Then let the witch offer her loyalty

Why are you so skilled at this?

"Oh, by the way, Yan, I'd like to make a suggestion."

"......you say."

Luo Lingyou tilted his head slightly, seemingly lost in thought, and said, "In the future, I suggest placing a mirror in front of the target during interrogations, so that the target can see the entire process of being tortured. This will put more psychological pressure on them and increase the efficiency of the interrogation."

"If the target tries to close his eyes, we can cut off his eyelids to force his eyes open."

"Also, you must have eye drops on hand, otherwise if the target keeps their eyes open for too long, their vision will become dry and they won't be able to see clearly in the mirror."

Yan Yong fell silent.

In the convict court, based on their attitudes toward the trial, they can actually be divided into two factions: conservative and radical.

Conservatives adhere to humanitarian principles, believing that no matter who they are dealing with or what the situation is, they should not cross the line of humanity, let alone use torture to extract confessions.

Yan Yongze believes that humanitarianism should only be reserved for those who are not deeply sinful and can still be saved.

As for those scum, trash, and vermin who betray their country, he has always advocated for the bloodiest revenge against them.

The blood and screams of traitors are the best reward for our motherland.

Because of this stance, Yan Yong's political enemies often accused him of being too extreme, and he readily accepted this accusation, always considering himself an out-and-out radical.

Now, after listening to Luo Lingyou's advice, Yan Yong suddenly felt that he might be getting old, out of touch with the times, and perhaps a bit too conservative.

"Jingle Bell--"

Just then, Yan Yong's phone rang.

He answered the call, paused for a moment, his expression froze, his gaze became serious, and he said solemnly to Luo Lingyou, "I'll take over the interrogation here. You should go back to the Administration Bureau immediately; something has happened over there."

"Four witches have exceeded the danger level in their psychic abilities, and the degree of corruption is still deepening, posing a risk of psychic rampage."

...

According to the relevant regulations of the Administration Bureau, when a witch hunter sets off to carry out a mission, the witch who has made a spiritual contract with her needs to return to the Administration Bureau, where she will be guarded by designated personnel and her internal energy level will be monitored in real time.

Therefore, since Chen Moxin and others participated in the cube resonance twenty days ago, the four witches who had a spiritual connection with them, including Gu Qiaoqiao who enjoyed "free containment" treatment, have all been recalled to the bureau.

At first, everything was fine. The four witches' psychic values ​​occasionally increased, but they remained within a safe range.

But tonight, the four witches experienced a massive surge of madness within their bodies, their madness levels skyrocketing and breaking through the safe zone within hours, with no sign of stopping.

The state of the cube's resonant world is unobservable from the outside, and outsiders cannot communicate with the hunters who are resonating in any way. No one knows what they have encountered inside.

One thing is certain: Chen Moxin and the others must have encountered trouble, otherwise there would be no reason for them to use their spiritual energy so frequently.

At this time, Luo Lingyou had rushed back to the Administration Bureau overnight and was reviewing the surveillance footage.

The surveillance footage shows a monitoring room containing a highly sensitive madness erosion detection module that can display the madness value status within the witch's body in real time.

A fellow judge looked at Luo Lingyou and said in a deep voice, "The situation is not good. Mu Qing's intuition score is 68, and Lin Ya's intuition score is 75."

"The most outrageous ones are Chen Moxin's two witches. Liu Lan's 'psychic value' is 87, and Gu Qiaoqiao's 'psychic value' has soared to 93."

The Administration and the Tribunal have a specific set of evaluation criteria for arbitrary values.

The range from 0 to 60 is considered a safe range.

60 to 90 is considered a dangerous range.

A score of 90 or higher is extremely dangerous.

120 is the "breakout point" for the mania.

It doesn't mean that when the psychic value reaches 120, a mad psychic attack will definitely occur, but rather that the probability of a mad psychic attack will be no more than 0%.

For those witches who have reached the breaking point, the probability of their delusional outburst will increase rapidly as their internal delusional value continues to rise.

The higher the witch's madness level when she unleashes her madness, the greater the destructive power she causes.

For example, when a witch's psychic value reaches 120, she immediately unleashes a mad psychic attack, the dead zone of which is generally only a few meters wide, which is the lowest level F-class mad psychic disaster.

If the imagined value accumulates to 150 and then explodes, it could very well be an E-level or even D-level madness disaster.

If the psychic value soars to several hundred or even thousands, and then a mad psychic attack occurs, the consequences will be devastating.

Chapter 154 Because I am his witch

Luo Lingyou looked at Liu Lan and Gu Qiaoqiao on the monitor screen, then turned and walked outside: "I'm going to talk to them for a bit."

The judge's colleague exclaimed in surprise, "Just a few words? Everyone's trying to avoid us right now, and emergency measures are all prepared... Xiao Luo, it's too dangerous, don't go!"

Luo Lingyou ignored him and walked straight out the door.

The monitoring room is located in a very remote area. It is a low building built alone on an open space, surrounded by a deserted isolation zone for hundreds of meters.

The witches were assigned according to the hunters they belonged to. Lin Ya and Mu Qing were each in a monitoring room, while Liu Lan and Gu Qiaoqiao were assigned to the same room because they both belonged to Chen Moxin.

When Luo Lingyou entered the monitoring room, Liu Lan and Gu Qiaoqiao were huddled together in a corner, their eyes covered with thorn-like black marks. The lines were extremely dense and seemed to wriggle slightly like living things.

Both of them were in very poor mental condition. Liu Lan's face was pale and her eyes were somewhat unfocused. Every time she blinked, it seemed to be with unbearable exhaustion, as if she was about to lose consciousness at any moment. Yet she stubbornly opened her eyes again and again, struggling to maintain her consciousness.

Gu Qiaoqiao's situation was worse. The thorny black marks at the corners of her eyes were denser than Liu Lan's. Under the light, those marks shone with an eerie purple light, as if strange and unknown energy was flowing under her skin, eroding her body and consciousness.

Gu Qiaoqiao gripped Liu Lan's clothes tightly with her fingers, her knuckles turning white from the force. Fine beads of cold sweat kept seeping from her forehead, sliding down her cheeks. Her pupils would sometimes shrink to vertical and sometimes return to their original shape.

Liu Lan had already been bullied by Luo Miaoyou. When she was arrested for committing a crime and refused to give any information, Luo Miaoyou beat her with an electric baton and threatened to kill her. This left her with a lot of trauma.

When Luo Lingyou walked in, Liu Lan's eyes quickly turned wary, and she subconsciously shielded Gu Qiaoqiao behind her, her tone becoming unfriendly: "What do you want?"

Luo Lingyou casually crossed his arms and smiled, saying, "Don't be nervous. Why do I look like a bad guy?"

Liu Lan sneered, her eyes seeming to say—aren't you one?

Gu Qiaoqiao was unaware of the unpleasant past between the two. In her memory, Luo Lingyou and Chen Moxin were very close; even if they weren't lovers, they were at least good friends.

Gu Qiaoqiao swallowed hard, her voice weak and hoarse: "Miss Luo... how is Xiao Chen?"

Luo Lingyou shrugged and said, "What else could it be? Using psionic energy so frequently, it can't be just for fun, right? It must be that they've run into big trouble."

Gu Qiaoqiao and Liu Lan were not secretive enough and did not know that Chen Moxin was participating in the risk-free cube resonance. They both thought he was fighting someone in reality.

Liu Lan clenched her fists and retorted, "You're colleagues, after all! He's in trouble, and you don't care at all? How can you act like it's none of your business?!"

Luo Lingyou still wore that mysterious smile on her face. She slowly walked forward and suddenly grabbed Liu Lan's cheek.

Liu Lan tried to struggle, but Luo Lingyou was surprisingly strong, unlike her sweet appearance, and she couldn't break free at all.

And whether it was just her imagination or not, Liu Lan felt that there was a faint smell of blood on that hand.

Luo Lingyou forcibly turned Liu Lan's face around, staring at the thorn-like black marks spreading around her eyes, and said meaningfully, "Instead of worrying about me, you should worry about yourself first."

"The 'psychic energy' in your bodies has entered an extremely dangerous zone, and the erosion is very serious. If this continues, there are only two possible outcomes."

"Either Chen Moxin quickly takes control of the situation and prevents your encroachment from escalating further, or—"

Those crimson eyes reflected the roof lights, refracting a chilling glint: "Our courtroom is about to activate the emergency plan."

"Emergency plan..." Liu Lan felt a sudden tremor in her heart.

She recalled the time Luo Lingyou beat her, and the chilling word he uttered—"harmless disposal."

Luo Lingyou said casually, "Besides the psionicists, there are also a large number of ordinary operators in the Bureau. Moreover, the Bureau itself is located in the center of the Twin Cities. We cannot allow the witch to go berserk here."

After saying that, Luo Lingyou turned Liu Lan's face to the side and upwards.

Following the direction Luo Lingyou pointed, Liu Lan saw the tiny black holes in the corner of the roof.

What Luo Lingyou said next immediately frightened the two of them so much that they didn't dare to breathe.

“Those are launch ports. Once your threshold reaches 120, the court will press the emergency button, and this monitoring room will be enveloped in high-temperature plasma.”

"However, you don't need to be too nervous, because those plasmas are several thousand degrees Celsius, and you will be burned instantly. This process takes even less time than the time it takes for nerve signals to transmit, so there will be no pain. It's very humane."

Looking at their stunned expressions, Luo Miaoyou's eyes were like those of someone looking at two prey struggling in a death trap. His tone was playful and mocking: "What, scared?"

"It's alright. We judges aren't crazy. Who would want to kill someone for no reason?"

"If you don't want to be burned to ashes here, there is another way, and it's entirely up to you."

Liu Lan murmured, "What method..."

Suddenly, both Liu Lan and Gu Qiaoqiao felt a slight squeezing sensation on their foreheads.

Luo Lingyou pressed his two index fingers against their foreheads and said with a smile, "Release the spiritual contract."

“As long as the spiritual contract is broken and the spiritual power bestowed upon you is taken back, you will naturally no longer be affected by him and can take your own destiny into your own hands.”

Liu Lan and Gu Qiaoqiao looked at each other and fell silent at the same time, their eyes becoming resolute.

"...This won't do. Chen Moxin is still fighting. If we suddenly break the spiritual contract, it will kill him."

Luo Lingyou chuckled and said in a suggestive tone, "You're about to turn into ashes yourself, and you still have the mind to think about others? Of course, saving your own life is the most important thing."

Liu Lan said heavily, "We're just feeling unwell for a while, we won't die. Chen Moxin knows our limits, he will allocate every bit of his strength carefully, and he will never put the two of us in danger."

Looking at their unwavering gazes, Luo Lingyou was slightly lost in thought, somewhat surprised by this almost unfounded trust.

"I'm curious."

A sinister smile appeared on Luo Lingyou's lips. He reached down from between his eyebrows and grabbed Liu Lan and Gu Qiaoqiao by the throats. His penetrating gaze seemed to tear through flesh and blood, looking straight into the deepest part of their hearts.

"Why—" Luo Lingyou leaned down, bringing her red lips close to their ears, and whispered a deep, seductive sound, "You all trust him so much?"

Despite being choked, Liu Lan and Gu Qiaoqiao remained resolute and unwavering, uttering the same words.

"Because I am his witch."

...

Under the cover of night, the flames of war raged, and the battlefield of the Cicero planetary colony had become a living hell.

The air was thick with the suffocating stench of blood. Charred limbs were scattered among the ruins, and blood-soaked concrete blocks were everywhere. Gunshots, explosions, roars, and screams mingled together.

In the core battle zone of Central Avenue, the grotesque Dead Apostles, whose faces were twisted, frantically charged the defensive line. They were once civilians, workers, vagrants, or soldiers, but now they had all been corrupted by madness and turned into tireless monsters.

Human reason had long been devoured by madness. The Dead Apostles wore crazed smiles, and the thorny black marks at the corners of their eyes twisted their flesh, transforming into a bloodthirsty desire for slaughter. They roared and pounced on the Planetary Defense Force's lines.

"They're here again! Open fire! Open fire!!"

The soldiers pulled the triggers with all their might, bullets raining down like a storm. Scrap cartridges clattered on the ground, and a scorching metallic storm swept across the battlefield, tearing swathes of the dead into pieces.

Above the battlefield, drones, missiles, and machine gun bullets trailed streaks of fire in the night sky, raining down on the path of the advancing assassins, tearing them to pieces in the rising flames.

However, the enemy's offensive was simply too fierce.

Dead Apostles are humans who have completely fallen into madness, whose consciousness is filled only with an extreme craving for all kinds of desires, including killing, and who have no fear of death.

This means that no matter how high their casualty rate is, no matter how fierce the counterattack, even if they face an enemy hundreds or thousands of times stronger than themselves, and it is a complete suicide mission, they will still pounce on them like wild beasts.

Even more deadly are undoubtedly the mutants. Although these creatures have limited direct killing power, the bizarre power of the Dead Zone that ignores all protection and directly pollutes the mind is simply unreasonable.

Any ordinary human affected by the Dead Zone will immediately become a Dead Apostle, with no means of reversal or resistance.

At this moment, a large number of aberrations appeared on the battlefield, and the dead zone they formed spread towards the planetary defense forces' lines like an unstoppable plague.

A mutant, standing four meters tall, charged from afar, its every step causing the earth to tremble. The sturdy mobile shields and roadblocks were like paper in front of it, failing to stop it in the slightest.

"boom!"

The mutant easily broke through the fire line, leaped up and landed in the defenders' position, grabbed the core of a nearby tower, roared and hurled it at the densest part of the crowd, smashing more than a dozen soldiers into a bloody pulp on the spot, their flesh and blood splattering everywhere.

At the same time, the nightmarish black-purple energy field around it was so viscous that it seemed impossible to dissolve, and it spread into the defending lines as the aberrant advanced.

The first to be corrupted were the soldiers who came into close contact with it. He had just escaped the aberration's attack and thought he had survived by sheer luck.

In an instant, a chilling sensation seeped into his skin, like countless thin snakes burrowing into his blood vessels.

"Ugh... Ah!!!" The soldier clutched his head in pain, his pupils dilated to almost cover his entire iris, his muscles began to spasm, his joints cracked, his body swelled and bent into a bizarre posture.

A soldier behind him saw his comrade screaming and reached out to pull him behind cover.

But as soon as he pulled the other person over, he saw the thorn-like black marks at the corner of the other person's eye, as well as that twisted and maniacal smile.

The next second, the corrupted Dead Apostle pounced on the soldier who had reached out to help him, tearing his throat through with a maniacal laugh.

The soldier's eyes were filled with fear. He tried to struggle, but due to severe blood loss, his body had long lost the strength to resist, and he quickly collapsed to the ground.

"Damn it! He's turned into those monsters!"

Soldiers further away reacted quickly, raising their guns at the dead man, but it was too late.

The dead zone on the mutant's body had spread to a deeper area, and all the soldiers exposed to it began to tremble violently, their blood vessels bulging and their eye sockets sunken. Then their screams turned into maniacal laughter, and they became one of the Dead Apostles.