Chapter 92
Chapter 92
[Attention.]
[Leaving the formation during the run is forbidden.]
[Stopping during the run is forbidden.]
[Talking to one another during the run is forbidden.]
[The formation must remain perfectly orderly throughout the run.]
Several notifications appeared in succession.
“Can you manage?” Qin Lan glanced at Xue Chuan, expressing his concern as tactfully as possible.
Xue Chuan was pale, but he nodded.
“No problem.”
“Like I said, I can’t defeat a 4-Star anomaly, but if it’s only an instance, I can survive.”
He began rummaging through his pocket again.
Two seconds later, he successfully drew a new item.
Qin Lan’s eyesight was sharp enough to read its description clearly.
[Arnold of Changshu’s Miraculous Potion (Consumable)]
[Description: An injectable supplement containing substances of unknown origin. It is said to help fitness enthusiasts rapidly ascend to the Planet of Steroids, with only a few insignificant side effects… At present, only one person has survived after using it. (P.S. Mundo goes where he pleases!)]
It was a crude little syringe filled with a translucent liquid.
“Uh, are you sure that stuff is reliable? It looks incredibly dangerous.”
Qin Lan frowned in concern.
Xue Chuan seemed to trust his Talent completely. He smiled. “I told you, I’m not the same person I was two months ago.”
“After all that special training, I’m terrifyingly strong now!”
Without the slightest hesitation, he stabbed the syringe into his arm and injected the entire dose.
Xue Chuan’s body soon began to change.
He grew taller at a speed visible to the naked eye, his frame becoming increasingly massive.
The muscles of his arms, shoulders, and thighs swelled like balloons. Veins bulged across them, turning him into a hulking bull of a man.
“Holy…”
Qin Lan stared in disbelief as Xue Chuan transformed into a musclebound powerhouse even more imposing than Dong Haoran.
In this state, the formation run should pose no problem at all.
Qin Lan soon noticed something ominous, however.
“Chuan, your head…”
Qin Lan hesitated, his gaze fixed on the top of Xue Chuan’s skull. “Why is your head so pointy?”
Xue Chuan now possessed a ludicrously muscular body, but the shape of his skull had changed strangely. A small lump protruded from the crown like a tiny horn.
“Why is my head pointy?” Xue Chuan panted, apparently enraged by the question. “Then let me ask you! Let me ask you…”
“You say my head is pointy, so let me ask you… Is your head pointy? Let me ask you…”
“Are you a man or a woman? I’m asking you!”
Qin Lan covered his face. He had already guessed one side effect of Arnold of Changshu’s Miraculous Potion.
“It’s over. He wasn’t smart to begin with, and now that his head is pointy, he’s completely hopeless…”
Fortunately, although Xue Chuan could barely think, he retained his basic awareness.
When the running music began, he followed the formation. He continued muttering words from some higher-dimensional civilization incomprehensible to humanity, but he was indeed running.
“Uh… formation run… don’t like formation runs…”
Drool dripped from the corner of Xue Chuan’s mouth as he made increasingly unbearable remarks. “Formation running is cardio. Cardio loses muscle…”
“But cardio might lose muscle, except cardio losing muscle is probably impossible…”
Qin Lan finally could not stop himself from commenting.
“No, seriously, stop talking. Those two sentences just exhausted my brain.”
Qin Lan was immediately killed by a mental attack from the Dean of Students for talking during the run.
This time, no attribute increased.
He had died to the Dean of Students too many times and reached the limit of diminishing returns.
After resurrecting, Qin Lan could only suppress the urge to curse while continuing the run and listening to Xue Chuan’s endless stream of earth-shattering wisdom.
“I never use drugs. I don’t use drugs… At most, I take a little protein powder or something…”
“No, I don’t take protein powder either. I don’t take any of that… I only take protein powder occasionally…”
“I’m completely natural…”
Qin Lan jogged beside him, the corner of his mouth twitching.
The formation run was not particularly difficult. The only challenge was controlling one’s position precisely enough to preserve the formation.
The student ghosts around them had no physical collision, so Qin Lan had to regulate his speed with great care.
Xue Chuan appeared delirious, but his speed control remained surprisingly precise. Evidently, some awareness survived.
Meanwhile, Qin Lan considered trying a new idea.
In his view, obediently completing every class would never trigger additional story events.
During the previous break, for instance, he and Xue Chuan would never have heard the conversation in the restroom if they had simply remained seated in the classroom.
There had to be a rule-compliant way for Qin Lan to temporarily escape the formation run.
“Maybe… I can try that legendary technique?”
Qin Lan narrowed his eyes. He abruptly stopped, rolled across the ground, and left the formation.
Almost at the same instant, Qin Lan felt something lock onto him.
It was the Dean of Students’ attention.
If he did not return to the formation in time, a terrifying mental shock awaited him.
Qin Lan did not go back. Instead, he silently crouched down.
One second. Two seconds. Three seconds…
Success!
Delight surged through Qin Lan. His reasoning had been correct.
He was crouching on the ground and pretending to tie his shoelaces.
Tying one’s shoes during formation running was the crystallized wisdom of countless students. Generation after generation had used the move to win themselves a precious moment of rest.
But merely tying his shoes was not enough.
It could buy Qin Lan a brief rest, but it could not help him leave the athletic field.
The chill of being targeted grew steadily stronger. Qin Lan knew he had little time left.
After a moment’s thought, he decided to take a risk.
Clutching his stomach, Qin Lan raised one hand and shouted.
“Teacher!”
“I got my period! Permission to visit the infirmary!”
The declaration was so outrageous that even Xue Chuan, whose intelligence had temporarily fallen into the single digits, blurted out, “What the fuck?”
Yet Qin Lan did not die. Instead, the mental lock on him disappeared.
“Holy shit! That actually worked?”
Even Qin Lan himself was stunned.
He quickly understood. “So that’s it… This is normally a privilege limited to one sex, but because a hidden story branch exists, even a man can trigger it.”
“Just like in the restroom, the restrictions temporarily loosen. A male student entering the women’s restroom doesn’t result in instant death.”
The realization made Qin Lan even more certain of his theory.
This instance truly did contain a hidden story branch.