A Top Scholar in Everything

In the past, the mine tunnels have always been quite stable in terms of safety.

The people working here are all ordinary folks. This small boss spent half of his life savings to contract this mine, and now that something has happened, it's hard to describe how anxious he feels.

At the beginning, he still dared to go down into the mine to check personally.

However.

After the bodies were brought out, he saw the condition of those workers' deaths, and unspeakable fear crept into his heart; he refused to go down again no matter what.

Since then.

This mine has been closed off up until today.

"Honorable guests, perhaps you should first take a look at those bodies. Maybe you can find some clues?" the person in charge wiped the sweat from his forehead and inquired.

Meng Siyu thought for a moment.

Indeed, it would be best to look at the bodies first to get a better understanding of the situation.

Although she wasn't a naive rookie, she didn't have much experience with investigative tasks of this nature.

The school's tasks were quite simple.

If you find out the cause, solve it yourself if you can.

If you can't,

then report back to the school.

The rewards and evaluations for these are different.

The Martial Arts School is not an Ivory Tower; you can tell from various systems, whether it's the monthly tasks or the exams, they openly display one rule: the strong get stronger.

The stronger you are, the more resources you get.

This kind of strength.

Is determined through your daily task evaluations, assessments, etc.

This set of rules motivates all students to strive and work hard to obtain more resources.

Therefore.

This time, Meng Siyu and her team came with the intention of resolving the issue in one go.

At that moment.

The five of them, led by the person in charge, arrived in a cool room.

Four ice coffins were placed inside.

He Chenghai lifted the lid of the ice coffin in front of him, revealing a corpse with a hideous face, its flesh completely drained.

The corpse lacked even the slightest breath of life.

It was like an Ancient Egyptian mummy, its blood and flesh shriveled and twisted, dry, several parts revealing yellowish white bones, its facial muscles unrecognizable.

A dried-up human.

Simultaneously, the term popped into the minds of the five.

"The rest of the bodies are in the same condition. When they were found, they were already like this, as if drained by some horrifying creature, yet strangely there were no major wounds on their bodies."

The person in charge wiped his forehead with a white handkerchief, his expression filled with immense fear.

Every time he saw these bodies, he felt uncomfortable.

Meng Siyu frowned and opened the other coffins; indeed, they were all identical.

The only minor difference.

Was the miner who died in the hospital.

He seemed a little better than the others, not as severely shriveled.

While the team investigated.

Baiyu had already quietly sent several Blood Worms into the bodies. However, the feedback from the mother worm was almost the same – the cause of death of these people remained a mystery.

To figure out the cause, they still had to go down personally.

Although the person in charge suggested resting first, He Chenghai declined.

"This is Foreman Han. He has been working here for over five years and is most familiar with the environment below the mine. He will take you down."

The person in charge brought in a burly man with thick eyebrows and big eyes.

The man had broad hand and foot bones, and his face was full of ravines, all left by the years, giving off a weathered feel.

He smiled honestly and fearlessly, leading the way into the mine tunnel.

Meng Siyu and the group followed closely behind.

Baiyu frowned slightly.

"Baiyu, aren't you going down?" He Chenghai turned around, a hint of disdain on his face.

The others also turned to look.

"Heh, you all know I'm a Gunman. In such conditions where visibility is poor, going down wouldn't be of much use. I might as well investigate around the area.

Besides, you are a team, you don't need me."

Baiyu waved his hand with ease.

Upon hearing this.

The three men looked at him with some disdain, while Meng Siyu kept her head down, lost in thought.

Yet.

Since Baiyu was unwilling to go down.

The group couldn't force him.

At most, they would jot it down in the task report later, lowering his score and rewards to the minimum.

...

Watching the five disappear into the pitch-black mine tunnel.

Baiyu turned around and left gracefully.

The Blood Worms had already followed them down, and coupled with the pinhole camera Baiyu had discreetly placed on He Chenghai, he would still be informed of any situation.

If someone is willing to work, why risk it himself?

Furthermore.

The others didn't hold him in high regard anyway.

"Brother, want to have a chat?"

Baiyu beckoned to the person in charge not far away.

...

In a teahouse.

The two talked for over an hour, during which Baiyu thoroughly learned about the mine's situation.

In the underground third-level resource area.

Such mines were not uncommon.

Various-sized mines were contracted out by the Government to private individuals. Similar small contractors were everywhere. They generally just spent money to buy it, then hired workers to extract ore.

Finally channel it for sale.

Once something like this happens, his contracted area faces significant daily losses.

"Has anything like this happened before? Is there no sign of Exotic Beasts in this area?" Baiyu asked.

The person in charge nodded: "Indeed, I've never heard of such incidents, and as for Exotic Beasts, there's none in the resource area. However, while mining, we might accidentally dig up Exotic Beasts sleeping underground..."

The further away from the surface, the higher the danger.

Most of Zenith City's area is underground and surrounded by the sea.

The waters are the territory of Exotic Beasts.

So coming across Exotic Beasts while mining isn't impossible.

"On the day the incident happened, was there anything unusual compared to usual?" Baiyu continued interrogating.

He instinctively felt that this matter did not seem to be caused by Exotic Beasts.

"Hmm... probably not."

The person in charge pondered about the situation then, "It was just a regular workday. I even got up early that day, brought my family to the site for the entire morning, and then this incident happened in the afternoon."

The clues hit a dead end.

Baiyu slightly furrowed his brow,could this matter truly be his wrong assumption?

Could there really be a few Exotic Beasts beneath the mine?

However.

To drain people like that, ordinary Exotic Beasts can't do.

After waiting two more hours.

Baiyu wandered around the mine's surroundings, inquiring the workers, all finding nothing unusual.

The investigation had reached a standstill.

Before long.

Meng Siyu and the team returned without success.

After going down once, they found nothing unusual, the area pitch-black.

No trace of Exotic Beasts was found in the mine tunnel either.

After discussion with everyone.

They planned to stay overnight and investigate further tomorrow.

Otherwise, they couldn't complete the task.

As for Baiyu's thoughts, they'd been ignored.

Under the person in charge's arrangement, the team quickly settled in a small villa.