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Chapter 284: Interrogation Resumes

"You can speak," Chen Xuan said slowly. "I haven’t gagged you."

"I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, anything!" Zhang Zhiqui begged hurriedly. "I’m willing to cooperate, just don’t kill me!"

"Actually, I don’t have much I want to ask."

Zhang Zhiqui was stunned, despair spreading through his heart.

Not asking anything means they’re going to kill him?

However, what the other party did next surprised him again.

Chen Xuan withdrew his hand, wiped it with a tissue, and pulled up his mask again. "It’s not actually that painful, is it?"

After saying this, he stood up, turned, and walked towards the door, seemingly without any intention of dealing with Zhang Zhiqui further.

The process of Decomposition and Re-Fusion is painless; it doesn’t destroy any skin or tissue, simply relocates them. Gripping the exposed fingers might burst some capillaries, but the pain is far less than sticking a needle into a fingertip, as the sensory nerves are mostly distributed in the dermis, making direct contact with the muscle less sensitive. What really made Zhang Zhiqui scream was not intense pain, but overpowering fear.

At this moment, Zhang Zhiqui finally associated the image of the young man in a baseball cap and mask with great power.

It was that person!

The nightmare he was unwilling to recall!

Ignoring the throbbing pain in his thumbs, he covered his mouth firmly, fearing he’d disturb the man and invite the killing god back.

If not for this person blocking the garage exit that day and overturning the car with inexplicable abilities, he wouldn’t be in such a miserable state!

Since his awakening, Zhang Zhiqui had been ecstatic daily about having gained the power to dominate others’ fates, vowing to make everyone who laughed at him regret it and make the whole world pay for underestimating him. Unfortunately, that dream shattered only months later.

It was also on that day that Zhang Zhiqui realized what a truly powerful Ability User was like.

His meager powers were not comparable at all.

As the door closed, Chen Xuan said to You Chi on the other end of the earpiece, "We can proceed to the next step."

What he did wasn’t for his own twisted pleasure.

The prerequisite for the Dream Maker to create a phantom is that he knows the other person, and the other person knows him—as long as there’s a common point in their memories, the phantom will be realistic enough. In fact, during these three days, he was not idle; he repeatedly read police interrogation reports, constantly constructing related memories in his mind, including Zhang Zhiqui’s background and his descriptions of the place of capture, to make the dream environment as close to reality as possible.

This kind of dream creation in a specific area with incomplete intelligence was also Chen Xuan’s first attempt.

To ensure the other party remembers himself profoundly, a face-to-face scare is undoubtedly the quickest method.

"Why did he leave?"

Tian Zhenggang was taken aback when he saw the interrogator leaving.

"Not leaving, but the interrogation is really starting now." After You Chi gave the command, the oxygen pipes on the interrogation room walls emitted a colorless gas.

Zhang Zhiqui was still troubled, staring at his closed fingers, but soon his gaze became bewildered. As if realizing something, he tried to prop himself up, but after his head wobbled a few times, it dropped, hitting the table directly.

"Did the suspect stop breathing?" Tian Zhenggang was stunned.

"Not so dramatic, we just mixed a little inhalation anesthesia into the air; the dose is very small, at most enough to make him sleep for a while," You Chi explained.

"Why?" Tian Zhenggang was already unable to comprehend what he was witnessing. "How do you interrogate someone who’s asleep?"

Honestly, You Chi didn’t understand the principle either. He was only following Chen Xuan’s instructions. But in front of the police, he couldn’t show ignorance, as it would damage Beitian Academy’s image. "Congratulations, Detective Tian."

"Congratulations on what?"

"You’ve now become the first law enforcement officer in the world to witness ability-based interrogation." Venus smiled.

...

Chen Xuan shifted his body, feeling the cold touch of metal behind him.

A faint stench permeated the air.

The place was so dark that one couldn’t see a hand in front of their face, time seemed to freeze. He scanned the surroundings with Celestial Mist Skill, discovering a faint point of light some ten meters away.

Looks like it worked, he thought to himself.

This person should be Zhang Zhiqui’s phantom.

In the past, when activating the dream-making ability, Chen Xuan only needed to imagine the city he was in, and the Dream Maker could recreate a nearly identical one; he never considered whether the city was absolutely realistic, as discrepancies between the dream and reality were harmless.

But this time was different; without an existing environment for reference, he had to consider every detail of the location before entering the dream, and it had to match the suspect’s account perfectly. The other party mentioned a metal cage, so Chen Xuan conceived it as a shipping container; having no light was easy to manage—completely sealed without adding lights would do, though of course, ventilation fans were necessary to avoid suffocating the imprisoned.

For those outer areas lacking information, the Dream Maker would fill in the gaps.

So far, the effect seemed good; the dream hadn’t collapsed on the spot, indicating Zhang Zhiqui hadn’t noticed any obvious inconsistencies.

Next, Chen Xuan invited Lin Qing into the dream.

The latter appeared in front of him immediately.

"It’s up to you now," he said in a low voice.

Lin Qing slipped on a trench coat, put on leather gloves, and walked towards Zhang Zhiqui’s position. She was playing the role of no one else but the mastermind behind the scenes. The suspect had never truly seen this person in reality, and with no illumination in the place of captivity, it saved them quite a bit of effort. As long as someone stood before Zhang Zhiqui, he would inevitably believe the newcomer was the one who injected him.

Sure enough, as footsteps broke the silence and echoed in the empty corridor, Zhang Zhiqui reacted immediately.

He crawled to the bars, shouting towards the source of the sound, "Where’s the promised injection? Quick, give me more injections; my ability hasn’t manifested yet!"

Chen Xuan raised an eyebrow in puzzlement; the reaction wasn’t right. The other’s attitude didn’t seem like someone forcibly detained here.

Lin Qing was also caught off guard, but fortunately, the original plan didn’t require her to speak; she only needed to elicit continuous dialogue from the suspect, looking for weaknesses or clues.

She approached the bars, squatted down to meet him at eye level—at this angle, Zhang Zhiqui could just make out the drooping black trench coat and leather gloves in the faint light from the corridor fan vent.

"Why aren’t you speaking? I can handle the side effects, just bring the injection!"

"Please, I want to obtain the ability!"

"You can’t deceive me!"

By the final sentence, Zhang Zhiqui was nearly roaring.

The sound echoed in the cage, slowly dissipating, but still he received only silence.

"I say... are you deaf? Where is Lu Lixin, why isn’t he calling with me?" Zhang Zhiqui suddenly raised his head, looking around. "Why is it so quiet today?"

Not good, Chen Xuan’s heart sank; had the other party realized the problem so soon? If the dream ended by collapsing, this part of the memory would enter his mind, making the next dream creation more prone to errors.

"She went out," Lin Qing suddenly spoke.

Her voice was coarse and low, with qualities typical of a middle-aged man—it was a risky move, as she had no idea what the mastermind’s voice sounded like. If too different, it could very well wake the suspect.

Even Chen Xuan felt a twinge of anxiety for her.

"What!?" Fortunately, Zhang Zhiqui seemed more startled by her words. "Could it be... she’s successfully awakened?"

"Yes," Lin Qing replied, following his lead.

Zhang Zhiqui was stunned for a moment, then pounded the floor with his fist. "Damn, I knew she could do it! What kind of ability?"

Of course, that didn’t require an answer.

Sure enough, seeing Lin Qing silent, he didn’t pursue it, "I can certainly do it too, I assure you the previous injections weren’t wasted, hurry and bring them!"

"Aren’t you afraid of death?"

"Death? Isn’t the side effect just a headache?" Zhang Zhiqui frowned oddly. "And I can feel the power emerging in my body, I just need two more shots—"

Suddenly, he froze.

Then looked at Lin Qing with some astonishment, "What’s going on? Isn’t this an ability?"