Early morning.
A ray of morning sunlight streamed through the window, gently falling on the boy's face. Lin Qiye's eyelids fluttered slightly, and he slowly opened his eyes...
He saw a ray of sunlight outside the window, paused for a moment, then sat up in bed, glanced at Baili Pangpang who was still sleeping like a log, and looked at him with a hint of doubt.
"It's 5:30..." Lin Qiye glanced at the time, his eyes filled with even more doubt.
Where's the whistle?
Generally, the instructors would blow their whistles outside around 5 a.m, and then they would rush to the training ground to assemble. They wouldn't come back to wash up until the morning training was over...
If one day the instructors go completely mad, it's not impossible for them to blow the whistle at two or three in the morning.
But today... it's already 5:30, and there's still no movement? Could it be that the instructor is in a good mood today and wants them to sleep in a little longer? One question after another arose in Lin Qiye's mind.
Should he go back and try to sleep some more? He definitely won't be able to fall asleep.
Since he couldn't sleep, Lin Qiye simply got out of bed, took his toiletries and washbasin, and quietly pushed open the door and went out.
Outside the corridor, all was equally silent.
When Lin Qiye reached the public washbasin area, he saw the other figures.
Special forces soldiers Zheng Zhong and Cao Yuan, along with two heirs from ancient martial arts families, one named Mo Lan and the other Li Shaoguang, Lin Qiye remembered. Finally, there was Lin Xi Chen, who—eyes still closed—somehow managed to find his way to the communal sink.
"Qi Ye, you're awake too?" Cao Yuan said when he saw Lin Qi Ye arrive.
Lin Qiye hummed in agreement, glancing questioningly towards the training ground. "I just don't know why the instructors haven't blown the whistle yet..."
"It's nice to have a leisurely morning," Li Shaoguang said with a smile, wiping his face with a towel.
"I'm used to waking up early, so suddenly having so much free time is really hard to adjust to," Cao Yuan shrugged.
Zheng Zhong nodded in agreement, picked up the washbasin, walked to the fence, and gazed at the quiet training camp. His brows furrowed slightly. "But I have a feeling... something's not right."
"Nothing's wrong." Mo Lan shook the water off his hands and calmly walked towards the room. "If the instructor doesn't blow the whistle, I'll practice shooting on my own. If you need someone to supervise everything, you'll never become a strong person."
Watching Mo Lan's figure gradually disappear, Lin Qiye shook his head, cleared his mind of the chaotic thoughts, and began to wash up.
"Stinky brother, I'm done... I'm going back to my room to keep sleeping."
Lin Xi Chen wiped her face and then lightly patted her cheeks to wake herself up.
"Don't you find anything strange?" Lin Qiye observed his sister for a long moment; her eyes continued to glow steadily, and her hair remained floating and luminous, indicating that she felt absolutely nothing.
"Never mind, just be careful; I feel like something is off, though I can't quite put my finger on it," Lin Qiye said, shaking his head. He had forgotten that any Forbidden Ruin effect targeting her was neutralized, meaning she was essentially immune to mental traps and similar abilities.
He returned to his room shortly afterward, hesitated for a moment, and then went back to bed to meditate.
Time passed second by second.
The sunlight outside the window grew increasingly dazzling, and the sounds of conversation in the corridor seemed to increase. Lin Qiye opened his eyes and checked the time.
7:30 in the morning.
Why isn't the whistle blowing at 7:30?
Lin Qiye frowned slightly. If the instructors had a change of heart and didn't blow the whistle at 5:30, then the fact that they weren't blowing it now meant that something had happened in the training camp that they were unaware of.
Across from him, Baili Pangpang was still lying on the bed, sprawled out, sleeping peacefully...
Lin Qiye's lips twitched slightly. He grabbed his slippers and slapped him across the face.
Whack—!
The unadorned slipper made intimate contact with Baili Pangpang's cheek before slowly sliding off, leaving only a red mark on his face. Baili Pangpang hummed twice, and then his soft snoring continued...
Lin Qiye:...
Lin Qiye walked to Baili Pangpang's bedside, shaking his body as he said in a deep voice:
"Wake up, time to eat!"
Baili Pangpang turned over and went back to sleep as if he hadn't heard anything.
Lin Qiye frowned slightly; he had a vague sense of foreboding...
After hesitating for a moment, he grabbed Baili Pangpang's wrist, which was wearing the ACE watch, and forcibly injected a large amount of mental energy into the watch. Immediately afterward, Baili Pangpang's body jerked violently, and he sprang up from the bed, doing two somersaults...
Then he collapsed heavily onto the bed and continued to sleep.
At this moment, Lin Qiye's expression had completely changed.
No matter how much a person can sleep, they can't possibly do two backflips while sleeping, right?
He scanned Baili Pangpang's entire body with his mental power and found nothing unusual. His breathing was also very even, as if he were really asleep.
"Is this... a mental trap?" he muttered to himself.
Lin Qiye stood up, strode out the door, and found about a dozen people already standing in the corridor, gathered together and having a heated discussion.
"Lin Qiye!"
Upon seeing Lin Qiye appear, Shen Qingzhu, who had been frowning in the crowd, brightened up and quickly stepped forward.
"What happened?" Lin Qiye asked.
"It's strange." Shen Qingzhu's brows furrowed tightly, his tone unusually serious. "Deng Wei and the others have been asleep the whole time, and we can't wake them up no matter what we do. It seems like they've fallen into some kind of mental trap..."
"Him too?" Lin Qiye's heart skipped a beat.
"It's not just him; 70 percent of the people in our dormitory building are in this situation."
"Where are the instructors?"
Shen Qingzhu shook his head. "People have been looking for it for a while now, but the strangest thing is this: the entire training camp is empty..."
"It's empty?!" Lin Qiye's eyes widened.
"The instructors, the logistics staff, even the old man serving food in the canteen—they've all disappeared." Shen Qingzhu's eyes were filled with solemnity. "Now, only we new recruits remain in the entire training camp."
"Are there any signs of a struggle?"
Shen Qingzhu was taken aback. "No."
Lin Qiye lowered his head and fell into deep thought.
"I see..."
"What do you think?"
"If I'm not mistaken, this should be some kind of 'exercise' or 'test'." Lin Qiye's previously uneasy mood calmed down, and he said calmly, "The instructors and everyone else disappeared without a trace of combat, which can only mean that they withdrew voluntarily, and their actions were very covert."
"You mean..." Shen Qingzhu seemed to realize something as well.
"Who are the instructors? They are all experts above the 'Chuan' realm, and Chief Yuan Gang is even at the 'Hai' realm. How could such a lineup be wiped out without a sound?"
"Their collective disappearance is simply an attempt to create an environment where only we new recruits remain, an isolated and helpless situation."
"I suspect they're using some means to observe our every move right now."
"Damn it, are they messing with us again?" Shen Qingzhu's face showed anger. "What about Deng Wei and the others? What's going on with them?"
"It's still unclear, but what's certain is that they're not in immediate danger. Perhaps..." Lin Qiye's eyes narrowed slightly, "This is the test the instructors have left for us?"
"To hell with the test!" Shen Qingzhu cursed, then seemed to remember something, turning around to face the surveillance camera at the end of the corridor...
Suddenly, he raised his middle finger!