NIKKE, When the Milky Way Blossoms

Before owning a prosthetic limb, someone thought that prosthetic limbs were like plastic surgery; once replaced, they would definitely be replaced a second or third time, thus raising philosophical questions like the "Ship of Theseus."

However, men never tell the truth.

Since successfully getting a prosthetic leg, replacing his lung, and strengthening his upper body support, Phoenix has come to appreciate the power of prosthetics...

It's really useful!!!

Fighting people one by one with a single punch is inefficient. Grabbing one person's head and smashing it onto another's head can take down two people in half a second.

The only drawback is that if the force is not controlled properly, it is easy to kill a person when striking vital points.

Therefore,

Considering that there would be an interrogation later, Phoenix very kindly used four punches to break Watson's shoulders and knees, in order to avoid the embarrassing situation of accidentally killing all the interrogation targets.

"Where did you get this video? Can you tell me?"

He gently pressed his heel on Watson's index finger, and the man's interrogation was as casual and unhurried as if he were chatting with a friend.

To his surprise, Watson, who was mentally prepared and had no intention of putting on a tough act, was visibly taken aback when he heard those words.

"Videos? What videos? I don't sell videos."

The disheveled man's answer made Phoenix pause for a moment, then he added:

"Um... I'm not talking about those short videos, I'm talking about ground combat records... I just want to know which guy you got the combat records from."

"You mean the kind of torture videos that Buck likes to watch?"

Upon hearing Phoenix's words, Watson first made a gesture of sudden realization, but then, as if he had thought of something, his fierce face gradually darkened.

So this guy wasn't even there to steal his goods at all?!

As he was pondering this bitterly, Phoenix gleaned some clues from his expression.

However, the person didn't think his actions were a blunder. This guy killed people without hesitation, and just now he shot several of his underlings without even blinking. He was obviously no good.

He had previously said the goods were in an iron box, so I might as well go and see what contraband was hidden inside.

The consciousness map is not omnipotent; it cannot achieve a completely transparent effect. Simply put, Phoenix's consciousness has difficulty probing into any enclosed space with gaps smaller than one millimeter.

Clang!

Reaching the metal box, the man easily lifted the lid. Without needing any light, he could discern the contents of the box solely from the blue dot matrix image in his mind.

Five burlap sacks, curled up in a ball. Although there were few details, he could still guess the creatures inside from the overall shape of the sacks and the wrinkles in the fabric.

--people.

No, if it were a person, even a fool would know that they shouldn't be placed in such an overly enclosed space.

It's Niki...

Niki, a mass-produced model that is absolutely obedient to orders.

Only Niki doesn't have such a high oxygen requirement, because only their brains need oxygen, and their oxygen consumption is only one-fifth of that of a normal person. In addition, they have emergency oxygen devices in their bodies, so short-term oxygen-deficient environments are completely within the scope of Niki's designers' consideration.

Even so, Phoenix's blood pressure continued to rise as he left the five Nikis in the metal box as if they were objects.

He never cared about the Ark humans' attitude towards Niki. As a commander and a soldier who had risked his life against hostile forces, he would feel uncomfortable if anyone treated Niki that way, let alone if someone treated a purely mechanical combat robot that way.

Very unhappy,

I'm quite annoyed.

Damn it, I was fighting those mechanical junks on the ground, relying on the cooperation of these comrades. You bunch of scum hiding in the ground treated my comrades like cargo, throwing them into iron boxes and saying... they were some kind of top-quality goods.

blah-

Phoenix chuckled and took out the butterfly knife that Old Roba had given him from his pocket to cut a hole in the sack for Niki and the others.

"All five of you can come out now."

After saying that, the man walked backwards, his heel precisely grinding onto Watson's thumb.

Click.

The cracking sound of cartilage breaking mingled with Watson's muffled groan.

"You're pretty tough."

Wearing a mask and tinted contact lenses, someone smiled and looked down at the vendor on the ground, then crushed the vendor's thumb with their heel as if stepping on a cigarette butt.

"It's good to be assertive. Those who are always yelling and complaining are just not interesting."

Clack clack clack—

The sounds of joints dislocating and squeezing, riding the wave of "pain," relentlessly assaulted Watson's brain and mind, forcing him to plead:

"Men...men, give me...give me a quick death, and I'll tell you everything I know..."

Unexpectedly, this seemingly flattering remark struck a nerve with Phoenix. The man stomped his foot and spoke with a tone full of anger.

"What do you mean by that?!"

"What do you mean by 'Give me a straight answer and I'll tell you'? Does it mean you won't tell me unless I give you a straight answer?"

click!

Before he could even process the other person's logic, Watson heard the sound of bones breaking in his right hand.

What follows is the extreme pain of broken bones being torn together with muscles and nerves under the torque.

"Damn it! They look down on my interrogation methods?!"

click!

"So you mean you look down on me?"

click!

"You look down on men, huh?"

click!

As Phoenix answered his own question, Watson stared wide-eyed in agony, desperately trying to lift his head. His body, unable to move due to the broken limbs, writhed on the ground like an earthworm after rain, a truly disgusting sight.

"Master, Master...I...I was wrong...I was wrong...really..."

Originally, this was just Watson's instinctive plea, and he didn't even expect to get a response.

But it was precisely this pleading that made the madman stop what he was doing and instead squat down in front of him.

has it ended?

The slovenly man's naive idea had barely been born for a second when a cold, sharp blade pierced his left eyelid, shredding the idea into pieces.

in the darkness,

It was as if a gentle inquiry from hell echoed softly through the factory.

"you……"

"Are you looking down on me?"

Chapter Thirty-Two: An Unexpected Encounter (4K)

The interrogation process was not only smooth, but also tedious.

Before Phoenix could even ask any questions, Watson had already spilled everything he knew.

Fear is one thing.

Who wouldn't be afraid of a madman who is both violent and knows torture?

As for not wanting their eyes to be gouged out, that's another matter entirely.

In the Outer Boundaries, trust is a luxury. Betrayal is the only constant among the outlaws of the Outer Boundaries.

To keep secrets from upstream and downstream, potentially leading to the loss of an eye or even one's life?

impossible.

Just like the betrayal of his underlings, Watson betrayed his boss and client without any qualms.

“I’m just the receiver. They contact me unilaterally, and there’s no one to pick me up. I need to go to the address myself to pick up the goods… Niki, and then smuggle Niki out of the inner wall of the Ark to the outer edge. Someone will be waiting there to take over. The people who come each time are different, and the codes and methods are also different.”

"It sounds like you don't know anything at all after all this talk."

Phoenix chuckled softly, and his rock-solid prosthetic right arm moved forward precisely by a fraction of an inch, bringing the blade tip even closer to his eyeball.

"No, no, no, no! I at least know the smuggling routes! I, I know the smuggling methods! I'm not a completely useless intermediary!"

Feeling the stinging pain in his eyelids, Watson's emotions, which had finally calmed down, surged back into agitation. However, unable to move, he could only speak rapidly in a trembling voice:

“I know how to smuggle myself from the Ark to the Outer Edge, and I can roughly guess where that kid Buck bought the video. I... I can take you there!”

Phoenix thought the lead on the private sale of combat records had been cut off after Green Hair's death, but unexpectedly, the investigation yielded some pleasant surprises, which greatly improved his less-than-ideal mood.

However, just as he was about to continue asking questions, Anik's synthesized voice suddenly echoed in his mind.

Someone is approaching the factory. Judging from the route, there's an 88.6% chance they'll come in through the west gate, the one on your left.