Spoils of War

By the time Ren Yi leisurely led the group of spectating Great Anomalies—the Waiter, Dr. Lin, and Dr. Zhao—to the vicinity of the Entertainment City's main entrance, the Battle-Damaged Guy had already completely stopped breathing.

The area had long been surrounded by a ring of the Entertainment City's waiters, who had forcibly cleared a vacuum zone. The scene was as solemn as a meticulously preserved murder scene.

It was only missing a circle of iconic white police tape and a few numbered evidence markers.

Ren Yi glanced at the corpse on the ground and then at the waiters surrounding it, who were maintaining order with such serious expressions. He suddenly found the situation a bit comical.

"Speaking of which, does your Instance really not even have the ability to dispose of corpses?"

"That's quite inconvenient."

He turned his head and casually complained to the expressionless Waiter beside him.

The Instances he had seen before were all very "hygienic."

For instance, the much smaller 【Escape Room】 Instance run by Lu Zihan's uncle.

The walls and rooms there came with their own consumption function; any corpses or bloodstains would be devoured clean upon contact, leaving not a single trace.

Not to mention the 【Lu Family Courtyard】, which went a step further by turning waste into treasure, re-processing lost Participants.

They were transformed into vines, skeletons, watermelons, and so on, filling every corner of the Instance and achieving the ultimate in recycling.

The Entertainment City was clearly much larger, yet it lacked even this basic ability?

It was the same with that old gambler from before; after he collapsed in the fountain, the Waiter actually had to "personally" drag the body away.

Could his daily job just be disposing of the corpses of Participants who lost everything?

The Waiter's mouth twitched violently, looking like he had been wronged but couldn't speak out.

"If they trigger my rules and lose all their chips here, I naturally have a way to handle them."

His voice was full of helplessness, even tinged with a bit of grievance.

"But those who are killed by you—oh, wait, those who are 'robbed' by you—are naturally not within my scope of responsibility."

He paused and added righteously:

"So, Mr. Ren Yi, please dispose of the trash you created yourself."

"Heh," Ren Yi curled his lip in disdain. "It's not like I 'created' this trash."

Clearly, the Battle-Damaged Guy hadn't died at Ren Yi's hands.

His seed only provided a slight influence and didn't possess any lethal capability at all; he knew this better than anyone.

Dr. Lin, who was watching the show, didn't hold back. With a push, he shoved Dr. Zhao to the very front.

"Go on, drag the body away!"

"Whoa?" Dr. Zhao was unprepared. He stumbled forward and nearly fell onto the corpse.

He glared back at Dr. Lin before turning to Ren Yi.

"Hey now, young man, shouldn't you be thanking me? All the damage dealt to this guy came from me."

"Without me, you wouldn't have been able to finish him off."

"That's not quite right."

Ren Yi tilted his head, thought seriously for a moment, and then gently shook his head in disagreement.

"Without you, he still would have died."

"But without me, you alone might not have been able to stop him. He might have even escaped."

Before Dr. Zhao could continue arguing, Ren Yi provided a serious analysis.

"The cause of his death was that after he sensed my influence, he pivoted and began forcibly shifting his mindset toward the negative."

"As a result, it ended up detonating your Contamination instead."

"Combined with the foundation I laid earlier, the despair—which originally wouldn't have been enough to trigger your instant-death rule—instantly broke through the critical threshold."

These were the conclusions he had drawn based on his observations of Dr. Zhao's abilities. Though limited to the information he currently possessed, they were close enough to the truth.

"In other words, without my influence, his 'despair' wouldn't have reached the level where you could kill him directly."

"Conversely," Ren Yi continued, "because of my interference, he severely misjudged the degree of backlash his 【Time Stop】 talent would have on his body."

"In fact, the moment he completely collapsed, he had already lost any possibility of leaving."

"That's not necessarily true," Dr. Zhao countered with interest, stroking his chin. "He was in a state where he looked like he'd get out even if he had to crawl."

"Is there a possibility..." Ren Yi's tone was flat, yet he hit the nail on the head.

"That 'being able to get out even if he crawled' was itself just his own wishful, optimistic estimation?"

He glanced indifferently at Dr. Zhao. "So, you stole my kill again."

It was unclear where this "again" came from.

"Fine," Dr. Zhao gestured in surrender helplessly. "I can't out-argue you."

In truth, the Battle-Damaged Guy hadn't been completely without a glimmer of hope. There was one way he could have left alive.

That path was simple—don't activate the 【Time Stop】 talent, ignore the influence of optimistic emotions, and just walk out boldly.

In that case, Ren Yi's own influence wasn't lethal, and Dr. Zhao's concentration of despair wouldn't have met the standard.

The two who could act would have had no way to stop him.

But the price was that he would have had to face Ren Yi's illusion head-on. With his vision completely stripped away, he would have had to feel his way to the correct door and complete the series of operations, such as returning the chips.

Furthermore, there were whatever hidden cards Dr. Zhao might have had.

Unfortunately, when one is unaware of Ren Yi's ability and relies on a supposedly absolutely safe talent as a safety net, no normal person would make such a choice that seemed like "seeking their own death."

Watching these few Anomalies bickering and passing the buck, none of them willing to touch the corpse, the Waiter finally sighed in resignation and walked toward the body with a look of reluctance.

Without anyone seeing what he did, the corpse on the ground rapidly faded and vanished like melting snow, leaving the area spotless.

He walked back to Ren Yi and handed him a translucent crystal.

"Eh? Thank you." Ren Yi was stunned for a moment before quickly accepting it and offering his thanks.

"There are even spoils of war?"

"Of course," the Waiter said expressionlessly. "Since I took this job, I naturally have a set of processing procedures."

"But this is just a byproduct. Don't expect this crystal to replicate his ability. The effects of these substandard crystals are usually quite underwhelming."

Ren Yi nodded repeatedly.

If he remembered correctly, the class monitor still owed him an Anomaly Artifact.

He wondered if this crystal could count toward that debt; he'd have to ask later.

"As for the specific mission reward... you can go to the one who issued the mission when the time comes."

The one who issued the mission?

Does he mean Enke?

"No, wait." Ren Yi looked bewildered. "How do I find Him?"

This time, it was Dr. Lin who answered him.

"Isn't the summer break about to end?"

"When you go back to the First Comprehensive Education School, just head straight for the principal's office. Won't you find him there?"

"Wait, who? The Principal?"

Ren Yi froze entirely, completely dumbfounded.

Although he wasn't close to the Principal, he was certainly not a stranger to him.

At every semester's opening ceremony, that man would stand on the playground rostrum, rain or shine, and give a speech for half an hour...

Back when he wasn't an Anom—no, before he had awakened—he had cursed at him plenty of times.

The Principal in his memory was an extremely classic figure.

Balding, black-rimmed glasses, striped shirt, belt with jeans, black leather shoes, and a prominent long beard.

Privately, the students all secretly called him "Little Mustache."

Excuse him, but the images weren't quite aligning yet. He needed a bit of time to process this.