559 Chapter 559: Another Time Skip

After the whole vampire incident in Saint Teresa Academy, I had no reason to stick around so I returned to Jing Tian City and Jing Tian Academy. I kept in touch with Rossetti and Kufa, and sometimes spoke to Zhao Yan and Yue Jian. Ji Yan still had not recovered, her mind broken and her sanity shattered after Xu Wu Cheng's abuse. I had no idea how long she would need to heal her mind, if it would ever recover at that.

After returning to Jing Tian Academy, I completed the rest of the year there. My third year flew past, I finished the Gao Kao (basically the high school examination that allowed students to graduate and enter university). I received an invitation from Vermillion University, with Henry Porter sending me an offer letter even before I passed my exams.

The guy had too much faith in me.

Since my aim was to enter a prestigious university and graduate from it to enter the ranks of mercenaries, or at least follow my dad as a real, qualified mercenary, I had no reason to refuse. So I accepted the invitation and took the train to Vermillion City.

"I'm proud of you, Richie." Dad was grinning when he sent me off. I nodded and waved at him, having to proceed past the ticket barriers in order to enter the train platform below.

"I'll contact you again when I get there."

"Make sure you do. Take care of yourself!"

He was aso waving. I nodded, waved one last time and then trned around to head down the elevator and toward the train platform below. After over a year back in Jing Tian City, I had gotten used to lazing around and spending time at home and with my dad (when he wasn't away in missions), so this was just…odd.

I cast my mind back to Adrian and Melina, wondering if they would do all right. After my exchange session was done, the two of them no longer continued to learn from me. Adrian had returned to Southampton City, and Melina probably continued on toward the high school department of Saint Teresa Academy.

Man, there was so much that had happened in Flandor City…

Shaking my head, I stepped into the carriage and hauled my luggage up to shove it into the compartment above. Once that was done, I dropped down on the comfortable sofa-like seats and leaned back. It was going to be a long trip, so I had best get comfortable.

If I was more versatile, I would have a sister and my dad sitting with me in the train because our city would have just suffered a vicious invasion (well…it did, more than a year ago), and moving with me to the new city. But…nope. Dad decided to stay in Jing Tian City, but he encouraged me to move to Vermillion City and attend the university there.

After all, the whole reason why I applied for university was to become a fully qualified combat mage, with an eye on joining mercenary guilds in future. Or at least following Dad along on missions. We were going to fight evil and save the world!

Speaking of which, the Dark Church had gone dormant and deeper into hiding. Despite the Silver Wolves' best efforts, they weren't able to uncover their base. Lin Xuan Chi also never showed up again, and none of the Dark Church members attacked or provoked me in a manner similar to the vampires of the now annihilated Crimson Blood Demonic Night clan.

Well, that made sense. Unlike the irrational, illogical and completely retarded bishounen vampires in the Crimson Blood Demonic Night clan, who went around doing the most stupid things possible, there was no reason for the Dark Church to target me specifically. They wouldn't hold a grudge against me in particular. Even though I did thwart several of their schemes, such as nuking the three thousand monsters they meant to set on the city, prevent them from getting their hands on the Holy Spring and other nonsensical stuff, I wasn't the only one who got in their way. The world was full of heroes and mercenaries who tirelessly worked against their schemes and stopped them from allowing monsters to take over to wipe out humanity.

Honestly, I was just an insignificant person among all these countless heroes.

Staring at the scenery that turned into a blur when the train lurched forward, the maglev train shooting forward at immense speeds. Fortunately, the train contained inertial dampeners so the passengers didn't suffer from gravitational forces pinning them down to their seats. All around me, I could see other passengers moving about.

There were a huge variety of people. Some were in business suits, particularly middle-aged salaraymen who were making business trips. A couple of old men who wwere playing chess, but with holographic pieces on a translucent board made out of light instead of a real chess board and pieces. There was a family, their kids running up and down the aisle, much to their parents' dismay. Fortunately, the parents managed to grab them and haul them back to their seats with a sharp reprimand. Just in time too, because the ticket attendants and train staff were beginning to move up the aisle.

One of them was pushing a trolley, selling food and drinks. A young couple flagged her to purchase a bento box and bottled drinks. I didn't order anything because I didn't feel hungry and I didn't want to spend the money. Yet.

Rather than eat, I would prefer to sleep. I could follow the example of the teenagers a few rows ahead of me and watch a movie on my smartphone, projecting a holographic window and loading a video from online. But I didn't bother. I was tired, I was a bit bored and I was in no mood to do anything. So I closed my eyes and dozed off.

I didn't know how long I had dozed off for, but I was woken up by one of the older passengers about an hour or so into the trip. He was placing his hands on his hips before sitting down on the couch-like seat opposite me.

"Wake up!" he snapped. I ogled him for a few moments, confused.

"Uh, who?"

"I'm a professor from a university," he proudly bragged. I blinked and nodded.

"Uh, okay…? Vermillion University, sir?"

"No. Cerulean University."

So he wasn't a professor from my university. I didn't know what he wanted from me, though. So I took a deep breath.

"Can I hep you, sir?"

"No, but you can help everyone on the train."

I stared at him blankly, and he gestured out of the window.

"We are out in the wild plains! There's a possibility that we will be attacked at any time by wild monsters! At times like this, we need every mage aboard this train on high alert!"

…huh?

Well, he had a point. Occasionally the trains would be forced to move through large swathes of wilderness between cities. And the wilderness was often filled with monsters. Not that any of them could catch up with a high-speed maglev train that was moving at almost supersonic speeds. And even if they could, the train was heavily armored and had a barrier around it. So the monsters would find it difficult for their attacks to penetrate the barrier or armor.

Not only that, there would be a contigent of Federation soldiers aboard the train, as well as their heavenly lightning cannon or whatever.

Seeing my skeptical expression, the elderly man scoffed.

"I know you think the defenses are adequate, but this time they won't be enough! The moment you stepped onto this train, you have raised a flag!"

"Flag? What flag?" I gaped at him.

"What will happen?" I asked, still dazed and confused.

"Have you not read any of the web novels?!" the professor roared. "Main character on a train that is traveling through a vast expanse of wilderness known for monsters! Of course we are going to be attacked! It's a huge flag! There will be an Emergence event, a monster horde will show up, and you will be needed to help the soldiers defend the non-mage passengers on this train!"

So I was basically turning from Bu Fan to Li Yao now. What the fuck? We only had a single millennium of magic, not forty millenniums of cultivation!

"Sir, I think you should calm down…"

The words were barely out of my mouth when there was a thunderous crack. All the passengers froze and slowly turned their heads to stare out of the windows.

The roiling clouds above were rumbling, lightning flashing and crackling around its gray edges. The fabric of space-time tore open, as if some massive monster from another dimension had driven its claws into a point and began ripping the space apart. I caught a glimpse of a hellish dimension from further beyond, a dark and gloomy world illuminated by molten lava and ghostly flames.

Then a horde of Ghost Jellyfishes swarmed out and toward the train. Each of them wasn't that big, their long, dangling tentacles reaching down to a height of a human. Their bulbous heads glowed an eerie white, giving the impression that they were ghosts…phantoms that were drifting high up in the heavens. If I wasn't mistaken, their tentacles contained stings filled with neurotoxins that not only caused hallucinations but also could kill a human by shutting down their nervous systems.

"You've got to be kidding me…"

So we were now ripping off Forty Millenniums of Cultivation? Seriously? Well, even if that was the case, we didn't have to worry about the first wave because the Ghost Jellyfishes were mere fodder. It would be the Human Face Mosquitoes we would have to worry about.

"See?!" the professor was jabbing his finger in the direction of the Ghost Jellyfishes. "What did I tell you?"

And what exactly did he want me to do? Nuke them? With the train moving at such incredible speeds, I couldn't summon any of my bigger Constellation spirits because of the hundred meter rule.

The railgun at the back of the train lifted and fired, and in a single blast all of the Ghost Jellyfishes vanished.

"…"

Everyone stared at the professor, who looked sheepish. But he pointed at the rift in time-space again.

"It's not over yet!" he blabbered. "More are coming! The Human Face Mosquitoes are next!"

He was not wrong. After the annihilation of the Ghost Jellyfishes, a swarm of Human Face Mosquitoes billowed out of the rift and buzzed angrily toward us. There were millions of them, and when they were clustered together, they resembled a gigantic human face. The danger of the Human Face Mosquitoes was their sheer numbers. By swarming over a victim, they could suck his blood dry in the matter of seconds.

The railgun fired again, and the entire swarm of Human Face Mosquitoes exploded. Fire spells streaked from the military compartment and incinerated the poor swarm. I watched in awe as living flame danced from one mosquito to another, igniting an inferno. The entire horde combusted, and within ten minutes, all of the Human Face Mosquitoes were incinerated.

And the rift caused by the Emergence event was slowly closing, with no more monsters exiting the rupture in the space-time fabric.

"…"

"Can I go back to sleep now?" I asked the astonished professor. Without waiting for him to reply, I shut my eyes and dozed off once again.