Chapter 530 I Remember Now
Zoey: [Everyone was there that day, right?]
Daphne: [Nope, the first time we had an assessment, the one chatting and laughing with Efren was him.]
Everyone sent a bunch of exclamation marks.
Even Evan was shocked. Was that Benjamin?
Sam: [2nd assessment was brutal.]
Dominic: [Same here. Efren's was a nightmare. He said it was an emergency mission, but it was just a test.]
Daphne paused when she read that.
Her mind wandered back to that second assessment.
They were out training in the wild when Efren got news that someone nearby was being held hostage and needed rescuing.
Efren looked dead serious, and he only had two team members with him.
They volunteered to go with him.
Efren refused, saying they were just rookies with only a month of training and would get themselves killed.
But they insisted.
Turned out, it was a trap! All the info and the tense vibe were part of Efren's act.
It was a surprise assessment with no heads-up.
Following Efren's orders to rescue the person, they got caught. The place was rigged as a trap for the test.
In the end, they were all captured.
They weren't held together but separated.
At first, Daphne didn't realize it was a setup, so she endured a ton of pressure during the interrogation. When she was about to break, the interrogator said, "If you really want to save that person, I can give you a chance."
She was at her limit and just looked at him, asking with her eyes what kind of chance he was offering.
The guy continued, "Choose one of your companions to die."
That snapped Daphne back to reality.
Her tense mental defenses completely relaxed at that moment.
"How about it?" the guy asked her.
"This is the second assessment, right?" Daphne regained her composure and started piecing everything together.
From the start of the plan to now, everything was almost flawless, meticulously real.
But since these people were supposed to be desperados, why were they playing games and psychological battles with her?
Normally, they would have killed them and taken the hostage away.
Every extra second increased the chance that the organization's elite would show up, and these desperados wouldn't have a chance to escape.
When Daphne asked that question, the interrogator was stunned for a split second before continuing as if nothing had happened.
She didn't care anymore, and eventually, the guy couldn't keep up the act.
"How did you figure it out?" He loosened the rope binding her and asked curiously, "The plan was discussed for a long time by the captain and the others."
Daphne didn't tell the truth. "I guessed."
Guessing? That was a no-no in operations.
The guy wanted to say more when someone walked into the damp little wooden house.
He was dressed in ordinary clothes you could see anywhere on the street, with messy hair that hadn't been groomed. He looked like an utterly ordinary person.
But according to Efren's description, this guy was the "hostage".
He walked up to Daphne and asked the same questions as the previous interrogator, "When did you figure it out?"
Daphne caught the expression and movements of the interrogator from the corner of her eye.
Almost instantly, she guessed that this "hostage" had a special identity.
"When he said he'd give me a chance," Daphne replied.
The man asked a few more questions.
Daphne answered them all.
Finally, the man said, "You passed the second assessment."
It was then she realized that the main test wasn't about rescuing the hostage or maintaining psychological defenses but recognizing that it was an assessment.
Only those who figured it out could pass.
Thinking of this, Daphne paused, and Benjamin's earlier words about disguise popped into her mind.
She compared the appearance and height of the "hostage" with Benjamin and found that none of them matched, and their vibes were entirely different.
Benjamin stood tall and had an air of righteousness, while the "hostage" was not only ordinary but also a bit hunched.
Just as she was about to rethink, the "hostage's" eyes flashed in her mind.
Her heart started pounding.
When Benjamin came out of the shower, she asked him, "Were you disguised as the hostage the third time we met?"
Benjamin paused, looking a bit surprised.
"Really?" Daphne knew she had guessed right from his reaction.
Benjamin dried his hair. "Yeah."
"How did you manage to change your appearance, build, and vibe?" Daphne was genuinely curious.
"There are experts in the organization who are good at disguising appearances," Benjamin said as he got into bed and pulled her into his arms. "They help whenever we need to disguise ourselves."
Daphne still found it amazing.
But she was more curious about something else. "So, did you start liking me from that time?"
"Feeling proud?" Benjamin's voice was low.
Daphne's eyes shifted. Could she say she was a little?
At that time, Benjamin didn't expect to develop feelings for Daphne, a girl he had only met three times.
He and Efren could see the scenes after they were captured.
Seeing Daphne stubbornly endure the interrogation and pressure suddenly moved him.
After that, she was the first to uncover that it was an assessment, and he felt proud of her, thinking she had a promising future.
Some things were hard to explain.
Benjamin had participated in assessments before and had seen similar scenes.
But Daphne's reactions hit him right in the heart.
"If you liked me then, why did you train me so harshly later?" Daphne was curious. "Didn't you feel sorry?"
"Feeling sorry for you in training is pushing you into danger during missions," Benjamin was a sensible person.
Daphne snuggled into his arms, feeling lucky to have him for the rest of her life.
That night, she dreamt of that time.
After the second assessment, she, Evan, Emma, Zoey, Dominic, and Sam were all selected. As for Kevin, he didn't realize it was an assessment, but his spirit and hacking skills got him into the team.
Thus, the seven-person team was formed.
Benjamin began officially training them.
On the first day, he came with Efren, wearing training uniforms.
When he walked towards them, all seven of them focused their gaze on him. Emma even nudged Daphne and Zoey's arms. "Could he be our instructor?"
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