Chapter 266: Hai Gongniu — This Year, Misha Is Exceptionally Unlucky
Because there were many people involved, the SAI interrogation process took a total of two days to complete.
Afterward, everyone signed confidentiality agreements, received a token “hush money” payment, and was transported away from the villa by vehicles disguised as tourist buses, just as they had been brought there. They were eventually dropped off at White Birch Town, the starting point of the hiking route.
Teacher Wendy, who was responsible for safety and daily management, was still waiting there.
Two days earlier, after they left the forest area and reached a town with cell signal, they had called Teacher Wendy to report that they were safe and mentioned that they would be ending the field practice early.
Because of this, when she suddenly saw everyone return to the starting town, she wasn’t too surprised. Instead, she hurried over with clear relief on her face, repeatedly expressing how dangerous the trip had been.
“…It was really terrifying. No one expected such a thunderstorm to occur in the Black Mountain Range. Apparently, a large section of forest was burned down. It’s a blessing in disguise that you all made it back safely.”
“Yes, we also encountered heavy rain during the hike. Fortunately, by the time the thunderstorm appeared, we had already reached a safe area and weren’t affected too much,” Teacher Harriet replied awkwardly. She was not very good at lying, and her response came out stiff and unnatural.
Regarding the sudden thunderstorm in the Black Mountain Range, the official explanation was an extreme and sudden weather event. The U.S. National Weather Service did not rule out the possibility of further large-scale thunderstorms occurring in a short period of time. As a result, the National Park Service issued a public advisory urging citizens to avoid the Black Mountain Range for the time being to ensure their safety from extreme weather conditions.
Of course, even if an official advisory was issued, there would always be people who enjoyed tempting fate and would still venture into the forest anyway. The Black Mountain Range was vast—no one had the ability to seal off an entire mountain. Fortunately, after the thunderstorm, the activity range of the Black Goat cultists had been largely destroyed. Even if someone accidentally entered the area for inspection, they would not be able to find anything.
After reuniting with Teacher Wendy, Everly’s first field practice officially came to an end.
Everyone was eager to return home. After a brief rest, they took transport into the city, even pooling money to charter a bus, rushing back to the school at full speed. Despite Teacher Harriet’s promise to give everyone high grades, the students remained somewhat listless.
It was said that after returning, because of what they had experienced in the forest, all of them—including Misha—suffered from nightmares for more than half a month. Only gradually, over time, did they manage to recover and return to normal.
Everly, however, did not have any nightmares.
At first, she assumed it was because she had strong mental resilience and a high resistance to psychic contamination. Later, she discovered that the reason was entirely due to the protective charm gifted by Remia.
It was a golden amulet shaped like a round disc.
About the size of an egg, it was forged from some kind of pale gold metal. On the front, it bore a relief engraving of the famous “Eye of Horus,” surrounded by small, colorful gemstones. At the center of the eye was a large inlaid lapis lazuli stone.
The back of the disc was inscribed with several Egyptian hieroglyphs, which Everly could not understand.
Overall, it was a distinctly Egyptian-style protective charm. Even though it had developed a few cracks, it still looked remarkably beautiful.
In ancient Egypt, the Eye of Horus symbolized divine protection and was believed to shield its wearer from evil forces. The amulet Remia gave her was said to be a genuine antique excavated from a pyramid in Egypt. Although it had been damaged in a previous operation, its protective power was still far stronger than the cheap, trendy “good-luck trinkets” Everly usually carried.
One week after returning to school, Misha began suffering from frequent nightmares at night. Everly removed the amulet and lent it to her.
That night, Misha slept like a little pig—deep, peaceful, and completely undisturbed—while the one who ended up having nightmares was Everly instead.
As for the content of the nightmare, it wasn’t actually as terrifying as what she had experienced in the cabin. It was simply scenes of churning black clouds, with enormous tentacles extending out from within the mist.
Those tentacles were like gigantic kites covering the sky, unfolding and curling freely in the air. Occasionally, their slender tips would sweep across the land, immediately carving deep, tearing gashes into the solid ground.
Sometimes, a scene does not need to be bloody to be terrifying. Mere “vastness” alone can awaken the primal fear engraved into human genes by their ancestors.
In that dream, Everly stood on a barren plain, silently looking up at the pitch-black sky above her. The overwhelming scale of it all made her feel as insignificant as an ant.
In that immense fear, she stood there, turned to stone, for a very long, very long time…
……
Following the principle of “let a comrade die so I may live,” Everly mercilessly took the amulet back after that night.
But she still cared about Misha. Afterward, the two of them adjusted their daily schedules according to their class timetable. When Everly slept, Misha would stay awake—eating, gaming, watching shows, exercising, doing whatever she liked. Once Everly woke up, she would pass the amulet to Misha so she could sleep with it.
They continued rotating the amulet like this for two weeks. By the time the other students and teachers who had participated in the field practice stopped having nightmares, the two of them finally returned to their normal routine.
The aftermath of the Black Goat incident was gradually erased by the steady repetition of everyday life.
And before they realized it, the end of the semester had arrived.
Fresh from recovering from the shadow of nightmares, the unlucky students were immediately met with the intense pressure of final exams.
Thanks to the Eye of Horus amulet, Everly and Misha ate well, slept well, had plenty of energy—and performed fairly well as a result.
After the exams ended and school was out for the holidays, the two of them, as always, refused various “death-seeking” invitations from different classmates. With iron wills, they boarded a plane, transferred through Gegha, and returned to Dwight State.
That winter was unusually cold. Before Christmas had even arrived, Sunken City was already covered in heavy snowfall.
And this year, Misha was especially unlucky.
When they stepped out of the airport, Misha spotted her eldest sister among the people who had come to pick them up.
Her sister had married and moved to Skanda State during Misha’s 11th grade year. Earlier that year, after ten months of pregnancy, she had given birth to a lovely baby girl. By the Christmas season, the baby was a little older, so she and her husband had brought the child back to visit the family—and to let everyone meet the newest member.
Misha was very fond of her eldest sister. It had been a long time since they last saw each other, and overwhelmed with excitement, she dragged her suitcase and ran forward like a cannonball, charging straight toward her sister.
And then, Misha’s own experience became a vivid illustration of what it means to “get carried away and suffer for it.”
As she ran, she failed to notice a patch of water on the ground that had frozen into ice. Her foot slipped, and she fell face-first with a solid “smack.”
What should have been a warm and emotional reunion was instead replaced by the sight of Misha clutching her leg and howling in pain.
She had broken her left tibia.
Before she was taken to the emergency room for an X-ray, no one expected the injury to be so serious. Despite being a strong, calf-like girl who had survived deadly games without injury, crossed oceans without injury, and even encountered cultists and monsters in the forest without injury—she ended up being hospitalized in the orthopedic ward simply from slipping while walking normally.
It was, frankly, a bit hellish.
The only piece of good news was that both Misha and Everly had not only student health insurance but also additional private insurance outside of school. Misha’s fracture happened to fall within the coverage, so after both insurances paid out, the out-of-pocket cost was minimal and did not become a significant financial burden.
But Misha herself was about to suffer quite a bit because of it.
After reviewing the X-ray, the doctor concluded that surgery was needed to insert a steel plate and screws at the fracture site to properly fix the bone and prevent displacement.
In the United States, only severe fractures requiring urgent attention receive immediate treatment. For ordinary fractures that are not life-threatening, surgery is often delayed due to doctor schedules, limited operating rooms, and shortages of anesthesiologists—meaning patients can end up waiting anywhere from several days to several months.
Considering that Misha’s grandparents lived in the city of Mikano, it would have been more convenient to treat her there for caregiving purposes. However, unfortunate timing intervened: just a week earlier, Mikano had experienced a major bank robbery.
After a chase that felt straight out of an American action film—complete with high-speed pursuits and undercover tactics—the case was eventually solved and all the robbers were arrested. But during the capture, many innocent civilians were injured due to car crashes and gunfire.
The influx of injured patients overwhelmed the city’s hospitals, creating severe strain on medical resources. As a result, even though staying in Mikano would have been more convenient, Misha had to undergo treatment in Sunken City in order to receive surgery sooner. Larger cities simply had more abundant medical capacity.
The hospital chosen was a large private institution called Hopkins Hospital, for the same reason. If she went to a public hospital, she would likely be stuck in the queue indefinitely, during which time she would have to endure painkillers alone—and many pain medications in the U.S. are addictive, so prolonged use could easily lead to problems.
Private hospitals were more expensive, but in return, the waiting time was significantly shorter.
She was admitted on the same day she broke her leg. The actual surgery took place on the fourth day after admission.
After the operation, she still had to stay in the hospital for another week for observation to ensure proper healing.
Sunken City was a bit far from the gas station, and because it had been snowing heavily for days, road conditions were poor. As a result, Everly couldn’t visit Misha in the hospital during the days following the surgery and could only video call her on her phone.
Finally, after the weather cleared up and the state transportation department slowly got back to work clearing snow from the roads, Everly immediately picked a day, set out early, and decided to go to Sunken City to “visit the prisoner”… ah, no, to visit the patient.
First, she made a stop in Mikano City to “restock” from Rebecca.
After a semester, Rebecca had managed to gather another batch of classic “fashionable little junk.” Everly didn’t discriminate—anything even slightly useful, she took it all.
In a world as dangerous as this, you could never have too many tools. You only ever lacked them—you never had too many. Whether something could be used well or not, it was better to have it in hand first. It wasn’t like she was short on money.
Notably, among these items was a pair of silver brass knuckles sold on consignment by someone else through Rebecca. They were expensive, costing Everly 8,000 USD, and were the biggest gain from this trip.
The brass knuckles were forged from a silver–zinc alloy, with crosses engraved on each of the four protruding points. They were used by slipping them onto the fingers when throwing punches. The alloy itself was already extremely hard, and the crosses had once been blessed by a purple-robed bishop, allowing them to deal minor damage to spirits and demons—making them effective against both physical and supernatural threats.
After resupplying in Mikano, Everly took a short rest, then stepped on the gas and drove straight to Sunken City.
Because the road conditions were so bad, the journey was rushed and exhausting. By the time she finally arrived, it was already close to evening.
**TN
Hai Gongniu is an internet slang term that comes from a phonetic mishearing (or ear transliteration) of the Spanish phrase “ay coño.” Its original meaning is an exclamatory expression similar to “ah, damn” or “oh crap.”