Her head hung low for a few seconds before she raised it again with a poker-faced expression.
She stood to her feet and walked toward Gustav before kneeling in front of him.
“What are your orders, master?” Glade questioned with a loyal expression.
Everyone’s eyes widened as they witnessed this.
“What is she doing?” Angy voiced out loud.
In response to that, Gustav replied Glade.
“Punch yourself hard in the face till your eye socket is on the verge of popping out,” He voiced out, causing all their eyes to widen again.
“As you wish,” Glade responded and proceeded to start punching herself in the face.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Blood oozed down her nose, and in no time, her entire face was smeared in blood, but she kept punching like she was immune to the pain.
“Gustav how is this happening?” Aildris asked with a shocked look.
“The details are not important,” He said while turning to the side to smile at Vera.
Vera’s face turned a shade of red as she noticed Gustav’s stare, even though it was just meant to be like a compliment for her doing a good job.
“All you guys need to know is, she is now incapable of betrayal,” Gustav voiced out once more.
Meanwhile, Glade was still hitting herself in the face with a look of determination.
Some of them gulped down saliva as they thought, ‘If Gustav can turn her into this, doesn’t that mean he can turn anyone into this?’
They had no idea that Vera was responsible for this since Gustav didn’t reveal it, but they felt this would most likely happen to anyone who messes up in the future.
“I think you should release her now. This is becoming too much,” Falco was the first to chicken out upon seeing this.
He voiced out his thought which was an absolute contrast to his alter ego.
“Yeah, just cool it Gus. This is already enough,” E.E seemed to share in the sentimentality.
“Nah,” Gustav responded.
“I’m already being merciful enough by deciding not to kill her off. The price she has to pay for living is, forever being under my control and endless commands of self torture,” Gustav responded with a merciless tone while staring at Glade, who was still kneeling in front of him.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Her fist was bloodied, and her face was already disfigured at this time, but there was no single shred of remorse on Gustav’s face as he watched her continue to brutally torture herself.
—–
Hours later, Gustav was back in his room as it was already late at night. He and Angy had shared some alone time in his room some minutes earlier and engaged in some passionate kissing session.
They almost ripped each other’s clothes off here, but Cadets were not allowed to have s*x while in camp. They would be figured out if they went beyond the point of kissing.
The entire night had been spent talking about everyone’s experiences during their time outside the camp. Everyone had interesting experiences, and some of them had even witnessed death close up.
Especially Angy, who was practically sent to a battlefield for her second mission. Gustav could see the innocence she used to have on her face was slowly starting to fade away.
It was unknown if she had killed yet, but Gustav could tell that she definitely would not be as indecisive as she used to be when faced with a precarious situation involving death.
Gustav was glad that everyone was back now, but he would be leaving in around three weeks’ time, so he had limited time to spend with them.
The issue of Glade had been handled just as he wanted it to be. Close to six months ago, he had made Vera input her parasitic strain within Glade.
When Glade recovered from Angy’s beatdown, she was still herself, but she was devastated by the situation that had occurred with everyone figuring out that she had betrayed Gustav.
Glade was reluctant to resume and get a new mission, but at the same time, she was on tenterhooks, whether or not to reveal that she had been compromised to the person in the shadows.
After thinking about the pros and cons for over a week, she decided to reveal that she had been compromised, but just then, the parasitic strain Vera inputted in her kicked in.
Her consciousness was eaten up and replaced by the new parasites, which mimicked her character and retained her memories with one difference.
She became Vera’s puppet so Vera could now control her actions and perceive her thoughts. Vera, of course, stopped her from revealing that she had been compromised and decided to do what Gustav instructed her to.
Placing a set of codes within her consciousness would trigger her to respond to Gustav’s voice and completely obey his every command the moment he mentioned those codes.
Gustav was back in camp when all this was happening, so today was the first time he was testing it out, but it worked perfectly.
Now his plan was to make use of Glade to uncover who this mystery person was and feed them with wrong information about himself. Glade was going to become his tool, and he made a decision to deal with whoever was behind the scenes.
Now that everyone had gone back to their rooms and Gustav was all alone again, it was now time to ponder on everything that had happened today and reflect on all the information that Husaruis had passed to him.
“…I am the outworldly… This doesn’t make any sense…” Gustav mumbled with a contemplative gaze.
He recalled how his life had gone from the start before the system came along. He was the definition of weak and pathetic in every aspect, mental state included.
He especially recalled only being able to change his hair color contrary to how he was supposed to be, according to Husaruis.
The system was practically a blessing to him, but then Husaruis had told him it was a leech. Gustav was still in disbelief as to everything that had been revealed so far, but he knew well enough that everything was true because even the system had confirmed it.
