The Extra's Rise

The professors, alongside figures whose combined power could rearrange continental shelves if they collectively sneezed, had orchestrated what they cheerfully called a "joint mission." This pleasant euphemism encompassed sending all third-year students directly into what I strongly suspected was a vampire-infested deathtrap. The scale of this undertaking was like nothing we had faced before, which was saying something considering our previous exploits had included subterranean cults and creatures whose existence violated several laws of physics.

The reinforcements alone suggested that someone, somewhere, had actually done a proper risk assessment and promptly had a panic attack. The Lightning Dragon of the Mount Hua Sect, Li Zenith himself, had joined our merry band of potential martyrs. His reputation preceded him in the way that thunder precedes lightning—impressive, attention-grabbing, and a warning that something more dangerous was imminent. Each of the five great families and the other two sects had also sent an Ascendant-ranker, presumably to ensure that if we all died, at least it would be properly documented by observers from every major power.

Our roster read like the setup for an elaborate joke: one Radiant-ranker, two Immortal-rankers, ten Ascendant-rankers, and two hundred students who had barely mastered the art of not setting their own homework on fire, all between seventeen and eighteen, journeying southward to what might well be our collective doom.

"This is big, isn't it?" Seraphina observed as she walked alongside me, her tone carrying both excitement and a touch of unease. Her silver hair caught the light, framing a face as beautiful as it was disconcertingly calm about our potential demise.

I glanced at her and offered what I hoped was a reassuring smile. "It is, but we don't have much to worry about with Master Magnus leading us. Please tell Master Li he can relax before he accidentally electrocutes someone with his nervous energy."

She laughed softly, the tension in her expression easing like ice melting under an unexpected ray of sunlight. "You should talk to him yourself. He hasn't seen you in a long time, you know. He keeps asking about your progress."

I nodded, acknowledging her point. I owed Li Zenith more than I could easily repay, which was unfortunate as the currency of gratitude doesn't offer installment plans.

Seraphina herself had grown remarkably stronger since our early days. She had recently reached Integration-rank, her aura sharper than a tax auditor's pencil, her presence more commanding than a librarian catching someone eating chocolate near a first edition. The girl walking beside me now bore little resemblance to the character I remembered from the novel I'd read in my previous life.

"Well, this time you won't try to take care of everything yourself, right?" Cecilia teased, hooking her arm around mine with the proprietary air of someone who has already written her name on the item in question. Her crimson eyes gleamed with expectation, daring me to contradict her.

"It's not like I had much of a choice last time," I replied honestly, though her glare told me this answer ranked somewhere between "the dog ate my homework" and "I thought the red button was decorative" on the scale of accepted excuses.

Rachel chuckled from the seat across, flashing me a knowing smile. Her golden hair caught the sunlight streaming through the window, creating a halo effect that somewhat undercut her attempt at looking stern. "Don't worry, Ceci. This time, he won't have the chance to play the lone hero. We'll be watching him like hawks."

"More like vultures," I muttered under my breath, earning a light smack on the arm from Cecilia.

Rose, seated beside Rachel, glanced up from the book she'd been studying. Her auburn eyes, sharp with intelligence, met mine over the top of the book she was reading.

The bus rumbled steadily onward, carrying us southward through a landscape that gradually transformed from the familiar Eastern terrain to something wilder, more vibrant. Our journey wasn't limited to mundane roads—it was punctuated by teleportation gates, vast arcs of shimmering mana that hummed with power as the bus passed through. Each leap brought us closer to our destination and to the weight hanging over my thoughts: the Southern Sea Sun Palace. And vampires.

The connection between the Palace and the vampires gnawed at me like a particularly determined rodent with a taste for existential dread. The vampire city hidden under Starcrest Academy and the Red Chalice cult's headquarters both loomed large in my mind, pieces of a puzzle I'd thought I understood. But this mission wasn't something I'd foreseen. Not even my knowledge of the novel had prepared me for this particular deviation from the script.

The Southern Sea Sun Palace and its island? Complete blank. Nothing to guide me. This was entirely uncharted territory, a divergence from the narrative that made me feel like a reader who had suddenly discovered extra chapters mysteriously inserted into a familiar book. A chill ran down my spine. Whatever lay ahead could completely alter the course of events.

The bus slowed as we approached the Southern Sea, a vast expanse of water that stretched toward the horizon like an artist's ambitious attempt to paint infinity. The Luthadel Sea, as it was called, wasn't merely a sea in the same way that Mount Everest isn't merely a hill. It bordered on being an ocean, its sheer size a testament to its power and beauty. This colossal body of water had divided the Eastern and Southern continents so effectively that for centuries, their cultures had developed with only the vaguest awareness of each other's existence. Only with recent technological advances had the two regions begun to truly interact.

"Wow," Rachel whispered, her voice barely audible as she leaned toward the window, her golden hair catching the light. Her eyes sparkled with awe as she gazed out at the expanse of shimmering blue. "The Luthadel Sea makes the Kobold Sea look like a cute little pond."

"The Kobold Sea is a cute little pond," Rose corrected without looking up from her book. "It's approximately one-eighth the volume of the Luthadel and significantly less saline." Her tone suggested that bodies of water should know better than to misrepresent their credentials in her presence.

I followed Rachel's gaze, the sight before us as humbling as it was beautiful. The waters stretched endlessly, their surface glinting under the sun like scattered diamonds. The Southern Sea Sun Palace's island lay somewhere beyond this vastness, its secrets waiting with the patience of a predator that knows its prey is approaching.

But a question nagged at me like an itch in an unreachable spot. How were we supposed to get there? Teleportation gates couldn't be used—not with the defenses the Palace likely had in place. Crossing by traditional means seemed the only option, but with two hundred students? The logistics didn't add up, and math rarely makes exceptions for inconvenient scenarios.

As if to answer my unspoken question, the buses pulled to a stop, and we were ushered outside. All of us stood in a long line, staring out at the sea, the salty breeze brushing against our faces with the casual familiarity of a relative who never learned about personal space.

Then, something remarkable happened.

The buses began to shift, their metallic forms rippling and folding in on themselves like origami performed by an invisible master craftsman. My eyes widened as sleek boats emerged where the buses had once been, their surfaces gleaming with a metallic sheen that seemed to shimmer in the sunlight.

"What...?" I breathed, unable to hide my astonishment. Nanotechnology. The buses had transformed into watercraft, their functionality extending far beyond anything I'd imagined.

'I guess this world's tech still manages to surprise me,' I thought.

This was a stark reminder of just how advanced this world was compared to the one I'd come from. It wasn't merely two decades in the future—it was a leap forward in every way that mattered, as if someone had taken the concept of progress and strapped rocket boosters to it.

"Showoffs," Rose commented dryly, though I noticed she was taking detailed notes on the transformation process, her eyes bright with the particular gleam that appears when an academic encounters something worthy of a research paper.

The boats slid gracefully into the water, their engines humming softly as they powered up with the gentle purr of extremely expensive technology functioning exactly as intended. One by one, the students were directed to board, and soon we were gliding over the Luthadel Sea, the waves parting before us as if they'd received a stern memo about our arrival.

As I sat with the others, the sea stretching endlessly before us, I couldn't shake the weight of what lay ahead. The Southern Sea Sun Palace was waiting, along with whatever secrets it held—and possibly a congregation of vampires who would view our arrival less as a diplomatic visit and more as a convenient food delivery service.

But as Cecilia leaned against my shoulder, Rachel watched the horizon with bright-eyed wonder, Rose muttered calculations under her breath, and Seraphina's cool hand found mine in silent support, I realized that whatever waited for us, at least I wouldn't be facing it alone.

Which was, perhaps, the most terrifying thought of all.