Chapter 29: Reset

At the school,

Shi Lei, Bai Yu, and Ma Fei, who had exited earlier, were chatting in the lounge.

"Brother Lei, Brother Fei," Bai Yu said, his eyes darting around, "let's treat ourselves to a nice meal after we get out. We made a good haul this time, so a little splurge won't hurt, right?"

Bai Yu pursed his lips, giving them a pitiful look.

Shi Lei waved his hand dismissively. "Why not? Let's have a victory feast tonight to celebrate breaking the record. Invite Lao Tian and Lao Yu, plus Ke Lu and Su Rou. My treat."

Lao Tian and Lao Yu were two members of their original team.

The three quickly reached an agreement.

"But... why haven't those two come out yet?" Bai Yu craned his neck, peering around, but couldn't spot Ke Lu or Su Rou anywhere. He was already eager to meet up with them for their celebratory feast.

"No need to rush," Ma Fei said, pulling out his phone and opening the call app. "This exit is huge, and there are tons of people around. They might be somewhere else, or they might have left already if they didn't see us."

"But I have their numbers. I'll just give them a call."

Ma Fei scrolled through his contacts until he found the number labeled "Su Rou" and dialed it.

As for why he didn't call Ke Lu, it was because Ma Fei was slightly afraid of her.

Compared to Ke Lu, who possessed formidable strength and an aura that seemed to repel strangers, Su Rou, though a bit temperamental, felt more approachable in Ma Fei's mind.

The call connected quickly. Just as Ma Fei was about to explain the situation, he was startled by a roar that blasted through the speaker.

The thunderous roar of a tiger pierced through the screen, stabbing into his eardrums. Even through the phone, it left him with lingering fear.

The roar drew the attention of all the students in the lounge area, including Shi Lei and Bai Yu.

"Is that... the boss's roar from earlier?" Bai Yu asked, his eyes wide with confusion. "Brother Fei, are you playing a boss fight tutorial video?"

Ma Fei's lips twitched, his hand trembling slightly as he turned the phone around so the two could see the screen.

The display showed: "Currently in a call."

Just then, a chilling sentence came through the speaker:

"In the Secret Realm... save us."

It was Su Rou's voice. A burst of static followed, and the call disconnected.

Having been teammates, they couldn't mistake her voice.

As soon as the words left his lips, Shi Lei slammed his palm against the table, shattering it. He charged toward the door, shouting, "Let's go find Teacher Liu!"

The moment the three of them burst outside, they realized the chaos was far worse than they had imagined.

A massive crowd of students had gathered around the entrance to the Secret Realm, with several school leaders clustered in the center.

"That's... the Vice Principal?" Bai Yu was the first to recognize the tall woman with long brown hair at the front of the crowd. Her stern expression radiated authority, like a sea-anchoring pillar maintaining order. She was about to step into the teleportation array to investigate the situation.

"That's Director Li, the one in charge of Spirit Array Competition training," Ma Fei said, pointing to the man squatting on the ground, setting up an array. He quickly recalled the man's identity despite not studying Spirit Arrays himself. However, since their team had a member planning to participate in Spirit Array training, he had met Director Li several times.

Director Li was a Fourth-Tier Spirit Array Master, equivalent to a Master-level Martial Artist, and one of the school's top experts.

With so many leaders present, this was clearly a serious matter.

As it concerned their teammate, Shi Lei didn't hesitate. He bulldozed through the crowd, shoving and pushing until the students scattered like dominoes.

"What's the rush? Are you all in a hurry to be reborn or something?!" he barked.

Several students complained, but they eventually parted to clear a path, unwilling to be caught in the crossfire.

"Sorry, sorry!" Bai Yu and Ma Fei called out, thanking the people behind them as they hurried after Shi Lei.

A gust of wind swept past them, and suddenly a figure in a gray coat materialized before them.

Judging by his appearance, Shi Lei immediately recognized him as a school administrator. "Teacher," he began, "my teammates..."

Before he could finish, the man cut him off:

"You were suddenly teleported out too, weren't you? It's alright, we'll handle this. You should all go back now. No need to rush."

"I wasn't..." Shi Lei vehemently denied, realizing the man had completely misunderstood his intentions.

But within the man's words, Shi Lei picked up a crucial piece of information: many others had been abruptly teleported out, yet Ke Lu and Su Rou were nowhere to be seen.

This realization intensified his anxiety.

Where there's smoke, there's fire. Coupled with Su Rou's earlier plea, "In the Secret Realm, save us," Shi Lei's urgency reached its peak.

Yet for some reason, the man refused to let him finish speaking. His tone turned icy: "This is an emergency. If you keep causing trouble, don't blame the school for disciplinary action."

"You lunatic! Are you even listening to me?!" Shi Lei's anger surged, veins bulging on his forehead. He was about to retort when the man abruptly formed a hand seal.

A violent gust of wind swept through the area, sending the trio flying through the air. They crashed heavily onto the distant grassy field, landing face-first in the dirt.

Some students watched indifferently, remaining aloof from the situation. Others gloated at their misfortune. A few, their consciences pricked, wanted to intervene but were silenced by a cold glare from the teacher.

As the man in the coat returned to his original position, the Vice Principal emerged from the teleportation array, frowning at the sight. "What were you doing just now?"

"Just dealt with a few nosy brats causing a commotion," he replied with a practiced smile, inwardly thinking: Those three almost ruined the superiors' grand plan. Good thing I intervened in time.

Meanwhile, Shi Lei's fury was so intense that demonic energy began to leak unconsciously from his body. "I'll f*** your whole family! I—"

Shi Lei's curses were venomous, but his companions were already used to his outbursts.

"I've told Teacher Liu what happened," Ma Fei said, looking up at the others. "Hopefully, he'll get here soon."

"Is this all we can do? We're completely helpless! They're in serious danger!" Bai Yu jumped to his feet, pacing restlessly.

Suddenly, a crisp, melodious female voice cut through the air: "Could you tell me what happened inside?"

The three turned to see a woman of celestial beauty, her hair adorned with silver-white, branch-like ornaments. A sharp, cold-looking, spike-shaped decoration stood on one side of her head.

Her black, blue, and purple attire accentuated her regal elegance, making her resemble a sea nymph from myth or a graceful fish from the depths.

"Who are you?" Shi Lei began, but his eyes suddenly glazed over. Each syllable she spoke seemed to dance in his ears, clouding his consciousness.

Hysilens watched the hypnotized trio and offered a slight apology. "I sincerely apologize for this breach of etiquette, but I have no time to waste on self-introduction. I need to quickly understand everything that happened inside."

Under her hypnotic influence, the three recounted every detail of their experiences within the Secret Realm.

Within the Lost Woods Secret Realm, the once-normal, brownish-yellow stone walls of the cave had undergone a cataclysmic transformation.

A terrifying crimson hue now pervaded the surroundings, as if a basin of fresh blood had been splashed across the scene.

On the ground, shattered fragments of scarlet flesh and gore told the tale of recent carnage.

At the center of the cave, a tiger and two humans stood locked in a tense standoff, the air thick with the acrid scent of gunpowder.

"What... what kind of trick is this? Does this boss have a second phase? But we clearly heard the System announcement just now."

A smooth, reflective white pearl had materialized in Su Rou's hand, which she crushed into dust and scattered across the ground.

Coincidentally, a broken wooden tablet lay nearby.

Just moments ago, when they were facing a life-or-death crisis, the emergency measure Father Su had entrusted to Su Rou activated. A surge of sword qi shattered the threat from behind, while a protective shield safeguarded their lives.

Yet why was this creature still haunting them?

Ke Lu stared intently at the scattered fragments of flesh and blood on the ground—remnants of the other Mountain Tiger that had ambushed them earlier, as well as the several others that had appeared later, all cleaved apart by the sword qi.

Yet now, before her very eyes, another identical Mountain Tiger materialized from thin air.

Its crimson eyes burned with an even more ferocious light than before, a testament to its ever-increasing power.

But what truly chilled her to the bone was its near-immortal nature.

No matter how many times they killed it, a new Mountain Tiger would instantly reappear, as if it could never be truly eradicated.

Realizing that brute force was futile, it closed its eyes to conserve energy.

Ke Lu spoke slowly, "This isn't just resurrection... it's more like some kind of respawn, a reset."