Chapter 491: Tan Han’s Followers
“Detoxifying potions ready! That smoke up ahead… d*mn Wizard Academy!”
Several people saw the smoke drifting in the distance, being blown towards them by an unnatural wind.
Those following Tan Han immediately treated the situation as a formidable enemy, many picking up potion bottles to swish the liquids in their mouths before casting spells from their spellbooks.
“Don’t waste magic power. If it’s not a large-scale wind elemental spell, don’t use it recklessly. Watch out for residual toxins,” Tan Han instructed as she waved her hand, summoning a gust of wind from her spellbook that propelled them forward, scattering some of the toxic smoke as others joined in to blow the rest away.
However, it was hard to determine how much invisible poisonous material may have still been heading toward them.
But this would not be their obstacle.
The young girls following Tan Han had long lost count of how many surprise attacks they had faced from the Wizard Academy, but Tan Han remembered it clearly: a total of six times, and she wouldn’t forget any of them.
Their tactics were particularly disgusting, but their personal combat power seemed lacking when compared to hers, so Tan Han focused mainly on finding the wizard’s main body. She felt confident that finding them would allow her to eliminate them directly.
However, Tan Han understood deeply that so-called power, or rather military strength, was not omnipotent; the strength she pursued felt powerless in the fleeting competitive battlefield.
But this was the dilemma she had to face. The opponent was not engaging her head-on; wasn’t Tan Han also unwilling to confront them directly?
To her, this competition was not merely a chaotic brawl where people were thrown onto the Bobapop Islands.
She learned something from Xiao Han: the weak yearn to win the competition, while the strong choose to end it.
In this competition, everyone was seeking points.
Killing the opponent did not score points, nor could they rob scores from others. The most stable and substantial way to gain points was to k*ll those monsters.
In the past two days, they had basically killed most of the monsters.
At first, Tan Han thought Luxien’s wildfire had destroyed too many potential points—countless monsters burnt to d*ath in the flames did not count towards personal scores.
But the Wizard Academy did even worse.
They set fires everywhere, causing small beast hordes to flee and then hunted them down, accumulating a massive amount of points. However, the Wizard Academy people did not favor teamwork, which led to higher individual scoring yet resulted in more casualties in the wildfires.
They were aggressively lowering the upper limit of scoring through such maneuvers.
This was also a way to end the competition.
Now, only the hardest monsters to k*ll—the sea beasts and flying monsters—remained.
Everything should have gone this way; once the monsters were eliminated, they would occupy resource points, leading to a positional defense battle.
But Tan Han saw another “shortcut,” a way to end the competition in a crushing manner.
Taking advantage of the current advantage to k*ll everyone, leaving all scores frozen at this moment… this would likely be how this competition concluded.
As for how to end everything, Tan Han was clear; Xiao Han had already pointed her in the right direction.
Wasn’t the direction they were heading the answer?
What could be more convenient for annihilating an entire archipelago than a volcanic eruption?
Although achieving such a feat was quite challenging, Tan Han voiced the idea.
This thought naturally received support from her closest supporters and friends.
However, there was a very realistic issue… not everyone supported her idea.
Those opposing this proposal had very pragmatic views; if a volcano were triggered, they would suffer too. They could not follow someone who wanted to take everyone down with her.
Some even threatened to leave upon hearing this, and Tan Han did not try to keep them; she even stopped her companions who wanted to teach them a lesson.
After all, no one thought erupting a volcano was a trivial matter. If the islands’ volcanoes became active, everyone would be affected!
When the time came, the teaching assistant would be too late to save anyone, and they could well d*e in lava!
Even if they managed to escape far away, the terrifying volcanic ash and falling rocks caused by the eruption could still threaten everyone’s survival.
Even Tan Han’s resurrection spell idea… not everyone would go along with her “foolishness.”
The pain of d*ath—just thinking about it made them unwilling to endure it, let alone imagine the feeling of being consumed by lava, slowly watching themselves approach d*ath… just the thought of it sent chills down their spines.
What if such a d*ath, where even bones were turned to dust, could not be revived?
No one liked to joke with their own lives.
Of course, some thought Tan Han’s plan was unrealistic; examinations should have their own essence. Always trying to stir up trouble. Who did she think she was? Xiao Han?
Tan Han did not voice any opinions or views on this; she saw it clearly. She merely gave the other party an excuse to leave.
After spending two days together, she understood one thing: Tan Han’s support group did not belong solely to her.
She should have realized this long ago but was still deceiving herself. Yet she also knew that people could not withstand tests, and once she started to test their loyalty, she would inevitably find herself unable to go back—just like testing the hardness of glass, the tested glass was fated to shatter.
Thus, she never forced those who gathered around her, but even if she did not, they brought her enormous trouble.
Tan Han came to understand that she did not have loyal fans or followers who would listen to her; rather, she had a mutually beneficial community formed based on her own value.
The reason she hesitated was that she was questioning whether she needed such a group, unable to provide an accurate answer.
The group they formed seemed useful, but it was uncontrollable. No one remained at their peak forever; even Xiao Han had experienced low points in the past.
Suddenly, Tan Han began to understand those who called themselves Xiao Han’s support group. Even though Xiao Han admitted she was not the Child of Fortune, even if Xiao Han never responded to them, there remained a steadfast group who silently referred to themselves as Xiao Han’s supporters.
Because ever since Xiao Han fell into a trough, she had never lost.
Tan Han really wanted to tell her supporters that Xiao Han was the one they should support, as she could achieve what they hoped for, but Xiao Han would never respond to them.
Therefore… it became clear that some people didn’t even have the qualifications to follow the strong.
But fortunately… she still had a group willing to follow her.
However, they now faced a problem: it seemed that Tan Han’s plan had leaked, and other academies appeared to know about it… She did not care how it leaked or who leaked it because she was aware that the truth would only make her feel worse.
“Follow me, we can’t let them keep us here. If the Holy Angel Academy gets involved again, it will be even more troublesome,” Tan Han quickly said.
Her current goal was the nearest resource point.
Along the way, she prayed that the Wizard Academy had not found and poisoned that point. That place was also the last stop on her way to the volcano and the point for resource replenishment; the further they went into the later stages, the more precious such resources became.
What she just mentioned about the Holy Angel Academy’s involvement was not mere talk; based on the current intelligence, those angels would indeed come.
So her pressure was not small.
……
On the beach.
“So you think that dormant volcano can really ignite?”
“Why not?” I smiled and countered.
“Xiao Han, volcanic eruptions are not so easily assumed. According to my information, the last eruption of this volcano in the Bobapop Islands was hundreds of years ago, at a time when the concept of developing a tourism beach didn’t even exist. There are many reasons for the volcano’s dormancy; the volcanic dormancy caused by tectonic movement could have completely sealed the crater. Given the recent frequency of earthquakes, the underground magma pressure is clearly insufficient, and there have been no earthquakes or other factors around recently…”
“Thank you, some of what you’ve said I haven’t encountered before, but have you ever personally been to the volcano’s crater?” I expressed my gratitude before countering.
“I indeed have not gone, but I understand your thought process. You want to use magic to violently guide the volcano’s eruption, right? However, your method essentially blows up the rock layers. If you were really to make this volcano erupt, you would have leveled the whole hill; doing so is meaningless, and those students don’t possess such powerful spells. Even Tan Han cannot do it, and… I heard she gave you all her spellbooks? Including that Excessive Consumption Spellbook…”
“I admire your understanding of these concepts; it’s much deeper than mine,” I smiled.
“It’s just that I’ve read a lot in my spare time; it’s merely left me with some impressions.” Lin Yi spoke.
“Yes, you’ve just slightly encountered them,” I took the conversation and pointed out, which caused Lin Yi to pause for a moment.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to contradict you. I was merely stating facts. If you had delved deeper into the Bobapop Islands, you’d find that the Bobapop volcanic group has always been an active one; it has many craters, and we only focus on the largest. In fact, there are also underwater volcanic craters. Although many of the underwater volcanoes in the false world are temporary additions, not all of them were newly added in the false world.”
“Logically speaking, the Bobapop volcano should have erupted long ago, but it hasn’t; it has remained in this dormant state for over a hundred years. You’ve said there was no concept of beach tourism back then. But since the concept arose, this volcano hasn’t moved. Why is that?”
Without waiting for Lin Yi to respond, I continued.
“Because… it’s been artificially blocked; this active volcano in Bobapop has been sealed by a terrifying magical barrier.”
“Sealed? How is that possible? Why is there no record of it?”
“Because the records regarding these matters deceive travelers. If you were an ordinary person and searched for information describing Bobapop as an active volcano but sealed by the Extraordinary Academy, would you still dare come here?” I retorted.
“Sorry, I didn’t consider this; I also lack practical experience to make such judgments; that’s my shortcoming.”
“It’s fine, no one would go to great lengths for a trivial matter just to obtain a truth. Just like you don’t know that Tan Han’s spellbooks never truly came into my hands, including that ancient ice Excessive Consumption Spellbook.”
“…” Lin Yi fell silent at this moment, seemingly realizing she made two mistakes in one statement, each pinpointing her flaws. As someone dominated by rationality, she could not allow herself to make such mistakes.
This amounted to telling her that her answer, output without thought, was indeed flawed. This unintentional error was what frightened her.
In front of a junior, she had subconsciously looked down upon the other.
But no one should underestimate anyone; who could become a teaching assistant without skills?
Earlier, she had heard that this new teaching assistant got the position through an improper relationship with an extraordinary mentor, and she had scoffed at it. Unbeknownst to her, she was wrong from that moment—everything was mere hearsay, and she had never truly sought the truth.
“Why have you suddenly stopped speaking?”
“Oh, it’s nothing; I just suddenly figured some things out, haha… chatting with you has been very enlightening.” After saying this, Lin Yi was taken aback. This phrase seemed somewhat familiar… only that now the roles were reversed.
“Then I must congratulate you,” I said with a grin. “What are your plans for the time ahead? Or will you just wait for this competition to end?”
“Who isn’t waiting for this boring competition to finish? Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here accompanying you.”
“So… when I said this competition was as bland as water, that’s probably what I meant. If this were a scripted performance, what do you think a director would do when a performance becomes dull?”
“Add drama.” Lin Yi responded simply.
“Correct.”
“You seem to see through many things; do you think there will be accidents in this competition?”
“It’s not that I see through things; I just know a bit more, but I still lack the ability to digest this information into my own knowledge in such a short time, so much remains unclear to me, and I have made assumptions. I don’t know why, yet I’ve done it.” It was foreseeable that because of this, I would need to spend more time making up for this part that I had once neglected.
“Are you… confiding in me?”
“Just some things I wanted to express,” I stretched, then got up. “I’ve rested enough; I should get up and find someone else to trouble.”
“Trouble?” Lin Yi turned to look at me, seeming unwilling to stand up.
“Yeah, the examination board is about to be shattered, and I want to take this opportunity to find trouble with the teaching assistants from other academies, striving to have them all attend the review conference after this examination, especially those from the Holy Angel Academy and the Aphhemia Academy, who always come to create trouble for me.”
“Then I wish you good luck.” Lin Yi said with a smile.
Just as I was about to take my leave, suddenly, a tremor shook the Bobapop Islands, resembling an earthquake.
My spirit vision pierced through the illusionary world’s spatial grand spell, and at that moment, there were no signs of an earthquake in the reality of the outside world, so I quickly reacted.
Soon, a plume of dark smoke rose ominously towards the sky.
That direction was… the Bobapop volcano.
“Has it really ignited?!” At that moment, Lin Yi could no longer maintain her earlier calm and quickly stood up.
“Calm down, it hasn’t; it’s just an appetizer. They have touched the volcano’s barrier, but destroying that barrier… is still a far cry,” I quickly understood the situation after receiving the information and comforted her.
However, I was also somewhat surprised that they were already causing trouble at the peak so quickly…
But it seemed everything was still within expected limits; it appeared I would have to personally go and help Tan Han hold the line to prevent being bullied by other academy teaching assistants.
After all, I was a patroller teacher with not a single violation and good credibility; they should welcome my arrival.
