Chapter 112: The Yearning for the Sea Ultimately Led Me Away from It

When Ji Ning woke up from his nap, he could already see the cluster of cities beneath the plane’s wings. Although his movements were slight, Qin Mo, who wore a blindfold beside him, had also awakened. Her half-reclined sleeping posture made her light sleeper.

“You’re awake,” Qin Mo said, still sounding a little drowsy, her voice tinged with a girl’s gentle coyness.

“Do you want to sleep a bit longer? I estimate we won’t arrive for a while,” Ji Ning said, gently stroking her hair. Taking care of someone paralyzed from the waist down was certainly no easy task.

“No, I’ve slept enough. I’ll take you to freshen up,” Qin Mo replied, rubbing her face as if trying to wake herself more fully. Seizing the moment, Ji Ning wrapped his arms around her slender waist.

“Stop messing around,” Qin Mo said shyly, pushing him away. “I’m getting up now.”

“They’re all asleep. Don’t wake them up,” Ji Ning said with a mischievous grin, nuzzling her soft stomach. Having trained in combat with Sylvia for half a year, Qin Mo’s figure was not just visually perfect, but her supple, fragrant body was the best pillow Ji Ning could ask for.

“Pah! Pervert! Everyone’s been awake for a long time. Qin Mo, you’ve got to be brave! I’ve long suspected this guy has designs on you,” Afra said, flipping over from the seat behind and then twisting Ji Ning’s hand behind his back.

Qin Mo blushed deeply, flustered, while Afra looked at her with a mix of pity and frustration. “You have to bravely say no to this kind of behavior, or else he’ll only take advantage more and more!”

Qin Mo lowered her head and nodded slightly, then shyly asked, “Can you let go of him? You’re going to sprain his hand like that.”

Afra sighed and loosened her grip a bit. Ji Ning, pinned under the seat cushion, sensed the opportunity immediately. With a sudden roll, he switched places with the unsuspecting Afra. Gasping for fresh air after being suffocated by the cushion, Ji Ning glared fiercely at Afra struggling beneath. “Today, I’ll show you the real difference between a C-rank and a D-rank.”

“Let me go! Let me go!” Afra struggled in vain, but Ji Ning’s cruel smile only grew wider.

“That was a sneak attack. If you’ve got the guts, let me go and we’ll have a proper duel! Haha… don’t tickle me… I’m sorry, I was wrong… haha…” Afra’s bravado lasted barely three seconds; Ji Ning had only poked her waist lightly, yet she couldn’t stop laughing.

“We’re almost there. Stop fooling around,” Catherine’s cold voice came from the front, and Ji Ning finally released his grip.

“Qin Mo! You traitor! You must have told him my weakness!” Afra accused Qin Mo with a wounded expression.

Qin Mo quickly shook her head. “I didn’t.”

“So you’re on his side then?” Afra asked seriously.

Qin Mo looked at the cheeky Ji Ning and reluctantly nodded.

“Then you’re just watching him bully me? You’re a traitor too!” Afra shouted again, grabbing Qin Mo by surprise while she was still arguing, a wicked smile spreading across her face. “If I’m not mistaken, this is your ticklish spot!”

“Alright, pack up. When we disembark, the Deer Academy people will probably come to pick us up. Don’t keep them waiting too long.” Zhao Tianxing, who had been resting with his eyes closed and blindfold on, removed the blindfold.

Afra snorted before rising from the seemingly weak and helpless Qin Mo. “Remember this for next time.”

Passing by Ji Ning, she snorted again. Ji Ning didn’t mind at all; instead, he happily nodded at Afra. If Afra hadn’t spoken up, Ji Ning wouldn’t have known Qin Mo was ticklish too. He carefully memorized the spot, waiting for the day it might come in handy.

---

When the “Seekers of the Forgotten” team all disembarked from the plane, it was already 9 a.m. London time.

The last time Ji Ning, Catherine, and Afra came to London, they had been coaxed and tricked by the old fox. Ji Ning still remembered his proud and confident arrival at Heathrow Airport. Though he was ultimately thrown onto a Deer Academy helicopter and sent back to the academy by his senior sister, at least he had some impression of the city.

This time they took a Deer Academy charter flight directly to the Academy’s logistics base in London, so they were greeted by staff almost immediately upon stepping off the plane.

After Catherine submitted their mission cards, the well-trained staff recorded their information and pointed out the exit. “Go this way, follow the arrows, and you’ll arrive at King’s Cross Station.”

“Are we going out from platform nine and three-quarters?” Afra asked excitedly.

“Probably,” the receptionist smiled slightly.

As Ji Ning’s group followed the arrows out, Afra glanced back with some disappointment. “Just a fire escape? Couldn’t Deer Academy arrange a classier exit?”

Her disappointment lasted only a few seconds because she spotted the half-hidden trolley of platform nine and three-quarters inside the wall. She cheered and darted into the nearby Harry Potter merchandise shop.

Zhao Tianxing scanned the elegant bird’s nest-shaped steel arches inside King’s Cross Station. In just a few seconds, he memorized the building’s exits. Then he looked at Catherine. Although he didn’t mind handling everything himself, he preferred to give these juniors room to grow. He wanted to be a consultant providing support, not the decision maker.

“Let’s find our lodging first, adjust to the time difference, then start investigating the mission,” Catherine said, pulling up a map on her phone. She had already booked a hotel before departure. Although a taxi could get them there, the Deer Academy mission manual explicitly recommended familiarizing oneself with the city’s routes. Subways or walking were better than taxis because they helped operatives understand traffic conditions more effectively.

Though the hotel was only a half-hour walk from the train station, it took them two hours. Most of the delay was due to a girl wearing a wizard’s hat who was fascinated by the foreign atmosphere. Though Ji Ning couldn’t understand what was special about the ubiquitous outdoor cafes, he ordered a cup of strong, bitter, and imaginatively flavored English coffee at Afra’s insistence.

While pondering how anyone could drink such a thing, Ji Ning politely declined the café server’s offer of a free scone.

Holding their coffees, the group headed toward the resting area. Anyone seeing these somewhat scattered young people would never guess their purpose in the city.

The Gothic spires, the neatly arranged corbels on the exterior walls, the repeating linear patterns—all evoked a strong Victorian architectural style. Every visitor here might think of the so-called empire on which the sun never set.

“The Academic Affairs Office has updated the mission information since our arrival. This is a fairly typical case of psychic power loss of control. There should be a newly awakened psychic rampaging in this city, recklessly using their abilities. The first victim was discovered a week ago, followed by two others. Of course, these are official records; the true situation will require our own investigation. The first victim, Yvette Joyce, was a 27-year-old nun. She married at 22 and had a son but later divorced, leaving the child with her ex-husband. After the divorce, she converted to Christianity and became a nun. Photos from the scene taken by SCP Foundation agents, as well as environmental test reports, are attached to the file. You can review them,” Catherine explained, sitting amid the group. After the Deer Academy London branch staff registered their arrival, as the team leader, Catherine had received the mission details directly in her academy email.

Afra flipped through the photocopied documents, stopping at the photo of Yvette Joyce at the time of discovery on the second page. “This feels a little strange,” she said, just from a glance.

Even the desk-bound Deer Academy students were braver than ordinary people. Afra found the photo unsettling precisely because it was so unlike what she expected.

The room was tidy, with no spilled blood or eerie marks. Yvette Joyce looked as if she were merely asleep. What disturbed Afra was Yvette’s unnervingly calm expression. She sat half-leaning in a chair, eyes closed with tear stains at the corners, yet her lips curved into a faint smile.

There was nothing obviously abnormal, yet almost everyone sensed the photo’s strangeness.

Qin Mo tentatively said, “Although she’s smiling, she looks sad somehow.”

Ji Ning nodded in agreement. “It seems like she just went through a strong emotional upheaval. But according to the information here, she’s just a nun devoted to God, with simple social relations. It’s unlikely her expression is due to life troubles. So it must be caused by the psychic. Looks like it’s not just ordinary forced sleep but might involve emotional interference as well.”

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Zhao Tianxing studied every detail in the photo carefully before speaking seriously. “There are no signs of violent intrusion in the room. Unless the psychic was professionally trained, they must have had a way to contact the victim. But if the psychic were professionally trained, you wouldn’t receive this mission. They wouldn’t let anyone discover what they did. They’d clean the scene and disguise it as suicide or disappearance. They would never allow the SCP Foundation to detect an anomaly like this.”

“So only two possibilities remain: either the victim knew the psychic, or the psychic’s identity allowed the victim to not resist their entry, like a repairman or someone legitimate. If it’s the latter, we just need to investigate the victim’s relationships and check nearby street surveillance. Comparing with other victims should quickly identify the psychic.”

“Is there another possibility?” Afra asked.

“That psychic doesn’t need to physically contact the victims, or they have some way to remotely use their powers. Whether through a medium or directly manipulating their abilities, they can put targets to sleep. The SCP Foundation must have considered this and rated the psychic as C-class,” Zhao Tianxing said bluntly.

“Remote attacks? That sounds dangerous. Maybe they’re watching us right now,” Ji Ning said nervously. The Maxim rifle guarding the steel barricades might not be frightening, but a Mosin-Nagant in a snowstorm was terrifying.

“We don’t know who they are, so how would they know about us?” Catherine glanced at Ji Ning, then patted the nerves of Afra, who looked as frightened as a startled rabbit. If this were a battlefield, she thought, she’d have to shoot Ji Ning for disrupting morale.

“There are two other victims besides Yvette Joyce: Warren Griffin and Ophelia Hill. They were found on the second and fourth days after Yvette’s case. Like Yvette, they fell into strange sleep states. Their brain waves were nearly identical to brain death, except for occasional detection. Notably, Warren Griffin was Yvette’s ex-husband, but so far, no connection has been found between Ophelia Hill and the former couple,” Catherine continued.

“Tomorrow, Ji Ning and Qin Mo will investigate Yvette Joyce and Warren Griffin respectively. Afra, you’ll look into Ophelia Hill. I’ll handle the surveillance footage from where they were found,” Catherine decided after some thought.

She didn’t mention Zhao Tianxing because he couldn’t contribute much beyond advice. The Academic Affairs Office allowed Zhao to accompany them out of consideration for a student in a wheelchair. His role in this final exam was as a guardian, not a candidate.

Catherine reminded them to prioritize safety, and after Qin Mo thoroughly checked their communication devices, the meeting ended.

“Are you scared?” Ji Ning turned to look at Qin Mo, who was pushing his wheelchair. Noticing his gaze, Qin Mo instinctively rose on her right toes, bending one knee to meet his eyes.

“A little,” Qin Mo answered honestly after a moment’s thought, though her expression didn’t fully match her words. Her warm eyes stayed on Ji Ning’s face, but she didn’t voice the second half of her thought out of shyness.

“I’m scared too,” Ji Ning said as if it were obvious. He nodded and spoke up, “I think it’s too dangerous to be alone. How about we stay together tonight to prevent any sneak attacks from the psychic?”

Qin Mo hesitated. “Seems unnecessary, right? Besides, Catherine said the psychic probably doesn’t know we exist.”

Ji Ning looked solemn. “Better safe than sorry. How about you take a shower first, then come to my room? We’ll have a long talk overnight. This mission is a bit dangerous…”

Ji Ning’s words were cut off as Qin Mo, realizing what he implied, began tugging his ear.

“No funny business!”