“Found it!!”

With a grimace, Li Wen ran out of the warehouse, holding the sword in both hands.

She was small, and the sword had a razor-sharp edge. Someone had taken meticulous care of it, whoever they were, and it was still dangerously sharp. Even cradling it in her arms, she could cut herself.

With her thigh caught, Li Wen could only manage a quick jog. Jiang Cha, who’d fled for her life, wasn’t far away, though.

“Hahahaha! How are you this clumsy?!”

The moment their eyes met, Jiang Cha couldn’t help laughing. She sprinted across the athletic field, laughing her head off, with a horde of strange, pitch-black man-eating monsters right behind her. She looked completely deranged—like someone who’d escaped from a psychiatric hospital.

To anyone who’d trained with a blade, Xia Yuan’s posture really was hilarious. But anyone who could laugh out loud in a situation like this was definitely not normal, either.

“Give me the sword. We’re heading to the chemistry building!”

“Here!”

She didn’t have time to respond to Jiang Cha’s teasing. Mustering all her strength, she hurled the greatsword, caught her breath, then turned and ran.

It didn’t go very far. The two of them were more than a hundred meters apart; even if she’d killed Xia Yuan, she still couldn’t have thrown it all the way into Jiang Cha’s hands. The greatsword traced a low arc through the air, then crashed to the ground.

The wooden club in Jiang Cha’s hands had already snapped in two.

The girl casually tossed the broken club away, then took off at a sprint. In less than seven or eight seconds, she’d covered nearly a hundred meters. She picked her moment, dropped into a forward roll to absorb the impact, and scooped up the greatsword in one smooth motion. Then she spun around and cleaved one of the vicious beasts in half in midair.

Her long black hair fanned out as she moved. For a moment, she really did look like a dashing heroine from a martial arts novel.

“This thing really is the best!”

She hefted the greatsword in her hand and exclaimed with delight.

But even with a weapon that suited her, fighting hundreds of monsters on the athletic field wasn’t exactly a smart move. Jiang Cha tested the blade on two Thought Beasts that were chasing fastest and had fallen behind the main group, then hurried after Li Wen.

Medicine and chemistry go hand in hand, and many lab instruments are used for both. To make things convenient, Haida University had planned its chemistry and medical schools side by side from the beginning, with only the North Athletic Field between them. So as soon as Jiang Cha ran off the field, she spotted Li Wen waiting for her at the entrance.

“We’re going to the lab!”

Jiang Cha slung the sword over one shoulder, grabbed Li Wen—who was about to ask what was going on—and ran.

Thought Beasts moved much faster in open areas than they did inside buildings. By now, they were less than twenty meters behind the two girls.

“What are we going to the lab for?”

“To find some materials and whip up a bomb to take out these monsters, obviously!”

“You know how to make bombs?!”

Li Wen asked in shock.

What was this woman, anyway? She looked so delicate and gentle, yet she was a powerhouse—and now she could make dangerous weapons, too. Was she really a journalism student, and not a discharged special forces soldier?

“Who’d take on a dangerous job like this without a couple of special skills?! Give me enough time and I could even make TNT! Just leave it to me. Move!”

“Do you even know where the lab is?”

Li Wen asked, not entirely reassured. Jiang Cha turned and gave her a thumbs-up, flashing a bright white grin. “Relax! I’ve had plenty of accidents in the chemistry building!”

Li Wen: “.......”

Is there anywhere at Haida where you haven’t had an accident?!

After winding through one turn after another, they finally lost the monsters. Li Wen had learned her lesson this time. As soon as they got inside, the two of them locked the lab door and piled desks against it.

To make it easier to escape in case of a lab accident, the room was on the first floor. So even without a back door, they’d be fine—they could just jump out the window.

Fortunately, the Thought Beasts weren’t smart enough to think of circling around behind them. Otherwise, the two girls wouldn’t have escaped so easily.

For the same reason, Jiang Cha gathered the lab’s flammable chemicals and chopped up a few wooden cabinets with the sword, piling the wood in front of the door.

Only then did she start working with the chemicals.

This lab… wasn’t really a lab, actually. It was just a chemistry classroom used for teaching. It didn’t have many supplies, but there was still enough to put together some explosives.

“The Thought Beasts don’t have great eyesight, hearing, or sense of smell. We’ve shaken them off for now, so we should have at least half an hour to rest. Catch your breath while I put the explosives together.”

Jiang Cha found the materials she needed and set to work. “By the way, Li Wen…”

Running for her life for so long had been quite a workout, even for her. Fine beads of sweat appeared on the girl’s forehead. Her bangs clung to her skin, so she brushed them aside to clear her vision. Her clean, delicate hands moved with practiced precision as she worked.

“Come to think of it, why does the school have a sword from the anti-Japanese war?”

Xia Yuan didn’t have Jiang Cha’s monstrous willpower, which let her ignore fatigue and keep working. Before today, she’d just been an ordinary college student.

After barely managing to block the door, she was almost too exhausted to stand. She leaned there, panting, and tried to recover her strength.

Making conversation was also a way to distract herself and calm down.

“Because our school’s old principal was one of the Red Army veterans who fought the Japanese. This sword really did drink Japanese blood.”

“Back then, the government restricted dangerous blades, but the old man didn’t want to hand this one over, so he left it at the school. He’d come look at it now and then and reminisce about the old days. Besides, he had connections, so nobody usually checked up on him.”

The black-haired girl kept her head down, focused on her work. She divided the saltpeter into three equal portions and weighed them, ground the charcoal into powder with a machine, crushed the sulfur, and added it to the saltpeter in the correct proportions, stirring to mix everything evenly. She then dismantled two bearings and added the tiny steel balls inside to increase lethality.

She dismantled an alcohol lamp to take out the wick, peeled off a single layer from a pack of facial tissues, placed the wick inside, sprinkled gunpowder evenly over it, and rolled it up to make a simple fuse.

She inserted the fuses into gunpowder packets that had been pressed flat with hard paper and sealed shut, taped them securely, and plugged the gaps with glue. With that, the three explosive charges were ready.

The alcohol from the lab burners couldn’t go to waste, either. There were plenty of bottles around, and Jiang Cha also found fuel and rubber. Before long, she’d put together five firebombs.

“There isn’t enough white phosphorus to make a white phosphorus incendiary, but I think I can get some picric acid.”

Jiang Cha glanced at the chemicals stored in the lab and spoke with a hint of excitement.

“Picric acid? Are you sure you’re not a chemistry student?”

Li Wen asked, surprised.

“Before TNT was invented, picric acid was one of the world’s most widely used explosives—and it was much more sensitive than TNT.”

“I told you, I’ve had plenty of accidents in the chemistry building.”

Jiang Cha curled her lips into a smile.