Chapter 12: Defying System

"Wake up! Wake up!"

Half-awake and half-asleep, Lynn felt someone slapping his face a few times.

He slowly opened his bleary eyes.

After clearly seeing the scene before him, Lynn was instantly dumbfounded.

Who am I?

Where am I?

And... why am I completely naked?!

When Lynn realized he was stark naked and tied up in a chair, he fell silent.

He was currently in another underground facility.

Around him were many ancient instruments, colorful gemstones, and several Magic Matrices drawn on parchment, complex and obscure.

Moreover, on a stone platform not far away, there was an open Magic Book.

One of the pages featured an eye-like pattern that appeared vivid and bone-chilling.

It seemed as if it could penetrate his soul, imposing some kind of suggestion on him.

Lynn vaguely remembered that this symbol seemed to belong to the Soul Sect, active during the Second and Third Epochs.

Later, for some reason, it had been declared a heretical sect by an empire and completely eradicated.

"You're finally awake, test subject number 126."

The previous voice came again.

Lynn looked around, but couldn't find a single person in sight, the entire laboratory was empty.

Haunted?

"Hey, I'm over here."

Finally, Lynn looked down and noticed a small girl standing on the steps below.

She was about a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl wearing an ill-fitting white lab coat, with messy brown chin-length hair and some freckles on her nose, staring at him intently.

"Who are you?"

Lynn eyed her warily, trying to squeeze his legs together.

At the same time, he habitually accessed the system.

[Character Name: Milani Valenara]

[Plot Level: D]

[Plot Deviation: 0.00%]

Sure enough, he heard her introduction next.

"My name is Milani, you can call me Miss Milani." The girl scratched her tufty hair and put her hands in her pockets, "I won't say more than needed, but you should know why Imperial Princess Ivyst sent you here, right?"

Hearing this, memories from not long ago flooded into Lynn's mind.

He suddenly gasped.

Had he... done something terrible?

It seemed that the villainous Imperial Princess was quite furious about him uncovering her mask.

Recalling the bone-chilling dread he felt then, Lynn couldn't help but shiver.

After all, some things are only appreciated after one has experienced them, he understood the beauty of being alive.

Now, he would rather streak naked down the street yelling "I am gay" than face that furious woman again.

Still, for some reason, she had spared his life.

However, it looked like the experiment mentioned earlier in the Underground Prison was unavoidable now.

"Are you going to perform Mind Control on me?"

Lynn frowned.

Hearing this, the girl named Milani shook her head, "It's not that low-level trick of Mind Control. It's hypnosis, understand?"

"Abilities and Magic related to mental interference are extremely rare, currently only abilities like Charm, Forget, Psychological Suggestion, and others are available, yet they are rejected by the mainstream churches of the Saint Laurent Empire."

"And each of these abilities has its own drawbacks."

"For example, Charm can easily evoke the desires of humans, causing them to lose their sanity; and Psychological Suggestion has mediocre effects and doesn't work on those with strong will."

"Therefore, research involving the mind is an interesting topic, one that I have been attempting for a long time."

"In general, my expected outcome of hypnosis is to completely control a person's body and mind invisibly."

"Usually, the hypnotized person acts just like anyone else, completely unaware of their state, but once that switch is flipped, they fall into a subconscious state, becoming absolute servants to the hypnotist."

"Any command from the hypnotist will turn into mental brands, etched into the psyche of the hypnotized, even capable of completely changing their understanding of the world and common sense."

"So, test subject number 126, you need to understand that you are participating in a groundbreaking experiment."

Milani suddenly rose on her tiptoes, looked into Lynn's eyes, and spoke with a heartfelt tone.

Lynn's mouth twitched, "Can I refuse?"

"Of course not." Milani lovingly patted his head, then strapped a rudimentary helmet-like device onto it, "Well, we can talk more about whining later, but since you're awake now, the experiment can begin."

While speaking, Milani walked over to a mud-stained stone slab.

It was finely carved with the Eye of the Soul from the Magic Book, surrounded by various Magic Matrices and several sockets for filling with Magic Stones.

The stone slab connected to several old instruments and finally to the helmet above Lynn's head.

"Damn, it feels like sitting in an electric chair," Lynn thought uncomfortably.

His fate was in someone else's hands right now, and he couldn't resist.

"May I ask, what eventually happened to the 125 test subjects before me?" Lynn asked with a forced smile.

Milani turned her head and smiled, "Hehe."

It all went unsaid.

Seeing this, Lynn completely abandoned the idea of talking his way out.

The person before him looked like a mad scientist, too engrossed in his work to be swayed by a few words from Lynn.

Besides, it was an order from His Highness.

No, he had to save himself.

As he thought this, Lynn looked at his own body.

His hands and legs were shackled to the armrests, and several straps tied his waist tightly.

It seemed Ivyst and the others were very cautious of him.

But currently, as a normal person with no Extraordinary Abilities, he couldn't possibly break free using strength alone.

Thinking this, Lynn gave up the effort to escape and turned his gaze to his last hope.

"System!"

The next second, a light screen appeared in front of Lynn.

However, it was different from the rudimentary interface he remembered.

This time, the system seemed to have completely opened up for him.

[Name: Lynn]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 17]

[Belief: None]

[Rank: None]

[Extraordinary Ability: None]

[Divine-given Factor: 0]

[Remaining System Points: 1]

The empty interface made Lynn feel somewhat embarrassed.

He recalled that his predecessor had once believed in one of the Empire's three mainstream churches, the Heavenly Principle Church, and had peaked with 136 Divine-given factors, making him outstanding among his peers.

However, he had no time now to reminisce about the glorious past but instead focused on another item.

"Why do I have 1 system point?" he silently asked the system.

[The host has successfully increased the plot deviation of the S-level plot character "Ivyst Laurent Alexini" to 0.01%, receiving 1 system point as a reward.]

[Additionally, the host can spend points to draw various Extraordinary Abilities and enhance them, or ignite new Divine-given factors to increase personal power]

Hearing this, Lynn was stunned.

Only this much for an S-level plot character's reward? How pitiful must E and F-levels be then?

But thinking it over, most people belonged to the E and F categories, and even when piled up, they represented a significant scale.

Truly contrary to any expectation, this system.

In every sense.

And not in vain after being tortured for a whole half month.

After reflecting for a few seconds, Lynn turned his gaze to the right side of the system interface.

There hung a disk that resembled a relief, divided into thirty-six sectors, each carved with an ancient and abstract symbol.

One of them was familiar to him, looking like several twinkling stars connected together.

It was the exclusive mark of the Heavenly Principle Church.

Could it be that each mark pointed to a deity?

It wasn't mentioned in the original work, could there be so many?

With a nervous heart, Lynn touched the needle at the center of the relief disk, and then a prompt jumped before his eyes.

[Would you like to spend 1 system point to draw an ability?]

"Yes."

The next second, the relief disk started spinning rapidly as if getting wound up.

Meanwhile, Milani was embedding various colored Magic Stones into the Eye of the Soul stone slab, about to start the final step.

So, Lynn muttered in his heart,

Please, System Bro, I've never asked you for anything in my life.

Give me a reliable ability, please!