Not long after the "earthquake" occurred, the entire campus, on the side close to the staff dormitory, slowly rose up, and eventually, the invisible air wall surrounding the outside was torn apart completely.
Wen Nan and Jun Beibei climbed on the outside of the handrail, like two people crawling at the very front of a train head, were taken together and broke through that invisible wall.
A new world appeared before their eyes—
The first sight was an endless water surface, like the sea, but not sky blue, rather gray-white.
On the water surface, dense white fog twirled, which was the water vapor evaporating after the water surface heated up rapidly.
Under the water surface, countless densely packed bubbles gathered and floated upwards.
This vast body of water was visibly reaching boiling point, becoming a boiling pot of soup.
The other side of the campus had been completely submerged underwater, and all the teachers and students gathered on that side fell into the water like dumplings.
Screams and shrieks didn't last too long; as the successive "plop plop" sounds continued, the seafood that fell into the water quickly turned white and floated back to the surface.
Wen Nan and Jun Beibei clung to the handrail, like two tourists clinging to the outside of a ship's bow deck, staring blankly at the scene on the other side of the campus.
"Not a cruise ship, not sea water, not, the world outside..."
Jun Beibei muttered.
She thought this school was a huge enclosed cruise ship, but in reality, it was just a giant oval-shaped dish, covered with a sealed lid for cooling, filled with crushed ice inside to keep the seafood fresh.
She assumed the water surface outside the campus was part of the outside world, but actually, it was merely a pot bottom waiting to be boiled.
Raising her head, she looked towards the sky—
Originally she thought breaking through that invisible air wall would reveal blue skies and white clouds.
Yet, there was still no azure sky, only a huge translucent dome.
And right above the dome, a ring emitting blinding light—
That's not the sun, it's similar to the heating source above an air fryer.
The outside world she imagined was nowhere close to the outside world, here...
Was a pot of seafood soup.
Though she had already had a vague premonition in her heart, truly witnessing the scene before her eyes brought an unexpected shock to Jun Beibei.
With difficulty swallowing, her strap skirt edge tightly twisted around Wen Nan's spine, twisting it painfully, causing Wen Nan to involuntarily draw a breath.
Jun Beibei withdrew the skirt edge and softly said, "I'm sorry..."
Wen Nan was momentarily unsure whether she was apologizing for pinching Wen Nan's spine or for seeing this pot of seafood in front of them, "Why are you apologizing?"
Jun Beibei turned to look at him, froze for a moment, surprised that at this point, the other person could appear so composed, "You're...not afraid?"
Wen Nan paused, "Afraid of what?"
Jun Beibei lowered her eyes to look at their feet.
Their current location was the highest point of this gigantic dish, the farthest away from the pot of seafood soup that was about to boil.
But this didn't mean they could escape doom.
The dish was quickly sinking underwater.
Like a cruise ship about to sink.
Since they were still tourists on this cruise ship, death was just a matter of time.
Underfoot was a pot bottom continuously heating up, about to boil, and above was a huge heat source, they were completely trapped in this world.
If they try to climb up along the metal hooks hanging the dish, they'll be roasted, if they let the dish sink underwater, they'll be boiled.
Either way, they'll be cooked.
Thinking of this, Jun Beibei's heart sank to the bottom.
But by her ear came that boy's calm voice: "Isn't this quite romantic now?"
"...Romantic?"
Jun Beibei was somewhat baffled by the other's mindset, incredulously looking at the sea cucumber beside her.
Wen Nan nodded, "You jump, I jump."
Jun Beibei looked at him blankly, apparently unable to understand what he was saying at all.
Recalling the whispering jokes of the girls under the dormitory that Wen Nan heard before, a strange sense of discord in Wen Nan's heart surged again.
After pondering for a moment, Wen Nan blurted out the question in his heart: "Do you know the story of Supreme Treasure and Zixia Fairy?"
Jun Beibei shook her head, "...What?"
"Those female classmates in your dormitory seem to all know it."
Jun Beibei lowered her eyes and said somewhat dejectedly, "I...have always been not very sociable, and don't understand those things they talk about, like," Jun Beibei thought of the strange terms Yu Xiaoluo said earlier, "running with the ball, or whatever."
Now it was Wen Nan's turn to be baffled, "...running with the ball?"
Was it some latest basketball joke? How come he completely never heard of it?
Jun Beibei recalled the strange words the snail said in the dormitory earlier, not expecting Ye Shenshen to have times not comprehending too.
Jun Beibei's originally heavy feelings loosened briefly, but soon she looked at her feet, faintly seeing a tip with a Fibonacci Spiral in the soup bottom filled with steam, her mood sank again.
Wen Nan, lying beside her, remained staring intently at the shell next to him.
Though uncertain what the other person's heart was thinking, Wen Nan clearly saw the change on the shell—
[Candidate: No. 1; Testing Phase: Second Phase; Obsession Value Clearance Progress: 48%.]