Chapter 25: CH 25

Zong Yan didn’t notice anything. He lowered his head, but the moment his eyes touched the phone screen, he looked up again. With some uncertainty he glanced at Edward.

Just now, because Zong Yan was focused on reading about their mission task, he was a little distracted.

It was only when he glanced down that it struck him—

A moment ago Edward’s eyes had looked a bit dark, as if some kind of shadow were brewing in them, slowly swallowing up the white part of his eyes.

How could a living person’s eyes be black?

But when Zong Yan lifted his head and studied the other person’s face, all he saw was a pair of perfectly normal blue eyes, as if that image of the entire eye dyed black was a flash of illusion.

While Zong Yan was feeling confused, Wang KeMing, who’d been assigned to organize the mission data, jumped up from his chair.

He’d gone over the documents sent by the school and searched through the app database. It was so difficult to consolidate the data that his eyes were about to turn into mosquito coils.

But the most recent data wasn’t sorted out by Wang KeMing himself. The MU app came to his rescue.

“Yan Ge! That’s it!

“The school sent an additional Monarch to help out, and they’ve already arrived in London. The mission task says that given the situation, a Monarch-level advisor will directly lead our team. If we can get a passing mark from our temporary advisor, it’s the same as completing the investigation practice course.”

Wang KeMing read aloud the notice sent by the Academic Affairs Office to MU students in London. His voice revealed his excitement. “What a sweet deal.”

In most circumstances, students who chose to do MU’s investigation practice course independently wouldn’t receive any guidance from a mentor during the process. Only a little bit of task information would be provided by the Academic Affairs Department. Everything else was up to students to figure out on their own.

This time, because of the extraordinary situation in London, the difficulty of their investigation practice course had been greatly lowered, and a Monarch-level mentor would even guide them through the course to ensure their safety.

Off to the side Wang KeMing was ecstatic, but Zong Yan had a very bad feeling.

“Which Monarch did the school send?” His voice trembled.

Nowadays, even if you included the counterfeit Monarch Zong Yan, there were only ten Monarchs on the planet, and Zong Yan had already confirmed that one of them was an agent who’d infiltrated the school.

The school did indeed have a Monarch, but that Monarch—wasn’t a person!!

Wang KeMing looked at the screen. “It seems to be the seventh Monarch, our astrology professor.”

Zong Yan: …

Finished, we’re so finished. Great Britain is definitely doomed.

—

Because Zong Yan, the team leader, was eager to avoid this new Monarch, he found an excuse to sneak out of the hotel and look for clues.

Ada and Wang KeMing said that they’d rather stay in the hotel and wait for the mentor to arrive. Before he left, Zong Yan hesitated, then asked them to notify him by phone when the mentor showed up.

This time around, Tawil was a Monarch. Given his unpredictable mind control abilities and his stature in the occult world, Zong Yan had to be cautious about what he said and did. It was just like what he’d said before—don’t annoy a being you can’t fight against—so Zong Yan had second thoughts about warning the others. All he could do was give a faintly worried glance to Wang KeMing, who was lying on the sofa with a complete lack of concern. The other teen didn’t seem to have noticed a thing. Instead he was happily chomping away on potato chips.

Forget it, that kid’s on his own.

With one option gone, Zong Yan looked over at Ada.

The cheongsam beauty was standing by the curtain. When Zong Yan cast his eyes over, she turned her face with interest and hooked the corner of her mouth at him.

So perceptive. Her insight must be extremely high.

Before Zong Yan had looked at her just now, Ada had clearly been turned away.

Insight was a rare but important talent. Whether it was alchemy or magic patterns, the higher you wanted to climb, the more insight you needed. An Awakened person’s insight was enhanced the moment they woke up.

A highly insightful person could easily sense when others were looking at them. For example, if someone were looking at Zong Yan, he would get a vague premonition.

Given that she was so highly gifted, it was strange that Zong Yan had never heard the name “Ada” at school.

Most importantly, she gave him an eerie feeling.

No way, could this be the side account of a different evil god?

As Zong Yan made guesses to himself, he silently put this option in a corner of his mind.

Anyway, MU wasn’t exactly a hot spot for divine activity. The presence of one Great Old One was incredible on its own. There shouldn’t be another one. According to Professor Darwin, most evil gods were located in random corners of the universe. They had better things to do than come to Earth every day to destroy the world of ants.

Nevertheless, when Zong Yan left the hotel, he tapped out a vague warning to Wang KeMing in a private chat.

“What are you doing?” Edward put his hands in his pockets. His blue eyes looked straight at Zong Yan.

“Sending a message to Wang KeMing.” Zong Yan didn’t hide anything from his friend. “I keep thinking there’s something strange about Ada.”

“Strange?” The little prince’s blue eyes darkened for a moment, as if another spirit had taken control, and the corners of his mouth had a stiff and weird angle.

“En… I hope it’s a mistake.”

Zong Yan bowed his head. He sent the message, then tucked his phone back into his pocket and walked through the Tube gate.

After what happened last night, almost half the investigators in Europe had arrived in London. With investigator badges on their chests, they were scattered throughout the city, searching for possible altars and gathering places of the “Order of Feasters”.

Zong Yan and Edward went to the British Museum, the temporary meeting place for those investigating the incident.

By the time they reached the square across from New Oxford Street, there were already several people wearing badges standing around.

“Hello, Mr. Hoshino.”

Zong Yan stood at a distance and watched for a while. Suddenly, he realized the person in charge had spoken to him briefly at MU’s opening ceremony, so he made his way through the crowd and politely went over to say hello.

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Of all the people in the crowd, Hoshino Kota was the one who looked the most down-to-earth. Everyone else was in black suits and ties. They looked like serious investigators. Only Hoshino Kota wore a T-shirt and shorts with flip-flops. He seemed out of place among this group of suited elites.

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But Zong Yan didn’t underestimate him.

Hoshino Kota was a senior-level investigator. Although his name wasn’t in the Promenade of Honor where those who’d made glorious sacrifices were recognized, his biography hung on the wall of MU’s library.

It was said that Hoshino Kota had once led a team to the small town of Innsmouth and solved a mystery that had plagued the occult world for many years; and he and another investigator had also gone deep into the Severn Valley, a forbidden area, and returned unharmed. He was a living legend.

“Hmm? The school chief?” Hoshino Kota, who was busily assigning tasks, was surprised. He turned around and shook hands with Zong Yan.

This scene astonished a lot of onlookers.

Hoshino Kota might look like a fat, unkempt uncle, but he was famous among investigators. Although he hadn’t broken through to Monarch level yet, he’d maintained respectable strength at Auxiliary level for years.

Hoshino Kota was also famous for his magic patterns. He was so skilled with patterns that he could use them to fight toe-to-toe against Monarchs. That was how he’d gained the nickname “the Auxiliary Monarch”.

Most of the investigators present admired this renowned investigator and spoke respectfully about him even in private. But they didn’t expect a complete unknown to arrive who could make this legend condescend to shake hands.

For a moment, everyone turned to stare at Zong Yan.

“It’s like this.” Zong Yan ignored the onlookers and got to the point. “My investigation practice team has a task to investigate the Order of Feasters. Because of the current situation, our mission has been updated. The new rules say we can borrow intelligence from the investigators in London.”

“Ah, so that’s it.” Hoshino Kota was startled for a moment. Then he saw the phone handed over by Zong Yan and smiled with understanding. “We’ve gathered quite a few leads. Since the school has granted permission, let’s choose one.”

It really was bad luck that an E-level task turned out to be so much trouble, but it just so happened to overlap with an emergency situation this time. Otherwise, the school wouldn’t have provided any additional help.

Hoshino Kota picked and chose from the available intelligence and deliberately found a very simple task. He took a document from a file folder and handed it to Zong Yan. “This is information we obtained last night. The witness said he recently experienced strange hallucinations. You can visit him at his home address.”

The task couldn’t be any simpler. It stuck out like a sore thumb among a pile of missions that had a real possibility of death or dismemberment. A discerning eye could tell that Hoshino Kota had given these students a plum assignment.

But the investigators didn’t say anything. All of them had heard it—this handsome teen was MU’s current chief.

MU’s position in the occult world was self-evident. Everyone here was Awakened, and even among the Awakened, this was a promising young man.

After graduation, the school chiefs of every term did well. Even those who defected tended to become the leader of whatever evil cult they joined. Hoshino Kota himself had been chief when he was in school. It was normal for him to take care of his junior. Although some investigators might envy being given such an easy task, they weren’t going to rob a student.

“Thank you, Mr. Hoshino.” 

Zong Yan nodded, and the next moment he heard Hoshino Kota say, “You learned the pattern that enhances spiritual perception in magic pattern class, right? That’s a specialty of the Order of Feasters. Be safe and good luck.”

The magic pattern to enhance spiritual perception, as its name implied, could heighten an investigator’s insight for a short period of time. It allowed humans to see what was invisible to the naked eye. It was also a simple spell taught on the first day of elementary magic patterns class.

The higher a person’s insight, the stronger the effect, and the more things they’d perceive. It might be said that Hoshino Kota had given such a task to Zong Yan in full consideration of the fledgling chief’s abilities.

When he saw the unusual subject listed in the report, Zong Yan immediately began to chant in a low voice.

A complicated symbol popped up on his index finger. He tilted his head slightly and put the symbol against his temple, where it disappeared without a trace.

“Yes, that’s right. It was an incredible illusion, but I hadn’t done anything strange. I’d just come back from watching a play.”

The middle-aged American businessman was sitting on a plush leather sofa. He muttered, “Where’s my personal doctor? Really, the police in Scotland Yard are so unreliable. I can’t believe they sent over two little kids. If this was America…”

The next moment, the scene in Zong Yan’s retina was covered with a layer of darkness, which became the hue of an old-fashioned photo.

He saw the middle-aged man in front of him with pure black eyes.

Sure enough, shady as hell. But why did his eyes turn black?

Zong Yan didn’t say anything. Pretending to be calm, he grabbed his phone from his pocket, ready to end the spell.

But when he took out his phone, in the reflection on the screen he suddenly saw—

Behind him, the little blond prince had the same dark eyes, like two bottomless black holes.

The young man in the reflection gave a twisted smile.

—

The author has something to say:

To clarify, the occult community of this world is completely unknown to ordinary people. This world’s Baidu doesn’t contain anything about ancient gods or Great Old Ones.

MU people also don’t know there’s any problem with things like “The Bloated Woman” or “The King in Yellow”, so don’t ask why the play could be released or why Nyarla is so arrogant. Also, the first act of The King in Yellow won’t have any impact on ordinary people. Only the second act will.

TL Notes:

mosquito coil – Incense meant to repel mosquitos which comes shaped like a spiral, allowing it to burn longer while taking up less space

hot spot – 香饽饽 – sweet pastry – a popular choice, the cream of the crop, etc.

square (the place where MC speaks to Mr. Hoshino) – 要素广场 – elements square, essential square – Not sure if this is intended to be a specific location. I don’t see a “square” with a similar name near New Oxford Street

gave a plum assignment – from 放了水 – released water – Seems to mean the person slacked off or went easy on an opponent

fledgling – 初出茅庐 – just come out of one’s thatched cottage — a green hand; a green-horn; at the beginning of one’s career; wet behind the ears

shady as hell – 有鬼 – there are ghosts – something suspicious or fishy

Baidu – 百度 – A Chinese Internet and AI company, basically the equivalent of Wikipedia plus Google

Transliterated names, titles, and places—new in this chapter:

New Oxford Street – 新牛津大街

Mr. Hoshino – 星野老师 – Xīngyě lǎoshī – Alternatively: Hoshino-sensei

Innsmouth – 印斯茅斯 – Yìnsīmáosī

Severn Valley – 赛文河谷 – Sàiwén hégǔ

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