Under Lin Zhen’s watchful gaze, Dr. Forefinger averted his eyes, as if deliberately avoiding suspicion.
But immediately after, he glanced at Yun Ruoxi, who was following close behind, a slight smile curling on his lips.
Seeing this, Lin Zhen unconsciously clenched his right hand, but soon relaxed it again.
There was no need to be nervous.
During this period, to keep the doctor from suspecting that Yun Ruoxi’s brainwashing had already been undone, they had deliberately staged several incidents where Yun Ruoxi lost control in anger and accidentally hurt her companions.
At first, he had been worried that Yun Ruoxi, with little acting experience, might do a poor job.
But unexpectedly, Yun Ruoxi’s acting was quite good; even those of them who knew it was an act couldn’t spot any flaws. For Dr. Forefinger, who could only observe through surveillance, it was even less likely for him to notice anything amiss.
Moreover, during this time, they had also confirmed that Yun Ruoxi hadn’t been checked by the doctor for her brainwashing status.
This showed that the doctor truly hadn’t suspected Yun Ruoxi’s brainwashing had already been removed.
Yet, for some reason, Lin Zhen still felt that something was off deep in his subconscious, as if he had overlooked a problem.
Walking out from the base, Yun Ruoxi noticed the doctor looking at her and immediately looked back, returning his gaze with a smile.
But beneath that smile was a chill only the two of them could sense.
“What a wicked woman,” Dr. Forefinger thought to himself.
The better someone’s personality was before brainwashing, the more twisted and extreme they’d become after it — this little-regarded theory had been perfectly demonstrated on Yun Ruoxi in recent days.
He had watched through surveillance the entire process as Yun Ruoxi deceived and manipulated Lin Zhen and all the others through words.
After seeing it, he could only sigh in admiration, gaining a deeper understanding of both deception and manipulation techniques.
However, no matter how skillful Yun Ruoxi became after turning dark, she would still be firmly controlled by him.
After all, even now, emotions remained her weakness.
And all those records of her deceptions and manipulations would be the best tool to threaten her.
Once he controlled Yun Ruoxi, he could also control Lin Zhen, finally allowing him to conduct his research without worry.
While Dr. Forefinger was delighting in his fantasy, Yun Ruoxi had already taken Aili by the hand and entered the ninth squad’s lineup.
Zi Jiu, Kaos, Yun Che, and Anvil followed, locking eyes with Lin Zhen and Yun Ruoxi in the crowd.
Once everyone was present, Instructor Behemoth stepped out from among the instructors as he had twice before, moving to the front of the gathered crowd.
The trainees were already prepared to endure one of his lengthy speeches or admonishments.
But unexpectedly, Instructor Behemoth’s tone this time was not severe, but rather gentle.
“I’ve been with you all for three years, watching as you survived and remained from among ten thousand.”
“Very soon, the final assessment will begin. Once it’s over, we will no longer be instructors and trainees, but all members of the Saints’ Hand Society, comrades and companions.”
He looked at the emotionally moved trainees and smiled softly.
“Finally, I wish you all a resounding victory. Don’t let down the prestige of our Pandora-35 battle camp, don’t betray these three years and the instructors who painstakingly trained you.”
“And above all, don’t betray your own three years of struggle.”
With that, he swept his hand, “Depart!”
“Understood!” the trainees shouted in unison.
Lin Zhen looked around.
Many people were already brimming with tears, deeply moved by Instructor Behemoth’s words, even his roommate who had once loathed the battle camp with a passion was the same.
“Although they haven’t been brainwashed like Xiaoxi, isn’t this also a kind of subtle brainwashing?”
Lin Zhen’s gaze grew cold.
It was precisely because he feared that he and his companions would become one of these fanatical trainees that he had done everything possible to help Yun Ruoxi and the others escape.
But only now did he realize.
After three years, his heart was resolute, and so were his companions’—they would never become one of them.
He simply hated this place, despised everything about it, and that was why he was so desperate to take his companions and leave.
Of course, now he had one more reason: so that Yun Ruoxi would never be brainwashed again.
“I will leave this place. I must!”
Lin Zhen clenched his fists, lifted his head, and followed the crowd toward the space elevator at the back of the base.
This time, the final assessment destination seemed to be very far away.
So the battle camp had borrowed a special long-distance Spaceship from the Saints’ Hand Society, equipped with a warp engine.
But because the warp engine was too massive and the ship’s structure unique, it couldn’t land within a planet— it would be destroyed by gravity.
So it was docked at the spaceport beyond the planet, requiring them to board via the space elevator.
The nine squads lined up to enter the enormous space elevator.
With a thunderous roar, flames spewed from below, and the ultra-high-strength elastic bands on both sides began to stretch.
The entire elevator shot toward the atmosphere at incredible speed.
Yet, despite this rapid ascent, the G-force inside the elevator wasn’t high.
An invisible force field enveloped the elevator’s interior, canceling out any excess G-force.
This allowed the trainees to stand stably on the elevator floor, not flattened by gravity.
Yun Ruoxi and Aili stood in the corner of the elevator, with a small space around them separated by her psychokinesis.
Given how little space there already was in the elevator, this could almost be considered overbearing.
But no one dared voice an objection.
Not only because strength spoke louder than words in the battle camp,
but also because, over the past few months, the story of the once well-behaved Yun Ruoxi becoming irritable and excessively violent—
nearly killing Duxie and others—had spread throughout the camp.
Of course, besides her, Mo Yuan and Gao Guang also had a small cleared area around them.
This was a sign of respect for the second and third ranks.
“Three years, and finally this day has come.”
Through the elevator’s glass, Yun Ruoxi looked down at the rapidly shrinking base plaza and
upward at the instructors and doctor above, now the size of ants, feeling a surge of emotion.
Ever since she got the system, she had been acting for three years straight.
Back when the pilot PV had her ranked last as the secondary female, and she was practically invisible in the first few episodes, she had relied on an outstanding character setting, a perfect character arc, constant highlight moments, even exclusive fanservice for viewers, and personally commissioning fan artists for special content.
She had succeeded in becoming the female lead in the viewers’ eyes, maxing out the favorability of Lin Zhen and the others.
Even turning Aili, a true background extra, into a supporting character.
For this, she had paid dearly.
Sweat, tears, her body, and her own feelings.
Sometimes, after acting for so long, even she couldn’t tell—
Was she playing “Yun Ruoxi,” or had she really become “Yun Ruoxi”? Had she truly become friends with the main cast, or was it all just a performance?
Even her feelings toward Aili were the same.