Girls' Boarding School

Although it was a cooperative relationship, the five major nations had no intention of gathering together.

Everyone was not alone, having an entire logistics team behind them, and gathering intelligence and information was also indispensable.

Intelligence and information could sometimes further increase a nation's strength, so they would not readily share it.

Moreover, with their lack of coordination ability, coming together would result in one plus one being less than two.

It would be better to wait until they each entered the monster realm, and then they would act as the situation dictated.

The five nations agreed that one hour after entering the town of Obaku, they would rendezvous within the monster realm.

Here, the monster realm referred to the place where monsters truly resided, rather than the area of Obaku town that had not yet been fully infested.

As they drove into Obaku town, the vehicles kept heading in a certain direction.

Hong Feiheng noticed that the team wasn't driving aimlessly, and he couldn't help but ask.

"Where are we going?"

"There's a girls' boarding school nearby."

A boarding school...

What does this have to do with our mission to exterminate monsters?

Hong Feiheng looked utterly puzzled.

"Shouldn't we be looking for the connection between the monster realm and reality?"

Once they found the connection point, they could enter the monster realm using dimensional abilities or artifacts.

Monsters would rush to the scene immediately to prevent intrusion into their territory.

This was the normal process for killing them.

Connection points were generally the routes monsters used to invade.

If it was another SS-class monster, they might sever the connection point, but this monster would not close it during its evolution.

"The public high schools in Dragon Country include both ordinary people and those with abilities."

"But in most other nations, unlike our country, they establish separate ability schools, separating those with abilities from ordinary people. Sakura Island is like that."

"This means that this girls' boarding school has gathered the three key elements for a monster's infestation target: curiosity, friction accumulated through daily life, and a large number of ordinary people."

With this explanation, Hong Feiheng understood.

Simply put, this school was a gathering place for the type of people monsters would target for infestation, so their chances of finding the connection point by heading straight there were very high.

While they were on their way to the girls' boarding school, the other nations were also heading to suitable locations to search for connection points.

The vehicles stopped at the school's entrance, and the first thing they saw was vast rows of cherry blossom trees.

This was a famous private high school in the area, and the students it admitted came from at least upper-middle-class families, if not outright wealthy ones.

The architectural style was vastly different from that of the public high schools in Sakura Island, with Gothic-style buildings standing amidst lush gardens.

The students wore exquisitely crafted British-style uniforms, perfectly complementing the school's architecture.

That is, if they weren't staring at the team with eerie smiles.

Qi Yuan peered through the window and saw a group of girls in school uniforms approaching them, their movements stiff like marionettes.

But that wasn't the main reason for drawing his attention.

What truly concerned him were the "masks" on their faces.

Yes, "masks" needed to be in quotation marks.

Their faces seemed to have undergone some change, reflecting the sheen of a hard material.

Each face wore the same expression, with a seam running along the edges, making them look as if they were wearing masks.

He had seen Sakura Island's "Noh masks" online before.

A mask that displayed different emotions - happiness, anger, sorrow, joy - depending on the viewing angle.

Thus, the expressions on Noh masks always seemed eerie from any angle.

The "masks" on these people were the opposite - no matter which angle you viewed them from, you saw the same smile.

The common trait between them and Noh masks was their eeriness.

It seemed that once the monster's infestation reached a certain stage, not only intangible things like human thoughts but even physical materials would undergo changes.

Any ordinary person witnessing this scene would likely scream and run away.

But not them. Someone got out of the car, flipped inside the gate, and unlocked the door.

Thanks to the spacious roads built for this private high school, the vehicles slowly drove along the central road and stopped in front of the dormitory buildings.

As the doors opened and people started getting out of the vehicles, they heard a few girls shouting from the dormitory opposite.

Seeing that they remained unfazed, the girls continued yelling, "There are a lot of strange people over there, come back quickly."

Although everyone except Qiao Bai couldn't understand them, Qi Yuan and his group saw the source of the danger.

Countless girls poured out of the dormitories, their faces bearing the same eerie smiles and movements as those they had seen outside.

A group of girls surrounded Qi Yuan and his team.

This was where having subordinates came in handy.

Immediately, someone stepped forward and activated their ability - Forced Hibernation.

Whether living or dead, everything had to enter a state of hibernation.

This ability was great for crowd control, and the girls surrounding them fell to the ground.

The person reported to Qi Yuan, "Team Leader Qi, these people seem to have been enhanced, consuming far more energy than ordinary people."

Qi Yuan nodded in understanding.

He crouched down and tapped the face of the girl closest to him.

His knuckles made a dull thudding sound when they hit her face, consistent with what they had seen - their faces had indeed transformed into something mask-like.

Hong Feiheng also examined the group of transformed people. "I wonder if they'll revert back after we deal with the monster, or if they're permanently beyond saving."

"Don't kill them."

The few girls who had been shouting earlier were running toward them, but stopped in their tracks when they were met with the barrels of their guns as a warning.

Qiao Bai relayed what the girls had said to everyone, and they lowered their weapons, their gaze toward the girls no longer as guarded.

Realizing that the group couldn't understand what they were saying, the girls looked at each other, somewhat at a loss.

"Foreigners?"

Seeing their uniforms, they had thought they were members of some high-level ability workshop, not expecting them to be foreigners.

After exchanging glances, one of the girls stepped forward as a representative to communicate.

"I'm Maekawa Yumi, a recently awakened ability user, so I suppose you could call me an ability user."

"We came out to look for survivors and call for aid, and everyone is now gathered in the gymnasium waiting for rescue."

Maekawa Yumi looked at Qiao Bai with hope in her eyes, having had enough of this place.

Qiao Bai was all too familiar with that look - it was the same one he had whenever he was in trouble and hoping for someone to come to his rescue.

Unfortunately, they hadn't learned the proper way to latch onto someone's thigh.

"If there's no problem, please go to a safe place and wait for us to deal with the monster before coming out to call for aid."

Qiao Bai did not hesitate to crush their unreasonable hopes.

If they wanted to cling to someone's thigh, they had to prove their worth first. Otherwise, they should try not to cause any trouble.

"How can you be like this? Even if you're foreigners, you came here to rescue us, didn't you?"

One of the girls looked somewhat distraught upon hearing this.

"Are you some kind of lady? Do we have to protect you alone?"

Since a polite refusal didn't work, Qiao Bai just stated it bluntly.

"Aren't the lives of a few people still lives? This is too cruel for us."

Maekawa Yumi couldn't stand it anymore and spoke up to stop them, "They have more important matters. It's fine for us to wait."

"Is she an ability user?" Qi Yuan suddenly asked.