The Frenzied Savior - Chapter 11

Before anyone could react, the principal of No. 2 High School locked the lecture hall doors from the inside and stood guard at the entrance.

“Principal, what’s going on? Why are you locking us in?”

One of the school officials asked in shock over the blaring sirens. The students were also whispering amongst themselves, their voices filled with unease.

“I thought this was a welcome reception. Why are the doors locked? Why can’t we leave? This is too weird, I’m getting scared.”

“What is that thing in front of Fu Qingya and the principal? It’s making such a shrill, terrifying noise. Why hasn’t anyone turned it off? Sound like that carries, won’t it disturb the students in class?”

“Something’s wrong. Why is the principal suddenly guarding the door? What is that exchange student doing? And where did that black object come from? It wasn’t there when they were setting up the venue…”

As they spoke, faces began to tighten with tension and dread. They realized something was very wrong. Everything had happened too suddenly and too bizarrely.

Click—

Fu Qingya finally bypassed all the traps and stripped away the cover of the “Hidden Mine” control panel.

[WARNING! WARNING! The external casing of the Ninth Generation Regeneration Series “Hidden Mine” has been attacked. Requesting early activation of the detonation countdown]

[Request approved. Thank you for your support, Master.]

[The three-minute detonation countdown for “Hidden Mine” has officially begun.]

[2:59—]

A mechanical voice droned from beneath Fu Qingya’s hands. The voice was flat and emotionless, yet it sent a chilling shiver through everyone except him.

“This is a joke, right?” someone muttered under their breath. “The whole explosion thing is just a prank, isn’t it?”

The students looked toward the principal in terror, only to find his face deathly pale, his lips as white as a corpse’s. The principal’s reaction confirmed their worst fears, and panic began to set in.

“Principal! What is actually happening? Tell us, now!”

The school official was sweating profusely, his legs shaking as he pressed the principal for answers.

“Someone placed a toy here as a prank to scare us. Fu, young classmate Fu, is getting ready to dismantle it.”

The principal tried his best to keep his composure, suppressing the terror in his eyes and replacing it with the indignation of a principal dealing with a student prank.

“Only you students had access to this room. Using a fake bomb to scare people is a serious offense, and the culprit will be punished severely. For now, I must ask you all to stay put until my staff arrives to investigate.”

He swept a cold gaze across the crowd, his eyes filled with an impeccable mix of anger and warning. Having been a principal for so many years, he knew that even though he was terrified, he absolutely could not tell them the truth, or the situation would spiral out of control.

However, some among the faculty knew better. They didn’t buy the principal’s explanation, but as adults, they understood what could and couldn’t be done in such a crisis.

Looking at Fu Qingya, handsome yet clearly still a youth standing before that strange pedestal—one official’s brow furrowed with deep anxiety.

“Fu Qingya is just an eighteen-year-old boy! Can he really handle this ‘prank’?”

Knowing the danger they were in, the official found it hard to believe a child could do anything, yet he didn’t dare not to believe. He could only wait in a state of agonizing, helpless dread. The fear of death loomed over him, urging him to shove the door open and run, but seeing the students huddled together in fear, he let out a quiet curse and stepped in front of them to protect them. He didn’t dare take his eyes off Fu Qingya for a second.

The “Hidden Mine” belonged to the Regeneration Series of weapons from the A48 Galaxy. As the name suggested, it could absorb ultraviolet rays from the air to infinitely repair its own damage, allowing it to withstand enemy attacks until it could detonate in its most perfect, powerful form, wiping out countless lives.

However, this regeneration had a time limit. While it could absorb energy to repair itself, the conversion process took thirty seconds. In other words, after Fu Qingya broke the outer shell, he had to dismantle the internal smart control panel and the energy chip within half a minute, or the casing would repair itself.

If that happened, even Fu Qingya, who had studied these mines thoroughly, would need several minutes to destroy the protective layer again without the proper tools. By then, the “Hidden Mine” would have leveled the Science Building.

He had one shot, and only thirty seconds.

With long, slender fingers, he used a thin, transparent scalpel to pry open the black casing, revealing a silver-blue mechanical panel and a lifelike “heart” sitting upon it.

To everyone’s horror, the panel—which was clearly the system processor, was crystal clear, like jelly filled with countless integrated circuits, looking both alien and strangely harmonious. The “heart” looked exactly like a human heart, but upon closer inspection, it appeared to be carved from something like stone or metal. Yet, it pulsed rhythmically, just like a living heart.

“W-what is that thing?”

Neither the bizarre control panel nor the eerie heart looked like anything from the real world. At this point, the already suspicious crowd grew even more terrified. They realized the “prank” was merely an excuse to keep them from panicking and a shackle to keep them in the room.

Resolve began to waver. Someone started moving toward the door, their intention clear to everyone.

“If you want to take everyone down with you, then go ahead and leave,” Fu Qingya said coldly.

He used one hand to press down on a specific part of the mechanical heart at a sharp angle, while the other hand held the scalpel, severing a single silver-white wire among hundreds of multicolored strands.

[Explosion sequence partially destroyed. System countdown halved]

The stuttering, mechanical voice rang out, and everyone froze.

Snip—

Another cutting sound followed. The virtual numbers projected in the air dropped to 0:40. No one dared to move now, because forty seconds wasn’t nearly enough time to escape the hall.

[0:21—]

[0:20—]

Fu Qingya cut the connection between the detonator and the control panel. The ticking countdown stopped abruptly. Everyone’s eyes widened, a glimmer of hope beginning to surface.

[WARNING! WARNING! System has encountered total destruction. Self-destruct sequence initiated]

The mechanical heart Fu Qingya was holding down suddenly began to beat rapidly. A thick, viscous liquid started flowing out of it, threatening to coat the control panel in the next second.

[0:19—]

[0:02—]

Everyone’s pupils contracted as pure terror washed over them.

In that split second, Fu Qingya turned his fingers into a blade, stabbing them ruthlessly into the “aorta” of the heart. In a place hidden from view, a mechanical skin-like sheath wrapped around his fingers.

BOOM—

Support