Chapter 249
It was obvious that even the captain of Duma Academy did not receive this notice, but it was saved in Vanessa's personal terminal in the form of a screenshot.
Vanessa had obviously obtained the screenshot from somewhere else. She pulled up her personal terminal screen and showed Jiang Yunu the details of the notification. She also immediately sent Jiang Yunu a copy of the screenshot as a backup.
Jiang Yunu's eyes fell on the sender.
"We have a logistics student on our team," Vanessa said. "She's not particularly talented in supernatural combat, but highly skilled in information technology. She's repeatedly verified the signal endpoint and the originating address, confirming the notification was from the tournament committee's work terminal, without any disguised relay."
Jiang Yunu: "Or, to be more precise, did someone actually use the official terminal of the tournament committee to post this notice?"
As for "someone", was it someone from the competition committee or someone who usurped the terminal authority? Jiang Yunu felt that it was not so absolute.
Vanessa said, "Your considerations make sense, but after what happened later, we're more inclined to believe that the tournament committee is essentially finished. They're in cahoots."
Mitchell Academy was the first to walk into the trap, its captain having no doubt about the authenticity of the news - and when they received the notice, there were only twenty minutes left until their school's "required testing period".
Twenty minutes was about the exact time it took to assemble the emergency team and get from the apartment building to the medical center.
The person who sent the notice seemed to have carefully calculated the time it would take, ensuring that the recipients had no time to think about anything else. To avoid wasting the opportunity and causing his team to lose league points, Captain Michel hurriedly assembled his team and rushed to the medical center.
There was no chance to communicate with captains of other teams.
While Michelle's team headed to the medical center, the other teams at the camp were probably still resting in their apartments, waiting for the announcement of the third game, which was no longer happening. No one noticed anything unusual.
"After Michelle, it was Star Hunter," Vanessa said. "We're still unclear on their selection criteria. We can only guess that they started notifying schools in the third-largest district, prioritized Michelle in the third district, and then selected Star Hunter from the second-largest district."
Jiang Yunu remembered that when she led everyone out of Building B of the apartment building, there was no movement from the Star Hunting Academy in the same building from beginning to end - it turned out that they, like Michelle's school team, had left the building early.
"Where are the star hunters?" she said.
The red-haired archer shook his head. "Some of us have seen their captain and half of the team. They've already..."
Vanessa paused, then carefully chose her words: "...We can no longer communicate."
After all, they are rivals, and no matter how hot-tempered a person is, he cannot say anything very harsh.
Jiang Yunu looked directly at Vanessa, and she finally asked, "So, how did you know this information, and what did you do?"
Vanessa said, "It's the captain."
Shen Yijing didn't know how he discovered the abnormality of Michelle College, but he was probably not sure what this "abnormality" was at first, so he gave an order to Hayes, the deputy captain of the Duma school team:
All staff stopped free activities and waited for task assignments.
Shen Yijing then left the apartment building alone.
About half an hour after Captain Zichen left Apartment Building A, the Duma team members who were recalled and waiting, led by Duma Academy's deputy captain Hayes, received their tasks one after another.
"Deputy Captain Hayes was ordered to lead his men to the tournament committee's headquarters, which is located in the administrative building. A logistics officer proficient in information technology was ordered to work with two other regular team members to locate the distribution points of all the supernatural energy suppression devices in the camp. The remaining team members were divided into twos and went to the corresponding locations according to the confirmed distribution points to check the status of the supernatural energy suppression devices."
Shen Yijing did not directly tell the Duma students why they were carrying out these tasks, but only told them what to do. Fortunately, Duma Academy has always followed the action program of "leading by the captain". Although some people felt strange and discussed the captain's purpose with their teammates, no one dragged their feet and everyone acted quickly.
"When the dispersed teams arrived at the confirmed suppression device location, two teams reported in the team channel that they had discovered that the suppression device had been destroyed."
This is undoubtedly an ominous sign.
Because under normal circumstances, important equipment such as the ability suppression device will be stored in a specially locked equipment room and will not be easily accessible to ordinary student contestants. The access keys between the devices will only be given to authorized equipment administrators, and will be regularly inspected and maintained by dedicated personnel. There is also an intelligent network to monitor the status of the devices at each point in real time.
"But what we saw was an equipment room with even the metal door damaged," Vanessa said solemnly. "This is clearly not normal."
"What's even more unusual is that, on the equipment network that the logistics officer used a little trick to see, the operating status of that device was green. 'Normal operation.'"
The intelligent management network shows normal operation, but in reality, less than one-third of the doors between equipment rooms are still open.
If this still doesn't make people realize that something major is happening, then the people sent out are unworthy of being Duma's elite students.
Jiang Yunu listened patiently, she knew Vanessa was far from finished speaking.
Vanessa continued, "After the team that discovered the anomaly in the equipment room reported their findings, two other teams also reported back, saying that the suppression devices they had discovered were still functioning properly. They asked the captain if the equipment needed special protection."
The red-haired archer finally paused at this point. She looked at Jiang Yunu, as if waiting for Jiang Yunu to ask her a question.
So Jiang Yunu said, "I guess Shen Yijing didn't ask you to protect the equipment - his instructions were exactly the opposite?"
A hint of surprise flashed in Vanessa's eyes.
"Yes." Vanessa confirmed Jiang Yunu's guess. "That's the captain's order. The entire team channel was silent for two minutes."
Those two minutes were the longest two minutes of silence in the Duma team channel.
At the time, Vanessa's teammate hadn't yet transformed and could still speak normally. When he could speak, he was a man with a somewhat unconventional mind. He stood beside his companion, silent even in reality for a moment. Then he asked Vanessa, "What do you think the probability is that the captain will suddenly decide to betray the Human Alliance, and that the Snow Wolf Psychic Association will suddenly decide to become a 'rebel association'?"
Vanessa rolled her eyes at the time: "The probability is as high as that of you defeating the captain today."
The companion said, “I think so too.”
Since no one thought that Chen Yijing would suddenly go crazy and suddenly turn evil and stand against everyone, this extremely extraordinary order was still followed by the Duma players.
Jiang Yunu was also confused for a moment when she heard this instruction at first, but in the blink of an eye, she realized that Shen Yijing was taking another approach.
“Since the enemy has destroyed the device and wants to use superpowers in the camp, it is better to destroy all the devices so that the contestants can use their superpowers fairly in various places in the camp.” She muttered to herself, clearly touching Shen Yijing’s thoughts.
——Later, as she and the joint team evacuated the apartment, they discovered that their superpowers were gradually "unsealed," allowing them to fight flexibly in more areas that had previously restricted superpowers. This was most likely due to Duma's people busy dismantling the devices everywhere.
Vanessa was just sure that Shen Yijing would not casually make a decision that would harm the interests of all students, but in terms of the depth of her understanding of the captain's instructions, she suddenly realized that she might not be as good as Jiang Yunu.
"After that, everyone in our school has been scattered throughout the camp, and we communicate through the team channel."
This also indirectly explains why when Lulumarin from the local Yao went down to Duma's floor and wanted to talk to Duma's people, the entire Duma floor was already empty.
It seemed that Shen Yijing was giving orders to the team members from a distance. As for himself, he was a lone wolf who went alone to a deeper and more dangerous place.
Jiang Yunu asked Vanessa about Captain Shen's movements. As expected, Vanessa didn't know either. She only knew that Shen Yijing's movement position was constantly changing.
"The captain had things he wanted to do on his own, and he probably felt that bringing us along would hinder his progress and distract him." Vanessa pulled at her crudely tied ponytail. "He was always ahead of everyone else, doing his best to constantly update us on warnings and precautions. But unfortunately, even with the captain's warning, when our men penetrated deep into the medical center and the installation points on the periphery of the camp, we were still successfully attacked by the mutants."
Shen Yijing may have realized the risks earlier than anyone else and sensed that something was wrong. He asked the Duma players to scatter and destroy the equipment to create a better combat environment for self-defense and counterattack in advance.
However, he may have underestimated the ruthlessness of the camp traitors.
The first Michel Academy player to be taken away was injected with the drug dealer's "new product," which took effect faster than the one Alexander, the Duma player, had transformed during the previous competition, and had a stronger short-term power-boosting effect. Compared to this potion, the medicine in the treasury atop the Trial Tower was already considered "mild."
When the Duma Academy team explored the medical center and saw contestant Michel there, they tried to communicate with each other, but were directly attacked by the alienated contestant Michel.
Even the elites of Duma Academy were not used to such a direct and unintelligible attack on students from other schools outside the competition arena. Especially since the two who arrived at the medical center were considered the more neutral and peaceful members of the team.
He hesitated for a moment, not yet used to using a killing move against someone he used to greet on a daily basis, and was successfully attacked by the alienated student Michel, who had lost his rationality and used a killing move without any scruples.
What is even more terrifying is that alienated students, in addition to losing their rationality, seem to have been implanted with some kind of thinking instructions.
"If you see a mutant carrying a syringe, don't let them get close to you," Vanessa said. "As soon as they catch someone, they'll repeat the stereotyped action of stabbing the syringe into the body."
Two Duma students who were not mentally prepared enough to act immediately were attacked by the mutants, and one of them was stabbed in the arm by a syringe.
In less than five minutes, his right arm underwent a strange change in front of his companions' horrified gazes.
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