In the middle of the night, Hakimi poked its head out from the corner of the stairs, its blue eyes gazing at the sleeping Lu Yun, wondering what it was thinking.
The next day, the black fog outside still lingered, but it was nothing compared to the black fog of The Entity—it had zero effect on Lu Yun.
Outside the Secret Realm, everyone was astonished that this guy, who usually kept such a low profile in class, could actually pull this off after entering the Secret Realm, safely making it through the first day!
And he had even explored two-thirds of the surrounding area!
Look at the other candidates in the Secret Realm:
Some didn't save Hakimi on the first day, so the Pig-headed Man came strolling into their courtyard with a knife when night fell.
It scared one candidate so badly he couldn't sleep all night, terrified the Pig-headed Man would barge in with a butcher's knife and chop him into minced meat.
Others sneaked out at night to explore the pigpens, only to be torn to shreds by Pigmen and spider monsters.
If you asked Lu Yun, this was practically a firsthand display of biological diversity.
By the second day, Hakimi was no longer in its cat bed upstairs; it must have gone out again.
"That won't do. I need to take Hakimi over to squeeze through some mouse holes," Lu Yun muttered as he headed out to look for Hakimi.
Lu Yun searched the house from top to bottom without any luck, finally finding Hakimi in the sow pen.
Hakimi was sitting right on the breeding boar's fence, staring at the boar and pondering who-knows-what.
Suddenly, a large hand reached under Hakimi's armpits and scooped it up.
"Meow?" Hakimi looked bewildered.
Lu Yun cradled Hakimi and walked counter-clockwise from his house, heading into Hui Cat's family pig farm to locate that specific mouse hole.
"Hakimi, if you're willing to go inside this hole and see what's in there, give me a meow," Lu Yun told it.
Hakimi tilted its head and let out a quizzical meow.
Still, Lu Yun shoved Hakimi straight into that mouse hole.
Right at that moment, Lu Yun's Killing Intent Perception triggered. In other words, the Pig-headed Man had entered a hundred-meter radius around him and was likely heading this way!
"Of course it's right now..." Fortunately, Lu Yun remembered there was a cabinet here, and its size seemed just right to fit him.
No sooner said than done; the Killer Instinct alert points were getting closer and closer.
Within a few steps, Lu Yun had already hidden himself inside a wardrobe.
The smell inside this wardrobe was even more potent—a heavy reek of pig manure assaulted his nose, brutalizing his olfactory system.
According to his Killing Intent Perception, the Pig-headed Man seemed to be searching the pigpens one by one. After finishing them all, it paused in place for a moment.
Then it took a few steps toward Lu Yun's location.
Lu Yun didn't even dare to breathe, terrified of being discovered.
The Pig-headed Man walked in, taking a few steps toward the cabinet area. Lu Yun felt his breathing practically stop—not out of fear, but because this was simply too thrilling!
He was confident that dying here was out of the question; by slipping into the Spirit Realm for five seconds, he could surely dash about twenty meters or so, right? He could run straight back home, and the Pig-headed Man wouldn't keep chasing him.
"Geez, so terrifying. If it were me, I probably would've passed out by now," a spectator parent remarked.
"Yet looking at this kid, how come he seems so excited?" another parent next to him asked.
Inside the Secret Realm, the Pig-headed Man opened the cabinet right next to Lu Yun, found nobody inside, and turned to leave.
It didn't bother to check the cabinet where Lu Yun was hiding.
However, this sneaky bastard didn't leave—it just waited right behind the door, and the Killer Instinct alert points kept flashing!
"No way, the Pig-headed Man already left. Why isn't he coming out of the cabinet yet?" a parent asked.
"Who knows? Maybe his legs turned to jelly from fright?"
Meanwhile, in the proctoring room, a middle-aged man who looked to outrank the others was frowning as he watched Lu Yun's surveillance feed.
"Boss, why isn't he coming out of the cabinet?" a staff member asked.
"Tell me, is there any chance the Pig-headed Man didn't leave at all, and is currently waiting right behind the door?"
"Huh? No way, the Pig-headed Man doesn't look all that smart, does he?"
The boss shook his head and said, "If you could figure that out, you wouldn't be standing here."
Sure enough, five minutes later, the Pig-headed Man suddenly flung open the storage room door. Seeing not a speck of motion inside, it finally left for real.
It turned and walked away, as if having made up its mind about something.
As the Killer Instinct alert points receded further and further away from Lu Yun, he finally confirmed the Pig-headed Man was genuinely gone.
"Guess it's safe now." Lu Yun still carefully eased the wardrobe door open.
Why did this feel so much like breaking in to steal an electric generator, getting detected by an assassin, hiding in the cabinet right next to the generator, and having the assassin open the exact cabinet beside you?
Come to think of it, there actually was a generator in this storage room—probably meant for backup power if the pig farm ever lost electricity.
While waiting by the hole for Hakimi, Lu Yun suddenly heard the cackling of a chicken.
The sound seemed to come from Hui Cat's place.
"I distinctly remember not finding any chickens at his place yesterday," Lu Yun thought to himself. Since the Pig-headed Man had already cleared out anyway, taking a look wouldn't hurt.
First, though, let's see what Hakimi managed to dig up.
After waiting about five minutes, a rustling sound echoed from inside the hole—the sound of fur and dirt rubbing together.
To his surprise, Hakimi emerged with a smartphone clamped in its jaws—a smart one, at that.
Hakimi shook the dirt off its coat, licked its paws, and walked away with its tail held high.
Lu Yun crossed Hui Cat's breeding farm and went around to the back of Hui Cat's house.
"Ah, figures. There's a plot of land behind his house, enclosed by four sides of wire netting."
Inside the wire-enclosed chicken coop, a single chicken was staring intently at a basketball lying five or six meters away outside the fence.
Lu Yun walked over, picked up the basketball, and asked the chicken, "Are you looking for this basketball?"
The chicken bobbed its head a few times.
"Cluck, cluck, cluck." (Chicken noises)
Lu Yun tossed the basketball into the chicken coop, and the chicken hopped onto the ball, starting to play with it by itself.
Lu Yun had no idea what this chicken and basketball were supposed to mean.
Outside, Lu Yun's head teacher asked the principal, "Principal, what on earth do you think this basketball and chicken are all about?"
The principal said, "Xiao Wang, try really hard to draw a connection between the basketball and the chicken."
The principal patted Teacher Wang—Lu Yun's head teacher—on the shoulder and said, "Xiao Wang, I have high hopes for you as a student of mine. I happen to have an open position for Dean of Students; think carefully about the profound meaning behind this basketball and chicken."
"Yes, Principal, I will definitely ponder the relationship between them."
Inside the Secret Realm, Lu Yun retraced his steps along the path he'd taken to Hui Cat's place.
Right at that moment, that Pig-headed Man was heading back this way again.
"What a pain. I'm done playing with you." With that, the fingers on Lu Yun's hands began to twist, and his entire body vanished right in front of thousands of people.
"How did he disappear?" a proctor asked.