CHAPTER 323: CHAPTER 83: INTERROGATION

"Are you an Abyssal Believer?"

Yan Luo sat upright on a chair in the cafeteria, his gaze coldly fixed on the Hunter sitting opposite him.

The Hunter opposite him squirmed slightly in his seat, shaking his head, "No."

Who would admit to being an Abyssal Believer?

Even if they were, they wouldn’t admit it.

Yan Luo suddenly raised his hand and pointed, "Catch him."

The Hunters standing by instantly lunged forward, pinning the Hunter opposite Yan Luo onto the table.

The Hunter in front of him panicked instantly, hurriedly shouting, "I’m not an Abyssal Believer! I’m not!"

Yan Luo shook his head, "I’m sorry, when you were denying being an Abyssal Believer just now, there was a slight fluctuation in your emotions. My responsibility is only for preliminary interrogation, determining whether you are truly an Abyssal Believer is not my job. Take him away for questioning."

Even though Yan Luo had to interrogate every Hunter and soldier within the Forbidden Demon Abyss, none held any grievances against it.

Because Yan Luo indeed displayed lie-detection abilities, those who were not Abyssal Believers would shout publicly after passing the interrogation, ensuring Yan Luo’s authority.

Everyone knows that Yan Luo always speaks directly, without beating around the bush. With something like the "Saint" quality, anyone else would likely try to hide it and gain benefits.

But Yan Luo is different. He made his abilities public, even told the world what kind of powers he possessed.

Isn’t someone like that worthy of trust?

Everyone trusts Yan Luo, believing he would never frame them, so even Hunters with paranoia accept his interrogation.

Currently in the preparation phase of the Abyssal strategy war, Yan Luo has enough time to scrutinize the Hunters and soldiers within the Abyss.

The command center holds a list, recording the names of all Hunters and soldiers, and Yan Luo can identify who hasn’t been checked based on that list.

If he puts in a little effort, he can certainly finish interrogating all Hunters and soldiers within seven days.

Although Yan Luo is only responsible for preliminary interrogation, it doesn’t mean those who pass his check will not be scrutinized again. Yan Luo’s role is to help the military filter out a batch of Abyssal Believers, enabling them to trace and uncover more adherents.

This is a very tiring job; even though Yan Luo’s task is merely sitting there and continuously asking people if they are Abyssal Believers, the number of people he needs to interrogate exceeds ten thousand.

Any city on Blue Star has a population of millions, and protecting such a large city cannot have a sparse garrison.

A vast majority of Lingquan City’s troops are stationed along the defense line inside the Forbidden Demon Abyss, along with Hunters arriving from all over the world; now, there are over thirty thousand active within the Abyss.

These more than thirty thousand people, Yan Luo needs to examine each one individually, confirming whether they are Abyssal Believers.

Even if he can check one every ten seconds, without eating or drinking, he can only scrutinize over eight thousand a day.

Yan Luo still needs food and rest; checking five thousand in a day without doing anything else is already plenty.

Ever since Yan Luo made a public appeal on the public channel, Hunters lined up to come to the cafeteria, accepting Yan Luo’s scrutiny.

Meanwhile, the soldiers awaited orders without taking action.

Yan Luo sat in the cafeteria, interrogating for an entire day. On the second day, the command center finally issued orders for the soldiers to cooperate with his actions.

The implication being, they couldn’t evade interrogation either.

The soldiers observed Yan Luo’s performance yesterday, knowing he’s not one to act recklessly, and were willing to undergo his scrutiny.

Once the soldiers joined the ranks of those being interrogated, Yan Luo’s workload skyrocketed, yet he worked without complaints, diligently continuing his task.

Not scrutinizing doesn’t know, once checked is shocked.

Yesterday, Yan Luo identified dozens of Abyssal Believers hidden among the Hunters, but the situation proved even worse within the army.

In just one morning, Yan Luo identified over thirty suspected Abyssal Believer soldiers.

The news reached the command center, sparking a storm within.

Because those soldiers identified by Yan Luo had very deep ties with a certain officer surnamed Guo.

When the command center went to apprehend that officer, they found he had already shot himself in his dormitory.

Clearly, this is suicide out of guilt!

The commander sensed something amiss.

Lingquan City Government has yet to determine the punishment for Abyssal Believers, not ruling out the possibility of leniency.

For instance, You Yifeng, who was originally an Abyssal Believer but turned over a new leaf and faced no punishment.

This was partly because You Yifeng did nothing wrong, but also because the Lingquan City Government intends to show leniency to Abyssal Believers who hadn’t truly harmed anyone.

In such circumstances, why would he commit suicide out of guilt?

He was just a minor officer, always under the control of Lingquan City’s troops with no opportunity to harm others. Given this, his suicide reason becomes clear—

Outside Abyssal Believers had contacted Officer Guo, and might have been his superiors.

To prevent his trails from being traced, Officer Guo committed suicide.

Understanding this, the commander realized an opportunity arose.

Though Officer Guo already committed suicide, in the modern society, activities inevitably leave traces, whether more or less.

The commander immediately ordered an investigation centered around the suicidal Officer Guo, scrutinizing his online activity records and evidence of recent contact with others.

The military personnel sprang into action, Wu Zechuan naturally was not outdone.

While they investigated Officer Guo, Wu Zechuan turned his attention to the Abyssal Believers previously identified.

Wu Zechuan did not believe Officer Guo died by suicide; although evidence from the scene pointed to suicide, for an Engraver, accomplishing such a thing could be done in a hundred different ways.

Wu Zechuan did not remember where he had read this line: any detective novel will try to avoid supernatural powers, for they undermine basic detective logic.

Any detective story involving supernatural powers will become illogical, applicable in reality as well.

The Abyss defense line was not equipped with Engraving interferers; therefore, Engravers could activate their Engravings here.

In such situations, to firmly believe Officer Guo died by suicide—that is erroneous thinking.

Wu Zechuan followed the clues passively provided by those identified as Abyssal Believers and discovered a suspected Abyssal Believer team.

They did not return to Fortress No. 1 for scrutiny but stayed in a supply station.

Upon discovering this team, Wu Zechuan sent a message to the commander, urging him to investigate them.

The commander investigating the mystery behind Officer Guo’s death soon grasped Wu Zechuan’s intentions, promptly deploying forces and giving orders to soldiers stationed at the supply station.

As the troops sent by the commander entered under the guise of "changing guard" at the supply station, the stationed soldiers commenced questioning the team under their superiors’ orders.

Realizing their potential exposure, the Hunter squad launched an attack on the stationed soldiers.

But the stationed soldiers were prepared, catching the Hunter squad off guard, bypassing their attack—then capturing them.

In the capture process, due to their fierce resistance, to prevent casualties, the commander’s dispatched soldiers had to kill three of them, including the team leader, leaving only four ordinary members with less aggressive resistance.

They were escorted back to Fortress No. 1, presented before Yan Luo.

Because, ostensibly, the person organizing Hunters to clear the internal Abyssal Believers was Yan Luo, Wu Zechuan remained hidden in the shadows, fostering suspicion among the Abyssal Believers.

Though the Abyssal Believers knew Wu Zechuan might have acted, seeing his apparent inactivity, they could only continue hiding, fearing to investigate Wu Zechuan.

Yan Luo sat inside the cafeteria, looking at the four Abyssal Believers seated opposite him, and asked, "Have you met the general commander behind this Abyssal Believer action, right?"

Two showed bewilderment, one was dumbfounded, and the last had a gloomy expression, face unchanged.

Yan Luo glanced across them, pointing out a confused-looking Abyssal Believer, "It’s him."

Unexpectedly, there was indeed a pleasant surprise!