A woman entered the room. After taking her seat, she tapped her watch, and a 3D holographic screen appeared.
On it was a photograph of a young Eastern man. His black eyes were as deep as an uncharted void, lending an otherwise sunny, handsome face a faintly gloomy air.
His name and personal details were displayed below. The woman merely glanced over them before looking away. Not only had she reviewed them countless times already, but the man himself was sitting right in front of her.
"Luke, correct?"
The man seated across from her was wrapped tightly in a restraint jacket, bound from head to toe with only his head exposed.
A thick, unruly beard covered his face, and his filthy hair made it impossible to tell what he had originally looked like.
"Does anyone else in the company prison get treatment like this?" Luke smiled, though it was unclear whether he was mocking her or himself.
The woman did not take offense. She brushed back a lock of purple hair near her ear, her expression all business. "You may call me Nefir. I am responsible for taking your final statement. I hope you will cooperate. If you do, I may be able to secure you the breakfast you want."
Luke fell silent, as if recalling something. After a moment, he sighed. "The breakfast I want probably no longer exists in this age."
Nefir did not ask what he wanted to eat. That was not her task today. She checked the time and began the formal questioning.
"Before the execution begins, there are a few questions I need to ask."
She paused and swiped through the holographic display. The screen showed a middle-aged man in an exoskeleton suit. The armor over his chest had been shattered, and a spear had pierced his heart. He lay in a pool of blood.
"Did you kill Master Lin Zhengdong?"
Luke raised his head and looked at the man on the screen. Then he gave a derisive snort. "Master?"
Nefir frowned. "Answer the question. You know executions come in many forms."
Luke looked away from the projection and stared at the woman before him. She was a typical human of the New Era, with physical traits already somewhat different from those of Old Era humans. Her purple hair, for instance, was not dyed. It was genetic.
Under his gaze, Nefir felt inexplicably uneasy. Still, she kept her face composed as her voice rose several notches. "I have reviewed your previous statements. You admitted to your crimes, but you never explained how you committed them."
Luke leaned back as much as his restraints allowed and rolled his neck, as though loosening muscles that had been held stiff for too long. "I already told you how I did it. You just refused to believe me."
A strange look flashed through Nefir's eyes. It was true. The man before her had described his method.
But what he described had been too absurd. It was simply impossible.
As Nefir considered how to pry the truth from him, Luke looked up at the ceiling and began reciting names.
"Lin Zhengdong. Wang Luo. Ning Feige. Murong Gu. Liu Huabo. Hong Wu. Ma Huguo. Li Xiao. Tian Huahu. Cheng Lu."
With every name, Nefir's brow furrowed more deeply. Every person Luke had named was a world-renowned martial arts master.
She personally had little respect for martial arts, a relic of the Old Era that she considered little more than fraudulent theater, helpless before the power of technology.
Still, she had to admit those men had trained their bodies well. Combined with their exoskeletons, they were extraordinarily powerful by human standards.
Yet the man before her had killed all ten martial arts masters without relying on a single piece of technology.
Everyone knew human flesh was weak. The strongest men on record had reached their limits pulling a few hundred kilograms. But with an exoskeleton, even a sickly person could easily lift a three- or four-hundred-kilogram boulder.
And those martial arts masters, who had already possessed powerful physiques, could exert over a thousand kilograms of force with their exoskeletons equipped.
"How did you do it?"
Nefir could not stop herself from asking. Discovering Luke's secret was her assignment, but he had also genuinely stirred her curiosity.
"Is it really that hard to believe?"
Luke smiled. "I don't think killing them was difficult."
"That's impossible. Don't tell me your martial arts were simply superior. I looked into it. Why did Old Era boxing matches have weight classes? You weren't even in the same league."
Nefir leaned forward and met Luke's eyes. "If you come clean now about how you discovered and exploited a system vulnerability, the company may reconsider its ruling. Depending on the circumstances, you may even be offered a position within the company."
Luke was briefly stunned by her words, then understood. So that was what these people believed. They thought he had discovered a loophole in the company's exoskeleton systems and used it to defeat those so-called martial arts masters.
No wonder the company had kept him alive for so long. They wanted to determine whether their product had a flaw.
"Sounds like I caused you a lot of financial damage."
Luke's smile was openly mocking.
"Your answer?" Nefir pressed.
Yes. That was the company's real concern.
The incident had exploded into a major scandal. The company could control the media, but plenty of people still learned that ten martial arts masters had been killed in hand-to-hand combat. The public began questioning the quality of the company's products, and even the military had returned part of its order.
Until they uncovered the truth and ensured that the company's newest exoskeleton systems contained no vulnerabilities, they had no intention of disposing of Luke carelessly.
"Have you ever read manga?"
"What?"
Nefir had not expected that answer. She had heard of manga, an entertainment medium from the previous century, but what did it have to do with their current discussion?
"When I was a kid, I read a manga called Baki. There was this guy known as the Strongest Creature on Earth. I thought his approach to fighting was pretty good."
Luke sank into his memories while Nefir stared at him in utter confusion.
"Mr. Luke, answer the question seriously."
Nefir's face turned cold. She thought he was making a fool of her.
"Talking to you is really difficult. Fine, I'll put it simply. When you're facing someone stronger than you, use technique. When you're facing someone more skilled than you, overwhelm them with even greater strength."
Luke grinned. "Your exoskeletons may be excellent at boosting strength, but those men were weak where skill was concerned."
"You're claiming that, at barely over twenty, you were far stronger than masters who had devoted half their lives to martial arts?"
Nefir looked utterly unconvinced. "Strong enough to overcome an absolute gap in power?"
Luke had not merely killed ten martial arts masters. Even if he had killed a child wearing one of the company's exoskeletons, she would have found it unbelievable. Human flesh had limits. It was fragile.
"You can understand it that way."
Luke closed his eyes, apparently unwilling to speak with Nefir any further.
Before the company had sent this purple-haired beauty, more than a dozen interrogators, negotiators, and psychologists had already come to "talk" with him. None of them had gotten the answer they wanted.
Most of what he had said was true. They simply did not believe it, because people only believed what they wanted to believe. Even now, that had not changed.
The company believed he had found a system vulnerability in their products, perhaps even gained access to a back door into the company network, which was how he had defeated those ten martial arts masters so easily.
They wanted to identify their system's weakness, but they also wanted to know whether some resistance organization stood behind him.
In truth, he was alone. And he had long since prepared himself for the end.
He knew Nefir was the company's final offer. More than half a year had passed, and the company's patience was exhausted. By now, their systems had likely been fully updated, while the social impact of his actions had gradually faded away.
Nefir was like a foot the company had extended right in front of his face. If he licked it, he might get to live.
But he had no intention of licking it.
"Then let me ask something else. Why did you kill them?"
After taking a deep breath, Nefir continued recording his statement, ready to finish the procedure and be done with it.
"They became the company's dogs. They betrayed their principles. They got my master killed. There are too many reasons. You should know them all."
Luke yawned and glanced at the time on the projection. "Can we start the execution now?"
Nefir frowned. She had seen people who feared no death, but this man's calm was excessive. It was as though he had simply grown weary of the world.
Like a powerful man standing alone atop a mountain, cold in his invincibility.
She rose to her feet and dismissed the projection. "I'll take you to the execution ground."
The statement would be preserved as an audio recording. As a special death-row prisoner of interest to the company, Luke's execution also had to be filmed in its entirety, then archived alongside his death certificate.
Escorted by two guards wearing exoskeleton armor, Luke was soon brought to the open-air execution ground.
Under the blinding sunlight, he narrowed his eyes. Once they adjusted, he surveyed the area.
"What a sick sense of humor. Sometimes I really wonder what your so-called progress has actually progressed toward. Isn't this just a step backward into history?"
Luke's tone dripped with ridicule as he looked toward the execution platform. It was a mechanical device.
Once the execution began, he would be secured to the platform while several mechanical arms pulled apart his limbs until he was dismembered.
He remembered that in ancient times, this form of execution had been called death by five horses. The company possessed many similar methods.
To prevent accidents, the outer edge of the circular plaza was lined with heavily armed soldiers. Several figures stood on elevated platforms along the walls, watching the scene below.
"For a violent criminal like you, severe punishment is necessary to make an example of you," Nefir said at Luke's side. "Any last words?"
Escorted by the two guards, Luke climbed the steps one at a time. "I remembered something my master once praised me for when I was a child..."
As he spoke, his restraint jacket was removed. One guard used an exoskeleton arm to pin his neck in place while pressing a gun against his head, then secured him to the execution apparatus step by step.
Nefir did not understand why Luke was speaking of this at death's door, but she still asked out of curiosity, "Did he praise you for being a martial arts prodigy?"
Bound to the machine, Luke felt the power of the mechanical arms around him and grinned up at the figures on the high platform.
The execution arms were also company products. Whether deliberate or not, the company had chosen the same series as the exoskeletons worn by the men Luke had killed.
Judging by the cameras all around them, Luke guessed the company intended to clear its name. They would use the same models he had beaten to execute him, proving that there was nothing wrong with their product quality.
Their exoskeleton arms would demonstrate that they could tear apart a human body with overwhelming force.
As for the martial arts masters who had been defeated? They had simply been weak. That had absolutely nothing to do with the company's products.
And if Luke truly possessed a system exploit, then faced with death, he would surely seize the chance to use it to escape.
Of course, the company did not believe Luke could interfere with their products without electronic equipment. What they really wanted to see was whether the "organization" behind him would intervene in this execution.
Luke had to admit that the company had calculated things beautifully. Under normal circumstances, no matter what happened, they would either salvage their reputation or strike at the resistance.
But today, the company had made a miscalculation.
He had won his bet.
On the high platform, an old man in a black robe and sunglasses looked down at Luke, a relieved smile spreading across his face.
Luke smiled as well. He bared a row of stark white teeth and burst into wild laughter, like a madman in his final moments.
If the mechanical arms had not held him in place, he might have doubled over laughing.
The executioner pulled the switch. Instantly, Luke felt tremendous force wrenching at all four of his limbs. The arm around his neck did not tighten, because the entire purpose of this execution was to make the prisoner die in agony.
If he were strangled or had his neck snapped outright, death would come too easily. But a prisoner whose limbs were torn away would scream for quite some time before finally dying.
Luke marveled at the company's cruelty, yet he also had to thank whoever had designed today's execution. He laughed in fierce delight as, before everyone's stunned eyes, the muscles in all four limbs tensed and pushed back against the mechanical arms.
"My master did not praise me for being a martial arts prodigy..."
Luke began slowly. As he exerted more force, his voice gained a gritted, savage edge. The muscles in his limbs knotted and swelled, each bulge packed with power like an erupting volcano.
The man's voice intertwined with the shrieking whine of the mechanical arms, like a whisper from hell.
"He said that I... have the beauty of raw stats."
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register