At the entrance of the Forbidden Zone.
As the students emerged one by one, their mission evaluations were… lackluster, to say the least. The military officials who had come to observe looked visibly disappointed.
So far, the highest-rated missions were from Lucia Blair and Autumn Summer, both only received green-level evaluations.
Not a single purple-tier evaluation, let alone a red-tier one.
Once most of the students had returned, one of the instructors stepped forward, his expression grim as he demanded, "What happened out there? Why did you all perform so poorly?"
The students, most of whom carried themselves with pride, were immediately annoyed by the tone.
"Sir, it's not that we didn't try," one student argued. "The mission wasn't even over we were suddenly sent back!"
"Exactly! We gave it our all!" another chimed in.
"And seriously, why didn't any of us know something as major as changing the world was even possible?" someone shouted.
The instructor froze.
The mission ended early?
What was going on?
"What happened?" he quickly asked. "What happened inside the Forbidden Zone?"
One of the students answered, "Someone changed the fate of that world. That's why we were all kicked out early."
"What?"
The instructor's eyes widened. "That's possible?"
The surrounding crowd exchanged glances. Even the instructor didn't know something like this could happen. It must have been the first time in history.
Just then.
A radiant flash of golden light erupted from the Forbidden Zone's gate.
And from that golden brilliance, a lone figure emerged.
Bathed in shimmering gold, he looked like a god descending from the heavens.
Everyone stood frozen.
Golden light that was the mark of the highest possible mission evaluation.
And the one who stepped out... was none other than the national champion himself, Vincent Fox.
But before the shock could subside, something even more unbelievable happened.
The entrance behind Vincent the rift to the Forbidden Zone began to flicker, and then slowly dissolve… until it vanished completely.
Everyone was stunned.
Even the military officials standing at the rear of the crowd were left speechless.
Ten minutes later.
Vincent was escorted into a dimly lit room.
Some Forbidden Zones had healing protocols. As a result, Vincent's condition had fully recovered upon exit.
The room was lined with surveillance cameras.
Shortly after, a middle-aged colonel entered and sat across from him.
"Hello, Vincent. I'm with the national military. You can call me Colonel Daniel Walker."
Vincent nodded and greeted him. "Nice to meet you, Colonel Walker."
Colonel Walker smiled politely. "Would you like something to drink?"
Vincent didn't hesitate. "A glass of warm water would be nice. And if possible, a steak. I'm starving."
The colonel immediately ordered it.
Not long after, the water and steak arrived, the meat still sizzling hot clearly fresh from the grill.
Vincent, clearly famished, wasted no time digging in.
Colonel Walker didn't speak. He simply sat back and let Vincent eat in peace.
Once Vincent finished and the empty plate was taken away, the colonel finally spoke.
"Vincent, be honest. Was it you who changed the fate of the Forbidden Zone?"
Vincent didn't deny it. "Yes. I went to a peaceful time period and eliminated all the White Spike creatures ahead of schedule."
"Can you tell me in detail what exactly you did in there?" Colonel Walker asked.
"Of course."
Vincent leaned back slightly and began.
"Based on what our instructors taught us, I suspected that the White Spikes had been around in that world for a long time. So when I entered the Zone, I chose to travel back to December 2023."
"Wait a moment," Colonel Walker interrupted, raising a brow. "Why that specific time?"
Vincent explained smoothly, "According to what we were taught, the time portal in that world opens in 2049. The portal gets destroyed by the creatures in 2050, so there's a whole year between those events. The first future soldier traveled back to December 2022. By 2023, all contact between the past and future had been severed. I figured going back to that year might help me uncover clues from surviving veterans."
Of course, this explanation was complete fiction.
Vincent had inside knowledge of the plot. But he couldn't admit that not even to Autumn Summer.
Colonel Walker frowned. The logic seemed thin… but still plausible.
"I see. Go on."
Vincent continued, "While looking for veterans of the future war, I met a man named Dan Forester."
Colonel Walker's eyes lit up, immediately jotting the name down.
"Dan Forester's daughter was one of the top scientists in the future. She invented the toxin capable of killing the White Spikes but by then, it was too late. Dan never had the chance to save her. I told him my theory, and he agreed to help."
"After that, we tracked down another veteran and got our hands on a White Spike claw. It had traces of volcanic ash. That ash was thousands of years old, meaning those creatures might have arrived long ago."
"We analyzed the ash and eventually concluded that the White Spikes were likely buried in the Arctic glacier region."
"Then, with help from others, we searched beneath the Arctic ice and found a crashed alien ship and inside it, countless White Spikes!"
"The truth is, these creatures were a biological weapon. The aliens had dropped them to exterminate the native species and claim the planet."
"The reason they didn't appear until 2048 was because the ship was buried beneath the ice for centuries. Only when the glaciers melted did they reemerge."
"In the end, we planted explosives in the ship and wiped out every last White Spike."
Vincent finished and took a sip of water.
Naturally, his story was only half true.
The reality was, he had single-handedly destroyed them barehanded.
He didn't want to use explosives, fearing it might lower his mission rating.
But now, with the Forbidden Zone gone, there was no way to verify anything.
So Vincent could say whatever he wanted and no one could prove otherwise.
----------------------------------------------------
The deeper he goes, the more the truth unravels. Don't wait read ahead and witness Vincent's rise before the world catches up!
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