Chapter 20
Chapter 20: When Aberrant Beasts Attack, Hide Beside the Shining Golden Dragon
“Warning, warning. Twenty-five Level Five aberrant beasts have broken through the Academy’s back gate and entered the grounds. All units, attention, all units, attention!”
The sharp, urgent siren voice blared the warning three times in a loop, making sure every student and every security guard in the Academy could hear it.
The leaders of the Imperial Military Academy were too busy wiping the cold sweat from their brows to care about their dignity. They rushed to say to Chong Ming: “Your Highness, a large number of Level Five aberrant beasts have broken into the campus. It is far too dangerous. Please move to the campus shelter pod. Our Academy will do everything in our power to keep you safe.”
How had the back gate’s defenses been smashed open at a time like this. Hadn’t they inspected it again and again. How could something like this still happen.
If anything happened to His Highness while he was at their Academy, even if they ground their old bones to dust, they still could not pay for it.
Chong Ming’s voice was low and heavy, full of pressure that allowed no argument: “Headmaster Wu wants me to go to the campus shelter pod. Is he trying to tell me in a roundabout way that the mighty Imperial Military Academy cannot even clear out twenty-five Level Five aberrant beasts?”
Headmaster Wu’s back was bent so low he could barely straighten it: “That is not what we mean, Your Highness…”
“Why say so much useless nonsense? Just go do it!” Sui Xuan Chu snapped, cutting off the headmaster, then turned to the other students on campus and said, “Anyone with a Level S or higher supernatural ability, come with me. We are going to wipe out those aberrant beasts.”
The students the school had called over to welcome His Highness Chong Ming were all top-ranked in their departments. Their supernatural abilities were at least A-level, with many at Level S or above.
To these hot-blooded youths, twenty-five Level Five aberrant beasts were basically a gift delivered to their door, a chance to show off in front of their idol.
As soon as Sui Xuan Chu finished speaking, voices answered him from all around. Everyone was fired up as they echoed: “Right, it is just twenty-five Level Five aberrant beasts. Your Highness, do not worry. We will go take them down right now.”
“Your Highness, you do not need to go to the shelter pod. Just wait and see. We will drag the corpses of those twenty-five Level Five aberrant beasts to your feet.”
“Go, go, go, hurry. Protect Your Highness. Protect everything on campus. Kill all twenty-five Level Five aberrant beasts.”
Students with Level S and above, and those with A-level and above supernatural abilities, all responded to Sui Xuan Chu and ran with him deeper into the campus. The speed-type ability users were so fast they were like a sudden flash of spring sunlight, so bright it made people squint.
“What are you running off for?” Jiang Tea Tea grabbed the arm of Huang Da Zhuang, who was about to rush after them, and said, “You do not have any supernatural ability. You would just hold them back.”
Huang Da Zhuang was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan: “I may not have a supernatural ability, but I am still a man. It is my duty to protect Your Highness.”
“Besides, who said I would only drag them down. When I change into my beast form, I am one meter eighty tall, with sharp teeth. I can bite them to death.”
A one-meter-eighty big yellow dog. Hard to imagine. No one had ever seen one.
Jiang Tea Tea seriously doubted his bragging: “Being one meter eighty is useless. The bodies of Level Five aberrant beasts are bigger, stronger, and more vicious.”
“With how you are, you would just be a bite-sized snack for them. All right, stop making trouble. The safest place for you is behind your idol.”
“I do not want that. I want to give my all for my idol, to die for…”
Smack.
Jiang Tea Tea’s hand landed on the back of Huang Da Zhuang’s head. After the slap, she pointed at his nose and asked, “Do you not understand human speech?”
Huang Da Zhuang’s head was buzzing from the hit. His fierce urge to go out and fight was instantly doused. He said in a weak, pitiful voice, “I understand human speech. I am not going.”
Jiang Tea Tea shook out her hand: “That is more like it. Come on, stay behind your idol.”
Huang Da Zhuang let out an “oh” and followed Jiang Tea Tea like a bullied little wife. They walked to stand behind Chong Ming. He wanted to cry. Just a moment ago he had told His Highness that he would live for him, die for him, even smash his head against a wall for him. Now he had chickened out. He was so scared His Highness would think he was a coward.
Chong Ming glanced over at the two of them and lifted his hand, tapping his finger twice toward his personal guards.
His personal guards split into two groups. One stayed where they were to protect him. The other quickly followed after Sui Xuan Chu and the others.
The leaders of the Imperial Military Academy were only capable of sweating cold sweat. They did not dare say a single word. They looked even more weak, pitiful, and helpless than the back of Huang Da Zhuang’s head after that slap.
The sharp alarm blared again: “Warning, warning. Besides the twenty-five Level Five aberrant beasts that broke in five minutes ago, thirty-one Level Six aberrant beasts and forty-five Level Four aberrant beasts have now entered the campus.”
“They are, respectively, mutant foxes, mutant tigers, and mutant cheetahs. All students with supernatural abilities, please help students without powers enter the shelter pods. All campus security, attention, attention. Take up your weapons and be ready to hunt aberrant beasts and protect the Academy’s students and property.”
Chong Ming lifted his foot and walked into the campus, his aura still kept tightly restrained. A whole group of school leaders followed behind him, along with students whose supernatural abilities were below A-level.
His fully armed personal guards followed him in an orderly way. They turned a deaf ear to the sharp warnings the Academy broadcast.
After about twenty minutes of walking, the noise from inside the campus suddenly reached their ears. Whether they were upperclassmen or first years, all students with A-level and above supernatural abilities and the Academy’s security personnel were hunting aberrant beasts all over the grounds. The scene was chaotic yet strangely orderly.
Seeing this, Huang Da Zhuang shook Jiang Tea Tea’s arm and said, “Sister Tea, Sister Tea, I told you, once I turn into my one-meter-eighty beast form, I can definitely kill these aberrant beasts. Look, these aberrant beasts in beast form are not even as big as my beast form. I want to go.”
“Wait.” Jiang Tea Tea swept her gaze over the grounds and reached out with her spiritual power to sense. She grabbed the back of Huang Da Zhuang’s collar and yanked him back from running off.
Huang Da Zhuang was dragged back by brute force: “Wait for what. I am not afraid of danger.”
Jiang Tea Tea frowned: “The alarm said there were twenty-five Level Five aberrant beasts, thirty-one Level Six aberrant beasts, and forty-five Level Four aberrant beasts. I just counted more than that.”
Huang Da Zhuang let out a shocked “ah”: “You counted more? You are a pure human with no supernatural ability. How did you count them?”
Jiang Tea Tea paused and said, “Sixth sense.”
Huang Da Zhuang laughed twice: “Sister Tea, if you are going to say sixth sense, why not say you awakened precognition?”
Jiang Tea Tea slanted her eyes at him: “You do not believe me?”
Her gaze scared Huang Da Zhuang so much he shrank at once: “I believe you, I believe you…”
But before he could finish being spineless, screams of terror burst from the teaching buildings all around: “Ahhh, Level Seven mutant rats, Level Seven mutant rats. Run, run. Do not let them scratch you, do not let them bite you. You will get infected, they will have to cut off your limbs, you will die…”
“Run, run. There are so many Level Seven mutant rats. Their bodies are full of viruses. Do not let them touch you.”
Voices rose and fell from all directions. Right after that, beastmen men and women with weak supernatural abilities came pouring out of all the teaching buildings.
Level Seven mutant rats, bigger than rabbits, chased after them, making them howl as they ran.
Huang Da Zhuang went numb all over. He could not believe it. His Sister Tea had really awakened a sixth sense. Even the heat-sensor alarms had not noticed the Level Seven mutant rats, but she had sensed them ahead of time.
“Careful, Big Dog Huang.” Jiang Tea Tea pulled Huang Da Zhuang back toward Chong Ming and said, “There are aberrant beasts underground too. Stay close to His Highness Chong Ming and you will be safe.”