High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 648: Chapter 317 Silence Contract_1

With that slightly mocking speech, the curtain of the rest area was suddenly lifted, revealing a face familiar to everyone.

It was Thomas.

He looked much better than before - perhaps because Old Yao had already revealed the last threshold for punishment, which eased the young teaching assistant - anyway, his face was not as pale as before in the Hunting Ground, and his expression was no longer stiff, becoming more lively.

”...Oh no, this isn’t a good habit.” The blond, blue-eyed assistant teacher raised his forefinger, waving it repeatedly while his head also swayed slightly. He spoke quickly, ”As they say, it’s a taboo for an army to change generals on the verge of war. Even though you guys don’t have a match anymore, you should still pay attention to these taboos - after all, you are wizards, and you should know that there are countless ’illogical memes’ in this world that could be triggered by your recklessness.”

Though Thomas’s words were a bit twisting, they were actually quite easy to understand.

The most famous example is the ’Murphy’s meme’. If you worry about something happening, then it will certainly happen; but if you deliberately ignore your anxiety, the thing still has a high probability of happening - as if there is an invisible hand, messing with the strings of your destiny, which is dreadful but unavoidable.

There are many similar examples. For instance, one should never say, ’I’ll go home after I’ve hunted the last demon’ in a battle. Or the thirteenth person to sit at the dining table will have bad luck. Also, one should sprinkle incense ash over the left shoulder before entering the medicine garden, and so on and so forth. These mysterious taboos that are unrelated to magic have deep roots in the wizarding world, with far-reaching impacts.

A grand wizard from Zhou Family of Shaoxing had a very incisive summary of this: ”There were no ’illogical memes’ in the world. But when many people began to believe in them, these memes were born.”

In short, as Thomas said, even though Absolution Hunting Team no longer had any follow-up matches, switching the head of the team casually on the field was a great taboo.

”... Aside from that, he is also the ’ringleader’ for your team winning the championship of the Newbies Game. If you kick him off now, wouldn’t the pressure on you be greater when you are on the victory podium?”

The last sentence from Thomas was rather out of the blue. Zheng Qing found it somewhat baffling, feeling like there might be some flaws in his logic.

However, the assistant teacher didn’t give him the chance to ask more questions, but waved his hand and changed the topic: ”Let’s put this matter to an end. Zheng Qing still has to get up on the victory podium... The honor is yours, and so is the pressure.”

”Before you go up, you need to sign this... The other hunting teams have all signed, only your Absolution Team hasn’t.”

As he spoke, he pulled out a long roll of parchment from his bosom and unfolded it in front of the young wizards. At the same time, he handed a thick and long black feather pen to Zheng Qing.

”You are the captain of Absolution. You go first.”

In the light cast down from the ceiling of the rest area, Zheng Qing could vaguely make out that this was a contract with complex terms. He clearly remembered that Xiao Xiao had repeatedly warned him not to sign any documents that he was not familiar with.

So immediately, the young scholarship student looked up at the professor.

”Silence Contract?” Xiao Xiao, living up to expectations, quickly identified what the parchment roll was and asked with a very affirmative tone.

”You truly are a professor.” Thomas praised, before adding, ”This is the ’Newbies Game Version’ developed based on the previous ’Hunting Ground Training Version’. It’s the first time it’s been used this year, but all the terms are classic ones... According to convention, everyone must sign it.”

Seemingly sensing the confusion among others, Thomas went ahead and explained it simply from start to finish.

As it turns out, under normal circumstances, the freshmen of First University should arrive at school one month before the start of the semester to participate in the ’Hunting Ground Training’ held by the school.

The freshmen will face demons and experience death - also through the ’Karma Transformation Spell’ - in the training. However, because the abilities of the freshmen in the past years were not uniform, the death rate was too high, causing many freshmen to have various psychological obstacles that were difficult to overcome. Some of these obstacles may even seriously affect their subsequent academic life.

Therefore, starting from the class of ’08, First University shifted the freshman training to the second year.

Of course, for the more courageous and capable freshmen, the school would not be stingy with some spells and materials, and would prepare a small hunting ground for them to experience the cruelty of this world in advance - which was the ’Newbies Game’ that Zheng Qing and the others participated in this year.

Just as Old Yao said.

’Only by losing can you learn to cherish what you have; only by facing death can you truly be alive.’

”Do you remember the sentence that Professor Charles said after we landed from the chartered plane?” Xiao Xiao brought up an old matter, looking at his companions around him.

”I remember, I remember,” Zheng Qing nodded repeatedly, frowning as he recalled, ”It’s something weird like ’this is the first lesson’...”

Xiao Xiao gave him a speechless look, opened his own notebook, and read softly, ”’Remember today’s lesson, feel the meaning of living, this is the beginning of your learning.’...These are the exact words.”

”Haha, the meaning is pretty much the same.” Zheng Qing rubbed the back of his head and laughed dryly, asking, ”Is there anything weird about this sentence?”

”This sentence was originally what you would hear, as a freshman participating in the ’Hunting Ground Training’ and returning from death. It’s the first sentence you would hear,” Thomas suddenly interjected, speaking rapidly, ”Old Charles gets used to saying this every year during orientation... He rehearsed it without thinking.”

”Fortunately, when you guys fell from the sky, it was also like escaping from the dead... So there wasn’t any awkwardness.”

”No wonder!” Zheng Qing had a sudden moment of realization. ”I thought so. Everyone around was dumbfounded when he said that...So he really did say it wrong!”

”But now that we know about this... Will the training in the second year still be effective?” Zhang Ji Xin suddenly voiced out, asking curiously, ”If I understand correctly, we must participate in this kind of match without any knowledge, in order to maximize our potential... Only then will our death in the hunting ground have meaning, right?”

Thomas looked at him in surprise.

”I thought you would be smarter than your brother,” shrugged the assistant teacher, and counter-asked, ”Why do you think your brother didn’t tell you about the training?”

”Contract?!” Zheng Qing had a sudden breakthrough.

”Bingo... The prize is a four-year Silence Contract.” Thomas flicked the long scroll of parchment in front of him, pushed it under Zheng Qing’s nose, and urged, ”Sign it quickly, we are running out of time... The main effect of this contract is to seal your true memory of certain parts of this hunting game - of course, it won’t affect the experience you gained from the hunting ground, and it won’t make you feel memory loss - trust me, the research done by the school’s grand wizards on soul and memory is beyond imagination.”

”After all, erasing memory isn’t the goal, the school’s goal is still to help you adapt better to this world.”

Zheng Qing smacked his lips in acknowledgment.