Chapter 16: Chapter 16: Intrusion
"Where... is this place?"
In Z City, neon lights flickered as a clear, crisp female voice echoed through the streets.
A sword-wielding woman in classic white robes had appeared abruptly on a city street, her face full of vigilance as she scanned her surroundings.
The young woman’s gaze held a mix of curiosity about the unknown and bewilderment as she stared at the surrounding skyscrapers.
The furnishings, the layout, and the various creations here were vastly different from her home.
"I clearly remember dozing off in Yanyun Pavilion. When I came to my senses, I was here. And it’s already broad daylight... Is some Sect Leader-level expert playing a trick on a junior like me with this kind of spatial teleportation technique?"
The woman’s clear voice echoed through the empty street, but even after a long while, no one answered.
It was early morning. The woman swept her gaze around her, and in the next instant, her body vanished from the spot without a sound.
But where the woman had stood, a modern surveillance camera had faithfully recorded everything.
...
Early that morning, Fang Can let out a soft yawn.
Due to the time difference between the two worlds, he had just been burning the midnight oil listening to an audiobook, only to find himself back in the modern world at dawn. In a few hours, he would have to sling on his backpack and go to school.
As for skipping school? Absolutely not!
The laws in the New Country were extremely strict for ordinary citizens. It was even a crime for students to skip class. If you took a day off without a legitimate reason, police officers would actually show up at your door to interrogate you about what you’d been up to.
And if you were one of the delinquents who cut class repeatedly, well, congratulations. You could expect to find your name on the list for the annual Carnival Day.
In any case, the New Country truly treated its ordinary citizens like cogs in a machine, tolerating no deviation or transgression.
Perhaps that was why Carnival Day was approved so quickly. After all, it was the only excitement people usually got.
This country, founded by superhumans with world-ending powers after the Great Cataclysm, incorporated the worst of all systems. That description wasn’t wrong in the slightest.
Fang Can had heard there seemed to be other countries in this world, not just the New Country.
However, due to restrictions on the internet and in official documents, even textbooks were forbidden from mentioning any specifics about other nations. As a result, Fang Can was completely in the dark, like the villagers who knew nothing of the Han dynasty, let alone the Wei or Jin. He didn’t even know what those other countries were called.
Fighting off his growing drowsiness, Fang Can washed up, got himself ready, and changed back into his Midtown High School uniform.
Feeling the clean freshness on his skin, Fang Can couldn’t help but sigh. Bathing in the Otherworld just wasn’t as convenient as in the modern world. Being a bit of a neat freak, he always felt like he couldn’t get properly clean over there.
He lightly shouldered his backpack, left his home, and squeezed onto the subway, heading for Midtown High School along with the office workers.
In Class One of the third year, just as Fang Can walked into the classroom, he saw several classmates in the middle of a heated discussion.
When he got closer, he realized they were excitedly discussing which city had been chosen for this year’s Carnival, and guessing which "game mode" would be voted in.
"I voted for Sinful Judgment. What about you guys?" a student with freckles said cheerfully.
A somewhat chubby boy laughed. "I still prefer the city-wide, no-holds-barred brawl. I only realized three years ago that there are some real masters hiding among the common folk."
"Speed Hunt is good too. I’ve always known about that mode, but it’s never gotten enough votes."
...
As the students were chatting, they saw Fang Can approach and smiled. "Fang Can, what did you vote for?"
"I didn’t choose anything," Fang Can said, shaking his head and giving a casual reply. "But if I had to choose, the Human Purge Plan sounds like fun."
Hearing his answer, the others all nodded in agreement with his taste.
They were still chatting casually when the school bell rang. The group, who had been laughing and talking just a moment ago, immediately straightened their expressions and returned to their seats.
Before long, a middle-aged man holding a lesson plan walked into the classroom.
The first class of the day was Chinese Language Arts.
"Class representative, collect the homework from last class. Everyone else, open your books to page seventeen."
At the teacher’s words, everyone flipped to the designated page in unison.
"Last class, we reviewed the pre-cataclysm classic, ’Zou Ji’s Satire Urging the King of Qi to Accept Admonishment.’ You all need to pay close attention today, as this lesson is a key part of the upcoming exam."
As the teacher spoke, Fang Can glanced at the contents of page seventeen.
The Language Arts teacher adjusted his glasses. "Now, all of you read these two pages aloud together."
On the teacher’s command, everyone, including Fang Can, began to recite the text from the two pages in unison.
Inside the classroom, Fang Can joined his classmates in preparing for the exam, seriously reviewing the material they had already learned once before.
Meanwhile, with the eruption of an energy tide, the New Country had secretly entered a state of high alert.
Across the hundreds of cities in the New Country, all those near the energy tide were undergoing strict investigation.
As information from modern society’s vast network began to pour in, it only took a few hours of investigation to notice something was amiss.
Within the Dragon Group, an organization in the New Country composed entirely of superhumans, a middle-aged man with a scar on his face looked over the compiled data.
His right hand tapped lightly on the wooden desk as he watched the video clips before him.
During this period, more than a dozen humans of varying appearances, ages, and genders, all dressed in ancient-style clothing, had abruptly appeared within surveillance range the moment the energy tide erupted.
Thinking of a certain hypothesis, the middle-aged man’s lip twitched. "Twin worlds? Something like that really exists? Interesting. Very interesting."
With this in mind, the middle-aged man spoke. "Send the Dragon Group out. Capture all of these... humans from the videos."
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