Chapter 2720: Star Core Rescue (17)

Parker wore a somewhat regretful expression as he said, "You might think I'd have a sudden epiphany and then beat them up, but in truth, I couldn't. I just felt very miserable, yet had no way out."

"But you didn't sacrifice anyone else."

"Yes, I know I couldn't do that." Parker shook his head and said, "I don't know what others are like, but if I were to frame someone else just because of my own misery, I would definitely be restless for the rest of my life. It's better to just endure it for now."

"However, this obviously affected my academic performance." Parker sighed and said, "I could have gone to a pretty decent high school, but in the end, I only attended a community technical school."

"But life is like that; you always find a blessing in disguise in the most inexplicable places." Parker smiled again and said, "Because I had experienced that kind of bullying, I became very sensitive to whether a group truly accepts me."

Seeing Natasha had a sudden realization. She said, "So you sensed that bully-like temperament in this group of scientists."

Parker nodded and said, "In their team, I was always in a weak position, needing to offer emotional value to please them, because it was obvious that even though I was the Chief Engineer of the Power Department, I was just a technical worker."

"But the scientists who could come to this research station—not to mention graduating from prestigious schools—most people who can obtain such qualifications are children from elite or wealthy families. They are simply not from the same world as me."

"The outside world had the same evaluation of me joining this group; it was basically, 'Look at that electrician, he actually managed to hang out with so many doctors and professors; he's so lucky.'"

Seeing Natasha shrugged and said, "After the Soviet Union left, the status of you technical workers also fell far behind what it used to be. I still remember that in the last century, you promoted the idea that a blue-collar worker could support a whole family, and you were proud of it."

Parker gave a smile and said, "There's no helping it; the times are always progressing. And even in that era, no one would say that a worker was necessarily superior to a scientist."

"In short, I actually played the role of a clown in this group. They loved listening to me complain about trivial matters in life and then putting on that sympathetic expression. They weren't actually sympathizing with me; they were just glad they didn't have to experience such trivialities of life."

Parker thought for a moment and then said, "Originally, I thought they were just taking pleasure in me like those bullies, but after the space station disaster struck, their various performances made me feel that something was wrong, as if all the previous buildup was for this very moment."

Seeing Natasha knew the main point was coming, so she said, "I also thought it was a bit coincidental earlier; that room full of people, one word after another, seemed to be trying to guide others to think in a certain direction."

Parker thought while slowly speaking, "Our line of thinking might have been a bit off before. The mastermind behind this disaster might not be one person, but a group."

"But we still haven't figured out their goal." Seeing Natasha said, "They already have this kind of ability; presumably, it's not that they couldn't just make the space station fall, but they insisted on burning the energy devices and knocking off half the space station. This is simply illogical."

"Then that proves their goal is the opposite." Parker's speaking speed was always slow, but his logic was clear, which proved that he didn't possess a high IQ, but he remained clear-headed.

"What?" Seeing Natasha didn't react for a moment.

"Who are the people who destroyed the space station?" Parker asked.

"Uh, the mastermind."

"They'll be sentenced, right?"

"Of course, probably hundreds of years in prison."

"That makes them criminals. Then what about those who saved the space station?"

"Heroes... wait, you don't mean that, do you?" Seeing Natasha widened her eyes and said, "You're saying someone staged this disaster just to be a hero???"

"Old fogies like us find it hard to imagine, right?" Parker sighed with a smile and said, "But if you interact more with young people—well, Peter isn't young anymore, to be precise, those younger Spider-Men—you would understand how popular the hero complex is among them. There are even quite a few Spider-Men who were tricked into becoming superheroes by the hero complex."

"But this is too extreme, isn't it??"

"This is the essence of human nature." Parker stood up, surveyed the room, and said, "As long as it's beneficial to them, they don't mind turning any occasion into a personal stage. No matter how big a mess they make, they don't care, as long as the noise is loud enough to attract more attention."

"To hell with extreme liberalism!" Seeing Natasha couldn't help but curse, but in the end, she still said, "But there are still many things that don't make sense, like Aux. Do you think Aux is also one of them?"

Parker shook his head, also somewhat puzzled, and said, "In my view, Aux isn't that kind of person, but I don't have absolute certainty. After all, you can know a person's face but not their heart. We still have to look at what he did."

At this time, Seeing Natasha had already stitched up the wound. Strangely, this fat man was full of energy from start to finish and didn't look like he had lost too much blood at all. Every time Seeing Natasha poked a needle in, he would howl forcefully, and his subcutaneous fat seemed eager to gush out, which angered Seeing Natasha so much that she punched him unconscious.

At this point, the wound was stitched up, and Seeing Natasha found a way to wake him up. She observed the other person's pupil state and then said, "This guy might have been drugged. It's hard to say if it's painkillers or just drugs. In any case, his excitement is abnormally high."

After Leman woke up, he squirmed on the ground, hugged Parker's thigh, and started crying. He repeated the same few sentences over and over: Aux kidnapped him, Aux is terrifying, Aux wants to kill him, hurry up and save him.

Parker had indeed never seen this scene before. Seeing Natasha signaled him to stay calm and began to ask questions. Agents have plenty of ways to confirm whether someone is truly talking nonsense or using nonsense as a way to avoid interrogation; you just need to start from the details.

"You said Aux kidnapped you, so where did you see him?"

"The office, he rushed into my office!"

"Good, then what did he say to you when he rushed in?"

"He said, he said this wasn't done by him." Leman shook his head and said, "I told him it was Bark, it was Bark who said we could push everything onto the subordinates, I just said it like that..."

"Who is Bark?"

Leman mumbled and couldn't say it clearly, so Parker said, "He's the head of the Software Engineering Department, a pretty brilliant computer scientist. The entire space station's software security system was built by him."

"When did he say that to you?"

"It was... one time when we were drinking..."

"When did you drink?"

"Two, three months ago? I was scolded by those bastards at the ground contact base, and Bark told me it wasn't my responsibility, I just didn't know how to talk, I should try hard to explain, tell them it was those idiots below who didn't do their jobs well..."

Parker really couldn't hold back, walked over, grabbed his collar, and punched him. Seeing Natasha looked at him with some surprise and said, "You actually know how to hit people?"

"I didn't before, but Peter taught me a couple of moves." Parker frowned and said, "You damn bastard, Leman, that power failure was entirely your responsibility, and you actually wanted to push it onto others?!"

"And then you wanted to push this accident entirely onto Aux? So you were the one who released the news that Aux broke the photovoltaic integration device?"

"He was like that to begin with! An incompetent bastard!" Leman suddenly fell into extreme excitement, foam began to spill from his mouth, and he said, "For the past few months, he has been absent-minded, not doing his job well at all. Several failures were caused by him, and he would sleepwalk and shout in the middle of the night..."

Seeing Natasha noted down this useful information, then brought the topic back on track and said, "How did he subdue you?"

"He... he has great strength..." Leman suddenly retracted his neck again and said, "It's hell, he's like an elephant, I couldn't resist at all. He threw me into the corner and even smashed my head against the wall..."

"Aux is indeed quite strong." Parker said, "Even after he came to the space station, because his mental state wasn't good, he lost a lot of weight, but he is still much stronger than Leman. It's not strange that he could subdue him."

"And then? How did he get you here? Tell me exactly what he did and what he said, word for word." Seeing Natasha took on the attitude of an interrogation.

"He, he lit a cigarette, he was about to leave, but suddenly turned back..."

"Wait!" Parker interrupted Leman and said, "Who did you say lit a cigarette? You?"

"Aux! It was Aux! He snatched my cigarette and even lit one..."

"Something's wrong." Parker looked at Seeing Natasha and said, "Aux doesn't smoke at all. I said he's a good husband; he doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, doesn't stay up late, and his hobbies are fitness and researching Slovak cuisine. Other than that, his biggest vices are loving to cry and having a loud voice. He has no other flaws."

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration hit Seeing Natasha. She said, "Leman might have been hypnotized, just like Aux was hypnotized."

Parker immediately squatted down and leaned in again. Seeing Natasha flipped open Leman's eyelids and said, "This fat man has very obvious traces of drug use in his body. I've heard from professional psychiatrists that in the vast majority of cases, hypnosis requires the patient's cooperation. If they don't cooperate, it's impossible to succeed, of course, that's within legal limits."

"And if you broaden the scope just a little, there is one more possibility for forced hypnosis to succeed, and that is the use of drugs. Most sedatives, or just drugs, can quickly destroy a person's psychological defenses."

Parker gasped and said, "There were indeed rumors in our department that Aux's sudden weight loss and poor mental state were due to drug use. Are you saying that to some extent, he might have indeed used drugs?"

"It's not impossible." Seeing Natasha said, thinking.

"But there were no withdrawal symptoms." Parker immediately pointed out the problem. "I've seen quite a few homeless drug addicts in Queens. When their addiction flares up, it's quite a scene. If Aux were really using drugs, his roommate couldn't have missed him having withdrawal symptoms."

"Perhaps it wasn't traditional drugs." Seeing Natasha said, "There are too many strange drugs in this world. Maybe it's some kind of neurotoxin we haven't seen before."

"What about the poisoning method?"

"That is worth discussing." Seeing Natasha scratched her head lightly and then said, "Anyway, based on my experience with poisoning, putting poison in food and drink is the easiest to be discovered. Unless you're only doing a one-off job and intend to kill the person at once, otherwise, inhaled gas is more suitable for long-term poisoning."

"Is it possible it was on some things he touched frequently?" Parker seemed to have thought of something.

"If it were me, I would do that, and it's best to ensure the other party needs to breathe heavily when using this item." Seeing Natasha stroked her chin and recalled, "I once put poison on the fitness headphones a rich man wore while running; the effect was quite good."

Parker glanced at her, decided to ignore her last sentence, and then said, "Then I guess it might be Aux's personal communication terminal, because he almost calls his wife for over an hour of video chat every day."

"Is his wife in a bad state?"

"It's quite bad, almost to the point of being called insane." Parker said, "I've seen them chat a few times; Aux is almost always crying, which perhaps satisfies the heavy breathing condition you mentioned."

"Then the probability is not small." Seeing Natasha continued, "But I've also heard from psychiatrists that hypnosis is very difficult to change a person's nature. For example, even if you are hypnotized, you wouldn't go and kill someone. To achieve that is very difficult, and it's very likely to cause you to wake up halfway through."

"That's why I keep saying the photovoltaic integration device wasn't broken by Aux." Parker gritted his teeth and said, "He's a person who cherishes things very much. It's impossible he didn't bring a safety rope, and even more impossible that he would destroy public property because he didn't bring a safety rope..."

"There's a missing link here." Seeing Natasha frowned tightly and said, "Even the most brilliant psychiatrist I know couldn't hypnotize a good-natured person into doing bad things. So there must be something between Aux and the destruction of the photovoltaic integration device. What could it be?" ===== CHAPTER 2721 =====