Disaster Strikes - Chapter 20:

Chapter 20: Investigator Jack

Instructor Qing Hong still arrived at the classroom on time, just as before.

After scanning the room, she noticed Du Qingqing, whom she had personally thrown out of the classroom before. After counting the number of people and confirming there were 13, she said lightly, “Let’s go.”

Immediately, everyone followed Instructor Qing Hong and left the classroom.

The trial of the starving ghosts of the Academy of Disasters had one class entering the task teleportation portal under the stone tablet every day, so people in the square were already used to it.

Qing Hong led the 13 people to the square in front of the teleportation portal.

“I have entered your numbers into the Light Brain System. You will complete the starving ghost trial together in a task world, and this place is the gathering place for the natural disasters of the River of Sorrows, the teleportation door for missions outside, and the most important place for your growth in the future.”

She seemed to sense everyone’s nervousness.

“Don’t worry, just use what you have learned in the academy to complete the summoner’s tasks to the best of your ability and try to gather more resources in the process. The Light Brain Data Chip will give you relevant hints.”

With that, she even patted everyone on the shoulders to encourage them.

“Just remember, do not treat the outside world as the disaster world. Everything outside is just a task. Now you can go in.”

The light blue vortex of the teleportation portal seemed to possess a magical power.

After the students in front entered one by one, Chen Mo also took a deep breath and stepped into the teleportation portal.

He felt his body immediately enveloped by a strong airflow.

Prompt: Confirming the identity of the starving ghost trial participant.

Prompt: Waiting to be summoned.

Prompt: Discovering the summoner.

Prompt: Light Brain is gathering language data and disguise information.

Prompt: Determining spacetime coordinates, waiting to cross the spacetime barrier, target Beehive world.

Accompanied by a strong sense of oppression, before Chen Mo could react, he felt like his body was being stretched into noodles. Then, with a flash of blue light, as if traveling through a long spacetime tunnel, he appeared on the deck of a small boat swaying in the sea.

“Where is this?”

The grayish night sky was covered by dark clouds.

There was a faint salty smell in the air.

After struggling to stand up on the deck, Chen Mo stroked the metal railing at the edge of the boat and looked at the small yacht swaying in the sea, lost in thought.

At this moment, he even had an illusion that he had returned to that world.

Others also staggered to their feet on the deck, showing different emotions such as excitement, confusion, vigilance, and worry, and instinctively looked around, observing this exotic world so different from the survival environment of the disaster world.

On the deck of the small boat, under their feet, there were still some ashes, but they were soon blown away by the sea breeze.

“Cough, cough.”

A weak cough made everyone come to their senses.

It was a young man with blond hair and blue eyes. He was wearing jeans, but at the moment, he was bleeding heavily from his left abdomen, with large burns on his body, and looked like he could faint at any moment.

“I am Jack, an international investigator from the Western Continent, responsible for the joint investigation of the disappearance of supernatural beings and martial artists. On this mysterious island, my companions and I were attacked by an unknown force. My companions are likely to have died, and I am now unable to continue the mission.”

Jack paused, coughing up some blood.

“Your mission is to continue the investigation into the disappearance of supernatural beings and martial artists on this island, and hand over the relevant information to other international investigators from the Western Continent who will come here in three days.”

At this moment, Chen Mo also received the corresponding mission prompt from the data chip.

Prompt: This mission is to investigate the truth behind the disappearance of supernatural beings and martial artists, lasting for three days.

Prompt: Completing the mission will earn 30 points of Disaster Contribution. Failing the mission will deduct 90 points of Disaster Contribution. Those whose Disaster Contribution points are not enough to deduct will be eliminated and recycled.

Every natural disaster knows what the elimination and recovery mentioned by the light data chip mean. In the barren disaster world, the powerful spacetime rules will not spare anything, including the bodies of the natural disasters.

Chen Mo, Han Xue, Ku Wu, and Tao Zi had naturally stood together.

After receiving the relevant mission prompts, Chen Mo looked at the other three, and they all nodded one after another, apparently also receiving the relevant prompts.

“Cough, I am seriously injured now and must leave here immediately for treatment. I cannot stay here any longer. Please leave here as soon as possible and go to carry out the mission.”

With Jack’s words, Chen Mo unexpectedly received another chip prompt.

Prompt: Please leave the ship within 30 seconds, otherwise it will be considered a mission failure, countdown begins.

Prompt: 30 seconds.

Prompt: 29 seconds.

Upon receiving the prompt from the Light Brain data chip, everyone suddenly became flustered and entered a state of tension.

“Do you see the island?”

“It’s too dark, I can’t see anything!”

“Found it, over there!”

Although the sky was very dark, everyone quickly determined the direction of the island.

Roughly estimated, the small boat where everyone was located was at least five to six hundred meters away from the island. Fortunately, there were no big waves here, and the temperature was not low.

Prompt: 18 seconds.

Prompt: 17 seconds.

As the countdown in the chip prompt became less and less, the bloody prompt numbers, like a devil urging for life, made everyone panic and jump into the sea in confusion.

And in the moment Chen Mo left the small boat, the countdown on the Light Brain data chip ended. The temperature of the sea water was not cold, it was even somewhat warm.

The survival instinct made everyone who jumped into the sea swim with all their strength towards the direction of the coast. As long as the direction was confirmed, Chen Mo believed that with his physical strength, it should not be a big problem to swim to the shore from this distance.

“Help, I can’t swim…”

It was not known who shouted in panic from behind, but soon, water poured into his mouth, leaving only a sobbing sound.

Swimming is almost a basic instinct for every natural disaster, just like walking. Almost no one would see this as a problem, even including Stone, because in Stone’s memory, one of his favourite entertainment activities when he was a child with Honey and Monkey was swimming in the River of Sorrows.

At this time naturally no one would try to rescue the unlucky guy.

Otherwise, according to common sense, people drowning would often do their best to grab onto a lifeline. However, with a distance of five to six hundred meters from the shore, the result would most likely be that both would drown together.

Panting, panting.

In the midst of panting, Chen Mo finally swam to a beach.

The speed of the others was almost the same. They successively waded through the sea and came to the beach. It was just that due to differences in physical strength, some people were faster, some were slower, and some people even lay on the beach, spitting out seawater, gasping for breath.

The area of this island seemed to be not small.

In the depths of the island, dense vegetation grew, seemingly because of being in a tropical area, these vegetation were quite lush, with some giant trees reaching tens of meters high.

After resting for a while, the panting gradually stopped, and everyone gathered again.

Due to the darkness, they could not identify each other’s identities and had to get closer to confirm each other.

“Who didn’t make it?”

The question came from Lu Yi, with a faint excitement in his voice.

“Hmph, I’m still alive.”

In the darkness, there was a mocking voice from Ku Wu. Of course, he knew what Lu Yi was thinking.

“It’s Mu Tan, Mu Tan can’t swim!”

Du Fangyan shouted in horror.

You must know that all along, it was Mu Tan who had been planning and strategizing. Unexpectedly, he couldn’t swim. Just as he entered this task world, he drowned so confusedly.

Now what should he and his sister do?

“Keep your voice down!”

Lu Yi lowered his voice, saying, “Didn’t you hear what Jack said? He was attacked on this island. Do you want to die here? If you want to die, I’ll kill you myself!”

Du Fangyan was so scared that he covered his mouth. Judging from the fierce expression on the other party’s face, it was obviously not a joke.

On the side, Du Qingqing, who was at a loss, couldn’t help sobbing, but she didn’t dare to make a sound either.

“The trial has begun. What do you think?”

A calm voice came, and it was Gao Shu.

And the one he asked was none other than Lei Wu, who had almost never talked to the students in the class in the past three months!

However, compared to his usual arrogance, Lei Wu now had a serious expression.

Moreover, judging from his attire, he seemed to have already equipped himself, and the small exquisite wand in his hand exuded a strong energy aura.

“Since it’s an investigation, we naturally have to go deep into the interior of this small island for investigation. Although this task seems clueless, what can be determined is that our activities will be limited to this small island range in the future. In this way, the external factors we can use will be reduced, but in contrast, the variables of the enemy will also be much fewer. This is indeed a task scenario that is quite suitable for the starving ghost trial.”

Lei Wu’s words were more than all the words Chen Mo had heard him say in the past three months, and it seemed that he was not a person who didn’t like to speak, but rather was not interested in the students in the class or disdainful of interacting with them.

“How about we cooperate?”

Gao Shu said confidently, “The strength of the five of us, you should also know. If we cooperate, the probability of successfully completing the task will be much higher.”

Upon hearing Gao Shu’s persuasive words, Ku Wu revealed a nervous look.

The strength of the five-person group was already very strong. If Lei Wu also joined, once they ensured the successful completion of the task, then next they would probably deal with him.

However, Lei Wu just said indifferently, “Let’s see how it goes!”

Fortunately, Lei Wu did not agree immediately. Ku Wu breathed a sigh of relief, but he also became cautious.

Unfortunately, he was not a smooth talker, so he could only be anxious in his heart.

“Quiet for a moment.”

Lu Ye, one of the adult five-person group, seemed to have noticed something, and looked towards the direction of the dark bushes in the depths of the island, and said cautiously, “There seems to be movement inside.”

Everyone quieted down immediately.

Eyes stared tightly at the direction of the bushes.

Just when everyone was wondering if Lu Ye had misheard, Tian Tian, who was the first to react, pointed in a certain direction and said “Over there”.

Upon hearing this, everyone immediately went on high alert.

In the direction Tian Tian pointed, a group of black-clad people emerged from the jungle, numbering more than a dozen, more than Chen Mo’s group.

Although there was still some distance between the two sides at this moment, and it was difficult to see each other in the night, the fierce pace of the group indicated their hostility.

Immediately after, there was another sound of branches breaking in the bushes.

A figure much larger than the other black-clad individuals, weighing at least two hundred and fifty pounds, appeared behind the group, wearing a seemingly tight black suit that looked like it could burst at any moment.

With things coming to a head, it’d be false to say that Chen Mo wasn’t nervous, he had already pulled out his bronze short sword, adopting a close combat stance.

At this moment, he was truly grateful that he had prepared this bronze short sword in advance. Otherwise, in this place without stones or similar hard objects, where psychic power could not be attached for attack, he would have been left without any means of attack, and could only rely on unarmed combat or E-level skill, Psychic bullet, for long-range attacks every five seconds.

The others also showed signs of nervousness.

These black-clad individuals, obviously considering the previous investigations by Jack on the island, and even the acts of destruction during that time, regarded them as enemies, as well as Jack’s accomplices.

Of course, they were originally accomplices.

“Woo, woo.”

At this moment, Du Qingqing could no longer restrain her fear. Her legs went weak, and she collapsed on the sand, crying out loud.

Du Fangyan, beside her, was not much better.

His legs kept trembling, he hid behind everyone and even forgot to comfort his sister, his mind blank, unsure of what to do.

(End of chapter 20)