Interrogation

"I'm not interested in any of this, and I'm sure Zhuang Wugou has no interest in these power games you're talking about either."

Lin Hao looked at him with disdain.

"Stop looking at me like that!"

Yan Xing pointed at him angrily, his spittle almost spraying Lin Hao's face.

"I hate hypocrites like you the most, stop pretending to be righteous! Building such a large base, isn't it just to step on everyone else and enslave them?"

He raised both hands in a gesture that suggested he had them all figured out.

"You can go ask Zhuang Wugou yourself, oh wait, you probably don't dare to. Just use those dog eyes of yours to see clearly - has Zhuang Wugou ever taken any personal advantage from those ordinary people?"

"He lives even more modestly than the common people in the base. Go look at his office, see what time he wakes up and what time he goes to bed."

Lin Hao looked at him with pity, clearly Yan Xing had fallen into some kind of delusional power game of his own imagination.

"I..."

Yan Xing, seeing Lin Hao's expression, was like a cat jumping on hot bricks. He wanted to argue back, but the words died on his lips.

Because everything Lin Hao said was true. In this base, perhaps anyone else could be accused of exploiting the common people below them.

But not Zhuang Wugou. He was always busy in his office, always worried about the base, and no one had ever seen him indulging in pleasures.

The more he thought about it, the more frustrated he became, because this was supposed to be his chance to mock Lin Hao, whom he saw as a thorn in his side.

But now Lin Hao had left him speechless.

After a while, something suddenly occurred to him, and his frustrated expression vanished, replaced by a sinister sideways glance.

"Fine, fine, what you say is true, but what does it matter? You're destined to die here today."

He seemed to have finally found the key to victory, as that contemptuous smile reappeared on his lips.

"Did old Zhuang order you to deal with me? He knew what I was doing all along?"

Lin Hao wanted to know how and when he had been discovered.

"Hmph, the backdoor you left in the machines, the serum you were secretly researching without reporting - he discovered it all long ago."

This time it was Yan Xing who looked at Lin Hao with pity, but Lin Hao didn't seem angry at all.

"However, he still wants to know why you did this? I'm curious too. Why would you ignore something so within reach and instead do things that harm the Ark?"

As Yan Xing spoke, he raised his hand.

There seemed to be a subtle movement in the room, as countless metal blades floated up from the side, hovering around him.

"Why didn't he come to ask me himself? Why send you..."

Lin Hao asked, but suddenly stopped when he saw Yan Xing's movement, his expression freezing.

"You've become an Awakened? How is this possible? This method wasn't..."

Yan Xing seemed to relish Lin Hao's shocked expression. The blades danced around his body, jubilant, as if each one had its own soul:

"He doesn't have time to deal with you, so he let me send you on your way, but..."

He brought his face close to Lin Hao's and threatened:

"You'd better confess your purpose honestly, or else..."

A blade whooshed past Lin Hao's side, cutting a hair-thin wound on his arm.

The wound was extremely narrow but deep enough that while it was invisible to the naked eye, blood soon began seeping from the line-like cut.

Lin Hao immediately clutched the cut area in pain.

"I'll let you experience what it's like to be alive, no, to wish you were dead."

Another blade immediately sliced across Lin Hao's cheek, making him squint in pain on that side.

It seemed that if Lin Hao didn't talk, Yan Xing planned to cut him slowly, one slice at a time, torturing him until he confessed.

The situation was dire, and Lin Hao's mind raced, trying to fabricate an explanation to appease him.

However, he had reason to suspect that even if he did talk, he would still not escape Yan Xing's torture, given the hatred burning in his eyes.

He really didn't understand why there was such intense hatred between them when they had no deep grudges against each other.

Suddenly, Lin Hao's pupils contracted slightly, as if he had noticed something.

His expression suddenly relaxed, as if he hadn't heard Yan Xing's threats, and instead continued asking:

"Why did you become an Awakened? Isn't the serum still harmful to ordinary people?"

He knew how to get Yan Xing talking, so he put on an envious expression, as if he really admired Yan Xing.

Seeing Lin Hao's expression, Yan Xing forgot his earlier questions in his pride.

Since Lin Hao was already a dead man in his eyes, he didn't care about revealing these things:

"There's so much you don't know!"

Yan Xing, finally feeling superior, grinned and unbuttoned his research uniform, revealing shocking surgical scars underneath.

Lin Hao stared at the numerous suture wounds on his body, where some kind of mechanical device seemed to be operating, with light flickering through Yan Xing's skin.

"Cybernetic modification?"

Lin Hao seemed to have figured out what this was, remembering mention of this procedure in the T-virus serum metadata recordings.

"Oh? Seems you know quite a bit."

Yan Xing raised an eyebrow, clearly surprised that Lin Hao knew about this situation.

"As long as you cybernetically modify some core parts, you can make the awakening speed faster than the T-virus's corruption rate. I went through quite a lot of suffering..."

Looking at the numerous scars on his body, Lin Hao understood that the cybernetic modification he had undergone was probably still immature and unstable.

It was only then that Yan Xing suddenly came to his senses. He buttoned up his clothes and looked down at Lin Hao on the ground:

"Alright, now it's time for you to confess honestly. You're not thinking of trying any tricks, are you?"

With a wave of his finger, a circle of blades began spinning around Lin Hao's body, and he could feel their cold, deadly presence.

"I have one last ques... Ah!"

Two more blades sliced across Lin Hao's shoulder and calf before he could finish speaking.

"You ask too many questions. I'm out of patience!"

Yan Xing's expression turned ice-cold.

"Talk! Or I'll torture you until you do."

But just as he bent down, he felt a strong killing intent from behind him, making his very soul freeze.

"Who's there?!"

He whirled around, all the blades following his movement and gathering around him like a shield.

But there was no one behind him - nothing but the lamp used for illumination, not even a fly.

However, when he looked back at Lin Hao, he discovered that the man who had been on the ground had completely vanished!