Two hours later, a black Benz stopped and parked by the side of a road next to the school entrance.

Chen Chen exited the Benz by himself. He stood in the middle of the crowd coming back and forth and looked at the all-too-familiar while also foreign school.

It was January in Shangdu, which meant that the region was entering the winter season. It was evening when he arrived. Thick dark clouds loomed overhead, casting a unique faint yellow winter glow on the cityscape.

The yellowish glow was not the radiance of the sun but merely a reflection of the city's light on the clouds instead. This was very common in the city during the winter season.

Under this warm glow, Chen Chen saw countless people coming back and forth from the main gate of the school. Young and vibrant teenagers gathered in groups of various sizes, each socializing merrily and unwinding under the relaxing atmosphere. The semester was finally over and they would be welcoming the joyous occasion that was the winter break.

Standing in the middle of the streaming crowd, Chen Chen could not help but recall the events from that one year. Although it had only been four years, he had a feeling like it was from another life he once lived.

If not for the USB drive, he would probably have graduated by now and worked a common nine-to-five job, living every day monotonously until he died.

Perhaps he would have taken the postgraduate entrance examination after graduation and become a first-level graduate student, where he would continue to pursue a hypothetical, grand future.

One way or another, he would only become just another common individual among millions and billions like him, instead of separating himself from that crowd entirely as he had done now.

The reality was that there was no such thing as a what-if.

With this in mind, Chen Chen cracked a faint smile. In an instant, it was as if the iceberg surrounding him had melted away and subst.i.tuted with a gentle, warm ambiance around him. Chen Chen had properly blended himself into this group of students.

With that, Chen Chen took his first step toward the school entrance.

n.o.body was stopping him. Chen Chen stepped right into the school compound, without the security posted in front even noticing that this person was not a student, but a complete outsider instead.

“Phew…”

When Chen Chen exhaled, a puff of white mist rose in front of him. He followed along the familiar road and came to the front of a building. He stepped right in and went to the fourth floor of the building.

Before long, Chen Chen had arrived at a dormitory with the sign 404 posted in front.

He brushed the surface of the door with his finger, feeling the familiar texture of the door that was the same as he remembered it. He could hear some rowdy noises coming from behind the door.

“Zhang Wei, you failed again. The only subject out of the eight compulsory subjects that you managed to pa.s.s is sports, dope!”

“So what if I failed, you think that word exists in my vocabulary? Wait till I get back and get my dad to donate an entire building to the school. Then you'll see me graduating way ahead of you guys!”

“Another one of your stories, Zhang Wei?”

“You guys don't believe me? Tell them, Zhang Jian, my dad is the richest man in Dachangzhen. Where I come from, they call me the King of Dachang, how much do you think one building is worth to me?”

There was a round of bantering coming from behind the door, but it was no longer the trio of w.a.n.g Wei, Li Bo, and Zhou Jie. They had all graduated now.

Chen Chen shook his head. After he had enough of this nostalgic tour, he turned around and left without so much as a final glance.

“X, where's the school's server room?”

After leaving the dormitory building, Chen Chen got in touch with X using the Bluetooth earpiece. “I'd like to head over myself.”

“Wasn't the server machine you're planning to look at already carried away by Cheng Cao?”

Little X asked.

“But we didn't find anything inside the server machines, did we?”

Chen Chen pointed out. “If the server machines don't contain any clues, I figured I'd make a trip there myself and see if there's anything peculiar that even the effects of antimeme couldn't erase.”

Although the server machine had not yet been s.h.i.+pped to Eco Science City, Cheng Cao had already paired it with Little X for several rounds of inspections. No matter how many tests Little X ran, the findings were still evident. It was only an ordinary, even ancient server machine that contained nothing worthwhile or odd.

“Understood, the school's server room is located on the third floor of the bas.e.m.e.nt of block one on the main office lot.”

Little X provided the directions. “But you cannot enter without the keys and proper authorization.”

“Why would I need something like a key or authorization?”

Chen Chen flicked an eyebrow at this mention and asked pointedly. He left it at that and proceeded to head to the main campus.

“Sir G.o.dfather, do you need Cheng Cao to meet you there?”

Little X was still worried.

“No need for that. I get that I'm not on the field much these days, but with my current strength, even the Black Knights won't be of much help if I stumble into a situation that I can't handle.”

Chen Chen replied, “Besides, Cheng Cao had already gone there to investigate and couldn't find anything. I'm just heading there myself to try my luck, see if anything happens.”

With that, Little X decided there was nothing else for her to add.

It did not take long before Chen Chen arrived at the main campus. He looked at the seven-story building. Although it was not a large building, it served as the primary administrative hub of the campus. The office of the princ.i.p.al and the administration office was set up here. Right by the entrance of the building, there was a security guard posted and tasked with the registration procedures of the people entering and exiting the building.

Without any hesitation, Chen Chen went to the registration desk where he wrote down “Chen Chen, Cla.s.s 1 of the Department of Biological Sciences”, included with what was once his student ID.

The security guard hardly gave it so much as a glance and let him in.

Chen Chen stepped into the elevator in the lobby and selected the b.u.t.ton that read “-3”. Just as the elevator doors were about to close, he heard racing footsteps quickly approaching the elevator, accompanied by a frenzied shout, “Ah, hold on!”

Chen Chen instinctively reached for the b.u.t.ton to open the elevator doors again. Before he could even blink, a nice-looking girl with a bed of long hair dashed into the elevator.

“Ah. Phew, haaa, thank, thank you!”

The girl panted desperately while thanking Chen Chen. She then reached for the control panel on the elevator to select her intended floor before she noticed that the floor “-3” had already been selected. She immediately pulled her slender hands back and turned to Chen Chen. “Are you from the student council as well? How come I've never met you before?”

“I'm not.”

Chen Chen shook his head and mentioned with a faint smile. He may appear polite and kind on the outside but underneath his smile, there was a subtle intent of putting up a wall around himself.

“You're not?”

The girl repeated the statement to herself before catching the hint that Chen Chen was not interested in furthering the conversation. She figured it was better to suppress her curiosity and only snuck several glances at this person.

Before long, the elevator had arrived at the third bas.e.m.e.nt floor. The door opened to reveal a dark and long-winded corridor.

Perhaps due to an extensive period without exposure to sunlight, there were faint traces of mold tracing along the white walls on both sides of the corridor.

There was also a damp, moldy smell in the air.

Chen Chen waited for the other person to exit the elevator before stepping out himself as well. He looked at two closed doors along both sides of the corridor, trying to pinpoint the location of the server room.

It seemed as if it was this girl's first time coming to this place as well. Just like Chen Chen, she was looking for a sign that indicated what the rooms were.

“Zhang Qiao, over here!”

It was then when a door in front of them suddenly opened and a tall man poked his head out from inside while shouting in their direction, “What took you so long, Zhang Qiao. You're the last person arriving!”

“Oh… I'm coming!”

The girl answered briskly. She turned around to look at Chen Chen one last time before sprinting inside the room.

The man inside the room sized up Chen Chen cautiously. When he saw that Chen Chen did not show the slightest inclination of speeding up his pace to join them, he proceeded to shut the door.

“Who's that guy?”

“I have no idea, he says he's not from the student council.”

“Why is he here if he's not from the student council?”

The man asked a steady stream of questions as the girl entered the room.

Chen Chen paid no mind to them and pa.s.sed by the room nonchalantly. As he pa.s.sed by the room, he faintly noted along the crack of the door that the room was a cla.s.sroom with arranged desks, chairs, and a blackboard. Three Chinese characters that read “Student Council Publicity Department” were written on a plate beside the door.

Why would the publicity department of the Jiaotong University's student council be relocated here?

Chen Chen found the subject curious, but did not give it any further thought and only pa.s.sed by the room.

After advancing another fifty meters, far enough that the elevator was almost out of view, Chen Chen finally located the server room.

It was positioned at the end of the corridor and unlike the other rooms that were sectioned off with wooden doors, this room had a security door instead. There was a sign on the door that read: “Server room. Unauthorized personnel not allowed.”

Chen Chen did not heed the suggestion written on the signboard. He proceeded to put his right hand on the lock. In an instant, his Field poured into the lock and gelled into the shape of a key. He proceeded to print the image of a key in his mind based on the internal structure of the lock.

After a second, when he applied a gentle push, the tightly reinforced security door opened with a gentle “clack”. He felt a cool breeze of air coming from inside the server room.

It was the air from the air-conditioner inside the server room.

Inside the server room, server machines covered in dust were lined along storage racks. LED lights blinked continuously inside the shrouded darkness. He could also hear the routine buzz and humming of the machines.

Chen Chen grazed along the surface of the wall with his hands and found the light switch. He turned on the lights.

“Click!”

The room was illuminated. The entire layout of the server room immediately presented itself before Chen Chen.

There were six server machines in total, each one of them had their identifying label written on them with a red marker. Machine number six was positioned closest to the door. The numbering of the machines moved in descending order toward the innermost section of the room, where there was an unlabeled, brand new server machine.

It seemed that after losing server machine one, the school department decided to buy a new server machine to replace what was once server machine one.

Chen Chen moved to the center of the machine room and shut his eyes. He invoked his Field and summoned countless invisible, tiny hands, which he used to graze through every surface of the server machines. He slipped into every single crevice and fully inspected the insides of the server machines.

Several minutes later, Chen Chen slowly opened his eyes again.

Sadly, he was unable to find anything worth noting in the entire server room.

Chen Chen started to question his judgment at this moment. Was it merely a coincidence when server machine one somehow detected information concerning Professor w.a.n.g Xi?

With this in mind, Chen Chen returned to where server machine one used to be. He moved the new server machine and looked at the print on the ground.

It was a print left behind by having a heavy object placed over a spot for many years. Such prints could not be erased unless power was.h.i.+ng tools were used. Such was.h.i.+ng methods were not applicable in a server room such as this.

An idea suddenly occurred to Chen Chen. He immediately snapped his attention to the print and began to evoke the Field in his mind. He formed a ma.s.s of Field energy like a hammer and slammed it against the tile!

“Bang!”

A fist-sized crack appeared on the ground in an instant!

Chen Chen flicked an eyebrow in amus.e.m.e.nt when he saw this. His Field had deducted another separate s.p.a.ce underneath the ground which he stood!

It only took a second for his Field to reach through the gap to inspect what was underneath. What he would come to discover was a corpse left in perfect condition!

“Professor w.a.n.g Xi!”

Chen Chen exclaimed. He discovered that the person buried underground was not just any other person, but Professor w.a.n.g Xi who had completely vanished from this world without a trace!

“How is this possible…”

Chen Chen's eyes were widened in horror. The next thing that came to his mind was to reach through the crack to further investigate. Just as the idea occurred to him, he heard a steady sound of gurgling water coming through the crack leading to the underground s.p.a.ce…

This was completely out of Chen Chen's expectation. He saw traces of dark red liquid seeping out of the crack. The source of this strange liquid seemed to be Professor w.a.n.g Xi's very own body. It swarmed the underground s.p.a.ce in the blink of an eye and quickly overflowed into the server room!

A bizarre, sweet smell with a trace scent of iron filled the air…

Was it fresh blood?

Chen Chen immediately retracted his Field and stumbled backward. He realized that although this strange substance resembled human blood, there was no chance that the human body contained such a drastic volume of blood, nor would it creep across the ground like some sort of sentient monster in this manner…

Just as Chen Chen suspected, as he retreated, the sections of floor which the blood came into contact with began to corrode away, making a rustling sound as they melted. It was as if the world itself was starting to wither away as spots of rust began to appear on the surrounding walls!

In an instant, the texture of the floor had been transformed into a rusty, aged texture. The same effect soon spread to the wall, turning the originally white and speckless walls into a dirty, dark brown texture that appeared as if something filthy were pasted on them!

The server machines that came into contact with the corrosion turned into rusted blocks of sc.r.a.p iron. What caught Chen Chen's attention was that instead of the lights on the server machines fading out, they started to flicker rapidly instead. The LED lights that were once red and green had s.h.i.+fted into a strange cl.u.s.ter of dark red and dark green.

Chen Chen did not know what was happening, but one thing he knew for certain was that it was time for him to get out of here.

Without sparing a moment's thought, Chen Chen backed away and tried to exit the room.

The moment Chen Chen stepped out of the server room, he immediately screeched to a stop again… The corridor he came from that seemed to stretch on endlessly was corroding at a rapid pace as well. He saw clumps of mold forming on the surface of the walls that congealed into strange, greasy substances!

While this was happening, Chen Chen also heard the steady growl of metal beating against each other coming from the previous room. It sounded as if some ancient machines were activated. The screeching sounds of their gear grinding against each other echoed in his ears…

Chen Chen's expression had become unbearably dark upon noting this strange occurrence. He made his Field swarm around him like raging tides to form an invisible wall around himself to act as a protective barrier.

At the same time, Chen Chen heard panicked screams coming from a distance. He saw the cla.s.sroom door further in front being thrown open as dozens of students charged out of the room, their faces were twisted in horror and mania.

The students barely had time to give Chen Chen so much as a glance as they charged toward the end of the corridor with the emergency exit sign.