WTYTIAAN Chapter 137

Chapter 137

Rowena and William are gone!

Their originally selected campsite was empty, as quiet as if no one had ever been there, leaving only some messy traces. Rowena and William were nowhere to be seen.

Yan Yunqing frowned, picked up a branch, and leaned down to poke at the extinguished fire. No extra black smoke rose up. He reached out and tried it, and it still retained some warmth.

“They’ve been gone for a while.” Yan Yunqing observed the surrounding environment, confirming that there were no signs of fighting here. Although messy, it was just the chaos of setting up camp halfway without cleaning up. “They left… voluntarily?”

No signs of battle meant that Rowena and William had not resisted, or rather, had no ability to resist. This was more terrifying than signs of fighting because it meant Yan Yunqing and the others didn’t even know why Rowena and William had left.

“When you were scouting the area, did you find any danger?” Yan Yunqing asked Robin, “Or did you notice anything unusual?”

Robin’s face was also very unsightly. Rowena was from his village, and they were distantly related by blood. Plus, Rowena usually took good care of him at the academy, so Robin had long regarded her as half family.

Now that his family had suddenly disappeared, and in the dangerous Norman Forest, it was hard for his face to look good.

Robin recalled, “There’s a group of ghost-faced spiders to the north, and a bear to the southwest. Those are the only dangerous things nearby. When I was scouting, I didn’t notice anything unusual. If I had to say something, it was only the strong smell of blood from the Squad Leader’s area that caught my attention.”

“Nothing else.”

Yan Yunqing looked at Demetrius, who gently shook his head, indicating that he hadn’t noticed anything either.

Demetrius had been by his side the whole time. Even Robin hadn’t noticed anything unusual, so it was unlikely that Demetrius would have noticed anything.

Yan Yunqing closed his eyes, recalling all his experiences just now in his mind…

“Squad Leader!” Robin suddenly shouted loudly, “There are traces here!”

Yan Yunqing suddenly opened his eyes and quickly walked towards Robin’s direction. “What?”

“Here!”

Robin moved aside, revealing half a footprint in front of him. The shoe size was large, and it didn’t look like it could have been left by Rowena or William.

Because the forest retained a lot of water, the soil here remained moist for a long time. If someone stepped on the surface, footprints would be left. They had specifically chosen a drier and wider ground for the camp, so there were no extra traces left.

On the other hand, this area far from the camp had traces of other people passing through due to the moist soil.

Yan Yunqing searched around and confirmed that no magical creatures or beasts had been here. Apart from the traces left by Rowena and William, there was only the half footprint left by someone else.

This also made Yan Yunqing certain that it wasn’t a coincidence.

After all, there were no other extra footprints around here, only this half one was left. And the nearby soil was moist, so anyone who walked by would have left footprints. This could only mean that the owner of this footprint had cleaned up the traces they left before leaving.

Why would they do this?

To take Rowena and William away? But Rowena and William didn’t show any signs of resistance. Did they voluntarily leave with the other person? Or did the other person use some means to make them ‘voluntarily’ leave?

But at least it was certain that Rowena and William were not in mortal danger right now.

Whatever the person who took them away was aiming for, the fact that they would use such subtle and cautious methods was enough to show that they didn’t want to harm Rowena and William for the time being.

Otherwise, there would have been signs of fighting at the scene.

Yan Yunqing tried to find the location of Rowena and William on the minimap. They had formed a temporary team, so blue dots should be displayed on the map.

Unfortunately, the minimap didn’t show their positions.

This wasn’t unexpected. His minimap could only show the location of people nearby. Beyond a certain distance, it could only show the map and not how many people were there.

It also meant that Rowena and William had left the range that the minimap could display.

After searching for a long time, they found nothing but that footprint.

Robin was a little discouraged. Yan Yunqing patted him on the head. “It’s okay. At least they won’t be in danger right now. Let’s notify the teacher first.”

Yan Yunqing glanced at his chat system. It was a bit of a pity that there was no one from Team A in his chat list. He didn’t know if it was because his affinity wasn’t high enough or if he was missing some other conditions. They hadn’t been able to enter the chat-enabled friend list yet.

If they could talk through the chat system now, they wouldn’t be like headless flies, not knowing where to look for people.

Demetrius raised an objection: “Are you going to use the pager?”

His dark brown eyes revealed a hint of indifference, and his tone was as usual, not sharp, but he raised a very sharp question: “Then our score for this time will be gone.”

Robin glared at him. “Is the score more important than the lives of our teammates?”

Demetrius: “I didn’t say that.”

His voice was still very calm, and he tilted his head slightly, not making eye contact with Robin. He surprisingly said a lot this time, “I can accept not having a score, but can you? Can Rowena and William? If it’s just a misunderstanding, they will completely lose this score.”

Robin choked, unable to find anything to refute for a moment.

Yes, this score wasn’t really important to Yan Yunqing and Demetrius. At most, Demetrius wouldn’t be able to be the top student next semester and would lose a series of academy benefits.

However, Robin, Rowena, and William couldn’t accept the impact of losing this score.

Robin had been in the school for three years, and this was his fourth year. If he didn’t successfully advance this year, he would only have one year left. If he couldn’t advance to the second grade after more than five years, the academy would advise the student to drop out. This was also why Rowena had strongly recommended Robin to join this team.

And for Rowena, this score was equally important to her. Because she had been on the battlefield and had been seriously injured, the academy’s five-year rule wouldn’t affect her. She still had at least three years to advance to the second grade. However, the defect in her left hand meant that it would be difficult for her to meet a kind and powerful teammate like Yan Yunqing next time.

No one would be willing to have someone who was likely to drag them down as their teammate, even if that person usually showed good strength. Actual combat was definitely not something that daily performance could explain.

William was the same.

This year’s combat score was very important to them.

If Rowena and William’s disappearance was really just a misunderstanding, then all the preparations they had made would be in vain.

“But…” Robin still wanted to say something.

Demetrius added lightly, “We have pagers, and they have them too, right? If they really encounter danger, with their strength, they should be able to press the distress signal before being attacked, but we haven’t received any information.”

If teammates in the same team sent out a distress signal, the teacher would come to rescue them, and their pagers would also prompt them that the team had been eliminated. After all, calling for help would disqualify the entire team from participating in the field training.

However, they hadn’t received any information now, which could only mean that Rowena and William hadn’t used the pagers.

That was true. After all, Rowena and William were two people. If one side was in danger, the other side would definitely react, unless the two of them lost the ability to use the pager at the same time.

That was unlikely. Not to mention William, with Rowena’s experience from fighting on the battlefield, she would never be careless and would have a more accurate assessment of danger.

If the two of them didn’t use the pager until they left, it meant that the situation at that time was within Rowena’s control.

Yan Yunqing was thoughtful, “In that case, the person who took Rowena and William away is likely someone they know? Or someone who looks harmless?”

This harmless person must also be logically harmless, otherwise, with Rowena’s experience, she would never easily trust others.

Robin looked at Demetrius, then at Yan Yunqing, “Then, what do we do now?”

Yan Yunqing glanced at Demetrius, seeing his expression calm and composed, not knowing what this guy was up to. Although Demetrius’s reasons were very reasonable, he still felt that the other party simply wanted to stop him from notifying Teacher Walkerly.

As Demetrius said, this score was very important to Robin, Rowena, and William, but for Demetrius himself, it was just an insignificant score that might affect his position as the top student.

With the personality that Demetrius usually showed, he would never come out to stop him when Yan Yunqing proposed telling Walkerly about this.

He didn’t like attracting other people’s attention, and he didn’t like arguing with others. Now, Demetrius broke this setting and gave such a persuasive reason.

What’s going on? Has the usual mute little mushroom started talking?

In that case, he might as well follow Demetrius’s wishes and see what he wants to do.

Yan Yunqing nodded. “Demetrius is right.”

“Rowena and William haven’t been gone for long. Let’s expand the search area. We’ll always find some clues. Maybe it’s just a misunderstanding. If we really encounter danger, it won’t be too late to notify the teacher.”

“And with Rowena’s and William’s strength, if they feel it’s dangerous, they will definitely use the pager themselves.”

Saying this, Yan Yunqing selected a name in the friend list and opened the other party’s chat page.

[Ri An (Private)]: Ms. Penelope, my teammates have disappeared in the forest. It seems that someone has taken them away. I’m not sure who the other party is. Can you help me investigate?

Well, if he couldn’t use the pager to ask Teacher Walkerly for help, then he wouldn’t use the pager and would directly ask the headmaster to come and help. This way, their scores wouldn’t be canceled, killing two birds with one stone. No problem.

It just so happened that he knew that Penelope had also come to this field training. Wasn’t that convenient? He could just use her.

[Penelope (Private)]: Your Majesty?