Chapter 5: Night Raid Precautions!

Di Qiu carried her bags and the dormitory tag to the designated freshman residence.

"504..."

Di Qiu quickly located 504, opened the door, and flipped the light switch. Inside was a layout for four people with desks below and beds above. All four beds were empty; she was the first freshman to move in.

Seeing this, she set down her luggage, washed up quickly, picked a bed toward the back, turned off the lights, and climbed into bed.

Before falling asleep, Di Qiu pulled out the high-end smartphone provided by the school. Within a minute, she had mastered all its functions with ease and couldn't help but exclaim:

"This school is truly absurdly wealthy."

She hadn't expected them to provide a smartphone as well.

Furthermore, the school communication software on the phone had already been registered for her. Di Qiu then discovered she had been added to a group called "125 Ability Academy Freshman Group." Tapping into it, she saw there were only 73 members, meaning only seventy-something students had checked in so far.

Di Qiu raised an eyebrow. She knew the intake was small, but she hadn't expected it to be this small.

The group was eerily quiet; not a single person had spoken, and there was only one pinned announcement:

[All freshmen are required to gather at the Training Department at 9:00 AM on June 14th.]

"Training as well?"

Di Qiu instinctively checked the date. It was currently 2:30 AM on June 13th. "That means I can still sleep in today."

Even though she had dozed off during her journey, she was struggling against exhaustion now. After confirming there were no other notifications besides the announcement, she put down her phone and closed her eyes.

[You have bravely defeated the malevolent beast terrorizing the villagers with your own flesh and blood, safeguarding the peace of the village. Now, as night falls and ink-colored shadows stain the sky, the stars scatter like fine silver dust. The villagers are deeply grateful, regarding you as their savior, and have pleaded with you to stay in the village.]

[Emergency Commission Task Triggered!]

[Limited-Time Commission Task: Night Raid Defense! The beast is highly likely to launch a large-scale retaliatory night raid tonight. Before dawn arrives, ensure the villagers are protected from the beast's intrusion!]

[Task Reward: Vajra Protection Talisman x1, Nighttime Spiritual Energy Absorption Acceleration Talisman x1]

Di Qiu, on the verge of drifting into dreamland, opened her bloodshot eyes. After hearing the system's series of messages, she clenched her fists, gritted her teeth, and spat out a single word:

"Damn it!"

She glanced at the rewards. Talismans? Spiritual energy? She thought about it—could there even be spiritual energy in this world? She resolutely rolled over and went back to sleep.

Half an hour later, at 3:00 AM, Di Qiu rolled over again.

Five minutes later, she rolled over once more.

Three minutes later, Di Qiu opened her eyes and stared at the pitch-black ceiling.

What kind of bad luck was this? On her first day at a new school, her first day as a boarder, she actually couldn't sleep. And she was doing so while feeling incredibly exhausted.

Di Qiu pulled up the task panel again. This thing triggered tasks way too conveniently. If the system weren't an uncommunicative machine, she would have suspected it was doing this on purpose.

Helpless, she turned on the light, got out of bed, pulled back the curtains, and looked outside. Thanks to the system, she had managed to see the sky at 3:30 AM for the first time in her life.

If the timing weren't so awkward and it weren't a new school, Di Qiu would have loved to head down and explore the new environment.

After sitting in her chair for a while, she lay back down and closed her eyes for another half hour, but she was still wide awake.

She had no choice but to take out her phone to familiarize herself with the school.

Aside from the group chat, her school communication app also had a forum category. Di Qiu had taken a brief glance earlier but had been too tired to look closely. Now that she couldn't sleep, she decided to browse the forum.

There was a pinned post on school rules. Di Qiu clicked in and scanned it; it was brief and clear, listing two points:

[1. Fighting with abilities is prohibited. Violators will receive one warning and a demerit; more than three warnings will result in expulsion and the sealing of one's abilities.]

Just reading the first rule, Di Qiu felt a chill run down her spine.

"They actually have the technology to seal abilities?"

"It seems this school is a tough nut to crack."

Di Qiu decided on the spot to be a low-profile, well-behaved student.

[2. Using abilities to actively attack ordinary people off-campus is prohibited. Violators will be expelled and have their abilities sealed; in cases of serious injury or death, the penalty will be determined by the circumstances, up to and including the death penalty.]

Di Qiu could understand this one. It was normal for a school to have such rules; after all, besides school regulations, the country had laws specifically targeting ability users. This aspect of the law was actually quite mature.

Of course, these were just things she had heard from Zhou Guo to pass the time; she had never studied the specific legal clauses herself.

She just wondered if one could find loopholes in this rule. "Active" and "passive" were two different things, and the phrase "determined by the circumstances" left a lot of room for interpretation.

The school hadn't elaborated on this ambiguous rule, which perhaps meant there was a lot of wiggle room.

After noting it down, Di Qiu tried to scroll down. Indeed, there were only these two rules, and the post had no replies from students, only official announcements, though it had over 999 likes.

Exiting that post, Di Qiu continued to browse others.

The first thing she saw was a post marked "hot."

[Micro-Academy Bureau: Recruiting Ability Users; various abundant resources to upgrade your ability level await you!]

"Upgrading ability levels?"

It was exactly what she needed just as she was getting sleepy. She had been wondering how to level up her abilities in the future. It seemed that browsing the internet did have its benefits.

With a curious mindset, Di Qiu clicked on the post. Inside was nothing but a blue link.

"..."

Just this?

Very well, you have successfully caught my attention.

Di Qiu, who had been feeling slightly drowsy, was now wide awake. She immediately clicked the link, which redirected her to a new page.

[Submission successful. Respected User 301161341633, you have successfully registered with your real name. Please report to the Micro-Academy Bureau office at the Ability Academy at 8:00 AM on June 13th for assessment. Failure to show up will result in a six-month suspension, during which you cannot re-apply for assessment.]

"Eh?"

"..."

"This is a phishing link, isn't it!"

Di Qiu took a screenshot, exited the page, and scrolled down to the comments. Sure enough, there was a flood of angry replies.

1st Floor: Damn it, what kind of new scam link is this? I wasn't even prepared, and now I'm registered! The point is, the assessment time clashes with my major exam. Is anyone going to do something about this, hey?

2nd Floor: Victim +1.

3rd Floor: No way, they can really do this?

4th Floor: I'm done. The date of the assessment is listed as "unfavorable for all activities" in the almanac.

5th Floor: You're telling me? I noticed that too. There isn't a single lucky hour in the entire twenty-four-hour day.

6th Floor: I suspect this is part of the assessment, screening for unlucky ability users. After all, luck is the first part of strength.

...

12334th Floor: Oh my god, I'm just a newbie who just encountered abilities. I don't know what's going on, and now I'm forced onto the battlefield?

12335th Floor: Hahahahaha, I finally passed! Only the ghosts know how many times I had to take this to succeed.

...

Scrolling through and seeing so many other newbies as confused by this link as she was, Di Qiu felt a bit better. At least she wasn't alone.

But looking at the comments from the earlier floors—"unfavorable for all activities"?

Di Qiu looked at the time on her screenshot: 8:00 AM...

She pulled up the calendar on her phone. Oh my god, it really was "unfavorable for all activities."

Throughout the entire week, only today was completely unfavorable, and the inauspicious hours started right after 7:00 AM.

"..."