Naming Technique of the Night

Chapter 85: 85, Screaming and Silencing

“Fuck!” Liu Dezhu’s soul nearly flew out of his body, almost knocking over the bookshelf as he staggered backward.

In the dead of night, within a dim and eerie environment, turning around to see a sinister mask was horrifying.

The feeling was too terrifying.

It was like living through a horror movie.

At that moment, Ye Wan and Lin Xiaoxiao stepped out from the shadows of the bookshelves.

Liu Dezhu realized what was happening, so these three decided to let him out in the middle of the night just to tease him?

He said in deep distress, “You three are going too far in bullying people!”

“Quit your yapping, this is all you’re good for anyway,” Lin Xiaoxiao picked up Liu Dezhu and took him back to the solitary confinement room.

Ye Wan then said to Qing Chen, “There’s significant progress in the details, but the training time was too rushed, it wasn’t done very well.”

Qing Chen listened intently.

Ye Wan continued, “The most important aspect of a sneak attack is not being discovered. You were too hasty the first time you approached Liu Dezhu. There are subtle changes in the air and sounds in the corridor. Liu Dezhu might not notice it himself, but his body will warn him.”

“After that, when the target moved quickly, you failed to control your breathing and footsteps. To my ears, those sounds were as loud as drumbeats, even Liu Dezhu sensed something. If he were replaced by a trained soldier, you’d be dead.”

“Hmm, I will continue to work hard,” Qing Chen said, his bare feet pressing against the floor.

The greatest secret to eliminating footstep noise lies in how one masters exerting and retracting force with each step. However, his own shoes were too cheap, and the rubber soles too hard, which made it impossible to control properly no matter what.

Ye Wan reminded him, “You haven’t been learning for long, so you can only manage to walk without making a sound. Remember, don’t run. You can’t manage to run without making noise yet.”

“Hmm, I’ve got it,” Qing Chen said.

Ye Wan glanced at his feet, “According to what you said, after you return, you’ll be in the mountains. If you haven’t walked barefoot through them before, I fear your feet will be raw and bloody after one night.”

Qing Chen shook his head, “That’s not important, injuries will eventually heal.”

“Being tough on yourself is good, but after this is over you should still buy a pair of suitable shoes as soon as possible,” Ye Wan said, “Anything else you want to ask?”

“Actually, in this battle, the most crucial lesson for me is the art of sneak attack, why teach it last?” Qing Chen asked curiously.

“Sneak attacks are not like playing a virtual game on simple mode where enemies stand around like NPCs in a game, dumbfounded waiting for you to kill them. Then, until you kill them all, by the time you take down the second person, you’re very likely to be discovered,” Ye Wan explained.

“Next, the remaining three will be aware of your presence and will use all their means to kill you. You’ll have no choice but to engage in direct combat, and that’s when it gets most dangerous.”

“When enemies are unaware of you, killing the first two is easiest. That’s why the time spent teaching you how to hide your tracks was the shortest. However, when they discover you, that’s when you’re in the most danger, and why I spent the most time teaching you direct combat.”

“But,” Qing Chen suddenly said, “I have no intention of exchanging my life for someone else’s. If it’s too dangerous, maybe I will give up.”

“I support you in that,” Ye Wan said, “In this world, your own life is the most important thing. There’s no need to risk your life just to save an agent and a classmate of yours. But you must understand, if you could control something like fighting spirit, then it wouldn’t be spirit anymore. Sometimes, it’s only when you truly face something that you understand your own choices.”

Ye Wan continued, “The boss said you have an innate spirit in you, similar to when you dared to challenge the boss to a game of chess on your first day. It belongs to you, indelible and unforgettable. Remember your chess game with the boss, Crossing the River? Once the pawn crosses the river, it’s not that it doesn’t want to go back; it can’t.”

Qing Chen reflected upon these words.

At that moment, Ye Wan moved a chair from the neighboring reading area in front of Qing Chen. Qing Chen, curious, asked, “What’s this for?”

Ye Wan thought for a moment and said, “You’ll understand soon… no, in two days you’ll get it.”

Ye Wan said, “There’s one more thing the boss didn’t say, so I’ll take the liberty of saying it for him.”

“What’s that?” Qing Chen wondered.

Ye Wan smiled, “Come back alive.”

…

Countdown 00:05:00.

The final five minutes.

Qing Chen approached Liu Dezhu and asked calmly, “Repeat the two things I’ve instructed you.”

Liu Dezhu replied anxiously, “First, after returning, tell all the classmates to run for their lives. Second, if they can’t escape, find a way to ask who was taken away alone by the bad guys before.”

“Hmm, have you remembered any details these past two days? For example, anyone constantly checking their phone for messages, or who went to the bathroom midway,” Qing Chen asked.

Liu Dezhu weakly answered, “They all went to the bathroom, and as for checking their phones, I guess they did quite often… Boss, I was only focused on playing games at the time, I really didn’t notice anything.”

Qing Chen sighed, knowing that if he had any better choices, he wouldn’t have appointed this person as a proxy.

“Remember, the bad guys must be very interested in the secret you carry. But you must understand one thing, the moment they discover your secret is the moment you die.”

Qing Chen continued coldly, “Your fault this time is unforgivable. When you return next time, I will help you reacquaint yourself with this cruel world, of course, if you’re still alive to tell the tale.”

After finishing, he glanced at the time on his arm.

Countdown, 00:00:01.

Return.

In the darkness, the sound of drums and laughter were heard.

The time in the Outer World, which had been sliced and paused, finally began to tick forward again.

One second it was the dim isolation room, the next second, the world was lit by the orange-red glow of the bonfire, with shadows flickering rapidly.

Liu Dezhu’s eyes widened as he looked at the bonfire in front of him and the crowd cheering around him, struggling to adjust.

The gloom and the brightness were cut off from each other, as were the tension and the merriment.

Even Liu Dezhu himself seemed to be cut off from his smiling classmates.

In his mind, it seemed as if someone were reminding him: Danger!

He remembered Qing Chen’s words and immediately stood up, yelling, “Run! Everyone run! There’s danger!”

However, the scene he imagined where everyone would scatter and flee didn’t happen; they just looked at him with a confused expression.

The classmates couldn’t understand why Liu Dezhu, who had been chatting and laughing a moment ago, now looked so flustered and frightened.

It was Hu Xiaoniu who reacted first because for the classmates, time was continuous and coherent.

But for those Time Travelers like them, they had already spent two days in the Inner World.

So, Liu Dezhu’s warning wasn’t without reason; he had experienced something special in the Inner World!

Hu Xiaoniu stood up and asked, “Brother Liu, what happened?”

As Liu Dezhu was pushing past the classmates next to him, he said, “It’s too late if we don’t go now, there are bad guys coming to surround this place, forget it, if you won’t go, I will!”

Yet, even after he spoke so clearly, the classmates still looked at him in bewilderment.

Hu Xiaoniu’s face changed, and after giving Zhang Tianzhen a meaningful look, he quickly followed Liu Dezhu.

However, just as they reached the courtyard entrance, two middle-aged men in police uniforms asked, “Hello, student, where are you going in such a hurry?”

Upon seeing the police uniform, Liu Dezhu was overjoyed, “Police officer, there are bad guys nearby!”

The two middle-aged men in police uniforms glanced at each other, then pulled out pistols from their waists, stepped forward, and pressed them against the chests of Liu Dezhu and Hu Xiaoniu. One of them laughed softly, “Bad guys, eh? I don’t see any.”

The other one looked coldly at Hu Xiaoniu, “Open your mouth to call for help, and I’ll shoot you dead. Go back!”

Hu Xiaoniu stared blankly down at the gun pressed against his chest.

There was a silencer on the gun!