Jiang Yue’s winter break part-time job was essentially ruined. To comply with the ongoing investigation, she had no choice but to stay at the police station.
She went through interrogation after interrogation, repeating the exact same lies and having to invent convincing details.
In addition to this, she underwent a full-body sterilization and medical examination at the hospital. Just like last time, all the results came back normal.
Jiang Yue had also been the sole survivor of the previous major Zerg disaster, this marked the second time she had narrowly escaped death from such a catastrophe.
Once could be luck, twice a coincidence, but too many coincidences inevitably lead people to draw some unpleasant conclusions.
So Jiang Yue underwent a series of complex examinations, including detailed brain mapping scans and frequency domain tests, to prove that she was still the same Jiang Yue and hadn’t been secretly parasitized by the Zerg.
She spent five days living in constant fear. After five days, the police finally released her, and Jiang Yue returned to her short-term rental apartment, her face weathered and tired.
She swiped her terminal to unlock the apartment door. Inside, it was eerily silent, and a thin layer of dust had settled on the furnishings.
The smart vacuum robot let out a cheerful electronic chime: “Welcome home!”
Jiang Yue, exhausted, slumped onto the sofa and said to the smart home robot in a listless voice, “What home do I even have?”
Two eyeballs emerged from the sleeve of her pajamas. Holding onto each other’s little tendrils, they obediently perched on Jiang Yue’s knees. She reached out to pet them and casually picked up a chopstick to make them swing like on a little seesaw.
Thanks to these two eyeballs, she had narrowly escaped death at Song Yang’s hands.
Now, she truly felt a bit reluctant to part with the two eyeballs. After all, they were among the few living companions she had, and having cared for them for so long, she had naturally grown attached.
The apartment felt far too quiet, almost empty, so Jiang Yue summoned her golden eagle.
Waves of transparent ripples appeared in the air, and the plump, ball-like golden eagle tumbled out of them, flapping its wings. It landed on Jiang Yue’s knees and curiously looked at the two eyeballs.
Golden eagles are naturally very curious animals, and these two strange eyeballs quickly became its new, fascinating toys.
Jiang Yue slumped on the sofa, watching them play.
The liveliness belonged to everyone else, she had nothing.
She nuzzled her face against the golden eagle’s neck. The down there was dense and soft; burying her face in it, she suddenly wrapped her arms around the eagle and broke into loud sobs.
The 254 employees who had died in the mall had all perished because of her, behind each number was the devastation of 254 families.
How strange, it all felt so wrong. Why her?
Had she chosen this body, or had this body chosen her?
Why was she the one forced to bear all of this? Even dying in a traffic accident while casually visiting a convention back then would have been a thousand, ten thousand times better than this.
Overwhelmed by a suffocating guilt, Jiang Yue sank deep into her grief and self-reproach, unable to pull herself out.
The golden eagle gently pecked at her hair, nuzzling its head against her cheek in a quiet, comforting gesture.
Jiang Yue felt utterly abandoned by the entire world. She had always been an intruder in this world, and now she had become someone to be expelled, someone completely unwelcome, someone who could even bring disaster to everyone around her.
She cried despondently for a long time, not knowing what she could possibly do for those who had died.
But as she cried, a fierce anger began to ignite in her heart.
It was all because of these damned Zergs, disturbing and destroying her life.
They coveted her body, making it impossible for her to live in peace.
Jiang Yue lay in bed like a corpse for two days, until one message after another arrived on her terminal.
They were all messages from her roommates. After hearing about her situation, Jiang Sen expressed deep sympathy. Because his parents had confined him at home in a fury for secretly enrolling in the military academy and forced him to study management courses, Jiang Sen had to spend a fortune to mail her a pair of limited-edition sneakers.
Xiang Sui, who was currently training with his brother at the military headquarters and couldn’t come in person, sent Jiang Yue a VIP membership card for a high-end restaurant. The card was preloaded with enough money to allow her to dine there for two years.
Bai Wang was tied up negotiating a fifty-billion energy deal with his father and couldn’t spare the time, so he sent her a large box of calming and brain-boosting oral supplements, telling her to sleep well and not overthink things.
Kuri had been working nonstop on developing a game for a week. At this critical stage, he could only apologize to Jiang Yue by sending her an expensive set of holographic gaming pods.
Among all these gifts, Xi Boyu’s was the most surprising. He sent Jiang Yue an entire set of perfume samples; extremely expensive, discontinued fragrances that were no longer available on the market.
These gestures lifted Jiang Yue’s spirits sharply. Finally feeling a bit lighter, she began to comfort herself.
Although all these events had occurred because of her, she couldn’t allow herself to fall into endless self-blame. What mattered more now was figuring out how to protect herself, and how to protect others.
Beyond the compensation provided by the government, society began raising donations for the victims. Jiang Yue donated the entire 500,000 star coins compensation she had received from the military.
Because of her body’s unique condition, she was a massive potential threat wherever she went. Looking ahead, Jiang Yue felt deeply uncertain about the path she should take.
She now realized that living a peaceful life would be almost impossible for the rest of her days.
It was truly a very sad reality.
Without the compensation money, Jiang Yue could no longer afford the rent for her short-term apartment. She canceled the lease and found a cheap inn, taking the opportunity to list the gifts her roommates had sent her on a trading website.
Of course, she kept the perfumes Xi Boyu had sent, this was the last stubborn trace of the little fairy in her.
The small inn Jiang Yue rented was tucked away in a remote alley, costing only fifty yuan a night.
There were no windows, no private bathroom, and no complete furniture, just like a relief center. The room contained only a bed and a table with a chair.
Jiang Yue lay on the bed in a daze, thinking about the original owner of this body.
What had the previous owner gone through? Could the Zerg disaster that had occurred in Yucheng’s slums last time also be connected to the former owner of this body?
Had the previous owner’s consciousness perished during that last Zerg disaster?
Why had the Zergs taken this body?
Irritated, Jiang Yue hugged her pillow and rolled over, stretching her ankles.
She had disposed of her work clothes covered in cobwebs, but the two gravity rings she had thrown away were nowhere to be found.
Those two 25-kilogram gravity rings might have been corroded by the Zergs’ acidic fluid. The military academy’s gravity rings were top-quality, what a waste.
Life without the gravity rings felt extremely strange. Walking felt light and floating, with not a shred of solid grounding.
She summoned her golden eagle and buried her face in the soft down on its belly, slowly falling asleep.
—At the Liyue City Police Department conference room.
The officers involved in the investigation began their routine reports.
“We discovered underground tunnels dug by the Zergs beneath the Blue Whale Building. This disaster was clearly premeditated.”
“It seems they were trying to take something out of the Blue Whale Building.”
“The last Zerg disaster occurred in the slums of Yucheng. We also discovered underground tunnels dug by the burrowing worms. Just like last time, they must have been trying to take something from there.”
A heavy silence fell over the conference room.
The officers sifted through the relevant files, all casting glances toward the sole survivor of both Zerg disasters—Jiang Yue.
“Surviving both incidents… isn’t that a bit too lucky?”
One officer flipped through Jiang Yue’s interrogation records.
“On the surface, nothing seems abnormal… but when you think carefully, everything is abnormal.”
“But the polygraph didn’t register anything,” someone said.
The officer next to him smiled. “Jiang Yue is a military academy student. Her mental resilience is stronger than most. Besides, someone with such powerful psychic ability can control their emotions and heart rate. To a person like that, a polygraph is nothing more than a decoration.”
All the officers’ terminals chimed at once, the autopsy report had been sent by the forensic team.
“When did the report finally come out?”
“It came out a long time ago; it just hadn’t reached us yet.”
“Hmm, they detected a large amount of metallic elements in the two acid samples.”
“Metallic elements?”
“Why is it that only these two acid samples contain such a high concentration of metals?”
An officer, who had been smiling the whole time, said, “Take a look at this elemental analysis chart. Doesn’t it look familiar?”
Someone exclaimed in surprise, “Osmium and iridium… gravity rings!”
The smiling officer nodded. “Yes, there’s definitely something unusual about Jiang Yue.”
“I think it’s necessary for us to use some unconventional interrogation methods, such as psychic extraction and pharmacological questioning.”
A lower-ranking officer hesitated slightly: “Those methods need approval from above. We can’t casually use such brutal interrogation techniques on a first-year student at the Federal Military Academy.”
The smiling officer replied softly, “Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, better to make a mistake and kill than to let someone slip through.”
Jiang Yue developed severe insomnia. Every day she lived in fear, terrified that the Zergs would rush at her the moment she closed her eyes; even when she fell asleep she would be jerked awake by nightmares and simply couldn’t rest.
At that rate, she didn’t need the Zergs to come find her, she might collapse and die of sleep deprivation in the cheap inn. With no other option, Jiang Yue went to the hospital and had the doctors prescribe powerful sleeping medication.
The interstellar police department was very responsible. Concerned about leaving Jiang Yue with long-term PTSD, they even arranged for a psychologist to provide intervention therapy.
To be honest, it was of little use.
This wasn’t a psychological issue.
Any normal person would be jumpy after experiencing something like this, let alone someone naturally timid like Jiang Yue. The fact that she had managed to hold herself together this long without a mental breakdown was already a significant achievement.
The problems with this body, the red eyeballs, and the golden eagle were all tangled together like a knotted mess, haunting her every thought and keeping her awake through countless nights.
Honestly, at this point, nothing in her life could be more thrilling—or terrifying—than this.
And if something even more thrilling were to appear, she would immediately buy a block of tofu and bash her head against it.
Right now, what puzzled Jiang Yue the most were the two eyeballs. She couldn’t figure out what kind of relationship she had with them. Calling it parasitism didn’t feel right, and symbiosis didn’t quite fit either. This state was just too difficult to make sense of.
The small inn was crowded and chaotic, and the eyeballs were far too dangerous for her to recklessly experiment with.
She had once considered handing the eyeballs over to the base, but after this latest Zerg disaster, Jiang Yue abandoned that idea.
The people at the base couldn’t protect her at all times, and the Zergs wouldn’t let her off easily. From now on, she would have to rely on herself. Perhaps the eyeballs would be her most effective means of survival, and she couldn’t lightly give up that trump card.
As for the possibility of the eyeballs backfiring in the future… honestly, Jiang Yue didn’t think she would live to see that day.
Moreover, Song Yang wasn’t entirely wrong, how could she be sure that everyone in the military headquarters was trustworthy? If even one person harbored ill intentions, Jiang Yue would be the one to suffer.
It was truly a pincer attack: trapped on all sides, surrounded, and ambushed from every direction.
On top of that, there were even more frustrating issues. She had donated the 500,000-star coins compensation, so she now had to earn money to support herself. Given her current situation, the only jobs she could take were ones that didn’t involve interacting with other people, like game boosting or gaming companionship.
After all, the Zergs couldn’t exactly follow her into the game, could they?
Holographic gaming pods weren’t cheap, but luckily she already had one. Jiang Yue picked up the pod helmet Kuri had sent, carefully read the instructions, checked the agreement box, and connected to the holographic network.
She launched the latest popular war game and registered a new account. Five minutes after sending a message in the lobby, someone added her; a young female Omega, bored during the holiday and looking for a gaming companion. And just like that, the two newbies began their gaming journey.
Playing in the holographic game was incredibly fun. As long as she had money, she could max out all kinds of attributes. The Omega sister was generous with in-game gifts, and Jiang Yue was overjoyed.
At least she wouldn’t go hungry now, and she could even buy an energy bar at night.
Just as Jiang Yue was bravely venturing into a dungeon with the Omega sister for some in-game rewards, someone knocked on the door of the small inn again.
Jiang Yue removed her holographic helmet and opened the door. When she saw the uniformed police officer standing there, her heart sank like a lead weight.
The officer showed his ID and looked at Jiang Yue with a blank expression. “Further investigation is required regarding the incident at the Blue Whale Building. Please come with us and cooperate with the police inquiry.”
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Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152
Yey finally an update! Thank u!