In a different room.
Baylon hugged the blanket tightly and curled into herself on the bed while taking in her entire surroundings.
After fainting from intoxication, she had woken up and found herself lying on this bed. There was no one around her and the room door was locked shut.
Suddenly, a familiar cry echoed from the next room.
“It’s Clint!!” she was happily surprised at once. She crept over anxiously and leaned against the wall closely while listening carefully.
“Clint!! Is it you?!” she yelled loudly.
The cries from the next room softened at once. Half a second later, a timid voice drifted over.
“Lon?”
“It’s really you!” Baylon’s mind was freed of anxiety immediately.
“Alright, little girl. You’re all right now. I’ve examined the area and both of you are currently in a place that is almost a thousand kilometers from the previous shop. You’ll be staying at this inn temporarily,” the sound waves of Red Moon’s voice were transferred into her mind.
“Clint. What happened to Clint? Why is he crying so sadly?” Kind Baylon was concerned about her friend immediately.
“He’s fine… He just encountered one of life’s minor obstacles…” Red Moon did not know how to explain this either. The things that were supposed to happen had occurred already…
“Is he really okay?” Baylon was still worried.
“Don’t worry. A man will definitely be able to get over a small pain like this,” consoled Red Moon. “The person who saved you has left. It’s best that both of you get up immediately to check your surroundings and geographical conditions. This place is just a temporary residence so other than yourselves, there aren’t any other living things, food, or even water here. If you don’t hurry up and find a way out, don’t blame me if you end up starving to death here.”
These words echoed in the minds of these two people simultaneously. Both of them had been able to distinguish when Red Moon was being honest or lying long ago. Now, they could clearly tell that Red Moon was speaking the truth. They crawled out of bed immediately while Clint looked around for clothes that he could wear.
He pushed the door open and walked out.
Bright, burning golden sunlight cascaded inside and spread across his skin, leaving a painful burning sensation there. Their surroundings were primarily a stretch of barren wilderness that included yellow-green plains and a little winding stream could occasionally be seen. Strangely enough, the water in the stream was green while thin shrouds of green mist would rise from it faintly.
The entire place was deathly quiet and there was not even a single fly to be seen.
Baylon looked into the distance. Near the horizon, a man in an eye-catching leather jacket could be seen riding his motorcycle speedily into the distance faintly. Strangely enough, the motorcycle was silent.
“That man saved you. This place was initially just a dilapidated hut that he turned into a temporary resting stop,” explained Red Moon softly.
“What should we do now?” Baylon felt suddenly thirsty.
“Think of a way to survive,” answered Red Moon solemnly. “You can’t drink the water here because it’s toxic. Since there are no other living things, it means that there won’t be any pieces of radioactive meat for you to eat either. It’s a good thing that I had brought some edible supplies with me in my space knob. I can support you for a period of time, but if you don’t find a way to solve your food problem within a week, you will definitely starve to death in this radioactive wasteland.”
“This is the radiation belt, huh…” this was the first time Baylon had felt the brutality of the radiation belt. First, it was the betrayal of the supposedly kind Big Sister and Yellow Bearded Uncle, and now they were in a situation where they had nothing to eat or drink. At this moment, the lack of food and water had become a life-threatening issue.
“Think of it as a form of self-training,” Red Moon sighed. “This is one of the main reasons why most people in the radiation belts don’t live past seventy or eighty years. They can’t preserve their health whenever they drink water, and their food sources are limited to a few plants and mostly the flesh of mutated beasts with lower rates of radiation inside their bodies. Most of the time, they are only able to consume a fist-sized amount of meat from mutated beasts that are the size of buffalos. After risking their lives to kill these animals, the food they get is usually only enough for one person.”
While listening to Red Moon’s explanations, Baylon suddenly understood the brutality and hardships that were part of the radiation belt wastelands.
“What would my big brother do if he was here?” she murmured softly.
“Your brother… I guess he would be at ease here,” Red Moon recalled the man whom he had judged wrongly. “That guy… has an extreme ruthlessness in his bones…”
******************
After circling the Inner Courtyard a few times, Garen realized that it was impossible for him to encounter that male student from the administration office again. There were no traces of that female student nicknamed Goldfish either. Meanwhile, he heard from others that Fila had gone to participate in some ceremony.
Once he had visited the library and read up on more of the general information here, Garen finally understood the makings of the entire Inner Courtyard properly.
To put it simply, the Inner Courtyard was the true, ruthless side of Blackboard Academy, while the Outer Courtyard was merely a place to train military and government personnel. The Outer Courtyard was mild and gentle while the Inner Courtyard was where the savage fights took place.
Quest Points were needed for everything. They were needed for training, purchasing items, duels, and everything else. Of course, one could pay with Universal Units instead if they were wealthy. However, the prices of the items here could hardly be borne by average multi-millionaires, as the goods here were twice the price of their normal rates outside. Moreover, the more valuable items here were easily priced at millions of Universal Units while they were actually much cheaper when they were bought with Quest Points instead.
It was obvious that life throughout the entire Inner Courtyard revolved around Quest Points.
Most of the professors and instructors in the Inner Courtyard were aloof and detached. They usually stayed within their own domains and hardly left; perhaps one wouldn’t even notice if they went out.
The students were the only ones who were active in the Inner Courtyard. The professors and instructors would never involve themselves in the fights between students and would be sent home if they died or became useless. Perhaps they would even be placed in simple positions if necessary.
The students in the Inner Courtyard were distributed into three main parties; the Black Star Party where the Black Star was the head, the Black Rain Party that was led by Red-Eyed Medero and three others, and Leo that was led by the exchange and transfer students.
There were many other smaller and larger organizations and many strong drifters like Fila. Garen understood that there were others like Anda who formed temporary groups and quest units. Most of them did not have close relationships and would only work together on quests. There were probably twenty groups like this in the Inner Courtyard.
Batches of students in higher grades such as Fifth-year and Sixth-year students would enter the Inner Courtyard yearly because this was the only place that contained information about Resonance Degrees that could surpass Level Six Inherited Levels. Therefore, many people continued to rush over continuously for a chance to find a rare opportunity despite being aware of the abnormal dangers here.
The life of an Inner Courtyard student was very simple.
There was nothing but quests. They would constantly accumulate the necessary resources for their Mechs, various techniques, and Training Methods. Other than quests, they needed to complete specific durations of training sessions during public classes. They would use up a lot of Quest Points if they failed to complete these training sessions. When their Quest Points were insufficient, they would be kicked out of the Inner Courtyard and all of their memories regarding Resonance Degrees would be wiped completely.
The two main things were their quests and public classes. These public classes were supposedly classes but were actually more like tests. They were used to get rid of batches of students that could not meet the mark while quests were used to continuously train the students’ progress.
The tutors and even outsiders would constantly release quests for the Elite Students of the Inner Courtyard. Students that were able to survive in this environment would definitely surpass the even first-rate cream of the crop of the Outer Courtyard.
Quest Points meant everything here. They could be used for business transactions, payments, punishment, and could even be used to purchase various techniques and materials that people of the outside world had never even heard of.
Meanwhile, the relationship between the students and tutors here were more like business partners that traded in technical knowledge rather than merely students and teachers. The tutors were like sellers who peddled various technique knowledge while providing the students with secret, high-grade information.
The students would trade technique knowledge among themselves as well while the tutors would turn a blind eye to their actions. Therefore, they would be able to purchase technique knowledge from certain powerful or high-level instructors and professors. Moreover, they would be able to gain even more Quest Points if they traded this knowledge. This would also show the key difference between high and low rankings.
Garen thought of his own Professor Van Doe. He was considered to rank in the middle of the Inner Courtyard but was actually concealing the depths of his powers. However, most of the instructors and professors here would hide most of their true strengths. On the surface, Van Doe only belonged to Level Five of the Twin-Moons Level. In reality, no one knew the true extent of his strength. There were twenty to thirty other professors like him in the Inner Courtyard that had indistinguishable powers.
Once he had understood the initial parts of this information from various aspects, Garen began to gain a brief understanding of life in the Inner Courtyard.
As for Anda’s invitation to join his quest, Garen had gathered some information from the quest section of the library. He learned that they would truly need to travel for a long journey and would need to pass through the radiation belt and even pilot Mechs. They would also need to pass through a vast terrain along the way. The entire quest would take at least half a month up to a whole month to complete.
Garen had thought of visiting the radiation belt as well. Red Moon had previously informed him that they had already entered the radiation belt and he wanted to see if he could find Clint and the others.
He would also need time to purchase the Red Peacock Stone.
Upon returning to the tutors’ villas and entering his own room, Garen contacted Kendall’s external phone number immediately.
“Boss! Tell me your instructions!” after relying on Garen, Kendall had become the boss of a larger than average company. His main business was arranging the transport of Rainbow Stones. Once he had gained Garen’s trust, his daily life was completely smooth sailing. His face on the screen of Garen’s watch was currently rounder and chubbier like a smiling Buddha.
“Purchase Red Rainbow Stones on the market immediately. It’s best if you find a stable goods supply channel.”
“How much do you need?”
“Get two tonnes from the market and just store them first. Separate ten percent of the profits and purchase them slowly once you’ve found a channel. Send me a report of the revenue and expenditure accounts once every two months,” said Garen in a straightforward manner.
“No problem, this will be easy. Numerous clients have chased me previously to ask if I needed anymore Rainbow Stones of other colors,” Kendall’s eyes became two slits when he laughed. Then, he happened to think of something. “Boss, there are more of the other colored Rainbow Stones but their purity levels are lower. Their prices might be slightly more expensive than White Rainbow Stones too…”
“Don’t worry about the expenses, just be as quick as possible,” Garen pondered for a moment. “Buy two tonnes of the other Rainbow Stones and kept them in the warehouse as well in case we need to transfer them suddenly.”
“Understood, it will be done in less than two months! However, it will probably take a longer time for them to be sent over. After all, the red ones are scattered within a wider area and their production rate in a single area is very low.” Kendall sounded extremely confident when he spoke. It was clear that he had obtained the channels of many clients previously and knew the necessary information like the back of his hand.
“No problem. It’ll be fine as long as you can to do it. I’ll be waiting for your good news.”
“I swear that I won’t let you down!”
Garen exhaled slowly once he had disconnected the phone call.
“It’s time for me to solve the problem with Goldfish and that guy…”