Unknown Location.
Xue Zhi Shi was imprisoned in a completely windowless black cell. The room was narrow, containing only a bed, a water basin, and a toilet, all made from memory-function soft materials designed to prevent inmates from committing suicide. The entire room was equipped with perfect electromagnetic shielding, ensuring that no signals could enter or exit.
Three times a day, a hardened rubber meal tray would be sent through an internal conveyor at the door, containing Xue Zhi Shi's lunch. He had a strict thirty-minute limit to finish it, and he had to eat everything cleanly. Afterward, he had to return the tray; failing to do so would trigger an alarm. If he didn't finish, the weight of the tray would set off another alarm.
He had tried once to resist, only to find the room flooded with a liquid that suffocated him for an hour, with only intermittent injections of air. Since then, he never dared to disobey again. His days in captivity were filled with endless interrogations and readings from the chip implanted in his brain, with a clear goal: to extract information about the Phantom Organization and Qin Xue Chong.
Throughout it all, no one told him where he was or which department had captured him. However, he recognized the metallic sensory fibers implanted in the interrogator's face; they were from the Core Data Control Office. Upon seeing the interrogator's face for the first time, he prepared for the worst—these people likely had no intention of letting him live.
Xue Zhi Shi was sure that something had gone terribly wrong outside. Yet, in his despair, a faint glimmer of hope remained. Even in such a fortified prison, perhaps Qin Xue Chong or other members of the Phantom Organization would find a way to rescue him.
At that moment, he had just returned to his cell. The back of his neck throbbed with a searing pain—burned skin from the chip being excessively read. If the reading continued much longer, it might damage his spinal nerves and cause paralysis. His internal organs and limbs had also suffered various degrees of targeted damage to induce chaos within his body. At one point, his hands had even been temporarily severed just to instill a sense of helplessness.
While there were no permanent injuries now, the cruel methods had left him hallucinating and experiencing seizures. He sometimes saw his deceased wife speaking to him, which made him wary. Simultaneously, he struggled internally, pondering whether his wife had died in a virtual dream or if her consciousness was somehow uploaded to the network or hidden deep within his own mind. Or perhaps this was a trick implanted by his interrogators? This uncertainty was unbearable.
He understood that hallucinations were a common interrogation tactic. Once a subject started experiencing them, interrogators could manipulate them into believing they were in a safe environment, inadvertently revealing crucial information. Especially in a black cell devoid of day and night, confusion could easily set in. At this point, Xue Zhi Shi had lost track of how long he had been there—days? Months?
Was this the tactic of the Core Data Control Office? To induce hallucinations through high-intensity interrogations before proceeding to the next step? The problem was that he truly didn't know any secret information. He had never contacted other members and was clueless about Qin Xue Chong's objectives or how to breach the monstrous data module known as the Black Space.
He forced himself to calm down a bit, as he heard the faint sound of the conveyor outside—time to eat. Regardless of his situation, filling his stomach and gaining energy was crucial for when an opportunity for escape or retaliation arose.
As he ate slowly, ensuring every bite was chewed thoroughly and swallowed, he unexpectedly felt something hard on his tongue. Most of the food here was liquid, and even the denser meals were boiled to mush. He had never seen other inmates, but he guessed that every meal was customized to avoid any foreign objects as part of the interrogation process.
There was only one explanation: someone had intentionally placed this inside his food. The room was monitored, so Xue Zhi Shi didn't dare to reveal any abnormality. He subtly paused, deftly using his tongue to push the hard object to the side of his mouth, pretending nothing had happened. Was this a trap set by the interrogators, or was someone genuinely trying to rescue him?
---
Xue Zhi Shi continued to eat nonchalantly while carefully using his tongue to feel the object. After it spun around in his mouth, he discerned its general shape—a small, flat piece with two sharp spikes on one end. He immediately understood: it was a standard covert communicator made by the Security Department. It could be affixed to the surface of a molar and the spikes would penetrate the gum, reaching the nerves. The artificial nerve receptors on the spikes could connect with the nerves in the gum, allowing for neural communication that bypassed the chip and linked to the corresponding receiver.
He hesitated for only a moment before shifting the communicator to the back of his teeth and forcefully pressing the spikes into his gum. A sharp pain surged through him. Xue Zhi Shi turned his back to the camera, forcing himself to endure the pain without revealing anything to the watchers. He swallowed the blood in his mouth and continued eating, enduring the occasional stab of pain.
Currently, the room was completely shielded from any signals, so he couldn't receive any messages and had to wait until the afternoon interrogation to see if there were any changes. After eating, Xue Zhi Shi walked around the room for a bit to aid digestion, then lay down on the bed, feeling both anxious and hopeful.
"Xue Kezhang, welcome back. Let's get started again," the interrogator said with a cold smile, eagerly looking at Xue Zhi Shi.
Xue Zhi Shi felt a twinge of nervousness. After leaving the cell and walking here, he hadn't heard any voices in his head. During the interrogation, they would scan his entire skeleton to check his physical state, which meant the object in his teeth would definitely be discovered.
"Today, let's change things up. We'll start with a physical examination to see how much you can endure; then I'll give you a new drug," the interrogator continued, waving his hand.
Mechanical arms descended from the ceiling, firmly grasping Xue Zhi Shi's arms and securing his head and body. They placed an exaggerated helmet on him. Following procedure, the helmet would deliver currents just at the threshold of pain to break down his willpower defenses and check his physical and emotional states. It was an extremely painful process.
Xue Zhi Shi gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath, preparing to face the impending storm. The interrogator, however, wore an excited smile. "Xue Kezhang, relax and enjoy the process. You see, I'm really enjoying it."
Ignoring his words, Xue Zhi Shi remembered from previous experiences that anything he said or did before this twisted interrogator—who treated torture as entertainment—would be futile. Just then, a voice echoed in his mind.
"Old Xue, they're right. Relax a bit; the good show is about to begin."
Xue Zhi Shi's eyes widened in shock. It was Qin Xue Chong's voice! He was sure this wasn't a hallucination, as he felt the unique sense of intrusion from the Phantom's Black Space re-entering his mind, simultaneously clearing away the hallucinations and emotions of despair he had been experiencing. This feeling brought him immense familiarity and safety.
Seeing Xue Zhi Shi suddenly wide-eyed, the interrogator looked puzzled. "Xue Kezhang, what's wrong? Is there something—"
Before he could finish, he was shocked to find that the mechanical arms binding Xue Zhi Shi had completely loosened.
"What—"
In the next moment, those mechanical arms shot out like lightning, seizing the interrogator himself. The interrogator froze for a second before desperately shouting, "Help! Someone! Xue Kezhang! Help me!" He must have sensed the malicious intent behind this bizarre phenomenon.
Xue Zhi Shi merely looked coldly at him. Over this period, he had come to understand that the interrogator in front of him was a complete psychopath; who knew what twisted acts he had committed in private?
Suddenly, a voice filled the interrogation room—Qin Xue Chong's.
"Let me see, oh… you've done quite a few bad things… murder, dismemberment, imprisonment, mental control… and yet you're still here in this position; that's quite a feat."
The interrogator's expression shifted from confusion to wild elation. "Hahaha! You're Qin Xue Chong? So that means I found you? The mainframe will reward me!!!"
Qin Xue Chong's voice turned icy. "Reward? You might not live to see the reward…"
She then said to Xue Zhi Shi, "Old Xue, do you know what he wants to do to you? First, create illusions, extract key information from your memories, then completely dismember you, remove your brain, keep it in a growth chamber, and inundate it with torturous dream experiences for him to slowly experience."
A shiver ran down Xue Zhi Shi's spine.
Before he could respond, Qin Xue Chong continued, "Today, I rescued dozens of people from the Phantom Organization. They all want to do something good for this city, for this world, yet they are imprisoned in black cells, suffering unwarranted torture because of humanity's sordid actions…"
"So I've changed my mind."
"Some people deserve to die sooner rather than later."
As soon as Qin Xue Chong finished speaking, all the mechanical arms suddenly tightened.
The interrogator barely had time to scream "you" before he felt his limbs being pulled in opposite directions with overwhelming force, the pressure increasing.
"Ah!!!!"
The horrific pain rendered the interrogator incapable of thought; as he continued to scream, the mechanical arms ground away his skin and muscle but clamped down even tighter until they grasped his bones.
In the end, blood and flesh splattered everywhere.
Xue Zhi Shi stared in a daze, feeling a strange sense of satisfaction.
After a few seconds of silence, Qin Xue Chong finally said, "Alright, Old Xue, let's go. The path ahead has been cleared."
"Where to?" Xue Zhi Shi asked.
Qin Xue Chong smiled and replied, "Let's go deal with the Federal Mainframe together."