Apocalypse Forecast

Chapter 1250: Chapter 955: Final Exam

”Northern Greenland, the place closest to the Arctic Circle—”

Amid the blizzard, right in front of them, the helicopter slowly stopped its rotation. The cabin door opened, Huai Shi jumped down and looked the two over. ”Not bad, you look pretty well prepared.”

”Ah, teacher, long time no see!”

Instinctively, Wood Cottage rushed up, wanting to hug his thigh, then lick and lick some more, relying on his sincerity to maintain his status as senior brother.

But right after that, he saw the Teenage Girl walking out from behind Huai Shi, and his eyes lit up at once. Full of enthusiasm, he rushed over to greet her, completely forgetting the little show of authority he’d been planning just now, his smile warm.

Join forces with the new little junior sister to suppress Yuan Yuan’s ever-expanding arrogance!

Decision made!

”You must be Anna, right? Don’t be nervous, I’m Wood Cottage, call me Senior... pff!”

With his arms spread open, ready to bestow the warmth of the sect, Wood Cottage let out a muffled grunt, narrowly blocking Anna’s completely unannounced whip kick.

His crotch and his heart both went cold at the same time.

What’s with this woman, doesn’t know the first thing about martial virtue, just like a rabid dog!

Teacher, can’t you find some normal students?

Behind him, the Sword Saint’s ”Sword” stayed motionless, but instead let out a gloating ring.

Serves you right!

”Who’s this?”

Anna looked back at Huai Shi. ”That smile doesn’t look like a good person’s. He looks like bad news. Can I take him out?”

”I’d really like to say no, but you can give it a try.”

Huai Shi folded his arms and leaned against the cabin, watching the show. ”You probably won’t succeed, and there’s a good chance you’ll just ask for trouble... Try making a few more friends, Aniya. They’re your classmates; they’re not going to hurt you.”

”Mm? I don’t really think anyone would want to be friends with me. But since you say so, teacher, I’ll give it a shot.”

Her hands were stuffed in the pockets of her loose jacket. She turned back and smiled at the two of them. ”My name’s Anna, fifteen. If we get the chance, let’s all hang out sometime.”

”Next time for sure.”

Wood Cottage sighed and waved, already foreseeing his trouble-filled future: Teacher, do you still remember we’re supposed to be teaching classical music?

Finally, Anna’s gaze shifted to the back.

She saw the figure resting a hand on the long case, the calm woman who had been silent from beginning to end.

The White Wolf and the Mountain Monarch’s gazes brushed for a moment.

Anna froze for a second, then quickly came closer, stood on tiptoe and studied her face, as if she were carefully sniffing her scent. Her smile grew even more delighted.

”I like you,” she said. ”We’re very similar.”

As if she could see the caged beast sealed inside, the battle lust suppressed by reason, catching a glimpse beneath that dignified face of some part of her true nature.

Completely different from that frivolous, laid-back guy who drifts between black and white!

The scent of her own kind...

”Then let’s get along, Anna.”

Yuan Yuan reached out and gently patted her hair, like she was looking at her own immature past self. ”In the Future, you’ll definitely grow, and become like me.”

The atmosphere gradually warmed.

Only Wood Cottage stared sorrowfully into the distance in the freezing wind.

As if he could see the throne of the senior brother sprouting wings and flying off, waving goodbye as it drifted farther and farther away from him... And he was clearly the one who got here first!

In that instant, the tears in his heart fell like the swirling snowflakes.

Utterly tragic.

If I were a pretty girl, would I still be this pathetic...

Given the situation, the only move left was to exploit his advantage as a man, grab onto the teacher’s thigh and slowly work his way up, doing his best to secure his position.

But before this guy could pounce, Huai Shi had already coughed twice, interrupting his ”casting motion.”

”Since everyone’s acquainted now, let’s talk about this job.” He asked, ”You all read the materials I sent, right?”

After getting unanimous confirmation, Huai Shi nodded in satisfaction.

”Good, then I don’t have to waste more saliva.”

He lowered his head to glance at his phone screen, confirmed the time, and said, ”In another half hour, a train from Nuuk to Sisimiut will be passing through here, loaded with lumber, coal, and all kinds of cargo. Our target is on that train, headed for a Hell Entrance somewhere in northern Greenland.

Yeah, pretty damn brazen, choosing public transportation—might as well hang a sign saying ’I’m right here’. I hope you don’t let his painstaking efforts go to waste.”

”What about headcount?”

Wood Cottage flipped through the file and asked, ”It’s not just one person, right? If it were me, I’d definitely set up a big ambush.”

”Probably quite a few?”

Huai Shi thought for a moment, not entirely sure. ”After all, they’re backed by Golden Dawn. They’re never short on cannon fodder.”

Anna raised her hand, asking curiously, ”Then what about the passengers?”

”There are no passengers.”

Huai Shi answered, ”All the passengers are dead. Forty-one innocents in total, killed ten minutes after boarding... Otherwise, I wouldn’t be handing this job to you.”

His words were so calm, yet they carried a chill that made one’s spine crawl.

If anyone kept joking now, they’d get smacked.

Anna obediently shrank her neck and stopped talking.

”Then what’s our objective?” Yuan Yuan asked.

”Sabotage and assault,” Huai Shi said. ”Method doesn’t matter, just improvise. As long as you keep yourselves safe, do your best. Kill one if you can kill one. If you can’t take down even a single person, then go home and get ready for your winter break homework, super-sized.”

”...”

Wood Cottage was silent for a long time, incredulous. ”Isn’t that way too vague? And teacher, you have to factor in our Ability! This is Golden Dawn we’re talking about... Golden Dawn!”

”What’s there to be scared of? When I was your age, I’d already seen several Element of Destructive. Don’t get nervous, don’t stress. Just show your real level, that’s all.”

Huai Shi pulled a folding chair out of the cabin, unfolded it, and sat down.

Just like a homeroom teacher proctoring the year-end exam, he looked the students’ dazed faces over. ”This is your final exam. I hope everyone gets a good score.”

Wood Cottage cried out in shock, ”Then what about you, Teacher?”

”Taking a break. Been running around so many days, I’m tired.”

Huai Shi yawned, set up the hanging stove, lit the fire, then rummaged through his bag and pulled out a bunch of bottles and jars. ”Everyone do your best, okay? When you get back I’ll treat you to a picnic!”

Life is hard, Little Nineteen sighed.

These were all the teacher’s assignments, after all.

What else could they do?

Only Anna, after taking a couple of steps, suddenly turned back, remembering the most important thing. ”I’ve got one more question.”

”Hm?”

”That should be your prey, right, Teacher?” Anna asked curiously. ”What if I end up killing him? Won’t you be really disappointed?”

Huai Shi laughed.

Full of anticipation.

”Each generation surpasses the last. Wouldn’t that be even better?”

.

.

And so, he watched his students as they went off into the distance.

Huai Shi sat beside the blazing fire, lazily warming himself, gazing toward the distant mountains.

”So, you’re not worried at all?”

Before long, another folding chair unfolded by the fire. Raymond, who had been checking the equipment in the cabin, came out, lifted the boiling water in the hanging pot, and started brewing coffee. ”Those are all your students, right? And you just toss them out there like cannon fodder. What if they die?”

”Why don’t you worry about something useful, like whether you get a share of the picnic this afternoon?”

Huai Shi leaned back calmly in his chair and narrowed his eyes. ”As long as this teacher is still alive, how could there be any reason for a student of mine to die?”

If anything, that was the last thing he worried about.

If it were someone else, Huai Shi might actually hold back a bit and rush to the front. But when it came to his own students, he could give them his complete trust.

They were his creations.

Aside from his cello, they were now and in the Future one of the achievements he was most proud of.

They had Talent and potential; they ought to show and exercise it. When the time came, as a teacher, he had to give them that opportunity.

”Besides, winter break’s about to start, isn’t it?”

He said softly, ”You’ve got to let the kids earn a certificate to take home for the New Year.”

Thus, in the long stretch of silence, only the distant sound of the storm and falling snow remained.

Huai Shi listened to the melody in his headphones and hummed along in a low voice.

He could feel that presence rapidly drawing near.

Between the mountains, the rail line winding through the white snow stretched like a black rope, gradually pulled taut, one end tied to you, the other to me.

Slowly drawing the two sides closer.

Hatred, killing intent, even pain—everything slowly brewed within the silent snowfall.

He opened his mouth, exhaled a plume of white breath, and narrowed his eyes.

Quietly waiting.

The exam was about to begin.

.

.

On the roaring train.

The empty passenger car was already a complete mess.

Amid the incessant fine chewing, the blood splattered on the carriage slowly ran down, freezing on the icy windows and forming streaks of shocking frozen red.

In the low chanting, one mutant corpse-dog after another crawled out of shattered corpses and quickly joined in the feast of Gluttony.

Among the corpse-dogs, a Fanatic cloaked in a gray robe, hands sticky with fresh blood, was feverishly smearing and painting on the floor and carriage, depicting hymns and visions from the Abyss.

Hoarse, devout words of praise rang out again and again.

When the Fanatic’s prayer finally ended and he turned around, what showed was a face covered in scars. As if tattooed, dense lines of text wound around and around his exposed skin.

Yet it did not look like any sort of colored pattern; it was more like gaps chiseled out by a Sharp Blade, nothing but torn, scarred flesh.

Beneath the splits there was no blood or meat, only a churning darkness and hollow shell.

Within the darkness, it was as if some immense structure was slowly turning, faintly revealing a silhouette and framework that could drive one mad—yet in the next instant, it shifted into something completely different.

Gaze at it too long, and it felt as though your Soul would be sucked in, becoming part of that ferocious darkness.

It was a projection from the enemy of all human reason—the Destructive Element·Bo Xun. The Blessing of demonic Chaos had taken up residence in this shell, keeping him ever-closer to the source of the Abyss, making him a living avatar of Hell.

”The Great Spirits have taken note, and have bestowed their Blessing.”

The High Priest known as ”Tattooed Face” said, looking back.

”Hahaha, that sticky, gooey stuff... it’s really weird...” The armored man who had been watching the whole time rubbed his chin and grinned, turning to ask, ”So this is enough to get their attention, right? Your old friends like gifts like this?”

”There’s no need at all.”

From his seat by the window, Lu BaiYan answered coolly.

He carefully folded the empty toast wrapper into a little square, pressed it under his water cup, then slowly raised his head, glanced at the man beside him, and said mockingly:

”You lot really have sunk low.”

Since when did you start accepting even this kind of trash wholesale?