Chapter 63#

Gears of Fate 05#

In the face of irresistible giant mechanical force, human existence is exceptionally small. In the blink of an eye, they were already far away from that place. The wind howled as the iron seats carried them rapidly along the metal tracks, like a dozen or so small steel balls rolling in a giant castle.

Eventually, they stopped in front of another deep metal tunnel entrance. The tunnel was carved into the mechanical wall, like a deep cave carved into a mountain wall. Walking into the entrance, there was a small circular hall. The ceiling of the small hall was very low, equipped with a fireplace, a wall clock, and an exquisite metal tree-shaped lamp. There were several square riveted doors on the walls, but they were all tightly closed. In the center of the hall stood a rusty metal table, with a dozen or so seats beside the table.

This labyrinth city planned all their itineraries just like designing the transmission route of machinery, and they were also arranged with a tight schedule like students with the heaviest course loads. With no room for choice, they looked at each other for a while and took their seats at the long table in sequence.

The lines of the metal table were smooth, and more than a dozen exquisite tin beast statues were molded on the table surface. They faced the seats and had different appearances. The action of “sitting down” triggered the sensing device inside the seat. After a subtle sound of mechanical friction, a slanted stream of liquid sprayed from the mouth of the tin beast, accurately landing in the cup-shaped container in front.

The statue in front of Yu Feichen was a giant dragon with jagged wings. Anfield was on his right side, and the statue was a unicorn with feathered wings. On the left, Bai Song’s was a strange creature with a lion’s body and a deer’s head. In about half a minute, the statue’s fountain performance ended. Yu Feichen looked down at what was in the cup—a liquid with three colors: black, red, and white. The three colors were distinct and arranged in rings, with black on the outermost, red in the middle, and white on the innermost.

Yu Feichen: “…”

This didn’t look like something drinkable, and besides, he didn’t really want to drink it. This thing couldn’t help but make him think of that split-pot magic potion at the end of the Temple dungeon.

Having experienced the nightmare-like transmission class and witnessed Nini’s tragic death, the others were also dispirited. Lilia said weakly: “They won’t make us drink this, will they?”

Chen Tong: “But I’m really hungry.”

The death-inducing broadcast voice rang out again: “Today’s learning tasks are all over! Mealtime is here! After the meal, students can move freely, but you must return to the dormitory before the clock is parallel to the ground~ Tomorrow’s classes will begin when the clock is perpendicular to the ground. Students, please cherish your valuable study time and don’t be late~”

Chen Tong cursed again, looking at the “dinner” in front of him with a distorted face. Finally, he gritted his teeth, picked up the cup, and downed it in one go with a grimace.

“It tastes f*cking like diesel,” he concluded. “Not poisonous, you guys drink it too. School rules don’t allow wasting food.”

Seeing that Chen Tong didn’t drink himself to death, the others also drank one after another.

Yu Feichen also finished a cup. It didn’t have much flavor, but the texture was indeed like diesel. He had been highly stressed all day today, consuming a lot of energy, and even he was a bit fatigued. But after drinking it, it seemed that new strength grew from inside his body, and his whole person quickly returned to a normal state. The others also noticed this. The Daoist Ling Wei said: “Is this the Inedia Pill of this world?”

Regardless of what this thing actually was, everyone recovered their energy from exhaustion and thus cheered up, beginning to discuss everything that happened today.

This was an academy, and they were students. The students made a roller coaster, which was the content of the course, and they had to ride it back to the dormitory after finishing, which was to test the day’s learning results through actual use—the so-called “class test.”

Nini died; her machinery fell apart on the spot due to a malfunction and failed the test. Mr. Mutterer didn’t speak, lowering his head, looking very sad. Yu Feichen understood his feelings because part of Nini’s machine was made with Mutterer’s help, and another part was made with his help. But neither of their machines had problems, which meant the cause of the malfunction lay in the part Nini made herself.

She was just a trainee poet, a small girl who hadn’t grown up. Making a complex piece of machinery without any errors was too difficult a task for such a child. But in this mechanical dungeon, an error meant death. However, the others didn’t have the qualification to pity her—today was just a trial class. On the second and third days, who knows how many more ridiculous classes and tests would be waiting for them. Nini died today, and tomorrow it might be oneself.

Xue Xin said: “Is it possible that if we pass all the courses and graduate from this place, we can leave this world?”

“There are too few clues now; an escape method can’t be deduced. Let’s go look at other places,” Vincent said.

Unfortunately, after walking around, outside was only machinery after machinery, and inside, besides the dining table, there was only the dormitory; nothing much to see. There were, however, many people and few dormitories; they had to allocate them themselves.

Now they had twelve people, and there were six dormitories. There was no difference between good and bad dormitories; the facilities were the same, and the decoration was elegant. One long desk, two high-back chairs, one wall clock, and one washroom-changing room. The beds were bunk beds, and the bottom bed was slightly wider than the top bed.

Zheng Yuan was the first to speak: “Let the three of us girls stay in one room.”

Eight-legs said: “So there’s such a distinction, sorry. At first, I wanted to stay with the beautiful Miss Lilia.”

Mutterer: “##@.”

Zheng Yuan rolled her eyes at Eight-legs and pulled the petite Lilia into the room. Ke An also followed.

Eight-legs said politely to Mutterer: “Perhaps you’d be willing to stay with me; I’m also studying hard.”

Mutterer: “@.”

The two alien friends reached an agreement and went back to their room. Bai Song murmured: “I seem to have mastered a bit of his language rules.”

Yu Feichen, however, felt a gaze fall on him. He looked in that direction expressionlessly; it was the chestnut-haired Vincent staring straight at him, saying: “I want to be in a room with you.”

Yu Feichen hadn’t spoken yet when Bai Song disagreed first: “Hey, the two of us are together, don’t snatch.”

Vincent said: “Shut up, let him speak.”

Yu Feichen said calmly: “Do I know you?”

“I don’t know you,” Vincent said stiffly: “You’re not bad; we can discuss the dungeon content together.”

Yu Feichen smiled. Someone whose words and heart were at odds to such a degree was also rare. He said “discuss together” with his mouth, but “I want to challenge you one-on-one” was clearly written on his face.

“Not interested.” He also clearly put “stay away from me” on his face.

The chestnut-haired youth bit his lip, said nothing, and turned into a room alone. Yu Feichen thought this person was probably too thin-skinned and had never been rejected; he would only turn and leave.

“No,” Chen Tong said, “so it’s a single room now?”

Responding to him was the sound of a closing door.

Chen Tong sighed: “This is called aura. Noble. You are all noble. Now I’m the only bumpkin here.”

Bai Song: “I’m a bumpkin too.”

Chen Tong: “Then you stay with me?”

Bai Song: “I won’t.”

Chen Tong sighed. Xue Xin took the initiative to say: “I’ll be with you, Brother Chen. I think you’re quite friendly.”

So two more people left. Yu Feichen roughly grabbed Bai Song’s back collar and led him back to the empty dormitory on the other side of the circular wall.

As he turned around, he happened to meet Anfield’s gaze.

The blonde boy stood quietly in the dimness by the long table, looking this way, his expression unreadable, just standing.

There were no ripples in Yu Feichen’s heart, and he went straight past him to the dormitory door. A movement came from behind; it was Ling Wei walking in front of Anfield, his tone gentle and sparse: “This humble one has some slight skill in divination. Just now, a calculation shows that I might have no small fate with Your Excellency.”

A cultivator of immortality, also cultivating flowery words.

Yu Feichen stood still and looked back there. Both the Daoist and Anfield were above the mundane world and gentle and elegant, like roommates—he was always very objective, and he thought that next, Anfield would readily agree, and everything would be as it should be.

But a moment later, Anfield turned slightly and looked in his direction. His frost-green pupils were still calm, yet they showed a slight daze because of this movement of looking back.

But he didn’t expect Yu Feichen to be looking at him. Just as Yu Feichen also didn’t expect Anfield would use his eyes to search for him. The gazes of the two converged faintly in mid-air. Yu Feichen thought this was just one of many ordinary eye contacts in the world, yet he felt sad, as if he had lost something.

Not only that, he also felt naive and ridiculous.

At the moment of falling into the seawater, he felt that his twenty years had not been a waste of time and he could die; it was quite good. Only then did the voice of that officer suddenly ring in his ear, saying he would take him somewhere. To be buried in the eternal night, to exist forever with the world. He thought this was a hallucination before death, but since the one speaking was not anyone else, he agreed.

Later, after arriving at the Paradise, he just waited.

So hundreds and thousands of worlds passed like that, not necessarily painful, nor necessarily happy. He just lived indifferently. Some employers evaluated him as exceptionally calm, which was actually equivalent to being on the verge of death. Many times he hoped this was just a dream before death, and the officer who led him here was not the real officer but an illusion in a nightmare. When the dream woke up, everything could end.

But not only did it not end, he also met that officer in the nightmare again. Not only that, this person also acted as if nothing had happened.

An era has passed; even life-and-death hatred should have faded. He had also decided that bridges would return to bridges and roads to roads, the slate wiped clean, yet he was still filled with lingering resentment.

He said to Bai Song: “Go find the Daoist.”

Bai Song: “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to find him,” Yu Feichen looked straight at Anfield and uttered two words with hard-to-distinguish emotions, “settle the score.”