Lin Zhen didn’t care about the outcome of this team battle.
But… the Ancient Battlefield still hasn’t been found!
If he missed this rare opportunity, who knew when he’d next get to leave the Asa Star System.
The black-haired boy slumped against the spaceship in dejection.
Boom!
A star, resplendent and dazzling, suddenly crashed into the ship’s hull behind him.
It swerved sharply in front of him, then, with an overwhelming and terrifying impact, barreled straight toward him.
Lin Zhen narrowed his eyes slightly, releasing the last trace of his starlight energy.
The bulkhead behind him instantly melted into liquid metal, swallowing him up like a quagmire.
Bang!
The star crashed into the spot where Lin Zhen had just been, smashing a huge crater into the spaceship.
The entire ship spun out of control from the impact.
Inside the cabin, Lin Zhen’s legs gave out, and he fell to the floor, rolling all the way outside.
The moment he landed, Xing Ke’ai—now fully human in form—sprinted over and straddled Lin Zhen’s body.
She raised her right hand, her fist shimmering with starlight.
“Surrender now and I’ll spare your life.”
“Didn’t you just say you shouldn’t hold back?”
Perhaps because the plan had almost failed, Lin Zhen, resigned to his fate, still had the energy to tease Xing Ke’ai.
The pink-haired little ball’s face darkened. “If I kill you, that wicked woman would never let me off!”
“Don’t think that just because I’m short, I’m stupid!”
Yun Ruoxi, huh?
To think he had to rely on her reputation to save his skin at a time like this—yeah, right.
“Actually… you don’t really want to kill anyone, do you?”
Lin Zhen suddenly chuckled.
He’d seen it clearly just now.
Xing Ke’ai had countless chances to strike fatal blows against Class Three and Class Six trainees on the battlefield, yet she always pulled back in the end.
With her ability, one powerful blow—whether or not she intended it—would have been enough to cause heavy casualties.
So, if no one died, there was only one explanation: she simply didn’t want to kill.
After all, she was still just a twelve-year-old kid.
She even gave herself a name like “Xing Ke’ai”—Star Cute.
She liked pink, even tying a butterfly clip in her hair.
A girl as childlike as Yun Ruoxi, how could her true nature be truly evil?
That fierce, snarling look was most likely a mask she put on to avoid being bullied.
“You!”
Being called out like that, Xing Ke’ai’s eyes flashed with an almost imperceptible panic. Then, as if to cover it up, she furiously grabbed Lin Zhen by the neck and lifted him up.
“Think I really don’t dare kill you?”
[She’s panicking, she’s really panicking]
[I thought she was a pink-skinned black-hearted type, but she’s actually pink on the outside, black on the inside, and pink again—a triple-layered sandwich, production team, you win]
[Twist after twist, classic]
[Classic urgent laughter moment]
[Say, is Lao Lin supposed to be a “loli-slayer” or what? He always makes the little lolis lose their composure, first Xiao Xi, now Xing Ke’ai]
Lin Zhen kept silent, even looking away so as not to provoke Xing Ke’ai further.
“You jerk!” Xing Ke’ai’s chest heaved, and she smashed her fist into the side of Lin Zhen’s face.
The boy didn’t dodge at all, letting the blow send him rolling several times from the force.
“If I don’t kill you, I’ll at least make you suffer!”
Lin Zhen raised a hand and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. His left cheek was already noticeably swollen.
He lifted his head, staring at Xing Ke’ai as she closed in, his gaze filled with complicated pity.
Xing Ke’ai didn’t want to kill, but the war camp forced her to, forced her to mask herself with ferocity.
If no one pulled her out of this swamp of sin, after years and years of pretending, would she even be able to tell her real self from the mask?
So, even though the war camp wasn’t yet a threat to his life—and even though Dr. Shizhi seemed to favor him—Lin Zhen was determined to help his friends escape this hellish place.
He was afraid that, with time, even the Benevolent Heart he tried so hard to uphold would be corroded and corrupted by the war camp.
And then, he’d become the very kind of person he most despised!
“Don’t look at me with those eyes!”
Stung by his pity, Xing Ke’ai bared her teeth like an enraged cub, starlight gathering once more around her fists.
Just then—
Bang!
Out beyond the thin atmosphere, a spaceship suddenly lost power, trailing fire as it plummeted toward the ground.
And then—
A second ship, a third, a fourth…
More and more ships streaked across the sky, their surfaces glowing as they burned through the atmosphere, a dazzling meteor shower.
In that situation, abandoning ship was the only way to survive.
Trainees shot out of the vessels, dozens of black dots falling toward the battlefield.
“What’s going on?!” Xing Ke’ai looked up in shock, the starlight on her raised fist fading instantly.
She didn’t understand.
Hadn’t they just won the ambush? Why were their ships in the sky suddenly crashing?
Without the ships, everyone would be stranded on this planet.
Even if they won, they’d be eliminated!
“Our ships! Damn it, who did this?!”
Not far away—
Heishui kicked the badly injured Zi Jiu more than a dozen meters away, then yanked the long knife from his own chest.
Class Four had already lost heavily from Class Nine’s hunt. Those ships were half their entire foundation.
He’d planned to hunt Class Three to recoup his losses.
But now, it was a total loss—a failed gambit!
But… why did this scene feel so familiar?
Could it be…?
His pupils shrank. Before he could confirm, Class Four trainees who had ejected from their ships were already shouting down at him in panic:
“Boss! It’s over! She… she’s here!”
She?
Who?
Xing Ke’ai and the others looked at each other, bewildered. But on Heishui’s face was a visible flash of panic.
He instinctively shouted:
“Retreat! Retreat! Class Four trainees, retreat!”
But as soon as he said it, Heishui suddenly realized—Class Four’s ships were almost all gone!
They were… stranded on the ground!
“Oh, you guys… cough, cough, looks like you’re finished, huh?”
Zi Jiu propped himself up with his knife, barely standing, a mocking smile on his lips.
“I thought you were the hunters, joining Class Five to hunt us from Class Three and Six…But who’d have thought…Who’d have thought!”
“So, you’re the prey being stalked, huh? Who, cough, made you so pathetic?”
“Shut up!” Heishui roared. “I let you live, not so you could seek death!”
“Careful or I’ll—”
Bang!
A deafening explosion cut him off.
Everyone looked up.
The last spaceship exploded in the sky, scattering trainees with terror on their faces as they tumbled toward the ground.
But in the next instant—
Whoosh!
He—and all the trainees falling from the sky—suddenly froze in midair, as if someone had pressed the pause button.