Chapter 9: The Hypocrite

Chapter 9: The Hypocrite

Xu Qingran wasn't just making things up.

From the time he became a teenager in his previous life, he had intermittently encountered harassment from both genders. Whether it was being drugged, schemes to gain his trust, traps, or even direct force, he had experienced almost all of it.

Fortunately, by then, he had already developed lightning-based powers to protect himself, and those who tried to harm him all ended up dead at his hands.

With this in mind, he glanced again at the interrogator surnamed Niu in front of him.

So, if this officer dared to touch him, even if it meant being skinned and having his bones dug out, he would first strip him of a layer of skin.

The man on the other side of the table did not show any disdain or reprimand for his less-than-friendly attitude, simply saying, "No need, I'm not interested in someone like you."

His smile was gentle and just right, his posture straight yet relaxed, perfectly embodying elegance, refinement, and a gentlemanly demeanor. His calm tone made whatever he said seem non-threatening.

Only those deep blue eyes were inscrutable.

Xu Qingran met his gaze without a word.

What a detestable hypocrite.

"The person in charge should have told you why you were brought in," his interrogator said, holding only a pen, as if he had grabbed it from his office to show he was working.

Even his questioning was casual: "Tell me again, what exactly did you do?"

Xu Qingran thought for a moment, then replied nonchalantly, "On the day of my brother's engagement, I sent a funeral wreath to the venue, worried that the atmosphere might be too dull, so I hired people to spice it up. Then, I sent a letter to my future brother-in-law, who is also my ex-boyfriend, expressing my feelings and blessings."

System: "Huh?"

"My dear host, what are you talking about? Such a good opportunity to explain, and you didn't even do those things!"

Xu Qingran: "I did, I really did."

System: "..."

The man chuckled and asked, "Is that all?"

His tone was quite indifferent, as if he were just making small talk, but Xu Qingran couldn't help but think of the people at the abandoned factory in District South 13.

Then, without changing his expression, he replied, "Yes, so does the officer think I should be let go?"

The man laughed again: "First, let's hear what you're thinking now."

"Thoughts?" Xu Qingran raised an eyebrow, "I regret it."

"Regretful that I only sent a letter, instead of going to disrupt the event myself."

System: "..."

The handsome interrogator tapped his index finger lightly on the smooth table a few times before finally speaking, "If you want to leave, you should answer that you regret not controlling your emotions, regret acting on impulse, regret having pessimistic thoughts."

"Of course, if you don't want to leave, you can ignore what I said."

Listening to the man's standard answer, Xu Qingran suddenly asked, "Officer Niu, have you heard of Shen Tingyu?"

The sudden mix of a fake title and a real name in one sentence made the man pause for a few seconds before replying, "I think few in the empire don't know of him now."

Xu Qingran added, "I heard he was also a Type E user from this Tower of Evil, and I heard he is the only prisoner so far to have handed in a perfect 'answer sheet' before leaving."

"I just wanted to ask the sir if he thinks this record can be broken this year?"

Shen Tingyu immediately understood the metaphor behind his question.

"Very well, you can go," he said, without giving a definite yes or no answer.

Xu Qingran was a bit taken aback, feeling as though he had just sat down not long ago.

Compared to the usual wait in the holding room, this was much shorter. However, he was relieved to end early, so after the man gave the instruction, he left without any hesitation.

After Xu Qingran left, Shen Tingyu remained seated in the room for a while longer, still as a statue, his eyelids slightly lowered as if in thought. Until a junior inspector at the door handed him a tablet, asking him to provide an evaluation result for the young man he had just interrogated.

His gaze lingered on the blank page for a few seconds, then he picked up a pen and wrote a few words on it, before standing up and patting the junior inspector on the shoulder: "Well done."

After saying that, he left the small room, his steps steady and leisurely, heading to somewhere within the Tower of Evil.

The junior inspector looked down and saw a brief sentence written in cursive handwriting.

"Needs strict supervision and discipline."

·

Xu Qingran couldn’t have imagined that his seemingly relaxed interrogation process would result in a wristband being locked onto his wrist.

When the device was put on, he was in a cafeteria-like area with others who had just finished their interrogations, waiting to grab a meal.

The wristband was pure black with a red bead set into it. It was said that the bead could strictly monitor the wearer's physical condition and state, and if it detected any violent behavior, it would immediately trigger an electric shock from the wristband.

As for the reason: "Your examiner has judged you as a dangerous individual requiring strict control."

Xu Qingran watched with a blank face as the staff left.

As they say, the more gentle and humble someone appears, the more twisted they are inside.

Perhaps due to a shared experience, the group that came in the same batch had already become close in just half a day, chatting happily around the dining table. Xu Qingran was at the end of the line, and when he got his food and sat down at a relatively empty table, the batch that had been called away around the same time as him finally showed up.

The siblings were still huddled together, and he hadn't paid much attention to them before.

Until they carried their trays and sat at the same table as him. But they didn't dare to get too close, staying quietly at the other end of the long table, occasionally sneaking glances at him, wanting to start a conversation but not daring to.

Xu Qingran focused solely on his food, eating the meal he’d worked for with reverence.

Meanwhile, the system chirped: "Host, great progress! You're already starting to have fans!"

"Always remember, we need to strive to complete the mission of the main objective, to raise the spiritual pool level to the highest! Before that, keep a low profile, work hard to clear your name, change the image in others' eyes, and finally make a comeback and slap them in the face!"

Xu Qingran stopped mid-bite, deep in thought.

Although he wasn't familiar with the others in the same batch, the siblings seemed to have gotten friendly with several people. So, the once lonely dining table gradually filled up after they joined, and the chatter became loud and lively.

They talked about the reasons they were brought in.

"Ah, I was just in a bad mood that day, and happened to run into some classmates who were provoking me, couldn't help but beat them up."

"I broke the leg of the vixen who was seducing my boyfriend."

"My relative has a foul mouth, and that day he started mocking our family again, saying nasty things about my mom, so I slapped his face until it swelled. But that old man, not respecting his elders, went back and reported me in anger."

Amidst the laughter, they suddenly turned to the seemingly innocent-looking siblings and asked, "You two look so innocent, how did you end up being brought in together?"

The younger sister nervously pinched her little fingers and whispered, "We... we killed someone..."

The dining table fell silent for a brief moment.

Until the older brother patted his sister's head and said apologetically, "Sorry, but it’s because our dad came home drunk that day and started beating us again. He beat our mom until she was bleeding from the head, and then he brought some strangers to take my sister away to sell her for money."

So, while resisting, they accidentally killed their father and the man who came to take my sister. He was almost ambushed by that stranger, but his sister helped by hitting the guy, letting him escape.

But the tool they used was too hard and sharp, and the guy died on the spot.

After hearing this, everyone at the table’s expressions shifted from shock to sympathy.

The little system whimpered, "Host, they’re so pitiful."

Xu Qingran ignored it and kept eating, eager to get out of this cramped, uncomfortable place.

But the boy sitting next to him, who was pretty straightforward, worried Xu Qingran might feel left out, asked proactively, "Brother, why are you here?"

Xu Qingran stopped eating, looked up, and saw everyone at the table staring at him.

He quickly looked down, picked up his water glass, and said, "Killed a few people."

Another brief silence followed, and someone who’d been through it asked, "Why?"

Xu Qingran took a big gulp of water and rasped, "No reason, just didn’t like them."

This time, the table went dead silent.

Suddenly, the cafeteria door was kicked open, and the rude boy from before, with a bandage on his face and pale lips, stormed in cursing. He was also wearing a black wristband like Xu Qingran’s, and his mood hit rock bottom when the guy at the window said, "You’re late, no food left."

He slammed his tray to the ground and even kicked a robot casually rolling by.

The boy’s commotion plunged the entire cafeteria into dead silence. After scanning the room, his eyes landed on a quiet figure with a beige back, seemingly an easy target.

He winced as he touched the scar on his cheek, then marched over and slammed the table, "Move, your food’s mine now."

But the young man not only ignored him but even quietly moved his plate further in, as if worried the boy’s slamming hand would dirty it. This only made the furious boy angrier, and he flipped the plate he wanted onto the ground.

The unfinished food and the water glass beside it spilled everywhere.

The younger sister in the corner huddled into her brother’s arms, her face a mix of fear and anger, too scared to speak. The others stayed quiet, afraid of getting dragged into the fight.

The troublemaker boy was pretty pleased with all the attention.

He also noticed the young man in front of him wore the same wristband, which made him even happier.

Not to mention that he had rarely lost in fights over the years, but he had already experienced the power of this wristband when he first put it on. If this guy dared to fight him, he would just have to wait to be—

While he was gloating, the young man suddenly stood up and punched the boy hard on his injured cheek with his wristband-clad hand.

Xu Qingran grabbed the boy, who was not even half his height, and thought to himself, why is it so hard to just have a quiet meal?

The wound on the boy's face, which had just been treated, split open again, and blood flowed down his jaw. But Xu Qingran, who had his meal interrupted and saw food being wasted, clearly had no intention of stopping. The boy he was holding screamed and struggled to fight back, but was easily subdued by a few moves.

With a calm face, Xu Qingran pressed the boy's face hard into the pile of food scraps on the floor, his other hand gripping his jaw tightly.

His gaze was eerily calm, "You wanted to eat? Then open your mouth."

The boy's injured face was rubbed against the ground, whether intentionally or not, causing him so much pain that his eyes turned red, and tears fell uncontrollably. From the corner of his eye, he could see the hand forcing his mouth open, the red bead on the wristband flashing ominously.

The bracelet was signaling an attack.

But the grip on his wrist remained firm, and he finally felt a hint of fear.

Having experienced it firsthand, he knew the basic punishments in the Tower of Evil were no laughing matter. He had been electrocuted once and lay on the ground in pain for a long time. This man, who looked quite mild-tempered, had such endurance—could he be a potential Type E user—

He was still reeling from his own discovery when his collar was yanked up again, and his head was slammed onto the sticky floor once more.

The blow left him seeing stars and disoriented, and the pain from his wounds silenced him.

So, everyone in the cafeteria heard the boy, who had been all bravado just moments ago, now trembling with shame as he stammered, "I... I'll eat... I'll eat..."

There was no trace left of his earlier bravado.

·

After the commotion, Xu Qingran only managed to eat half of his meal.

Unsurprisingly, he was taken away by the Tower staff.

At Building 4's entrance, Xu Qingran held out his hand for the staff to check his bracelet, as another was clamped onto his other wrist.

"It's fine..."

The staff member, clad in a silver dragon uniform, muttered under his breath before turning a stern gaze on him and saying, "You've been here less than a day and already attacked someone. With such a temper, you won't make it out of the Tower of Evil."

Xu Qingran shot back, "I think my temper's just fine."

He hadn't even been that angry.

The staff member snorted, thinking he was full of it, and led him deeper into Building 4.

The vibe here was starkly different from Building 5, the outermost structure. As they ascended, a cacophony of shouts greeted them—some inmates were slamming against their cell doors in rage, while others were quietly unraveling.

The staff said he would be left alone in this environment for a few days to reflect on his actions. If he didn't show remorse, real punishments would follow.

Xu Qingran was escorted to a specific floor in Tower 4.

Each compartment on this floor was a solitary cell. The cell doors, seemingly crafted from stardust, featured a semi-hollow design for easy monitoring of the inmates. The cell bars were rigged with anti-escape devices, and he watched as someone attempting to bust through the door suddenly dropped, convulsing wildly.

The staff member glanced over but ignored it.

Each cell door displayed the basic info of the prisoner inside, and he skimmed them casually. Most weren't Type E users he recognized.

Soon after, they ran into another guard tasked with patrolling the floor.

As they logged his info, the two staff members bantered, "Wow, sent to Tower 4 in less than a day... last time that happened was with that escapee."

"Speaking of him, has he been confirmed as a Type E user? Has he been found yet?"

"Not yet. By the time he was discovered, he had already escaped Queen's Star. Now they're strictly controlling all national checkpoints to search for him. My brothers at the checkpoints are complaining every day about having to work overtime."

"Haha, lucky I wasn't transferred there..."

While they were chatting, Xu Qingran casually glanced around and suddenly saw a man with a receding hairline kneeling in one of the rooms, continuously kowtowing to an empty wall, muttering nervously, "Please, spare me, I didn't mean to kill you, please spare me..."

Perhaps his gaze was too intense, as the man seemed to sense it and turned his head.

Then his eyes suddenly widened, and he screamed as if seeing a ghost, kowtowing to Xu Qingran instead, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! No, don't come for me, I didn't mean to kill you!"

"I didn't mean to poison your child, it was her, she made me do it, it's all her, go find her..."