Chapter 455: Preparing to Depart

Luo Qi could not say where the problem lay; they had returned layer by layer from the bottom up, and the problem could have occurred at any point during the return.

"Do you think the hall on the first floor underground is real?" He hoped to narrow down the scope as much as possible.

To his slight fortune, Liu Ziyi said with resentment, as if insulted, "Of course it's real, that's my laboratory!"

Luo Qi thought to himself that, at present, the only ones who were products of Qionglin and didn't yet carry a "waste" label were perhaps just their group of students from the youth class.

"Then someone must have altered the beacon of the ground-level Teleportation Point, and we were taken to another destination."

"Purpose?" Liu Ziyi asked, brief and clear, turning her head to re-examine the surroundings.

Luo Qi felt once again that Liu Ziyi was treating all of this as if she were solving a problem; half of her was somewhat afraid, while the other half refused to face the reality, refused to believe they had fallen into danger. She habitually treated the predicament as an exam question, impatient to provide the standard answer.

Luo Qi tried his best to exclude the interference she brought, carefully reviewing the events once more, hoping the revelation he had received was not a delusion. His hands remained in his pockets, his fingers beginning to habitually enjoy the stinging pain of the pine needles. The hallucinations that had troubled him earlier today had not reappeared; his mind was very clear, barely approaching the state he was in when Du Zhengyi was nearby.

"Are you okay?" Liu Ziyi's question startled him out of his deep thought, and he shook his head. Liu Ziyi looked increasingly uneasy. "What do we do now? This place might be an unknown location. A Pandragorn Orbital Station can be temporarily constructed using high-power transmission crystals, so we could have been taken anywhere, not to mention that we've been encased in a layer of Sandbox. We are in a spatial dimension within an unknown space. We've had the worst luck, but why hasn't any danger occurred yet, and where are the others?"

Luo Qi could not answer her, but he had a rough, general answer: "Psychological warfare."

Liu Ziyi's eyebrows arched high, but in the blink of an eye, her facial expression relaxed, as if she had completed a tit-for-tat dialogue all by herself. Luo Qi thought fleetingly that this was another benefit of dealing with child prodigies; they were too smart and could have a heated argument with themselves first. The debate result was highly effective, so there was basically no need to persuade them; they could follow the logical deduction to the result themselves.

Luo Qi could almost reconstruct Liu Ziyi's thought process. Anyone who returned from below and walked to this point would most likely first hysterically scream for a while, then frantically sprint across the entire building, checking where the people had gone, checking if there were any traces of battle left behind, or any clues pointing to the truth. In the end, they would find the entire building as quiet as a grave, without even a ghost in sight. People would grow weary, their nerves would tighten, and a breakdown would be imminent. Then, when they finally gave up and decided to leave this place in a terrible state, the second round of torture would just be beginning.

Liu Ziyi's voice came over, "If we solve the first question, we only need to walk out of here, and the second question will naturally appear."

"Hmm," Luo Qi said, choosing her way of description, "so choosing to leave here or go downward, the result might be the same: opening the second question. Regardless, we can't go back through the Teleportation Point anymore."

Liu Ziyi bit her lip and pondered painfully for a while. Her complexion was a bit pale, and her breathing was slightly faster than the normal frequency, but she basically remained calm. "Then let's go. We'll leave here, just as they hope, and stand on the outward-bound Teleportation Point, preparing to head to the Pandragorn Orbital Station twenty kilometers away according to the original plan."

Luo Qi nodded.

But she did not move, as if her body had stiffened. Only then did Luo Qi realize she was much more nervous than she looked. Her frustration could no longer be suppressed, and she spoke hurriedly, her tone much sharper than usual, "I really wish Du Zhengyi hadn't been sent away. I really wish the person I pulled down to the basement had been him. I really wish he were here right now!"

Luo Qi felt as if he had been slapped in the face by the girl; his face burned, and he immediately lowered his head. A familiar discomfort churned in his stomach, as if he had returned to school. When grouping for experiments, no one wanted to be in his group; in physical education class, no one wanted to be on his team. His lips were pressed tightly together; he remembered that the first person in his life who didn't truly care about being on a team with him was Du Zhengyi. So, if he didn't press his lips together, he might also start wailing like a little girl at any moment, "I'm the one who wishes Du Zhengyi were here more! Give him back to me!"—that would be truly pathetic.

"Ziyi." He swallowed, hiding the near-fury he had been feeling for the past two days, grabbed the girl's shoulder, looked up into her eyes, and said earnestly, "I promise you'll be fine. I swear."

"What?" Liu Ziyi looked dazed; she had just sunk back into her own brain, and Luo Qi's words made her unable to react for a moment. "You promise... what? Promise I'll be fine?" She pondered for a moment, finally connecting the context, and suddenly cried out, "I don't need a man to protect me! Oh, I didn't mean it that way, Luo Qi, I really didn't mean it that way. I'm not saying you're useless. I'm just saying, objectively, this kind of situation should be for Du Zhengyi, not for the two of us."

Luo Qi saw sincerity and guilt in her eyes, and his throat felt a bit easier, gaining a little comfort. "Indeed, the soldiers are all gone, and a lab technician and a psychologist are left behind on the battlefield. What the hell are the two of us supposed to do? But don't worry, I promise you'll be fine."

Liu Ziyi didn't quite accept his statement, but she didn't want to waste any more breath arguing about it. "You're sure you know I'm not insulting you, right? My social skills have never been very good."

"Same here," Luo Qi said. "Mine aren't very good either, so let's not stand on ceremony. Let's just keep saying what's on our minds, okay? No nonsense?"

Liu Ziyi glanced at him. "Not very good, as in the kind of 'not very good' that involves taking down the most difficult God of War in Qionglin?"

Luo Qi smiled slightly. "I should write on my resume that I conquered an Alien and Du Zhengyi, shouldn't I?"

"Yes," Liu Ziyi said, the small talk making her feel a bit more relaxed. "I'm also willing to accept your 'no nonsense' approach. So I'll go first: you should know that once I leave the laboratory, I don't have any abilities, and I might drag you down. If you want to leave me behind, I accept that arrangement at any time; you can come back and send someone to find me later."

"You mean you want to wait here?" Luo Qi pondered the risks she would face by doing so and suddenly realized this was actually a better choice; he had completely forgotten about it. "You're right, it's safe here for now..."

"What?" Liu Ziyi's voice rose again. "Leave me behind right now? No way!"

"I..." Luo Qi was at a loss, not knowing what to say.

"Of course I'm going to keep moving forward with you!" Liu Ziyi said, wrinkling her face. "If I don't even get a look at what's below, I'd rather be killed! I mean, in a critical moment, you can leave me behind; that would be fair because I'm a Technical mage and will hold you back. But I myself won't miss the chance to take a look."

Luo Qi had nothing to say. After a long while, he said, "You kids from Qionglin, are you all like this?"

"Don't understand what you're saying, but we should go, shouldn't we?" Liu Ziyi asked.

"What level Mage are you?" Luo Qi suddenly asked her.

"Certificate-wise?" Liu Ziyi asked. "Of course Level 1, everyone is Level 1."

Luo Qi guessed she was referring to the Qionglin kids' group; each of them could obtain the top-tier certification for a Secular mage. "Okay, just clarifying. I need to know what level you are, how much use you can be, and how to utilize you."

"Oh, you really are blunt," Liu Ziyi said, but she smiled. "But I like boys who don't talk nonsense!"

"There are no boys here, and no girls, only two Mages who need to solve the trouble and survive," Luo Qi said calmly.

Liu Ziyi nodded, the confused look on her face fading, becoming very serious.

"Okay," Luo Qi said. "Do you know that in a truly critical moment, Du Zhengyi will listen to me without hesitation? Of course, I will also listen to him. The few times we barely survived, it was because we trusted each other. You and I probably won't trust each other to that extent immediately, but I hope you can trust me at special moments. You should know, I won't force you, but I can indeed force you to lose your sense of self, and I can also completely take over your brain."

A shadow of fear finally flashed across Liu Ziyi's face. She observed Luo Qi with astonishment, as if realizing for the first time that Luo Qi was truly a Mind Mage. She finally remembered the deep fear Mages had for Mind Mages. For so long, she had only noticed one of Luo Qi's identities—Du Zhengyi's friend. When he said these words, his tone was very soft, and his expression was also natural. "You wouldn't do that," she whispered.

"Right, I wouldn't," Luo Qi said, folding his arms across his chest. "Because if I did that, Du Zhengyi would beat me until my head was full of bumps."

Liu Ziyi smiled, and her shoulders relaxed a bit. "Okay, I understand what you mean. Deal, I'm willing to hand over command to you."

"Good, now make me a pot of water first!" Luo Qi said like a school bully.

"You don't know how to do it?" Liu Ziyi cried out in astonishment.

"Do you know how to make Pocari Sweat?" Luo Qi thought for a moment and asked.

"In your dreams!"