Chapter 1 A Conspiracy

Originally thinking it was just a simple trial guide mission, but as it developed, Suren couldn't fail to see that there was something fishy about this trial.

With a quick recollection, Suren had already pieced together the limited clues in his mind.

Even without knowing the ins and outs of the matter, he could guess that it probably involved some feud between wealthy families, some infighting within a financial group.

This was a premeditated "accident."

The mysteriously missing instructors and teaching assistants were likely victims of an accident.

After all, if something happened to these young masters and misses from wealthy families, the instructors would also be held responsible.

Of course, Suren, as the guide, would also be implicated.

It seemed that the mastermind's target wasn't Suren, but probably these students; but for him, this was a greater hidden danger than facing a crisis himself.

Even Tier 2 professionals could be sent to the fighting arena, so it was conceivable that those financial groups were not kind people. If anything really happened to these noble students, Suren, a gang member from the outer city without any backing, would definitely be the first to be buried with them.

At that time, even the chairman of the Cross Society might not be able to protect him.

"I thought it was going to be an easy and lucrative job, but I didn't expect to get involved in a financial group's internal strife. This is a bit troublesome."

Suren's mind was racing, already thinking about his escape route: "Could it be that after this, I'll have to change my identity again and mix into the 'Steam Party' or the 'Cross Society'?"

Only after joining a gang would one know how much power the three major gangs had in the outer city.

Once he defected from the Cross Society, being wanted by the gang would be very troublesome, and the entire outer city would be uninhabitable.

Unless absolutely necessary, Suren didn't plan to give up his current identity.

And in just this short moment, the students behind him had already run far away.

Suren also breathed a sigh of relief.

At least he had saved his people now, and he had even sacrificed himself to cover their retreat, which could be considered dutiful. If there really were casualties, he would have an explanation for himself, and the gang's higher-ups would have something to report to the inner city patrons. It wouldn't be in vain that Qian Tiao recommended him to that Mrs. Fিলো.

After all, before coming here, everyone regarded this guide mission as a great "opportunity."

If used well, it really would be a chance for them, the lower-level gang members, to turn their lives around.

........

If he could conveniently help that female teaching assistant, Suren wouldn't mind firing a few more shots.

But clearly, that number of strange moths couldn't be solved with just a few firearms.

If it weren't for Rosa attracting the firepower, those strange moths would definitely chase any living creature in this tunnel. Suren didn't have the combat suits of those noble students; his simple leather armor probably couldn't withstand many hits.

He also thought that the Black Tower Academy's teaching assistant must have more life-saving methods than expected, so he always maintained a safe distance.

Sure enough, as he expected.

At this moment, the female teaching assistant saw that Suren had resolved the crisis, and she also breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't hesitate at all, took out something that looked like a hand grenade, twisted it hard, and threw it towards the tunnel entrance.

"A bomb?"

Suren watched the woman throw something towards him, guessing that she might want to blow up the tunnel and completely block the path of these strange moths.

But if it was a bomb, it would probably blow him up along with it, and might even cause a large-scale collapse.

Suren instinctively wanted to shoot the thing down in mid-air, but seeing that the female teaching assistant was also rushing towards him, he knew it didn't seem to be as simple as a bomb.

"Run!"

Rosa shouted urgently as she sprinted.

Suren's reaction wasn't slow either; he turned around and ran towards the depths of the tunnel.

And just then, he heard the "hand grenade" land, and then it made a "hissing" sound like a gas leak.

Looking again, streams of white foam gushed out of the bottle, suddenly expanding ten thousand times, and in just a few seconds, it threatened to completely block the entire tunnel entrance.

The expanding foam behind them was like a tsunami, chasing them as they ran wildly. After two or three hundred meters, the foam stopped expanding, and they finally stopped.

Suren looked back at the foam blocking the tunnel, slightly surprised. This thing was much more reliable than a bomb, and it wouldn't cause a large-scale collapse. In his impression, although there were similar expanding materials in his previous life's chemical industry, they definitely couldn't achieve such a large volume of multiplication.

It was probably because she had consumed too much energy earlier; the female teaching assistant was running a bit breathlessly, her chest rising and falling sharply.

She saw that Suren was interested in the foam, and took the initiative to explain, "That's a [Super Foam Expansion Bomb], a kind of alchemical product. It's still in the laboratory stage, and you can't see it on the market."

Suren revealed a look of realization: "Oh."

No wonder he hadn't heard of it; it turned out to be a laboratory-grade product.

The Black Tower Academy really had a lot of black technology.

At this time, the female teaching assistant glanced at Suren, seemed to remember something, and said again, "Thank you for saving the students just now."

She probably didn't expect that a local guide arranged by the academy would actually be a "firearm expert" who was hiding his abilities.

If it weren't for the person in front of her just now, she really wouldn't have been able to handle it alone.

Suren nodded in response, equally politely saying, "This is what I should do."

After thinking about it, he still asked, "If it's convenient, I'd like to ask, did this trial... have an accident?"

In principle, he, as the guide, wasn't qualified to ask anything about the trial.

But now, the situation was obviously not right.

The female teaching assistant thought for a while, and didn't avoid the question. She said seriously, "Something must have happened to Teaching Assistant Daniel and Instructor August. We need to find the students now, and then end this trial immediately!"

"..."

Suren heard that something had indeed gone wrong.

However, ending the trial now was good news for him too.

At least no students had died yet.

He, as the guide, wouldn't be too derelict in his duty.

But... it seemed that the current situation was that they couldn't end the trial just because they wanted to.

.......

The two didn't say much, and followed the way they had come.

But after walking for a while, when they reached an intersection, Suren discovered an unexpected situation.

The traces at the scene showed that the group of students hadn't returned along the route they had come from, but had chosen another path at this fork in the road, running towards the depths of the underground.

Obviously, this situation was a bit wrong.

Suren and the female teaching assistant looked at each other, and naturally guessed what had happened.

"Be careful, there might be monsters."

"Mm."

There was only one explanation for why the students hadn't chosen to return the way they came, and that was that something had forced them not to dare return the way they came!

Moreover, this fork in the road also had some strange traces of battle.

Some black, oily slime was left everywhere in the tunnel.

Suren used All-Knowing Eye to identify it, and it showed that it was a trace left by a mutated creature.

[Mutated Amoeba Debris]

Detailed explanation: This is a part of the body of a slime mold amoeba; its main body has the characteristics of division, deformation, fusion, and strong corrosive toxins, and its vitality is very tenacious; it has almost no sensory system, but it is very sensitive to the smell of certain specific odors;

"We really encountered a monster?"

Suren frowned as he looked at the black slime.

He wasn't too surprised to encounter a monster he hadn't heard of before, but... why didn't they encounter it when they came, but the students encountered it when they went back?

Moreover, even if it was a general mutated monster, even a "strange" one, the students' chaoneng (superpowers based on wealth) should be able to deal with it.

Judging from the traces at the scene, the students didn't seem to have any ability to resist, and were chased to the depths of the underground?

Suren found this very puzzling.

Looking at the introduction that it was "very sensitive to the smell of certain specific odors," his eyes narrowed slightly, and he vaguely sensed that something was wrong.

.......

The female teaching assistant didn't recognize the origin of the black slime, but she also knew that the situation was urgent. She hurriedly shouted to Suren, "The students must be in danger, let's go take a look!"

Suren nodded and followed.

As the two went down, the fragments of the route in Suren's mind became more and more blurred. He vaguely remembered that this was beyond the territory of those zombie-type mutated monsters before.

There weren't just one or two kinds of mutated monsters in the underground cave; they also had a complete ecological chain.

Now, Suren didn't know what monsters were in the direction of the deep underground, but judging from the monster memories he had harvested before, it seemed that there was also a very terrifying mutated monster group hidden there.

Fortunately, before long, they finally found the group of students hiding in a certain cave.

"Oh my god, Teacher Rosa, you're finally here!"

When the students saw Suren and the others, they swarmed over as if they had seen a life-saving straw.

Before Teaching Assistant Rosa could ask, everyone started talking at once about what they had just experienced.

"Teacher Rosa, it was so terrifying! We just encountered a few black dogs that couldn't be killed at all..."

"Yes, those black dogs were chasing us crazily. No matter how we attacked them, it was useless. Even if we smashed their bodies, that black slime would quickly gather and revive. Even if we burned them with fire, their size would only shrink a little, and we couldn't kill them at all..."

"Moreover, those shrunken black dogs would also fuse with each other and then become bigger monsters..."

"..."

Listening to what the students said, Suren understood that the oily traces before were the body fragments of those "black dogs."

Suren carefully looked at the students. Other than some corrosive wounds on their bodies, they didn't seem to have any fatal injuries.

Huh... weren't there twenty students? Why was one missing?

Teaching Assistant Rosa had obviously also discovered that the number was wrong. One person was missing from the four five-person teams. She asked, "Where's Kom?"

"He... he's gone."

"Gone?"

Rosa looked surprised. How could such a big living person just disappear?

At this time, a student named Brown said, "Just now... just now Kom told me that he saw a very beautiful woman in the tunnel. I didn't pay attention. Then, when I turned my face, he was gone."

Rosa thought that enemies had come and asked seriously, "What woman?"

"Na... naked woman!"

"..."

As soon as these words came out, the atmosphere suddenly became strange.

There were quite a few monsters in this underground cave, so where would a very beautiful naked woman come from?

Suren, who was on the side, felt that these words sounded vaguely familiar, as if he had heard them somewhere before.

A very beautiful woman?

Suddenly, he thought of something.