Chapter 82: You Don’t Want Me to Reveal Ji An’s Secret, Do You!

Chapter 82 You wouldn’t want me to expose Ji An’s secret, would you!

Instead of the respectful treatment Philemon and her team had imagined, they were immediately shoved into a sterile, metal-walled interrogation room upon landing.

Charles was already waiting in the interrogation room, stood motionless, his back turned to Philemon and the others. Only after they had all entered did he turn around.

One of Charles’s eyes had previously been blinded by a superpowered individual from the base, though it was later restored. Yet, for some reason, when Philemon met his gaze, she felt a bone-deep dread, as if she had suddenly plunged from a warm place into an icy abyss.

"Commander-in-Chief Charles, we—we've returned." For some reason, the confidence Philemon had always held as a national hero before setting foot on M Country’s soil began to waver the moment she landed.

Now, facing Charles’s gaze, Philemon even began to doubt whether she had done something in the Jing City Base that betrayed M Country or leaked its secrets.

"We’ve completed our mission successfully," Philemon forced herself to say. "Before we left, we accomplished all the tasks you assigned us. The spatial storage device was invented by a researcher named Ji An, and the nutritional serums were likely developed by Han Yaokun."

Charles’s eyes were as cold as a snake’s, glaring at Philemon like prey with a sinister intensity. "Is this all you have to tell me?"

Philemon’s heart pounded even harder. She felt that a single wrong word could cost her her life here, yet she had no way to escape this predicament.

Unsure how to resolve the situation, she could only speak of their sacrifices, hoping to evoke even a shred of pity from Charles.

"Our time at the Jing City Base was miserable. Gu Jinsheng forced us to heal superpowered individuals day and night.

Later, even when it was clear that continuing would exhaust our superpowers to the point of permanent loss, Gu Jinsheng still dragooned us to keep healing.

Even after our superpowers were depleted from overuse, he had people examine us like livestock as if we were faking it..."

"Is this all you have to say? Nothing but worthless excuses!" Suddenly, Charles erupted in fury without warning, like a bull seeing red. The veins on his forehead throbbed visibly.

Philemon was startled, and a sense of injustice spread through her. Before they left, every one of them had went willingly—no one had been forced to go because the base held leverage over them.

Back then, Charles had treated them with respect, praising them as national heroes who sacrificed for their country, assuring them that M Country and its people would remember them forever.

But now, after barely making it back alive, everything had changed. It was as if they were no longer heroes but disgraced traitors!

One of Philemon’s teammates, unable to bear the stark contrast in treatment, spoke up indignantly, "Commander-in-Chief, we did our best to complete the tasks you assigned us.

Honestly, the day we left for the Jing City Base, I never thought I’d make it back alive.

Surviving this mission was sheer luck.

Shouldn’t the base be celebrating our return, proud of us... Ahhh!!!"

Philemon only felt a blade-like energy slice past her, the right side of her face burning as if cut by a blade. Her teammate was sent flying by a burst of superpower, slamming into the wall with a scream. His skull cracked audibly before he collapsed to the ground.

Philemon reached up and touched her right cheek, her fingers coming away smeared crimson.

Her pupils dilated in primal fear.

Charles’s assistant, stumbling forward, panicked. "NO, Commander-in-Chief! You can't risk using your superpower! Your eye can’t withstand the intensity—it’s bleeding again!"

Charles roared, "Useless! All of you! How many eyes is this now? Not a single one has fully awakened successfully!"

The assistant wanted to say that even though they had cloned dozens of Charles’s clones, he kept pushing his ability past its limits, causing each newly transplanted eye to fail under the strain. At this rate, even a hundred clones wouldn’t be enough! Even if a clone managed to awaken the same superpower as Charles’s original body, Charles wouldn’t give it time to level up before demanding its eyes. How could any transplanted eye possibly endure the power of a max-level superpowered?

Charles barked, "Tell the research institute I’m coming to replace my eye within the hour."

The assistant shrank back, swallowing nervously in fear. "Commander-in-Chief, we've exhausted the cloned eye supply from this batch. You'll have to wait for the next batch of clones if you want new ones!"

"Worthless! Every last one of you!" Charles unleashed his powers, sending both the assistant and Philemon's group flying without exception. Philemon felt a metallic taste in her throat and spat out blood mixed with fragments of internal tissue.

Charles went berserk like a maddened bull, wildly flinging his powers around until the entire interrogation room was left in shambles. Only then did he stop, panting heavily.

By now, one of Charles' eyes was bleeding profusely, the blood streaming down his face. He paid it no mind, not even bothering to wipe it away, his blood-streaked visage resembling a demon freshly crawled out of hell.

It took Charles a long while to calm down, as if finally subduing that sudden burst of fury. He looked down at Philemon coldly and said, "To be honest, Philemon, I'm deeply disappointed in your group. I never expected any of you to return alive."

These words plunged Philemon's last shred of hope into despair. She asked fearfully, "Commander-in-Chief Charles, isn't it a good thing that we came back alive?"

"It is indeed a good thing that you returned," Charles said, his tone shifting. "But you should know very well what you betrayed in exchange for this chance. Instead of prostrating yourselves in apology to all of M Country upon your return, you dared to deceive me, posing as heroes?"

"We didn't!" Philemon couldn't understand what had gone wrong. This wasn't how their sacrifices for the country should be repaid. "Commander-in-Chief Charles, there must be some misunderstanding!"

Charles said with a cold laugh, "Misunderstanding? None at all. It seems you won't admit the truth until faced with undeniable proof. Tell me, what's the deal with the Beijing base's medical pods?"

Philemon and her teammates exchanged confused glances, completely unaware of what Charles meant by "medical pods." Philemon said, "Gu Jinsheng didn't allow us to interact with outsiders. Even eating and using the restroom were under constant surveillance. Our only task was to heal—constantly treating injured superpowered individuals in the Beijing base. We weren't allowed to sleep until we finished our daily quotas. So we know nothing about any medical pods."

"Lies." Charles waved his hand, and someone replayed a recorded livestream from the Beijing base for Philemon and the others.

After watching, Philemon's group felt their blood run cold. Charles asked coldly, "What else do you have to say? If not for you revealing the secret of cloning, how could those pig-brained Chinese have figured it out? You betrayed M Country's highest classified intel—cloning for healing—in exchange for your cowardly survival!"

"No, we didn't! We said nothing!" Philemon insisted. "There was a strikingly handsome man in their Beijing base, a former psychic superpowered individual whose abilities were later lost. He was preternaturally intelligent—he guessed everything on his own!"

Philemon had only heard Ji An's name but didn't know him personally.

"Philemon, listen to yourself. Does that sound believable? A former psychic superpowered individual who lost their abilities is nothing but trash. How could they be 'preternaturally intelligent'? Do you take me for a fool?"

Philemon suddenly felt utterly powerless. At this moment, she realized no amount of words or explanations could clear her name.

Charles said, "I don't need your excuses. I only want the truth."

As he spoke, over a dozen top-level psychic superpowered individuals entered the room—all former colleagues of Philemon's who had once worked alongside her.

Philemon realized what was coming and shook her head in terror. "No, Commander-in-Chief Charles, you can't do this to us! We're heroes, not criminals!"

She looked at her former friend and colleague. "Dela, you wouldn't do this to me."

Dela replied coldly, "Traitors who betray state secrets don't deserve to speak my name."

"Enough talk. Just begin. She's powerless now—no fight left in her."

"Fine," Dela agreed.

"No, no! Dela, you can't—" Philemon shook her head, tears streaming down.

"Philemon, I can." Without another word, Dela unleashed her psychic power, invading Philemon's mind. Philemon tried to resist, but as an ordinary person now, she stood no chance.

A top-level psychic superpowered individual didn't even need mind control—direct psychic invasion was enough to comb through the target's memories, extracting whatever they wished to see.

Especially since Philemon, now powerless, was defenseless against Dela. Invading her mind was as effortless as flipping through a book. Every memory—even those Philemon herself might have forgotten—was laid completely bare if Dela willed it.

The deeper Dela delved, the more pain twisted Philemon's face, soon soaked in cold sweat.

Finally, Dela finished reviewing all of Philemon's memories, including the most private ones she had desperately tried to hide. Once done, Dela withdrew from Philemon's mind, leaving her limp on the floor in a hazy, semi-conscious state.

"How was it?" Charles asked.

Della shook her head. "There's no useful information at all. Philemon and the others have been forced by Gu Jinsheng to heal the superpowered individuals in their base all this time, even to the point of exhausting their superpowers until they were rendered useless. They had no contact with the outside world and didn’t obtain any useful intel."

"Useless!" Charles cursed. "What about the cloning treatment? Did they leak it?"

"No. It was guessed by a very handsome East Asian man." By sifting through Philemon's memories, Della could clearly see everything that had happened, as if watching a movie. "The man himself said he was once a psychic-powered individual, but his superpower was lost in battle. He’s extremely intelligent, almost unnervingly so. He pieced everything together himself."

Instead of feeling guilty for wrongly accusing Philemon and the others, Charles only grew more furious at their incompetence. "A bunch of fools! They couldn’t even keep the simplest secret and let themselves be tricked without realizing it.

If they had even half a brain, how would the Chinese have found out about cloning? And how could that damn Deputy Commander have fixed his broken leg so quickly?

He must have used cloning to grow a duplicate, then cut off the usable leg and transplanted it onto himself. That has to be it!"

Della tried to calm him. "Clones still need time to grow, but the Deputy Commander of the Beijing base replaced his broken leg so fast—they must have used some special method.

Using healing abilities to accelerate growth isn’t feasible and could easily cause genetic diseases or their powers fading. They haven’t done in-depth research or clinical trials, so they wouldn’t know.

They only heard about cloning and naively thought it could solve everything.

Stealing our research won’t go unpunished. Just wait—the Deputy Commander of the Beijing base will pay for it."

Charles growled, "The Chinese are nothing but thieves, stealing our technology. I won’t let them get away with this!"

After a moment of thought, Della added, "That man must have been an exceptionally talented psychic-powered individual in the past. Even after losing his superpower, he retained that almost supernatural intelligence. I suspect his identity might be that of a researcher who relied on mental superpowers—perhaps the nutritional serum is related to him!"

Charles pulled out a photo. "A handsome East Asian man—is this the one you saw in Philemon’s memories?"

"Yes." Della was certain. She remembered that face vividly—even by Western standards, it was exceptionally handsome.

Although he did not conform to the Asian 'beauty standard' that Europeans had long promoted—the aesthetic of slanted eyes and flat noses.

But don't Americans know that such features are actually unattractive?

They do know, otherwise why would all the celebrities in their own country have big eyes, double eyelids, and sharp, well-defined features, while suddenly changing their aesthetic standards when it comes to Easterners.

They simply want to use this method to brainwash Asians, which is also a form of veiled humiliation.

"This person is named Ji An. It was a researcher named Zhao Zhen from the Jing City Base we previously contacted who passed us the information, saying this man is the inventor of the spatial storage device and the nutritional supplements."

Della drew a sharp breath.

Charles said, "Our spy in the Jing City Base tried to contact him to inquire about the cloning matter but ended up going dark, including Zhao Zhen, who also can't be reached anymore. It seems they were likely compromised."

"Gu Jinsheng is very alert. Actually, getting information about the creator of the nutritional supplements is already quite fortunate for us."

"Is that so?" Charles flashed a creepy, twisted smile. "I have another piece of good news. Perhaps you’ll find this even more fortunate?"

Della asked, "What is it?"

Charles said, "Zhao Zhen once gave us information, stating that before coming to the Jing City Base, Ji An was the significant other of the Commander-in-Chief of the Third Base. Back then, he wasn’t so impressive—it was only after fleeing the Third Base that he came into his own.

And reportedly, the rift between Ji An and the Commander-in-Chief of the Third Base was over a Space Necklace. It was this necklace that gave Ji An the research direction, allowing him to decipher the secret of the spatial storage device."

"And we are fortunate enough to have invited another player in this drama besides Ji An and that Third Base Commander—someone Ji An personally raised but ultimately turned against!" Charles clapped his hands. "Now, let’s welcome this beautiful lady in!"

The person who entered was none other than Tang Tang. Her current state was a complete mess, a far cry from the glamorous woman she had been at the Jing City Base. She looked at least twenty years older, and anyone unfamiliar would never recognize her as the once-pampered princess of the Third Base.

With her blindfold removed and the gag taken out of her mouth, Tang Tang hadn’t even had time to take in her surroundings before declaring, "My brother is the significant other of Jing City Base’s Commander Gu Jinsheng. I’m the sister he raised himself. If you dare lay a finger on me, I’ll have my brother tell the Commander-in-Chief of the Jing City Base to cut you off from your supply of nutritional supplements."

Charles laughed at Tang Tang's stupidity. "What an idiot. Forget her, don't bother with her. Let's just get started."

"Yes." Upon receiving the order, Dela immediately unleashed her psychic superpower toward Tang Tang. Tang Tang was just an ordinary person—she couldn't even see the psychic threads of superpowered individuals. Thus, before she even realized what was happening, Dela had mind-invaded her without resistance.

Tang Tang was even easier to invade than Philemon, who had just had her superpower stripped away. Her mental landscape was as barren as a wasteland—Dela had never encountered a brain so vulnerable.

Dela thought she could easily sift through Tang Tang's memories to find what she wanted, but instead, she encountered a powerful psychic suggestion.

Dela didn’t dare force her way through. She feared that doing so might trigger the planter's trap, causing Tang Tang to self-destruct. Not only would Tang Tang die, but Dela would see nothing and might even be caught in the backlash—at best, losing her superpower; at worst, exploding.

Her face darkened as she withdrew from Tang Tang’s memories. "Someone planted a psychic suggestion in her. The one who did it has incredibly strong psychic superpower. I can’t force my way in—doing so might trigger an explosion. Not only would we fail to uncover the hidden secrets, but both Tang Tang and I could be severely mentally damaged by the psychic backlash, turning us into idiots—or worse, detonating our Superpowered Crystal Cores."

Charles turned to the other psychics in the room. "All of you, try."

"Understood." Every superpowered individual in the room took turns probing, and all came to the same conclusion as Dela.

"Ji An was just a mere Level 3 psychic superpowered before his superpower was crippled. If he’s the one who planted this suggestion, how is it that a group of peak-level psychics can’t break through the work of a low-level one? Are you all just useless trash?" Charles roared furiously. "Worthless! Every last one of you—useless leeches!"

Dela’s expression twisted in humiliation. She explained, "The Jing City Base once had a powerhouse who turned one of our Level 6 superpowered into an idiot with just three arrows. I suspect they have special methods there to enhance the psychic superpower of their psychics. So even though Ji An’s psychic superpower level was low, his actual psychic superpower is incredibly strong!"

"Stop making excuses for your incompetence! Do you think I don’t have ways to boost your superpowers? Otherwise, how do you think you useless lot reached peak-level so quickly without a steady supply of crystal cores?"

Scolded into blushing, Dela said to Charles, "Sir, just give us some time. We’ll definitely find a way to break the psychic suggestion on Tang Tang."

Charles snapped, "Then get out and fix it! Take that stupid woman with you and get out of my sight!"

After everyone had left the room, Charles turned to his aide in agitation. "Get me a comms eyepatch—now! I need to contact Gu Jinsheng immediately!"

"Yes."

Gu Jinsheng rarely had free time to accompany Ji An today. After dinner, the two were lounging on the sofa chatting when Charles's communication request came through.

"It's Charles," Gu Jinsheng said.

"What's he calling you for out of the blue?" Ji An remarked. "That Commander-in-Chief from HSD seems to have some kind of manic disorder—he loses his temper before even finishing three sentences! Maybe his peak-level superpower was achieved by absorbing Superpowered Crystal Cores, and the mania is just a side effect.

Is he calling to interrogate you about those superpowered individuals like Philemon?

When he sent them over, he should've known we wouldn't let them leave easily. The fact that we only nullified their superpowers instead of taking their lives is already our China's capital base acting on humanitarian grounds."

"We'll find out once we answer." Gu Jinsheng accepted the video call.

Charles, who had always been meticulous about his appearance, was shockingly wearing an eyepatch today, covering half his face.

Seeing the black eyepatch, Gu Jinsheng was amused. "Commander-in-Chief Charles, did you injure your eye? If your country lacks the means to heal it, you're welcome to come to our country for treatment. The med-pod is an excellent option—you should give it a try!"

Charles gritted his teeth. "Your China is nothing but underhanded thieves, and your capital base is no better! You stole our cloning technology and passed it off as your own breakthrough. I wonder how your citizens would react if they knew their Commander-in-Chief was a thief!"

"They'd probably just think you're insane!" Ji An didn't barge into the video call but deliberately chimed in. "How can you even think our med-pod is plagiarized from your cloning therapy?

Don't you know how dangerous your cloning therapy is?

At best, the clones can't sustain the original's superpower—at worst, it leads to superpower collapse or genetic diseases.

Our med-pod doesn't do any of that. It's purely a medical treatment, completely free of superpower reliance, so there are zero side effects."

"No way! How could something like this even exist? Even if it did, it shouldn't be your country that developed it first—it should have been ours!" Charles continued, "Who is that beside you? The one speaking—is it Ji An?"

Gu Jinsheng, who had been in a state of indifference, immediately changed his expression upon hearing Ji An's name from Charles.

Charles, however, laughed. "Looks like I hit the mark. If your treatment pod is real, that’s perfect—I want its core technology now. Wait, also the core technology for the nutrient solution and the Spatial Storage Device."

Gu Jinsheng sneered, "Charles, are you out of your mind?"

Charles smirked triumphantly, glancing at Gu Jinsheng with his single eye. "You wouldn’t want me to spill Ji An’s secret, would you? About that Space Necklace of his?"