Chapter 738 – Three Thousand Mirror Ruins 5
by spirapira“Did you all see yesterday’s newspaper? The day before yesterday, a huge batch of Void Cognition Spore Fungus flooded the Underground market, and tons of people got scammed. It’s terrifying!”
“I know! Losing mirror coins is one thing, but losing your life right before the aptitude test is just too tragic!”
“Honestly, when I saw the news about Void Cognition Mushrooms being sold on the Underground market, I was tempted to buy some too. But by the time I scraped together enough mirror coins and went, they’d long sold out. It was that close—that close—and you wouldn’t be seeing me here today!”
“I heard that Jin Kang from the class next door didn’t make it after being poisoned by Void Cognition Spore Fungus. The people selling Void Cognition Spore Fungus as Void Cognition Mushrooms have truly done unforgivable harm!”
“My nanny’s neighbor—their whole family went bankrupt buying a single fake Void Cognition Mushroom, and they gave it to their two kids to eat. Luckily it was caught early, and each child only ate half a stalk, so they were saved. But their stomachs were severely damaged, and they’re still weak. Who knows if today’s test will be affected!”
“It definitely will be. Before the break, the teachers reminded us so many times to rest up these few days, not to exhaust ourselves mentally, and to maintain good condition. You know, physical condition affects psychic power performance too. Not everyone has the willpower to remain unaffected by their body’s state!”
“Sigh! The Void Cognition Mushroom and the Void Cognition Spore Fungus look so similar—how is it that one is a great tonic for psychic power while the other is deadly poison?”
“According to the educational article in the newspaper, if you’re careful, it’s actually not that hard to tell them apart. It’s just that ordinary people rarely encounter this kind of knowledge, and the group selling the Void Cognition Spore Fungus deliberately avoided Mirror Explorer families.”
……
The Void Cognition Spore Fungus poisoning incident still sent shivers down the spines of students about to take the test. Quite a few of them had genuinely been tempted by the Void Cognition Mushrooms on the Underground market; they simply hadn’t managed to buy any in time for various reasons.
Mo Lan also heard plenty of rumors that hadn’t made it into the newspapers.
It turned out that even those who survived the Void Cognition Spore Fungus poisoning would remain physically weakened for a while afterward.
The original owner of this body hadn’t known about this, so naturally Mo Lan didn’t either. Her understanding of this world was basically limited to what existed in the original owner’s memories.
Others might not know about the original owner being rushed to the hospital for Void Cognition Spore Fungus poisoning, but the hospital would certainly have records of it.
Mo Lan thought it over, then took out a pouch of green moss gel and sucked on it a few times with a look of utter despair on her face.
The piercingly cool flavor made her shudder, and her complexion instantly paled several shades.
Right now, nothing could make her look more convincingly frail than this stuff.
It seemed she would need to use the Book of Cards to produce some more green moss gel after the aptitude test, to keep up appearances over the next few days.
This pouch of green moss gel had been materialized from a card created by the Book of Cards. The pouch from the hospital had already been fed to the Book of Cards as card-crafting material.
“Green moss gel? Is that green moss gel?”
Zhang Zhuoran had been chatting away with his friends when, out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly noticed that the class bookworm was actually drinking green moss gel. He’d heard from his family’s nanny that people who survived Void Cognition Spore Fungus poisoning had to drink this stuff to nurse their stomachs for a while before they could eat normally again.
“Book wor— Mo Lan, you got poisoned too?”
His question drew the gazes of everyone around them.
Mo Lan looked up at them, gave a slight nod, then went back to reading the book in her hands.
The impression she gave was that his question was less interesting than whatever she was reading.
Zhang Zhuoran and the others had been discussing this for so long, and now they’d finally seen a living example of someone who’d eaten Void Cognition Spore Fungus. How could they not be curious!
Especially since this person was the friendless bookworm they normally didn’t think much of.
“Aren’t you an orphan? How would you have money to buy fake Void Cognition Mushrooms!”
“Don’t tell me you spent your martyrs’ dependent stipend on this! If your parents found out, they’d be rolling in their graves!”
“Well, at least you’re okay. But your condition doesn’t look great—will you be able to handle the aptitude test later? If you end up assigned to the regular class, don’t be too discouraged. Being an ordinary person might not be as impressive as being a Mirror Explorer, but at least it’s safe!”
“What does it feel like to be poisoned by Void Cognition Spore Fungus? Do you see stars?”
“How much Void Cognition Spore Fungus did you eat? Surely not a whole stalk? Everyone who ate a whole stalk died. Do you have any left? Bring it out and let us all have a look!”
……
Mo Lan furrowed her brows slightly. These so-called classmates truly didn’t care one bit about how she felt, only wanting to satisfy their own curiosity.
She couldn’t be bothered to answer questions that showed zero concern for the victim’s wellbeing. She simply pointed at a line in her book and said, “Could you all be quiet for a moment?”
“You—” Zhang Zhuoran’s anger hadn’t even had time to flare before he saw the line she was pointing at.
“Emotional agitation can cause psychic power instability?” Feng Haochuan, who was standing nearby, read the line aloud.
Instantly, all curiosity went cold. Everyone hurried back to their seats to calm down.
The aptitude test would determine their futures. At a time like this, they didn’t want even the slightest mishap to occur.
But simply sitting there like fools made it hard to settle their nerves. Earlier, when they’d been huddled with familiar classmates gossiping, it had partly been to relieve their anxiety.
Oh right—that bookworm was reading a book!
Maybe reading would work! Who didn’t have a couple of books stashed in their storage mirror!
One by one, the students who had already arrived in Class Three of Third Year pulled out books to read, leaving students from other classes and latecomers thoroughly bewildered.
“What’s going on? The aptitude test is about to start, and they’re all reading?”
“Some are even reading last year’s textbooks—or the year before’s. Are they okay?”
“I got the scoop—apparently it’s to calm the mind! An unsettled mental state causes psychic power instability, which could affect test results!”
“Really? Never mind, I’m done talking—I’m going to go read too.”
……
The students waiting for the aptitude test to begin quickly picked up this little “life hack” of reading!
When the teachers from each class arrived, they found all their students sitting quietly in their seats reading, and were quite pleased that everyone was finally taking their academic studies seriously.
The mirror citizens in the spectator stands were even more impressed, remarking that Deer Cry Middle School truly deserved its reputation as the top middle school in the entire mirror realm—the study atmosphere was incredibly moving.
Meanwhile, Mo Lan—the instigator of it all—felt entirely innocent.
She’d really only wanted to shut up those annoying pests in her class. Psychic power wasn’t nearly that easy to destabilize!
After staring at this book—every word of which she’d already memorized—for quite a while, a voice finally rang out from the main testing platform that had just been set up in the center of the sports field:
“The middle school aptitude test will now begin. Students, please follow your class teacher to the designated testing station!”
The aptitude test had finally begun.
Students who had just been reading all stood up within moments.
“Everyone line up and follow me! Our class is at Testing Station Number Two!”
The queuing order for the test had been rehearsed long ago, so there was no confusion now.
Mo Lan took her place toward the middle-rear of the line. (End of Chapter)