Chapter 262 - 258: The Fear of Two, a Dozen Waiting

Chapter 262: Chapter 258: The Fear of Two, a Dozen Waiting

In the evening, inside a student dorm at Qiantang University of Technology, a group gaming session was in full swing.

"Damn, damn, damn! Hurry up and help, mid lane is collapsing!"

"Group up! Group up!"

"Irelia, get down here! Yasuo, stop farming and come help..."

...

In less than five minutes, a team fight in the mid lane ended in a wipe, and the entire lane collapsed. Their high-ground inhibitor was destroyed.

"Dammit, Luo Yuguang, Ping Lei, what the hell are you two doing?!"

"Yeah, seriously! You’re not on your game at all. You’re totally feeding!"

The roommate complained for a bit, but seeing the two seemed out of it, he didn’t press the issue.

"Wanna play PUBG instead?"

"Nah, nah. Too many cheaters. I’m sick of getting wrecked..."

"C’mon, I just bought a cheat! Today it’s our turn to wreck people!"

"Holy shit, you sneaky bastard! Instead of just camping, you went full-on cheater!"

"So, you in or not?"

"I’m in! I’ll see what it feels like to cheat, and then I’m reporting you!"

"..."

Luo Yuguang and Ping Lei, however, didn’t join in. Saying they didn’t feel like playing, one prepared to head out while the other lay back down on his bed.

Seeing them like this, the other guys in the dorm quieted down.

’Normally, everyone has days when they don’t feel like doing anything, so you just let them be. But these two have been like this for days. Hopefully it’s not depression.’

Ever since leaving the amusement park that day, the two had gone from initially laughing it off, to feeling a faint unease, and now to a state of depression and anxiety.

’Even they didn’t understand why they were like this. They didn’t consider themselves thin-skinned. It was just a dream, so why couldn’t they stop thinking about it?’

The conclusion they reached after some self-reflection was that the dream in the House of Destiny had simply been too real.

Normal dreams usually fade after waking, but this one only grew clearer. The scenes in the dream weren’t terrifying, but they were absurd, and the look in the fortune-telling "Witch’s" eyes and her advice always left the feeling that she had wanted to say more but held back.

In truth, it wasn’t the dream that was driving them mad, but Magic Power. Although Su Su hadn’t left any directly on the two, Magic Power was an exceptionally mystical force. Su Su’s Magic Power leaned toward premonition, and its characteristic fluctuations had invisibly influenced their sixth sense on a spiritual level.

An intuition for danger was unnaturally amplified, projecting itself onto their psyches as tension and anxiety.

"What the hell is going on with you two? Don’t tell me you both got dumped? But your right and left hands are still attached just fine!"

One of the roommates couldn’t help but ask. The group stopped getting ready for the game.

Bonds in a university men’s dorm are usually quite strong. It’s an innocent time, free of ulterior motives. So while the question was flippant, it showed genuine concern.

They had actually told their roommates about it as a funny story after returning from the amusement park, but everyone had just laughed it off at the time, more interested in how pretty the Witch was and what a great body she had.

Now, the two wanted to talk to someone. Luo Yuguang, who had been about to go out to get water, came back and pulled out a chair to sit down.

"Don’t laugh when I tell you this, but... it’s about what happened at the amusement park..."

A curious roommate asked.

"What about it? The fortune-telling thing?"

"Yeah."

Ping Lei sat up in his bed.

"Last night, Luo Yuguang and I both had nightmares..."

"It’s just a dream. I have nightmares too. What’s the big deal?"

A roommate tried to lighten the mood with a casual joke.

"Then you’ve definitely never had two people both have a nightmare that’s just a field of red and nothing else..."

"That’s so weird. You’re not joking, are you?"

"Do we look like we’re joking?"

...

As the two continued their story, the atmosphere in the dorm room grew heavy.

Without realizing it, everyone had pulled over their stools and gathered around.

This kind of intuitive feeling can be strange sometimes. For two people to have the same intuition at the same time was even more concerning.

"Actually, we went back to the House of Destiny at the amusement park three times looking for that ’Witch’."

Hearing Ping Lei say this, someone immediately asked a question.

"And? What did she say?"

Luo Yuguang’s face was filled with resignation.

"What did she say? The first time we went, the House of Destiny had a sign saying ’Temporarily Closed.’ The next two times, the person inside wasn’t the same one as before. One time it was a woman, the other time a man, and they were using tarot cards for their fortunes..."

"So... she took a day off?"

Ping Lei looked at the roommate who had spoken.

"I don’t know, maybe. But I think... she might be avoiding me and Luo Yuguang..."

"No way. It’s not like you guys did anything to her last time. Wait, are you saying she’s afraid of getting caught in the crossfire?"

Luo Yuguang’s expression soured.

"I think so too. I even have a feeling that when we fell asleep during the divination, she definitely saw something but didn’t dare say it out loud. She tried to warn us in a roundabout way afterward."

"Right, right, right! I also think she definitely saw something!"

Ping Lei said eagerly.

"When we woke up, we hadn’t even said anything, but I felt like the way she looked at us wasn’t right!"

"Aren’t you guys overthinking this...? If you really feel like something’s wrong, just go to a temple and pray. Qiantang has plenty of famous temples."

A tall, skinny boy with glasses tried once again to put the two at ease.

"You think we didn’t?"

Ping Lei shifted his chair and pulled open the drawer of his computer desk, revealing a colorful assortment of items inside.

Everyone craned their necks to look.

"Holy shit! So many Protective Talismans, Buddha Beads, Bodhisattvas..."

Someone pulled open Luo Yuguang’s drawer and found a similar pile of stuff inside.

"Are you guys collectors or something?"

"You got so many, how come we never see you carry them?"

"Yeah, seriously! You must have spent a fortune!"

Faced with their questions, Luo Yuguang took out a Small Jade Talisman from inside his clothes.

"How should I put this... I just get the feeling that the whole pile of them isn’t as good as this single one."

"Me too!"

Ping Lei said, also taking out an identical Jade Talisman.

"But this thing... isn’t this what we carved ourselves out of cheap jade for fun...?"

At this, the roommates were speechless.

These two Jade Talismans weren’t some kind of blessed artifacts. Everyone in the dorm had carved one. The inscriptions were all different, and they just did it for fun. Once they carved it, they’d slap some color on it and call it a day. Some carried them, some had already lost them, and some hadn’t even finished carving theirs.

Luo Yuguang’s was inscribed with "Mercury Retrograde Begone," while Ping Lei’s had "Zha Zha Zha" carved on it.

What kind of Protective Talismans were these?

The dorm gradually fell silent. It didn’t seem like the two were having a mental breakdown, but if it wasn’t a psychological issue, then these two "Protective Talismans" were just too ridiculous.

THUMP... THUMP...

Just as all six of them focused their attention on the two Protective Talismans, the talismans seemed to vibrate for a moment, as if in an illusion.

Immediately after, with a series of FZZT... FZZZT... sounds, the two fluorescent lights in the dorm suddenly flickered, but thankfully, they quickly returned to normal.

During the vibration and the flickering lights, the six of them weren’t actually scared. Instead, it was after a dozen or so seconds had passed that the hairs on their arms slowly began to stand on end.

Fear often doesn’t hit all at once like in horror movies; there’s a process of build-up. The kind in B-grade horror films that relies on loud noises and sudden appearances is better called a "scare." True "fear" is when you’re too afraid to get up to pee in the middle of the night.

Half a minute later, the other four were covered in goosebumps, while Luo Yuguang and Ping Lei had broken out in a cold sweat.

Exchanging glances, the six of them could tell that what just happened was no illusion.

...

Since the Battle of the Kyoto Immunity, the Celestial Traveler’s Hall had successively recruited quite a few members into its Inner Sect, many of whom also participated in the Silent Knight Training Camp.

In terms of skill, the Celestial Traveler’s Hall was powerful. But for efficiency in improving physical conditioning, the Silent Knight Training Camp was second to none. It had more or less become the standard path for advancement within Dawn. The results were one reason for this; mutual hazing was another.

Right then, on the roof of the men’s dormitory, a dozen or so men and women were standing in the cold wind.

"Instructor, how long do we have to wait here? I only took seven days off from work..."

"I’m on paternity leave... I told my company my wife went into early labor..."

"Holy crap, what are you going to do when your wife actually gives birth?"

"Quit!"

"Savage..."

"Got guts!"

Mo Qingxue was about to crack a joke as well, but Elder Mo, who was sitting cross-legged to the side, uttered a single phrase—"Quiet down"—and everyone fell silent.

With the Crystal Ball Witch’s ability, the foreseen danger shouldn’t be something the Celestial Traveler’s Hall couldn’t handle. Still, afraid of an unexpected slip-up, they had sent out a dozen people upon receiving the assignment. The plan was to swarm it if things went south.

PS: Sunday’s second Chapter.