Chapter 33: Mei Lulu

The Academy’s training base was built in collaboration with the Border Guard Legion that defended the entire city.

After all, most of the outstanding students trained at the Academy would eventually serve in the Legion, taking on the important duty of protecting the city.

Practical combat was the core of the Academy’s education.

For students of Enlightenment Academy, acquiring a certain level of combat ability was also a key condition for graduation.

However, fighting against the cruel demon beasts in the wild meant that even a slight misstep could come at a terrible cost.

Therefore, the training base was staffed by numerous soldiers from the Legion, who accompanied the teaching staff to ensure student safety.

According to the original story, there was no real danger in this segment.

What Su Li encountered were merely some psychological changes.

He confirmed the brutality of demon beasts and understood that they had to be exterminated.

Other than that, the story had no further waves.

So there was absolutely no need for her to come here.

You Xue watched the backs of the students receding into the distance.

She could see Su Li slowly moving away with the crowd.

But she had still come.

As an old saying went, since she was already here, there was no use regretting or worrying.

Suddenly, the pain inside her chest intensified.

You Xue pressed her hand to her chest and thought to herself, ‘The painkillers have worn off.’

Before setting out, You Xue had already gone to Anbian Du to draw blood and exchange for medicine.

After taking it, her condition had stabilized a bit.

She hadn’t paid much attention to the changes in her blood.

She thought to herself that maybe by pushing her body like this and letting her blood change, her illness might actually improve?

But it didn’t.

Her hopes went unfulfilled.

The pain from Magic Rejection Syndrome continued to surge.

You Xue took out the painkillers she carried with her, opened the bottle cap, and shook out two pills.

All she could do now was try to ease the pain.

Just then, a small, soft voice came from behind her.

“Miss, are those painkillers you’re taking?”

You Xue turned around and saw a girl in a white dress with light orange hair that faded to white.

“Who are you?”

You Xue was a little surprised.

She instinctively stepped back half a step and asked.

The girl bowed slightly, her expression timid.

“I’m Mei Lulu. I’m a logistics medical staff member sent by the Academy to the training base. I saw you taking painkillers just now. Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”

Mei Lulu’s voice was gentle, carrying a note of concern.

Having read the original story thoroughly, You Xue knew who this person was.

As she said, she was indeed a medical staffer at the base.

But she wasn’t a very important character.

She only appeared when treating injured students.

The original text had only a few lines describing her.

You Xue hadn’t expected to run into her.

“It’s nothing.”

She shook her head slightly.

She absolutely couldn’t reveal her illness.

Then she explained.

“It’s just some minor illness. I was prescribed medicine, and I’m slowly recovering. It still hurts a bit before I’m fully healed, so I’m taking painkillers.”

She kept her expression blank.

As long as she did that, the other person probably wouldn’t be able to tell it was a lie and wouldn’t be suspicious.

“I see.”

Mei Lulu nodded.

“I was worrying too much, Miss—”

She hesitated, as if there was something else she wanted to ask.

Although You Xue didn’t want to interact with this doctor any further, she couldn’t just suddenly turn cold and leave.

She felt that would be counterproductive.

“You Xue. That’s my name.”

After a brief thought, You Xue gave her name.

“Oh, Miss You Xue, are you a new student? Are you lost? I can take you to the dormitory.”

Mei Lulu’s tone was very worried.

‘What a doctor who worries too much about others.’

But You Xue didn’t need that.

She sighed inwardly.

“No.”

She shook her head again.

“I’m an Engraver from Scar Workshop, responsible for inspecting and repairing this batch of Seals.”

Upon hearing You Xue’s words, Mei Lulu’s eyes lit up with surprise.

“An Engraver? At such a young age?”

“I’m just a newly apprenticed novice. It’s nothing special.”

You Xue’s tone was flat.

Mei Lulu blinked.

“I see. But that’s still impressive. Sorry for taking up so much of your time without permission.”

“It’s fine.”

You Xue said lightly.

Then Mei Lulu bowed and walked away, carrying her medical kit.

You Xue watched her retreating figure and finally had some time to herself.

Actually, she hadn’t come here specifically to see Su Li.

She had just wanted to get some fresh air after arriving at the base, but it turned out Su Li’s class had arrived at the same time.

So, fate.

It was truly unpredictable and always played tricks on people.

The people she didn’t want to meet always appeared before her eyes.

‘Better not stir up any more trouble,’ You Xue thought to herself.

You Xue lowered her eyes and turned to walk toward the room assigned to her.

Her room was at the far end of the logistics area, a somewhat narrow space, but it was at least more refined and sturdier than her home in the slums.

As the head of Scar Workshop, Sanjian Ying had naturally come as well, but she had gone to discuss work matters with the base’s official personnel.

You Xue walked into the room and closed the door.

Taking advantage of the free time, she thought she should start planning for the future.

But she also felt a little bitter.

She didn’t even know how much longer she would live, yet she had to make plans for things that hadn’t happened yet.

However…

That was exactly why.

This was the only thing she could do.

You Xue closed her eyes and began recalling the plot that followed in the original story.

In the early part of the novel, the story was far from the sadness of the later chapters.

It felt like an ordinary school growth story.

It was this kind of beginning that had drawn You Xue in.

An ordinary boy trapped in the mud caught a glimmer of hope, grew slowly, gradually became reliable, gained trustworthy companions one after another, eventually became incredibly powerful, and resolved a crisis that threatened the entire city.

That was how the story was supposed to go, but things didn’t develop that way.

The biggest twist was probably the appearance of the childhood sweetheart.

Originally, the childhood sweetheart only appeared in Su Li’s memories.

Her first appearance was supposed to be a touching reunion, but instead, it brought the news of her illness.

Her existence was only meant to prove the cruelty of the world and add a touch of tragedy to Su Li’s growth.

Then Su Li took care of the childhood sweetheart from the story, and they experienced many things together.

After the training drill segment came the Nightmare arc of the original story.

A monster called the [Nightmare] would suddenly appear in Moonview City.

It would twist people’s obsessions in their sleep, slowly devour them, and then take the dreamer’s place in reality.

Although the boss in this arc was far stronger than the male lead, fortunately, most of the pressure fell on the Academy.

Su Li only had to hunt down a few key Nightmares before the Academy side resolved the source of the Nightmare, and the entire arc ended.

You Xue slowly opened her eyes and thought to herself.

‘This seems like another arc I can get through without interfering.’

But she couldn’t let her guard down.

After all, she was now in a real world, and the future wasn’t set in stone.

You Xue lay down on the bed and stretched out her hand.

The light from the lamp passed through the gaps between her fingers.

But when it came to the future, how much of it did she have?