EM CH27

Chapter 27: Buried

Yu An crept gingerly to the exit of the exam hall tunnel, calmly observing for a dozen seconds. Then, he lightly stepped on the surveillance camera on the ground, popped open the lid of the Core Storage Analyzer, pressed Functional Core: Roentgen’s Eye into his eye socket, and lifted his boot off the camera.

The deep red Aberrant Core embedded into the socket, rapidly forging a neural link with the Vessel. After a brief flare of stinging pain, Yu An lifted his head, using Roentgen’s Eye’s X-ray ability to scan across the entire grounds.

The special effect of the Pure Black Hood was that once the hood was raised, one’s face could never be seen by anyone, completely concealing whatever Aberrant Core was slotted in his left eye. With so many observation feeds and intern cameras in the Underground Railway conference hall, hardly anyone noticed that Yu An’s screen had gone black for a few seconds.

Yet Zhao Ran’s attention was fixed solely on Yu An. From those few seconds of blacked-out screen, Zhao Ran instantly deduced that he was swapping cores, likely equipping the x-ray core. In an uncertain tactical situation, pinpointing the location of each opponent first was standard operational logic.

It appeared he had located the positions of the two technicians who had yet to exit their exam rooms, intending to wait like a predator to eliminate both technicians first. A very stable scoring strategy; Zhao Ran was quite pleased.

He had thought that with Yu An’s indifferent attitude toward everything, the kid would surely dash off right at the start to assassinate the mole hidden among the interns. Relieving some of the tension in his chest, Zhao Ran diverted his gaze to monitor the other candidates on screen.

Sure enough, most of the investigators gave up on the written test early, turning in their papers ahead of time once they finished whatever questions fell within their competence. Seeing the sign for the strength test, they were momentarily stunned, but quickly grasped and adapted to the new arrangement; their adaptability was quite commendable.

In ten minutes, the first test objective would refresh. To prevent candidates from passively avoiding combat, the strength test continuously refreshed trial objectives. Failing to complete an objective meant automatic elimination, yet attempting to complete one inevitably brought encounters with other candidates on narrow paths.

Zhao Ran checked his watch. With Yu An’s capabilities, eliminating two technicians within ten minutes should be more than enough time.

However, Yu An’s line of thought seemed slightly at odds with Zhao Ran’s prediction.

The entire strength test arena spanned around one thousand mu, simulated as a coastal warehouse district. The western sector featured woods and a dilapidated wilderness shack, while the eastern and northern sectors held temporary cargo depots with wide-open entryways. Maneuvering routes were relatively flexible, with abundant yet orderly cover, making it well-suited for newcomers to familiarize themselves with routine field operations.

Crouching outside the exits of two adjacent exam rooms, Yu An slotted the Arrogant Bat inverted into his shoulder bag. Hiding in a secluded blind spot, he inventoried the cores inside the Core Storage Analyzer as he waited.

Functional Core: Satan’s Guidance, harvested from the goat-headed man, only had two uses remaining. The ability to make targets lose their sense of direction often secured victory through surprise, so it was best saved for critical moments.

Illusion Chamber Core: Drawing Into Reality, acquired from clearing the beauty salon, was of too high a grade. Yu An had never successfully linked with a silver-tier core before; if his body couldn’t withstand the load, it would only hinder him, so it was temporarily excluded from consideration as well.

The most crucial core at present was the Tier 2 Blue core returned by Officer Ye: Monstrosity Core: Goat Horns. Significantly enhancing strength and agility, it provided precisely the attributes needed when facing investigators. Its only drawback was its thirty-minute usage limit. He had to reserve at least twenty minutes to deal with the flame guy and Ni Lan, and even then, he could only barely handle one of them. After all, they were fellow Vessels embedded with exceptionally high-grade cores, and investigators excelled at frontal combat; engaging them in an open skirmish put Yu An at a distinct disadvantage.

“Where is this? Your bat is poking right into my face,” Miss Bo, serving as padding at the bottom of the bag, complained irritably.

“I forgot to leave you at home.” Yu An kept forgetting the existence of this beauty standee, quickly zipping the backpack shut to avoid being caught on camera.

Cautious footsteps echoed from within the adjacent exam corridor. Yu An stood up, slowly drawing the Arrogant Bat, gripping it in hand as he edged toward the threshold.

Armed with the x-ray capability of Roentgen’s Eye, Yu An could easily see through the wall to track the person’s location. As the individual approached the exit with vigilance, Yu An held his breath, pressing his back flat against the wall so his shadow wouldn’t fall across the ground and give away his presence.

The technician cautiously poked his head out, attempting to survey the surroundings first. To his shock, the moment his head emerged, a wooden bat locked horizontally across his throat. Choked backward, the wood compressed his windpipe to the point of suffocation. His hands clawed uselessly through the air, managing only to yank down the zipper on Yu An’s jacket, prompting an audible meow.

Pinned to the technician’s chest was an Underground Railway ID card, the name column reading “Ji Nian.” He was an intern mechanist from the Mechanical Logistics Team, a formidable yet low-profile classified division specializing in Aberrant-powered equipment research.

“Weapons. Hand them over,” Yu An said coolly.

Trembling, Ji Nian turned all the pockets of his overalls inside out, explaining in a hushed whisper: “I thought the strength test was tomorrow and today was only the written exam, so I didn’t bring any gear.”

Yu An did not eliminate him immediately. Instead, he dragged him over to the exit of the other technician’s exam room, shoving his head toward the doorway and threatening softly: “Entering someone else’s safe house triggers immediate elimination. If you want to keep your score, don’t struggle.”

Terrified, Ji Nian nodded rapidly. Feeling the bat around his neck loosen at last, he clutched his mouth and coughed violently, keeping it muffled for fear that displeasing Yu An would result in being shoved inside.

Yu An prodded his back with the bat: “Turn around.”

Raising both hands high, Ji Nian turned cautiously toward Yu An. Seeing Yu An’s face completely swallowed by darkness, he adjusted his glasses in surprise.

He suddenly parted his mouth, a miniature dart cocking into firing position from his throat. But Yu An reacted a beat faster; the instant he caught sight of the mechanical gears within his mouth, he drove the bat upward, snapping his jaw shut with force.

Ji Nian bit his tongue by accident, clutching his mouth with muffled groans.

“I am a technician too,” Yu An held up his Underground Railway ID card and waved it before Ji Nian. “The strength test has specific bonus point objectives set aside for technicians, but heading out alone is suicide. We might as well team up and take turns sharing points.”

With his tongue throbbing and his jaw aching, Ji Nian didn’t dare say a word, glancing down at the bat propped under his chin and timidly nodding.

Yu An fished out the miniature firing mechanism from his mouth and released him. The little mechanist seemed frail and gentle, practically lacking the strength to truss a chicken; even if Yu An stood there and let him strike, he likely wouldn’t dare.

What came next was somewhat tricky.

The other technician refused to step out of his written exam room. Yu An knew that among the examinees, one technician was a mechanist and the other was a cybersecurity specialist. The latter had probably used some technical method to discover someone was camping at the exit, so he refused to show himself, waiting for the camper to lose patience and leave.

Yet this also proved from another angle that this cybersecurity specialist possessed very weak self-defense capabilities.

Tapping the bat twice against his palm, Yu An zoned out for a moment, then abruptly raised the bat and struck the iron railing outside the doorway in a pattern of short and long taps.

Shivering beside him, Ji Nian recognized the code, muttering softly: “BackDoor?”

Sure enough, footsteps sounded in the corridor, drawing nearer. The cybersecurity specialist walked out, standing at a distance as he scrutinized the two by the entrance with distrust. The ID badge on his chest indicated his name was “Yong Zheng.”

“Backdoor” was common hacker terminology, a metaphor for infiltrating and controlling a target host machine, modifying settings to regain access.

Yu An used this pun to signal that he was a fellow technician rather than an investigator camping outside to harvest easy kill points.

“What’s your plan?” Yong Zheng held a microcomputer in his palm. Neither of them excelled in frontal combat; if another path existed, they were naturally willing to give it a shot.

Yu An turned: “Clear out of the exam room entrance first.” Calculating the time, investigators would soon come prowling. Brawling among themselves was costly, so someone would definitely come hunting technicians for points.

“There are ten damaged elimination pits to repair across the arena. Pits Three and Six are closest to us, and Pit Three is farthest from the other investigators. We head there first.”

Yong Zheng was somewhat surprised. Back inside the written exam room, he had already hacked the arena’s positioning system, allowing him to track the real-time coordinates of all interns in the area. Yet Underground Railway’s security grid was notoriously difficult to crack; even he had taken nearly fifteen minutes to pull it off. This guy in black had left the room so early, so how had he pinpointed everyone else’s location?

“You’re a Vessel,” Yong Zheng concluded with certainty. “Did you embed a detection-type core? Doesn’t seem to have much combat power either.”

Naturally, none of them could have guessed that among them was a Vessel who could swap Aberrant Cores at will.

The trio quickly navigated to Pit Three, where broken electronic components and spare parts littered the ground. Yu An squatted down to examine the components closely. It wasn’t as simple as screwing loose accessories back in; the elimination pit’s entire core drive unit was semi-functional. For Yu An alone, repairing such a setup would require at least twenty minutes under intense focus.

“I can fix it,” Ji Nian poked his head out, drawing a set of tools from his overall pockets.

Yu An paused. Hadn’t his pockets been empty just moments ago?

“Actually, these entire pants are Aberrant-powered gear I crafted myself,” Ji Nian scratched his head, unbuttoning a concealed steel clasp to reveal an Aberrant Core embedded on his belt.

The timid mechanist squatted beside the broken elimination pit, meticulously diagnosing the machine’s damage with his fingertips, occasionally closing his eyes to sketch schematic blueprints of the core driver in his mind.

Watching from the side for a moment, Yu An said quietly: “The sensor trigger for the elimination pit isn’t inside the pit, but around the rim. We can double the detection radius. We won’t be returning to this spot anyway.”

“A trap? Brilliant idea,” Yong Zheng slacked off to the side with hands in his pockets, sipping on a smuggled pouch of jelly. “I can modify the recognition algorithm. Give me thirty seconds.”

Yu An paid no further attention to the remaining technical details, leaping onto a stack of timber in the wilderness to monitor the movements of the others using the x-ray core.

Someone was approaching. Likely deduced their route based on the exam room distribution, or perhaps they had grouped up as well.

Yu An signaled the two technicians to take cover. Resting his right hand lightly against the Core Storage Analyzer, he popped open the latch with his back to the cameras, drew out Monstrosity Core: Goat Horns, and gripped it in his palm.

Ai Ke, the investigator rapidly closing in, concealed himself among the branches of a barren tree. He held an Aberrant-powered device resembling a walkie-talkie driven by an internal core, equipped with thermal detection that allowed him to locate the technicians’ hiding spots fastest.

This was his strategy: knowing his hand-to-hand combat wasn’t top-tier, he steered clear of formidable opponents to pick on the technicians instead. His luck was great this assessment session; having three technicians around meant easy elimination points. Don’t talk about whether bullying technicians was shameful; could pride feed you? Points certainly could.

Pricking his ears to catch the distant sound of machine maintenance, he struck while the technician was engrossed in repairing the pit. Leaping out in a sudden ambush, he drew a military combat knife from his lower back.

The investigator locked onto the closest target, a slender young guy in black who looked frail and weak. Vaulting down from the sky, as he fell, the young guy in black on the ground slowly tilted his face upward toward him.

The youth’s face was enveloped by a bottomless dark void, curved goat horns sprouting from his head like the Grim Reaper looking up, trailing a ribbon of blue light beneath the hood.

With his legs infused with the explosive leaping power of a mountain goat, Yu An dropped low and whipped his left leg upward, planting a kick squarely into the falling investigator’s abdomen. Unprepared for such a violent counter, the investigator endured the gut pain, twisting midair, gripping his knife with both hands to stab toward Yu An’s upper right chest.

Yet suspended in midair, his options to counter were severely limited. Yu An pulled his right shoulder back to evade, springing upward with the momentum, delivering a roundhouse whip kick that sent him flying three meters back, tumbling right beside the nearly repaired elimination pit.

Yong Zheng lifted his head from the machine with half a pouch of jelly dangling from his mouth. Holding a wrench with two smears of black machine grease on his cheeks, Ji Nian beamed a goofy grin as he looked over at the battered victim on the ground: “Trash, trying an ambush? So investigators have days like this too.”

Yu An promptly pried out the Goat Horns to conserve usage time and sat at an elevated vantage point to keep watch. When the two technicians asked how to handle the unfortunate wretch on the ground, Yu An tilted his head and replied: “Bury him.”