NOVEL WEB Chapter 21: Training complete
"Do you like him?"
Zhi Yan's eyes widened in alarm, and her cheeks flushed red almost instantly. "What? No! God, no. Why would I like him? We've barely talked before this week. He moved in three days ago, and you think I'm the kind of girl who just… falls for some guy like that?"
All of a sudden, Li Liu gained the upper hand in conversation. Her grin widened as she flopped back dramatically on the bed, arms splayed out. "Oof. Denial. That's the first sign."
"I'm not denying anything!" Zhi Yan said, voice a pitch too high.
"Oh, come on. You volunteered to go with him today."
"I went with him because he's being reckless," Zhi Yan replied, crossing her arms. "He wants to be a monster tamer when he doesn't even have mana. If I hadn't been there, who knows what trouble he would've gotten into?"
"Uh-huh. The noble heroine saves the reckless boy," Li Liu said with a teasing lilt. "Sounds very romantic."
Zhi Yan groaned and looked away, staring down at her knees. "You're impossible."
Li Liu chuckled softly but then sat back up, her expression mellowing. "Honestly though… I know it's impossible between you two. I was trying to mess around."
That caught Zhi Yan off-guard. "What?"
Li Liu's voice was quieter now, less teasing, more thoughtful. "You two come from completely different worlds. He's a plainfolk with no background, someone who practically lights up when he earns a mere hundred thousand credits. You… you grew up with everything. The best education. Wealth. Status. Influence. Heck, you're in fact the…"
Zhi Yan suddenly held up her hand, stopping her. "You don't have to remind me of my past," she murmured.
Li Liu paused.
"I know my own status," Zhi Yan continued, voice soft and flat. She didn't look up, just stared at her hands, resting limp in her lap. Her shoulders lowered ever so slightly, the proud, composed front she always wore peeling back just a little.
For a long moment, neither of them said anything.
Then, Zhi Yan stood up slowly and moved to the window. The city skyline was glittering with neon light, and the faintest sound of sirens echoed in the distance.
"But you are wrong about one thing," she said finally, almost to herself. "We don't belong to different worlds."
Li Liu tilted her head. "Huh?"
Zhi Yan looked back over her shoulder. Her eyes were unreadable. "Anyway, I'll just be clear. I'm genuinely not interested. Okay? He is just a friend."
Li Liu raised her eyebrows. "Okay," she said, slightly confused by her words, but didn't point them out.
Zhi Yan took a deep breath before turning back to face her friend again. "Alright, now, let's go back to the main issue. Go and apologize to him, right now."
Li Liu couldn't help but sigh as she got up. "Alright. Alright… Whatever you say, Your Highness."
She put on some pants over her shorts and wore a jacket before walking out of the room.
*Knock*
No response to the knock.
*Knock* knock* "Lin Fang, it's me, Li Liu, Can we talk?" She spoke aloud. But received no response.
"Hmm?" Li Liu frowned. "Is he in the shower or something?"
*
Meanwhile, in the System's Training Ground;
Lin Fang's legs pumped like pistons, his breath coming in panicked gasps as he dashed through the ice-lit corridors of the cave system.
The air whooshed past his ears, from the monstrous polar bear behind him, whose paws cracked the stone floor with every thunderous step.
[18:16]
[18:15]
"Goddammit, it hasn't even dropped a minute yet!" Lin Fang roared in frustration, knowing very well that the system won't respond to him. "I'm being chased by a freaking yeti-beast and your timer ticks like it's on holiday?!"
He didn't even know where he was going. There were no arrows, no blinking system lights guiding him. The cave stretched endlessly in shifting paths that should not have existed, curves where there were walls before, a staircase where he swore nothing was earlier. Was the layout changing? Why can't he find the goddamn entrance hole that he walked in? Instead of running toward the entrance, was I going deeper? Or was the system just messing with his mind now?
He didn't have time to care.
The bear was still behind him.
At some point, his foot slammed into a jutting stone, and he went sprawling. Pain lanced through his wrist as he hit the ground hard, rolling over just in time to see the bear mid-leap…
And then the world shifted.
A pit opened beneath him.
Lin Fang didn't even have time to scream before he dropped straight down, tumbling into darkness. The bear roared above, its claws scraping at the stone edge. But it didn't follow.
*Thud*
He landed hard on his back, the wind knocked out of him. He lay there, wheezing, eyes fluttering up to the jagged opening above as it slowly sealed shut.
The system… spared him?
Ding!
[You have escaped the defense entity. Training will resume.]
[Time Remaining: 17:22]
"System, you son of a… Hmm…"
Lin Fang was about to curse aloud as he finally dragged himself up, limping a bit, but then found something strange. His back…
He fell hard, but he wasn't feeling much pain. Just a mild ache.
And before he checked his body condition, his eyes fell in his surroundings. This new chamber was quite warmer than the cave. Soft moss glowed from the walls, and the floor was sandy instead of stone. "What is this place?"
Just as he wondered aloud, the system gave him the answer.
Ding!
[Congratulations. You've discovered a Shelter Zone.]
[You may remain here without incurring sedentary penalties.]
"Well, that would've been nice to know before the bear chased me to death," Lin Fang muttered, but he slumped down against the mossy wall nonetheless, letting out a deep exhale.
His heart still thudded like a jackhammer in his chest, but he was alive.
He let his head fall back, staring at the soft lights overhead.
[12:04]
[11:59]
He watched the seconds tick down slowly.
Ten minutes of silence passed.
He stretched his arms, let his pulse return to normal. The last thing Lin Fang wanted right now is overthinking. He didn't analyze anything about resting area or the rules of training ground, because he swore he would not ever return here, again.
He kept his eyes on the holographic screen, waiting for the timer to end so that he can escape from this hellish place.
[01:17]
[01:01]
[00:46]
[00:18]
[00:05]
[00:02]
[00:01]
*Ding!
[Training complete. Returning to the material world]
His vision went blank after the notification, and the gentle rocking of a vehicle was the first thing Lin Fang felt after he exited the training ground.
Then came the faint scent of perfume, floral and crisp, mixed with a hint of new upholstery. Cool air brushed past his cheeks from the air conditioning vents. It's not the same chill he could normally get from a typical air conditioner in the room at all. Something wasn't right. He thought.
His eyes fluttered open.