Nic immediately left Qwelin Academy to head to the students' location, still wearing his botanist outfit.
But on the way, whether it was fate or something else, Nic saw Lingmei again on the roadside, drinking iced tea.
"Why is she there? Isn't school still in session... it's break time, but why is she out this far?" Nic thought, puzzled.
Lingmei saw Nic and waved her hand like she was hailing a public transport.
Nic tried to ignore her, and as he passed Lingmei, she kept waving. When Nic looked back, an public transport actually passed by, and Lingmei got in.
"Huh? I swear no public transport passed by here earlier..." Nic was even more baffled.
Then, after the public transport passed him, Nic realized the driver was a maid—which meant it was Lingmei's private public transport.
"Ah, whatever, just think of it as an NPC passing by. Better hurry to the sick girls' address," Nic said, speeding up his pace.
A few moments later, Nic finally arrived at the address, which turned out to be close to Osaqi Beach.
"Wow, the beach view is beautiful," Nic said, squinting to look at the beach from across the road.
Then Nic headed towards the nearby housing area and used the God of Tracker skill to find the exact house from the address.
"Ok, this is the house." Nic found it and immediately knocked.
Then a voice came from inside. "Who is it?"
Nic answered casually, "I'm a member of the botanist team from Qwelin Academy. I want to visit you two and conduct an analysis."
Silence for a moment, then a different voice spoke, "Sorry, but are you sure you're from Qwelin Academy? Qwelin Academy should know they wouldn't send anyone here."
"Correct. I know Teacher Shiori Han; I want to help her analyze your illness," Nic answered.
"Do you intend to cure us... even the doctors and Teacher Shiori Han failed, and we got sick again," said the voice inside.
"Actually, that's not my intention, but if you want to be cured... I can help safely," Nic said.
Hearing that, the door immediately opened, and Nic saw two people wearing oversized protective suits that fully covered their bodies; even their heads were tightly covered.
"Sorry if our appearance is disturbing, but this is the only way we can avoid infecting visitors... although we're not sure if this is enough."
They entered the room and locked the door. Only the two of them were in the house because they were deliberately left alone; if anyone lived with them, they would likely get infected.
Nic looked at them. "Before we start, could you introduce yourselves first?"
They both nodded and introduced themselves.
"I'm Yao Lin, you can call me Lin. I'm a beauty model at Qwelin Academy."
"My name is Iroha. I'm a beauty makeup expert at Qwelin Academy."
Nic nodded and introduced himself too. After that, Nic stood with his arms crossed over his chest.
"You're uncomfortable in those clothes, aren't you?" Nic asked.
"That's obvious... it's very hot, but what can we do... it's our fate," Lin said.
Nic then suggested they take them off and wear normal clothes because Nic didn't mind.
"Ugh, don't joke around... we don't want to do something reckless like that," Iroha said.
"Calm down and trust me that nothing will happen. Relax..." Nic said.
Initially, they hesitated, but Lin stood up. "If that's what you want, don't blame me if you get infected, okay? We've done this before, and close people immediately became weak, hallucinated, and fainted."
"I'm different from them," Nic said casually.
After that, Lin took off her thick protective suit, leaving only her regular clothes and shorts.
Lin was a bit shy, and Nic noticed. Coincidentally, there was a cloth near Nic, so he immediately gave it to her.
"Uh, thanks..." Lin said shyly.
A few moments later, Lin and Iroha were genuinely shocked to see Nic perfectly fine. Nic had even been checking and touching Lin's body the whole time.
"You really didn't get infected?" Iroha asked.
"Just consider this something only an expert can do," Nic answered with a chuckle.
Iroha then took off her thick suit too, and Nic proceeded to examine her.
"Hm, your bodies are completely fine, but the problem is your brains... do you always experience hallucinations?" Nic explained.
"It's actually a bit complicated. The hallucinations are weird, and we don't realize if it's hallucination or reality because there's no difference... so what we see now could just be a hallucination..." Iroha said.
"Hm, so you could just consider me a hallucination, huh? Interesting... can you explain how you first got this strange illness?"
Lin nodded and started telling the story of what happened exactly one year ago, just as Teacher Shiori Han had recounted.
Initially, Lin and Iroha seemed to hear strange whispers telling them to go somewhere. Curious, they followed the whispers.
But suddenly the voices disappeared, and they only saw a quiet forest area. Since there was nothing there, they decided to go back.
"After that... ugh, it's always like this... we don't know what happened after that, like a blank," Lin said, holding her head in confusion.
"Lin is right, it's weird, no one can explain for sure what happened," Iroha said.
"That information is enough. May I massage your heads?" Nic activated the Fusion Health skill.
Iroha and Lin looked at each other and nodded together.
After that, Nic stood behind them and started massaging their heads. Using the God of Acupuncture technique, Nic massaged important brain points and used God of Health to heal the brains affected by the illness.
Lin and Iroha instantly felt like they were in heaven, feeling the pleasure of Nic's massage.
Internally, Nic thought, "Sigh, just a little headache? Looks like I'm already used to accepting pain."
Once finished, Nic immediately got ready to leave. "You are cured now and can go to school again... but if you still don't believe me, you can check with a doctor. But don't say it's because I cured you... just say it suddenly disappeared."
"S-seriously?? But actually... my mind feels clearer and fresher," Lin said.
"Alright, we'll check with a doctor. THANKS!" Iroha said, waving.
Before leaving, Nic shot them with Cupid Arsenal.
[ Ding! Congratulations, Yao Lin and Iroha now 100% like and are loyal to Master Nic. ]
[ Ding! Heart Claim activated! Yao Lin and Iroha have entered the Girlfriend List. ]
[ Ding! Congratulations Master Nic, got new skills: God of Beauty and God of Makeup. ]
"Well, time to head back," Nic said.
On the way back to Qwelin Academy, something absurd appeared again, and Nic already guessed who it was.
"Did that NPC respawn near me again?" Nic said.
And sure enough, an public appeared and stopped, then Lingmei got out and walked towards Qwelin Academy.
Lingmei was right in front of Nic now without saying anything, focused on walking. But the gate was already closed; clearly, break time had long passed.
In front, there was also a teacher who looked scary—the "Killer Teacher."
Nic tried to chat with Lingmei here. "Hey, where have you been?"
Lingmei turned around. "Me? Just took a nap at home."
Hearing that, Nic fell silent, confused, but Nic's passive anti-lie skill didn't activate, which indicated Lingmei was telling the truth.
"Damn, ok ok, do whatever you want," Nic said.
Suddenly, a loud shout was heard from the Qwelin Academy gate. "LINGGGGGG MEIIIIIII!!!!!!!"
Nic and Lingmei reflexively covered their ears.
"Excuse me, Miss Fierce, I want to come in," Lingmei said casually.
"NO WAY! YOU REALLY LOVE DOING WEIRD THINGS! GO INSIDE BUT STAND IN THE FIELD FIRST!" the Killer Teacher said.
Lingmei smiled and waved to Nic.
Nic could only shake his head in wonder at her behavior.
"HEHHH!!"
Nic was startled but reflexively shouted back. "WOAH! SORRY, I'M JUST THE BOTANIST ROOM CARETAKER AND WAS OUT FOR A BIT ON BUSINESS!!"
The Killer Teacher paused, then finally scolded Nic again for daring to yell at her. Nic ended up getting lectured even though he wasn't a student here, but it felt like he was a student skipping class.
"Geez, whatever..." Nic said while covering his ears.
To be continued...