A beam of intense light struck Jiang Yue’s face, and her half-closed eyes began to tear up involuntarily from the glare.
She had been deprived of sleep for seventy-two hours, which meant she hadn’t closed her eyes for three full days and nights.
Sleep deprivation is an extremely cruel form of punishment, and Jiang Yue felt as if living had become worse than dying.
When Jiang Yue had borrowed books from the library, she had read about methods of interrogation. Interrogating humans with strong mental fortitude was extremely difficult; their extraordinary psychic strength formed a powerful barrier around their thoughts.
Thus, the first step of interrogation was to weaken their mental barriers. Once the barrier collapsed, their thoughts would become as fragile as a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.
Destruction is often easier than reconstruction. Breaking down a mental barrier was remarkably simple: all it took was injecting a special drug that drove the brain into an extreme state of exhaustion, followed by a sleep-deprivation drug to keep them awake for extended periods. Then, interference was applied using blinding lights and piercing, high-pitched electrical currents. Even those with psychic strength at the 3S level could not endure it for more than a few days.
For the first one to two days, Jiang Yue could barely hold on, but her reactions began to slow, her attention started to drift, and her thought processes became sluggish. Her heart rate started to rise.
By the second to third day, physical discomfort set in: her hands and feet tingled as if pricked by needles, her eyes burned fiercely, and her mind was assaulted by blinding white flashes like magnesium strips igniting. The images on her retina twisted and warped, and multicolored lights swirled and spun before her eyes.
She began to experience auditory hallucinations, chaotic whispers and the cries of children filled her ears. Sometimes the sounds would vanish, only to return moments later as the honking of car horns or the blaring of loudspeakers.
At first, she still knew these were just auditory hallucinations. But as the sleep deprivation dragged on, she gradually lost the ability to distinguish reality from illusion. When she heard the honking of a car, she even instinctively flinched to dodge it.
The flashlight’s glare was unbearably harsh. She licked her cracked lips and tasted a hint of blood.
She hadn’t had a drop of water for seventy-two hours.
An Alpha’s body could store energy on its own; going three days without water wouldn’t be fatal, and she could barely keep herself alive.
When, she wondered desperately, would this interrogation finally end?
Jiang Yue raised her hand to shield her eyes from the blinding light. Her pupils contracted into thin vertical slits, and her gray eyes looked like a leaden storm cloud, exuding an unyielding coldness that no harsh white light could dispel.
“Has her mental barrier collapsed?”
“Not yet.”
“Then continue.”
By the eighty-fourth hour of sleep deprivation, Jiang Yue’s fingers began to tremble uncontrollably. She could feel her muscles loosening, and when the interrogators shone the bright flashlight on her, it took her a long time to react.
“She’s held on long enough; a tough, stubborn bone to chew.”
“A genius who can materialize their psychic strength is truly extraordinary. Quite an enviable talent.”
“But she won’t last much longer. Once her mental barrier collapses, an interrogator skilled in psychic extraction will be able to read her memories.”
“This will cause permanent damage to her psychic strength, won’t it? Such a promising talent, what a pity.”
“Damage to psychic strength doesn’t matter. The orders from above specify only that we must not harm her brain. We can use any means necessary.”
“It’s strange that Vice Admiral Lei Xi is personally overseeing this. In truth, the scale of this Zerg disaster isn’t even that large, only a little over two hundred people died. Last time in Yucheng, how many perished? Almost two thousand, right?”
A scoffing laugh sounded: “How can it be compared? Even if twenty thousand died in Yucheng’s slums, it wouldn’t be the same as the two hundred in Liyue. Lives have different values. If this hadn’t happened in the heart of Liyue City, who would bother targeting an eighteen-year-old military cadet?”
The interrogation room door opened, and a male Alpha in uniform stepped in.
The two interrogators saluted in unison, their expressions respectful. “Major Lei Xi.”
Major Lei Xi had blue-purple hair. He raised his hand, causing transparent ripples to appear in the air, from which a streak of translucent lightning emerged, hovering in his palm.
Lei Xi spoke with a serious expression: “My psychic body is rather volatile. When I use it, it will affect others. Have you cleared the area in advance?”
The interrogators quickly replied, “Rest assured, sir. The area has been cleared. Everyone is at least one hundred to fifty meters away from this interrogation room.”
Lei Xi nodded in satisfaction.
“Alright, you may leave. I’m about to begin.”
The two interrogators exited the room, walking briskly toward the distance.
Two hundred meters away from the interrogation room, one of the interrogators said, “Major Lei Xi isn’t even the top interrogator. I wonder how far we’ll have to keep our distance when that angelic-looking Major Lu Geng, with his golden hair and eyes, uses psychic extraction.”
The other interrogator replied, “No need to worry. A 3S-level genius like him can precisely control their psychic power. Psychic extraction may be terrifying, but for geniuses of that caliber, it’s as easy as eating or drinking.”
“I wonder what we’ll be able to extract from her this time.”
Inside the interrogation room, the lightning-like psychic projection hovered above Jiang Yue’s head, sending crackling, transparent ripples of energy into her brain.
Her overfatigued mind was powerless to resist, and a wild, violent energy rampaged unchecked through her thoughts.
Satisfaction spread across Lei Xi’s face, he was clearly reveling in the process of destruction.
Her psychic defenses were like melting city walls; once breached, they revealed her most deeply hidden memories.
Within this female Alpha’s memories, Lei Xi saw a stunningly beautiful female Omega.
She wore an extremely lavish, almost exaggerated pink dress, the skirt layered like a tiered cake. She reached out with hands clad in white lace gloves to adjust the wide-brimmed white hat on her head, the veil hanging from its brim partially obscuring her delicate features.
After walking a short distance, she paused and lifted the hem of her skirt. Her large, bright doe-like eyes widened slightly with joy as she watched the female Omega running toward her.
She started to trot, lifting her skirt as she went. Her white leather shoes tapped crisply against the ground in a series of light, clear sounds. Her long black hair flowed over her slender shoulders, swaying gently with each step.
Lei Xi felt a twinge of desire.
He had always been fond of delicate, charming, and proud beautiful Omegas. Could this be the female Alpha’s secret crush?
He glanced at the female Alpha slumped in her chair like a dead dog. Her clothes were crumpled and haphazard, smelling faintly sour.
Truly, a toad longing to eat swan meat.
He lazily sifted through the female Alpha’s memories. This kind of psychic extraction was extremely taxing, even a genius of his SS-level caliber would need a long time to recover. If it weren’t for the need to flawlessly complete the mission assigned from above, it would hardly be necessary.
In any case, he intended to destroy her psychic projection, reducing this female Alpha to a mindless, speechless fool.
A cruel smile twisted the corners of his mouth, and the lightning hovering above Jiang Yue’s head suddenly swelled to twice its size.
“Goodbye, unlucky little Alpha!”
Countless transparent bolts of lightning struck the female Alpha’s head, her face contorted in pain.
At that moment, the female Alpha, who had kept her eyes half-closed until now, suddenly opened her gray eyes and fixed him with an unyielding stare.
They were vertical pupils, like those of a serpent; cold, cruel, dangerous, and cunning.
Lei Xi sensed a dangerous aura.
He instinctively recoiled, but it was already too late.
Suddenly, a pair of enormous, utterly transparent wings appeared in the air. A terrifying roar, as if echoing from ancient times, reverberated like raging waves boiling over a stormy sea.
The last thing Lei Xi saw in his life was his psychic projection exploding.
[DESTRUCTION]
A terrifying wave of energy swept outward.
“When will this interrogation ever end?”
“Psychic extraction takes time. A person’s life contains so many memories, it can’t be finished that quickly.”
The two interrogators sat in the lounge, chatting idly. One Beta interrogator pressed a hand to his chest, his face pale. “My heart… it hurts a little.”
The other interrogator doubled over as well, gritting his teeth. “My stomach… it hurts.”
He coughed into his hand, and warm blood, along with fragments of internal organs, came up from his throat.
“W-What… is… happening…”
Before he could finish speaking, two streams of blood gushed from his nose.
Crimson drops fell onto the transparent glass coffee table, splattering into tiny, blooming pools of blood.
The first interrogator didn’t even have time to trigger the alarm before he collapsed onto the sofa, bleeding from every orifice.
His bloodshot eyes were wide open, filled with terror and a hint of confusion.
The other interrogator knelt over the coffee table, blood spreading from his head like a dark halo.
On the street, a small child hopped down from a car holding their mother’s hand. Suddenly, an invisible wave coursed through his body. His eyes went blank, staring vacantly, and the lollipop in his hand fell to the ground, shattering into pieces.
Tiny splashes of blood erupted across the street.
A laborer bent down to retrieve his lost wedding ring, and at last, among the thin layer of snow, he glimpsed the diamond’s devastating glint.
He reached out, and an invisible wave surged past him, sweeping outward. On the white snow, a vivid blood blossom slowly unfurled, and his delighted smile froze permanently on his face.
An elderly couple strolled hand in hand along the street. The invisible wave passed through them. The husband’s steps suddenly halted. His clouded eyes turned toward his wife, his mouth opened slightly, and without any warning, he collapsed with a thunderous crash.
With a soft drip, a tiny blood blossom appeared on the wife’s hand, now spotted with age and lined with wrinkles.
A young couple on their first date were enjoying dessert in a shop. A dab of cream rested on the tip of the female Omega’s nose, and the male Alpha laughed as he reached out to wipe it. An invisible wave swept over them, and the man’s hand fell limply in midair.
On the snow-white plate, a red blossom bloomed.
Inside the interrogation room, Jiang Yue swayed unsteadily as she rose from the chair. The chairs for prisoners were terribly uncomfortable, and her back ached as if it were about to snap.
A man lay on the floor, drenched in blood. Jiang Yue’s vision went dark. She shook her head and reached up to touch her face; it was wet, though she couldn’t tell with what.
The prolonged sleep deprivation had begun to fracture her mind. She could barely remember who she was, or why she was here.
Cautiously clutching her head, she looked at the tiny blue figures dancing hand in hand before her. She laughed out loud and spun along with them.
The special forces burst through the interrogation room door.
In the eerie interrogation room, they saw the corpse of a one-star Major, and a female Alpha dancing and singing around it.
The female Alpha clutched her head, dancing and humming as she moved.
“The big windmill creaks and turns, the scenery here is so beautiful, sky so pretty, earth so pretty, and a bunch of happy little friends.”
“The big windmill turns and turns, the happy friends hold hands, holding your hand, holding my hand, today’s little friends, tomorrow’s good companions!”
“Hey, good friends!”
The special forces officers were momentarily at a loss, unsure of what was happening.
They aimed their miniature nuclear rifles at the unstable female Alpha and shouted, “Squat and cover your head! Don’t move!”
The female Alpha swayed unsteadily on the ground, clutching her head, looking at them in confusion.
Although she was on level ground, she couldn’t maintain her balance. She wobbled like a roly-poly toy, her tattered clothes slick with oil, her cracked lips peeling, and a pungent sour stench emanating from her.
Indeed, she was strange, hardly like a normal person.
The two officers exchanged a glance, then rushed forward together to pin her to the ground. The female Alpha spat out strands of hair, clutching her head and looking left and right.
“Hmm, where are my little friends?”
The officers forced her into the vehicle. After a difficult attempt at communication, they had come to a conclusion: this young female Alpha was completely insane.
She was convinced that she was a cup of milk tea.
Because of the urgency, the police car was traveling at high speed, and the ride was inevitably bumpy.
After another heavy jolt, the female Alpha in the back seat clutched her head, anxiously shouting, “Drive slower! I’m about to spill!”
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Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152