This chapter was brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and Yeenie.
Insect Planet
Time: 11:25am
After three days, I finally couldn’t take it anymore. That damn wildcat bus!
In fact, we barely started on any classes this week. It was mostly the teachers and students getting to know each other, and then we were left to do whatever we wanted. I heard we would only officially start classes at the beginning of next week.
This school was really carefree. Just like this, the teachers got their hands on the pay for one week of teaching.
“School accommodation?” Senior stared at me with surprise, as if he didn’t expect me to suddenly bring out this issue.
“That’s right, my mom had also agreed to this, so I wanted to ask if it was still possible to apply for school accommodation.” Actually I wasn’t too optimistic about this, because I knew I should have taken care of the application for school dormitory before school started. At that time, since it was so close to my house, I thought there won’t be any problems. A cat shuttle ruined my final happiness.
Try imagining it, it’s already very pitiful one had to get hit by a train everyday to get to school. And when leaving after classes, they’ll have to squeeze in together with a cat’s internal organs. I think after three consecutive days, my mind had already been subjected to some degree of trauma.
We were currently at the long corridor of the second grade classrooms. Today, after my fourth period, I hurriedly escaped. Else, Ryan would definitely drag me to a place with scenic view and positive atmosphere to eat rice balls, and God knows I’d already eaten rice balls for three days in a row. Now, whenever I see a rice ball, I wanted to throw the rice ball at him.
Lifting my head to look at senior’s class plate, tsk tsk, senior really is senior. On the plate, was written “Grade 2 Class A”.
I had also heard there weren’t many black robes in this entire school and, out of the entire second grade, senior was the only one. He was also in Class A. It was obvious this person had become so strong that he was currently at the level of a non-human.
“Do not interfere in my thoughts with your nonsense, while I’m currently helping you think of a way to apply for the accommodation.” Senior smacked me behind my head.
No one asked you to listen! I grabbed at my head, feeling very aggrieved.
Senior frowned and thought for a long time, “The school’s dormitory was already full the day school started. I don’t think there’s any place left for you to stay…”
“Ah, then there’s no need to especially find one for me.” In fact, I simply wanted to try my luck.
“It’s alright, wait for me for a moment.” Senior went back into his classroom and said something to one of his classmates.
No matter how I looked at that guy, he seemed very familiar, as though I have seen this person before, but I didn’t have any impression of it.
Then senior came out with his backpack, “I took a leave of absence in the afternoon and I’ll take this opportunity to go to work, so come with me.”
I need to observe someone at work again!? I took two steps back.
Senior narrowed his eyes and looked at me coldly, “I called you to follow me to the management office to handle your dormitory matters. Also, to check whether there are any students who didn’t want to stay in the dorm and wants to cancel their application.” He brandished his fist and knocked my head with it.
“Oh…” It was extremely painful.
I followed senior, who was walking on the long corridor. All around, students who were standing or sitting down were all casting their gazes on us. I wasn’t sure how to describe those gazes. They was different from Miao Miao and the others’ which were purely full of worship and admiration.
Although there were still a small number of them with the same kind of worshipping gaze, a large number of them were not so. There were even some people, who were brazenly snorting with disdain, giving off the “he’s not all that impressive” type of feeling.
Until we left the building of the classrooms, only then did senior suddenly turn around.
“You don’t have to care about the implication of those gazes.” He said without changing his expression, as though those gazes were not directed straight at him, “Sometimes things are like that. It’s not possible to be in a place where there are no competitions, nor is it possible to have no one with their own self interests. If you want to go and understand each and every one of them one by one, it’ll be endless. As long as it’s a creature with intelligence and has its own individuality, this is how it’ll end up.”
“Oh.” I nodded, not completely understanding what he had said but I also felt it would be better if I didn’t think about the expressions those people gave off.
A type of competition, no matter where we are, it will always be there. So I just followed behind him.
The school was really huge, the roads were really long and there were also lots of them. Damn it, even if you have nothing better to do, why do you need to build the school campus this way!?
From the first day of school, I’ve never seen the edge of the school, or maybe there is no edge to this school?
“The school’s edge… One day you’ll be able to see it, because it doesn’t exist here nor anywhere else.”
Senior’s words made me very confused again, then where’s it?
But since he said that I’ll know it one day, then I’ll just wait for that day. I’m not an assertive person, especially if it was regarding this school. Do not insist to know too much, and it would make me comparatively less unlucky. This was the lesson taught to me in these few days of schooling.
I followed his footsteps, and then stopped in front of a building. The building was completely different compared to the other buildings. It was a crystal tower.
* * *
“This is Kenner Tower, the place of the congregation in regards to all school affairs.”
The crystal tower reflected sunshine into my eyes, causing it to hurt, as though a bunch of needles were poking my eyes.
Senior directly stepped into the tower’s entrance, and I hurriedly followed.
A cool and indescribable aroma immediately came from within the tower, making one feel very comfortable. I immediately thought this type of flavor was similar scent coming from senior’s body; soft and very sweet.
What caught my eye was something that suddenly moved past me. Oh, it’s not a thing, should be a person… It was the right way to put it. A very beautiful man; his body seemed to emit a faint light, or maybe it was his clothes that was emitting light. He had pointed ears.
“Restua.” Senior slightly bowed in front of that person, as though he was saluting, which was rather interesting to me. Never thought senior would actually be so polite. Then, I was fiercely glared at by a pair of red eyes.
The very beautiful man also nodded at senior slightly. I noticed his hair was pale gold; very beautiful, and a little different from Zachary’s. Because his hair would emit a faint light whereas Zachary’s hair didn’t. He also had a pair of tranquil green eyes, just like a gem.
“I rarely see a Black Robe personally coming in here, is there anything I can do for you?” He spoke as though he was singing; very fine and soft, extremely nice to listen to, and it felt like a lullaby to me.
“I’m looking for a room, because someone decided he wanted to stay in the dorm at the very last minute.” Senior directly explained his purpose for coming here, “This is Restua Laurin, the Cat Eye of the Light God. He is responsible for matters regarding the students’ accommodation here.” He introduced the beautiful man to me.
“Hello.” I quickly did a 90 degree bow. I wasn’t sure why I did this, but I just did.
“Hello, young student.” Restua nodded at me, and then he revealed a smile that seemed to be able to mystify others, “This is really bad, the rooms are not very adequate. We even went to find another dormitory, but it’s already fully inhabited…”
I felt as though he spoke while rapping.
Using a force that wasn’t light nor heavy, senior knocked my head. He obviously already knew what I was thinking.
“Why don’t you bring this student to stay at the Black Robe’s residence temporarily?” Suddenly hitting his palm, Restua smiled elegantly as he said to senior, “I guess if you’re there, there won’t be any problems allowing this student to stay. I’ll allow you to break the rules once, due to the problems of having inadequate rooms.”
His expression seemed say he came up with a very good idea, but senior’s expression was the complete opposite.
I was thinking… the Black Robe’s accommodation has some… reason a normal person won’t be able to live there?
“Well, since you’ve already said it’s fine, so be it.” senior nodded, seemed to have agreed.
Then I was sold off?
“Don’t worry, young student, being by Black Robe’s side, you will be able to learn a lot more, just like Black Robe who was once beside a certain “someone” in the past.” His smile did not diminish even a little as he patted my shoulder, “You will understand this in the future.”
I finally understood why I thought something was odd. Restua’s way of speaking was very similar to how my grandpa spoke to me. Like the tone of an elderly person.
“Then this is his information.”Senior passed him a folder.
That’s weird, when did I give my information to senior? I don’t know, but since senior was so resourceful, he must have his own methods. Nn, then if he can’t find a job after graduating, he could find jobs such as being a hacker or something similar…
Red eyes glared at me again. I’ve already told you, if you don’t want to listen then don’t listen!
I took two steps back. With Restua here, it seemed like senior won’t be so blatant in beating me up.
Oh? He found his natural enemy!?
“Chu, you better watch out.” Just as though he was handling some procedures, senior turned his head and spoke a sentence that could cause one to shudder in fear.
After a period of time, I seemed to have heard a faint laughter coming from Restua.
“Then, that’s it.” He said, “Let us meet again next time, Black Robe.” He nodded at senior, turned around, and walked back into the internal part of the crystal tower, until we were completely unable to see his figure.
In the air was still that fragrant aroma.
“He felt like the Elves in a picture album…” Looking at Restua leaving, for some reason these words naturally emerged from my mouth.
Senior turned around and looked at me, he seemed to be smiling yet it seemed like he was not. “Restua is originally an Elf.”
“Ah!?”
Lies!
* * *
Restua is an Elf? Then Zachary is also an Elf?
“That money ghost is not.” Senior looked at me and walked out of the crystal tower, I immediately followed, “You are not coming with me to work, right? Then you can take the shuttle back immediately.”
He was trying to get rid of me.
“I want to go and take a look, can I?” For some reason, what Restua had mentioned earlier had been hovering around in my mind. The lingering feeling was making me mindful, but I wasn’t sure what I was mindful about.
Senior revealed a cold smile, “A Black Robe’s job is different from Ryan’s and the others. It’s very dangerous.” He especially emphasized on the word dangerous, making me want to retreat.
“But I want to take a look.” Sometimes people are itching to die.
“… Do as you wish.”
I don’t know if senior was unhappy about this, but he just kept walking in front. I can actually go back in the afternoon, but something called ‘curiosity’ was making me follow senior, and I couldn’t care if I would be killed off like a cat.
Leaving the perimeter of the crystal tower, senior directly took me to the school gate. “I want to go directly to the destination of my job. You better stand still and do not move around.”
Giving me a warning in advance, I saw Senior taking out a white charm… A white charm again. Why was it that Senior seemed to love using charms? Could it be he was majoring in Taoism? The one that waves the bells!?
“Don’t force me to beat you up.” Senior gave me a final warning.
He then loosen his hand. The moment the white charm touched the floor, a huge glowing magic array immediately appeared.
Now even the magic arrays are automatically drawn? This is so advanced. I praised in my mind.
“If you don’t do this, then when you are besieged by monsters, you still want to take out a piece of chalk and slowly draw on the floor, eh?”
I had to admit that what senior said made sense.
“This is a teleportation incantation. We insert incantations into things we are familiar with, such as a paper charm, or some sort of weapon.” Senior walked to my side and passed me another white charm, “I’ve set it so the instant the charm lands on the ground, the teleportation incantation will then be drawn.”
I remember now, I seemed to have been teleported before once, too. But during that time I didn’t see senior using a charm.
“I normally don’t use this. This time, it’s for you to observe. You better remember how to use teleportation properly.” Senior raised his sight and glared at me, “This is one of the basic ways to move around in this world.”
“Oh.” I carefully put the white charm away and gently rubbed my nose, not daring to think of any more nonsense.
The round shaped incantations around us started glowing, reflecting on Senior’s body, I’ve always felt that Senior was similar to the elf just now, as his body seemed to be glowing.
I suddenly felt that elves are actually huge light bulbs, cos they will emit light.
“Teleportation Array, bring us to the place that we ought to go.” Senior, who had already decided to ignore my delusions, stood in the middle inside a place that looked like a square frame and chanted an incantation.
I quickly took out a pen and paper and started taking notes. I knew this thing would be something I will absolutely use in the future. To use when I’m running for my life.
In the blink of an eye, we weren’t in school anymore. All around was darkness; this was a wasteland with lots of rocks. If you really want me to describe it, go watch movies where demon beasts appear on a desolated area; an alien planet, then you’ll know how it looks like.
The magical array on the ground had disappeared, and a white charm appeared, returning to senior’s hand.
So this thing can be recycled and reused again! That’s so convenient!
“Do not simply run around sightseeing in this place. This is a valley, the place of the rock’s life.” Senior warned me while inspecting the surrounding area, then he took out a small black box around the size of a palm from his pocket. It looked very familiar, like a little compass, but not a compass. There was nothing on top of it, only four colours of some unknown words and a thin pointer.
I curiously stood beside him and observed. Noticing my sight, senior suddenly loosen his grip, “Hold on to it.”
The compass with four words fell into my hands. I was shocked and hurriedly held it up, “This is a guiding tool, hold on to it; think inside your mind. Point out the unnatural things in this area.”
I froze for a moment. The most unnatural thing in this area would probably be the two of us.
“Hurry up!” Senior glared at me.
Shivering for an instant, I held onto the strange black box and started thinking… Who cares if you are something unnatural? As long as something is wrong with you, I better hurry up and give him a response!
Unsure of whether I was unlucky enough or it really worked, the box on my hands shook twice.
“Ah!” It can move!?
“Don’t let go!” Senior issued a warning, “That thing is very expensive.”
I wanted to cry, he passed me an expensive moving object. Now I’m afraid the black box would then grow a mouth and bite me.
After a couple of vibrations, the box began to glow, the four words were glowing. In an instant, a ball of light burst open, turning into hundreds of strings of light shooting out throughout the whole area.
“So many?” Senior issued a doubtful sound.
What’s so many? What were the things that’s so many!?
“Rock eating insects.” Senior took out something else from his pocket.
I now suspect his pocket was an extradimensional treasure bag… Wait a moment! What did he just say? Rock eating insects?
Suddenly something called a sea cockroach surfaced inside my mind, one that can always be seen at the beach, followed by the eggs of apple snails in the drain.
“You definitely failed your biology.” Senior sighed.
“I did not. Every time, I got fifty-nine marks and the teacher would give me one extra mark.” I refuted.
It was really weird, I consecutively got fifty-nine points for three years, and even my teacher thought I was trying to make a fool out of him. But for the final exams, I remembered I passed. The one and only time I passed, the teacher dissolved into tears, because he suddenly found the light in his life.
* * *
“They’re here!” I had yet to understand the meaning of senior’s words. Something started to creep up at the place where the lights were pointing at.
Senior took the box from my hand, covered it and put it back inside his pocket, “Take out the thing Chifuyu gave you.”
He’s a God! He actually knew Chifuyu gave me something! I began to wonder if there was a peeping device the size of a small pin hole somewhere in my body.
“I’m not interested at peeping at you!” Senior glared at me, and I obediently took out the small charm.
“Come alive and listen to me, Amulet of the Dragon God, disburse favorable articulative motion, through heaven and earth, be brave and impenetrable.” He bit his fingertips and then he left a print on top of the small charm, “Your owner is, Chu Ming Yang.”
I saw the whole charm changing from white to blood-red, then a golden eye suddenly appeared at the place where it originally had text on it.
“Whoa!” It became a small cursed charm! My first action was supposed to be, throw the charm onto the floor and step on it three times.
“Don’t you dare step on it!” Senior’s tone was implying that if I stepped on it, he would chop my leg off. Of course, I immediately shrunk with fear.
The golden eye looked at me from the top of the small charm. At that moment, I had an urge to poke it with my finger. It was extremely disgusting!
Why was it when I read this in manhuas, I didn’t have this kind of feeling!? If Chifuyu saw the thing he gave me turned into this, I wonder if he will come and strangle me?
“Alright, it’s time to start the game.” Seems like senior had already finished what he wanted to do. Senior licked off the blood on his fingertips and displayed a cold smile.
Game? There was something called chills, and they slowly crept onto my back.
Before I can react, I saw we were surrounded by something crawling, which suddenly flipped upwards. Abruptly, the rocks chaotically rolled around, creating thunderous sounds everywhere.
Rock eating insects? How hard was it to deal with these insects? Won’t spraying them with insecticide solve the problem?
Three seconds later, I overthrew my own reasoning.
“Whoaaahhh——!!!”
A huge group of black cockroaches surrounded us. That wasn’t right, they weren’t cockroaches. They were something that looked like black insects, about the size of a one-storey building; issuing a rustling sound.
Senior, who was already very experienced, had already covered his ears, waiting for me to finish screaming.
There were a few dozen of those insects, surrounding us. I suddenly remembered a movie I had watched before, Starship Troopers, or was it called some other name? Don’t quite remember. There were also a bunch of insects in the movie, as big as these, and they killed humans.
“These insects also kill humans.” Senior started to gloat, “Because they only had rocks to eat, but now, there are human meat.” It was taken for granted they would definitely prefer to eat meat.
I started to regret coming here. Mama… I want to go home…
“Creature who formed a contract with me, allow the besieger to witness your ruthlessness.” Senior took out his illusionary bean, and in the next second, I saw a silverish, almost transparent, spear appearing in his hands.
Spear?
In that second… In fact, I shouldn’t have thought of this but, I really thought of the spear turning into a cockroach skewer.
Senior turned around, I knew he wanted to beat me up even without him saying anything.
“You brought the explosive charms, right?” He asked. I was surprised, he actually didn’t beat me up?
“Yes, I did.” I had placed all the things inside a small box and kept it by my side.
“Take it out and use it.”
“Ah?” The first thing I thought of was the forever brand big black bomb.
“If you dare to materialize another bomb, I’ll bury you here.” Senior saw through my thoughts said such ruthless words.
We were left no more chance to talk, because a bunch of insects started issuing a sharp sound while rushing at us.
Senior’s movements were a lot faster compared to them; the silver spear cut the nearest insect into two in a split of a second. Bluish green liquid splashed all around, splashing onto the ground.
A terrifying thing happened, the second the liquid fell onto its companions, I actually saw its companions corroding. It was even more toxic than aqua regia!
OOOH GOOOOOOODDD!!!
It was the extremely distorted version of Munch’s Scream reappearing in my heart. What was even more frightening was that senior, he actually did not even wrinkle his brow. He stepped on the huge cockroach’s shell, jumped up, and rushed in to cut down the second one.
In just a few tens of seconds, the nimble Senior, who was moving back and forth, had already cut down about a dozen cockroaches. They were all lying on the floor leaking liquid. The strange thing was, the cockroach’s liquid would corrode its companions, but it didn’t corrode even a singly tiny rock or ground.
“Don’t step on it!” Senior suddenly stopped his attacks and yelled at me. I finally noticed that those liquid had already appeared as a green water puddle beside my feet, “It will corrode any living thing that moves.”
Any living thing that moves? I was suddenly very astonished with the fact that I can move! I most definitely can move!
As soon as I saw the green liquid flowing over, I quickly took two to three steps back. With a “thud” sound, I bumped into something. Something furry, and it twitched twice, so I lifted my head and looked up.
“Whoa!” I bumped into a huge cockroach! It was fuming, with its cloudy yellow eyes looking down at me.
The cockroach didn’t even give me the time to finish screaming. It lifted its leg and stabbed directly downwards, aiming at my head! This time I’m really going to die! I’ll be the first one to be turned into skewers by the cockroach!
Forcefully closing my eyes, I waited for the arrival of my grandma. But suddenly, I heard a “thud” sound. A very familiar sound, just as if I’d heard it before not too long ago, and the pain penetrating through my head that I was waiting for didn’t appear.
What happened? I covertly opened my eyes with a small slit.
The cockroach’s leg bounced off; it bounced off about fifty centimeters before reaching me. However, it apparently didn’t give up and several successive “thudding” sounds reverberated above my head. I saw some white sparks and the cockroach’s leg bouncing about above my head. There was a voice telling me to look down, so I looked down at the talisman with an eye. The eye was half closed, giving off a bored expression as though it was going to yawn at any moment.
The amulet was protecting me?
“Bursting fire, heed my thoughts and drive my enemies away.” Senior, who was rather far away, seemed to have found out about my predicament. He took out an explosive charm and chanted the maxim for courting… I mean, chanted the incantation to activate the explosive charm. I saw another spear appearing in his left hand, “Chu, move aside!”
As soon as he finished what he wanted to say, the spear flew past right above my head, directly piercing the huge cockroach. The momentum caused it to be pushed back really far, until it was nailed onto one side of a rock and, a loud explosion immediately resounded.
I saw the cockroach being blown into pieces. The pieces of meat, internal organs, and what not, were splattered all around, falling onto its companions and corroding away a whole lot of cockroaches.
“Chu, use the explosive charms!” Senior reminded me again.
Alright, let’s try and use the explosive charms.
I looked at the charm on my hand, and as soon as I thought of cockroaches, I imagined slippers. My mother always used slippers to whack cockroaches, but I don’t want a slipper as a weapon…
Oh right, when there are cockroaches, my grandma will also spray them with insecticides. When it comes to insecticides, it’s actually a pretty decent thing to use. Even if the cockroaches will fly, spraying it will cause it to fall down.
Just as my thoughts were flying very far away, a heavy object materialized in my hand, bringing back my attention to it.
A can of insecticide was in my hand. A black can of in-sec-ti-cide. Looking up at the sky, I suddenly felt my thoughts were very deprived.
“…” Senior was silent.