Witch, Fireball and Steam Evil God

Chapter 261 404
This sudden series of terrible news left Su feeling cold in the air, and her pale face was reflected in the mirror.

Unpredictable planes and a series of error codes are situations that have never appeared in the guild's investigation records.

In addition to the two guild members who have already been confirmed dead...

Su almost immediately headed towards the door, wanting to catch up with her roommates who had left not long ago. This dormitory was just too quiet; every second she stayed there, the more oppressive she felt.

Zak and Zul'ga are both experienced veterans in the guild, having completed numerous dimensional exploration missions. Even when she was a newcomer selected by the guild, she had heard of their names many times, which is enough to show how much importance the guild attaches to this dimensional exploration mission.

but……

The two had only been in this world for a short time when they both perished.

The magic book was her last resort; the information it contained was absolutely accurate.

"Su, why did you come out like this?"

Hearing her urgent call, her roommates stopped and stared in surprise at Su, who was still wearing her gold-trimmed magic robe. Her face was extremely pale, and her body was trembling uncontrollably.

"Are you OK?"

Having confirmed that Su was no match for them in terms of attention, they could now freely display their sisterly affection. "Should we take you to the infirmary? But I heard the infirmary teacher is also attending the banquet tonight..."

"No! I want to go to the banquet, I'll go with you!"

Sue emphasized breathlessly that she just wanted to be with most people right now.

Summer of 1793, the college.

The stronghold of the elemental energizers, this place has witnessed the changes in civilization. In almost every plane that the guild has explored, there are records related to the elemental energizers.

They value lineage, but their downside is that many high-level elemental energizers are arrogant. However, they are usually self-respecting and almost harmless as long as you don't offend them.

Therefore, this should have been a safe and secure investigation, and their mission as the advance team was simple: gather as much information as possible about this plane, find clues about the goddess, and then assist the guild in clearing the teleportation network so that more investigators could come here.

However, Sue has now put all her tasks behind her.

Her only task now is to survive!

Hold out until you make contact with the guild, then withdraw from this plane.

The light in the auditorium drew closer to her, and more and more people gathered around her. Each of them was dressed in a proper evening gown. Su also saw many professors from the college. The white-haired dean was standing at the entrance of the auditorium, talking to several professors. Students would politely greet them as they passed by.

So far everything is normal, but the more normal things are, the stronger Su's unease becomes.

She had no idea how the danger would manifest itself.

In theory, the guild will protect every investigator, and even if they suffer fatal injuries during an investigation, their bodies will be able to recover completely—this is a gift that the goddess bestows equally upon every investigator, and at least since she joined the guild, there has never been a record of an investigator dying.

But in this chaotic plane, even the goddess's blessing has lost its effect.

Su kept her head down, avoiding eye contact with anyone, and drifted along in the crowd. Eventually, her roommates dragged her to her seat without her noticing.

She clutched the spellbook tightly; it was her last resort in this plane.

Unsurprisingly, once she arrived in this plane, her communication with the guild was cut off.

Zak and Zul'ga's last communication was a week ago. They observed violent fluctuations in the plane and made an important discovery by tracing the source of the fluctuations—they found a rotating white sphere somewhere in the academy. It was a substance that resembled a teleportation network, and they extracted energy from the sphere that was highly similar to that of the goddess.

Zul'ga is an expert in energy research, and he believes this is the abnormal signal that the guild intercepted. He is quite certain that regardless of whether the goddess is currently in this plane, she must have been here, and not long ago!

This was undoubtedly exciting news, meaning that the guild's long-standing investigation had finally made progress, and the two investigators were almost immediately given the task of "continuing to investigate the energy source".

After that, there was no further news of them.

They vanished as if they had evaporated into thin air, so she was sent to this dimension as part of the second group of investigators.

The worst happened.

The reason the two lost contact was that they died in this dimension.

The fact that these two experienced investigators left almost no important clues for the guild before their deaths suggests that they encountered an unexpected emergency and were killed without any preparation.

Sue's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the students' exclamations. She subconsciously looked up at the stage in the auditorium, but almost immediately regretted it.

The intense stinging pain left her mind blank. The pain, like someone was shoving a hundred needles down her scalp, was driving her crazy. With a thud, she collapsed onto the table. Only this action allowed her to regain control of her body.

The moment she saw the woman on the platform with seven eyes and wearing a strange dress, her brain's self-protection mechanism was triggered.

This is an insurance policy set up by the guild for every investigator, to prevent them from being driven mad by the ubiquitous whispers when investigating highly polluted and dangerous planes.

"Su, are you really alright?"

My roommates had to ask the question again.

Sue's strange behavior drew the attention of many people—this was not the way the girls wanted to be; they wanted to be admired, not seen as a sick freak.

They could all see that Su's condition was extremely strange today. A noble lady like her usually pays the most attention to social etiquette, and wearing her magic robes for class to the banquet hall was already a breach of etiquette.

What's more, she somehow produced a bottle of magic potion and, under everyone's watchful eyes, poured the entire bottle of dark liquid into her stomach.

This helped her somewhat; at least she stopped banging her head on the table.

"Seriously, you need to go to the infirmary."

"I was just reading too late yesterday and I'm a little tired..."

Su weakly explained that, more than that, she wanted to know the identity of the "being" on the stage, an existence that should absolutely not be in this auditorium. "That professor... who is she?"

"Which one?"

Following Su's gaze, her roommates glanced in the direction she pointed and said, "Oh, there's a rumor that she's the new professor for the 'Introduction to Art' course, which is worth 3 credits... The professors say she's a demi-human, I'm guessing she's some rare demi-human like a spider-woman. Don't you think her skirt and tentacles look a lot like that?"

My roommate was very enthusiastic in commenting on the new teacher.

Spider-human demi-human?
Su was certain that the thing on the stage was definitely not some kind of demi-human.

But the next moment, she realized that something was wrong with her roommates. Their reaction to the abnormal things was too abnormal. This substance with high mental pollution did not affect their sanity.

Su's pupils contracted.

A terrifying thought gradually formed in her mind.

Perhaps the students and teachers here had already been contaminated, and Zark and Zulga may have realized this before being attacked by unknown creatures.

Wouldn't that mean...

Su raised her head.

The surrounding conversations suddenly turned into a kind of noise. The students sitting at the square table were all staring at her, their naked gazes clearly treating her as an outsider, while her roommate gripped her wrist, a chilling coldness seeping into her body.

If her guess is correct, then she is currently surrounded by a group of polluters.

"I admit I'm not feeling well, and I need to go to the infirmary."

"I send you?"

"no need."

Sue practically fled the auditorium. As she walked along the path, leaving the light and sound completely behind, she finally stopped. After making sure no one was following her, she sat down on the edge of the flowerbed, exhausted, clutching her magic book.

She carefully examined everything about the body, not wanting to miss a single detail.

She was quite certain that the seven-eyed monster had not been a professor at the academy before. This was the first time she had been sighted by students at the academy, right after the deaths of the two investigators!

In an effort to salvage her shattered sanity, she had to force-feed herself a blockade in front of everyone, knowing it would attract the attention of other polluters, and things were still spiraling in an even worse direction.

The only good news was that with the help of the blocking agent, Sue's emotions calmed down a lot, and her trembling stopped. She rested by the flower bed for a while and finally chose the infirmary over the dormitory.

The investigation has made new progress.

It is clear that the deaths of Zak and Zul'ja are related to the seven-eyed woman.

Su, the teacher of the "Introduction to Art" course, wrote this important information in her notebook. From now on, she must stop all activities related to art, which will help her avoid meeting the Seven-Eyed Woman as much as possible. She also needs to figure out the other woman's behavior logic in the next few days.

Returning to her dormitory along a secluded path, Sue placed the magic book flat on the table; it contained the last message left by the two investigators before their deaths.

The energy source is located below the academy, and the entrance is under an ancient black tree.

With the help of the sphere's power, she can travel through time and even cut out of this plane!
Even if we can't go back...

Sue flipped to the first few pages of the magic book, focusing her gaze on "Plane Rating" and "Potential Threats," and added notes such as "Highly Polluted," "Fanatical Faith," and "Unknown Source of Pollution" after "Unpredictable."

The deaths of Zak and Zul'ga warned her of a potential threat, and even if she couldn't leave this plane, she at least had to send this information back to the guild.

Immediately afterward, Su realized that tonight was her best chance.

Everyone, including the dean, gathered in the auditorium, which meant she could easily scale the school walls. In this body's memories, it was a rather large island, surrounded by the sea and isolated from the world. Usually, she would only use the teleportation array to travel to the port of a nearby coastal city when she went home for holidays...

This means that the actual size of this plane is likely far larger than they imagined, almost the same as the main planes that the guild currently knows.

Zak and Zul'ga haven't had a chance to explore areas outside the island yet.

Su closed her notebook; from now on, she had to race against time.

Clutching the magic book to her chest, she headed toward the source of the unusual energy. However, this thought didn't last long. She opened the dormitory door and nearly bumped into someone. She stumbled and barely managed to maintain her balance.

She lowered her head, so nervous that she immediately reached for the ebony wand at her waist.

"Su, I heard from your roommates that you are not feeling well."

The voice sounded very gentle; it must be a professor from the college.

Her gaze was fixed on the other person's body, and she could tell that the other person was wearing a proper evening gown.

It sounded like just a teacher showing normal concern for a student, but it plunged Su's mood into despair.

She maintained this strange perspective because of a sudden warning that echoed in her mind.

Don't look up.

Avoid eye contact.

In fact, while she was dodging, she had already caught some unusual details out of the corner of her eye.

For example, the neck of this specific body is not supporting a human head.

Something is sticking out.

"Yes, I was just about to go to the infirmary."

"I'll take you there. I also have some things I want to ask you."

The visitor seemed to have no intention of concealing the purpose of his visit. "I want to know the ingredients of the potion you drank in the Great Hall, and the spellbook you brought with you. Could you show it to me?"

"Here you go."

Su bowed respectfully and handed the magic book in her hand to the other person. She was not worried about the sudden inspection.

The magic book is a guild token, and only investigators can read its contents. For "locals" who have not received the blessing of the goddess, it is like a wordless book.

Soon she heard the sound of pages turning in front of her.

"Thank you for your cooperation, Su."

"Teacher, can I go to the infirmary now? I'm really not feeling well."

"Of course, but before that, I have one more question."

After a long pause, he said, "I want to know who Zak and Zul'ga are, and what the meaning of 'highly polluted' is."

The question coming from above made Su's heart stop beating.

This is the information the magic book provided to her, along with the notes she had just left behind.

Why can a "local" see the contents of the magic book?
The intense question led her to make a wrong decision subconsciously; she almost instinctively looked up, wanting to see the questioner's face clearly.

This time she saw it clearly, including the raised red parts.

The speaker's face was indistinct; no matter how carefully she looked, she couldn't make out his features. The protruding red parts weren't deformed flesh and horns, but rather a string of strange numbers floating in front of his head.

"404."

Immediately afterwards, a thousand needles pierced her brain, almost instantly robbing her of her remaining consciousness.

Her vision was distorted, and she fell to the ground, lying face up.

The eerie red numbers still flickered in her vision, accompanied by incomprehensible conversation.

"Teacher, do I look scary?"

This was the last sound she heard.

(End of this chapter)