The screen displayed footage from a CS2 match, with a very conspicuous pig head logo in the bottom right corner.
“Is this a clip from a live match stream?” Yun Ruoxi pressed the spacebar to play the video.
Wan Jiqi’s charismatic voice came through the headphones. The next moment—
“Thank you to ‘Lin Lin Xi Xi Major Champion’ for the gift! Wow, there’s even a name like that, that’s some real old-school Starfall energy. May the boss never die, always have fun.”
“Have I watched Starfall? Of course I have. This anime’s been so hot lately, my entire Bilibili feed is full of it. Let me tell you, the Mandarin dub for this show is absolutely top-tier.”
“I’ve never seen an anime with dubbing this natural. Favorite character? I like them all, really. But if I had to pick a favorite, it would definitely be Yun Ruoxi. Yun Ruoxi is an old-school otaku? How is Yun Ruoxi an old-school otaku? I left that life behind ages ago.”
The pig head in the bottom left corner was holding a dumbbell, talking a mile a minute.
Hearing that her favorite character was herself, Yun Ruoxi slowly curled the corner of her mouth into a smile.
Compared to Lin Zhen’s ill-intentioned affection, the pure adoration from the audience made her much happier.
It let her feel that her efforts had meaning.
While Yun Ruoxi continued to browse videos for entertainment…
On the third day after Lin Zhen left, the examination also came to an end.
However, the final victor was not Mo Yuan, nor anyone else from the Pandora-35 battle camp.
It was Blacklight from the Pandora-32 battle camp.
Having personally experienced Yun Ruoxi’s threat before, he believed that to defeat her, a strategy of overwhelming numbers was necessary.
So, after escaping from Yun Ruoxi, he united trainees from the Pandora-32 and Pandora-33 battle camps, forming a massive team of several dozen people.
Of course, this team shouldn’t have been able to handle Yun Ruoxi, let alone get past Mo Yuan.
But as it happened, after the previous battle, not only was Yun Ruoxi captured, but Mo Yuan also lost his combat ability.
The two top-tier powerhouses had withdrawn from the competition. Even the fighter four-man squad guarding the star core was severely injured.
Thus, Blacklight truly managed to snatch an opportunity.
As Blacklight triumphantly returned with the star core, the other trainees received notifications that the examination was over. One by one, they boarded return capsules to go back to the warship for rest and treatment.
Although they hadn’t completed the mission, they knew the purpose of this examination was to assess their abilities.
As long as their performance was satisfactory, they could successfully join the Saints’ hand society; they didn’t necessarily need to obtain the star core.
Besides, they never thought they could win against the monsters from their respective battle camps anyway.
So their mood wasn’t too bad.
However, for the trainees of the Pandora-35 battle camp, it was quite surprising that the winner of this competition wasn’t Yun Ruoxi or Mo Yuan.
But soon, they discovered something even more peculiar.
Yun Ruoxi, and that group of people who often gathered around her, had all disappeared.
Neither at the banquet held after the examination ended, nor at the celebration for joining the Saints’ hand society, was there any sign of them.
It was as if they had vanished into thin air, leaving no trace, with no way to know their whereabouts.
Even when Lin Zhen, Aili, and Scarlet’s roommates went to ask the instructors, they received no answers.
Thus, with some people fanning the flames, rumors began to spread among the Pandora-35 battle camp trainees.
Some said Yun Ruoxi and the others had been killed by a powerful being on the meteorite. Others said they had offended Dr. Forefinger, were captured for modification, and were no longer considered trainees.
But no one ever said they had escaped.
Maybe someone thought of it, but didn’t say it.
After all, escaping… during the final examination, right under the nose of the Saints’ hand society’s warship? That was just too fantastical.
Did they really think Instructor Behemoth and the others were blind?
Therefore, with Mo Yuan not revealing the truth, the first two rumors gradually became the “truth” in everyone’s eyes.
Some felt regret, some were happy, some were worried, some were afraid.
The trainees had varied reactions to the mysterious disappearance of Yun Ruoxi and the others.
After all, Yun Ruoxi had reigned supreme at the top of the trainee hierarchy for two years. Her very existence had become a mountain weighing on the hearts of all trainees.
But overall, happiness and relief were more prevalent.
Not to mention, for the sake of Lin Zhen and Aili, she had offended too many people.
For example, Duxie… who had always been afraid of retaliation, was overjoyed upon confirming that Yun Ruoxi, Lin Zhen, and the others had truly disappeared. The smile on her face lasted for who knows how long.
However, soon after, as new members, they were assigned to various departments within the Saints’ hand society.
But what greeted them wasn’t the wonderful life Instructor Behemoth had spoken of, but rather monotonous training and countless various missions.
Theft, combat, assassination, search, infiltration…
Burdened with all sorts of trivial matters, the trainees gradually pushed the battle camp and the mysteriously vanished Yun Ruoxi and the others completely out of their minds.
Only in the dead of night, or when encountering other Telekinesis ability users, would some of them suddenly remember—that back in the battle camp, there was once an invincible blue-haired girl.
But what these trainees didn’t know was—
Lin Zhen and the others had indeed left, but Yun Ruoxi had not.
She was being subjected to mind control in the warship’s laboratory.
While the trainees were attending the celebratory banquet on the warship, during its journey back to the Asha Star system, she was wearing a mind control mask, lying in a Rest Pod, aboard a special spaceship, quietly leaving the warship.
And while they were filled with immense excitement, finally becoming members of the Saints’ hand society, the girl was heading to a peculiar star system located in the Negative Universe.
She arrived at the abyss of death row, amidst bloodshed and Darkness, beginning a three-year struggle for survival.
“Emerging unstained from the mud, cleansed by clear ripples yet not seductive.” This phrase only ever applies to plants.
Humans are social animals, inherently changing themselves due to shifts in their environment.
And the abyss of death row is the darkest place in the world, where all negative emotions spread unchecked.
Fighting, killing, and betrayal happen here every single day…
Under Dr. Forefinger’s arrangements, the girl who had lost her memories and power suffered and sank in this hell.
Time and again, she tried to raise her head above the water to breathe, only to be pushed back down by Dr. Forefinger again and again.
Until—she completely adapted to everything…
She learned how to use negative emotions as her “oxygen,” breathing freely underwater.
And the real three-year experience of Darkness completely replaced the beautiful parts of those three years of hazy memories.
Who was Kaos? Who was Anvil? Who was Scarlet? Who was Lin Zhen? Who was Zi Jiu? Who was Yun Che? Who was Aili?
Yun Ruoxi no longer knew.
Perhaps… those were just the names of enemies she had killed.
A red spider lily from hell emerged from the black mud.