As for Valke, he sat cross-legged on the ground with his eyes closed, ditating in the cold wilderness wind, as motionless as if he were performing so kind of spiritual practice.
"Has the president woken up?" Phyllis greeted Tilan as she got out of the car.
"I'm a bit hungry," the girl said honestly, then Phyllis laughed and fished out a can from near the campfire to give to her.
'T5 grade orange codfish can,' the girl carefully read the label on the can, then cautiously opened it and began to eat with a spoon, staring into the campfire and zoning out slightly.
After eating, her consciousness and body gradually recovered. Then, she walked again toward those who were frozen in the distance.
Seeing Tilan walking over, Valke, who had been sitting on the ground, stood up, took his gun, and followed her.
Under the chilly silver moonlight, the girl once again sat in that chair, this ti a lot more ladylike, and Valke also took his position behind her, to which the girl nodded slightly.
She lifted her palm, and the frozen people began to slowly thaw, the frost on their bodies fading away before they collapsed on the ground, taking a mont to struggle to lift their heads.
In the ti they were frozen, they felt as if on the brink of death, indeed near death, experiencing the rush of consciousness one feels before dying, as well as illusions and a profound drowsiness that spread throughout—all of which they had fully experienced. The fear of skirting on death's edge, thin as a thread, was almost etched into their marrow, frightening them imnsely at the re recollection.
Although the girl did not ask, she knew what it felt like because she had gone through it several tis herself, once when she was attacked on her way ho, and another ti when she fell and drowned in accumulated water.
So many of life's troubles and illusions are easily shattered like glass in the face of death. Only death is so fair and real, letting those true gems of life erge from underwater, showing the beauty of being alive.
This was probably the aning behind the existence of the Necromancer Sequence (Withering Sequence).
"Let tell you the purpose of your continued existence," the girl said softly, her words becoming the only sound.
"Strive to be a person of conscience. I don't expect you to do good deeds, but at the very least, do not commit evil acts, do not beco corrupted. If you can't stay in Northern Second District, then leave this place. The world is vast, there are many choices, and decay is not the only answer," she said.
Although she looked like a noble lady accustod to the darkness, the warmth of her words was unbelievable. If it had been before, Long Ge would definitely have scorned such naive and ludicrous notions, and might have even spit at them.
But today, he didn't dare. Instead, he felt a certain relief from surviving a catastrophe, thinking that the girl might be naive or ignorant, but it was precisely because of these qualities that he had survived. Had he encountered soone ruthless, he would have died long ago.
Being alive was better than anything. He breathed in the air greedily, a reality he had never felt so keenly in decades. If soone now could offer him a warm bed and a steaming al, he would exchange all his money for it.
"I can do it, I swear," he said weakly, propping himself with his hands on the ground, feeling the grains of soil and pebbles with his fingertips. Things that once seed trivial, he now held, compelled to cry.
Will I see the next sunrise? He couldn't help but question himself.
To this, the girl nodded slightly then shook her head. "I earnestly want to believe you, but my reason tells that it will be difficult for you to achieve this," she said.
Upon finishing her words, she sighed and lifted her hand again. Upon seeing this, the few people beca terrified, knelt on the ground, and frantically begged for rcy.
Frost spread across the earth, and tiny crystals ford a gray-white pattern under the reflection of the moonlight. As the frosted ground approached the four people, it parted slowly, bypassing them to continue its spread.
The granules of sand and ice that had frozen around them, the rising and falling ring-shaped frozen waves, and the frost-covered land stretching to the horizon.
The grayness scattered by the moonlight was, in this reflection and backdrop of frost, displayed in a rare whiteness that extended as far as the eye could see and to the end of the world.
At least the land for tens of miles around was covered by this thin frost, as if the whole world had frozen at that mont, had stopped—a scene like a miracle deeply engraved in the minds of the few, perhaps unforgettable for a lifeti.
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"Hope you all will rember the words of today," the girl said, closing her almost bewitching blue eyes and slowly rising to her feet.
Like ripples reversing upon the water's surface, the spreading ice frost from afar lted backwards, passing by the four people's sides once again and retreating under her feet, vanishing without a trace.
——————
The next day, everyone woke up in the morning sunshine and found at breakfast that the captives from yesterday had all disappeared.
"Tilan got up last night and let them go," N replied nonchalantly while holding a cup of hot milk, as if it were a trivial matter.
"Ah, just like that she let them go? What if they co back?" Guluo asked unclearly with his mouth full of instant noodles.
"No worries, they made a heavy oath; they should not co back," N said, stroking his chin.
"N teacher actually agrees?" Guluo was puzzled, but he wasn't one to delve too deeply. Letting them go was fine; otherwise, they wouldn't know what to do with them. It wasn't right to kill them, and delivering them to the nearest police station would an traveling hundreds of kiloters, which they neither had the leisure nor the ti for.
Among the others, the girls didn't care much about such matters, and of the boys, Valke and Phyllis remained silent. Kinsenke grumbled a few words about losing his toy, while Yalian was curious about what the captives had said last night for Tilan to actually let them go.
After failing to get an answer, the group set off again towards the next sampling point. There were a total of 683 nodes, and they had already covered more than 200, about seven to eight per day, spending most of their ti in the car.
"Now that you've beco gradually proficient, I've decided to start the second phase of the trials," N announced to the group two days later.
"What's that, teacher?" the group inquired curiously.
"In the ti to co, I won't be driving; instead, you'll drive yourselves. Also, you might have noticed that due to the high fuel costs in the Northern Second District, the funds given at the start are running low, and we've only completed a third of the journey."
"So, in the following ti, not only do you need to collect samples, but you'll also need to take on so small tasks from the local residents or earn money through legal ans to ensure that the journey continues," N declared, arms crossed, standing before them.
"Can't we just use our own money to subsidize it?" one of the mbers asked.
N shook his distinctly knobbly finger, indicating that it wasn't an option.
"If everything is subsidized with money, then what's the point of the trials? Trials need rules to be aningful. Otherwise, you could even say, 'Why do I even need to go to school? I have plenty of money at ho, no worries about food and drink.'"
"Moreover, I must remind you that the use of firearms will gradually be phased out in the next stage. That ans you can't use the firearms you've brought with you, though weapons seized along the way are another story."
"Anyway, use your wits to the fullest. Although chaotic areas are fraught with danger, they are also great places for experintation and real combat. The bustling South First District won't allow you such liberties."
"Think about it, you should be grateful for having a teacher like to escort you and the Academy's support behind you. When I first joined the firm, it was quite common for companions to be sacrificed. So of them, I even considered to have better talent than myself; it's just that in the end, I survived, and many either died along the way or left after various setbacks with disillusionnt. Not many could retire into secondary positions as smoothly as I could."
After understanding the teacher's decision and the Academy's arrangents, everyone reluctantly accepted it and began to plan and allocate the route for future tasks.
"It always feels like I got on a bandit ship. Why did I give up the life of a big idol star to run into a life of gunfire?" Ruby complained about her miscalculation in joining the endeavor, then took out a small mirror to check her appearance. Only when she saw that her image was still perfect did she snap the mirror shut.
"Never mind you, but our Efnie really looks surprised," Deloris said, gently pressing her hands on the shoulders of the Goldfish Princess, asking her if she felt any regret or fear.
"Not really, maybe I just need so more trials," she shook her head gently, looking enviously and admiringly at the quiet black-haired girl ahead. During this ti, she, too, had gradually beco impressed by her, but she had always been too proud to learn how to get close to people or how to start a conversation with her.
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