Special Forces: At the beginning, An Ran pulled him to get his certificate.

Chapter 1531 Hypnotic Showdown

"Are you Yan people all inherently arrogant?"

The doctor's voice came from the speaker, with a smooth, electronically enhanced quality, like a thin film of oil on the surface of water. He didn't show his face, but the sarcasm in his tone was clearly discernible; each word was like a meticulously polished needle, trying to pierce through some crack.

"They just draw a patch of land on a map, stay there for thousands of years, and think they're at the center of the world. They see everyone as uncivilized barbarians, and everyone owes them a lesson. Chen Jun, am I wrong?"

Chen Jun stood in the middle of the empty corridor.

The emergency lights overhead cast a stark white glow, making the metal grille beneath his feet appear cold. All around him were gray-white alloy panels, devoid of any decoration or markings, like a container stripped of all warmth. His shadow, sliced ​​into thin strips by the light, lay scattered at his feet.

He did not answer immediately.

The doctor's voice continued to flow from a hidden speaker, like a slowly crawling snake:

"You're arrogant towards your enemies—oh, that's called 'strategic contempt.' You're arrogant towards your allies—that's called 'principle adherence.' You're arrogant towards anyone who doesn't meet your standards—that's called 'cultural confidence.' You always have a term, don't you?"

Chen Jun finally spoke.

His voice wasn't loud, it could even be described as calm, but every word was like tempered iron, capable of creating a crater when it hit the ground:

"Correct."

He paused.

"I am arrogant towards my enemies. Is there a problem?"

The doctor didn't respond. Only a barely audible hissing sound came from the speaker.

“My feelings for my friends,” Chen Jun continued, his tone flat and even, “are like the warmth of a spring breeze. Is there a problem with that?”

The doctor remained silent for a few seconds.

Then he laughed, the laughter coming from his electronically enhanced voice: "...Interesting."

The sound of metal scraping against metal came from the depths of the corridor. A door, hidden in the seamless joints of the gray-white panels, slowly slid open to both sides. Behind the door was an even deeper darkness, like the half-open mouth of some behemoth.

"Haven't you been searching for the Abyss all along?"

The doctor's voice rang out again, this time with less sarcasm and more—temptation.

"Come in. I'll be waiting for you inside."

The indicator light on the edge of the door frame flashed and turned a dark amber color.

The doctor paused, then added, his tone light and airy, like a lover's whisper in the ear:

"You're not... too scared to come in, are you?"

Chen Jun stood still.

"If you're so capable, come in and find me."

The doctor's voice gradually softened and became gentler, like a layer of velvet soaked in honey, slowly covering all the sharp edges:

"The abyss is gazing at you..."

The voice truly sounded like an invisible hand.

Chen Jun felt a strange pulling force, starting from his eardrums and spreading along the nerve endings to the cerebral cortex. It wasn't a violent intrusion, nor was it forced control—it was more like a gentle invitation, like a familiar voice calling your name in the dead of night, making you want to turn around and look.

His gaze wavered for a moment.

In a corner of my mind, my consciousness felt like it was being immersed in warm water, and its edges began to become blurred and soft.

—The abyss is gazing at you.

Come in.

--I’m waiting for you.

He shook his head abruptly.

The movement was slight, almost imperceptible, like shooing away a mosquito that landed near his ear. But in that instant, his pupils refocused, and the thin mist in his eyes vanished without a trace, like fog blown away by the wind.

Damn it.

He cursed under his breath.

I almost fell for their trick.

This voice... was not just ordinary verbal provocation. It carried a precisely tuned frequency resonance, every pause, every rise and fall in pitch like a key being inserted into a lock, trying to open a door in his brain.

Hypnosis. And it's a very high-level form of hypnosis.

Three days ago, he might have walked in in a daze, sat in that chair, and honestly answered all the questions.

But now—

Deep within his consciousness, a newly integrated, still somewhat raw, power stood there like a silent shield. The invading sound wave crashed in, like a stream hitting a reef, disintegrating and scattering in vain.

Chen Jun showed no sign of anything unusual.

He kept his eyelids slightly relaxed, as if still under hypnosis. He opened his mouth slightly, as if all his strength had been drained. He made his steps unsteady, somewhat out of control.

He spoke, his voice muffled, like a dream:

"Yes...I am arrogant..."

He took a step forward.

"I am arrogance..."

Another step.

The doctor's voice rang out again, this time with an irrepressible joy, like a fisherman's feeling when he sees his float suddenly sink:

"Yes...yes, that's it...come in..."

Chen Jun stepped through that door.

Behind the door was a corridor, darker and colder than outside. The air was filled with a kind of stale, slightly sweet and fishy smell, like formaldehyde, like a long-unventilated basement, like something that shouldn't be kept for long.

Glass cabinets are embedded on both sides of the corridor.

Behind the transparent glass, covered with a thin layer of dust, lies a human body.

Human bodies of all shapes and sizes. Some are whole, some are incomplete, some retain the posture of their last moments before death—curled up, struggling, reaching out their arms as if trying to grasp something. Their skin, soaked in preservative liquid, has turned grayish-white, like the poorly made exhibits in a wax museum. Most of their eyes are closed, a few are open, staring blankly into some eternal void.

Chen Jun did not stop.

He didn't even turn his head to look at the faces in the glass cases. But his jaw slowly tightened in the darkness, his jawline taut into a hard, straight line.

Even hell is nothing more than this.

He continued walking forward.

At the end of the corridor, there was another metal door.

This time, the door slid open on its own before he could get close. Behind the door was a brightly lit space, with neatly arranged instruments and spotless white work surfaces—like a standard, high-level biological laboratory.

The doctor stood in the center.

He wore a crisp white lab coat, the sleeves rolled up to his forearms, revealing well-maintained hands that showed no signs of age. His hair was neatly combed back, not a single stray hair framing his forehead. A pair of thin-rimmed glasses perched on his nose, behind which his eyes were gentle, focused, and full of interest.

He didn't look like someone hiding underground, conducting experiments at the end of a corridor of corpses.

He was like a popular visiting professor at a university, about to begin a brilliant demonstration lesson.

"very good."

The doctor smiled and spoke softly:

"Welcome home, Chen Jun."

His tone was as if he were welcoming a child returning from a long journey.

"I've been waiting for you... for a long time."

He raised his hand and pointed to a chair in the corner of the laboratory.

It was made of metal, with a high backrest and curved supports extending from the armrests. At the ends of the supports were connected to a semi-transparent helmet, the inside of which was densely packed with tiny electrode contacts. Under the stark white light, those contacts resembled the compound eyes of an insect, densely packed and flickering silently.

"Do you see that chair?"

The doctor's voice maintained that soothing rhythm, like a lullaby, like a pocket watch in a hypnotist's hand:

“Walk over there. Sit down. Then… put on that helmet.”

He paused for a moment, the corners of his mouth turning up slightly, a gentle, kind, and encouraging smile:

"It feels very comfortable. It doesn't hurt. It's like... taking a nap."

Chen Jun stood still.

His eyes remained unfocused, his lips remained relaxed, and his shoulders remained slightly droopy, giving him a submissive posture as if he had been hypnotized.

He strode toward the chair.

The doctor's smile deepened slightly. His gaze followed Chen Jun's steps, like a collector eyeing a treasure he was finally about to acquire.

Three steps.

Two steps.

step.

Chen Jun passed by him.

The cold glint of the blade traced an almost invisible arc under the white light.

The doctor felt a chill on the side of his neck.

Something cold, hard, and extremely sharp was pressing firmly against the left side of his Adam's apple, less than half a centimeter away. If he swallowed, his skin would be cut open.

His smile froze on his face.

Behind him, Chen Jun's voice came close to his ear, steady and clear, without a trace of the daze he had just experienced:

Surprised?

He paused.

"Surprised?"