Chapter 152 - ’Fiancée

Chapter 152: Chapter 150: ’Fiancée...

The icy-white lake water, like a chilly mirror.

Tree shadows danced, yet left no trace on the lake surface.

Flowers and plants of strange colors thrived, their cold dewdrops like the skin of a young girl, almost touching the shaking leaves.

The early morning forest, as if newly born, was not as dark and eerie as legend had it, but instead, it was bursting with life.

"Crack—" The explosive sound of fire, accompanied by a bout of hearty laughter, broke the peace and spread lively emotions, infusing the scenery with fiery colors.

"This damned forest, still so cold in the morning." A group of men, looking like mercenaries, sat by the lake, making a fire, gulping down a clear liquid—this was morning dew, relieving fatigue and cheaper than alcohol, a favorite among lower-class mercenaries.

Another person said, "Some jobs aren’t bad, at least it’s freedom—much better than working ourselves to death under those damn hypocritical Regular Army’s watch, without any human rights, for those aristocrats."

"You said it!" someone chimed in, laughing loudly:

"—So yeah, that’s why we bloody need to overthrow these nobles, let them know... know what? How’s it go again?"

He turned his head and asked a girl behind him.

"A prince or minister, does he even bend?" the girl replied with a smile.

Facing these rough men, she seemed fearless, still wearing a clean smile on her face.

"—Right, right, right!" the burly man laughed and toasted someone nearby, "To hell with them—"

They laughed, spilling drinks everywhere.

Lv Shu sat quietly among this group of the Revolutionary Army.

He had just entered the game, and upon opening his eyes, he found himself assigned the role of "Leader of a Small Revolutionary Army Squad."

The people drinking were all members of the Revolutionary Army, and their conversation had given him quite a bit of information.

The Revolutionary Army didn’t seem as organized and official as he had imagined; they were merely an army in name at best.

In his view, they were more like a disorderly band of bandits, like a group of peasants who could no longer live, grabbing their tools and starting a fight. Disorderly, unplanned, it just seemed like a bunch of hot-blooded men. And among them, he... was a complete bandit leader.

...Thinking about this made him even sadder.

Knowing that Su Ming’an was with the Regular Army was already upsetting enough, but finding out that he had become a "bandit leader" made his mood plummet even further.

But the Revolutionary Army was not just a motley crew.

From what he knew, his squad was only one of the countless units of the Revolutionary Army, all moving towards the same destination.

—They had to reach a place within ten days.

Afterward, they were to save a person.

Someone who held the power to change the world with technology, who could pull the Revolutionaries out of the mire, a savior.

Lv Shu listened to the group chatting away, feeding cabbage to Bi.

The girl sitting beside him was a healing-series player who had been pulled into the squad; her name was Lin Yin. Lin Yin maintained her composure even in such harsh conditions.

"Ming’an is really fierce, huh, over a thousand Contribution Value already!" Lin Yin exclaimed as she checked the leaderboard, "...What on earth did he do to earn so much... did he kill off all the nearby Revolutionary Army?"

"He doesn’t like it when people call him ’Savior’." Lv Shu said, "You can call him Ming’an."

"Oh, okay." Lin Yin nodded, not minding, "So, do we still stay in this squad? It really feels like there’s no future here. And are we sure we’re not going to join the Regular Army? Are we really going to end up fighting Ming’an...?"

"We might not necessarily become enemies with him," Lv Shu said, "If we can’t switch sides, we can strive to become the leader of the Revolutionary Army and then, lose to him."

Lin Yin had an expression that seemed to say, "Can you believe it? Wow, licking boots really is your forte."

Her words were quite direct, with no intention of mincing them. Lv Shu didn’t mind but rather turned his gaze toward the distance.

There, faintly visible, was a tall, golden-white building.

"Let me go. I’m not doing the instance task anymore, I want to see God! God, look at me—"

Suddenly, a player acting as a guard, who burst out shouting from the middle of the team, was dragged away by an NPC responsible for maintaining order.

Su Ming’an somewhat speechlessly watched this truly worthless player and then looked away.

He realized that his identity might not be entirely secret—Hui Shuhang’s actions, although not loud, had been witnessed by nearby people. Once they connected it to the sudden appearance on the leaderboard, they might realize that the person who had gained 32 Points was likely him.

He felt a sense of crisis—perhaps in this instance, he needed to consider more than in the previous ones.

And... .

The difficulty was immense, he needed to be constantly on alert.

The viewers in the bullet comments seemed very happy; they rarely got to see such a grand scene. When they saw the person shouting suddenly being dragged away, they shared in the glory, with an attitude of "Good job, young man" and "I shall crown you the best bootlicker," chuckling and laughing.

The bullet comments couldn’t reveal any useful information related to the instance; all they could do was act as a mood-setting group.

"—Here we are, please go ahead,"

As he was thinking all this, Hui Shuhang suddenly stopped ahead, allowing him to go first.

Su Ming’an looked up and saw a large iron-grey door in front of him.

The guards on both sides respectfully opened the door for him, and he saw a laboratory.

The laboratory was large, as big as a hall. Many people dressed in white lab coats similar to Xu Anna’s, holding Record Slabs, were busily shuttling back and forth inside. The ground was covered with large, interconnected Arrays that glowed faintly. Bottles of colorful potions glowed softly on the side.

But what caught the most attention was the experimental subject lying on the experimental table. Tubes entwined around the person like pythons, completely enveloping them, making it difficult to discern their features. However, it was apparent that the condition of the experimental subject was not good.

"—Teacher."

"Teacher!"

The moment he stepped into the laboratory, aside from a few who were engrossed in their research, the rest of the researchers simultaneously turned their eyes toward him, their looks filled with respect.

They were calling him "Teacher."

These people... were they all his students?

Su Ming’an thought his identity was significant, but he hadn’t expected it to be this significant.

He also noticed some researchers showing confused expressions, as if they didn’t understand his identity, standing there dumbfounded; some also saluted awkwardly as if imitating others—apparently, there were quite a few players hidden among these people.

"The condition of Subject Number Two, show it to the teacher," Xu Anna came in behind him, commanding the researchers in the tone of a class leader.

And as soon as she spoke, someone immediately wheeled over a bed marked with the number two, with various infusion tubes inserted into the "person."

The skin of this "person" was as pale as paper, veins and blood patterns densely covered his body like a spiderweb. Experiment tubes passed through his limbs, leaving only a few low, animal-like groans from his mouth. An energy flash from the hand of a nearby researcher caused the body to swell instantly, bursting into a splash of blood, his features horrific for an instant before life left him forever.

"...died again." Xu Anna sighed softly and then looked at Su Ming’an, "It’s okay, teacher, we can definitely complete the experiment before your adult ceremony. We will present the successful results as a gift to you."

She spoke these words calmly, as if she didn’t care about the grim scene that had just occurred. Her statement "died again" was delivered as lightly as a cloud, suggesting that such events were common here.

"What about the other test subjects?" Su Ming’an asked.

"This was the most successful one recently... Others are still adapting. If you need new ones, we can capture more from the dungeon," Xu Anna said. "There are still many alternatives in the dungeon, consisting of prisoners from the Revolutionary Army who resisted the Regular Army and useless civilians. We have plenty, and if it’s not enough, we can capture more from nearby villages. You don’t have to worry about the quantity."

As Su Ming’an listened, he suddenly heard a system prompt:

"The progress is very good." Another person in a student uniform admired, "Seeing this trend, the teacher’s concept is correct; now we only need to refine it."

"Actually, it could already be promoted, but the death rate is still high, and there are some stability issues. But this method of changing talents has indeed emerged!" another researcher exclaimed. "It’s tremendous, truly a miracle!"

"Sometimes I really feel like the teacher is sent from heaven to save this continent..."

Su Ming’an heard a series of favorability increase prompts, all with basic favorability over 85.

He was puzzled—since he was a key to this experiment, a common teacher among these researchers, and the research results could change the entire continent, why then would he be sacrificed at his adult ceremony ten days later...?

Not receiving his response, the group of researchers started chatting among themselves, growing more excited as they spoke, like proud peacocks, children eager to praise, wanting to spill all their lifelong learning in front of him.

"What remains is to first conquer this instability issue, which is very fatal..."

"Exactly, and with ten days left, I remember experiments three, seven, and ten had problems; we can further refine them..."

Su Ming’an heard another system prompt:

He paused for a moment.

He quickly opened the leaderboard, and then saw his name at the top, now at 1032 contribution points.

Meanwhile, the second place, Armani, had only risen to 38 contribution points.

The instance chat had exploded; they speculated whether Su Ming’an had become the leader of the Regular Army, gaining a thousand points at once. They started to guess which character Su Ming’an might be, and many wanted to go to the Imperial Palace of the Regular Army to see.

The barrage also exploded:

"Teacher, do you have any guidance on this?"

Just then, a researcher suddenly asked a question.

They had watched the Teacher stand at the door for a long time without speaking, and wondered if there was a problem with the progress of the research.

Su Ming’an did not speak—he completely did not understand any of this and could not make head or tail of it.

"I..."

He thought about making up a response when he suddenly felt someone tug on his sleeve.

He saw the worried look in Xu Anna’s eyes.

"Teacher, you haven’t slept for several days because of this experiment... Even though you got some rest yesterday and Ms. Shuhang helped you recover, it’s still too much for you," she said slowly.

The researchers also suddenly realized this.

"Yes, Teacher, the experiment has reached a point where it’s not critical anymore, there’s no need to laboriously guide us step by step, please leave this experience to us!"

"Please make sure to take good care of your health, there’s still much to consider at the coming-of-age ceremony."

They all said this, showing great respect for him.

Su Ming’an’s doubts grew even stronger—all these people seemed genuinely concerned about his well-being, they did not appear to want him to die. The coming-of-age ceremony in ten days, to these people, seemed to be a genuinely safe celebration.

"Teacher." Xu Anna looked at him, "If you think there’s no problem with our current progress, perhaps it’s best to go back and rest..."

As she spoke, she suddenly seemed to remember something, and her tone notably suffered:

"Ah, right." she said softly, "Your fiancée, Miss Feya also mentioned—she’s coming to see you today."

...Fiancée?

Su Ming’an knew without looking that the comments were probably screaming "this is a giveaway," he rubbed his temples irritably— he really didn’t want to deal with another person of unknown identity.

He decided to test his Ruler’s Skill on this Miss Feya first to see if he could extract any information. If not, he might just reset.

The information he had was still too scant.

"...Ah." Xu Anna suddenly spoke up, she turned around, looking towards the entrance:

"Just mentioned Miss Feya, and here she comes."

...She’s here already?

Su Ming’an felt something.

He turned around.

A young girl stood quietly at the door, facing the steady light of the room.

She wasn’t wearing a noble long dress, but dressed in light armor that was easy to move in. As she approached, he noticed her brown wool curls adorably suspended beside her face; her side face illuminated by the top light next to her, glowing flawlessly, embedding a pair of clear black eyes, her features bright and gentle.

She possessed an extraordinary appearance and aura, like a lady from a European fairy tale stepping out from a castle.

And as she slowly approached, Su Ming’an’s gaze gradually moved downward.

He noticed at her waist, tucked a slim sword.