King led the werebeast guards and space bandits to the door of an interrogation room. He gestured for the leader of the bandits to be let in, and the other two bandits to be placed in separate rooms. After following his orders, the guards left.
There was no glass on the door of the meeting room, and no guards outside. Hence, the conversations between the doctor and patient within the room would be recorded by the doctor.
King pulled out the conversation records of this room from the electronic mechanical arm that was stretched out beside him. He signed his name on the electronic screen at the side, saved it, and entered the room with the notebook.
The interrogation room was actually akin to a counseling room. Since this was a psychiatric hospital, many patients struggled mentally.
Aside from medicine, infusion, and other medical treatments, psychological counseling was also a great treatment method. Hence, this hospital had built a pretty decent room for it.
Apart from being completely enclosed, the space inside was about 200 square meters in area. There was greenery everywhere, along with chirping birds and blooming flowers. To say that it was almost like a tourist attraction, relaxing for the mind and soul, wouldn't be an exaggeration. It wasn't easy to have an area with real plants like this in the galaxy today. After all, there were only nutrient solutions and electronic screens on most planets nowadays, and natural scenery was becoming an increasingly rare sight.
King pushed open the door and saw that the bandit leader was still standing near the entrance.
"Sit down. Don't let this beautiful environment go to waste."
The man didn't dare to disobey. He sat on the sofa and waited for the doctor to tell him about the punishment he was about to receive.
Hmph, he didn't believe that the doctor who backed that woman would treat him kindly.
King, on the other hand, wasn't in a hurry. He sat down on the sofa next to the man. With a practiced motion, he took out a silver mask from his sleeve, which had a layer of dark purple energy circulating within it. It covered his face and revealed a dark glow in his eyes, while his sharp nose was perfectly fitted under the mask and his flawless jawline was highlighted. Then, he took off one of his cufflinks and placed it on the table in front of both of them. Its black and gold material did not reflect light but seemed to be absorbing it instead.
He turned to the bandit and smiled faintly. In his heart, he counted down—three, two, one—and a pale gray fog rose from his cuff. His mask blocked out all the fog, and so all of it quickly floated towards the bandit instead.
Within a few seconds, the bandit's eyes were shut and he was unconscious on the sofa. His face looked much calmer, but his raised eyebrows revealed his pain.
King was quite satisfied with the gray fog. It was a new weapon developed by his academy and passed into his hands through discrete means. He only needed to turn it on for three seconds and it would be able to deeply hypnotize any race, with a higher and more efficient success rate than traditional hypnotism methods. The weaker the will of the subject was, the more effective it would be.
Unfortunately, the mist attacked indiscriminately and required the user to be on guard against it. Naturally, ordinary people would need to be very careful, but King had his family's secret treasure, which completely prevented any accidental harm. This mist seemed to be tailor-made for King's use, and the effects in this trial test could be said to have won King's heart.
With the help of the fog, King managed to get the information he wanted. He put away his cufflinks, scribbled some notes about the 'counseling session,' and left, leaving the thief in his dream world.
While King was busy with the interrogation, Reese was recalling certain details of the recent event.
Judging by its color, the handcuffs that the werebeast wardens took out earlier seemed to be made of the special liquid metal. Things that would've been a rare sight in the past were now becoming an increasingly common sight for her, and almost no longer surprised her. High walls, guns, the special liquid metal—these did not seem like things that a normal hospital would have. Even if this was considered the strictest psychiatric hospital in the galaxy, such high-security features still seemed to be too much.
This place felt more like a prison built by wealthy families, with its rigorous and structured management and regulations, expensive equipment and infrastructure, and the strong, powerful guards…
All of this indicated that there was something unusual about this place. Reese's desire to leave became more resolute but also became more difficult to attain.
On the other hand, King had saved Reese earlier. Without her parents' protection, he was the first person who was willing to stand up for her. Although, she had a faint inkling that his identity was definitely not that of a simple being.
He was a big jerk who had taught the little jerk a lesson on her behalf. Although it was a form of atonement for the way he had behaved, Reese felt that his actions back then were still unforgivable!
But in reality, Reese was already looking at King in a new light. She just hadn't realized it yet.
"Child, child?" The old man saw that Reese had been sitting there in a daze ever since King had left. He couldn't help but call out a few times to get her attention.
"Were you badly rattled?" The old man waved his hand in front of her eyes, and his concerned gaze snapped her out of her daze.
"No… It's nothing."
Seeing that she was so distracted, the old man felt compelled to say a few more words. "In this place, such things happen a lot, and there isn't always justice. Today, you were lucky to have had King settle things for you, but he won't be able to protect you always…"
The old man had observed their interaction earlier. He believed that Reese and King knew each other.
"We don't really know each other," Reese denied. She knew that everyone right now must be thinking that she had a backer, but in reality, King was merely a huge jerk who had bullied her and felt guilty about it. There was nothing more to it.
How could they possibly be considered friends? Not to mention him as her backer!
Upon seeing her emphatic denial, the old man immediately realized that there must have been some misunderstanding between them. In that situation earlier, there would've been almost no doctor or guard willing to get involved, as they would only be courting trouble.
But although he could see what was happening clearly as an outsider, he wasn't able to explain it to her.
"Alright, alright. What an impressive girl, daring to go against them head-on. Brave girl! You really remind me of my younger self."
With the old man's praise, Reese felt great pride. She instantly felt a great sense of accomplishment as her first independent stride forward was being acknowledged by someone else.
Still, she merely smiled modestly. After all, she hadn't actually done much earlier.
"Which planet are you from?" The old man sensed that she had no intention of continuing on that subject, so he casually changed the topic.
But his question wasn't a random one. After all, he had been inside the hospital for ten years, so he did indeed want to know about the outside world. He wanted to know how the clan members he had once protected were doing by now.
In the past hundred years, many camps of humans had already found several other habitable planets, and many people had left Earth to expand their territories on other planets, building their own kingdoms.
"I'm from Earth. All races in the galaxy have signed the Universal Agreement in 4057, and Earth is safe. Currently, all planets can communicate with each other. There's peace for now."
Reese was right. Although the current Universal Galaxy maintained delicate stability, the various races were still covertly competing in terms of economic, cultural, and military strengths. Nevertheless, they still maintained peace on the surface.
Actually, even such superficial peace wasn't easy to achieve. In fact, even up till a year or two before the agreement was signed, there had been many wars in different parts of the galaxy.
These wars were causing too much misery and damage, and many planets suffered from the impact of too many quantum-energy blasts, such that in the billions of years to come, not a single blade of grass would be able to grow, and countless races were forced to roam the galaxy.
Those wars meant zero development and growth for all races, so more and more of them stood up to advocate for peaceful cooperation. Finally, when Reese was eleven, various races drafted an agreement together, and that was the Universal Agreement. At present, it seemed like no race was willing to violate it, at least not blatantly. Hence, peace between the various races existed.