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Chapter 284 The Interrogation Resumes
“You can speak,” Chen Xuan said slowly. “I didn’t gag you.”

"I'll tell you anything you want to know, I'll tell you everything!" Zhang Zhiqi pleaded hastily. "I'm willing to cooperate, please don't kill me!"

"I don't actually have anything to ask."

Zhang Zhiqi froze, and despair instantly spread through his heart.

If you don't want to ask, does that mean you want him dead?
However, the other party's next actions once again surprised him.

Chen Xuan withdrew his hand, wiped it with a tissue, and pulled his mask back up. "It doesn't actually hurt that much, does it?"

After saying that, he stood up, turned and walked towards the door, ignoring Zhang Zhiqi completely.

The process of lysis and refusion is painless; it doesn't destroy any skin or tissue, but simply reassembles them in a different location. Pinching an exposed finger might rupture some visible capillaries, but the pain is far less than being pricked with a needle, because the body's sensory nerves are most concentrated in the dermis, making direct contact with muscle less sensitive. What truly made Zhang Zhiqi scream wasn't the excruciating pain, but the intense fear.

At that moment, Zhang Zhiqi finally connected the image of the young man wearing a baseball cap and mask with his powerful abilities.

It's that person!

He didn't want to relive those nightmares!
Ignoring the stinging pain in his thumb, he forcefully covered his mouth, afraid of startling the other party and causing the God of Death to turn around again.

If this person hadn't blocked the garage exit that day and inexplicably overturned the car, he wouldn't have ended up in such a miserable situation!
Since awakening, Zhang Zhiqi has been ecstatic every day because he has the power to control the fate of others. He vowed to make everyone who had mocked him regret it and to make the whole world suffer for looking down on him. Unfortunately, this dream was shattered just a few months later.

It was on that day that Zhang Zhiqi realized what a truly powerful ability user was like.

His abilities are simply insufficient to contend with him.

After closing the door, Chen Xuan said to You Chi on the other end of the earpiece, "We can proceed to the next step."

He did these things not to satisfy his own perverse tastes.

The prerequisite for a dream creator to create a phantom is that he knows the other person, and the other person knows him—only when there are commonalities in their memories can the phantom be realistic enough. In fact, he hadn't been idle for the past three days; instead, he repeatedly read the police interrogation report and constantly constructed relevant memories in his mind, including Zhang Zhiqi's background and his description of the place where he was trapped, all in order to make the dream environment as close to reality as possible.

This was the first time Chen Xuan had attempted to create a dream in a specific area where intelligence was incomplete.

As for how to make the other person remember you deeply, a face-to-face scare is undoubtedly the quickest way.

"Why is he gone?"

Tian Zhenggang was taken aback when he saw the interrogator leave.

"It's not time to leave, it's time to begin the interrogation." After You Chi gave the order, colorless gas was released from the oxygen supply pipes on the wall of the interrogation room.

Zhang Zhiqi was still staring at his clenched fingers, looking troubled, but his eyes quickly became blank. As if realizing something, he tried to stand up, but after shaking his head a few times, it slumped down and crashed onto the table.

"The prisoner is dead?" Tian Zhenggang stared in disbelief.

"It's not that dramatic. We just mixed some inhaled anesthetic into the air. The dosage is very small, enough to make him fall asleep at most," You Chi explained.

"Why?" Tian Zhenggang could no longer comprehend what he was seeing. "How can you interrogate someone who's asleep?"

To be honest, You Chi didn't understand the principle either; he was just doing what Chen Xuan asked. But in front of the police, he couldn't appear ignorant, as that would damage the image of Beitian Academy. "Congratulations, Detective Tian."

"Congratulations to me?"

"You are now the first police officer in the world to witness a capability interrogation firsthand," Yuhengxing said with a smile.

……

Chen Xuan shifted his body, feeling the cold metallic touch on his back.

A faint, fishy odor filled the air.

It was so dark that you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, and time seemed to stand still. He used his Heavenly Glow Technique to scan his surroundings and discovered a faint bright spot a dozen meters away from him.

It seems he has succeeded, he thought to himself.

This person should be Zhang Zhiqi's phantom. In the past, when Chen Xuan activated his dream-making ability, he only needed to imagine the city he was in, and the dream creator could replicate a similar one for him. He never considered whether the city was absolutely realistic, and it didn't matter if there were some differences between the dream and reality.

But this time was different. There was no ready-made environment for him to refer to. He had to consider every detail of the location before entering the dream, and it had to correspond perfectly with the prisoner's confession. The other party mentioned a metal cage, so Chen Xuan conceived of it based on a shipping container. The lack of light was easy to achieve; a completely sealed environment without lights would suffice... Of course, a ventilation fan would still be necessary to prevent the imprisoned person from suffocating.

As for the external regions that lack information, they are left to the Dream Maker to fill in the gaps.

So far, the effect is quite good. The dream did not collapse on the spot, which at least shows that Zhang Zhiqi did not notice any obvious sense of incongruity.

Next, Chen Xuan invited Lin Qing into his dream.

The latter then appeared opposite him.

"It's up to you now," he said in a low voice.

Lin Qing quietly put on her trench coat and leather gloves, then walked towards Zhang Zhiqi's location. Her role was none other than the mastermind behind it all. The prisoners had never actually seen this person before, and the prison was completely dark, which actually saved them a lot of trouble. If anyone stood in front of Zhang Zhiqi at that moment, he would inevitably assume that the person who injected him was the one who had done it.

Sure enough, when the footsteps broke the silence and echoed in the empty corridor, Zhang Zhiqi immediately reacted.

He climbed to the railing and shouted towards the source of the sound, "Where's the promised injection? Give me more injections! My abilities haven't kicked in yet!"

Chen Xuan raised an eyebrow in surprise. This reaction was strange. The other party's attitude didn't seem like they were being forcibly imprisoned here.

Lin Qing was caught off guard, but fortunately, in the original plan, she didn't need to speak. She only needed to provoke the prisoner to keep talking and look for loopholes or clues.

She approached the railing, crouched down, and looked at the other person at eye level—from this angle, Zhang Zhiqi could see the black trench coat and leather gloves hanging down, thanks to the dim light coming in from the corridor fan vent.

"Why aren't you saying anything? I can handle the side effects, just bring me the injection!"

"Please, I want the power!"

You can't lie to me!

By the last sentence, Zhang Zhiqi was practically screaming.

The sound echoed in the cage, fading away only after a long time, yet he was met with only silence.

“I said… are you deaf? Where’s Lu Lixin? Why aren’t you calling out with me?” Zhang Zhiqi suddenly looked up and glanced around. “Why is it so quiet today?”

Something was wrong. Chen Xuan's heart sank. Had the other party realized the problem so quickly? If the dream ended in a collapse, that part of the memory would also enter his mind, making it easier for flaws to appear in the next dream.

"She went out," Lin Qing suddenly said.

Her voice was rough and deep, typical of a middle-aged man—it was a very risky move, as she didn't know what the person behind the scenes' voice sounded like, and if the difference was too great, she might wake them up.

Chen Xuan was worried for her.

"What!?" Fortunately, Zhang Zhiqi seemed more surprised by what she said. "Could it be that she... successfully awakened?"

“That’s right,” Lin Qing said, going along with his point.

Zhang Zhiqi was stunned for a moment, then slammed his fist on the floor. "Damn it, I knew she could do it! What kind of ability does she have?"

This is naturally unnecessary to answer.

Sure enough, seeing that Lin Qing remained silent, he didn't pursue the matter. "I can definitely do it too. I promise you, the injections we used before won't be wasted. Bring them here quickly!"

"You are not afraid of death?"

"Death? Isn't the side effect a headache?" Zhang Zhiqi frowned strangely. "Besides, I can feel the power emerging in my body; just two more injections—"

He suddenly paused.

He then looked at Lin Qing with some surprise, "What's going on? Don't I have the ability?"

(End of this chapter)