The Heiress They Lost Came Back Overpowered

Yvonne Lowell raised an eyebrow. "You could call it one last twisted prank. After all, I won’t have any more chances to wake them up in the middle of the night."

"Then why even send people to Aurelia? Don’t tell me it was just to play a game of CS:GO with them!"

"Yeah. What else would it be for? We don’t have enough manpower at our own camp, so we had to call people in from abroad." Nina Jennings shrugged, her tone laced with impatience.

"Are you a walking book of ’why’? It’s always ’why this,’ ’why that’—a million questions. Can’t you use your own head and think for a second?! When I explain it, you don’t get it. When you get it, you don’t listen. When you listen, you don’t do it. If that’s how it’s going to be, what’s the point of asking so much?!"

"Besides, have you ever seen a real assessment where Yvonne just sits back and does nothing?"

Zachary Jacobs suddenly felt that the two women before him had become complete strangers. They were no longer the inseparable trio of siblings who could talk about anything and everything.

’So I’m the one being left out. Is a bond between three people just too crowded, in the end? Maybe... maybe we really can’t go back.’

’I thought I’d finally grown up, that I was getting a chance to prove myself. But it turns out they only gave it to me because it was too easy.’

Yvonne Lowell: ’Take a good look at the tactics you came up with. Have you *really* grown up?!’

The more Zachary Jacobs thought about it, the more his heart chilled. He decided to just stop talking altogether.

Wearing that ridiculous muscle suit, he struggled to curl into a ball under the table. He hugged his knees, his head hanging low, looking utterly miserable from every angle.

It was the pose he always struck when he was shutting himself off from the world. But at this moment, combined with the face he was making, the whole scene was rather jarring.

Zachary Jacobs: ’The world has forsaken me. Let it mock on.’

...

After the first squad finished clearing the second floor, they found no trace of the hostages in any of the rooms.

So, they decided to head up to the third floor to help, running right into Blake Paxton and his team on their way down.

Jasper Hayes gave a nod. "What’s the situation on the roof?"

"No one’s there. Just three fake hostages pretending to be asleep and getting blasted by the cold wind."

"Fake hostages?!"

This wasn’t the time to discuss it, though. Jasper Hayes didn’t press for details. After all, hadn’t they also found zero hostages on the second floor?

So, the group first went to rendezvous with the team on the third floor.

Following the sounds of gunfire, they ran toward the east wing. The battle on the third floor was still raging, and the number of hostiles was more than double that of the first and second floors combined.

With reinforcements from the other two squads, Ryan Ford’s team was practically unstoppable. They quickly eliminated most of the hostiles, with only a few left putting up a desperate struggle.

Just then, a figure emerged from the easternmost room. Everyone instinctively froze and turned to look at him.

He wore a snarling, green-faced demon mask with protruding fangs, and his voice was a coarse, grating squawk.

"HAHAHAHA! As expected of the elite squad, you’ve got some skills. You actually managed to find me. Of course, you have me to thank for all the clues I left you."

"That’s right! I am the most feared master outlaw in all the land—Dugu Qiubai! But... you’re a little too late. Your Instructor 1 has already been..."

BAM! Dugu Qiubai froze, looking down at his chest.

Yep. That’s right. He was covered in green paint.

’What the hell?! I haven’t even finished the lines Brother Jacobs gave me! I spent all night memorizing them!’

’I wasn’t even a third of the way through my monologue, and they just took me out so... unceremoniously?!’

Stanley Sutton let out a derisive snort. "Haven’t you ever heard the saying? The villain always dies for talking too much."

The last few stragglers were picked off by the others. The hostiles were completely wiped out.

"Dugu Qiubai" blew his top. "How could you do that?! I wasn’t finished talking! Don’t you want to know where Instructor 1 is?! By ’killing’ me, are you saying you don’t want to save your instructor anymore?!"

Blake Paxton glanced up at him. "Are you talking about those three fake instructors on the roof? Because I already ’killed’ them a little while ago."

The face under "Dugu Qiubai’s" mask flashed with panic for an instant, but he quickly recovered his composure and said in a steady voice,

"Of course not. That was merely a decoy I arranged. I’m surprised you saw through it so quickly. Too bad for you... the real Instructor 1 has already been..."

Ryan Ford cut him off. "The real Instructor 1 isn’t even here, is she? Our mission was never to rescue her. It was just to find you. Her kidnapping was the real decoy, right?"

"In your dreams! If you weren’t here to rescue Instructor 1, then why the hell were you called in?!"

Ryan Ford shrugged innocently. "You’d have to ask yourself that. Maybe you were just bored and had nothing better to do?"

"You..."

"Dugu Qiubai" was about to say something else, but Yvonne Lowell’s voice came through his earpiece.

"That’s enough, Wyatt. There’s no shame in losing to them. Have them come down to the training ground."

Wyatt took a deep breath. "Yes, ma’am."

He looked up at the assembled group. "Congratulations. You’ve won. Instructor 1 wants you all to assemble at the training ground."

The trainees paused, exchanging glances before heading downstairs.

Yvonne Lowell and Nina Jennings were already waiting on the training ground. And don’t ask why Zachary Jacobs wasn’t there—he was still off sulking.

The boy was having a temper tantrum, and with no one there to placate him, it would likely take a while for him to get over it on his own.

Not a huge problem. Tossing some money his way later should fix it.

...

「The Training Ground」

They didn’t assemble in their four squads. Instead, the eliminated trainees stood on one side, and the rest stood on the other.

Yvonne Lowell looked at the trainees assembled before her and began, "One hundred hostiles were completely eliminated. You not only sustained only ten casualties, but you also weren’t fooled by the three fake hostages on the roof. You did very well."

"Ma’am!" Anna Nash, one of the first to be eliminated, stepped forward.

"Speak."

"Instructor, will our eliminations negatively affect the group’s overall score?" Anna Nash asked, looking uneasy.

Yvonne Lowell let out a soft laugh. "The final assessment ended yesterday. There was no secret test. This was just one last prank of mine."

Theodore Zane gave her a look of mock betrayal. "Instructor, did the prank really require waking us up in the middle of the night?! Getting dragged out of bed at this hour to play CS:GO with you is exhausting, you know!"

Yvonne Lowell shrugged. "I couldn’t help it. This was my very last chance to wake you all up in the middle of the night. How could I possibly pass that up?"

The expressions on the trainees’ faces changed. "But there are still three days left, aren’t there? Why would this be the last time?!"

"Because I arranged for you to have two days of leave. A transport vehicle will be here tomorrow morning to take you back to your home units. Congratulations. You’ve all graduated."

Yvonne Lowell smiled, a look of deep pride on her face. "Honestly, you’re the best class I’ve ever trained. Bar none."

But hearing her praise at this moment, none of them felt the slightest bit of joy.

Stanley Sutton pressed his lips together. "After we leave... when will we get to see you again?"