Chapter 631: The Truth From Back Then |
Doctor 315’s face went deathly pale.
He looked like a spirit that had long sheltered in a refuge.
He wore thick armor, every feather groomed sharp as iron quills.
When you believe yourself invulnerable, you fail to see that donning armor can itself be an admission of weakness.
“Talk. This is the second chance I’m giving you.”
Lynn murmured in his ear,
“Tell the whole truth about what happened back then, and I’ll free you. If not, we have a long time to play this interrogation game.”
Pressure.
Every word from Lynn pressed down on him with unprecedented force.
“We didn’t find her.” His face was pale, his whole body trembling as he finally spoke truthfully.
“But there were traces. In our follow-up investigation we found her shed flesh in a corner of a city. After verification and comparison, we confirmed the puppet curse implanted in her body had fully activated. She should have already become a heartless puppet.”
Miaomiao’s whole body convulsed, her gaze drained of color.
Lynn asked softly, “And then?”
He panted, “We followed that lead and conducted a thorough sweep of the entire city, but she seemed to have vanished into thin air. We found nothing.”
“However, later investigations suggested she was very likely taken into the organization where the Puppets reside. We couldn’t infiltrate them, and that search plan was shelved.”
At those words, Lynn’s mind stirred.
“The Puppet House?”
Doctor 315 breathed hard and said, “Yes, a particularly mysterious organization in the Dark World. All puppet curses that have ever appeared were leaked from that group. The Puppet House is the root of all puppet curses!”
Lynn raised an eyebrow, then turned to look at the air a short distance away.
He received no response from Miss Puppet. Clearly, she too didn’t know much about that organization.
Lynn didn’t press further about the group. He fixed his eyes on Doctor 315 and asked,
“And after that?”
Doctor 315 gasped, “That was a matter from over ten years later. After we temporarily shelved the hunt for that test subject, a puppet suddenly appeared in Sight and caught our attention. Only then did we reopen the investigation.”
“What did that puppet call herself?” Lynn asked gravely.
“Puppets don’t have names. I only know she called herself…”
“Mental Whisperer.”
At that name, the figure of Miss Puppet, who had silently shadowed Lynn since he broke out of the vessel, slowly materialized from the air.
She lifted her head, long black hair falling over her shoulders.
“That was my mother’s early self-name.”
In an instant, everything seemed linked together by a chain.
Miaomiao’s mind went blank, she stared dumbly at the beautiful puppet maiden.
Lynn drew a deep breath, lifted his head, and clenched his fist.
So it was…
Just as they had suspected.
Could it really be?
Could Madam truly be Miaomiao’s mother, the woman who had risked everything to carry Miaomiao out of that hell, the woman whom Miaomiao had yearned for over centuries…
“Is she the mother of the child you were hunting?” Lynn asked softly.
Doctor 315 slowly raised bloodshot eyes and said, “No.”
Lynn’s eyes narrowed in an instant.
Doctor 315 gritted his teeth and panted, “I’ve told you, from the moment her flesh was shed, her consciousness was shattered. The backlash of her Mental Warping ability couldn’t leave her intact. The puppet that moves now is likely only an awareness derived from the curse. The real her shattered long ago!”
Lynn grabbed his collar in an instant, cold murderous intent flashing as if it were tangible.
Doctor 315 stared at him, teeth clenched, “That is the fact! Even if you kill me, it’s still the fact! The kind of power she awakened is terrifying. At the time we had no vessel or countermeasure to restrain that Mental Warping. From the moment she awakened, her life was already on a countdown!”
Lynn coldly said, “Oh? So you never continued investigating her afterward?”
Doctor 315 panted, “We did continue investigating, but later we gave up. One reason was that we found more test subjects, another was that she was still part of the Puppet House’s alignment back then. We could not risk offending a Root by using harsh methods on her.”
Lynn kicked him hard, sending him crashing to the ground.
All the clues were connecting.
Though the details of that period were still unknown, one thing was certain: even if Madam was not Miaomiao’s biological mother, she had to have a crucial connection.
Lynn said heavily, “What about the others? The child’s brother, the father—what did you do to them?”
Doctor 315’s gaze flickered, “I don’t know. Those two were failed test subjects. The fire she set back then burned our entire base to the ground. They were useless experiments meant to be disposed of. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were burned to death.”
Lynn narrowed his eyes, “You’re lying.”
Doctor 315 clenched his jaw, furious and ashamed, “I’m not! I had no need for such trash—”
Boom—
Before he finished, Lynn’s fist smashed into his abdomen and punched clean through his body.
Searing pain washed over him.
Cold sweat poured down his head.
Lynn said slowly, “Miss Intelligence Machine, the rest is up to you. Break open his soul vessel. As the one who imposed the Flesh Plague, I assume you won’t go easy.”
Silver Fantasy said nothing. Her expression was icy and without hesitation. The monomolecular blade in her hand shot forward and plunged into his brow, striking hard at the vessel embedded deep within the bio-armament in his skull.
“Ahhhhh—!!”
A wail of bone-deep agony escaped him.
“I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you!!”
“I truly don’t know the whereabouts of Test Subject 1!! But Subject 3 was successfully contained by us afterward. Before the damned woman set the fire to save them, she forcibly fused their shattered wills together. That was an impossible delusion! When we found Subject 3, those twisted fragments of will had already turned him into a monster!”
Miaomiao’s gaze was drained of all color.
Lynn said heavily, “Where is he?!”
Doctor 315 sweated like rain, wracked with pain, “In my collection, but only my consciousness can open that space. If you kill me now, don’t think you’ll ever find him!!”