A painful wail rang out.
Ryan's hand started to reach uncontrollably towards the back of his head. That face howled in grief and tore itself off the back of his head with its hands.
And among the densely packed eye patterns on Ryan's back.
One after another, the shrieking souls of students also began to struggle out. They were distorted and squeezed together by the turbid flesh and blood, and were manipulated by Wang Tao to transform into a new body.
They were just like Wang Tao.
All of them were souls devoured by that evil spirit.
Ryan watched as he painfully knelt in front of the rotten corpse of that girl, covering his face and crying.
His sharp nails almost pierced into his own face.
The raging flames.
Lit up the whole classroom.
In the reflection of the glass, chaotic scenes were reflected one after another.
It was like the beginning of this loop.
That young man sat in his seat, coldly watching the massacre initiated by that "ghost".
There were students fleeing and screaming everywhere.
There was scarlet blood everywhere.
People were slaughtered one by one.
But there was no pity in his heart. There was only the hatred that couldn't be suppressed.
However, when the scene changed again.
It was already that young man kneeling in front of that devil, trembling as he looked at the rotten corpse of the girl in front of him.
Exactly the same as now.
The only difference was his appearance.
Or perhaps the way he was now was his true appearance at that time, a fragmented soul destroyed by hatred.
Crying bitterly.
Crying resentfully without being able to do anything.
And in the front of the classroom, Ryan manipulated one tentacle after another to keep pushing back those crazy ghost figures. But with more and more divisions, even Ryan had already felt 巨大的压力.
But it was at this time.
Click—
The second hand of the clock stopped.
In an instant, the whole classroom seemed to fall into a standstill. The increasing number of terrifying evil spirits also all stopped as if the pause button had been pressed.
Ryan frowned, withdrew his tentacles, and took a step back.
Everything came to a halt.
The flames stopped burning.
The classroom also stopped collapsing.
Only behind him, that fragmented monster crouched in front of the rotten corpse of the girl, crying softly.
Ryan turned around, frowned as he looked at that scene.
Then slowly.
A golden key that glowed with golden light emerged from the chest of the rotten girl.
The key that could allow him to pass the level.
Ryan frowned as he looked at the key that had fallen into his hand, feeling a strong sense of an anticlimax.
"Is it over just like this?"
The key was indeed where he thought it would be, inside the girl's body.
But to get the key, one had to understand the key point of "mental anchor".
One had to understand what kind of role she played in the heart of the role he was playing.
Because the key symbolized hope and light.
Only by understanding this.
Could you find the hidden key.
But was it over...
Ryan frowned as he looked at the distorted monster kneeling emptily in front of the girl.
Indeed.
For him, an outsider, perhaps it was over.
Because this was just an assessment.
And what he had participated in was just the arrangement of this script.
And in the history without his participation, that endless loop would still continue endlessly. Wang Tao and that devil would still have to repeat this past again and again.
He wasn't in that real history.
He wasn't a character in the play either.
He was just a passer-by.
Just like every Night Healer who participated in the assessment, once he left, it would be like having a not-so-pleasant dream.
"Take the key and go to the next level."
The distorted monster said in a low voice.
It was as if the room was using its mouth to urge him.
Ryan's frown deepened.
"Is this really just an unchangeable script?"
The distorted monster said in a low voice, "Yes."
His voice had no fluctuations, yet it seemed full of vicissitudes.
A script.
An unchangeable act on the stage.
There was no beginning and no end.
Ryan clenched the key in his hand.
He glanced at the door of the classroom and finally turned around, took a deep breath, and walked heavily in that direction.
He stopped when he reached the doorway.
The surroundings fell into silence.
Only in the center of the classroom where time was frozen, the monster knelt emptily in front of the girl's corpse, holding her already rotten hand.
And outside, seeing that Ryan had successfully obtained the key, all the trainees somehow let out a sigh of relief.
The examiner rubbed his temples and said.
"The next should be the third level... With the observation and reasoning abilities he showed in this level, I think he should be able to easily pass the subsequent levels..."
The vampire said worriedly, "Examiner, is there really no way to change that script? It's so heart-wrenching!"
The examiner smiled bitterly and said, "The script is the script. This is just a simulation in the Illusion Room. No matter what, what has already happened is 注定无法改变."
The vampire lowered his head worriedly.
The examiner shook his head and was about to switch to the picture of the third level.
But at this moment, he suddenly heard Ryan's voice coming from the picture.
"I don't think this is right."
The examiner who was about to turn his head and all the trainees were stunned.
They suddenly looked up and looked into the picture.
...
In the classroom.
Ryan was standing there with his hand on the doorknob, and his voice rang out from afar.
"Although it's a script, is there really no way to make some changes?"
The frozen classroom.
Dead silent.
The monster slowly turned its head emptily and looked at his back from afar.
Click—Click—
Ryan moved his neck.
He turned his head, raised his eyebrows and said, "It's really infuriating that you suddenly say I've passed the level when it hasn't reached a perfect ending yet!"
The trainees were shocked.
And it was under the empty gaze of that monster.
Ryan let go of the doorknob, turned back, and walked up to him.
"If this is something that really happened." Ryan stretched out his hand towards him, and the reflection of him and the girl's corpse was in his eyes.
"I'm really sorry that you had such an experience."
"I'm also sorry that I can't really participate in this matter, but if I had been there at that time, I wouldn't have allowed such a tragedy to happen."
He calmly stretched out his hand towards him.
"As a human being and as a doctor, I'm sorry."
Outside.
The examiner and those trainees all stared at this scene in a daze, unable to say a word for a while.
Because they knew that it wasn't a real existence but just a simulation.
Ryan surely knew that too.
However...
He still...
The monster looked at him emptily. Finally, after an unknown period of time.
It lowered its head, and its broken lips moved.
"Thank you."
Ryan smiled and stretched out his hand and said, "At least we should shake hands. Sorry for playing you."
The monster lowered its head.
After a long silence.
Finally, it still raised its broken and distorted hand.
And shook hands with Ryan.
But almost at the moment when Ryan's hand touched his, a blinding white light suddenly shone from Ryan's hand.
The white light waterfall instantly enveloped the whole picture, and everyone outside couldn't help but close their eyes in astonishment.
This sudden scene was clearly beyond everyone's expectations.
What happened?!
What was this white light?!
And in the picture, the blinding white light also almost enveloped the whole classroom.
Even that monster couldn't see anything clearly because of the light, but in this white light, he still heard Ryan's voice.
"Maybe it's really a simulation... But it always makes people feel uncomfortable in their hearts."
"So just consider it as my childish attempt. Maybe nothing can be changed. Maybe you're really just phantoms."
"But since I really participated in it."
Ryan calmly looked at them, as if a child was being unreasonable, and activated the Remembrance of the Past on them.
"Then I don't want to do nothing, even if..."
Even if it's a futile effort.
Even if the ending can't be changed.
Even if what he did was just a ridiculous attempt, like a child sitting in the cinema, crying and wanting the movie to have a different ending.
Because he thought of those backward-looking eyes.
He had never dared to face the future. He had always been looking back at the past, because the future was a greater tragedy, so he had been escaping in pain.
But what was wrong with that?!
It was precisely because there was the only remaining light in the past that he looked back.
But that was at least much better than the endless darkness and pain in the future.
"So even if I can't change it, I still want to change it, even if it's just for a moment."
Buzz—
In an instant, the blinding halo enveloped the whole classroom and occupied the whole picture.
...
The white light that lasted for several minutes forced the examiner to urgently turn off the projection of the picture.
One trainee after another all stared at the direction of the picture in astonishment.
"Teacher, what was that just now? Was it a projection of the room?"
The examiner rubbed his eyes, frowned and said, "No, it seemed to be one of his abilities. But he had already got the key and the time was almost up. What was he still doing there?"
Because it was really just a script.
Even if he changed the direction of the script, so what?
A story is just a story.
He was so anxious that he was pacing back and forth like an ant on a hot pan.
However, he couldn't interfere.
...
And at this moment, outside the Trial Hall.
Raven, who was sitting on a chair chatting and smiling with a harpy girl while waiting, suddenly saw that outside the door, a dozen Night Healers wearing beak masks like them pushed the door open and walked in quickly.
And on the chest of the leading Night Healer, there were patterns of eight crosses carved.
Raven was shocked.
Because the cross pattern represented merit in the Night City.
Except for the veteran Night Healers who had nine crosses, eight-cross merit was almost the highest level that Night Healers like them could reach.
Raven immediately had a solemn expression and quickly stood up.
And almost everyone around also quickly stood up and saluted the veteran when they saw the leading Night Healer.
"Sorry for interrupting your work."
A vicissitudes-filled voice rang out from under the beak mask of the Night Healer.
He took off the beak mask on his head, revealing the cheeks of a middle-aged human with gray hair, and said seriously.
"Does anyone know which trainee is currently taking the assessment?"