When the Human Council's investigation ship -- that six hundred meter long, blue vessel with a whale-like shape -- truly appeared in front of him, the effect was still overwhelming for Yang Ming.
Although in the game "Abyss," one could have a similar visual experience just by hanging out at the Deep Space Port for a while.
But the realism and the oppressive feeling brought by the ship's hull were incomparable to the simulated neural signals generated from the holographic equipment.
Several small drones detached from the mother ship and headed towards the landing craft where Yang Ming and Doctor Lina were located.
It seemed that Doctor Lina noticed Yang Ming's nervousness. She reached out, covering his hand with her warm, soft palm, and leaned forward as they whispered to each other.
"Hanton, don't tell them anything. I will find a way to help you."
Yang Ming frowned as he looked at Lina, so close to him.
He had thought there would be a kiss.
Doctor Lina continued to whisper in his ear, "I have an interstellar recognized medical license, and I am just a ship doctor serving the crew. According to interstellar common principles, there is a clause of 'no guilt for healers'."
"Mmm," nodded Yang Ming.
His eyes slightly twitched, he seemed hesitant but then said, "I might be detained by them. If you can get free, I might need some medication."
Yang Ming was referring to a gene stabilizer.
"Don't worry, Hanton. I know what you need. What you need to do now is look after yourself. I know about your depression," Lina said.
Lina gestured for Yang Ming to remain silent. Then she returned to her normal sitting position and securely fastened her seatbelt.
Now their craft was under surveillance by the Human Council.
Yang Ming securely fastened his seatbelt as well.
He thought if he had fastened his seatbelt earlier, he could have avoided the previous collision injury. Then Lina wouldn't have discovered the fact that he had been transformed.
But, Doctor Lina's reaction, wasn't it a bit strange?
She was too calm.
Four drones slowly approached, scanning Yang Ming and Lina, probably conducting checks.
It was then that Yang Ming had a chance to relax his continuously tense nerves, staring blankly at the control panel of the landing craft.
Every detail here reminded Yang Ming that he was now Hanton.
Just as he was free, Yang Ming began to consider several questions involuntarily:
The truth behind the game "Abyss";
Why Earth had been destroyed;
Whether he had already changed the future;
If the tragedy of Earth's explosion had been altered, naturally, he wouldn't have been destroyed by magma and thus wouldn't have resurrected on the scientific research vessel… It seemed like a time paradox.
The key to unraveling all the mysteries was finding some connection between his current world and the game "Abyss."
The proposition was complex, and Yang Ming soon felt a headache coming on.
What he could ascertain now was that he had changed something.
The scientific ship was gone, and the "Lost Voice" -- the 30th level epic dungeon of the Empire faction -- no longer existed;
Instead of transforming himself, Kigrov chose to transform Captain Hanton, and then Kigrov detonated the antimatter bomb, reducing everything to nothingness.
Where did the changes begin?
Yang Ming felt that it must have been when he ran to the bridge, and after the Martial God was subdued by the sleeping gas, he spoke those two sentences.
That was the turning point.
Oddly, Yang Ming recalled some details from the battle with the Martial God.
"She was wearing a patterned bra," murmured Yang Ming softly.
The Martial God wore a delicate, well-fitted ultra-thin bra beneath her combat suit's robe-material.
"What?" Doctor Lina thought she had misheard.
"Nothing," Yang Ming smiled, a trace of melancholy flickering across his eyes before returning to normal, "Just lamenting a tragedy that happened on the scientific vessel."
Thud, thud, thud, thud.
It was as if someone was knocking; the four drones clung to the left and right sides of the landing craft.
The screen in front of Yang Ming automatically turned off, with only the auxiliary correction engines of the landing craft extinguished. The four drones hijacked the vessel, flying it towards the side deck of the investigation ship.
With the cabin instrumentation lights no longer causing light pollution, the universe grew deeper and the starlight brighter.
Yang Ming sat silently, lost in thoughts again, as a warm, soft palm again covered the back of his hand.
Lina, in her gentle voice, recited some lines of poetry:
"Do not refuse the breeze blown by the constant stars.
"She will carry us to new worlds.
"Do not refuse the wrinkles formed in the vacuum.
"Those are the guides left for us by our ancestors…"
Yang Ming smiled and slowly closed his eyes.
He didn't know what the future held, but he now had no choice but to go on.
"Oh, Emperor Star," Lina suddenly lowered her voice, "I seem to have caused trouble. I led the investigation ship here, which also exposed the location of those two escape pods…"
Yang Ming blinked. "The investigation ship captured us on their own."
Lina turned to look at Yang Ming, seemingly to confirm something.
After a few seconds, she softly nodded, looking slightly uneasy, "Yes, it seems it's not related to us."
Yang Ming took her right hand in return, gently caressing it.
"Relax, Lina, there won't be any problems."
Lina took a few deep breaths and smiled gratefully at Yang Ming.
Now they both had something on each other.
The landing craft slowly approached the blue spaceship, with a square entrance opening on its side deck, flashing with faint guiding lights.
The four drones kept adjusting their angles, smoothly sliding the landing craft into the ship's body; the outer hatch slowly closed, and the quiet universe was once again left behind.
The outer chamber began to inject air, increase pressure, and simulate gravity, and the four drones, having completed their mission, detached on their own.
A group of men and women in white combat suits gathered around, each holding differently colored laser guns.
Yang Ming placed the light sword and light shield gloves under the seat and raised his hands simultaneously with Lina.
At that moment, a thought crossed Yang Ming's mind, but as soon as it appeared, he forcefully suppressed it.
"How long would it take to seize this spaceship?"
That was what Yang Ming, a young man from Earth and the substitute for the Subordinate Ancient God Life Form, Mr. Hanton, had just thought.
...
The guards of the Human Council were very polite.
Yang Ming did not feel the slightest disrespect.
The boarding craft's "scissor door" slowly opened, Yang Ming crawled out of the cabin, and then turned around to help Doctor Lina out.
The surrounding guards did not take any action.
A middle-aged man removed his tactical helmet, revealing slightly curly blonde hair and a handsome, resolute face as he nodded in greeting to Yang Ming.
"Please identify yourselves!"
"My name is Hanton," Yang Ming glanced down at his uniform, "from the Sherman Empire, and this is Lina, our research vessel's accompanying doctor."
"Okay, Mr. Hanton," the middle-aged man asked, "did you encounter an accident?"
"Yes, the spaceship exploded," Yang Ming shrugged, "I can't say much else."
"Oh, what a tragedy!"
The middle-aged man showed genuine regret and sorrow.
"If this accident was caused by our pursuit, then we also bear a sin. Please forgive our dedication to protecting human rights. Are there other escape crafts? We will provide assistance as soon as possible."
Yang Ming was slightly puzzled.
The Human Council... are they really that easy to talk to?
"However, Mr. Hanton, and the respected doctor,"
the middle-aged man continued,
"We must temporarily isolate you, and there will also be interrogations.
"We believe that your original research vessel was conducting extremely dangerous, unethical scientific biochemical experiments.
"During the interrogation, if you feel we infringe on your basic rights, you can protest at any time, and we will decide through discussion whether to correct our action.
"Don't be nervous, you have been rescued."
"Thank you for your rescue," Yang Ming murmured softly, feeling somewhat skeptical.
A few minutes later, under the escort of the guards, Yang Ming and Lina passed through several silver-white corridors and arrived at a spacious cabin.
Dozens of inverted trapezoidal transparent glass rooms were arranged in a grid formation.
These glass rooms were presumably the 'cells' aboard the investigation ship; the conditions inside were quite good, featuring a double sofa, a floating entertainment screen, a full wireless signal, and a thermostatically controlled box filled with drinks and food.
One could even choose to make the glass opaque from inside.
The leading middle-aged man politely asked, "Would you two like to stay together, or do you need to avoid suspicion?"
"We need to be together!"
Doctor Lina said somewhat nervously.
"Please choose your isolation room. Do you have a lucky number?"
"Just this one, the nearest one," Yang Ming randomly selected a glass room, and Doctor Lina immediately followed him.
Soon, the door of the glass room closed, and four soldiers with guns stood at the four corners.
Yang Ming sat on the soft sofa, watching the menu interface that popped up beside him, momentarily... momentarily at a loss for words.
Is this what a Human Rights and Ethics Investigation Commission cell looks like?
Impressive, love it.
Yang Ming ordered two cups of coffee, comfortably lying on the sofa, he began recalling the information he obtained while playing "Abyss," searching Hanton's memory for introductions about the Human Council.
The Human Council, a neutral organization affiliated with the interstellar court, was not subject to direct regulation by any interstellar political body and enjoyed a prestigious reputation in the Milky Way, making it a troublesome existence even for regional powers like the Sherman Empire.
The Human Council advocated for the protection of individuals.
Falling into the hands of the Human Council, the worst outcome would be getting sent to the interstellar court—the interstellar court being an institution established jointly by over a hundred interstellar political bodies.
What truly feared the Human Council was Professor Kigrov, as the Human Council could shut down his experiments.
Understanding all this, Yang Ming's sitting posture became even more relaxed.
Yang Ming sensed that he would likely be taken back by the Sherman Empire next;
If news of his successful transformation leaked, the Sherman Empire would become his greatest threat.
Would he be the subject of research?
Or would he be dealt with secretly?
Yang Ming calmly analyzed various possibilities, feeling that he might not have been exposed. Those who had left before the fight in the aft cabin probably did not know about the temporary experiment in the backup laboratory.
Lina paced back and forth, slightly anxious.
Doctor Lina's worries were not unfounded—the Human Council's investigation ship had effortlessly located the other two escape crafts.
Soon, in the nearby dozen or so glass rooms, survivors who had escaped from the research ship gathered.
There were over forty crew members, more than twenty researchers involved in gene experiments, over twenty janitors and cooks, as well as more than ten injured empire soldiers.
The soldiers and researchers became the main focus of attention.
When Yang Ming saw Mistress Number One, she was also lovingly looking at Yang Ming, her eyes filled with emotion for surviving the ordeal.
This gave Yang Ming a wonderful sense of anticipation for the future.
Soon, the middle-aged man who had previously 'welcomed' Yang Ming, along with a group of over ten middle-aged and elderly human-like intelligent life forms dressed in Human Council uniforms, stood near the cabin door.
"Now, please step forward, the person among you with the highest rank and military title, to accept our questioning."
The survivors from the research ship looked at each other.
A crew member whispered, "The highest-ranking person now should be the only third officer left on our ship; he can represent us."
Yang Ming's expression became a bit stiff.
"Very well, which one of you is the third officer?"
The empire's soldiers, crew members, researchers, janitors, and cooks all maintained their silence, speaking now would be tantamount to betraying Hanton.
"He, he is," Mistress Number One pointed at the glass room Yang Ming was in, "his name is Hanton, and he is also a confidant of Professor Kigrov."