Purple light dissipated as the Gaze of the Ancient One enveloped the training hall.
The light seemed like something crawling out of an abyss, spreading along the ground and covering everyone present.
The expressions on the students' faces froze.
In an instant, they began to tremble violently. It was as if they were seeing something horrific; although they were clearly still in the academy, it felt as if they had been cast into a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
The sensation of being watched was exceptionally eerie. The terrifying feeling that they could fall into the abyss at any moment left them speechless!
What was going on?!
What was happening!
They instinctively wanted to flee, but their legs were so weak they couldn't move. In their eyes, the grinning “Bai Feifei” before them was starting to look like a creature with horns growing from her head.
Ye Yu leaned against the wall, barely managing to stay upright. She was in the best state among them.
She had experienced a similar sense of oppression once before in the coal mine.
The corners of Xu Mo’s mouth curled up. Looking at the state of the crowd, he chuckled, “Heh heh heh... The test has begun. It’s quite simple, isn’t it?”
“Only those who can still stand before me in the end are qualified to be my students.”
After saying that, he looked down and twisted the skull-printed bracer on his wrist.
He was starting to test a new function the Gaze of the Ancient One had obtained after swallowing the Eternal Nightmare.
——Hallucination! Dream-Entry!
A faint purple glow pulsed on the surface of the bracer, deepening as it blanketed everyone in the training hall.
Before long, the first scream echoed through the hall.
“Ah!”
It was a boy's voice, raspy as if his throat were being squeezed.
He flailed his arms, scratching wildly at the air in front of him. No one knew what horrors he was seeing, but he jumped up in a panic.
However, no one could mock him now, because the others were doing no better.
A second, then a third... several people’s legs gave out, and they collapsed onto the mats. The hall was filled with wails and screams.
“Where is this place? What is that! Stay back—!”
“I was wrong! I’m sorry! Bro, Dad, Grandpa, please!”
“Mommy!”
Ye Yu was still holding on, refusing to scream, but her fingertips were dug deep into the cracks of the floor.
From her perspective, she had suddenly returned to that dark, eerie underground coal mine filled with corpses and aberrations.
But this time, there was no Bai Feifei, no Wan Qianhong, and no teammates to protect her. She was facing her fears alone.
But she knew she should still be in the classroom. This had to be one of “Bai Feifei’s” methods. She didn't want to show weakness or lose face in front of her.
No, I have to hold on. I can’t scream, I can’t shout, and I definitely can’t beg for mercy!
How can I show such an ugly side of myself in front of her?
In her eyes, “Bai Feifei” was currently sitting on the edge of a table with her legs crossed, looking like she was thoroughly enjoying herself.
Bai Feifei’s consciousness was trapped inside her body. The moment she saw her own hand twist the bracer, she felt a surge of instinctive panic.
Now, seeing the miserable state of the students, she couldn't help but speak up in her mind.
“What... what are you doing?”
“Testing them,” Xu Mo replied with a matter-of-fact chuckle.
Bai Feifei fell silent for a moment, taking in the scene.
Screams rose and fell throughout the training hall. One girl had her face buried in her knees, her shoulders shaking violently as tears soaked her clothes and her voice went hoarse from shouting.
Several boys were on their knees, kowtowing frantically, and some were even in indecent poses. It was impossible to tell what kind of illusions they were seeing.
What did this have to do with a test?
This was clearly an Evil God toying with humans!
“What kind of test is this? They clearly can’t take any more!”
“Stop torturing them.”
“Save your breath. I’ve finally decided to be kind enough to save them. If you have a problem with it, why don’t you do it yourself?” Xu Mo said.
Kindness?
Bai Feifei was stunned. “What do you mean, ‘save them’?”
Xu Mo hopped down from the table and began to stroll slowly through the training hall, observing everyone’s condition.
“Remember that guy on the testing grounds who suddenly aberrated after juicing?”
“He underwent a mental breakdown and aberrated under the pressure of the Eternal Nightmare. It’s the same with the Gaze of the Ancient One.”
“I can see their status.”
Bai Feifei suddenly understood.
“You mean... you suspect some of these students have also injected those enhancement potions?”
“Heh... it would be more surprising if none of them had,” Xu Mo replied, narrowing his eyes.
As an Old-Timer, he knew all the major events that were about to happen on this storyline, though he had never cared much about the underlying reasons or the chain of causality.
Now that he had the Calamity of Dawn task, if he wanted to untangle things, the only lead he had was the matter of the potions.
Since there was a lead, he was naturally going to exploit it to the fullest!
Come to think of it, when he used to play the Dawn City dungeon, people would often inject stimulants and similar substances.
He hadn't thought much of it then, but now it seemed everything was connected!
Bai Feifei fell silent.
So that was it?
Had she actually misunderstood him? Was this Evil God actually doing this for the students’ own good?
She had thought this was just the Old-Timer’s sadistic hobby of torturing people, but it turned out he was screening for potential problems?
Just as she was reflecting on whether her perception of Xu Mo was flawed, his voice echoed in her mind again.
“However, this is indeed quite fun. Seeing these brats crying for their parents reminds me of something.”
A bad premonition immediately surfaced in Bai Feifei’s heart.
“What?”
Xu Mo didn't answer her. He stopped in his tracks and pulled something out of his storage ring.
It was a phone—the one Wan Qianhong had given Bai Feifei after they entered the Inner City to make communication easier.
“Hmm, not bad. Even though it’s stripped-down technology, it has the basic functions.”
As Xu Mo spoke, he opened the camera app.
He pointed it at the group of students on the floor, who were making all sorts of distorted faces while covered in snot and tears.
“You...” Bai Feifei was speechless in her mind.
“Recording their ‘black history,’ heh heh,” Xu Mo said with a villainous grin.
“This way, you’ll have leverage over them in the future.”
“Since you don’t want to kill people, I have to resort to this tactic to make them easier to manage.”
“In the future, if anyone stops listening... heh heh heh...”
Bai Feifei felt a wave of dizziness as she watched her own hands holding the phone in camera mode.
What happened to ‘testing for potions’... You just think this is fun!
As Xu Mo circled the room, frantically snapping embarrassing photos, a boy who had been kowtowing suddenly stiffened and let out a blood-curdling scream.
“Aaaaahhhh!”
On Xu Mo’s game panel, the boy’s level began to fluctuate unstablely.
“Oh?”
Rate on N.U.
