Chapter 81

At 7:02 PM, on the outskirts of Yancheng.

Ji Qing opened his eyes and saw the System’s figure. After their last heart-to-heart talk, the System’s appearance was no longer a dusty ball of light. Instead, it had returned to his previous preference, manifesting as a dusk-purple cloud.

It looked a bit like the colors cast by a setting sun, Ji Qing thought.

"Your taste is actually quite good now," Ji Qing said with a smile, teasing the ball of light.

He silently added in his heart: At the very least, it is much better than those multi-colored neon light effects. When Ji Qing first saw those effects, his eyes were nearly blinded; they could have rivaled the colorful hair of a Mary Sue protagonist.

The System spun around complacently. "Of course! Once my salary arrives, I can even unlock animal appearances!"

In contrast to Ji Qing, who needed to earn Popularity Value, the System received a fixed salary issued by the Administration.

Ji Qing had heard the System mention before that its salary could be converted into Popularity Value and advanced to the Task Executor, but Ji Qing himself had no intention of doing so. Every month, the decadent little ball of light waited eagerly for its salary to arrive so it could buy new appearances, top up its games, and eat snacks...

He truly could not bear to deprive the System of its only joy.

After ending his brief pleasantries with the System, Ji Qing casually put on the Masquerade Mask.

His specially-made jet-black boots stepped onto the concrete ground, making a dull thud. Ji Qing casually activated the [Submerged Shadow] skill, maneuvering through the shadows of Yancheng’s buildings and residents as easily as a fish in water.

At 7:00 PM, the residents of Yancheng were still strolling through the streets.

Amidst their intersecting shadows, Ji Qing walked with a steady pace toward the school. He had walked this path many times in the past; he saw the familiar convenience store, the familiar signboards, and the familiar cinema...

The scenery viewed from the shadow space was completely different from reality.

All things possess shadows, so they naturally had projections within the shadow space. Ji Qing stopped by the window of a cake shop. He caught sight of the waitress who had once interrupted his conversation with Shao Huayu.

In the reflection of the glass window, the waitress was diligently wiping the counter.

However, if one were to peek inside through the front door, they would not see her figure. Ji Qing also saw his own reflection in the glass: black hair and crimson eyes, a black face mask, a black trench coat over a black shirt, and jet-black boots.

It was, without a doubt, the "Li Yuan" look.

Ji Qing’s lips suddenly curled into a nonchalant smile as he joked, "It seems the masquerade attire has its conveniences too."

Previously, Ji Qing had complained that the "elegant clothing" provided by the Masquerade Mask was of no help at all. Tonight’s stage, however, was quite suited for such attire. It would serve as a fitting curtain call for Li Yuan’s appearance in the manga.

The night was silent, and the birds were hushed.

A man dressed in black appeared like a phantom thief of the night near the illuminated guardhouse. Before the elderly security guards could notice him, he vanished and reappeared in the shadows within the campus in the next second.

A second later, the man pulled a ring of keys for the Administrative Building out of his pocket as if performing a magic trick.

Ji Qing gazed at the keys in his hand with a hint of distress.

Although he had come prepared, having too many keys was not necessarily a good thing. Stealing a single key would easily cause a stir, but taking the entire ring of keys at once made it difficult to find the specific one he needed.

It should be this one, right?

Ji Qing merged into the darkness like water, picking out the key he wanted while inside the shadow space.

Clink—

The keys let out a crisp sound as they collided, but no one nearby paid any attention.

Ji Qing took the corresponding key and arrived at the basement of the Administrative Building.

It was currently 7:53 PM.

The teachers on the night patrol were walking near the library. The teachers staying behind were resting in the Faculty Building, while the Principal was in the training room within the Training Building. When Raven relayed this information to Ji Qing, he was somewhat surprised.

Their Principal... seemed to be quite vigorous for his age.

Fortunately, the Principal was not in the Administrative Building, which made Ji Qing's actions a bit more secure. Ji Qing had tested the limits of the [Submerged Shadow] skill beforehand; he could only touch objects inside a room if the room itself was open.

This was why he had chosen to steal the keys.

There were also security guards patrolling the Administrative Building.

However, compared to the young and fit patrolling teachers, the guards in the Administrative Building were elderly and hard of hearing. A white-haired guard walked down the corridors of the building late at night according to the school’s requirements. Yet, he did not know what important items were kept there, and his posture was quite sluggish.

Perhaps it was because very few people knew the location of the school’s Collection Vault.

Hiding in the shadows, Ji Qing thought: It feels like only the Dawn Society would be a terrorist organization capable of robbing a school. After all, not everyone can afford the price of using ability items... Even I am not entirely clear on it...

For powerful ability users, ability items were like chicken ribs—tasteless to eat, yet a pity to throw away.

Only in a special case like Xie Chang’an’s would someone need ability items with minor costs to supplement their strength. However, these types of ability items were essentially things that could be sought but not easily found. Ji Qing shook his head helplessly at the thought.

He took advantage of the moment the guard pushed a door open to swiftly turn the lock.

Sensing something was slightly amiss, the old security guard suddenly turned around. He shone his flashlight down the dark corridor, but there was no one else there besides him. The only sound was the dripping of an old faucet in the restroom.

"Did you see anything unusual on the surveillance just now?" The old guard grabbed his communicator and asked his colleague in the monitoring room.

"What could be unusual?" The colleague asked back. "Though the lightbulb on the third floor is broken, and it seems the one on the first floor just flickered. File an application with the Logistics Department tomorrow to replace them all. I don’t know what there is to patrol in a school’s administrative building in the middle of the night anyway..."

"..." The old guard just stared quietly at the dark corridor.

"If you're really worried, why don't you call the patrolling teachers over to take a look later?" Seeing this, his colleague suggested. "In any case, the teachers handle the bulk of the school’s security themselves. We’re just here to assist, though I feel like the teachers don't really want to deal with it either."

"No, no need." The old guard shook his head repeatedly upon hearing this. "No need to trouble the teachers over this."

After saying that, the guard let down his guard and continued along his original patrol route.

He thought to himself: It must have been my imagination.

The night was quiet and peaceful; even a slight noise could affect the success or failure of an event.

While the guards in the Administrative Building were talking, Ji Qing had already reached the underground passage that Xie Chang’an had once walked through. The walls of the passage were made of layered rocks, and the floor was paved with stones of various shapes.

There was no light or shadow nearby, only a faint glow emanating from the rocks in the walls.

Ji Qing held a kerosene lamp he had grabbed on his way and walked through this underground passage, which had clearly been built in a different era than the school. When he had finished reading the plot where Xie Chang’an chose his ability item, he had specifically inquired about the movements of the teacher who had led Xie Chang’an there.

On the surface, that teacher was the custodian for the equipment in the school’s laboratory building.

Incidentally, that teacher was also returning to his hometown for the winter break this year. Thus, the Collection Vault tonight was only being guarded by the people on the surface, though he might still have to deal with some high-tech anti-theft technology from the Wasteland.

Ji Qing walked forward thoughtfully.

The ambient light in the underground passage was too dim, so it was impossible to use [Submerged Shadow] to enter. After all, for a shadow to exist, there had to be at least a little bit of light. Using [Submerged Shadow] in such an extreme situation might result in him being unable to find his way back to reality.

Regardless, he didn't plan on hiding his tracks anymore.

After all, the theft of the World Book would be discovered by the school as soon as the new semester began at the latest. Therefore, when Ji Qing spotted an infrared monitor in a corner of the underground passage, he even leisurely waved his hand at it.

"Oh, have I been discovered?" Li Yuan murmured with a hint of distress.

Before the infrared monitor could sound the alarm, Ji Qing decisively destroyed it.

The leisurely infiltration had now been replaced by a more urgent, time-limited struggle.

The black-haired, crimson-eyed Infected held the kerosene lamp in one hand and ran swiftly toward the Collection Vault at the very end. The intruder in the underground passage could not hear the alarms from the surface, but he knew they must be echoing throughout the silent academy.

Damn it, I knew something would go wrong, Ji Qing cursed inwardly.

But then he thought—

As long as Li Yuan’s talent was Shadow Trickery and as long as he had to pass through this underground passage, he would inevitably face the risk of being discovered. Unless Ji Qing chose another route to sneak in, but the risk of exposure on any other path would have been even greater.

So, is this considered a self-inflicted consequence?

Many thoughts crossed Ji Qing’s mind, but his pace remained rapid. He no longer needed to think about avoiding the risk of being caught. He just had to find the World Book, store it in the Pure White Space, and then escape.

The flame of the kerosene lamp wavered.

In a closed, unventilated underground environment, its presence helped the visitor judge the oxygen levels of the passage. However, its current user clearly could not bother with maintaining the stability of its base as he sprinted through the tunnel.

The monitors and traps he passed were all violently destroyed by the intruder.

Ultimately, the intruder successfully reached the end in less than five minutes. He took several steps in a single stride, leaping like a bird toward the deepest part of the Collection Vault. An ability item in the form of a simple, old book was placed inside a glass showcase.

Ji Qing swept a brief glance around his surroundings and decisively stored the book, along with the glass showcase sealing it, into the Pure White Space.

Then came the escape.

Ji Qing immediately turned to leave the vault, but this time, he naturally could not go back the way he came.

The Administrative Building was likely already surrounded by teachers. Returning there now would be pure suicide. He ran toward the direction where he felt an airflow, toward the direction closest to the surface. Then, at the end where the airflow was most obvious—

He controlled the shadows all over the floor and struck through the thin layer of earth.

[Used Shadow Strike once, Popularity Value -20]

[Used Shadow Strike once, Popularity Value -20]

[Used Shadow Strike once, Popularity Value -20]

...

His Popularity Value was being consumed at a rapid rate, and in a short while, a full four-digit amount had evaporated.

However, it was also at this moment that Ji Qing saw a faint light from the starry sky. Thus, Ji Qing decisively stopped his attack and instead used another skill: [Used Shadow Swap once, Popularity Value -20].

A wisp of black smoke emerged from an insignificant hole.

Before the black smoke could fully drift out of the hole, a pitch-black raven flew toward it.

The first wisp of black smoke transformed into a slender, pale left hand wearing an exquisite cufflink, steadily catching the black bird that could be called a creature of the night. Following that, the remaining black smoke revealed the blurred silhouette of the master of the night.

"I knew this would happen."

The master of the night, whose full form had yet to manifest, gazed at his loyal subordinate and murmured softly.

He then reached out to let the raven fly away, turning his crimson slit pupils with a look of regret toward the only visitor nearby. "I did not wish to fight you, but clearly, you do not intend to let me leave. It is truly a pity; I actually quite respected you."

In the night sky, the floating clouds obscuring the moon were suddenly moved by the wind. The figure standing not far away was none other than—

He Yun, the Principal of the Third Ability Academy.