Chapter 225: Reality

Muke drove the car almost like it was taking off, reaching the stronghold Tang Erda had mentioned in less than three minutes.

Tang Erda got out of the car with her uniform and ID badge, closed the door behind her and blocked Muke from getting out of the car, warning him sternly: "You and Liu Jiayi are still on the wanted list of the Heretic Authority, so stay in the car - your insistence on coming in with me will only delay saving him."

Muke pauses as he pulls out the door.

"I promise to bring Bai Liu out unharmed." Tang Erda promised, her eyes fixed on Muke, "He has done what he promised me, and I will do what I promised him."

"Do whatever it takes to get him out."

With that he drew his gun from his back and hurried from the spot where he had parked to the stronghold.

The Heresy Bureau's base looks like an ordinary convenience store, but at a time when the city is in a state of panic, it's a bit unusual that the people in this convenience store are still operating in an orderly manner, buying things and selling things.

As soon as Tang Erda walked in, the convenience store looked up and saw his face, and then happily led him over to the warehouse.

Seeing Tang Erda disappear into the convenience store, Muke, sitting in the car, took a deep breath before releasing his grip on the door.

"Do you think he'll do everything he can to get Bai Liu out?" Muke looked uncertainly at Liu Jiayi, who had not spoken from the back seat.

Liu Jiayi, wearing a pair of sunglasses to cover her unusual eyes, doesn't seem to be panicking at all, and once Tang Erda is gone, she stretches out and lays down to hog an entire back seat, looking ready for a nap.

"You're asking me?" Liu Jiayi turned her head to "look" in the direction Xiang Muke was speaking, she pulled down the magic mirror to reveal those grey eyes, "I think you should ask it differently."

Liu Jiayi's casual, over-the-top demeanour slightly startled Muke, but he quickly continued: "...... What question should I use?"

"It's not when this Captain Tang or whatever he is will get Bai Liu out." Liu Jiayi pushed the magic mirror back with her index finger and slouched into the back seat of the comfortable car, "It's when Bai Liu thinks this Captain Tang is qualified and is willing to let him get himself out."

Muke wondered, "What does ...... mean?"

Liu Jiayi whispered, "You're not a fool, why are you always so confused about Bai Liu, can't you see that? Bai Liu has deliberately allowed himself to be caught by the Dangerous Heresy Authority."

Muke was completely frozen in time: "...... on purpose?!"

"Right." Liu Jiayi spoke in an unperturbed tone as if he already knew, "Otherwise this guy would have already achieved his goal after making the explosive declaration and forcing these people to be on alert all over the city, he could have used the eye flip to go into the [inner world] to hide and not have to stay in place at all and wait to be caught."

"But he still got caught." Liu Jiayi shrugged, "That can only mean one thing - he let himself get caught on purpose."

"Then why did Bai Liu let himself get caught-?!" Muke jolted awake as he looked over at the convenience store, "Is he trying to trick Tang Erda?!"

"I think you're right about one of his goals." Liu Jiayi moved his head and continued. Liu Jiayi moved his head and continued, " This Bai Liu guy allowed Tang Erda to join, so Tang Erda is a member of our group, the guy is so controlling, he won't allow Tang Erda to feel a sense of belonging to a group other than us. "

"Bai Liu probably wanted to use this incident to force Tang Erda to make a choice, so that Tang Erda would voluntarily cut herself off from the Heretic's Authority group and be completely controlled by him - this Captain Tang type is easily controlled by someone out of guilt, and Bai Liu was taking advantage of that. And Bai Liu is taking advantage of that."

Liu Jiayi looked slightly sideways at Xiang Muke: "If I'm right, Bai Liu would have had the person in the Heretic's Bureau who had the best relationship with this Captain Tang interrogate him, and even induce him to be punished- "

"- if witnessing Bai Liu being punished by those closest to him would further increase Tang Erda's guilt, he would voluntarily disassociate himself from everyone in the Heretic's Bureau in order to make amends for Bai Liu... ..." Muke muttered, finishing the second half of his sentence.

Liu Jiayi snapped his fingers, "Bingo!"

Muke let out a breath, "- Bai Liu did this for the league, right?"

"Yes." Liu Jiayi nodded repeatedly, " Tang Erda, as a good main attacker who was deeply attached to his original team's tactician, was not submissive to his new team, and Bai Liu, as the new tactician taking over from him, needed to do a psychological split on him in order to ensure his absolute submissiveness to himself."

"And this treatment is generally a way of severing the psychological connection between the person and those closest to him."

" - just like Hearts did to me." Liu Jiayi said after a moment of silence with those words, "It was brutal, but it was necessary for a tournament where life and death were at stake."

"On the field, we can't have the slightest doubt about the tactician's orders, they are an absolute presence and Tang Erda clearly still has a degree of rejection and questioning of Bai Liu, which is very fatal for a starter of his calibre."

"So Bai Liu set him up with this." Muke relaxed completely knowing that Bai Liu would be fine, "You said this was only one of Bai Liu's purposes, what about the rest?"

Liu Jiayi removes her sunglasses and her grey eyes 'look' out of the window at the sign for the convenience store.

The sign has a small Q-shaped octopus on it - the logo of the Bureau of Dangerous Heresy.

"My guess is that Bai Liu was trying to use his status as a bomber to work with the Dangerous Heresy Authority with the help of Tang Erda as a third party coordinator."

Muke was stunned: "Cooperation?"

With all this going on, the Heresy Bureau should be dying to fuck Bai Liu, and this is still cooperative?

--------

"What did you do to the captain?!" Su Yang's tone finally changed, her fingers on the tabletop tightening as she tried desperately to hold back her anger.

Bai Liu leaned back and sat back on the bench, which was shaken by his pressure as he crossed his legs and lifted his chin slightly with an extremely indelicate smile, "I compelled him with rose perfume and made him completely loyal to me."

"He was abandoned by you, so I picked him up and trained him to be loyal to me and betray you." Bai Liu smiled, "What's wrong with that?"

"We didn't abandon the captain!" Su Yang slapped the tabletop unbearably as he tried to take a deep breath to adjust his emotions and control his desire to question Bai Liu about what he had done to Tang Erda, changing the subject back that had been deflected by Bai Liu, "Where was the explosion?"

Bai Liu smiled unmoved, "At the factory, didn't Captain Su know?"

Su Yang followed up with, "Where in the factory?"

"Oh yes, Captain Su still doesn't know why the explosion site was chosen at this factory, does he?" Bai Liu's smile grew more pleasant, "I know Captain Su's home is within five kilometres of this factory."

Su Yang's breath stops for a second.

" Captain Su has seen the videos of the deaths of people who have tried to quit, right?" Bai Liu leaned back in his chair with his head resting on his shoulder smiling as he looked across at Su Yang, "Let me tell you a little bit about what you don't see on the videos."

"Under blast impact, the fragrance is strong enough within five kilometres to send newborns and mothers into a state of heavy addiction." Bai Liu's tone is light, "If they don't get a high concentration of perfume for thirty minutes, they will start to wilt."

" Captain Su hasn't seen the wilting process of a heavy addict, has he? I've seen it quite a bit."

"The baby's arms and eyes will first begin to burst with cracks like dry skin, and because of the pain they will begin to cry and pray for you to give them perfume like milk."

"And you, as a father, knowing what he wants, can only watch as your child cries out in constant pain in front of you, turning into a corpse broken into pieces in your arms -"

Su Yang lifted his bloodshot eyes, "Where was the explosion inside the factory?"

Bai Liu looked directly at him and very abruptly curled his lips into a smile, his tone becoming more and more conciliatory: " Why does Captain Su think that I am so aware of the wilting process of a newborn child under the encroaching aroma?"

"Because I've experienced it myself, of course - a poor child withered in my arms and he died with only his mother on her knees at my feet, helplessly begging me to save him."

Bai Liu sighed, "But I could do nothing but watch him wither in my arms, and his father wasn't even around."

Su Yang stared into Bai Liu's dark eyes, trying his best to maintain a shell of calmness, but inside his fears seemed to grow like a black hole - no, An An and the baby were fine before he left ......

He subconsciously looked out the door of the interrogation room - the team member outside the door held up a scale with a grim look on his face.

This is heresy [1076] - the judge's scales, a tool used to test lies.

When Bai Liu tells a lie, the scales tip to the [no] side, and throughout the interrogation, the needle of the scales is pointing in the [yes] direction.

--This means that Bai Liu has not lied about a single word.

Su Yang's mind went blank.

Bai Liu whispered with his eyes downcast, " Captain Su, you know that bombers pick a small, relatively close location to test their explosions before they actually carry them out?"

"Guess where the pre-test site for this explosion is tonight?"

Bai Liu says this with a smile in his eyes and at the corners of his mouth, a smile Su Yang has seen on the faces of countless deranged and heretically tainted human beings - a completely dehumanising smile, lighter in Bai Liu's face, but even more shocking.

Bai Liu smiles: " How did Captain Su think we got your ID card?"

"Maybe you could ask your wife how she's doing tonight?"