strictlysupreme Chapter 102 [Highlands and Plains]
Chapter 102 [Highlands and Plains]
Chapter 102 Return to the Highlands
Jiang Ming picked up the notebook and casually flipped through a couple of pages.
The top was covered with a dense list of names, marked with checkmarks and crosses.
Most of them were the names of student council members, and some were the names of other survivors.
In the column next to Jiang Ming's name.
A large skull was drawn on it in red pen, with a line of small print next to it: "This person is extremely dangerous and the biggest target. We must find an opportunity to kill him and steal his equipment."
"Oh.
"
Jiang Ming closed the notebook and casually tossed it into the pool of blood beside him.
"You think you can kill me?"
He stood up, put away the bloodstained storage card, and glanced at Zhao Yanzhi, who was retching incessantly beside the pile of corpses.
"After you've vomited, clean this place up."
Jiang Ming's voice was flat, as if he were giving a trivial order like taking out the trash: "Those student council members who are still alive, regardless of whether they were core members before, as long as they're not dead, they're all under your jurisdiction. If they disobey, you know what to do."
Zhao Yanzhi wiped the filth from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve, a fierce glint flashing in his bloodshot eyes.
"Understood, Brother Jiang."
He didn't need Jiang Ming to teach him what to do.
In that damned hospital, during that time when he was trampled underfoot, he learned the only rule for survival in this world—either be the one wielding the knife, or be the pig being slaughtered.
Jiang Ming nodded, no longer looking at the mess on the ground, and turned to walk upstairs.
Wang Yang, Li Bin, Xu Shishi, and Su Xiaoxiao followed silently behind him.
No one speaks.
The sense of loss from suddenly falling from the civilized world back to the barbaric wilderness is like a boulder pressing on everyone's chest, so heavy that it's hard to breathe.
They made their way up the desolate corridor and finally pushed open the iron door leading to the rooftop.
call-
A biting wind instantly filled his collar.
There are no stars here, except for that eerie red moon.
In the distance, there was only a suffocating, pure blackness.
That kind of darkness wasn't the darkness of night, but rather nothingness.
It was as if the entire world had been wiped away by an invisible hand, leaving only this lonely school building, floating in the endless void.
Wang Yang walked to the edge of the rooftop, peeked out and looked down, then quickly pulled his neck back as if he had been burned.
"Holy crap—"
His voice trembled slightly, "Outside—why is there nothing outside the school?"
What should have been a place outside the school is now a bottomless abyss.
If you take just one more step forward, you'll fall into that black hole from which even light cannot escape.
"Where are we right now?"
Su Xiaoxiao wrapped her coat tighter around herself, her face pale.
She subconsciously moved closer to Jiang Ming, as if only that tall figure could bring her a bit of warmth.
"have no idea."
Jiang Ming walked to the edge of the rooftop and braced his hands on the rough cement railing.
He felt no fear whatsoever; instead, he stared at the void with great interest.
In his perception, this darkness was not static.
It is flowing.
Like a viscous river, it carries the entire school, flowing through the gap between two dimensions.
Li Bin pushed up his glasses, but no light was reflected off the lenses.
"Why do I feel like we're in two different worlds?"
"right."
Jiang Ming took out a pack of cigarettes he had looted from the corpse from his pocket and lit it.
The flames danced in the darkness, becoming the only source of light in this void.
He took a deep breath, the pungent smoke filling his lungs and slightly relieving the emotional detachment brought on by the [Iron Will].
"You could say that the other side of the world is halftime, and this is the return bus."
Jiang Ming flicked his cigarette ash; the sparks fell and were instantly swallowed by darkness. "It seems this kind of time travel isn't instantaneous. We were asleep before, so we didn't feel anything. We only saw the truth this time while we were awake."
"Then... will we be able to go back in the future?"
Xu Shishi's voice was trembling with tears.
She missed her soft bed at home, the steaming hot pot, and that ordinary yet safe steel jungle.
Those brief few hours of return felt like a beautiful dream.
When the dream ended, reality became even more cruel.
"able."
Jiang Ming answered very affirmatively.
He turned around, his back to the endless abyss, and his gaze swept over his teammates who looked terrified.
"If you can walk through the school, you can walk back. It's like a round-trip bus."
"But next time you go back, I don't want you to be like this again, with guns pointed at your heads, being herded around like dogs."
Jiang Ming's voice was cold and hard as iron.
Wang Yang clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug deep into his flesh.
That feeling of powerlessness.
He never wanted to experience that feeling of being powerful yet bound by rules and humiliated by the weak again.
"Brother Jiang, you're right."
Wang Yang gritted his teeth, a fire burning in his eyes. "Next time I go back, I'll make them regret it!"
Li Bin silently wiped the steel pipe in his hand, his eyes cold.
He felt more at ease in this lawless place.
Here, wisdom and strength can be directly converted into capital for survival, rather than being buried by so-called "human relationships and social niceties".
"Alright."
Jiang Ming threw away the cigarette butt and stubbed it out with his toe.
"Stop looking, there's nothing to see in this darkness. If you stare at it too long, it'll look back to you."
He dusted off his hands and gave the order.
"Go and rest. Get some rest."
"The real battle will begin when we open our eyes tomorrow."
No one objected.
On this isolated island floating in the void, Jiang Ming's words are the only anchor.
The group gradually left the rooftop.
Jiang Ming took one last look at that void.
For some reason, he always felt that in the depths of that churning darkness, there seemed to be a pair of enormous eyes coldly watching this tiny building.
That's the system?
Or is it some kind of higher-dimensional deity?
Jiang Ming twitched the corners of his mouth, revealing a sneer of arrogance.
No matter what it is.
If anyone dares to show their health bar, even if they're a god, I'll kill them for you.
I didn't sleep well that night.
Outside the window, all was a deathly still blackness, with no alternation of day and night, only that tireless beating—
System countdown.
Until one after another, a deafening rumble!
A violent tremor suddenly struck.
The feeling was like sitting on a speeding train and suddenly crashing into a wall of cotton.
A feeling of weightlessness instantly enveloped my entire body, followed by an intense feeling of weightlessness.
"They're here!"
Jiang Ming suddenly opened his eyes.
He slept almost fully clothed, with the Black Iron Horse-Slaying Sword right beside him.
At that moment, everything in the room was shaking, and the glass on the table crashed to the ground with a "crack," shards flying everywhere.
But the tremor came quickly and went quickly.
It probably only lasted for about ten seconds.
The nauseating dizziness subsided like a receding tide.
The dense, impenetrable darkness outside the window seemed to have been torn apart by an invisible hand.
A blinding burst of light rushed in.
It's not the gentle sunlight found on Earth.
Instead, it was a dark red light, full of wildness and desolation.
Jiang Ming rolled out of bed and rushed to the window.
My vision suddenly opened up.
The original void disappeared.
In its place lies a vast, undulating land.
The withered yellow grass rolled like waves in the cold wind, and in the distance were the endless, majestic mountain ranges, their peaks covered with snow that never melted, reflecting an eerie luster under the light of the two red suns.
The distinctive smell in the air, a mixture of earthy odor and icy chill, seeped in through the cracks in the broken window.
That smells like the battlefield.
【Ding! 】
You have entered a danger zone!
[Current Location: Outer edge of vast mountains—Highland Plain (Lv.3—Lv.15)]
[Exploration progress started: 0.05%]
A blood-red system notification popped up on my retina right on time.
"The outer edge of vast mountains—highlands and plains?"
"I'm back—"
Jiang Ming squinted, looking at the familiar meadow in the distance.
Although the scenery remained desolate, every cell in his body was rejoicing.
That suppressed sense of power can finally be released without restraint.
"Brother Jiang!"
The door was pushed open.
Wang Yang rushed in, carrying an axe, his face showing a mixture of tension and excitement.
Li Bin followed closely behind, holding the homemade binoculars in his hand.
"Look over there!"
Li Bin strode to the window and pointed to a patch of grass a few hundred meters away.
Through the lens of the telescope, several gray afterimages could be clearly seen weaving through the waves of grass.
They are enormous, with hair standing on end like steel needles, and they exude a fierce aura when they run.
"It's the area where those wolves from the plains used to roam!"
Li Bin's voice carried a hint of fervor.
Jiang Ming nodded: "That's right. It seems we've followed the school here again. The coordinates haven't changed."
This is good news.
At least you don't have to explore a completely unfamiliar new map.
"Are those wolves going to come after us again?" Wang Yang touched his neck with lingering fear.
The scene of our last encounter with the wolf pack is still vivid in my mind.
Those well-coordinated, ferocious, and cunning wild beasts, if their numbers increase, would definitely be a big problem.
"What are you afraid of?"
Li Bin pushed up his glasses, and a cold glint flashed behind the lenses.
He brandished the [Venomous Piercer] with a bloodletting groove in his hand, a cold smile playing on his lips.
"I'd love for them to come."
"Those are all experiences that will help us level up."
"And—" Li Bin looked at Jiang Ming, his tone certain, "this time we're not rookies who're empty-handed."
Jiang Ming looked at the two of them.
One gained a touch of composure, the other a touch of bloodlust.
well.
This is what it looks like to survive here long-term.
"Let's go."
Jiang Ming grabbed the Zhanma Sword and slung it over his shoulder. "Let's go downstairs. Zhao Yanzhi should already be waiting for us."
"Now that we're back, we should renovate this house properly."
Lobby.
The former student council "temporary command post" has now been completely cleared out.
Although the bloodstains on the ground were not completely dry and had turned dark brown, the severed limbs had already been dragged away.
The air was thick with the smell of disinfectant—something Zhao Yanzhi had rummaged through the school hospital's warehouse to mask the nauseating stench of the corpses.
Dozens of surviving students huddled in a corner of the hall, trembling with fear.
Most of them were either former marginal members of the student council or ordinary students who were dragged in.
Having experienced the bloody purge last night, coupled with the time travel this morning, these people's mental defenses had long since collapsed.
Now, even if Jiang Ming asked them to eat shit, they would probably rush to do it, afraid that if they were too slow, their heads would be smashed by that spiked club.
Zhao Yanzhi stood in the center of the hall.
He changed into a windbreaker that he had taken from a dead body. Although it was a bit big, it made him look more like a human being than the hospital gown he was wearing.
The Bloodletter's Mace in his hand had been washed clean, but it still exuded a fierce aura under the dark red sunlight.
Seeing Jiang Ming come down the stairs, Zhao Yanzhi immediately went to greet him.
"Brother Jiang."
He was holding a folder he'd taken from the academic affairs office, inside which were several A4 sheets of paper covered with dense writing.
"How's the situation?" Jiang Ming glanced at the students in the corner, who looked like quails.
"They've all behaved themselves."
Zhao Yanzhi grinned, revealing a set of white teeth. "A few troublemakers tried to cause trouble during the time travel, but I beat them up. They're probably behaving themselves now."
He spoke of it casually.
But everyone present could hear the blood in those words.
Jiang Ming nodded, tacitly approving of this approach.
A kind heart cannot command an army.
In this environment, any instability is fatal.
"Tell me your thoughts." Jiang Ming walked to a reasonably intact desk and sat down, gesturing for Zhao Yanzhi to continue.
Zhao Yanzhi took a deep breath and opened the folder.
At that moment, his mad dog-like temperament subsided somewhat, replaced by a shrewdness...
The brilliance of speculators.
"Brother Jiang, I thought about it all night."
"And I was also observing when I was traveling through time."
Zhao Yanzhi pointed out the window, "Our school, or rather these buildings, seem to be tied to us survivors."
"Whether on Earth or in this godforsaken place, it is our only foothold."
"but----"
Zhao Yanzhi changed the subject, his expression becoming serious.
"This school is so run-down."
"The wall is only a little over a meter high. It can only keep out honest people, not scoundrels, and it certainly can't stop those monsters with abnormal jumping abilities."
"The door is wide open, letting in drafts from all sides. If it weren't for you, Brother Jiang, holding those orcs in check last time, we would probably have been wiped out long ago."
Jiang Ming tapped his fingers lightly on the table, making a rhythmic "tap-tap" sound.
"so?"
"Therefore, we need to change."
A fanatical light gleamed in Zhao Yanzhi's eyes. "We have to transform this school into a fortress!"
"A true, survivable, and resilient war fortress!"
He spread the A4 paper out in front of Jiang Ming.
The map above contained a simple school floor plan, but it was already filled with various red lines and markings.
"The first step is to integrate resources."
Zhao Yanzhi pointed to the group of people in the corner, "These people can't be kept around to freeload. All the men will be assigned to the construction team, and the women will be responsible for logistics and simple processing. Those who don't work will be thrown out to feed the wolves."