Chapter 15

“Chapter 15: Hypnosis? I’m Faking It!”

Could it be… the experiment was a success?!

Seeing Lynn looking like a complete idiot, Milani’s heart began to race a little faster.

But she didn’t show it on her face.

Because among the past 125 test subjects, there were plenty of little tricksters who thought they could fool her with their acting skills, and the outcomes for them were always grim.

However, if this guy was really faking it, then his acting was quite convincing.

Recalling the impression Lynn had just given her, Milani felt more and more convinced that he might be just playing a role.

This audacious guy even dared to hold Her Highness the Princess hostage—what was there he wouldn’t do?

In truth, Milani wasn’t wrong in her guess.

At this moment, feeling the eyes of suspicion upon him, Lynn remained silent.

His gaze was unfocused, limbs limp, fully immersed in a state of confusion and delirium.

But that was just the physical side of things.

In reality, Lynn’s thoughts were still racing at high speed.

It was as if his consciousness and soul had detached from his body, observing Milani’s every move from a spectator’s standpoint, and controlling this body like a puppet to respond.

All of this was made possible thanks to Milani agreeing to his last request.

A few minutes ago, while looking at his reflection in the mirror, Lynn activated the Liars’ Devourer.

The effect of Liars’ Devourer was to make any lie spoken become believable, and it worked on everyone.

Which, of course, included Lynn himself.

So he told himself a lie.

Of course, just one lie wasn’t enough.

To escape from this underground lab while retaining his identity, Lynn spun a total of two lies.

Thanks to remembering a lot from the original plot, he knew well about the situation of the Mind Cult.

This religious group, which thrived in the southern part of a certain ancient empire during the Second Era, worshiped the intangible Spirit of the Mind and believed that humanity should abandon their flesh and embrace the sea of consciousness.

Later, for various reasons, the Mind Cult was completely wiped out by Transcendents sent by the higher-ups of the ancient empire.

Only some remnants survived, passed down through various secret channels.

How Milani came to have that grimoire, and whether the research therein was genuine and effective—Lynn had no clue.

But he didn’t really need to know.

After all, just crossing into a novel world was already magical enough; it didn’t matter if even crazier things happened.

Thus, Lynn just needed to convince himself that the grimoire had no real use.

His first lie was that after the Mind Cult was destroyed, all key documents were obliterated, thus this experiment was fake, absolutely destined to fail, and could not affect his consciousness in the slightest.

For Lynn, this lie held true.

Otherwise, the previous 125 test subjects wouldn’t have all flopped.

So when the experiment commenced, the mind energy contained within those magic stones and arrays would have a hard time exerting any influence on his personality.

Since this was a competition between external power and his willpower.

As long as he firmly believed that this experiment was a joke, the brainwashing and hypnotic effects of the Eye of the Mind wouldn’t kick in.

After all, this wasn’t like those real-world superpowers.

Reality had to obey the laws of physics in this world; for example, being burned by fire would definitely cause burns, and getting slashed by a knife would undoubtedly lead to bleeding.

But the mind type leaned more towards idealism, a realm rarely touched by anyone.

So, from the results, Lynn’s first lie was a grand success.

He maintained his self-awareness, coming through the experiment unscathed.

Next up was the second test. Maintaining the sensation of soul separation, Lynn didn’t ease up at all.

The girl in front of him had inexplicably pulled out a small gas lamp and placed it before him, scrutinizing closely.

After a moment, she took out a notebook from her pocket and began jotting down something with a fountain pen.

“Breathing rate and heartbeat slightly lower than normal.”

Milani muttered softly.

Suddenly, without warning, she raised the hand holding the pen and, in a flash, jabbed the pen tip toward Lynn’s eyeball.

When the distance between the pen tip and his eye was only a few millimeters, she stopped.

After observing for a while, Milani lowered her head again, continuing to write: “Pupil normal, no significant reaction to external stimuli.”

It seemed she was measuring various data to confirm whether the test subject was truly hypnotized or just faking it.

Perhaps out of the previous 125 subjects, a large portion fell at this hurdle.

After all, human instinctive reactions are tough to overcome.

Of course, except for him.

Lynn spun his second lie that the Lynn from Blue Star and Lynn Bartleon were two different people. The former took over the latter’s body, but due to some mishap, he couldn’t fully control this body, resulting in sluggish responses.

This lie was more complex and harder for him to believe compared to the first one.

So he borrowed the power of the mirror, using it as an amplifier to enhance the effects of the Liars’ Devourer.

Looking at the reflection in the mirror, with a visage entirely different from his past life, the notion that “Lynn from Blue Star and Lynn Bartleon are two different people” received validation.

Thus, his subconscious chose to believe.

However, once the Liars’ Devourer’s ability was lifted, he’d remember everything and regain control over his body.

Yet Milani was completely unaware of this.

After passing several basic assessments, Milani fell silent, frowning as she studied Lynn up and down.

Suddenly, as if a thought struck her, she mumbled “Good for you” and then tugged down her lab coat, exposing a patch of pristine skin.

Simultaneously, she struck a sultry pose, licking her soft pink tongue over her lips.

Throughout this process, her gaze fixated intently on Lynn’s lower half.

A few minutes later, Milani returned to normal, casually tidying her lab coat before continuing to take notes: “For the spontaneous additional assessment, test subject No. 126 did not show obvious physiological reactions, passing perfectly.”

No, any normal person here probably wouldn’t react at all.

Except for beasts, of course.

Looking at the spectacle before him, Lynn could barely contain himself as he mentally scoffed.

“Well, several basic tests all passed perfectly.” Milani’s eyes sparkled with a hint of delight, “Looks like it’s time to call Her Highness the Princess for assessment.”

“The handcuffs should be pretty tight, right? I’ll unlock them to give you a little relaxation.”

As she spoke, Milani pressed a button on the device.

With the iron cuffs slowly falling away from his limbs, Lynn’s heart began to relax as well.

It seemed the testing was wrapping up here.

He had just barely escaped a calamity? Though he knew he would soon face Ivyst’s judgment.

What a struggle.

Just as this thought crossed his mind, he suddenly heard a grinding sound from below.

The sudden sensation of weightlessness enveloped him tightly.

Lynn felt as if a void had appeared beneath him, and he along with the chair plummeted down from the laboratory level.

“Ah! No good! I pressed the wrong button!”

In a daze, he heard Milani’s exclamation echoing vaguely from above.