C7 Quintana

"Mr. Ivar, and the rest of the students here, could you please inform this college dropout how many joints a human body has in total?"

"One hundred and forty..."

"Damn it! We agree to cooperate! Ahhhhh! We agree to cooperate with Willoughby! Ahhhhh..."

Egil patted his hand gently. "There you go! That's better." His actions resembled those of a kindergarten teacher.

If Egil were playing the role of a kindergarten teacher, then the students of Azure Dragon Garden before him would certainly be his little charges.

Indeed, in some ways, they were just like kindergarteners.

Take, for example, the way they forget the pain once the wound heals!

Just yesterday, they were shouting slogans, then screaming in agony from dislocations, forced to begrudgingly seek a truce. Yet today, as Egil arrived at the prehistoric remains, the Azure Dragon Garden students were brimming with enthusiasm, wholeheartedly immersing themselves in the research activities.

Even Professor Merle, upon hearing about Egil's coercion of the students, responded, "True to the spirit of Azure Dragon Garden's bright minds. When they pour their hearts into research, they forget everything else. That's their academic gift!"

Egil, however, believed that the students' true talent wasn't in academia, but in being masochists—yes, the 'M' in S&M. Without a bit of suffering, they wouldn't comply. Yesterday, they verbally refused, but today, their actions spoke volumes of their true feelings.

On the topic of 'saying no with words but yes with actions,' there's another type of person who exhibits this behavior.

The tsundere.

When did the 'twin ponytails' become synonymous with 'tsundere'? It's a relic from the ancient otaku culture, and Egil couldn't quite recall.

The twin ponytails danced before Egil's eyes.

"Follow orders or face the consequences!" Martina, with her twin ponytails, admonished, "If you don't obey commands upon entering the deeper parts of the ruins, and you encounter danger, I absolutely won't allow anyone to rescue you!"

As she spoke, Martina stood on the engine hood, her gaze fixed on Egil.

See? Classic tsundere declaration.

Egil, with a smile, gave Martina a thumbs-up.

Hmph! Martina hopped off the hood and was the first to climb into the vehicle.

The others boarded the vehicle in succession. Egil, out of habit, reached for the driver's door, but Captain Mark grabbed his shoulder, saying, "Take a seat in the back."

"You hire me as a driver, yet you won't let me drive. You guys really are something, haha." Egil chuckled as he squeezed into the backseat alongside three other armed gunmen, with another one occupying the passenger seat.

Egil's car led the way, with Martina's vehicle trailing behind. The blue-eyed girl was at the wheel, while Martina luxuriated in the spaciousness of the backseat.

Egil gave a wry smile to the gunmen beside him. All three had stone-cold expressions, staring blankly at Egil without a hint of emotion.

Egil massaged his temples, wishing the tunnel would end soon.

Indeed, they were driving through a tunnel, the ceiling of which was a natural karst formation, while the road beneath was roughly hewn from the earth. It prioritized passage over comfort and sloped downward, leading Egil and his companions deeper underground. The increasing pressure and stale air made the journey increasingly uncomfortable.

Egil recalled two terms his classmates from Azure Dragon Garden had mentioned: 'Atlantis' and 'Remilia.' Though he didn't grasp their meanings, Egil was familiar with a similar concept — Atlantis!

The Arctic!

Beneath the permafrost!

Prehistoric remains!

Expansive streets!

It all pointed to a 'lost civilization'! For the moment, he decided to consider these ruins as Atlantis. Now, on his way to Atlantis, the thought made the cramped, uncomfortable space bearable.

The legend of Atlantis, as told by Plato, spoke of an island nation submerged by a prehistoric deluge. Mention of the island nation brought to mind the photo Martina had shown him, featuring a stone door on a coastal cliff that seemed to embody the essence of Atlantis.

Wait, a photo? The coast?

Egil activated his communicator.

"I'm Quintana. What's up?" The blue-eyed girl responded.

"Hey, beautiful! We're not heading to the place we agreed on! We're underground, but the shore is where we were supposed to be! I signed up for a thrill, not an endless journey! We're in the Arctic, and aside from the ruins, there are countless shipwrecks. If I take a risk ten thousand times, doesn't that mean I'm 100% done for? This isn't my idea of fun!"

"Let's get one thing straight: once this underground adventure is over, if I've fulfilled our agreement, you'll need to find someone else to take you to the coast."

Faced with Egil's skepticism, Quintana responded with a single word: "Listen."

The line went dead.

Egil closed his eyes and listened intently. Beyond the hum of the vehicle, there seemed to be an unusual sound.

The noise grew louder and louder until Egil's eyes snapped open in astonishment.

The sound of the tide! Impossible! The entire drive had been through a cave, all downhill! How could there be the sound of the tide underground?

As the vehicle pressed on, the sound of the waves swelled, drowning out the noise of the car.

Suddenly, a burst of light as the two cars emerged from the cave tunnel.

They stopped and got out. Outside the cave was a small platform perched on the edge of a cliff.

Egil walked to the brink of the platform, speechless at the sight before him.

Indeed, beyond the platform lay the vast sea, teeming with seagulls and schools of fish. He inhaled deeply, savoring the fresh air, so different from that inside the cave—rich with oxygen, yet damp and salty from the sea breeze.

Amid his shock, Egil turned to see the others. Martina and her companions appeared quite accustomed to the setting, sliding down the cliff on pre-fixed ropes with practiced ease.

The stone door from the photograph was just below the platform, on the same cliff face as the cave's exit.

Egil didn't rush to join them on the ropes. Instead, he walked back to the cave's mouth, gazing into the tunnel they had traveled through.

Could it be that the descent he had felt was actually an ascent? Not a journey downward, but upward out of the underground?

Egil looked up, squinting against the harsh sunlight.

No, it didn't add up. Even if they had been climbing, the outside should resemble the Arctic Ocean, with nothing but icebergs and polar bears, not the tropical scene with seagulls and fish that lay before him.

This bizarre occurrence couldn't be explained by mere slopes.

Egil could only conceive of two possible explanations!

The first possibility is that the karst tunnel is incredibly lengthy, stretching all the way from the Arctic to the Caribbean Sea! And to top it off, they stumbled upon a space-time wormhole during their travels. Covering 10,000 kilometers in just two hours? That's just too far-fetched! Impossible!

But the second possibility is even more outlandish! If the first is in the realm of science fiction, then the second veers into pure fantasy!

To put it simply, the tunnel leads to another realm entirely—the Otherworld.