Dead silence, dark, pitch-black, the basement is empty and desolate, the glaring white fluorescent lights flicker on and off. Insects crawl in and out of the sewer opening, making rustling sounds.
And at this moment, a tall and slender shadow hangs upside down from the ceiling.
Holding a comic book in his left hand, a restraint belt extends from his right sleeve, tightly binding the old man in a tattered officer’s uniform, wrapping around his body, then almost word by word, he asks:
"Mr. Julius, could you tell me... where is the base of the Salvation Society?"
The words end. The clear sentences bring forth a brief silence. Death-like silence gradually fills the air of the basement, the insects entirely crawl into the sewer holes, leaving the only sound being the hum of the exhaust fan.
With nothing else to do, Black Cocoon launches "Restraint Detection" and glances at the opponent’s attributes.
[Condition Met: Touch the target’s body, passive skill activated - "Restraint Detection".]
[Target Gender: Male]
[Target Attributes: Power: S+; Speed: S+; Spirit: S]
[Extraordinary Species: Superpower User]
[Superpower: Manipulation of rock and stone, unable to create from thin air, must extract from surrounding environment.]
"So this is the standard attribute for Catastrophe Level?" Black Cocoon raised an eyebrow.
He thought, "Julius is a leader among Catastrophe-levels, his peak single combat ability can probably be compared with members of Lake Hunting, so his attributes should be slightly higher than usual Catastrophe-level... This way, my machine’s attributes are not far from the Catastrophe Level standard either."
Black Cocoon looked up. Even under the pressure of Restraint Truth, Julius had little reaction, only slightly furrowing his brows, veins bulging on his forehead—this was due to Julius having extremely high spiritual power, temporarily resisting the effect of Restraint Truth.
But from the observation of Restraint Sensing, it seemed Julius couldn’t hold on much longer. His brain was like a computer slowly booting up, stuck on the password entry screen.
And Restraint Truth was like a hacker, continually trying various passwords, attempting to awaken this slumbering system, to spy on the data within its disks.
This process requires time. After all, Julius is a mighty S-level Spirit Attribute user; his defense mechanism is not easily penetrated.
However, Black Cocoon is very patient, anyway, temporarily having no other tasks at hand, plenty of time to wear the opponent down.
He suddenly shook his head and sighed, casually placing down the not so readable "Abyss of Youth" onto the ground, then turned to another borrowed comic book "Octopus’s Original Sin."
Both of these comic books were recommended by the comic store owner, now it seems somewhat suspiciously like malicious retaliation.
He thus watched the comic, quietly waited for a while, then slightly narrowed his eyes.
Finally seeing Julius show a trace of reaction. The old man’s lips suddenly moved slightly.
The officer spoke hoarsely: "I... don’t know."
"Don’t know? How can you not know? Aren’t you with the Salvation Society?"
The officer remained silent.
Black Cocoon thought, "Then where was the first contact between you and the Salvation Society? In what manner did they contact you?" The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭•𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦•𝘯𝘦𝘵
"I don’t know, Salvation Society... Salvation Society, don’t know. Can’t... can’t be the Salvation Society?"
"How did you previously go to the Salvation Society’s base then? Did they blindfold you with a cloth?"
"I can’t say... I can’t say, I can’t say!" Julius suddenly screamed, his body convulsed violently as if an epileptic patient, his pupils spilled terrifying threads of blood, his eyeballs almost popping out of their sockets.
Through feedback of Restraint Sensing, Black Cocoon realized the situation was becoming dire.
Julius seems to be experiencing symptoms akin to the day on the train with Red Traffic Lights—he is facing mental death, a fate distinct from physical death, void, filled with terror, leaving an empty shell upon brain death.
This is undoubtedly the Mentor’s handiwork. Currently, Black Cocoon only knows of two Spiritual superpower users within the Salvation Society, one being the Mentor, the other Kong Youling.
Apart from the Mentor, no other possibility exists. Last time’s Red Traffic Lights incident precisely verified this point.
"Must hurry... must extract something before Julius completely succumbs to mental death." Black Cocoon squinted, his thoughts chaotic, "But what can I ask? He’s already been implanted with a mental imprint by the Mentor. The Mentor is ruthless... will he spare no one who has come into contact? Or perhaps... is this a rigid rule of the Salvation Society, and Julius tacitly accepted this point?"
During the prior probing, he seems to have realized one thing: whenever "Salvation Society" is mentioned, Julius simply won’t respond, or rather, "can’t respond."
Undoubtedly, this is the effect of the Mentor’s mental imprint.
If it were someone like Red Traffic Lights, a Dragon-level superpower user, they would have already succumbed to mental death.
But Julius is different. He’s an old Catastrophe-level superpower user, his spiritual fortitude naturally far exceeds the norm, evidenced by the attributes detected by "Restraint Detection".
"Even so, in this situation where he’s lost the ability to think, if I phrase my questions to avoid the phrase ’Salvation Society’, I might bypass the Mentor’s mental imprint, extracting some crucial intelligence."