Chapter 16

“Did I just hit the wrong button?!”

With the chair crashing down, Lynn suddenly felt like everything was a disaster.

Luckily, the height here didn’t seem as bad as he imagined—maybe three or four stories up—and there was a chair cushioning his fall.

Even better, after hitting the bottom, he noticed there was a layer of water beneath him.

In short, he wasn’t in any real danger.

He let out a small sigh of relief.

At the same time, he repeated the second lie in his mind, using the Liars’ Devourer’s power to reinforce his mental suggestion.

The fall almost knocked him out of that state.

But once he finally got back to his initial dazed state, Lynn focused on his surroundings.

Unlike the brightly lit laboratory from before,

the scene before him was pitch black, with only two golden lanterns hanging high above.

For some reason, those lanterns looked bright but didn’t illuminate the area around them.

Thankfully, some faint light from above kept him from feeling completely blind in this place.

This was truly an uncalled-for disaster.

Having passed the assessment, he somehow ended up in such a bizarre situation.

Clearly, Ivyst’s subordinates were a bunch of incompetent fools.

They had countless chances to eliminate the original characters in their early and mid-stages, but let them slip away for various reasons.

As a result, by the end, most of the main characters had become gods, and those idiots were left quaking in their boots, knowing doom was approaching, facing a dreadful reckoning.

Lynn grumbled silently and waited quietly for someone to come to his rescue.

Yet, after waiting for several minutes, nothing happened.

On top of that, Lynn could vaguely smell a foul odor, along with an indistinct hot breeze.

Still in his slow-witted state, he slightly shifted his eyes upwards.

Those two golden lanterns flickered uncertainly.

Sometimes bright, sometimes dim.

It even felt like they were vaguely moving towards him, the distance closing in.

Wait, wait a second! It seemed like Lynn finally realized something.

At that moment, looking at those gigantic “lanterns” above him, a cold sweat broke out on his back, and he almost snapped out of the simulated hypnosis created by the Liars’ Devourer.

Those were definitely not lanterns but the pupils of some colossal creature! From the moment he fell, it had been sizing him up! In an instant, the massive creature before him moved.

With a roar that sounded like distant thunder, the giant creature lowered its head slowly, coming closer to Lynn.

Thanks to the light from the opening above, Lynn finally got a good look at this gigantic beast.

Its serpentine neck, a mouth filled with sharp teeth, enormous wings that shaded the sky, a long tail dragging iron chains, and thick scales covering its body.

This was clearly an overgrown baby black dragon standing over ten meters tall!!!

“Your Highness, you’re here?”

Seeing the tall figure appear in the laboratory, Milani approached with squinted eyes and a smile.

Previously dressed in sharp military attire, Ivyst was now in a flowing black gown with fringes, her long black hair that had been cascading behind her was now tied up neatly in a high ponytail resting at her waist.

She looked like a high-class goddess attending a grand banquet, radiating an air that made people hesitate to approach.

“How is he?”

When facing Milani, Ivyst seemed to relax a little.

Having stuck by her side for seven or eight years, Milani was someone she trusted deeply, treating her like a sister in their daily interactions.

However, despite her youthful appearance, Milani was already an adult.

For some reason, her body had been unable to grow normally.

Ivyst ruffled her hair, tidying up the messy brown locks.

Milani didn’t resist and placed a carved tool made of magic stones in front of Ivyst, infusing it with a bit of extraordinary ability.

Moments later, a projection appeared before the two.

It showed Lynn, sitting dazedly in a chair as if trapped in that lower space.

“This is the final assessment. Of the 125 experimental subjects before this, most perished at this stage.”

“If he clears this challenge, he will belong entirely to you, Your Highness. Day to day, he won’t notice a thing, but once he sees the Eye of the Mind’s seal, he will instantly switch into a hypnotized state.”

Milani’s eyes were exceptionally calm, betraying none of her previous playful demeanor with Lynn.

Ivyst nodded slightly.

If Lynn was really pretending to be hypnotized, she would still step in to save him, but she would be a little disappointed.

Meanwhile, the baby black dragon, with its wheel-sized golden eyes, loomed closer, hot and foul breath huffing from its nostrils as if inspecting its meal for the day.

Feeling the hot, stinky air wash over him, Lynn thought his heart might leap right out of his throat.

This physiological reaction was unavoidable because he was facing a dragon.

Being a dragon, with its powerful and ancient noble bloodline, it naturally radiated immense dragon might.

Even this baby black dragon surpassed fourth-stage humans.

So under the influence of that dragon might, any disguise would crumble.

As Lynn sensed the Liars’ Devourer’s precarious state, he felt like he might just break free any second, gasping for air and ready to flee.

Because right now, he was just an ordinary guy without divine granting factors, and the distance between him and the dragon was less than a meter.

The sharp teeth in the dragon’s mouth glistened coldly and even bore traces of blood.

It seemed incredibly hungry.

Lynn wanted to take a deep breath to calm himself down. But logically, he shouldn’t be able to act this way while hypnotized.

Dammit, Milani, why hasn’t she sent someone yet? Doesn’t she know what terrible creatures are down here? No, wait!

As he thought of this, Lynn seemed to suddenly realize something.

Did she really just accidentally hit the wrong button? Or was this whole ordeal really another assessment from the start?

Staring at the black dragon’s jaws slowly opening, with saliva dripping from its mouth, he fell into silence.

Before Lynn lay only two paths.

The first was to break the state and shout for help.

That might bring someone to save him, though the chances were slim.

After all, shouting for help would only reveal his disguise, and wouldn’t give Milani and the guards any speed buff.

The second option was to maintain his state and hold on through it all.

It had no actual benefits, just gambling that this was another assessment.

The stakes were his life.

Both paths brimmed with peril, and whichever he chose had a high likelihood of death.

But for Lynn, the choice never seemed to require hesitation.

If he chose the first path, aside from revealing a desperate plea for survival, he’d still likely end up dead.

So, he picked option two.

The reasoning was quite simple.

At this critical and tense moment, Lynn remembered Milani’s earlier words.

Ivyst had said she would spare his life.

Though he didn’t know what kind of mental journey she had gone through, she had explicitly stated she wouldn’t let him die.

Regardless of her reasons, Lynn chose to trust her.

To believe she would keep her promise.

So, at that moment, Lynn exerted all his strength to activate the Liars’ Devourer’s abilities, lying to himself to maintain his dazed and slow-witted hypnotized state.

Even so, under the pressure of dragon might, his mental fortitude began to falter.

“Roar——!!!”

It seemed the black dragon sensed its meal was lacking spirit, as a flicker of dissatisfaction flashed in its eyes, and it raised its head, letting out a roar.

Feeling a tremor from his very soul and the onset of dazzling dizziness, Lynn couldn’t help but mutter.

In just one night, he was about to faint three times in a row.

Watching the gaping maw drawing closer, Lynn felt his heart leaping into his throat.

The stench from the dragon’s mouth was nearly enough to knock him out.

Just then, as if on cue, a veritable beam of blinding red light suddenly flashed through!

“Boom!!!”

With the blast of air swirling around, the black dragon let out a pained howl, its colossal body crashing backward with overwhelming inertia!

In the next second, the familiar scent of roses enveloped Lynn’s senses once more.

A well-known figure, stunning as ever, hovered in the air, her black gown billowing lightly like a flag.

I knew it!

Seeing that figure, Lynn felt his body almost go limp with relief.

The woman who had nearly taken his life moments ago now looked incredibly comforting.

At the same time, he was infinitely grateful he hadn’t chosen the first path.

In his unobtrusive gaze, Ivyst raised her right hand, fingers splayed as if issuing commands to the looming black dragon.

“Back!”

The voice spread like invisible ripples, resonating through the thick scales of the dragon and reaching its mind.

That once terrifying black dragon now appeared docile, a hint of fear flashing in its golden pupils.

Then, surprisingly, it did as told, crawling backward into the shadows.

Even a dragon could only bow its head in humility before the villainous princess.

Like a well-behaved puppy.

After everything was done, Ivyst gently lowered her hand and turned to look at Lynn still seated in the chair.

A complex emotion flickered in her eyes.

“Find him a room in the manor; let him sleep well, and bring him to see me when he wakes up.”

With that, Ivyst’s figure disappeared abruptly.

Seconds later, the guards arrived, slightly late to the party.

As they did, Lynn’s tension completely released.

He knew he had temporarily escaped this hellhole, and could finally get some decent sleep.

With that thought, a tide of sleepiness swept over him.

After half a month without proper rest, added to the chaos of the night, he could barely hold on any longer.

Of course, in the last second before drifting into slumber, another image floated in his mind.

When Ivyst had descended earlier, due to the angle, it seemed he caught a glimpse of something he was not meant to see.

Purple? Well, that’s intriguing.

Holding onto that thought, Lynn slipped into a deep sleep.