OLD-WORLD EXTRA

Chapter 366: Shit For Brains

Chapter 366: Shit For Brains

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As its steps slowly became distant...

"Hoooooooohhh..."

"Haaa... haaa... haaa..."

Xavier Jr exhaled, his body trembling, while Quinn huffed and puffed as she tried to calm her

nerves.

It appeared that a hunter was still alive outside.

The construct didn't spot them; it was after him.

"...Fuck."

Xavier Jr murmured under his breath and gritted his teeth as he replayed the man's last words in his mind.

'Too young to die...'

It was a cruel way to go-a really pitiful one.

He wanted to save him, but he had no power to do so. He was too weak.

"...Damn it all."

While Xavier was in his contemplative mood, Quinn sat quietly, unbothered by what happened.

She had swallowed a few old-world medicines and was now healing well, so that wasn't why she didn't feel anything.

Her unfeeling state was because she simply didn't care for the hunters who died.

They treated her like trash, so why shouldn't she do the same?

Emotions were wasted on them.

Unknowingly to her, this indifferent reaction of hers was by design.

Emir had 'trusted' this to happen.

She was a coddled kid acting tough; of course the hunters would treat her wrong.

Not only her, but the rest of the students as well.

They would be seen as the same, and the hunters who had a rough come-up would act out on their envy by treating them as trash, letting out what they had bottled deep inside.

Emir wanted to teach them about life, and he succeeded.

What they experienced today showed them how cheap lives could be and how one could buy their survival with credits.

It taught some of them the meaning of true hatred-a deep, burning animosity that only Quinn and Arthur had known before.

For some, like Xavier Jr, the ordeal ignited a desire to grow stronger, to be able to save people and prevent such tragedies.

He believed his duty as a Knight was to protect the vulnerable, and this only cemented that. He would do his best to ensure that no one else would suffer as they had.

Others, like Max, were driven by a darker urge.

The same desire for strength was there, but it was fueled by a need for vengeance.

Max wanted the power to destroy those who had clowned him, to make them pay for their words against a person of higher status.

On the other hand, people like Ava felt the crushing weight of the real world.

Its cruelty had shown itself in the most brutal way possible, and she didn't resist, giving up and taking the easy way out.

They escaped it before they lost their lives to its clutches, deeming themselves unprepared. Each group was affected differently, but one thing was constant.

Their desire to get stronger.

And that was what Emir wanted to instill in them.

He lit their survival instincts on fire, awakening them from their fantasies.

All of this didn't affect Quinn, however.

Her revenge was already at the center of her mind, irrationally controlling her actions.

No tragedy would change that.

But that didn't matter.

Emir had a special plan for Quinn.

Her current indifference stemmed from being in a highly emotional state; usually, she wouldn't think of people in such a way, even if she was treated like trash.

This shift in attitude would make her act impulsively, allowing her to do cruel things that she would deeply regret later.

And in that vulnerable state of regret, Emir would swoop in as the anonymous sponsor, sending the letter he had saved in his drafts since early on.

The resulting impact on her mental state would be magnified a hundredfold.

His carefully chosen words would embed themselves in her mind, cementing him as someone important in her life.

Now that sounded good and all, but for that plan to come to fruition, they had to stay alive, yet judging by how unresponsive she was to Xavier Jr, their survival appeared to be a difficult

thing to achieve.

And so, to ease the tension, he joked:

"Don't mind that guy. Running a train or whatever-that was a contradictory statement... Also, it wasn't funny. Sexual innuendos are so old world."

She blinked.

With eyes that screamed disgust, she silently looked at him before turning her head away.

"I'd rather die than listen to one of your 'jokes' again, so do excuse me."

As she stood up to leave, his hand shot out and grasped hers, stopping her in her tracks.

"Alright! Alright! I'm sorry. Please, sit down. We need to figure out a way to get out of here." She turned her head back to him and slowly nodded.

"Sure."

***

During the chaos, Arthur snuck out and stood by the side, far away from the rest, his back against the wall.

His golden eyes were scanning the forming crowd, congregating towards his teammate Max.

[Did you disconnect from the channel, boy?]

[Yeah. But... are you sure it's safe? HQ told us to never go solo.]

[Don't care for what they told you, boy. Yagami, please.]

Letting out a sigh, the Japanese salesman materialized before him as a hologram and nudged

his glasses up.

[How many times do I have to say this? The UEF is corrupt; they have dealings with the Order, so that means the Hunter Association is as well. Our evidence is the propaganda you see in the Academy. Not a single book in the Archives mentions their relation to the war not so far from here. They are responsible for every dead hunter you see. So never forget; trust no one except

us.]

[I know that, but why?...]

Arthur paused, his mind lost in thought for a moment, as he continued with a stutter:

[W-Wait... I get it. You're saying that this warning of theirs is not for our safety but is for delaying us from unearthing what's underneath this outpost?]

The old man materialized as well, standing next to Yagami while wearing a majestic white

robe and a grin as he stroked his beard.

[Exactly boy, you've gotten smarter!]

His praise brought Arthur a smile...

Boom! Boom! Boom!

But that smile quickly disappeared once he heard the explosions just outside their location.

[You have to move now boy!]

[Get moving Arthur!]

With his systems urging him on, he rushed forward and squeezed inside a tiny hole to his left, taking a path not to the second drop-off point like the rest, but the fourth, passing by the Cannonjaw Crocodile as he went from one hole to another, his small size proving beneficial. He was happy about that, almost prideful, deeming it a plus one in his internal competition with Emir, their professor.

And while he was in his own world, hovering over his crawling body were the two

'reincarnates.'

They stared at him, their grins twisting as Arthur kept his pace.

[Nice boy, keep going...]

[Mhm, just follow the path, you're not far-no, not far at all.]