Echoes of the Past

Chapter 30: Why are there JK uniforms here?

According to the Elk Executive Manual, if the remains of the living erosion have no obvious harmful properties, they will be burned on the spot and the bones will be reduced to ashes.

"Eh, you mean I have to pry all the messy pieces out of the room and gather them together?" Suiyue swallowed hard. "Can't we just burn the house down? We can't live here anyway."

Yes, this reaction is the same as when Nan'an saw an object crawling over it in his previous life.

"Wake up! The crow has lifted the danger warning for the approaching black fog. The people who took refuge near Kren City will soon be returning home. Do you want this family to have nowhere to live?"

"It's a haunted house."

"Poverty is far more terrifying than evil spirits."

Suiyue was taken aback by what she heard, but then she remembered that the two of them still needed to sell their horns to earn start-up capital, and she nodded in agreement.

Nan'an admired Suiyue. Her greatest strength was her obedience. Even if she muttered something disgusting and her face showed disdain, she would still obediently follow along and do things without any hesitation.

However, before she could sweep the shards off the roof beam, Nan'an sensed footsteps coming from afar.

"Wait." Suiyue subconsciously stopped Nan'an from returning to the prison of consciousness. "Since you already punched Ariel in the deliberation meeting, why are you still hiding? You are my summoned creature, and I have the Crow as my guarantor."

"Well……"

Upon reflection, Nan'an realized that it made sense, and his previous instinctive reaction seemed somewhat unnecessary.

Once the money from selling the horn arrives, I'll help Suiyue tinker with a magic-enhancing evil cultivation set to make up for her flaw of crying "I can't take it anymore" after just a couple of breaths. As long as we don't encounter any too troublesome high-level opponents, keeping this silly cow alive shouldn't be a problem.

The footsteps drew closer.

Suiyue peeked out and saw more than ten figures walking across the village road outside the wooden house.

Nan'an also peered over, and then he froze.

If you had to summarize the world of Nora in one sentence, this is how Nanan would describe it.

This is a typical fantasy setting with swords and magic, dragons and elves, and a level of civilization similar to the Middle Ages in his understanding, but the art style is like a carefully simmered hodgepodge.

Here, you can see ancient Roman-style toga robes fluttering in the council hall, and you can also see British-style whalebone crinolines blooming like flowers at court balls.

In his previous life, he and the Red Rat family had witnessed too much extravagance.

I've seen those noblewomen with their waists cinched in corsets, their enormous skirts trailing across the smooth marble floors, spinning tirelessly like tops in the brightly lit banquet halls.

I have also seen elite mages from afar. They wore robes of strange material, the fabric as thin as a cicada's wing, which shimmered like flowing water when it fluttered in the wind, making them look even more upright and dashing.

This all makes sense and aligns with Nan'an's vision and imagination of this world after his time travel.

Magic can alter textile techniques, and a variety of exotic materials can lead to a diverse range of products.

But now...

He watched as the group of people drew closer, their gazes gradually meeting his... dark, preppy-style suit jackets, tailored to fit well, with exquisitely designed badges pinned to their chests.

The men were fine, but the women...

A knee-length plaid pleated skirt, the hem swaying rhythmically with each step.

Black stockings, shiny leather shoes.

Faced with this group of people whose clothing style practically screamed "I'm a high school girl," Nan An's mind went blank.

After crashing into two indescribable demonic entities in the black mist and bravely battling the aging demonic eye, Nan'an panicked for the first time without any apparent reason.

"Is this the Nora I know? What does this mean?"

Their worldviews are quite different, aren't they? Where did these people come from? Are they on a field trip?

"They're from the Tears and Fire Magic Academy," Suiyue muttered to herself.

"You actually recognized him?"

"When I was still in the early days, the seniors from the Tears and Fire graduation season would come to the orphanage to volunteer," Suiyue recalled. "They were rich kids, and the desserts they brought were always delicious. They also served huge portions of food without their hands shaking."

Nan'an asked in a low voice, "Is this a school uniform?"

"Yes, the school uniform has a history of several hundred years. It is said to date back to the Gray Star era, leading the trend of that era and inspiring the creative ideas of many artists."

Suiyue suddenly sensed the confusion and bewilderment in Nan'an's eyes.

"Wait, haven't you seen this before?"

Nanan was certain that Nora didn't have any of these things when he died.

Knowing that Suiyue had no relevant knowledge in her mind, Nan'an knew that there would be another strange thing to find in historical documents after returning to the deep cave.

While the two were whispering to each other, the people from the Tearfire Academy arrived in front of them—the two sides stood together, as if they were not on the same level.

The leader was a young man who looked to be about twenty-five or twenty-six years old.

He stepped forward, smiling as he introduced himself as a senior student from the Potions School of the Tearfire Magic Academy, the leader of this team, and presented a field observation permit personally signed by Pirion.

Nan An glanced at it, somewhat puzzled, and then had an idea to ask Sui Yue to be his mouth double.

"Why would the Potions School want to examine a corpse?"

The senior student was taken aback, then smiled and said, "Ms. Suiyue, as a member of the Elu, you should know that since the black mist spread, a law was passed to seal high-level magic, which has also led to many high-level healing potion recipes being shelved."

"There is a group of potion makers who are trying their best to find lower-level alternatives to high-level potion recipes."

"Another school of thought is trying to achieve the best results by using traditional methods of healing without relying on magic, supplemented with the minimum amount of potions."

He spoke tactfully, but Nan'an understood. This person clearly saw through Suiyue's complete ignorance of the background information, yet still patiently explained it again.

After the knowledge was sealed, all factions were forced to change their research approach.

The group of people in front of us are retracing the path of a doctor.

However, because magic was so prevalent in the past, even without the black mist, the experience and knowledge of ancient physicians had long been fragmented and lost.

These potion masters essentially have to build a theoretical foundation from scratch before they can gradually climb back to the level of clinical application.

The world beyond the black fog is shattered, and countless living erosioners have defected to the enemy, but the people of Solitz and Onze do not want to give up.

They must be the respectable scholars that the crow spoke of.

After confirming with Suiyue that the body was no longer at risk of contamination, the students of Tears of Fire skillfully took out a set of white robes, put on gloves, and took out knives from the wooden box they carried with them.

Suiyue wasn't interested in the upcoming "mealtime" scene, she was just a little puzzled...

"Nan'an, why is she staring at me?"

Nan'an was watching the dissection with great interest when Suiyue nudged him with her elbow and gave him a sidelong glance.

She was an eighteen or nineteen-year-old girl.

Shoulder-length black hair fell straight down, blue eyes, oval face.

Hmm, it's worth taking a closer look.

Her legs were straight and her figure slender, perfectly accentuated by the school uniform. Although she wasn't as tall as Suiyue, her proportions were excellent, giving her the illusion of being unusually tall.

"How is it?" Suiyue asked.

"Her neck has a smooth and elegant line," Nan An commented. "If she were on the bounty list, I would be very interested. If you cut her down a bit, she should fetch a good price as a collectible."

Suiyue: "..."

She took a deep breath: "Who asked you that! Why haven't you changed it yet!"

Nan'an shrugged.

The ingrained habit from a past life of performing well still lingers.

The other person was indeed glancing at Suiyue, but after seeing the two whispering to each other, she looked away and took out a water bottle from her backpack. With some cookies she carried, she watched her classmates chop up the rare, fresh carcass while making "snap, snap" sounds.

Nan An stroked his chin: "To join the Red Rat Adventurers, this level of mental fortitude is a must. Not bad, not bad."

"You actually quite admire it!"

"I can squat in a disco to eat," he said instinctively, but then suddenly felt a pang of sadness.

Is this really something to brag about...?

"What is disco?" Suiyue tilted her head innocently.

For the sake of Suiyue's stomach health, Nan'an decided not to offer any explanation for the time being.

The girl who could calmly eat at the autopsy site indeed drew sharp comments from her companions.

The senior potion master leading the group looked up from beside the body, his face weary as he looked over. Nan An was very familiar with that look of a normal person looking at a god—it was just like that when he used to look at his silly group members through the screen.

"Clara, according to the rules..."

A girl named Coralina snapped a bite off her cookie and answered quickly, "The first rule of classical medicine is to respect the dead who have contributed to the advancement of medicine."

She chewed it a couple more times.

"But he's a living Eclipse!" she said righteously. "Isn't disrespecting him the way to respect the potions masters? We've already been very polite by not cutting off his head to keep as a specimen. If we had arrived any later, this older sister from El-Deer might have already started kicking it around like a ball."

"?"

"?"

Suiyue wanted to wave her hand and explain that she was not old at all and did not have any strange hobbies.

But considering that Nan'an beside him did indeed have the "habit" of headhunting, he didn't dare to refute it for a moment.

Seeing that Corella's words made some sense, the senior student helplessly lowered his head.

The slicing and research continued until nightfall. The exhausted members of the Potions School, as well as Suiyue, who was starving and somewhat dizzy, felt that they could finally be free.

As Nan'an inserted his hand into the living corpse and lit a bright "campfire," the sound of clinking glasses could be heard from next door.

"You're going to die!"

A girl named Corella raised her water glass and enthusiastically clinked glasses with several female classmates beside her, drawing the attention of the entire group.

Her infectious laughter inspired everyone to imitate her.

"Good riddance!"

The senior student leading the group shook his head helplessly and walked towards Suiyue.

"It's getting late. Could we accompany Ms. Suiyue? This would make it easier for us to exchange our observations."

The value of the El Deer was well understood by the students who came from the capital of Soliz.

Seeing that Suiyue was looking at Nan'an again, the senior hurriedly apologized.

"I apologize for my rudeness; it was not an intentional slight."

Nan'an smiled and waved for everyone to follow—given their aversion and disgust towards the Living Eclipse, taking care of these young people was simply a matter of course.

"Senior, this is a very obvious phenomenon of devouring. This means that there is a Nightmare around Kren that has been corrupted by fragments of the Nightmare God and has begun to lose its mind, or that its own abilities are related to feeding."

Nan'an then asked, "Do you prefer the former or the latter?"

The senior student said solemnly, "I really hope it's the latter... Having the option to devour fragments of one's own kind is at least better than being an uncontrollable, indiscriminate attacker. After all, most Nightmares will carefully avoid being exposed in order to evade pursuit, and most of the time they won't dare to do anything out of line."

Whether it's Solize or Onze, the live erosion will appear in an instant.

Aside from Elu, other organizations will also become bounty hunters for the rewards they receive for capturing Nightmare Fragments, which are offered by the authorities.

In theory, the Living Corrosion Energy can transform into a Divine Nightmare, fully adapting to the black mist and becoming a rational, special individual.

But this only exists in the imagination of scholars.

The truth is, the living environment of the living erosion creature is like a pressure cooker.

To borrow a classic quote from Nan'an's previous life, the position of the Living Erosion is quite awkward.

Take another step, and you'll reach the Nightmare God, whose power touches upon the nature of concepts, making it a terrifyingly powerful force.

The next step is magic. Although it has become somewhat weaker compared to the rampaging Nightmare God and is now a bit outdated, it is still the mainstream choice.

Moreover, magicians generally understand that it is right for them to insist on a green, magical game, which is better than "cheating," so they can condemn cheaters with a clear conscience.

What about active erosion?

He is a disabled person with extraordinary abilities.

Having transcended the ranks of mortals, they possess the potential to touch "miracles," yet they are far from reaching the power and stability of the Nightmares. They need to constantly devour fragments to maintain their existence, resist erosion, and pursue that elusive "completeness," while simultaneously facing constant hunting and rejection from the entire world.

It's stuck in the middle, neither going up nor down.

He wanted to become the Nightmare God, but couldn't overcome the almost rigorous "selection" process.

Wanting to return to being an ordinary person, yet unwilling to completely conceal themselves as the living erosion force.

Given their betrayal of the mainstream and persecution of their own kind, their actions seem like those of orphans whose parents have turned away from them, making them universally condemned.

Nan'an and her senior were having a heated discussion about their experiences from corpses to living corpses, while Suiyue's group was also chattering away at the back.

These elites from the capital's universities only took a break in the last month or two to experience the outside world through outdoor activities.

Away from their parents and studies, except for the occasional need to retrieve their brains and face the bloody mess again, their lives have gone off track for the first time. At this point, the only person who can restrain them is their senior classmates. If they don't let loose, when will they?

Amidst the muttering sounds, Suiyue sensed an underlying unease.

Something cold seemed to gently scratch her back.

She stopped where she was and turned around abruptly.

A gentle evening breeze rustled the leaves of the trees all around.

"Nan'an..."

"Nan'an!"

Nan'an, who was at the front of the group, practically teleported to Suiyue's side: "I felt it too... Be careful, everyone!"

Before he could finish speaking, a gasp of surprise came from the front of the group.

A dark shadow descended from the sky, its sharp aura striking the ground, raising clouds of dust and momentarily obscuring everyone's view.