Chapter 121: Tomorrow, When the Dawn Breaks

“Tomorrow, at dawn, at the hour when the countryside whitens,”
“I will set off. You see, I know you are waiting for me.”
“I will go through the forest, I will go over the mountain.”
She recited softly, unaware of the young man who had sat down not far from her.
“I can no longer remain far from you.”
“I will walk, my eyes fixed on my thoughts,”
“Seeing nothing outside, hearing no noise,”
“Alone, unknown, back bent, hands crossed,”
“Sad, and the day for me will be like the night.”
Ophelia took a sip of her drink, and the man nearby suddenly finished the poem for her.
“I will not look at the gold of the falling evening,”
“Nor the sails in the distance descending toward Harfleur,”
“And when I arrive, I will place on your grave”
“A bouquet of holly and flowering heather.”
Ophelia turned around to get a clear look at the young man. He had the classic features of Greek descent, as handsome as an Adonis stepped out of the age of gods, yet for some reason, Ophelia felt a sense of compassion from him that was unique to a church priest.
“Hugo wrote this poem to commemorate his daughter; what are you mourning as you recite it?” The young man walked up to Ophelia. Even though he was far too close for a stranger, Ophelia felt not a shred of aversion.

“I don’t know.” Ophelia lowered her head; the liquid in her glass was as clear as water.
The young man watched her, time appearing as a frozen poem. Guests came and went in the bar, and no one noticed the strange pair.
“Adonis, it has been a long time since I listened to jazz without a care in the world.” Ophelia looked up, her eyes brimming with tears like a bright, starry night.
Adonis was silent for a moment, then nodded.
As night fell, Qin Mo was pushing Ji Ning past St. Paul’s Cathedral when a feeling of being watched made her instinctively want to turn around. Before she could act, Ji Ning whispered, “Pretend you didn’t notice.”
Qin Mo suppressed her impulse, her training at the Deer Academy allowing her to keep walking without a stutter in her pace.
Dozens of seconds earlier, SCP-CN-655 had alerted Ji Ning, “An entity is watching us.”
“Is it that psychic? It makes sense; with us investigating so brazenly, he should have noticed us by now. And don’t use the word ‘entity’ next time; it sounds like some god looking down from on high. It’s just a newly awakened psychic. Deer Academy wouldn’t be stupid enough to mistake that, would they?”
“I understand the human definition of a psychic, but the entity watching us now does not fit those definitions. I can feel it—a familiar sensation.” SCP-CN-655’s voice carried a clear note of confusion in the latter half of the sentence.
“Don’t tell me that guy isn’t a psychic, but like us—does he have an old man hidden in a ring or a golden cheat code?” Ji Ning felt a headache coming on. SCP-CN-655 never lied; if things went as expected, this mission would have yet another twist. Thinking of this, Ji Ning felt like tearing his hair out. So far, none of the missions he had received from Deer Academy had been normal.
He didn’t have to wait long before SCP-CN-655 realized why it felt a sense of familiarity with the stalker. “Dimensions. It doesn’t belong to this dimension, just like me. I can feel the energy fluctuations it emits as it resists dimensional exclusion.”
“If something happens later, please protect Qin Mo. If it’s truly impossible to resist, you can possess her and escape. You can tell her about our agreement later; she will complete it for me.” The moment Ji Ning heard the word “dimension,” his head buzzed. The professors at Deer Academy had mentioned the concept of dimensions more than once. Anything involving dimensions, even a toilet plunger, was an extinction-level threat. Only the most elite among those entities whose names cannot be spoken could master such things.
Excluding SCP-CN-655, a stowaway from another dimension, Ji Ning had only seen objects or entities related to this concept in textbooks. For example, the way the SCP Foundation distinguishes between Old Ones and minor evil gods is by determining whether they possess the means to cross dimensions. From SCP-CN-655’s performance thus far, it had been constantly resisting dimensional exclusion. Ji Ning had once probed it, only to find that it knew almost nothing of its own past. According to its own speculation, it might have once been an Old One-level entity, and the reason it ended up in its current state was likely due to forcibly crossing a dimensional barrier.
Ji Ning trusted SCP-CN-655 because it was indeed powerful. Based on the help it had provided, it was certainly no weakling. A large part of the psychological factors that allowed him to endure his first month at Deer Academy was his hope in SCP-CN-655. During their first meeting, he had felt that sense of absolute control that SCP-CN-655 exuded.
Ji Ning knew that SCP-CN-655’s level of recovery was so low that it might not even have one percent of its true strength, but who could say if the watcher in the shadows was as weak as SCP-CN-655?
“The contract was signed between you and me. I cannot abandon you just to let her live.” SCP-CN-655’s tone remained as emotionless as ever.
“Our agreement was made before you even knew what a contract was; there’s no need to be so particular.” Ji Ning felt a warmth in his heart, thinking that SCP-CN-655 was still a creature with a sharp tongue but a soft heart.
SCP-CN-655 did not dwell on the issue. “Qin Mo has noticed.”
Only then did Ji Ning warn Qin Mo. He didn’t want the watcher to know it had been discovered. Not until Qin Mo pushed Ji Ning around the next corner did the feeling of being watched vanish.
“Run!” Ji Ning’s voice was urgent, startling Qin Mo. However, she reacted quickly, pushing Ji Ning like a shopping cart during a supermarket sale, speeding along the street. Ji Ning gripped the armrests of his wheelchair tightly, wishing he could stand up and carry Qin Mo all the way to the airport to buy a ticket back to Deer Academy.
It wasn’t until they returned to the hotel and were in the elevator that she breathed a sigh of relief. “What was that?”
Ji Ning’s face was extremely gloomy. He didn’t even have the energy to look at her heaving chest from the exertion. “We’ve been played. Deer Academy is full of traps. I suspect they’re undercover agents for the enemy, sending fake intel every day. ‘A psychic just awakening’? That guy is like a walking Old One. Whoever runs into him is doomed. Call Deer Academy immediately and tell them an evil god has descended—make it sound as serious as possible. We cannot be involved any longer. A stupid final exam isn’t worth our lives. For a guy of that level, just seeing him is enough of a contribution to Deer Academy’s efforts.”
When Catherine and Zhao Tianxing saw the panting Qin Mo and Ji Ning, they reacted instantly. One opened the suitcase under the bed to calibrate the scope of a custom sniper rifle—a massive white weapon like a spear, a specialty from the Action Department of Deer Academy that only students about to enter their junior year were qualified to request. According to Zhao Tianxing, his rifle was called “Simo Häyhä.” Catherine, meanwhile, began accessing the hotel’s internal surveillance.
“Target characteristics?” Zhao Tianxing, holding the sniper rifle, pointed at the monitor Catherine had brought up and looked sternly at Ji Ning and Qin Mo. His left hand was in his pocket, ready to ignite soul fire to handle emergencies.
“No, we weren’t ambushed—well, I guess that’s not entirely wrong. Anyway, Senior, it hasn’t reached that point yet. Can we put the guns away? They won’t be of any use right now.” Ji Ning turned his wheelchair and poured a glass of water for Qin Mo, looking melancholy.
When Aphra returned to the hotel, Ji Ning told everyone what he had encountered, specifically emphasizing the feeling that the person was from another dimension.
Since returning from Tokyo, Ji Ning was no longer synonymous with “loser,” and everyone assumed he possessed some special ability akin to a transformation. In the folder on Catherine’s computer named “Advanced Ji Ning,” there were still photos Aphra had secretly taken of him that day.
Everyone kept a tacit understanding about this; aside from Qin Mo asking a few times, even Deer Academy hadn’t asked many questions. Do not inquire about others’ supernatural abilities—this was a universal rule.
Having proven he wasn’t a loser, the resulting increase in his standing was obvious. He now had the authority to propose withdrawing from the mission without Aphra suspecting him of cowardice.
After Ji Ning finished his story, everyone except Qin Mo, who was already mentally prepared, felt a lingering fear. They all had their own lives to lead and didn’t want to die because of some inexplicable final exam.
“Pack your things. Tomorrow we go back to Deer Academy, and we’ll treat the mission file like toilet paper.” Ji Ning looked eagerly at Catherine. As the leader of the Seekers of the Forgotten, the choice was hers.
Clearly, Catherine began contacting the relevant people at Deer Academy immediately. After receiving permission, she began arranging the night watch.
Since the enemy had already detected their investigation and begun tracking them, they were no longer in a safe state. Going back to their rooms to sleep and waiting for tomorrow was not only a foolish approach but a disregard for their own lives.
After establishing a rotation for monitoring the surveillance footage, Zhao Tianxing began preparing a simple defensive barrier, igniting his soul fire for about a second to do so.
To avoid ending up like the foolish supporting characters in movies who die because they are alone, they even went in groups of two or three to get their sleeping bags.
When Ji Ning and Qin Mo arrived at the room designated as the temporary sleeping area, everyone’s gaze fell upon Ji Ning.
Ji Ning felt a bit awkward, while Qin Mo pursed her lips, trying hard to control her gaze. The sleeping bags at Deer Academy were custom-made according to the students’ requests. It seemed he was the only one who had made special requests for the exterior. When he crawled into his cute, silly little dragon-shaped sleeping bag, even Zhao Tianxing laughed.
“I didn’t expect you to be so childish.” Aphra glanced at Ji Ning, who was lying on the floor playing dead while fixing her hair. She truly couldn’t understand how Qin Mo could like such a childish guy.
“The weird one isn’t me! The Equipment Department clearly said you could customize the exterior. You guys, who didn’t make any requests, are the strange ones!” Ji Ning struggled to move, disdainfully pushing Aphra’s sleeping bag aside.
“When you receive a goodnight kiss from a leopard in the jungle, you’ll know why we chose camouflage,” Aphra retorted, picking up her sleeping bag and placing it next to Catherine’s while mocking Ji Ning again.
Ji Ning snorted in feigned disdain and rolled over next to Qin Mo’s sleeping bag, thinking, *Would a leopard really dare to take a bite out of a two-meter-long unidentified creature?*
Zhao Tianxing took on the heavy responsibility of the night watch, sitting cross-legged with his back against the wall, eyes alert for any suspicious movement in the dim light.
Qin Mo, wearing an eye mask, suddenly felt Ji Ning gently nudge her sleeping bag. A few seconds later, Ji Ning moved closer. Qin Mo could almost feel his breath brushing against her ear. *How is this any different from sleeping in the same bed?* The thought flashed through her mind, and, face flushed, she quickly rolled over to face Aphra.
Aphra blew a puff of air at Qin Mo’s delicate face and whispered, “Can’t sleep either?”
Qin Mo helplessly removed her eye mask and nodded. Aphra blinked. “Is that guy bothering you?”
Qin Mo nodded, then, realizing something, quickly shook her head. She was actually torn between shyness and annoyance, but truthfully, she didn’t want anyone to disturb her and Ji Ning.
“Should we swap places? I’ll help you knock him out,” Aphra said, clearly excited. She felt that her roommate only looked cold in front of strangers, but was too soft and easy to bully in front of people she knew—especially Ji Ning.
This time, Qin Mo shook her head firmly. *Are you kidding? How could she bear to do that?*
Before Aphra could continue, a knock on the door suddenly sounded. The visitor seemed very patient; the knocking was not rushed, but very slow and rhythmic, like the distant tolling of an 18th-century church bell.
The five people in the room stood up instantly. Zhao Tianxing reflexively drew the Tang hengdao from his waist; Catherine, her hair disheveled, put on her glasses while opening her laptop; Qin Mo quickly turned on all the lights in the room and stood between Ji Ning and the door; while Aphra scrambled to put on her clothes, guessing that she wouldn’t be sleeping tonight after all.
Looking at his fully armed teammates, Ji Ning felt very relieved, then scooted back as hard as he could to avoid being stepped on if a fight broke out. He had a clear self-awareness: he was a burden.
*Escapism is shameful, but it works,* he thought to himself.