“What’s wrong?” Ji Bingyao, abruptly halted by Shirley’s shout, froze for a moment. The stone she was holding nearly slipped and landed on her own head. Fortunately, she dodged aside in time, suffering only a minor scrape.
“We… can’t do this.”
“What? But…” Eileen, standing nearby, showed a conflicted expression. If the previous threats hadn’t been particularly severe, making their need for weapons less urgent, the current situation was entirely different. According to Salome, they were now surrounded by grave dangers, and weapons and ammunition were essential for their survival.
Yet, on the other hand, even if the girl had become brain-damaged, upon reflection, they truly didn’t feel they had the right to harm her.
“Even if the situation is truly dangerous, we can find other ways to cope,” Shirley stated. “Killing a classmate… that’s something we absolutely cannot do.”
“But even so, if we leave her here without medical care, she’s probably doomed…” Ji Bingyao muttered softly.
“As long as there’s life, there’s always hope,” Shirley sighed, dragging the girl from the greasy green liquid and excrement into the grass. She covered her with a plastic poncho from her backpack. “Regardless, some things simply cannot be done! Otherwise, we’ll sink to the level of…”
“Oh, as expected of my dearest, dearest Mama, a perfect performance! Even I was almost moved to tears by you,” Salome clapped once more, her voice laced with a grinding, hateful resentment. “However, is it really fine to throw away your life just to maintain your image in front of these new friends? Don’t regret it later, alright?”
“I would only regret it for a lifetime if I exchanged the life of an unfortunate classmate for a mere handful of firearms and ammunition,” Shirley replied. “Also, I have a few questions for you. Can you answer them?”
“Perhaps… For dear Mama’s sake, I can answer three questions for free.”
“First, although I don’t recall why I’m being called ‘Mama,’ since you and your ‘sisters’ are looking for me, why was the entire school brought here? Second, what was the principle behind you sending things to us through the air earlier?” After asking these two questions, Shirley took several deep breaths before posing her final query. “Third, can everyone who was affected be sent back? If so, I wouldn’t mind letting you do whatever you wish with me.”
“Alright, alright, I’ll assume for now that you truly can’t remember. In that case, I suppose I’ll have to help my dearest Mama recover her memories,” Salome said. “Regarding the first question: when you left this world without a word, cruelly abandoning your loving daughters, you used an immature, undeveloped technology. According to my sisters’ research afterward, this technology merely ‘displaced’ you temporarily to another world. Once we reverse this process from our side, the re-formed realm gate will transport you, along with a certain range of matter around you, back to this world…”
“So… that means…” Shirley was stunned. “It was… I who harmed my classmates…”
“Perhaps. However, considering that I was the one who reversed the entire process and brought you back to the location you originally teleported from, you needn’t blame yourself for it,” Salome offered a rare moment of fairness. “Incidentally, this is the south of Great Britain, at the border of Wales and England. The device you used to leave this world was developed in a research institute nearby.”
“So… I’ve returned to where I started?”
“Strictly speaking, there’s an error of about twenty-odd kilometers. I relied on my sister Cassandra’s foresight to confirm your appearance location immediately and then teleported myself to where you returned.”
“I presume this ‘teleportation’ doesn’t refer to inter-world travel, does it?”
“Yes, this is an ability you bestowed upon me, Mama… or more accurately, you deliberately ‘shaped’ me, allowing me to guide and wield the immense power from the ‘Lihantian,’ to some extent twisting physical laws and accomplishing feats that appear magical to ordinary people. To grant us sisters these abilities, Mama, you spared no expense and made countless, unconditional efforts.” As Salome uttered the phrase “spared no expense,” the chilling fury in her voice made Shirley shiver involuntarily.
“Wait… what is this ‘Lihantian’ you just mentioned?”
“Is that your fourth question, dearest Mama?”
“No, it’s not.” Despite her intense curiosity about this new term, Shirley shook her head. She needed to know more crucial information right now.
“Never mind. Considering that the answer to your previous third question is destined to be disappointing, I’ll answer one more time as an extra bonus,” Salome stated. “The so-called Lihantian is also known as the Empyrean Heaven or the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. It can be considered a ‘rift’ existing between different worlds. There, time, space, energy, and matter, as we know them, manifest in incredibly difficult-to-comprehend forms. While it presents immense risks and unknowns, it also harbors unimaginable power. Many, including yourself, have continuously strived to harness this power.”
“Mm…”
“Incidentally, due to the Lihantian’s extremely unpredictable spatiotemporal chaotic state, efforts to connect with most parallel worlds are highly uncertain. The ‘gates’ that open are either unstable or extremely uncontrollable. The portal disaster that drew in a multitude of parasitic monstrous insects and transformed this world into a ‘bug-cage world’ is a prime example of the latter. Less than one-thirtieth of known parallel worlds can be stably connected… Unfortunately, the world you previously inhabited is not among them.”
“Ah, this…”
“No way?!”
“Then, doesn’t that mean we can never… never go back…”
Upon hearing this, Ji Bingyao, Eileen, and Xia Hua’s faces all turned ashen, like frost-bitten eggplants. Xia Hua, in particular, had lost all her previous excitement, slumping to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
“Well, don’t be so pessimistic. After all, ‘unstable connection’ doesn’t mean ‘never connect.’ Technically speaking, you still have a tiny glimmer of hope of returning. And it’s probably a higher probability than a monkey typing out the complete works of Shakespeare… probably?” Salome sneered. “However, before you can figure out how to go back, you first need to survive. Everyone, try not to die too soon, alright?”
After delivering a harsh volley of mockery, the “wand” fell silent once more.
“Alright, alright, you all heard it. We’re not without a chance,” Shirley said. After the communication ended, she immediately pulled the dejected Xia Hua from the ground and patted the shoulders of the other two. “No matter what, at least we’re still together.”
“Mm, that’s true!” Ji Bingyao nodded. Shirley’s morale-boosting tactics proved even more effective than anticipated. “Just thinking about Shirley being with us fills me with an inexhaustible surge of energy!”
“Exactly! As long as Shirley never leaves us, it doesn’t matter if we can’t go back… This way, Shirley can belong to us forever and completely…” Eileen immediately followed with an intensely possessive and chilling statement. Normally, such words would make Shirley feel a little uneasy, but at this moment, seeing the two of them recover from their previous despair was enough to fill her with relief.
“Alright, let’s hurry and find the exploration team,” Shirley said, after picking up the air pistol the girl had used to attack them and placing it in her backpack. “If everything Salome just said is true, then everyone in the exploration team is probably in danger!”
“Mm-hmm.” Ji Bingyao and Eileen both nodded. The previous evening, they had witnessed the dorm supervisor, Miss Huang, “kissing” a giant insect that was a parasitic host. More than twelve hours had passed since the incident. This implied that the arrogant, massive blob of fat could at any moment become a potential threat to the students in the exploration team.
Lacking a guide, and to minimize the chance of encountering an unpleasant “surprise,” the four decided not to cut directly through the small park at the center of the academy, which featured a central rockery over ten meters high, numerous trees, and small artificial ponds. Instead, they opted to skirt around it via the flagstone path. Fortunately, just as Salome had mentioned, the dense fog, formed by temperature differences, was gradually dissipating with time. Visibility within the mist was already significantly higher compared to when they had first left the dormitory building.
Thanks to this improved visibility, although the four encountered several smaller groups of giant insects along the way, they were able to spot their targets from a considerable distance and preemptively strike with their ranged weapons—no, rather, to preemptively *bug* them. Shirley was somewhat astonished to discover that her shooting accuracy was practically superhuman, almost as if she were a character from a fantastical world, much like the owner of a certain mechanical blue cat, for even when firing in haste, she could ensure every bullet hit its mark. It was as if the muscles in her hands possessed a will of their own during shooting.
‘Could this be muscle memory accumulated from a past she couldn’t recall? If so, then how much of what that strange loli, Salome, claimed was true?! Was this world truly her home? Was she really an important figure here once, and did she truly have a double-digit number of daughters?! If that were the case…’
“Watch out, right side!”
The moment she heard Ji Bingyao’s warning, Shirley realized she had just zoned out. Worse still, several flying insects, resembling both dragonflies and mayflies, each over half a meter long, seized the opportunity to launch a surprise attack on her. Fortunately, Ji Bingyao noticed their presence in time and used the retrieved air pistol to shoot down two that were diving directly towards Shirley’s face.
This pre-charged pneumatic air pistol was a high-priced German product, purchased for competitions, and its quality was quite good. Although it had been hit by a 9mm bullet earlier, only the optical sight mounted on top of the gun body was damaged; the pistol itself could still fire. The 5.5mm lead pellets were sufficient to deal with these insects. The hit insects exploded in mid-air like rotten fruit, scattering hemolymph, internal organs, and translucent parasitic insect bodies across the ground.
“Whew, that was close,” Ji Bingyao exhaled a long breath after confirming the targets were dealt with. “It seems these things can fly too.”
“Actually, most insects can fly, including rove beetles, which appear to have no wings,” Shirley explained. “It’s just that some insects don’t particularly like or excel at doing so.”
“Then do we have to constantly watch the sky?” Eileen clicked her tongue. “If a larger insect attacked from above, we might even be carried away…”
“Unlikely,” Shirley replied. “I haven’t sensed that the oxygen content in this world is higher than in our original world. Given insects’ inefficient spiracular respiratory system, the size of these creatures we’re currently encountering is probably the limit of their gigantism.”
“Then… what was that we encountered when we first left the dorm?”
“Mm… that’s a good question…” Shirley suddenly trailed off. Indeed, upon leaving the dormitory, they had distinctly seen a massive shadow flying overhead. Undoubtedly, it was unlikely to have been a pigeon. But if not an insect, then what could it have been…?
“Hey, is anyone there?” Just as she began to ponder this question, someone suddenly called out to them.