I Can Read People's Comments

[Chapter 133 Comments]

Inside the hotel, people began noticing something was wrong. A lot of them were coming to the lobby, wondering what was currently happening.

"What is going on here? I don't get any signal."

"The hotel has its own tower, right? So, why would this happen?"

"Where is the security? I notice something weird in the essence around us."

Some of them were pretty clueless, while there were some fighters who noticed something amiss within the hotel. Of course, not all the fighters would notice it because they didn't have high enough ability or had a different power system.

A few security guards came to the scene to talk with the people. It seemed that they knew one or two things that were currently happening. The security guards asked the people to keep calm.

As they wanted to send a distress message, none of the methods they knew worked, so they couldn't ask for help.

Theo and the other students had reached the hotel. All the people gathered in a single place, so Theo asked, "Is the elevator still working?"

The staff confirmed with a nod.

Theo immediately turned to his students. "Go to your rooms and bring back your weapons. The situation is going to be dangerous."

"Sir!" The staff overheard Theo mentioning weapons, so he wanted to stop him, only to find Theo showing his badge as the teacher of the academy. "I am a teacher from the World Union Academy, and these are my students. With the special right given to us, we are allowed to wield our weapons as long as we use them properly. If there is damage done to the building or the common people, we'll bear the burden personally."

"That's… I still need to talk to my boss first." The staff was still unsure. He had heard about the academy, but he didn't know much about it.

"Go then. Is the radio working here? Walkie-talkie or something." Theo asked.

"No, Sir. Unfortunately." Find exclusive stories on My Virtual Library Empire

"In that case, I will personally meet with your boss and tell him what I know."

"I will ask for his permission." The staff nodded. Considering Theo was a teacher at the world's first United Academy, he had the right to meet him without any arrangement. In fact, it would be an honor for their boss to meet him. However, because the school had just been built, its prestige was still unknown, and the rule regarding it hadn't been created yet, which answered the confusion of the staff.

"Alright. Go then. But don't take too much time, considering the urgency of the situation."

"Y-yes!" The staff nodded profusely before rushing away.

Meanwhile, Theo turned to his students. "Go bring your stuff. I will fool the staff with my illusion."

The students exchanged looks before rushing to the elevator. But before they went up, Theo actually told Mia, "You haven't forgotten about what I told you, right?"

Mia tilted her head for a moment before recalling one moment. It was when Theo told her about the important information that he was confident that the author would censor the words.

"Yes. Leave it to me." Mia smirked as if she had gotten pretty excited. The others were curious about what Theo told her, but Mia didn't plan to say anything to them.

It took the staff three minutes to return.

"Sir. The manager wants to talk to you. Unfortunately, he can't greet you right here because he has a few visitors."

"Alright. Lead the way." Theo nodded and rushed to the manager's room.

The manager looked like a middle-aged man in his late forties. He had a scar that ran from his eyebrows to his right cheek.

There were three people around him. The first one was a muscular young man. He was wearing a similar suit to that of the hotel's employee, but considering his appearance, he seemed to be the captain of the security guard in this place.

The second person was wearing a white robe like the one he had seen in the Exorcist world. Since he was able to meet the manager, his identity should be quite important.

The third person was a young lady. Despite her beautiful face, her gaze was cold and fierce like that of a gangster.

"Mr. Theo from the World Union Academy. I apologize for not being able to welcome you. I am the manager of this hotel, Leon is the name." The manager politely bowed to him. This hotel was related to the Helvenia Kingdom, so they should have told him about his identity.

"It's not a problem. I'd like to discuss the situation with you."

"If that's the case, let me introduce these three people." The manager nodded. "The one on the right is the head of security in this place. He is a 4th Rank Officer, called Rach. This gentleman over here is an exorcist from the Kozuki House, Kozuki Rintaro. As for this lady, she is a 5th Rank Officer from this world, Iris Genett. Both of them are visitors."

Theo might not know about the power system in the modern realm, but he had heard about it a little. And it was regarding the ranking officer.

They divided them into eight ranks. The higher one's rank, the higher their combat ability.

It was pretty useful to know that there was one 4th Rank and one 5th Rank Officer that would help them. And he felt delighted when there was another exorcist, considering Haruka's power was beneficial in this situation.

"I am Theodore Griffith, a teacher from the World Union Academy. Unfortunately, the situation forces me to skip the pleasantries. So, I will directly say this. I was attacked earlier. I wonder if the people in the hotel were attacked or not?" Theo asked.

"!!!" Iris's expression darkened after Theo mentioned he was attacked.

Rintaro stepped forward and said, "I only noticed the energy, but I don't think there is an attack yet."

"I see. The hotel is still safe. Since you're an exorcist, are you familiar with possession and curses? My students were possessed because of the curse, using a dead worm as a catalyst."

"Ah?! Where are those students? If we want to save the people who got possessed, we should do it immediately. The longer we take, the higher the chance it will develop a side effect."

"Don't worry. My students managed to repel the possession. It's just… I want to know whether you know about these things or not. If yes, I'd like to know more about it."

Rintaro thought for a moment. "If that's the case, I do know a little about it."

"Then…" Theo opened the map of this location with the markings of the plants. "What do you think about this?"

When Rintaro saw the map, he instantly recognized it and exclaimed, "This is the Nochokei Method!"

"Hmm?!" All of them raised their eyebrows because they finally got to know something.

"Nochokei?" Theo tilted his head in confusion..

"Ah. It was my world's term. If I use the global term, it's the Double Rectangular Method. You have marked them in such a way that it forms an octagram, but if you link these…" Rintaro changed the layout a bit and formed two rectangles perpendicular to each other.

This way, it formed the same octagram, but was made of two rectangles.

"I see. So, that's how it is. What's the use of this method? And is there even a being capable of using it?"

Rintaro recalled all the information he had in his mind. "I'm not entirely sure, but it's clear that the one responsible for this is a supernatural being, similar to the one we have in the Exorcist World. And to have such intelligence… I'm afraid the enemy is a Noble Rank Supernatural Being."

"Noble Rank? Not Destroyer Rank?"

"Ah, you're familiar with our terms. To answer your question, yes. Normal Rank only follows their instinct. They begin to form their intelligence as a Destroyer Rank, but to use this kind of unique method, they need to be a Noble Rank. To understand what kind of enemy we have now, we need the supernatural being's back story, but it's impossible to get it here."

"Then, what kind of thing is this method capable of?"

Rintaro explained, "This method has a few uses. First of all, the fact that the hotel building is in the center of the formation explains our current situation. This method will isolate the entire area."

"Can we destroy this formation? Like what if we destroy one of these points?" Theo asked.

"No. These points are only responsible for activating the formation. As long as the caster is still around, it won't be dispelled. There are only two ways to destroy this formation: kill the caster or exhaust the energy that maintains it."

The manager frowned, noticing something. "The second method is impossible then. There is a vein containing a lot of essence underneath us, so it's impossible to exhaust it."

"In that case, we should kill the caster. That's pretty easy then." Iris nodded her head, ready to walk away to beat some ghosts.

But Rintaro warned him, "If you want to die, then please do it later."

"What did you say?" Iris narrowed her eyes, not liking his remark.

"Noble Rank Supernatural Being is capable of destroying a city. If we are not careful, you can easily lose your life. And considering it's able to use curse and possession, the worst case scenario is you being possessed and killing everyone here."

"…" Iris's expression was extremely cold, but she soon stepped back, understanding the implication of her actions. "In that case, what should we do?"

Rintaro couldn't give any answers. This situation was already beyond his level.

"I and my students will be fighting the supernatural being. However, I still need to know a way to beat this being." Theo looked at Rintaro with a solemn expression.

"First of all, may I know what kind of supernatural being you encountered?"

"The enemy was…" Theo briefly explained everything about the ghost, especially how the ghost only had a single head and still didn't die. It could contaminate the essence around them, which made it extremely dangerous.

After listening to him, Rintaro explained, "If that's the case, I'm going to explain the reason why the supernatural being uses this double rectangular method. The method allows it to isolate us in this place, but that's not all. It's going to use the vein underneath us to create a space where it contains the energy that it has. Mr. Theo said earlier that the ghost could contaminate the energy, but it was actually the work of this formation. The ghost only controlled it."

"So, the ghost's ability was something else?"

"Yes. You mentioned that its hair turned into branches, but I think its ability was more complex than that. I'm suggesting moving all these points to one place."

"Didn't you say it wouldn't destroy the barrier? Also, what will happen if we leave the barrier?"

"This is one of the flaws of this method. It isolates only energy, so if we leave, nothing else could be done. But for a supernatural being smart enough to utilize this formation, there's no way it's going to let us leave without any fight. While we can survive, ordinary people can't."

"What's the use of gathering them in one spot?"

"These eight points are the ones contaminating the energy within the barrier. If we look at the size, it will completely pollute everything within two days. If we gather them in one place, it won't change the rate, but it allows us to choose the polluted area."

"!!!" Theo understood his words completely. "I see. So, we will fight the ghost in the area less polluted?"

"Exactly."

Theo thought for a moment. "Since this method creates a barrier with those eight points as its core, what about the weird barrier that currently envelops only the hotel building?"

"Huh?! There is another barrier?" Rintaro widened his eyes as if he weren't aware of it.

"Huh?" Theo noticed something was amiss and instantly understood what the author wanted. It was to separate him from the students. "Sh*t. The students are in danger!"

*****

AN: Hello, Fixten here. I'm thinking about giving most liked recent comments (Within a week) to appear within the story. It will start next week, so any comments from Monday to Saturday will be included in Sunday's chapter. (Yeah, it's also included outside privilege chapters)

Depending on the comment, it might or might not impact the story, so do your best!