Chapter 53: With a press of the play button, the street came alive under the blurry interplay of light and shadow.
The darkness here was impervious to light, but somehow, artillery fire could pierce through it.
That instant’s light was rather dazzling, tracing an arc from above the darkness-shrouded ruins, illuminating the distant half of the sky.
You Huo suddenly remembered the day his vision returned, when the bandages hadn’t been fully removed. The long-lost light seeped through the woven mesh, abruptly spreading into a complete field. It wasn’t particularly joyful, but it made him instantly relax.
……
“Smiling?” Qin Jiu glanced at You Huo, picking up a new cartridge and expertly loading it.
He narrowed one eye and fired another shot toward the horizon.
The recoil kicked up a cloud of dust, intense and scorching.
Even standing in the safety zone, you could still feel the sudden rush of hot air.
You Huo patted Qin Jiu’s shoulder.
The other turned his head, a deep smile curling at the corner of his lips. This man’s arrogance was cloaked beneath his impeccable appearance, giving off a uniquely unhinged energy.
“What’s wrong, feeling like giving it a try?” he asked.
“Just testing it out,” You Huo reached out to take it.
Qin Jiu tilted his head away with a teasing evasion. “I know our top student is quite capable, but this isn’t something to mess around with.”
You Huo’s hand came up empty: “…”
“Childish, you think?”
“Not too bad, mostly mature.” Qin Jiu gave a rather unceremonious nod. “I just wanted to tell you, without professional training, it’s easy to get yourself killed playing around with this thing.”
You Huo glanced at the standardized marking on the side of the launcher.
This was a crude, low-spec version of the AT4CS RS, slightly heavier than the original, with an effective range of 300 meters. It could be reloaded and had the capability to launch in confined spaces, but if there were obstructions behind the shooter, there was still a chance of it backfiring and injuring them.
Truly easy to get oneself killed.
Qin Jiu had been fighting casually just now, but he didn’t miss a single point that needed attention, clearly showing he was very experienced.
This was a classic case of having enough capital to play around.
“Were you in the military?” You Huo asked.
“Four years of military school, three years in the army.” Qin Jiu said, “Then I got kicked out and sent here.”
“I spent less time in the army than you, but more in military school. I skipped a grade and am younger than you too.”
You Huo glanced at him, hoisted the bazooka smoothly onto his shoulder, and gave Qin Jiu a light kick with his foot, signaling him to move aside.
“So, if you didn’t get killed, I won’t die either.”
He squinted his left eye slightly, raised his hand, and fired a shot.
Qin Jiu raised an eyebrow sharply, his gaze sweeping over the earring before settling on his flat, straight lips.
Another glimmer of light exploded at the horizon.
You Huo lowered his hand, the cannon barrel thudding against the floor with a clang.
“Will the ship collapse?” he asked.
“Hard to say.” Qin Jiu fabricated as if it were true. “It’s possible seawater will start flooding in soon. Are you good at swimming? If not, I could reluctantly fish you out.”
You Huo: “…”
After being frozen by that icy gaze for several seconds, Invigilator 001 finally changed his tone. “You can think of the current confinement room as a small, newly created examination hall, connected to the invigilator ship. With the commotion we’ve caused, the ship won’t collapse at worst—it might just give them a slight tremor.”
* * *
After three “mild tremors,” in the rest area of the ship’s second floor, two plates shattered, three cups of coffee spilled, and one oil lamp fell and broke.
The four invigilators circled the area eight times, searching everywhere for the source of the tremors.
The surface of the sea was frozen solid, with no suspicious floating objects in sight.
Nor were there any sea monsters ramming into the ship’s hull in a suicidal manner.
They searched for a long time, and finally… incredibly… stood before Confinement Room No. 2.
“Is it really here?” 078 still couldn’t quite believe it. “A confinement room can cause this much commotion? I’ve never seen anything like it.”
922: “I’ve never—”
Before he could finish speaking, another explosive sound came from inside.
The invigilators were stunned speechless.
922: “…Now I’ve seen it all.”
154 said woodenly, “Go open the door.”
922 protested, “Why me?”
154: “You’re lively.”
922: “…”
* * *
After a moment of stalemate, the door was still opened by 922.
He cautiously poked his head in and saw himself clinging to the side of a pitch-black wall, thick with the smell of gunpowder assaulting his nose.
“Boss… what on earth is that thing you’re holding?”
Qin Jiu: “…”
Just before the door opened, someone had already fired the fourth shot and promptly stuffed the bazooka back into his hands, trying to pin the last two shots on him as well.
Typical behavior—playing around and then turning your back when you’re done.
Qin Jiu clicked his tongue, propping the bazooka in front of him as he said to 922, “You’re just in time. I need to talk to you about something.”
922 saw the bazooka being brought out and was startled: “What’s wrong? Is there a problem with the confinement room?”
“Not really…”
“Could it be that the system glitched again?” 922 grew even more uneasy.
“What? A system glitch?!” Hearing this from outside the door, 154 also leaned in to look. “Are you okay, boss? Is anyone injured?”
078 and 021 were also startled, grabbing the doorframe as if about to rush inside.
You Huo was seeing invigilators change their expressions in quick succession for the first time—one after another, their faces turned pale. He was somewhat surprised.
It was Qin Jiu who said, “Don’t panic, the system is fine, no bugs. You don’t need to hold onto the doorframe anymore.”
“Really? It’s okay?”
“It’s nothing.”
922 stretched his neck out, looking around.
Seeing that there was indeed no strange sight, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Seeing them so startled, Qin Jiu couldn’t help but say, “Even if there really is a bug, there’s no need to be so anxious, is there?”
“Of course, about that…” 922 said awkwardly, “When the BUG came, even you couldn’t handle it and ended up lying in the high-risk ward of the convalescence center for two years. How could we not be anxious?”
154 tugged fiercely at his sleeve from behind, but it was too late—this idiot colleague had already finished speaking.
Qin Jiu glanced at 922 and asked 154, “922 arrived late, how did he find out about this? Did you tell him?”
154 silently covered his face and said guiltily, “We just happened to chat about it once.”
That fool 078 was also joining in the excitement. “Isn’t it normal to know about this? As soon as I joined our team, I heard about it—supposedly, it was extremely dangerous. You were pronounced dead several times, here and here were all covered in blood, and you had steel plates fixed in several places…”
He met Qin Jiu’s slightly cold expression and finally came to his senses, abruptly stopping. “Hmm… that’s pretty much how it went.”
“A nice artistic touch, exaggerating the danger of the system bug,” Qin Jiu added indifferently.
078 said, “It was a bit exaggerated indeed… The system bug was one thing, but that legendary Examiner A was another. Otherwise, you probably wouldn’t have been so badly injured—ow—”
That dimwit suddenly let out an “oops,” looking down at his own foot. He saw that in the chaos, Ms. 021 had misjudged her steps and her stiletto heel, as sharp as a nail, had landed squarely on the tip of his toe.
“Ms… you…” 078 grabbed the doorframe.
021 paused, letting out a soft “oh”: “Sorry, I was in a hurry to get through the door.”
078 slid down along the doorframe, holding his shoe as he managed to utter, “No worries…”
“Your team is unexpectedly concerned about me. I’m a bit flattered.” Qin Jiu gave 078 a hand. “What else did you talk about? Tell me.”
His tone was gentle, even carrying a hint of amusement at the end.
078 hopped a couple of times on one foot, finally recovering from the pain, and said, “That’s pretty much it. We mostly talked about those things when I first joined the group. Being new… I was curious about everything—speculating on what that bug was like, guessing how you solved it, or wondering where Examiner A went. It was all just variations of the same topics. Later, I realized there wasn’t much left to guess, so I stopped bringing it up.”
Listening to his words, Qin Jiu suddenly found it all rather amusing.
As one of the parties involved, his occasional recollections of that incident over the past two years surprisingly mirrored those of outsiders—
He too would speculate about what exactly had happened that day, wonder how it was ultimately resolved, and ponder the final outcome of Examiner A.
The first two questions left no impression on him, and there were no accessible records within the system. Pondering them alone wouldn’t lead to any answers.
As for the last one…
Although he couldn’t recall clearly and couldn’t find any relevant information, based on the system’s consistent logic, he could still deduce a certain outcome to some extent.
That Examiner A must have either died or been incapacitated. Since he had been removed from the system, his memories should have also been interfered with.
A long time ago, when 154 carelessly brought up this matter, he had once asked him,
“Boss, what if… I mean, what if Examiner A isn’t dead and you happen to run into him one day?”
Back then, Qin Jiu said, “Run into him? He doesn’t remember me, and I don’t remember him. That can’t be called running into each other—it’s just strangers walking the same path.”
154 asked, “What if you recognized each other?”
“Return a few critical condition notices to him?” Qin Jiu replied casually. After a moment, he added lazily, “…I’d probably ask him to keep his distance. Regardless of whether the conflicts were real or just for show, being together never ended well anyway.”
……
Qin Jiu blinked, snapping out of his thoughts, and said to 078 and the others, “Alright, let’s all take a break. I have something to discuss with 922. No need to make such a fuss.”
The invigilators all thought, “That’s not what your previous behavior suggested!”
922 asked, “What’s up?”
Qin Jiu stretched out his hand: “Did you bring a power bank? Lend it to me.”
922: “…”
922: “………………”
922：“…………………………………………”
At that moment, 078 finally realized what a terrible idea he had come up with.
To minimize the damage, he braced himself and separated the two big shots again. You Huo was sent back to Punishment Room No. 1, while Qin Jiu remained in No. 2.
Before turning around to head next door, You Huo tugged at Qin Jiu’s sleeve, wanting to say something.
But thinking back on what 078 had just said, those death notifications and countless steel plates, he felt it wasn’t the right time to tell Qin Jiu that he was Examiner A…
With the atmosphere being so rare and pleasant, why rush to ruin it?
Moreover, he didn’t have concrete evidence to prove that he was Examiner A.
If he hadn’t even convinced himself yet, why bother causing trouble for others?
……
The latter half of this round of confinement felt exceptionally long.
At the very least, Qin Jiu found the process of waiting for his phone to revive to be especially endless… as long as a century.
That phone seemed to be playing a joke on him.
It stubbornly waited until the moment before 922 came to open the door again to suddenly light up the screen.
This time, Qin Jiu didn’t waste any time and quickly clicked into that video interface.
Once the play button was pressed, that street came to life under the blurry light and shadows.