"Hey! Bro! Are you alright?!"
"I said, bro, if you're not dead, make a sound!"
"Even if you're going to die, don't die around here! If your family comes looking for you later, it'll be a little hard for us to explain!"
"Let me be clear, St. Freya doesn't have the money for another funeral. Our Principal is super stingy, you have to think about yourself!"
"Hang in there, bro!"
Under Mo Wang's constant nagging, the blue-haired young man finally managed to struggle to his feet.
"Where am I?"
The blue-haired young man, who seemed to have hit his head, hadn't fully woken up yet. He looked at Mo Wang, his expression full of confusion.
"I say, buddy, how many fingers am I holding up?"
Seeing this, Mo Wang held up two fingers and waved them in front of the young man's face.
"It's 2," the young man answered decisively.
"What about this?" Mo Wang retracted one finger, leaving only his middle finger up.
"1?"
This time, the young man was a little unsure.
"Looks like your head is still clear, not broken." Mo Wang lowered his hand and stared at the man with a strange expression. "I say, buddy, where did you even come from? This isn't how you go diving, is it? You don't even have any gear. What are you here for?"
Faced with Mo Wang's questions, the blue-haired young man's mind was also a jumbled mess.
"Wait a minute, let me think." After carefully recalling the events, the young man's face immediately contorted with rage.
"I fucking remember now! I had just gotten onto the beach when some bastard dug a huge pit there! And they even filled it with... that!"
"And just as I climbed out, I stepped on a bear trap. Before I could even catch my breath, I fell in again."
"I finally made it to the grove, and then it was concrete, glue, and a damn log that knocked me straight into the river."
The young man's story was told with such sorrow and tears that it would make any listener weep.
Except, of course, for Mo Wang, who was standing right next to him.
"That's... really rough. No wonder you stink so bad."
Mo Wang's expression was indescribably awkward.
To be honest, he had expected his traps to, at most, cause a little trouble for the Valkyries at the school.
After all, as elite combat units, the Valkyries were basically proficient in all sorts of special forces tactics.
Even the worst student in the school, Kiana, would probably only fall for two or three of his traps.
But this guy... he had managed to trigger every single one.
Especially with the cesspit and the glue, the smell coming off him was indescribably wretched.
Even falling into the river hadn't washed it off.
But... it wasn't his fault! How was he supposed to know someone like this would show up in a place like this?
So, even though he sympathized with the guy, Mo Wang very naturally decided that this wasn't his fault.
This must be miHoYo's doing!
Blame miHoYo x100
"When I find the person who set up these traps, I'm going to make them experience every single one of them myself!"
"Ah, yes, yes."
Seeing the young man's gritted teeth, Mo Wang's gaze drifted away.
"But forget it. You're a good guy, bro. Otherwise, I would have died in this river. Thank you so much." The young man stood up and sincerely expressed his gratitude to Mo Wang.
"Huh? Um, n-no need. Saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda, right?" Mo Wang said, his expression a little stiff.
For some reason, he had a feeling that if he told this guy he was the one who set the traps, the guy would try to kill him.
"By the way, bro, what are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?"
The young man looked at Mo Wang with confusion.
"Uh, fishing?"
Mo Wang pointed to the fishing rod beside him, his voice uncertain.
"Where are the fish, then?" The young man blinked and asked Mo Wang again.
( ￣ー￣)
(°ー°〃)
The Young Man: Uh, don't tell me he got skunked?
Mo Wang: This guy is being a little rude.
"Ahem! Don't worry about it. Anglers, you know, we get skunked nine days out of ten. No need to worry about such trivial matters."
The young man seemed to sense the awkwardness in the air and quickly tried to salvage the situation.
"What do you mean, skunked?!"
"Do you call this getting skunked?!"
"This is just... the fish are still sleeping. Give me a few hours. I'll definitely catch a three-meter-long fish to show you!"
Mo Wang said, a little flustered and angry.
"Ah yes, yes, you're right."
The young man smiled at Mo Wang. He was all too familiar with the pathetic excuses of anglers.
"How can you slander me out of thin air?!" Mo Wang's face turned red. "Can an angler getting skunked be called getting skunked?"
Mo Wang started spouting nonsense about how getting skunked was just a longer form of baiting the water, and how he would definitely catch a meter-long fish tomorrow.
A joyous atmosphere suddenly filled the air.
"Besides, I caught you, didn't I? So that doesn't count as getting skunked, right? At most... I just didn't catch a fish."
This time, it was the young man's face that turned black.
This conversation was going nowhere.
"By the way, bro, how do I get to St. Freya Academy from here?"
The young man looked at the sky and then asked Mo Wang.
"Hmm? Go this way for about five hundred meters, you'll see a small path. Just follow that path and you'll get there."
Mo Wang said, looking at the man. "So, you're actually going to St. Freya? Then why did you take this route? Wouldn't it have been better to just go through the main gate?"
"Ahem, let's just drop this topic, shall we?"
The young man was also extremely embarrassed.
Seeing that he was running out of time, he quickly said to Mo Wang, "Alright, I have to go now. If we have the chance to meet again, I'll definitely make you a boss in one of Anti-Entropy's bases."
With that, without waiting for Mo Wang to say anything, the young man floated up and flew off in the direction Mo Wang had pointed, at an incredible speed.
"Wait! There are still traps over there!"
Seeing the man fly off in such a hurry, Mo Wang quickly shouted after him.
"Why didn't you say so earlier!"
CRASH!
Hearing a series of screams and cries, Mo Wang couldn't help but twitch.
"What a character. By the way, why did that guy look so familiar?"
Mo Wang stroked his chin, feeling like he had seen him somewhere before...
"Holy crap! That guy... couldn't have been... Welt, could he?!"
A lightbulb suddenly went off in Mo Wang's head, and a long-dead memory suddenly resurrected itself.
At that thought, Mo Wang abandoned all his gear and took off running in the direction the young man had disappeared.