That day, while Lin Mo was still worrying about his own situation and everyone else's, the sealed prison door suddenly swung open.
Right after that, the piercing alarm was cut off, and the factory gates burst open. Medical personnel in white protective suits with red crosses on their sleeves, along with grim-faced family guards in the uniforms of the Wang and Li Families, poured inside.
"Quick! This way!"
"Miss! Young Master! Are you all right?"
"Medical team! Treat the injured first!"
The factory, which had been dead silent and hopeless, instantly became "busy" and "orderly." The iron cages were quickly opened, and the terrified young scions were carefully helped out, wrapped in warm blankets, and carried onto stretchers. As for the battle pets that had shown aggression during the test, specialists used gentler methods to restrain them, then injected them with sedatives and took them away.
Everything proceeded efficiently and professionally, as if it were a rescue drill they had rehearsed countless times.
"The staff said they've already been rescued, and the Blood Wolf Mercenary Group has been driven off."
Wang Keke was gently helped up by a female medic. Her face was still pale, but her eyes had regained the light of someone who had survived a disaster. "Mimi!" She immediately turned around to look for Lin Mo.
Lin Mo followed her out of the iron cage that had held him for days. His enormous white body looked a little out of place amid the busy crowd. He shook his head, dispelling the faint dizziness brought on by hunger and the beating he'd taken earlier, and began calmly surveying his surroundings with amber eyes as precise as the most advanced scanners.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
The Blood Wolf Mercenaries were vicious and ruthless, yet they had retreated far too cleanly and decisively. There wasn't even the slightest sign of resistance or delay. It was as if... their mission had been perfectly completed, and they had simply withdrawn.
Inside the factory, apart from the signs of struggle left by them "captives" and some trash from the mercenaries' activities, there were no traces of a fierce battle. No bullet holes, no scorch marks from energy weapons, no bloodstains (except those on the captives and the fake...), and no damaged equipment.
Wait. Bloodstains?
Lin Mo's gaze snapped toward the corner of the open floor—the place where the three-headed Skull Mound had once stood, surrounded by countless scattered limbs!
At that moment, the place was completely empty.
No, not entirely empty. Amid the hurried steps of the rescue workers, Lin Mo's keen eyes caught something that seemed to have been left behind in the shadow of a discarded tire—a bloody-looking lower leg, with some "skin" and "bone" still attached?
A powerful, absurd premonition shot down Lin Mo's spine like an electric current. He gave a low growl to signal Wang Keke to wait, then strode over on all fours.
Under the puzzled gazes of Wang Keke and several rescue workers, Lin Mo lowered his head and carefully sniffed the "limb."
There was none of the strong smell of blood and decay he'd expected. Instead... it had a faint chemical odor, like a mixture of rubber and paint?
He reached out a paw and lightly touched it with a claw tip.
The texture... was very elastic, and unusually tough. It felt nothing like real flesh and bone!
He applied a little pressure and dragged his claw across it.
"Riiip—"
A faint sound, like thick rubber tearing, rang out. His claw opened a gash in the "lower leg," revealing not muscle fibers and bone, but some kind of dark red, elastic stuffing! Even the "bone," which looked as white as a skeleton's, was just high-strength plastic painted white!
Fake!
It was all fucking fake!
Those three heads, dead-eyed and twisted in expression! Those limbs scattered across the floor, chopped into countless pieces! They were all props so realistic they could pass for the real thing!
An indescribable fury erupted like a volcano, instantly sweeping away Lin Mo's reason!
"ROOOAR—!!!!!!"
A furious tiger's roar, brimming with humiliation, anger, and the feeling of being made a fool of, burst from deep in Lin Mo's throat! Its waves shook the entire factory until it seemed to hum, instantly drowning out the clamour of the rescue operation!
He understood! Now he understood everything!
The Blood Wolf Mercenary Group! The brutal killings! The life-or-death trial!
It had all been a fucking act!
A massive live-action drama put on for them, the "brats"!
And they, including Lin Mo, were the fools who'd been toyed with and swept up in the performance!
No wonder the communication signals had been blocked!
No wonder the "mercenaries" had been professional but had never actually gone in for the kill!
No wonder the tests had been so targeted!
No wonder the rescue had arrived so "just in time"!
The whole thing had been a Loyalty Trial staged jointly by the Base City bigwigs, the various families, and the Military!
They'd watched them from behind the screens like lab mice, observing them fear, struggle, betray one another, and despair! They'd watched the battle pets reveal their true natures under extreme pressure! And because of his "outstanding" performance, he and Wang Keke had even been made into some damned "S-Rank Core Seed"!
Thinking about how he'd been genuinely furious, protected his master, and even fretted over Wang Keke's safety made Lin Mo's face burn. Though, as a tiger, he had no way of showing it.
"Mimi? What's wrong?" Wang Keke was startled by his sudden roar and hurried over, worriedly stroking his fur, which had bristled with anger.
Lin Mo panted heavily, his tiger eyes wide as he glared at the rubber fake leg he'd torn open. His inner rant surged on like a mighty river:
"You fucking bastards! A bunch of old schemers! You even plotted against me!"
"Who are you trying to scare with fake heads and fake arms? I never even blinked watching horror movies in the theater!"
"And you call yourselves the Blood Wolf Mercenaries? The acting was over the top, the props were shoddy. One star!"
"I really thought I was going to die a hero! And this is it? This is all you had?!"
"S-Rank seed? Seed my ass! You treated me like a damn monkey!"
He felt that his dignity as a transmigrator and his status as a future Starry Sky Behemoth had both been ground into the dirt by those unscrupulous "directors"!
But beneath his anger, Lin Mo felt a chill rising from deep within. To test something as vague as "loyalty," these people in power had been able to devise such a convincing, cruel deception, subjecting hundreds of young people to such an extreme situation that their lives and mental well-being were at risk...
The scheming and methods behind it sent a chill through him.
He looked at the young scions around him, some still shaken, some crying, others at a loss. They wore relieved expressions at having "survived," and he couldn't help feeling the absurdity of being the only one who knew the truth.
"Damn it, we can't stay here! These old foxes are way too calculating!" Lin Mo's inner alarm blared. "I have to find a way to help Keke get stronger, then look for a chance to get out of here! Otherwise, they'll sell us off and we'll still end up helping them count the money!"
He forced down his fury and rubbed his head against the bewildered Wang Keke, sending her a complicated thought through their mental link, mingled with "It's over," "We've been played," and "Let's get out of this damn place."
Wang Keke didn't really understand why Lin Mo had suddenly become so furious, but she obediently nodded and stayed close to him.
With the rescue workers guiding them, the girl and tiger left the abandoned factory, a place full of deception and bad acting. The sunlight was a little harsh. Lin Mo narrowed his amber tiger eyes and glanced back at the dark factory.
He'd remember this.
Those old schemers hiding behind the screens had better wait and see. When he swallowed the stars and roared across the universe, he'd come back and settle the score with them over the price of this "show"!
Before you continue