Chapter 58: Interrogation

Chapter 58: Chapter 58: Interrogation

"Just in time."

Xiang Yi picked up the backpack he had just flung aside, quickly repaired the damaged Mind Pulse Generator, and slung it back onto his back.

Shi Tie, who had caught up from behind, stopped beside Xiang Yi. He looked very docile, with none of his earlier ferocity.

However, the clothes on its body were completely shredded, revealing its inconspicuous bluish-gray skin in the darkness. Only its mask and dust goggles were still relatively intact.

’Looks like I’ll have to prepare a few tougher sets of clothes for it later.’

Xiang Yi had Shi Tie hoist the unconscious Pingyu onto its shoulder, then turned and left the area.

「Back on the outskirts of the city.」

Xiang Yi kicked open the door to the room where he’d locked up the leader.

The leader in the room seemed to have been awake for some time. Even though he was bound so tightly he could only wriggle on the floor, he was still crawling toward the window, trying to get free.

But when Xiang Yi kicked the door in, the leader panicked instantly. His gaze toward Xiang Yi and Shi Tie at the door was filled with terror, and tears welled in the corners of his eyes.

He struggled, but with a strip of cloth stuffed in his mouth, he could only make muffled whimpers.

Xiang Yi suddenly recalled the leader’s arrogance when he’d blocked his path earlier and couldn’t help but say with a smile, "Not bad. Of the two of you, you’re the one with the most backbone."

"So, can we talk now?"

The leader seemed to have been scared out of his wits. He didn’t respond to Xiang Yi’s words at all, instead continuing to struggle desperately.

Even after Xiang Yi pulled the gag from his mouth, he just babbled incoherently, begging for his life.

Seeing this, Xiang Yi simply had Shi Tie rip a piece of sheet metal from the wall and crush it into an iron ball.

At the same time, he slapped the leader across the face and said, "Keep screaming, and the next slap comes from it."

The leader shut his mouth, but he couldn’t stop panting, his breathing heavy and loud through his nose.

But at least he had finally calmed down.

"What’s your name?"

"Du... Du Bingtian."

"Why did you stop me?"

"..."

SLAP—

Another slap from Xiang Yi.

"Speak."

"Because of your... your bag. A buddy of mine told me an outsider had shown up with something valuable, so I called a few guys over..."

Xiang Yi didn’t mock him this time. After all, he had deliberately acted that way with the express purpose of making people get ideas about him.

"Is this person also one of your buddies?"

Xiang Yi pointed at Pingyu, who was slung over Shi Tie’s shoulder.

Du Bingtian shook his head repeatedly. "I don’t know him well. One of the other guys must have brought him along."

"Good."

Xiang Yi had Shi Tie take the still-unconscious Pingyu out of the room.

"Now, I ask, you answer. Afterward, I’m going to ask him the same questions. You know what’ll happen if your stories don’t match."

Du Bingtian swallowed hard and nodded.

"As you’ve seen, I am indeed an outsider."

"I need a fake ID that will let me move around the city, and a card I can use to buy things. Do you have connections?"

"I do, man, I do."

Du Bingtian spoke rapidly, as if clutching a lifeline. "This is exactly what I do. If you need a fake ID, I can get one for you easily. I guarantee you won’t be able to tell it from a real one."

"What a coincidence, isn’t it? If you hadn’t tried to jump me earlier, we could have just had a nice chat, don’t you think?"

Du Bingtian nodded profusely, not daring to speak, afraid that Xiang Yi would remember the curses he’d spat earlier and slap him again.

"Can these fake IDs be used in the city?"

"Of course they can. Who’s going to check IDs for no reason? At most, a cop might see you’re an unfamiliar face, take a quick glance at your ID, and let you go. But it won’t work on robots. If you run into a robot, you’re dead."

"So as long as I don’t run into a robot, I’ll be fine?"

"Should be. This area is pretty backward. Only the patrol robots scan IDs. The cops just give it a glance, and if it looks okay, they’ll let you pass."

"Oh, right, and if you get a fake ID, don’t go wandering around government buildings. Same deal there."

"Are you sure it’ll work?"

"The ID I use every day is a fake one I made myself. It’s this one, right in my pocket."

Xiang Yi reached out and pulled an ID card from Du Bingtian’s pocket.

The photo on it was indeed Du Bingtian’s, but the name was not Du Bingtian.

"This ID is fake, but see? You can’t tell the difference from a real one, right?"

Xiang Yi had seen real ID cards on the bodies of the Scavengers in the abandoned city hospital, and he truly couldn’t tell the difference between the two.

"Can this card be scanned?"

"How could a fake card be scanned? Not unless you find someone to sort out the chip inside. Didn’t you just say you wanted a card for making purchases? We can get them done together."

"You can do it?" Xiang Yi was a little surprised.

"Uh... no, I can’t. But I know a guy who can. I can take you to him."

"Where?"

"Right here in this district. You need equipment to make fake IDs, and you need equipment to make electronic cards too, right...?"

Xiang Yi lowered his head, his gaze falling on the fake ID card in his hand as he silently mulled it over.

He thought for so long that Du Bingtian’s hair began to stand on end, and he was already contemplating how he was going to die, when Xiang Yi finally looked up and called Shi Tie back inside.

He had Shi Tie haul Du Bingtian out and left Pingyu in the room.

Xiang Yi didn’t wake Pingyu up right away. He searched him and found a few dozen Federation Coin bills, a set of keys, and a worn-out personal terminal.

The terminal wasn’t password-protected. Xiang Yi easily opened the gallery and found the photo that had been taken earlier.

The photo clearly showed Xiang Yi and the Mind Pulse Generator in his bag.

Judging from the photo’s access time in the app, it hadn’t been touched since it was taken. It hadn’t been sent out yet.

’That’s good.’

Xiang Yi held the terminal in his hand and slapped Pingyu across the face.

The pain instantly woke him up.

He opened his eyes and could only see that all-too-familiar figure standing before him in the darkness.

His heart, which had only just calmed down, immediately began to race again.

He opened his mouth to beg for mercy, but Xiang Yi suddenly shoved the terminal in his face.

"Where did you find out about this device?"

Pingyu seemed to have accepted his fate and answered honestly, "A friend of mine told me."

"What friend?"

"A friend I met while drinking. Yesterday, he sent me a photo. It had that device in it, and... and... a... person..."

Pingyu spoke haltingly, but his eyes couldn’t help but dart toward Xiang Yi.

"Where’s the photo?"

"I didn’t save it, but if you look through my chat history on there, you should be able to find it."

"My friend said if we could find the person or the device, we’d get a reward of one hundred thousand Federation Coins. I’d get seventy percent, he’d get thirty."