Chapter 353: Capable Of Change
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While thinking to himself in a pessimistic way, Azmodeus retracted his hand, narrowly escaping the tender caresses of Ru Ling. Though she was obviously disappointed and a little vexed that he did this, he had no room to care—not anymore.
Tens of thousands of years ago, Azmodeus might have given her a chance. He just might've allowed yet another woman to camp the area outside his lonesome heart, but that time was no more.
Though change was hard to come by in a person, he could see and admit that he had definitely changed…
Azmodeus may have a number of screws loose, and he may be crazy, goofy, emotionless, and insane at times. But in the end, things had changed.
Then again, when it came to women, his personality would forever remain the same. Cold and distant, detached and aloof. Women would, of course, occasionally see these traits as attractive. But with time, they would grow tired of being ignored, and eventually, they would forget about the target of their affection altogether.
If Azmodeus were to live among different organisms for the rest of the Path to Infinity, then there was no room for 'mistakes'. He refused to allow himself to be the man that he was with Nao Long, Yang Hua, and the other girls.
This time around, he had to be different; he had to do differently. It was no longer a matter of it being an option. He just had to do it.
In a way, Azmodeus was like a cracked eggshell. The stuff on the inside was holding him together, but only just barely. If something significant were to set him off, then it was unknown just what he would become… what would become of him when the outer shell shatters…
Preferring not to think about this topic any further, Azmodeus politely nodded his head at Ru Ling before making his way toward the testing simulation rooms.
Though Ru Ling was still a little aggrieved over his coldness, she had already become quite accustomed to it over the last half month. Hence, it was with a clear mind that she opened up Simulation Door #12. "I figured you would be coming to commence your rank up into C-Rank as soon as possible," she said. "So I already prepared the room for you.
Oh, and I made sure to hide the score you got from the simulation, just like you requested."
Ru Ling flashed a momentarily dazzling smile and watched as her crush strolled through door #12. However, before he fully entered the simulation, he momentarily glanced at the brown-haired receptionist. It was only after looking at her for a second and heaving a tired sigh that he put his whole body through the door, having it shut right behind him.
"That look… He's never looked at me like that before…"
Ru Ling didn't quite know how to take the look Azmodeus gave her. But for some unknown reason, it felt like butterflies were dancing around in her stomach, causing her body to heat up to a bubbly degree.
As she experienced something that she had never felt in her entire life, the target of her affection was currently in the midst of battling town-sized Immortal Monsters in the simulation.
Although Azmodeus had no real issue taking on and killing any of the Grade 1 and Grade 2 Golden Immortal Realm simulation monsters, he still made it seem like he was having a tough fight. After all, even though Ru Ling said what she did about the scoreboard, he could never be too careful.
He doubted that she would ever disclose sensitive information about him, but one could never be too cautious. And as far as she knew, it probably seemed like his 'advances in strength' were, in actuality, just him unveiling more and more of the strength that he already had.
When it came to the human mind, it tended to have a limit to how much nonsense it was willing to believe. It was because of this phenomenon that Azmodeus was simply seen as an expert who came down the mountain to play the pig for reasons unknown.
Simply put, he didn't have complete faith in the integrity or falsely placed loyalty of Ru Ling; he was just someone who understood the human mind. Believing only in his own experience with such a subject, he put his faith in no one.
It was better that way…
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After a few minutes of killing the simulated Golden Immortal Realm beasts, Azmodeus successfully passed the virtual test, and he did so with completely average results. It was better this way, as he had no clue just who could be watching from afar.
Though, if he were being honest, he highly doubted that any bigshots would have any interest in a mere Golden Immortal…
'Now that I am in this strength bracket, I am able to better recall the approximate strength of those Royal Guardsmen. And at the very minimum, they are one to two realms above the Golden Immortal Realm. With such foes as my goals to defeat, I have no room to grow complacent. Doing so would only work to quicken my death.'
When Azmodeus was locked in and in full-on grind mode, he didn't seem to be capable of veering his thoughts in a direction that wasn't oh-so-serious.
However, when the actual grind was happening, he turned into more of a child. While wearing a maniacal grin and laughing like a crazy person, he was the picture-perfect example of a bipolar person.
Then again, this warped personality wasn't exactly one of his making. Rather, it was a side effect of the Infinite Evolution System getting rid of the emotion limiters that had been with him for what felt like an eternity.
Now that he had time to think about it, there was something odd about the system just up and taking away his emotion limiters. After all, it didn't seem like that was previously possible…
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