Rebirth: The Universe's Hidden Heiress-Chapter 53: The Notebook Revealed (2)

Frustrated by the ill-timed notification, Yuka paused. ’Grrrr, come on, what’s this about? Someone better be dead!’

The woman, who had been moving along, abruptly turned around. Her eyes scanned the area behind her, alert and searching for the source of the sound.

The woman cautiously moved, turning the gun in her hand, its dark muzzle aimed directly behind the bookshelf where Yuka was hidden.

She gritted her teeth, determined to shoot, regardless of who the follower was. She had to get what he wanted today, and no one could stand in her way.

The gunshot rang out, and the sound of something heavy falling followed. The woman exhaled in relief but kept her gun ready, preparing to check the situation.

However, as she rounded the bookshelf and only saw a solitary orb on the ground, her heart skipped a beat—she had been tricked!

A sharp pain struck the back of her head, and her eyes rolled back as she fell unconscious.

Yuka, having used a thick dictionary as a weapon, approached and removed the woman’s mask.

"Kishi?" Yuka raised an eyebrow, not entirely surprised. "Well, that figures."

The butler rolled up beside Yuka’s feet, nervously reminding her, "Master, you have only one and a half minutes left!"

Yuka quickly stood up, located the notebook with blank pages and an unfamiliar notebook as per Kimiko’s directions, and tucked them into her embrace. She then leaped onto the windowsill, glancing back at the still unconscious Kishi. "Sorry, Professor, but you’ll have to take the fall for this."

Transforming the butler’s body into a claw hook once more, Yuka hooked it onto the window with a large hole and wrapped the rope around her hand twice before leaping down.

She descended gracefully and landed lightly on the ground, immediately picking up pace toward the History Department.

As she darted through a passageway between two buildings, several members of the campus patrol suddenly appeared around the corner.

Yuka didn’t break stride, pressing her hat down and zipping her jacket up to reveal only her eyes.

Morris, seeing the figure in black, shouted, "Stop!"

Ignoring him, Yuka kicked off the wall of the walkway, intending to fly over their heads. However, Morris reacted swiftly, grabbing Yuka’s ankle and pulling her down.

Yuka used the momentum from Morris’s pull to kick out mid-air.

Morris quickly dodged the direct kick to his face while releasing his grip.

Yuka landed steadily and, with a swift turn, knocked out another patrol member with a punch.

Seeing her fierceness, a nearby guy chose to retreat to a corner, too intimidated to engage.

Yuka, after delivering the punch, blocked an incoming blow from Morris and countered with a palm strike to his nose.

Morris’s nose tingled, and his vision blurred, but he held onto Yuka’s clothing determinedly. Yuka crouched down and swept Morris off his feet with a leg sweep, pulling her clothing free from his grasp and swiftly running away.

Once Yuka was out of sight, the cornered patrol student, rushed to Morris, asking, "Morris, are you okay?"

Morris, sitting up from the ground, smiled wryly. "Yuka... Your scent gave you away. I didn’t expect the rose to have thorns, but isn’t that what makes it more attractive?"

The other patrolling student, used to Morris’s poetic ramblings, didn’t pay much attention to his strange words.

"It’s nothing," Morris reassured, breaking from his thoughts and smiling. "Nothing happened tonight, right?"

His two colleagues, who were also waking up, looked at Morris in surprise. Their voices trailed off under his gaze, "Yes, Morris."

Morris, hiding his smile and removing his hands from their necks, praised them, "Good, let’s go."

Meanwhile, Yuka, while running, asked the butler, "Check the opticomputer, who sent me that message just now?"

The butler opened the message icon and replied, "An unknown number... asking where you are."

"Forget them," said Yuka. "How long until the security system resets?"

"Twenty seconds," the butler answered.

Twenty seconds later, Yuka had just stepped into the history faculty building when a shrill alarm blared throughout the entire UUA.

Morris, receiving a message from the security department, led his team towards the library.

Upon reaching the library, Morris greeted Kenji with a smile, "Good evening, Admiral Kuba."

Kenji nodded, saying, "Morris. Did you notice anything unusual during your patrol?"

Morris’s smile widened. "Not at all. I only just learned there was an incident at the library."

Kenji didn’t inquire further and entered the library. The patrollers responsible for the library had all been knocked out and were just coming to, babbling about the intruder’s characteristics.

The librarian went up to the fifth floor and quickly returned, his expression grave, "They’re gone."

Morris listened for a while and then left the scene.

At the entrance of the History Department, Alex saw Yuka returning and hurriedly led her upstairs.

Yuka had already changed out of her tracksuit, tossing it into a corner of her space button. She quickly entered the discussion room, where her two anxious friends sighed in relief upon seeing her safe.

"Yuka, Admiral Kuba was asking where you went," Ayoi said. "He also asked for your contact number, and I gave it to him..."

Yuka took out her opticomputer, glanced at the recent message, and smirked slightly, labeling the sender as Kenji.

She placed the two notebooks she had gotten on the table, along with the spray bottle. freewēbnoveℓ.com

Kimiko gestured for her to go first, "Please, have a look."

Without hesitation, Yuka handed Kimiko the notebook requiring the solution and began examining the other, thinner notebook herself. While Kimiko was busy with the solution, Yuka carefully read the notebook, also authored by Nori.

"Insectoid evolved."

Yuka’s pupils narrowed. Her hand trembled slightly as she continued reading.

"The dean and I discovered the soundwaves of this evolved insectoid. Their soundwaves can turn all metals except Oniyon into liquid, rendering them ineffective for attack. I’m worried that from now on, nothing but Oniyon might be able to stop them..."

Yuka recalled the soldier insectoid she encountered that night. So, the insectoids had already evolved twenty years ago?

"But Oniyon’s forging and manipulating requirements are too high. I need to find a way to extract a better metal, reduce the psychic power requirements, and then make it accessible to everyone. At this stage, Oniyon is irreplaceable."

Yuka thought about the new Pneyon, perfectly fitting Nori’s idea, but Pneyon was invented by the current Alliance Science Academy, and Nori had long been expelled. So, there probably wasn’t any connection between him and Pneyon. As she pondered, she turned the page and saw in bold:

"That criminal!"

’Who was it referring to?’ Yuka was confused.

With curiosity, Yuka turned another page.

"This disgrace to the scientific community! A terrible humiliation! How dare he stay in the science academy! I’ll make him leave the academy! He used children for experiments... a rat from the gutter! Dozens of children, tortured by him until only one remained... How could he?! How could he expose these children to the soundwaves of insectoids and inject them with insectoid extracts! What a beast!"

Yuka’s expression darkened as she turned the page.

"I’ve left the matter of that criminal to the dean. I believe he will be forever nailed to the pillar of shame in history, never to engage in scientific research again."

"I brought back that poor child. He suffered from a severe genetic disease, causing his physical strength to frequently drop below the level of an ordinary person, accompanied by intense pain. He was stubborn, never crying, not even seeking my help when the pain knocked him unconscious."

"Moreover, this child’s psychic power was exceptionally high, far surpassing the existing highest level of psychic power. I even questioned if he could still be considered human..."

"He was hostile towards me, but I understood his unease. He showed some aggressiveness but still maintained his humanity and basic cognition. He was highly intelligent and learned quickly. I tentatively concluded that he posed no threat to humans."

"I couldn’t cure his genetic disease, at least not at the moment."

Yuka’s heartbeat quickened. She had a vague suspicion in her mind and, taking a deep breath, turned to the last page.

"I thought of a way to help the boy. It wouldn’t cure his illness, but it could at least ease his pain during episodes and enable him to protect himself. I implanted Oniyon into his spinal bones. It was painful, I knew, and so did he. But he agreed."

"After the exoskeleton was installed, the boy, having high psychic power, didn’t have a severe rejection response. This was the best outcome. However, I couldn’t keep him with me forever, so I sent him to the Alliance Army. General Fleet Admiral said he would take good care of him, but he would have to work for the Alliance Army in return. He agreed."

"Recorder: Nori, Stardate 209."

Yuka looked at the bottom of the page. There was an old photo imprinted there, showing Nori sitting beside a bandaged boy, with a newly attached exoskeleton. Both of them looked solemn, with no smiles on their faces.

Yuka closed her eyes.

That was Kenji.

She stretched out her finger and quickly tore off the page, folding it neatly and hiding it in her sleeve. She did it under the cover of the notebook so other people wouldn’t notice.

Yuka put down the notebook, and Kimiko had also finished reading the blank page that revealed text. Ayoi and Alex leaned over, wanting to know the contents of the notebook.

"This notebook’s blank page only has three sentences I don’t understand," said Kimiko, looking frustrated.

Yuka looked down and read:

"Over a hundred years ago, humans first opened "the Gate," and the Queen appeared. Now, those people want to open "the Gate" again. I’m not sure if it’s right, but the dean is optimistic about it, so I’ll go and see."

"What is ’the Gate’?" Kimiko scratched her head. "I’m completely clueless. We haven’t solved the old problems, and now new ones have emerged."

Ayoi and Alex finished reading the other notebook, and Ayoi remarked with a sigh, "The person who experimented on children is despicable! Was he ever punished? Could he be the vice dean who stole the insect eggs?"

Alex nodded in agreement, "It seems very likely."

"I haven’t read it yet," said Kimiko, quickly skimming through the information, and then asked Yuka, "What should we do with these things?"

"I’ll keep them," Yuka responded. "I’ll go to the bank tomorrow and put them in a safe deposit box."

The other three nodded, then quietly left the discussion room, heading back to their respective dorm rooms.

Back in the dorm, Yuka pulled out the torn page from her sleeve and tucked it into the pocket of a small bear on the table.

Ayoi peeked in and asked, "Yuka, Everything alright? You seemed a bit tired."

"Yeah," Yuka turned back, nodding. "Let’s go to sleep."