Chapter 106
Chapter 106
Under that oppressive atmosphere, Qin Lan lost himself in the killing.
He hunted anomalies faster and faster, until his pace became almost pathological.
Whenever curse energy at 3-Star or above emerged from a fissure, he would appear within minutes.
Like a tireless machine, Qin Lan killed each anomaly with the fewest possible movements, absorbed its energy, and immediately rushed to the next battlefield.
Combat was becoming instinct. His consciousness gradually sank into a haze.
His thinking was simple.
Every additional anomaly he killed meant a few fewer Anomaly Hunters sacrificed and a few more civilians in the Safe Zone left alive.
“Old Qin?”
“Old Qin!”
Only Xue Chuan’s furious shout dragged Qin Lan out of that numb slaughter.
“Ugh…”
Strength suddenly drained from Qin Lan’s body. He was like an overloaded machine whose process had been abruptly terminated, every component shrieking an alarm.
He had barely rested. His mind and body had both long since reached the brink of collapse.
Qin Lan had forgotten how many anomalies he had killed. He knew only that he had to continue. He could not stop.
“Have you lost your fucking mind?!”
Xue Chuan strode over, seized him by the shoulder, and glared. “How many fucking days has it been since you slept?!”
“Are you trying to stay awake until you die?!”
Xue Chuan had spent the past few days helping suppress the fissures and had no time to ask about Qin Lan. He had learned of this madness only from Luo Yue.
At Xue Chuan’s rebuke, exhaustion flooded Qin Lan.
Even so, he shook his head. “I’m fine. Don’t worry…”
Judging by his posture, he still meant to head for the next fissure.
“Fine, my ass!” Xue Chuan snapped. “If you keep sinking into this state, the anomalies won’t need to kill you. You’ll do it yourself!”
Still cursing, he rummaged through his pocket. “Fucking idiot…”
A few seconds later, he pulled out an old cassette recorder.
How something that large had fit in his pocket was anyone’s guess, but out it came.
Under Qin Lan’s puzzled gaze, Xue Chuan pressed play.
[Math Teacher’s Study Secrets]
[Description: An educational cassette created by a high school math teacher with years of teaching experience, into which he poured everything he learned over his lifetime. It features his charming, obscure small-county accent, detailed explanations, and the occasional phlegmy cough–beware! It can easily make you sleepy!]
The cassette began to turn. A deep male voice rich with rustic flavor emerged from the recorder.
“Let’s look at the first group, ah. Alpha here is an arbitrary angle, but we usually treat it as an acute angle. Then, when k is an integer, how do we simplify this trigonometric value of k times pi over two, plus or minus alpha? Mm, pay attention. If k is even–say, k equals zero, two, or four–then…”
Qin Lan’s eyes instantly lost focus.
He toppled on the spot.
Fortunately, Xue Chuan reacted quickly and caught him before he hit the ground.
A closer look revealed earplugs stuffed into Xue Chuan’s ears.
“Don’t blame your brother for playing dirty. I had no choice…” Xue Chuan sighed, wearing an expression of infinite compassion. “If I didn’t stop you, we might really have had to meet again in our next lives.”
It was the deepest, sweetest sleep Qin Lan had ever experienced.
How long had it been since he relaxed this completely? He could no longer remember.
All the stress, exhaustion, and unease accumulated over this period left him.
His body seemed to sink into an ocean of cotton, then float weightlessly among the clouds.
Drifting through the haze, Qin Lan vaguely saw a figure.
It felt familiar, but he could not remember who it was.
He reached out, wanting to touch it, to see its face, to pursue that strange familiarity. Instead, the figure’s back receded farther and farther from him.
Until he woke.
When Qin Lan opened his eyes again, he almost wished he could return.
His mental world had been a parched pit. Now gentle streams flowed into it, restoring the tranquil surface of a lake.
The exhaustion had vanished from his limbs, leaving them full of strength once more.
More strength than before. Fuller and more abundant.
The only flaw was that the first thing he saw upon waking was Xue Chuan’s damn face.
It would’ve been nice if a beautiful girl was sitting beside me when I woke up, Qin Lan thought.
Xue Chuan narrowed his eyes.
“What’s that supposed to mean? Why do you look disappointed?”
“You upset that your buddy’s beside you instead of some mature beauty in black stockings?”
As expected of a teammate who had survived two dangerous instances with Qin Lan, he read the man’s thoughts from a single glance.
“If you wore black stockings and waited beside my bed, I suppose I could reluctantly enjoy that too.”
Qin Lan sat up with a teasing smile.
“That costs extra.” Xue Chuan yawned. “You slept like a king while I worked myself to death.”
The heavy dark circles under his eyes made it clear he had not slept well.
Qin Lan rubbed his eyes and asked the question that mattered most.
“Thanks… How are things now?”
He did not know how long he had slept, but it certainly had not been brief.
Xue Chuan raked a hand through his messy black hair. The short braid once tied behind his head had long since come loose, showing how frantic the past two days had been.
“Not bad. If anything had gotten out of control, I would’ve forced you awake.”
“3-Star anomalies are showing up more often, but I’ve been running all over the place and managed to hold them off… That uncle named Han and his daughter you asked me to watch are both fine. They’ve been moved to a shelter.”
“I even helped kill three 3-Star anomalies.”
“Wanna see how awesome I am?”
Qin Lan paused. “Uh… no.”
“Have any new fissures opened? What about the Fallen Zone? Any movement?”
The spatial fissures were no longer his greatest concern. He was more worried about an invasion that could launch from the Fallen Zone at any moment.
“Same number of fissures. None added, none gone.”
“But the Fallen Zone…”
Xue Chuan trailed off, as though trying to stop the words from leaving his mouth.
Qin Lan immediately sensed something wrong. His expression turned grave.
“What happened in the Fallen Zone?”
“A 4-Star anomaly appeared there. A peak 4-Star.”
Luo Yue’s voice came from the doorway.
She looked far worse than she had a few days ago, with faint blood vessels visible in her eyes.
“Peak 4-Star!”
Qin Lan jolted and sprang to his feet.
Among 4-Star anomalies, the gap between an ordinary specimen and a peak specimen was even greater than the gulf between 4-Star and 3-Star.
A peak 4-Star anomaly freed from an instance had enough power to destroy an entire Safe Zone.
Luo Yue’s next words stopped Qin Lan in his tracks.
“You don’t need to go. Uncle Lu has already left–an hour ago, to be precise.” Her voice was quiet. “Two other accomplished 4-Star Anomaly Hunters from the Central Region went with him.”
“Uncle Lu specifically told me to tell you not to go out. You’re forbidden from going.”
“That 4-Star anomaly is connected to the Abyss.”
Qin Lan froze.