Book 3, Chapter 7: Search

In the southeastern corner of the Arcane Palace was an airborne garden covered by a glass ceiling.

Lush green plants filled every inch of it, while two passive biosentient entities monitored the soil moisture content and the plants’ needs 24/7. They also watered the plants.

The fusion of reality and fantasy allowed the biosentient entities to adjust the weather and lighting whenever they wanted to create different climates, seasons, and sceneries from different regions of the world.

At present, the garden had the backdrop of an oasis. A man in a striped suit walked along the edge of it as he stared at the sand dust in the “distance.”

He appeared to be in his forties and had a trimmed beard, a toned body, tasteful clothing accessories, and graying temples, giving him the charm of a mature man. However, there was an aggressive glint in his eyes. As he faced the yellow sand filling his vision, there was even a challenging look in his gaze.

His hair and accessories fluttered because of the sand charging at him. Just as he was about to face its challenge, it disappeared, revealing a courtyard full of green vegetation around him. Bird chirps and the sound of flowing water replaced the wild howls.

The man raised an eyebrow. “What is it, Hongfu?”

Hongfu’s voice entered his ears. “Mr. Ling, sorry to interrupt. You mentioned before that if Chen Chuan takes his entrance exam, I am to send his results to you immediately. I’ve obtained his data.”

“Oh? Let me take a look,” Mr. Ling immediately said.

He was really interested in Chen Chuan. After all, he had managed to get the unrestricted defense permit during his freshman year and was one of the few commoners who made it to the main campus. Perhaps this youth could make it easier for him to carry out his plan.

Chen Chuan’s assessment and scores soon appeared on his screen, but they didn’t show his potential. Mr. Ling wondered whether it was because Hongfu had overlooked it or whether it was hidden due to other reasons.

“72?”

Upon seeing this, Mr. Ling frowned and felt a little disappointed.

This score was pretty good in the university. After all, the students in the main campus were all elites from various parts of the country, and all of them were at least at the Second Limit when they joined. The ones who could get high scores in the main campus were the cream of the crop, but this score was far below what he had expected and needed.

After some thinking, he asked, “Hongfu, didn’t he defeat Tan Wang?”

“According to my analysis, Chen Chuan might have taken some type of special medication when he faced Tan Wang. Since Tan Wang is detained by the authorities and his testimony isn’t available to the public, we don’t know whether Chen Chuan received any help during their fight.”

Mr. Ling hummed. That explanation made sense.

After all, Tan Wang wasn’t exactly strong. When he came back before, someone had also destroyed all of his implants. This matter had caught their attention, because it was rare for any martial artist to be reduced to such a pathetic state outside the city.

If Chen Chuan had taken any medication and had a stroke of luck or external help during the fight, it would have been possible for him to defeat Tan Wang.

“No matter what, the fact that he dared to fight against a Third Limit martial artist makes his willpower and courage deserving of acknowledgement. Even if he took medicine during crucial moments, he’s still a potential fighting force. Put him in the backup list,” Mr. Ling said slowly.

“Understood.”

He then put his hands into his pockets and walked to the edge of the courtyard before turning off his Realm Pass and looking at the tall buildings outside through the branch-covered glass wall.

“Most of the recommendation slots to the main campus are monopolized by the powerful families of each area. We’re not the only ones having this problem. The other areas have the same issue,” he mumbled to himself.

“Most of the students in the main campus are recommended students. They serve their families and companies’ interests, not the university’s. The echoes of the world are getting stronger. Before that happens, the university needs to go through a major change.”

Hongfu said nothing, but she seemed to be listening.

***

After completing his afternoon training in his room, Chen Chuan took a few tubes of nutritional paste before going to the window in the living room to take a look at the bright neon lights outside. Then, he drew the curtains, sat down on the sofa, and started reading the news and some things he was paying attention to.

His main focus was on the places that showed abnormal activity, but today, he noticed that there was no longer any news about those situations. Even after refreshing the page a few times, he still found nothing.

This made Chen Chuan wonder whether someone had already taken care of them.

However, while the ones from the day before were gone, missions related to similarly suspicious activities weren’t missing. A few new ones had showed up.

Chen Chuan checked and recorded them so that he could check them on his own and confirm whether the suspicious activities were caused by supernatural beings.

The medicine he got from when he served the country could last him until February. After that, he would need to start buying his medicine. That was why Chen Chuan had to start thinking about how to get money as soon as possible to prevent running out of medicine. He couldn’t push this matter back for too long, so he decided to start the next day.

Once he was done looking for missions, he remembered something that had been puzzling him all this while, so he typed in a few keywords.

Merkarians. Echoes of the world.

He got information about the Merkarians right away. The portal even had a record of the Merkarian criminals stealing the oak leaf from Yangzhi City.

Even Central City knows about this and has its own record? Liu Zhan will be happy if he learns about this, he thought.

But searching for the echoes of the world did not go well. Even after looking around for a while and switching to synonyms, he didn’t get any results.

That showed that it was important, so Chen Chuan would have to pay attention to it later on.

He trained a little more at night. When it was time for bed, he took a shower and went to sleep. The next day, he woke up on time, washed his face, and went straight to his daily training.

After 9 a.m., he changed into another set of clothes and was about to head out when he was sent two sets of the main campus’ uniforms. One was for spring, and the other autumn. He also got shoes, socks, gloves, and scarves to go with the uniforms.

There were clouds sewn into the uniforms with golden and silver threads. They didn’t stand out starkly on the uniforms and instead blended perfectly into the base colors, but they were not so subtle that people would fail to notice them, thereby giving them a reserved air of beauty.

The uniforms were made from threads of an unknown creature. They adjusted themselves to fit the person who put on the clothes.

Chen Chuan asked Hongfu about them and learned that such clothes were highly-resistant to damage and would remain in perfect condition even after the students fought in them.

Even if they were somehow damaged, the clothes could repair themselves when exposed to sunlight. They could even filter out poisonous gases. The cloud patterns weren’t just decorations, either. They glowed faintly at night so that the students could see in the dark. Also, even when they were outside, the uniforms could connect the students to Hongfu.

The uniform was too eye-catching, though. Chen Chuan was going out to investigate, so he didn’t want to attract attention. So, after folding the uniforms up, he put them into his closet.

With the box containing the Frost King Saber in hand, he walked out of his room. Since it was still the holidays, aside from the security guards, barely any other students could be seen on campus. Sometimes, though, Chen Chuan could see maintenance workers walking by.

There was a station for the city tram right across the square outside the Arcane Palace. A tall, large signboard stood there. Through the Realm Pass, Chen Chuan could check his current location, the city tram’s schedule, the shops and restaurants around the area, and advertisements for various businesses.

While the roads and streets were wide and spacious, the buildings in the distance occupied most of his field of vision. The large digital billboards on them were also playing advertisements loudly.

But the people waiting for the city tram paid them no mind. Instead, they were staring ahead or using their fingers to flick at the air in front of them, immersed in the world displayed by their Realm Passes.

There were plenty of cars and people on the roads and streets. Most of the people had either conspicuous or subtle implants. Through the Realm Pass, their clothes also had distinctive but not exaggerated designs. They were somewhat easy on the eyes.

Based on what he saw on the Realm Pass, grotesque clothes had been the fashion trend for a while, but it had passed. Reserved clothing was all the rage now.

He also noticed that whenever he stared at a person, if they were not a citizen, the Realm Pass would tell him whether the person had a criminal record.

After a short while, the tram arrived, and Chen Chuan entered it along with the crowd. The signboard above the station was showing a news channel. It had a newscaster called Luo Qi, who was complaining about the city patrols’ inaction and mocking the inefficiency of the governmental departments using all sorts of bombastic words.

The city tram soon started. Chen Chuan stared at the city and the scenery outside. When he came, he had been unable to properly see anything, but now, he could enjoy the view.

After filtering out all the dazzling light effects, most of the buildings gave off a heavy, solid, and firm impression. Something particularly notable about them was that the roofs and mezzanines were filled with greenery. Even without the dazzling lights, the greenery alone was pleasing to the eye.

Around ten minutes later, the light suddenly dimmed as the city tram passed by a skyscraper. Chen Chuan took a quick glance at the building and saw all sorts of clothing for men and women on display.

With perfect timing, his Realm Pass gave him a message, stating that this was Cross Tower, a clothing company catering to celebrities. It then listed the clothing items the company sold.

Chen Chuan swiped the message off. Once the city tram drove past the building, the sun’s rays landed on the tram again, and everything turned bright once more. This switch between light and dark kept happening as the tram moved through the city.

Chen Chuan switched to another station halfway through his journey. Fifteen minutes later, he stepped out of yet another station and walked for around ten minutes before arriving near his destination.

The two interconnected buildings to his left stood out like a sore thumb. There was an emblem of a crimson bird on them, and lush green plants went down from the buildings’ roofs until they reached the ground. The sun’s rays shone through the gap between the buildings, chasing away some of the darkness on the ground.

Chen Chuan checked his Realm Pass and looked to the right. The mission statement had said that the suspicious activity was two kilometers in front of the two buildings. Chen Chuan headed right there.

At that moment, a few people showed up dozens of meters behind him. They didn’t follow, but just stared at him with malice shining in their eyes.

One of them said, “Boss, that kid’s clothes don’t have any halo effects, and he took the tram here. It’s clear that he just arrived at Central City.”

The man referred to as “Boss” had silver-dyed hair. He put a cigarette in his mouth and took out a lighter before lighting it with a click. After taking a puff, he exhaled slowly. Amid the smoke, he turned to where Chen Chuan had disappeared and said to the people beside him, “Call the guys over. We have work.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep