Chapter 210: Interrogation

Yuan Fei felt he was the unluckiest person alive—others on missions bullied people and seized wealth; his mission landed him in a place full of foreigners and aliens, and every shopkeeper had connections.

Others on missions just went through the motions; his mission somehow always ended up confronting the real culprits.

But those were still manageable—at least he was still alive—but now, the problem seemed even bigger…

After all, he was just a squad leader in the Naturalization Corps; for a Giant He Xing who had undergone two transformations to personally receive him, something major must be going on.

A Giant He Xing's status depended on their number of transformations; those who hadn't transformed at all were the lowest tier, forced to learn and perform nearly every possible job to facilitate transformation—in human terms, they were new recruits with no work experience, unable to rely on family, forced to do everything.

One transformation meant they had developed innate specialization—in human analogy, they were professionals with experience and considerable talent in a specific field.

Two transformations meant they were experts among experts, top-tier talents who had perfected their craft to the utmost degree—in their field, they were pillars of the institution.

Even ignoring the rule that Giant He Xing ranked two levels above He Zujie, a twice-transformed Giant He Xing was still a regiment commander-level talent; combined with their alien status, even his own father lacked the standing to request an audience.

As Yuan Fei wrestled with his thoughts, Jia Luo, seated in the main chair, finally spoke:

"We already know you successfully seized the 'Ou Jin Jin Graffiti.' Now we need to confirm a few details regarding this incident."

Hearing the speaker's flawless Japanese, Yuan Fei held his breath, terrified he might burst out laughing—he couldn't fathom how an alien could utter such words with such solemnity—but he knew if he laughed, the consequences wouldn't end with a simple chuckle.

After exhaling a six-second-long sigh, he forced himself to speak in brief, awkward Giant He Xing:

"Please proceed."

"I understand He Zujie language. If you're uncomfortable with Giant He Xing speech, you may speak directly in this—it avoids many misunderstandings caused by linguistic habits," Jia Luo replied calmly in Japanese, but Yuan Fei immediately protested, "No, I couldn't."

Ridiculous—though due to language difficulty, most Nihonese over twenty still used Japanese in daily speech, officially, Japanese had been abolished; even if the alien called it He Zujie language, he absolutely could not speak it.

So he merely replied in as composed a tone as he could manage:

"My Giant He Xing is adequate. If you have any confusion, you can ask for clarification later."

"..." Jia Luo shook his head, knowing the man wouldn't change his mind, and cut straight to the point:

"First, do you remember what time you entered Xī Xīnxiù 8 Dingmu?"

"Around 10:07 p. m. —I had just finished communicating with the battalion commander," Yuan Fei replied after recalling, though he remembered clearly; he paused briefly to avoid seeming like he'd guessed a random number.

"And when did you withdraw?" Jia Luo didn't care about his caution, pressing on.

"Midnight—well, that's when I called for support. Actual withdrawal came twenty minutes later, when the specialized unit began containment of the target."

"But according to the records, the weapons and ammunition you expended couldn't possibly support such a prolonged engagement. Yet judging from the damage, the battlefield intensity far exceeded the wear on your exoskeleton armor. Can you explain this?"

Jia Luo suddenly cut to the core issue; Yuan Fei's face paled—he thought, "Could this alien also suspect me of arms trafficking?"—but he couldn't be sure.

After all, arms trafficking had been happening since the Naturalization Corps was founded; soldiers like him simply…

Wait…

"Are they asking me to cover up the discrepancy? But no one told me anything!"

Yuan Fei felt every hair on his body stand on end; he almost wanted to cry—but he hadn't trafficked arms, and this Giant He Xing didn't look like part of the military system, so he wasn't a beneficiary of such smuggling.

Thinking, "If they didn't arrange it, I won't take the blame for them," Yuan Fei immediately said:

"I don't know. We were trapped in hallucinations—first we got lost for a long time, then the AI detected neurological anomalies and initiated neural signal reconnection, then came the battle. I didn't check the time at all, so I don't know how long we were lost or the exact duration of combat. I only know we survived because the friendly-fire identification system locked the weapon and particle dagger's vibration effects."

Jia Luo asked a few more questions, but in truth, he cared nothing for the answers themselves.

The notebook he continuously scribbled in recorded nothing but Yuan Fei's mental state during speech.

Today, he had already questioned over a dozen soldiers—all of them showed nearly identical mental states.

And precisely because they were so identical, Jia Luo confirmed something was wrong.

After all, even soldiers of the same rank should hold differing opinions and emotional reactions to an event—but these soldiers, officers and privates alike, displayed astonishing uniformity in attitude, something no drug side effect or illusion could explain.

Even pre-coordinated testimony wouldn't produce such identical mental states; Jia Luo could tell from experience that when responding to his questions, every one of them was thinking the exact same thing.

If forced to conclude, it was far more plausible that all of them had been implanted with specific reflexive responses.

But the problem was—they showed no residual traces of faith, no mental abnormalities, and nothing like the hypnotic or brainwashing abilities previously collected from the battlefield. Neural influence could be almost entirely ruled out.

Yet the more inexplicable it became, the more curious he grew—how could such soldiers all become nearly identical "response machines"?

"Is this answer of yours templated?" Jia Luo narrowed his eyes, his reptilian features turning sinister.

Yuan Fei shuddered and shook his head frantically:

"No! Since my last mission ended, I've been under constant surveillance—all my actions were recorded. There's no way I colluded!"

"I didn't say you colluded. I asked whether you received training like 'how to think when questioned'—something like anti-interrogation drills?" Jia Luo's scales slightly bristled, his sensory organs fully extended.

"There were similar things in military school, but those were years ago—I've long forgotten what exactly they taught, since we assimilated troops had no secrets worth interrogating; if the rebels caught us, we were just shot on the spot, no chance to use anything anyway…"

"Military academy had some, but that was years ago—I've forgotten exactly what they taught. After all, our Naturalization Corps has no secrets worth interrogating—if the rebels captured us, they'd just kill us outright—no chance to use any of it…"

As Yuan Fei spoke, he trembled with emotion—but Jia Luo's expression grew heavier, because even now, his reaction matched the others perfectly—different wording, but identical mental state.

"This is really troublesome…" Jia Luo rubbed his temples, then thought—he needed to ask a question no one could possibly have anticipated. But he couldn't quickly think of one suitable for humans. Then he noticed the pattern on Yuan Fei's collar—his eyes suddenly lit up—

"?" Saru momentarily wondered if he'd forgotten Japanese so long that he'd mistaken something for "shirt"—but then Galo continued:

"?" Yuan Fei momentarily thought he'd misheard—had he used Japanese too long and mistaken something for "shirt"? But then Jia Luo continued:

"It's the limited-edition Little Bell Ringer merchandise, right?"

"Huh?"

【52】 (End of Chapter)