I, Lord of Prayer

In the warehouse. ♟👌 ❻❾ˢ𝓗Ⓤx.Ćᵒ𝓂 👺👤 Google search and reading

Under the dim light, Zhou Chen stared at Yang expressionlessly.

Yang was in a terrible state, his hair, soaked with sweat, clung to his forehead, his face was covered in bruises, blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, and he was panting heavily, clearly having been severely beaten and tortured.

"I never expected... you were one of them too..."

Yang barely managed to lift her eyes to look at him, panting, her voice weak: "Take my advice, stop... They're not good people..."

In the silence, Zhou Chen shook his head: "There's no turning back for me now."

"You two know each other?" Li Xiaoxiao asked in surprise, which was somewhat unexpected.

"We've met a few times," Zhou Chen asked. "How did you capture him?"

"A couple of days ago, he was chasing an illegal Ascendant who had smuggled himself in, but he accidentally wandered into the Birdman's territory and was captured by the Birdman."

Since you two know each other, I don't need to introduce you anymore.

Li Xiaoxiao looked them up and down: "However, you two don't seem like you've only met a few times."

  

"We've had a few meals together, and he still owes me money," Zhou Chen sighed.

It would be even better if it was someone she knew... Li Xiaoxiao revealed a mocking smile. Wasn't this the best test?

She gestured with her eyes, and a young man obeyed, walking up to Zhou Chen and handing him a pistol.

Now that things have come to this point, the content of the assessment is crystal clear.

—Kill him, kill this Star Alliance operator. ✩ 🎀 600.🎀 ✩

Prove your loyalty to us!

"Why...why do I have to work for them..." Yang coughed violently.

"Of course, it's for myself." Zhou Chen took the pistol, gently stroking its cold barrel, and said indifferently, "What the Star Society can't give me, they can. I just want to live, is that wrong?"

"..." Yang seemed to have figured something out, sighed deeply, and said nothing more.

In the long silence, everyone remained silent, quietly awaiting Zhou Chen's choice.

"Do you have any last words?" Zhou Chen suddenly asked.

Yang forced a smile: "I probably won't be able to pay you back the money I owe you..."

"Since that's the case..."

Zhou Chen raised his pistol, aimed, and a hint of struggle flashed in the depths of his eyes, but he quickly became indifferent and resolute, as if he had made up his mind.

"goodbye."

boom.

Blood splattered, leaving a bloody hole on Yang's forehead. His body twitched slightly before collapsing into the chair and falling silent.

Zhou Chen lowered his eyes, and after a long while, he exhaled a breath of stale air, threw the pistol back, turned to look at Li Xiaoxiao, his eyes devoid of any emotion, as calm as a stagnant pool.

It was as if I had severed ties with my past self.

Did I pass?

"Of course," Li Xiaoxiao smiled, "perfect score."

She took two steps forward, like a considerate girlfriend who was very satisfied with the result after testing her boyfriend, and straightened Zhou Chen's collar:

"Leave this to them. I'll take you to the initiation ceremony, and you'll get all the answers you need to know."

·

·

Inside the secret operations team's room.

Yang took off his full-coverage metal helmet, which was covered with various wires, and whistled.

--game over.

"This VR game is really good, not bad at all."

He stood up from the recliner, stretched comfortably, and looked at Jiang Che sitting in front of the giant screen: "I don't know how my acting was, but that kid's acting was really good. That last scene would be textbook-level acting in a movie. If it had a suitable background music, he would have won the Best Actor award this year, and maybe even made it into film history. Are you sure he didn't study acting in college?"

Jiang Che calmly took a sip of coffee, quite satisfied with Zhou Chen's performance: "That's his talent."

"A natural-born drama queen."

Yang looked at the big screen: "So, he's infiltrated now, right?"

Jiang Che nodded.

Long ago, she began to think about what method the Eternal Flame would use to conduct the final test on Zhou Chen.

The most likely scenario is that he will be made to commit murder.

Kill good people, kill innocent people.

This is the fastest, most convenient, and most effective method.

If one harbors good intentions, one will not harm the innocent, and one will naturally see Zhou Chen's "disloyalty" in due time.

The Church of the Abyss has no need for kind believers.

If it is killed, there are two possibilities for the Eternal Flame.

One possibility is that Zhou Chen still harbors good intentions, but in order to survive, he has no choice but to kill innocent people. This is probably insignificant in the eyes of the Eternal Flame, because they will sooner or later extinguish the last bit of goodness in Zhou Chen's heart and gradually guide him to become a loyal follower of the Chaos King.

Another possibility is that Zhou Chen, just as he appears, has become a psychopathic killer tormented by the fragmentation of his soul. He kills indiscriminately, never blinking an eye, regardless of whether the victims are good, bad, or innocent.

In either case, the Eternal Flame would be happy to see it.

It could be said that Zhou Chen would pass the test as long as he fired the gun.

However, the biggest question is, if this actually happened, would he shoot?

Jiang Che didn't want to gamble, even if she could force Zhou Chen to obey orders at crucial moments.

Just as she was racking her brains over this matter, a man surnamed Yang appeared in front of her and asked her to approve the documents for the alchemy department to customize advanced secret rituals.

Thus, the plan was born.

If we can't kill innocent people, surely we can create artificial dummies?

First, find the alchemical biology department and have them create an alchemical puppet modeled after Yang. Next, have the research department implant a miniature brainwave control device and simultaneously implant an unconscious, stitched-together soul. Finally, inject Yang's source matter to cover it up.

An artificial human with flesh and blood, bones, a soul, and source energy fluctuations, with a 100% similarity to the original human, was thus created.

Yang only needed to sit there and play a 100% realistic VR game, and then get shot in the head by Zhou Chen to receive a huge mission subsidy to repay his loan, so he agreed without thinking.

For Jiang Che, this move also involved a gamble. She was unsure whether the Eternal Flame would use Yang as Zhou Chen's final test after capturing him.

In hindsight, she made the right bet.

—Killing a member of the Star Society has far more serious consequences than killing an ordinary person, which will better bind Zhou Chen.

"He's about to attend the onboarding welcome party. Shall we make our move?" Yang asked.

Jiang Che shook his head: "The initiation ceremony will probably only involve him and Li Xiaoxiao, or maybe a few other small fry. It's not worth the effort to pull them in."

At this moment, a luxurious villa appeared on the screen. This was a wealthy residential area located on the shore, where every inch of land was truly precious.

"Senior, this is my home. Sometimes I come back to stay alone. My house is quite big. You can go to sleep if you get tired later, no problem."

Li Xiaoxiao linked arms with Zhou Chen, reverting to her youthful, scheming girl persona, and even intentionally or unintentionally rubbing against him.

Zhou Chen remained unmoved and followed her toward the villa.

Suddenly, as if sensing something, he turned his head to look at the green grass in the shadows in the distance.

"What's wrong?" Li Xiaoxiao asked.

"It's a cat, isn't it? I'm getting a little paranoid."

Zhou Chen withdrew his gaze, shook his head, and without saying anything more, turned and made a call into the communication channel:

"I sensed a faint fluctuation of source energy; it's very likely the 'gentleman' who's been hiding in the shadows!"