Breeding, at the very least, is a forced cooperative process, and the management bureau exercises control over their reproductive value.
This means that the other breeding partner has no right to harm or kill her.
However, once certain ownership agreements are signed, and she voluntarily enslaves herself, it’s a different story.
The management bureau won’t intervene.
Everything about her belongs to the party of the agreement, her master.
It’s clear how malicious Liu De and the buzz-cut guy were, and how explicit their intentions were.
But this wasn’t a well-thought-out test on their part; it was a matter-of-fact inquiry.
A societal phenomenon, all too common.
The weak, the most dehumanized labor resource.
The bespectacled young man’s eyes flickered as he observed Huo You.
He knew that if this person had an ace up their sleeve, pretending to be weak, they would surely act.
His left hand was already tensed, ready to respond at any moment…
Huo You: “What I mean is that the last question was likely a test. Choosing the simple level couldn’t possibly be some big shot; it’s just worker ants.”
Her first sentence was an insult, even including herself.
Before the other four could react with anger or thought.
She continued: “As the criteria for the state apparatus to filter worker ants-loyalty and not causing trouble or being a burden are basic elements.”
“The previous questions were the setup, the latter the conclusion. If you all cooperated with each other earlier, and in the last question unanimously chose to trust or not trust, then it would surely match the next step of the screening mechanism.”
“If you all highly trust each other, unite to get through it.”
“If you don’t… then, in this part, you’re further eliminated.”
As she finished speaking.
The bespectacled young man had already seen the system’s prompt; the ten questions were over, with a score of 7.5 points.
(PS: The fourth volume of this college entrance exam period uses medal points as the score. Each bronze medal can be worn on the parasite, enhancing its state by 10%.)
Apart from their individual scores, the follow-up remarks were the same, notifying all examinees who had completed the preliminary stage.
Liu De and his group naturally saw it too.
Huh?
Due to Brook’s high lineage, the sensory advantages bestowed upon the host far surpassed those of ordinary parasites, especially since Huo You herself was a misjudged high-sensitivity talent.
In that instant, she keenly sensed that the breathing of the other four had become much heavier.
At the same time, their body’s parasite positions-mostly on the left hand-displayed medals.
Bronze medals, with numbers on them.
Five, six, seven, and so on, with decimal points.
Basically their scores.
The enhancement also simultaneously affected their parasites.
The highest scorer was the bespectacled young man.
The four of them looked at each other and quickly noticed Huo You had no bronze medal.
Either she got all the answers wrong, or she really had no parasite.
She couldn’t hide a parasite at this stage anyway.
Perhaps the most honest one was Huo You.
She had exposed her weakness from the start.
The bespectacled young man raised an eyebrow, losing interest in Huo You because she held no value.
Nor was she a threat.
Then, there were 10 seconds left before the official college entrance exam began.
10,9,8…
The buzz-cut guy suddenly shouted in alarm:
“Damn it, the corner of the clothes in the shoe cabinet is moving! The monster’s inside!”
They turned to look… was the corner moving?
No, it wasn’t.
Still there.
At that moment, the buzz-cut guy unleashed his parasite, a scorpion tail, a venomous stinger, directly piercing through Liu De’s nape.
Blood spurted, and Liu De, who had been crouching to look inside the cabinet, convulsed.
The one who seemed like he would be the leader turned out to be the weakest.
But the buzz-cut guy soon felt… a tingling on his pants leg, and upon looking, saw furry vines wrapped around his leg.
The thorns on the vines had already penetrated his pants and pricked his leg.
Venom was released…
It was the fourth person.
“Chen Jing, let’s team up. It’s too hard alone. The monster must be hiding in the wardrobe.”
How formidable they were could be gauged by their scores, and the bespectacled young man was essentially the most formidable among the four, the polar opposite of Huo You.
So the fourth person ignored Huo You and chose to team up with Chen Jing, but he wasn’t foolish enough to leave his back exposed.
He faced Chen Jing directly; his parasite was a blood-toxic vine, the exact species unclear since F-level plant parasites were mostly vines and ferns.
Who knew what kind it was?
But this guy was well-prepared, from eruption to success in just a second or two, and simultaneously proposed teaming up with Chen Jing…
Chen Jing had no objections,
“Fine, let’s team up. I’ll check the cabinet door…”
He stepped forward, leaving his back to the fourth person, and opened the cabinet door, fearless of the unknown risks, willing to leave his back exposed to the fourth person.
The fourth person’s eyes gleamed with joy, and he relaxed somewhat.
But when the cabinet door opened.
It was utterly unremarkable, just some clothes hanging inside, and a jacket that hadn’t been hung properly.
The moving corner came from this jacket that had fallen to the bottom of the cabinet.
Caught in the cabinet door’s crack.
They all thought it was suspicious… the buzz-cut guy had deliberately shouted to distract them, to launch a sneak attack.
But now it seemed the monster wasn’t in the cabinet at all.
Which meant…
This room had no murderer.
No danger.
Then.
The fourth person flicked his wrist, and after the cooldown, swiftly withdrew the tip of the venomous vine, lashing it fiercely towards Chen Jing’s back.
Die!
The 7.5-point enhancement bronze medal is mine!
But then.
Thud!
The tip of the vine did pierce through Chen Jing’s body, but not his flesh-it went through an illusion, directly into the inner side of the open cabinet.
The vine’s tip hit the cabinet’s bottom board, and as it released venom, a sticky green juice splattered.
Chen Jing’s pupils dilated.
Not good, an illusion?
A mirror image?
In the next second… his body was about to move to dodge a possible sudden attack.
But the real person appearing behind him was the true Chen Jing.
Indeed, it was a mirror image.
F89 parasite, minor mirror image (first-gen Lovecraftian mirror ghost).
It could record images from a certain time ago, save them, and then play them back as mirror images when the host needed of course, this was also a kind of physical visual sense, not an illusion, but like a real slide show playing a picture in real space.
Whether you could see through it depended on your visual state and whether the parasite or spirit you carried could decipher its falsity.
Clearly, the fourth examinee couldn’t see through it.
He was deceived.
The real Chen Jing had appeared behind him—logically, he couldn’t be invisible, and the minor mirror image had no invisibility ability.
But, if he was clever enough, willing enough to consume nutritional energy, he could create two images: one played in front of the cabinet to attract attention, and the other obscured himself, perhaps recording a previous empty spot at that position, overlaying it on himself, effectively becoming invisible.
This was a clever use, a technical application of the parasite.
After killing this person, Chen Jing turned to Huo You,
“Hopelessly stupid, right? Those guys, but you seem a bit smarter than I imagined, at least not acting rashly.”
Huo You pursed her lips, frowning, remaining silent.
Chen Jing: “Beg me.”
“I’ve already drafted the slave agreement. Become my subordinate, and I can take you through this level.”
“You should be glad you’re not bad-looking.”
“You have… three seconds to think.”
“One, two…”
He counted to the third second, the very last second.
The five-minute observation period of the college entrance exam was completely over, and in the second before the system’s prompt, the very last second.
Huo You didn’t answer him, which caused the unique rage and killing intent of this highly dangerous, extraordinary cyber world examinee to erupt, ready to kill her…
She only gave him a very direct expression-one of impatience, looking at trash, with disdain and too lazy to argue.
This expression was often seen in the Hong Kong Grand Court, on the judge’s bench and the defendant’s seat, and even made people somewhat afraid when they saw her.
This lady, when impatient, had a real temper, but she could also really endure.
Chen Jing was almost instantly angered by such a look.
But behind him.
The iron bed creaked, making a strange noise.
Chen Jing: “?”
A shadow abruptly sat up.
The smell of blood, fresh, sudden, and brutal.
The blood-soaked arm reached around from behind Chen Jing, encircling his neck to control his breathing, while the other hand reversed, and in the instant Chen Jing’s windpipe was tightly squeezed, his entire body twisted and convulsed.
The corpse, in an embrace, tightly strangled his neck, skinless, its muscles erupting with force in an instant.
If the second question’s answer about their muscle explosion levels was all below 5 on the scale, then its scale should be between 10-15.
And in the precise moment of controlling the neck, it exploded with 10-15 scale force.
In the last second, he couldn’t see the “shadow” behind him, the terrifying ferocity, only the weakling standing quietly on the ground, making a gesture at him—a long, pale finger pressing against lips, making a “shush” motion.
Crack!
Chen Jing heard the sound of his neck bones being instantly snapped.
He directly realized the subtle clues and the ever-present, effortless commanding aura she displayed-separation is the elegant sound of a sheng, silence is the unshakable Cambridge.
And the F89 parasite minor mirror image on his body instantly went limp… returning to Chen Jing’s corpse’s parasite port, motionless.
The others had just died, they had chosen safe options, not completely dead, just eliminated, and before their consciousness left, they saw Huo You’s expression.
Huh?
Oh!
They understood, losing their lives, but more painfully, losing face.
Fortunately, she would soon be dead too.
The corpse, the only initial dead person among the six, sat there, staring straight at Huo You.
Seemingly eye contact, but actually, its ugly, terrifying nose was wriggling, emitting sniffing sounds.
It was searching for her.
Hmm?
No vision?
Locking onto prey by the scent of the living?
It was clearly certain there was still one prey, absolutely certain, because it knew from the start there were five people.
At that time, they reported the data… the data of five people.
It remained motionless, maintaining the state of sniffing, its hands ready to attack at any moment.
In this terrifying silence.
The four truly dead examinees were still, and Huo You also remained motionless, as if she had been prepared for this terrible turn of events.
Earlier, she was judging whether “the murderer was among the five” or “he was hiding in the dormitory” was the correct answer.
But soon she dismissed both possibilities.
The murderer must have been bloodstained, but there were no towels or washing facilities in the room to clean up the blood.
The other contestants had entered at most 15 seconds before her, and it was absolutely impossible for them to have committed the murder, cleaned up, and erased all traces in that time.
If they had, they would have the ability to instantly kill all of them, so why pretend, why bother?
In a simple-level scenario, such a formidable person had no need to pay attention to details.
Then, was the seventh person “he” hiding?
As previously mentioned, the only possible hiding place, the wardrobe, had no bloodstains, and the door handle and threshold were clean.
A physical being couldn’t have entered without a trace.
Out of caution, she also checked the ceiling, which had no vents or spaces to hide.
So, both answers were dismissed.
This was very strange, a simple scenario with such a mystery?
Huo You quickly came up with a final solution-the most impossible but simplest answer.
Combining the initial three options’ answers.
It and he were one, in this room, a Lovecraftian entity, but without the ability to traverse space, belonging to the lowest level of Lovecraftian creatures or appendages.
-That corpse.
It killed itself, the murderer was itself.
So she had already prepared-not against the other four examinees, but by staying away from that corpse.
Earlier, when Liu De and the others crouched in front of it, poking its blood vessels with their fingers, she had a headache and didn’t know what to say.
They were so bold, really.
And they had a strange confidence that made her feel melancholy; she had a premonition that these people would drag her down.
Look, he counted one, two, three…
Behind him was the corpse.
In her eyes, what difference was there between that and slaughtering a pig and letting its blood flow at Jiang Chen’s grave?
Therefore, Huo You, before being dragged down by them, proactively reported the data, which triggered them to also report the data.
Reporting the data wasn’t to answer the questions or to verify their unity.
It was mainly to report to the “corpse,” to let it judge that the five of them were all weaklings, easy to kill.
But with so many people, a melee was likely, and she had to do something to ensure her own safety.
So… that’s why she deliberately mentioned the 10th question, reminding Chen Jing and the others, which also meant the “corpse” could ambush Chen Jing and their mutual killings…
Using others to kill, using it to kill.
Finally, the result was the current situation.
After a bloodless victory, the expendables she deemed irrelevant and likely to drag her down had been cleared.
-It stared at her.
The dormitory was now just the two of them.
1 VS 1.