"I will send you off one last time" [Global Examination]

[57] You Seem Delicious: Baiting Fish

You Huo squatted down and brought the fire closer to the ice.

The ice here had accumulated over time and had become shockingly thick. In some places that were clearer, you could see the dark reefs buried deep down at the bottom. The others were covered in non-transparent, white web-like cracks.

"I know the ice is thick and all..." Wen Yuan muttered, unconsciously wrapping his arms tighter around 154 like he were some kind of pillow, "But knowing there's something down there..."

"I think we'd all rather they get off the ice..." 154 whispered.

Under a certain area of ice that was covered with cracks, a man's pale face looked out. His pupils were so dilated, it occupied the majority of his eyes.

The entire room turned cold, and no one had any idea how to react.

This thing was a monster, wearing the face of a human...

He quietly looked at You Huo.

"How can you just... stare at it like that..." A hardliner winced, and many others nodded in agreement.

They could barely stand looking at the thing... and yet, here was Invigilator A, just looking at the creature, like it were nothing more than a minor inconvenience.

...

Then again, in an exam like that... they supposed the monster was merely an inconvenience...

"After all that searching, turns out it was hiding here?"

Qin Jiu's voice sounded from above his head. He straightforwardly gave that face a greeting: "Good evening."

Some people choked.

"Good... evening!?"

Qin Jiu shrugged and smiled, "What, it was evening!"

"You don't just-" Gao Qi was just about to throw hands at that point, before realizing that it was GIN he was talking about.

If he threw hands at everything he did, he'd need more than a hundred Romani exams to barely even scratch the surface of coping with all the bullshit Qin Jiu caused... and that was including throwing all the feet and heads alongside the hands.

His 'good evening' was like bait thrown into a fishpond. More than a dozen more faces appeared.

"You see!? Why are you trying to make things worse!?" The moderates yelled at Qin Jiu while the hardliners snickered at their misery.

They all looked up at the same angle. Together, dozens of eyes stared at You Huo.

"..."

"You know..."

"That's... actually creepy as fuck..."

Everyone shivered; the fact that the creature was hidden under the ice made it feel like they were staring down into the void, where a terrifying eldritch monster was staring back, with the only form of protection being the thin ice floor that separated You Huo and Qin Jiu from the darkness that lay beneath.

You Huo: "..."

Qin Jiu's lips began to move.

"You shut up." You Huo said.

You Huo lifted his chin, making it seem like he was looking down on him.

Qin Jiu squinted his eyes and obediently kept his mouth shut.