Chapter 75: The Real Chess Master

"His last recorded location inside the academy before he disappeared was Observation Station C."

For the first time, the leads truly connected: Elena, the missing Devin, the six line star symbol, and the Third Enclosed Ecological Zone, now abruptly reopened.

Victor stared at the small point on the map. "What condition is the station in?"

Albert checked the maintenance records. "The building’s still standing, but it hasn’t been opened since the zone was sealed four years ago."

"Access permissions?"

"Deactivated."

"Even better." Victor leaned back in his seat. "If someone’s entered recently, they didn’t do it with legitimate authorization."

Albert’s eyes flashed sharply. "Don’t tell me you want to go now?"

"Not me." Victor shook his head. "You."

The vice dean stared at him.

"You’re a high level combatant and a vice dean. Sending a Level 22 student into a hazardous zone that’s been closed for four years would be much stupider than sending you."

Albert was silent for two seconds before replying, "It’s rare to hear you show that much self awareness."

"I’ve always had it."

"I disagree."

"That’s your problem."

Cecilia nearly laughed, and the exchange eased the somewhat tense atmosphere in the room.

Albert agreed. With no screening students inside, there was no reason for Victor to risk entering the zone himself because this was a job for the academy’s leadership.

"I’ll take two instructors. Cecilia, stay outside and keep searching the records. Leah is not to go anywhere near the zone." He turned to Victor. "As for you, go back."

Victor raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"You fought several matches in the arena this morning, then went to the Seventh Trial Ground, rushed to the academy’s northern district to save Evelyn, came back, and entered a zone where everything had gone out of control." Albert’s face was expressionless. "Do you think your mana will never run out?"

Victor didn’t argue with him. He had used Shadow Blink often today, and although Mana Devour increased his maximum mana, activating skills still consumed it, so he did indeed needed to recover.

"Fine."

Albert gave him another look, apparently suspicious of how readily he had agreed. "You won’t follow us in secret?"

"Nope."

"Really?"

"You’re annoying."

....

Three in the afternoon.

Third Training Ground.

Victor leaned back in a chair in the rest area and went over everything they had learned that day.

Albert had made Leah stay in the academy’s central district, while Evelyn’s injuries had been treated and were no longer serious. Karl, Milo, and Noah were recovering and adjusting their training based on the morning’s results, but none of them had stopped progressing just because the screening might be dangerous. After all, real danger would not wait a few days for them to be ready.

His identity card suddenly vibrated as a message from Cecilia arrived.

\[Found something.\]

A record of an imperial research grant from four years ago followed, and Victor opened it.

Elena’s Astral Spirit Envoy research project. Funding, personnel, progress reports. Nothing seemed unusual until the last page.

\[Special Materials Request\]

\[Requested material: Pure Astral Crystals.\]

\[Quantity: 12.\]

\[Purpose: Artificial Astral Core stabilization experiment.\]

Victor’s eyes narrowed. An artificial Astral Core was exactly what Zero had revealed at the end.

He read on.

\[Request status: Approved.\]

\[Collected by: Devin Hall.\]

Victor’s eyes lingered on the name for a few moments, but it was the final field that made him stop.

\[Approved by: —\]

The name had been removed completely. It was not blurred or damaged; someone had cleanly erased it from the record.

Cecilia’s next message soon arrived.

\[The original royal archive has been altered too.\]

Someone capable of changing both the academy’s records and the royal research grant files would narrow the possibilities considerably.

Before Victor could reply, another message appeared.

\[There’s another problem.\]

\[Elena never received any of the twelve Pure Astral Crystals.\]

Victor sat up. \[Where did they go?\]

A few seconds later, Cecilia answered.

\[Third Enclosed Ecological Zone, Old Observation Station C.\]

Almost simultaneously, an urgent message appeared from Albert containing only one sentence.

\[There’s an underground level beneath the observation station.\]

A photograph followed, showing a heavy metal door with thick dust on the walls and a remarkably clean recess at its center, as if someone had opened it recently.

There was no academy insignia on the door, only a symbol Victor had now seen twice today: a ring, six black lines, and a star at the center pierced by all six.

Victor stared at the image as Albert’s second message appeared.

\[We found a list. There are thirteen people on it.\]

\[We’ve identified twelve names, but the last has been crossed out.\]

A list containing Elena Vane, Devin Hall, and ten other researchers Victor had never heard of appeared next.

However, only the first letter remained on the final line.

\[E...\]

Victor’s gaze stopped there. For some reason, Elena was not the first person who came to mind, as her name was already on the list.

Who else had a name that started with E?

"Elias." Victor’s face darkened.

The man who knew the future, who knew when Leah had originally died and about the trap in the freshman screening, yet whom even the system could not fully assess.

Of course, one letter proved nothing, and Victor would not force two things together over a coincidence.

Suddenly, the system interface lit up on its own.

\[Faint anomalous traces detected. Assessment incomplete.\]

Victor’s expression changed instantly because the system’s reaction matched how it had treated Elias: it could not fully assess him.

Far away in the underground level of the Third Enclosed Ecological Zone, Albert knew none of this. His final message said only:

\[Victor, someone here knew four years ago that Leah would awaken.\]

Victor slowly rose to his feet. Outside the window, the sun was gradually falling in the distance.

There was about a day and a half left before the freshman combat screening.

He had thought the people behind this had only recently shifted their target from Ryan to Leah, but now it seemed that someone had already been waiting for a true Astral Spirit Envoy to appear at least four years ago. Even more troubling was the possibility that Elias, the man who knew the future, had been part of this game far longer than he had admitted.

’Could it be... I was played?’ Victor slowly lowered his identity card. For the first time since entering the academy, he began to wonder whether he had ever been the one moving the pieces.