You are all bad women! Don't come over!

After finishing his call with Catherine, Shen Mochen pondered for a moment and sent a text message to Cai Yuncui: "Sister Cai, I've arrived."

As soon as the message was sent, Shen Mochen felt that saying this was really superfluous, but at the moment he didn't seem to have anything else to say.

"I know, be sure to pay attention to your safety," Cai Yuncui replied after a few minutes.

Shen Mochen could imagine how during those few minutes, Cai Yuncui must have held her phone, deleting and typing, then typing and deleting in a silly and tangled manner.

"Um, I know. The captain and the others know I'm your younger brother, and they're all looking after me!"

"Uh-huh."

Shen Mochen turned off his phone and went to bed, neither of them bringing up the matter of Xia Qingrou.

Sleeping here for the first time, Shen Mochen was somewhat nervous. This was the front line against the monsters, and monsters, unlike civil servants, do not clock off punctually from nine to five. Those of the Buque, even while sleeping, must be ready for battle at a moment's notice.

When Yin Caiyu slept at Buque Station for the first time, was she also as nervous and uneasy as he was? Shen Mochen wondered.

...

In Liu Chaoyan's bedroom, she sat upright in her chair.

A gentleman stays cautious even when alone; her childhood upbringing had taught her to maintain grace and dignity at all times, never becoming negligent.

Han Muxue often said she was like a robot, and that wasn't just a compliment about her being meticulous and thorough in her work, but also a jest at her extremely standardized mannerisms. Not just her movements, but even the angle at which her lips lifted when she smiled was always as precise and perfect as if controlled by a machine.

Each time she heard this remark, Liu Chaoyan would simply smile it off with that forever perfect smile.

As the captain of Team 0819, Liu Chaoyan was undoubtedly the most suitable and most dutiful. Her behavior was so flawless that one could find no fault, and she was just as impeccable in her role as captain.

At the moment, she was fulfilling her duty as captain, earnestly writing the battle record of the day. The Buque Team is required to document every battle engagement, typically submitting them every six months unless something unexpected arises.

Twenty minutes later, a somewhat sleepy Liu Chaoyan finally finished writing the day's records, then she wrote an "excellent" next to each team member's performance evaluation.

Xia Qingrou: Excellent.

Xiao Xingshuang: Excellent. Find more to read at My Virtual Library Empire

Han Muxue: Excellent.

When it came to writing Shen Mochen's evaluation, Liu Chaoyan hesitated slightly, but then also wrote down: Excellent.

Actually, these evaluations were almost of no use, at most they could earn a certificate or a medal upon retirement, but they were a form of honor nonetheless.

Closing the notebook, Liu Chaoyan was about to go to bed when, on a whim, she flipped through previous battle records. Although the members of Team 0819 had noticed that monster activities had become more frequent over the past half year, no one had seriously calculated how much more frequent.

Liu Chaoyan roughly turned the pages, the earliest records in the notebook starting from five months ago. Separating it by time, the combat records from the latter two and a half months were clearly much thicker than those from the first two and a half months.

Liu Chaoyan counted carefully, the first period had 17 encounters, while the latter had 29—almost double.

Moreover, the strength of the monsters seemed to be growing. In the first period, there were a total of 83 F-class monsters, 35 E-class, 13 D-class, and 3 C-class. In the latter period, there appeared to be 93 F-class, 83 E-class, 56 D-class, 12 C-class, and even two B-class monsters.

Liu Chaoyan slightly furrowed her brow. Was it a coincidence, or was it only our team that encountered this situation? Her extraordinary background, along with being one of the Buque, meant that she knew many secrets typically only known to the Buque's upper echelons.

She remembered the collapse of a node somewhere in the south, an incident that even now remained an undisclosed secret within Buque... and its consequences had been extremely horrifying, with even a Transcendent like Yin Caiyu having suffered many losses.

Thinking of this, Liu Chaoyan felt a vague unease. Could it be that they were entering a period of frequent monster disasters?

If the situation was manageable now, what would happen if it worsened in the future?

No, no, no... it couldn't possibly be that bad.

Although they had lost quite a few Transcendents, Buque still had surplus strength. Historically, there had been peak periods of monster disasters, but they hadn't caused much of a stir in the end.

Liu Chaoyan decided not to dwell on it any further. The increasing frequency of monster activities was something she herself had noticed, and she trusted that those above her had already become aware of it, since they hadn't mentioned anything special.

She put her notebook back into the desk drawer, then quietly looked at the only photo on the desk. It was a group photo of Team 0819 a few days before Cai Yuncui's retirement, but no one seemed to look good in it.

It was impossible to smile.

From the moment everyone from Team 0819 had joined, they had received Cai Yuncui's meticulous care, and in their hearts, Cai Yuncui was like an elder sister to them.

But clouds gather and disperse, the moon waxes and wanes, and people must part.

None wanted to part, yet parting was inevitable.

Liu Chaoyan sighed softly and turned to go take a shower.

Zhao Yuji had called earlier, sending his customary greetings and bringing up Shen Mochen. He had laughed saying Shen Mochen was his friend and asked Liu Chaoyan to take good care of him.

Liu Chaoyan smiled and agreed, but she had noticed back at First Middle School that the relationship between the two was far from good. It was only normal; Zhao Yuji was a hypocritical and arrogant young master who liked to show off—how could he be friends with another boy who attracted more attention than him?

In truth, she knew what Zhao Yuji was thinking. A young man like Shen Mochen, who was charming as the moon, would not be easily trusted by other men.

Yet, in Zhao Yuji's words, Liu Chaoyan could hear fear, fear of being compared, fear of being inferior.

That was really quite interesting.

...

The dormitory room wasn't large, but Xiao Xingshuang's bedroom seemed exceptionally empty because apart from a bed and a desk with chairs, it had virtually nothing else. There were no furnishings or the kind of decorations and stickers that girls generally liked.

Perhaps it was because she had only transferred a few months ago, or perhaps because she would soon be retiring; regardless, she didn't seem too concerned about her room. To her, it appeared to be just a temporary dwelling.

Xiao Xingshuang sat at her desk wearing glasses, silently reading a Roman language dictionary. She softly muttered words to herself, constantly writing them down.

It seemed she had been studying Roman for a while now, having memorized half of the little dictionary. But today, for some reason, she just couldn't focus, struggling to remember a word no matter how long she repeated it.

She closed her eyes, writing and stopping repeatedly, growing increasingly frustrated to the point where she was nearly snapped her pen.

"Phew..."

Xiao Xingshuang took off her glasses and rubbed her face.

She, like Xia Qingrou, was nearsighted, but no one in the team knew it.

She didn't want anyone to know. She thought it would be embarrassing to let others see her with glasses. It was her secret, one she would keep even when facing monsters, thankfully her superpower didn't require good eyesight like Xia Qingrou's did.