“Answer truthfully. Where is the core?”
The interrogator’s voice echoed through the empty room again, calm and completely devoid of emotion.
Cheng Weilu was strapped to a chair in the center of the interrogation room, her hands bound behind her back. Her spacesuit helmet had been removed, and an interrogation optical-brain helmet was fitted over her head. Her face was pale, and her forehead was covered in fine beads of sweat.
“I don’t know… I didn’t open that spacecraft.” She frowned and gasped for breath. “I only retrieved it as instructed.”
Her testimony and brainwave data were displayed in real time on the screens in the monitoring room. The brainwave readings gradually increased as the interrogation continued, but they never crossed the red baseline.
Brain-computer monitoring was a commonly used interrogation method at Gray Dove Base. It caused no visible physical injuries to the subject. Its power lay in brainwave stimulation, which drove the subject to mental collapse and allowed the interrogator to probe their consciousness and obtain information.
Brainwaves surged toward her consciousness like a rising tide, attempting to break through. But Cheng Weilu’s mental barrier was impregnable. The shockwaves pounded against her mind until her head felt ready to split apart. The brainwave intensity gradually increased, yet she remained conscious throughout.
Fifteen minutes later, the brainwave intensity increased once again, and the interrogator’s voice sounded:
“Answer. Where is the core?”
“I don’t know…” Cheng Weilu’s voice was so weak it was almost a murmur. “You’re… abusing your authority… forcing a confession…”
Inside the monitoring room, Arvid narrowed his blue eyes and rubbed his white-gloved fingers together, watching the girl’s pale face and painfully contorted expression on the monitor with interest. “She’s rather interesting.”
“Raise the intensity by another fifteen percent.”
Everyone throughout the base knew the commander’s methods. The equipment engineer behind him could only carry out his orders.
After the data increased again, there was still no obvious change in the readings on the screen. They remained below the baseline. Inside the interrogation room, the woman lowered her head and stopped speaking. It was unclear whether she had passed out or whether her consciousness had become so muddled that she could no longer use her language faculties.
The engineer studied the optical-brain data and hesitantly spoke up. “Commander, it’s already at the maximum.”
Arvid frowned and was about to speak when a shrill alarm suddenly blared throughout the monitoring room. Red warning lights flashed across the monitoring system, and the screen went blank, the footage from the interrogation room and the optical-brain data disappearing together.
Arvid immediately ordered his subordinate to check the source of the alarm. The engineer acknowledged the order and quickly left the room. Arvid straightened his clothes and rose to his feet, tapping his wristband to check the incoming reports. Despite the chaotic alarm ringing around him, he remained completely composed.
But that arrogant face froze when a new line of text appeared on the screen—
“Arvid, you’re still as low-class as ever.”
─────── ✦ · ˚ ✧ · ˚ ✦ ───────
In New Star Calendar Year 141, Arvid Parker, a major in the Alliance Military, had earned his first military merits during the campaign against interstellar pirates in the Celestial Veil Star System. However, because of his brutal interrogation methods, he was prosecuted for abusing prisoners and disciplined by the military.
They were merely prisoners of war! Interstellar pirates everyone hated!
Arvid was indignant. Seeing his superior, a rising star in the military who had just been commended and promoted, about to leave in the distance, he shouted, “Colonel! Colonel, save me!”
The young and handsome man stopped and glanced at him coldly with his gray eyes, frowning as he said, “Arvid, don’t use such low-class methods again in the future.”
Low-class. Low-class.
Because he came from the bottom, he was considered low-class and could never fit into those people’s circles.
Because his mental strength wasn’t high enough, and his piloting skills could never compare to those favored by heaven, he would always be considered low-class.
Even after earning military merits, he was punished simply for dealing with a few prisoners of war because his methods were considered low-class.
Arvid’s lips tightened as he clenched his fists, practically boring holes through the screen displaying those words.
He was a lieutenant general now, the commander of Gray Dove Base, in charge of a million soldiers. “Still as low-class as ever.”
Who the hell was looking to die?
That person? Wasn’t that person already dead?
The alarm continued blaring. Arvid came back to his senses and tapped his wristband to project the incoming information.
The communication system had also malfunctioned. The base’s internal signals and data transmission appeared to be experiencing problems. After several failed attempts to establish a communication connection, Arvid cursed several times and intended to go outside to take a look, only to discover that the door to the monitoring room would not open.
Immediately afterward, all the lights throughout the base went out.
…
Gray Dove Base was a new base established after the war. The troops stationed there originated from the remnants of the Seventh, Ninth, and Thirteenth Squadrons that had survived the Alliance Civil War.
Arvid Parker, the supreme commander of Alliance Gray Dove Base, had been awarded the rank of lieutenant general for his outstanding military achievements during the Alliance Civil War fifty years ago.
After the original commanding general was killed unexpectedly, he had been entrusted with command of the remaining forces at a critical moment. He led them against the rebel forces and interstellar pirates, turning the tide of the battlefield.
Cheng Weilu knew of him because his ruthless and iron-fisted methods and penchant for extrajudicial punishment had landed him on the warning list of the Salvagers’ Forum.
Official salvage commissions generally paid relatively little. Some salvagers would secretly keep a few small items when taking official commissions and sell them on the private market to earn some extra money.
As long as such opportunistic behavior did not go too far, even if they were discovered, the authorities would generally just confiscate the salvaged items and issue a verbal warning.
Unfortunately, those who happened to run into people from Gray Dove Base under Arvid’s command had a different fate. After being interrogated and released, most of them had suffered severe brain damage and serious losses to their mental strength, leaving them unable to continue working as salvagers.
People on the Salvagers’ Forum had once discussed how Arvid Parker, a man who could be considered a famous general of the Alliance, seemed to harbor a prejudice against people with high mental strength values. He also seemed to enjoy watching people suffer during interrogations. Everyone was advised to avoid him as much as possible.
Cheng Weilu felt that she had truly been unlucky this time.
Whether or not she had hidden the core, once she was subjected to Arvid’s extrajudicial interrogation, she would have to pay a heavy price.
It hurt… It hurt so much… Her head felt as though it were about to split apart.
Cheng Weilu gritted her teeth and did her best to suppress her expression, refusing to let her pain show on her face. That would only make the interrogator behind the monitors even more eager to torment her.
After the brainwave shock reached an extremely high level, it continued for some time. Cheng Weilu could no longer form complete sentences. She lowered her head and squeezed her eyes shut, forcibly withdrawing her consciousness and deceiving herself into believing that the person being interrogated was not her, doing everything she could to remain conscious.
She had no idea how much time had passed when a soft beep sounded beside her. Then, the door seemed to open.
Cheng Weilu opened her eyes and raised her head, only to discover that the lights in the interrogation room had gone out at some point. She was surrounded by darkness, with only the tiny indicator lights on the optical-brain helmet above her head providing any illumination.
“…Who is it?” Cheng Weilu managed to make a sound.
There was no answer.
But immediately afterward, the restraint around her wrists behind her back was released. Cheng Weilu braced herself against the chair and gasped for breath, realizing that the brainwave shocks had stopped. Then the optical-brain helmet was removed as well.
Someone grabbed her wrist and pulled her to her feet. The interrogation had not lasted particularly long, but the impact on her brain had been too severe. The moment Cheng Weilu stood up, her vision spun, and her entire body lurched forward.
The unseen person caught her, supporting her by the shoulder and leading her quickly outside.
Alarms were blaring throughout the entire base. The general lighting system seemed to have malfunctioned, and some passageways had been sealed off. Only a few emergency systems remained operational.
The person beside her remained silent the entire time. Cheng Weilu was led through a long circular corridor and then through several concealed transport chambers she could not keep track of, successfully avoiding the base personnel hurrying past.
She had not yet fully recovered and offered no resistance as she was led through one turn after another, until finally she was brought into a room.
A faint mechanical sound rang out again, and the lights came on.
Cheng Weilu blinked as she adjusted to the glaring light. Looking around, she discovered that this was a fairly large circular room. Countless data screens were arranged throughout it, while at the center of the cross-shaped passageways stood an even larger main control screen.
While the outside was almost completely dark and chaotic, the lighting and equipment inside the room were operating normally.
This was probably the safest place in the entire base at present: the underground central data control room.
Cheng Weilu leaned against the wall and sat down on the floor, letting her mind go blank as she breathed lightly and rested. If she could return safely, she would definitely strengthen her physical fitness and mental stress-resistance training. She absolutely could not end up in such a sorry state again.
Something was placed in her hands. Cheng Weilu looked down and discovered that it was the spacesuit helmet she had forgotten to take when she left earlier, along with two tubes of military-grade nutritional fluid and a small box.
Cheng Weilu picked up the nutritional fluid, bit the cap open, and poured it into her mouth. The interrogation had taken a heavy toll on her, and she urgently needed to recover her strength. After finishing it, she casually swept the sweat-dampened hair from her face and looked at the small box.
“What is this?”
There was still no response, but the box opened. Inside was a gray silicon chip about the size of a fingernail. The chip was then taken out and placed in the palm of her hand.
Understanding, Cheng Weilu put on the helmet, inserted the silicon chip into the interface, and activated the built-in mental network system.
Gentle, soothing sound waves seeped into the nerves of her brain like a fine spring rain. Cheng Weilu’s entire body relaxed. The scorched black earth left behind by a raging fire was being nourished by sweet rain from the heavens. She no longer wanted to ask anything. Her consciousness grew hazy, and her head gradually drooped.
Someone lightly patted her shoulder, and Cheng Weilu suddenly jolted awake. She glanced at the time and was surprised to find that only ten minutes had passed.
Yet her entire mind was as clear as a computer system after being rebooted and refreshed. She had recovered.
Cheng Weilu pried the chip out of the interface and put it back into the box. She had not expected this chip to be so effective.
But the person still refused to reveal himself. Cheng Weilu removed the helmet and crossed her arms, speechless. “How long are you planning to keep hiding? Or are you just trying to observe whether my brain is still functioning normally?”
“My eight hundred thousand has gone down the drain, and I was inexplicably subjected to an interrogation. Although, I suppose being subjected to extrajudicial punishment was simply bad luck on my part.”
“My brain isn’t damaged.” Cheng Weilu lowered the corners of her mouth and frowned, clearly irritated. “But you owe me an explanation, Li Xu.”
A faint rustling sound came from nearby. A person dressed in a base guard’s uniform appeared before her. He raised a hand and removed the mask covering his face, revealing Li Xu’s handsome features. With an unhurried smile, he looked at her.
“Miss Cheng, I’m glad you’re all right.”
…
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