly taking his memory back to his childhood.
Rats.
His eyes widened, and at that moment, his mind went blank. He only felt the hair on his back standing erect, and his scalp felt numb.
But his body was hugged the next second. Rimbaud wrapped around his body, burying Bai Chunian’s face in the crook of his neck. He released light soothing pheromones and spoke in a low voice in his ear that only the two could hear, “Don’t be scared.”
Then he rubbed the white lion’s ears that appeared out of nowhere—the airplane ears were pressed close to the head, seemingly very nervous.
Top line is BCN, bottom line is Rimbaud
Thank You for the new chapter (⋈◍＞◡＜◍)。✧♡