Did they want that trainee to lead the way somewhere—could it be they were planning to hunt down more trainees?
Even though the conflict between trainees and sinners was irreconcilable, taking the initiative to hunt them down seemed a bit too aggressive.
After all, no matter how you looked at it, sinners were fundamentally on the hunted side.
If they learned from that trainee that the trainees’ side had a thirty-day time limit, maybe hiding underground would be enough to completely avoid the risk—there was really no need to take such a gamble.
Unless… they had no other choice either?
Lin Zhen rubbed his chin.
Given what he knew about the training camp,
those people like Instructor Behemoth were capable of secretly tampering with rations just to make the assessments harder.
It really was possible they could threaten the sinners.
For example, something like: “If you don’t each capture a trainee, then after thirty days, all of you will be executed.”
In the eyes of the training camp, these “sinners” clearly had even fewer rights than the trainees. If that really was the case… it would be bad news for all the trainees.
Especially for those who fancied themselves the hunters.
When the line between hunter and prey started to blur, that was often the most dangerous time.
If you didn’t realize this in time, many trainees could suffer huge losses.
As Lin Zhen sorted out his thoughts, the group had already moved to cover the entrance to the underground burrow, then quickly disappeared into the jungle.
Upon seeing this, Lin Zhen swiftly climbed down from the tree trunk, crept over to the place where the burrow had been, and quietly lifted the cover.
He felt his way inside.
Following them would be too risky—it would be easy to get discovered.
If this group really had gone to hunt trainees, then most likely, once they succeeded, they would return the same way.
In that case, lying in wait and setting a trap might actually be a better idea.
Going after eight sinners alone…
It wasn’t that Lin Zhen looked down on them.
It was just that from the way those sinners moved, they didn’t look like they’d ever trained in martial arts—probably just ordinary people who’d been captured.
And of course, they definitely weren’t Stellar Energy Users.
No matter how weak a Stellar Energy User was, facing a trainee would be like a one-sided massacre; there’s no way the training camp would go through all that effort to train up trainees just to send them to their deaths.
Against ordinary people, though, after a year of training and with physical abilities far surpassing the average person, Lin Zhen was confident that, with planning and surprise on his side, he could take care of them all.
The burrow wasn’t very deep—only three meters.
But, considering they had no tools, that was already impressive.
Lin Zhen braced himself with hands and feet against the rock wall, and slowly lowered himself down.
Fragments of dirt fell with his movements, rustling and landing with a steady patter on the ground below.
Fortunately, there really didn’t seem to be anyone inside. After the noise, there was no movement from within.
Relieved, Lin Zhen landed, bent down, and moved along the low, winding tunnel. Turning a corner, it seemed to open up—suddenly the space around him got larger.
He felt around and took out something like a wristwatch, binding two thin straps around his palm.
He aimed the “dial” forward and lightly activated it.
A milky white light instantly illuminated everything ahead.
This was a man-made underground living space.
Not large, but enough for seven people to live in.
A few animal pelts—of unknown origin—were spread on the ground, probably the beds for those seven sinners.
At the far end of the space was a big pile of stuff.
Homemade bowls, chopsticks, and tea cups, bone-carved weapons, but what stood out most were over a dozen weapon supply crates.
He quickly walked over to check.
Inside were five damaged weapons, and a heap of Mechanical Components and Weapon Element Modules.
“Found a treasure.”
Looking at all this, Lin Zhen’s breath caught in his throat, a surge of pure joy welling up inside—like he’d dug out something valuable from a junkyard.
With these parts, the two powerful weapons he carried—which had always been limited by a lack of components—could finally be put to use.
“Golden legend!”
“Loot boxes opened, Prison Lin finally got something good!”
“Was that a ratchet just now?! Mechanical majors, rejoice!”
Lin Zhen made up his mind: as soon as these sinners came back from their hunt, he’d take care of them on the spot.
No hesitation—so as not to give rise to any unexpected trouble.
So he wasn’t worried at all that taking these parts and weapons would alert the sinners.
He picked out the needed components without any restraint, restored the burrow’s cover plate, and hid in the bushes.
He began to race against time, assembling his weapons.
“Huh, this one can be repaired directly? How did they not notice something so obvious?”
Lin Zhen casually fit a few loose parts together, and in the blink of an eye, he’d assembled a complete cube.
“A standard illusion generator… shouldn’t they have noticed…?”
He broke off, suddenly laughing at himself.
Why “shouldn’t they have”?
What was common sense for trainees, learned in class, was pure gibberish to ordinary people.
Back in the day, he’d often tinkered and repaired things, learning a lot of the basics by himself.
But just because he never had access to advanced knowledge, things like this were completely alien to him once, high-tech objects he couldn’t even begin to understand.
Thinking this way, he realized just how much he’d grown at the training camp.
He put away the illusion generator.
Lin Zhen continued repairing the two powerful pieces of equipment.
Time ticked by, sweat beading on his brow, while the pile of components in front of him steadily shrank.
The sky was growing darker and overcast.
Just as he was about to finish the first weapon, a sudden commotion of footsteps came from the distance.
Lin Zhen put down his work, turned, and peered through a gap in the bushes—those eight sinners were already hurrying back, dragging along two trainees.
So they really did go out to catch people!
“No more waiting!”
He pressed the last gear into its slot, locking it in place, and strapped the repaired greave to his right shin.
Rising slowly, he crept over on all fours.
Even though they’d returned faster than he expected and he hadn’t finished the second weapon,
what he had was already more than enough.
Besides, if he missed this moment—when their guard was lowest—things would get tricky once they discovered their base had been raided.
Hidden in the bushes, Lin Zhen took out a strange pistol hanging at his waist, raised it, and aimed at the most dangerous-looking sinner among the seven—one who was holding a broadsword.
The pistol looked somewhat like an infrared thermometer, but with a round, plump sphere attached underneath.
Lin Zhen squinted, lining up the sights, and the moment they lifted the cover to the burrow, he rapidly squeezed the trigger several times.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Three snow-white, opaque soap bubbles shot out at high speed, striking the unsuspecting sword-wielding sinner.
The bubbles burst against his body with a pop, releasing a torrent of white foam that spread across him.
As the wind blew, the foam rapidly hardened into a solid, white, foam-like substance—clearly visible to the naked eye.
In just one second, the sword-wielding man was completely immobilized by the strange white material, unable to move a muscle.
“Who’s there?!”
The remaining seven sinners hadn’t expected someone to ambush them at their own door.
They were instantly shocked, frantically glancing around in panic.
But all they saw was more of those white bubbles flying in from the bushes.