22 Water

"I've interrogated everyone in the engineering department, but none of them lied," the seer said in a tired voice as he massaged his eyelids. "Additionally, no outsider was found in the entire school. None was a traitor."

Putting down the cup of tea in his hand, while listening carefully, Ryan concluded, "So we could have truly died."

Truth be told, he just guessed it based on his observation of the students' vitals, which were dropping at a visible rate, and Jacob's heartbeat stopping for a second, which was a major factor in his judgment.

As a witness to the evolution of the VR himself in his past life, Ryan certainly knew that it shouldn't have happened.

Even though the technologies of both worlds were, in fact, largely similar, it was only because this world's people tended to rely too much on mana and radiation.

This world is still just a tad bit more advanced than his past world.

Ryan pondered for a moment. "Mia," he said in a low murmuring voice to himself.

"Could it be that someone has been sent already to investigate her disappearance?" Ryan thought.

It was plausible. Mia's father, Max, wasn't an ordinary man but one of the humans' strongest powerhouses that stood on top of the pyramid.

He was the leader of Abaddon, an evil villain organization that ruled the dark side of society. Its conflict with the Farris Union had been ongoing for ages.

"This is bad," he thought, even though he did not regret killing Mia. Because if that woman was still alive, his life may already have gone downhill.

However, Mia's father was way too overprotective of his only daughter.

It wasn't out of the picture for him to send someone to infiltrate and check behind her sudden disappearance, even if he knew that she could have just been bored with teaching.

She had been going through her rebellious phase for over the past 15 years now and had become a hero to piss her father off.

His love for his daughter was great enough for him to step down and gift the entire organization to Astin just to make her happy.

If not for the fact that Mia was an uncontrollable woman who would disappear for months before sending a message only to disappear again, her father might have already sent troops to the academy to cause a fuss.

The one who could have been sent to do this job certainly could only be 'Liquidor,' a subordinate who had the ability to liquefy himself, his body, into any shape.

He could mix himself with any other fluid, whether it's juice, slime, or water; a perfect ability to infiltrate.

One of Abbadon's key members for gathering information. He didn't like his boss' spoiled princess, so there was no possibility he did a thorough investigation.

He'd probably run away through the sewer system.

"Liquador" was someone who liked to mess around, and this malfunction in the system could have been his doing just for fun.

"The monitoring cameras didn't catch any problems or unregistered personnel. In conclusion, the system either malfunctioned on its own or has been hacked. The engineering professor locked herself in the laboratory, crying, 'My babies.'"

The seer recounted what happened during and after the exam.

"She kept demanding that we needed to search the entire Island, but it would have been a massive waste of time, energy, and staff. And we couldn't have left the students alone unguarded." 

"What should we do next?" the seer finally asked.

"Call Daniel and his team and tell them to stop searching for that unregistered person," Ryan said, "and strengthen the Island's defense."

"What about Mia?" The seer wondered.

"Ahhh..." Ryan yawned; he was starting to get drowsy again, massaging his heavy eyelid. He walked toward the door and said, "She's dead."

'Tell me something I don't know.' The seer rolled his eyes inwardly.

"If my prediction is correct, everything should go back to how it was for the time being; Liquador would report her leaving the academy, and Max would then focus and search elsewhere for the time being. This would buy me some time," Uncaring of the Seer's grumbling, Ryan thought he had a lot of things to worry about, such as Astin, Jacob, the weird test, his strength lacking, and now Mia's father.

Still, dealing with Max eventually would prove to be troublesome.

Anyway, he had already decided to dump the responsibility on Astin's head.

"Cough," the seer coughed slightly to get Ryan's attention as he turned around to look at him.

Hiding his slightly trembling mouth behind his hand, the seer asked, "Hmm, the test... the written test, should I.... change your score."

Ryan pursed his lips; his face was covered in black lines. "No need."

He left the office in a flash, disappearing using invisibility to leave quietly.

Ryan left the academy grounds despite his tiredness; he went to check on the ice cream shop he had been addicted to recently.

Walking down the cobblestone road, the sidewalks were filled with laughter, as girls chattered, looking at Ryan in fascination.

Most of the Island was dominated by the second year as their numbers neared three hundred, yet the campus still felt empty without the third-year students.

Sitting down on a bench in the park, savoring a mouthful of shaved ice cream.

As far as the eye could trace, Ryan raised his eyes to look at the forest that stood proud atop the mountain, sunlight dappling through, the sight of an ancient castle rising majestically on top, gleaming in the sunlight like beacons of strength, aged and worn, lined with history.

Ryan took the time to admire one of the oldest civilizations to be remembered and said, "What a lovely day... to sleep."

He commented as he looked at the black sky, failing to see the true beauty of the view. "I miss my normal eyesight."

Ryan looked down at the stream of running water in a daze, a melodious sound drifting to his ears.

Splish, splash

I'm taking a bath. ♩ ♪

I'm playing with bubbles and having a laugh. ♩ ♪

Dip, dip, the water is cool and it's oh-so-sweet. ♩ ♪

Swish, swish, I'm floating along. ♩ ♪

I'm feeling the sun, and it feels so strong. ♩ ♪

Water, water, is delicious to drink. ♩ ♪

Mixed with the black ground and the transparent water, a blue liquid with a mouth singing in the lake entered Ryan's view.

I'm singing and laughing in the lake. Mouahahah. ♩ ♪

"Hmm..." Ryan got up and followed behind in interest.

Fifteen minutes later,

"It's a shame that nobody died." Liquador shrugged, hitting the water's surface with his jelly-looking hands.

'Ayyish, well, that wasn't a part of my mission anyway. Mhmm, Is that guy following me?' Liquador shook his head in denial; he was confident enough in his disguise that not even high-ranking heroes could see through and thought, 'Let's speed up just in case.'

Ryan suddenly raised his head, turned around, and disappeared.

'So I was wrong. HMM.' Liquador commented.

"... Am sure that was Ryan." Lisa's confused voice could be heard.

"Yeah, you're probably wrong," Astin said uncaringly.

"But you said that your roommate didn't come back yesterday to the dorm; I am a bit worried."

"He'll be fine; Why are you worried anyway."

"Well, I'm a bit concerned since Tracy likes him." Lisa's voice sounded distressed.

"We both know that's not true." Astin leaned down and said to Lisa's ear, shooting a dark look toward the lake.

Liquador, who was watching the interaction, felt a shiver run down his water, left in a hurry.

Only after entering the greenery of the mountain did he finally feel relief. 'What was that just now, did I seriously get scared of a kid?'

"Doesn't matter. Let's sing." Patting his chest, Liquador started to sing again.

Oh, the joy of the water, ♫ ♬

Bringing smiles and laughter, ♫ ♬

Like a fish, let's go swimming together, ♫ ♬

Jump and spin in the water, And dive in. ♫ ♬

"AFTER Ahhhh...'

Gurgle_ gulp

"Today's water stream tasted different."

A hair as bright as snow; the rather previously vacant silver eyes were replaced with brilliance.

Noah patted his stomach, which turned mushy after so many fruits he had consumed. He felt a lot better after drinking today's water.

Over the past two weeks, he had been followed by people trying to hunt him down. Noah got up to hide again, unaware he had just drunk someone.

'Liquador' didn't panic, being consumed as normal drinking water was an everyday thing for him.

He could simply destroy the internal structure of this human body by fusing himself with the blood and cutting out its flow.

Looking for the small intestines, a dark blood aura wrapped around looming in the stomach absorbed the energy from within;

Liquador, who was grinning evilly, fell into a state of extreme fear, his tears mixed with his watery state as he couldn't turn back to his humanoid form, shaking excessively, Liquador's screams died down faster than he did. "Help me..."