First Interstellar Guide Chapter 8: Interrogation Room

Chapter 8: Interrogation Room

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

After a detailed investigation throughout the morning, Kroger and Kane found that Leonard was not a careless person. On the contrary, he was cautious and afraid of death, making it difficult to convincingly explain his death as an “accident” despite the lack of abnormal signs at the scene. The possibility of “homicide” could not be completely ruled out.

The only guides Leonard had been in contact with before his death were Mohr and Yu Ran. Mohr was a very powerful healing-type guide, and Kroger was familiar with him. His white deer spirit body had no attack capabilities. Currently, the main suspect was Yu Ran, who appeared on the deserted planet, a stranger to everyone.

Who exactly was Yu Ran… Kroger had his own way of interrogation. As a top interrogation officer of the Investigation Division, his methods were not gentle. Most sentinels would not be able to hide anything under his mental interrogation. Guides’ mental barriers were even harder to penetrate than sentinels’, so he attacked Yu Ran suddenly, unprepared, to see his true mental world.

Before Yu Ran’s eyes was a clear lake the size of a football field, surrounded by dense white mist. This was a common mental landscape for C-grade guides, with the end in sight at a glance.

The little fox, seeing the multitude of butterflies approaching, cowered and trembled in fear. The colorful swarm of butterflies quickly surrounded it. The fox wanted to escape, but there were simply too many butterflies, surrounding it from all sides, leaving it with no way out. In the blink of an eye, the butterflies forcibly carried the fox high into the sky.

As the spirit body left its original mental landscape, Yu Ran’s eyes fell upon a strange world—

It was a closed interrogation room, with Yu Ran sitting alone in the middle. A beam of light shone on him from above, blindingly bright. Upon closer inspection of the surroundings, one could vaguely see strange torture devices hanging on the walls, with fresh bloodstains still visible.

The sudden transition to a completely unfamiliar mental world frightened the fox, causing its fur to stand on end.

People tend to be more relaxed in familiar environments, making it easier to disguise themselves, while in unfamiliar environments, they tend to become nervous involuntarily, making it easier to reveal their true colors.

Kroger’s method of forcefully taking the suspect out of their original mental world and locking their spirit body in a mental “black room” was prone to causing breakdowns in individuals with poor psychological resilience.

A voice echoed in the room, “What is your name?”

Yu Ran’s voice trembled with fear, “I… I’m Yu Ran.”

“What is your relationship with Leonard?”

“I don’t know him, I just know he’s an officer at the base.”

“Why did you go to the hospital at 9 a.m. today?”

“To say goodbye to my cousin.”

“Did you use your mental tendrils to contact Leonard while at the hospital?”

“No, I don’t know how to use mental tendrils.”

The walls in front of Yu Ran suddenly changed to another scene—a fat middle-aged man falling from a high-rise building. The man’s eyes widened, staring directly at Yu Ran, then his head hit the ground with a “crack,” his skull shattering, and thick blood spurted out.

“…” Yu Ran covered his eyes in terror. The visual impact of this bloody scene made the young man tremble all over.

“You are a victim’s relative of the mining accident on November 21st. Leonard was related to the mining accident. You have a motive—you want revenge for your parents, don’t you?” The voice in the interrogation room became sharp and icy.

“Yes!” The boy seemed unable to withstand the mental pressure, finally choking out, “I wanted him dead, everyone here wants him dead! A scum like him doesn’t deserve to live! He killed 127 people and embezzled the compensation money issued by the federal government! We, the families of the victims, didn’t receive a single penny!”

Intense negative emotions surged in the interrogation room. Was this the true innermost thoughts of the young man? Seeing the interrogation was effective, Kroger immediately pursued, “So, did you kill him?”

Yu Ran hesitated for a moment, then shook his head helplessly, his voice hoarse, “I wanted to kill him, but there were many sentinels protecting him. I couldn’t get close to him… I hate that I’m just a C-grade guide and don’t know how to control mental energy! If I were an S-grade guide, I could disrupt his emotions with mental energy and make him die in the most painful way possible! And before he died, he should have vomited up that money! The compensation money for 127 victims’ families, that’s tens of millions of star coins!”

“…” Kroger frowned. The boy’s words sounded naive and childish. He was indeed a victim of the mining accident and indeed wished for Leonard’s death. This hidden dark thought was forced out by the interrogation.

But he wasn’t the killer. He had a motive, but not the capability.

Kroger looked at the trembling young man in the interrogation room, who had exposed his deep-seated negative emotions, and fell into contemplation. Even an S-grade guide couldn’t use mental tendrils from two kilometers away at the hospital to control Leonard in the office building. Moreover, Lu Zexuan was right beside him at the time. If he used mental tendrils to remotely control other sentinels, he would have to concentrate his mental energy, and Lu Zexuan would definitely notice what he was doing.

While Kroger dragged Yu Ran and the white fox into the “black room” for interrogation, he also carefully observed Yu Ran’s original mental world. The mist around the lake showed no changes, indicating that his mental landscape was indeed only the size he saw before him. However, there were many negative emotions appearing above the lake, all of which he had seen at the scene of the mining accident—faces of the deceased, pregnant women hugging their husbands’ bodies and crying, children screaming after losing their mothers, and elderly people collapsing after seeing their daughters’ bodies…

Suddenly, the lake in front of him began to tremble violently, and the entire mental world shook like an earthquake, with even cracks appearing in the sky. Kroger immediately retracted the butterflies and released the little fox. At the same time, he shouted to the two guides nearby, “Mohr, Mrs. Joseph, quick, save him! His mental landscape is about to collapse!”

Mrs. Joseph’s face turned pale with shock. She sternly said, “What have you done to my Yu Ran?!”

Kroger was also frightened and said with an ugly expression, “I… It’s not the time to explain now, saving him is the priority!”

Mohr and Mrs. Joseph immediately approached the bed and extended their mental tendrils cautiously, their two white mental tendrils entering Yu Ran’s mental world. The boy’s mental landscape was indeed violently shaking, with countless negative emotions almost devouring and engulfing him entirely.

A guide’s mental world was usually much more stable than a sentinel’s, but Yu Ran was different. He had just awakened as a guide, didn’t know how to control mental energy, and his mental landscape was not stable enough. Kroger’s methods of dealing with him as a “cunning criminal” had forced out all the deep-seated negative emotions, almost causing the poor boy’s mental collapse!

Kroger was truly despicable!

Mrs. Joseph and Mohr, at this moment, both deeply resented the interrogation officer from the Investigation Division. How could they treat our little guide so violently?!

Fortunately, Mrs. Joseph and Mohr were both healing-type abilities. The two of them worked together to help Yu Ran tidy up his mental world. The flexible white mental tendrils swiftly dispersed one cluster of negative emotions after another. Under their careful comfort, the intense shaking of the lake gradually subsided.

Yu Ran’s mental landscape returned to its original state, but the little white fox was seriously injured, lying on the shore, barely breathing.

The two of them exited his mental world.

Mrs. Joseph turned back with a stern face, staring at Kroger. “Kroger, are you satisfied now? You almost killed my little guide! If Mohr and I weren’t here, he would have been driven to mental collapse by you today and become a lunatic!”

Mohr also reprimanded, “Aren’t the methods of your Investigation Division too violent?”

Lu Zexuan looked at Yu Ran lying on the bed with closed eyes, the boy sweating profusely, his clothes soaked with sweat, his lips as pale as paper, and his face devoid of color, looking as if he had just recovered from a serious illness, making people feel sorry for him.

Lu Zexuan frowned, looking coldly at Kroger. “Is the interrogation over? If there’s nothing else, please leave.”

Kroger, disliked by everyone present, sweated on his forehead, awkwardly smiled and said, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to. As long as Yu Ran is fine, then… “

Lu Zexuan interrupted coldly, “You don’t need to worry about what comes next. We will take care of him.”

The dismissal was very clear.

Kane tactfully tugged on his companion Kroger’s sleeve and said, “General Lu, sorry for the interruption. We’ll go back and write the investigation report.”

The two of them hurriedly left the Eagle starship.

Yu Ran was still unconscious. Mrs. Joseph affectionately touched his head and said, “Poor child, a C-grade guide invaded by an A+ grade guide’s mental world must be very painful, right? Don’t be afraid, I’m here. And from now on, that Kroger won’t get near you.”

Lu Zexuan whispered, “Madam, he needs rest now. Give him some time.”

Mrs. Joseph stood up. “Okay, let’s all leave and let him rest.”

The three of them left the room one after another, with Mohr considerately closing the door behind them.

It wasn’t until everyone’s footsteps faded away that the “unconscious” boy on the bed slightly furrowed his brows and began to repair his mental world.

An A+ grade guide with professional interrogation skills was indeed not easy to deal with, and it had consumed quite a bit of his mental energy.

Yu Ran stood in the center of a primeval forest, looking at the mess around him and thinking of a saying—when one falls into the enemy’s hands and faces the most severe interrogation, if you want to conceal your true intentions, then you must “show weakness” to the interrogator, give them a little sweetness so they think they’ve obtained effective information, and only then will they let you go.

Kroger thought he had forced out Yu Ran’s negative emotions and learned the true thoughts deep in the boy’s heart. But he didn’t realize that it was Yu Ran who had deliberately shown weakness to him, intentionally letting him know.

The violent shaking of the lake, the near collapse of the mental landscape, were all illusions intentionally displayed by Yu Ran to drive away his butterflies.

In the primeval forest, where the borders were invisible, many trees withered and collapsed, indicating that Yu Ran had expended a considerable amount of mental energy this time. The little white fox was indeed too tired and needed to sleep to recover mentally, while the nine-tailed fox was hiding well in the depths of the forest, not exposed.

Yu Ran gently reached out his hand, and the green tendrils of the healing ability spread from his fingertips. Those green tendrils, like wildly growing vines, quickly swam through the depths of the forest. Wherever they passed, the originally collapsed and withered trees were infused with powerful vitality and miraculously stood up again, becoming vibrant once more.

This was Yu Ran’s powerful healing and restoration ability. The speed at which the boy repaired his mental landscape was even faster than when Mohr and Mrs. Joseph teamed up.

Author’s note:

The setting of the sentinel-guide abilities system in this story is complete, with guide abilities divided into “healing” and “attack” directions.

World background: Guides and sentinels are equal in status.