Xingtetsu: You are not included in Elio's script!

Chapter 157 Interrogation

"Running errands for the Black Tower...listening to Estelle's complaints?"

"Then...walking the dog with Alan?" Xing recalled.

"What! You're playing with Pepe without me?" Estelle said in surprise.

"Don't play dumb, think about it." Latio looked at Xing.

"I'm not playing dumb..that's how it is..."

Then Xing began to describe...

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"The Black Tower has entrusted me to find a lost artifact. It is a kind of energy life related to the Genius Club. It seems that I may need Esta's help."

"I found Ester, but she doesn't seem to know much about this. Fortunately, Sinkel from the World Seed Department and Emily from the Secret Scroll Department are nearby, which is at least a clue."

"Then Schinkel was worried about the crisis of trust within the space station. I guess Ester was under a lot of pressure. We had a brief chat. She speculated that the person Black Tower was looking for might be Wuwuber, but this conclusion might not be right. Finally, Schinkel recommended little Adler to me. It is said that he is the person who knows the most about strange things in the world."

"In addition to Hinkle from the World Species Department, I also consulted Emily from the Secret Scroll Department for clues about the missing strange objects. She told me that there are similar life forms in the Immortal Boat Alliance."

"The trust crisis mentioned by Schinkel concerned me a little. I talked about this topic with Esta, and unexpectedly learned that a series of disappearances of officers in the space station had occurred recently."

"I ran into Alan on my way to visit Adler, and he seemed to be looking for Adler as well, so I decided to go with him."

"We rescued Adler when he was attacked. I told him why I came. He said that the Wuwubo speculated by Jiezhong Kosinkel and the Suiyang that Mijuan Koemeli heard about were both energy life forms, and he seemed to have received some inspiration from them."

"Alan was secretly investigating something. After saving Adler, I tried to get to the bottom of it, but he seemed to be hiding something. I probed him a little and found out that he was investigating the series of disappearances of clerks that Estelle mentioned before. With Adler's help, he discovered that each disappearance was accompanied by spontaneous human combustion."

"The Black Tower has entrusted me to investigate an energy life similar to Wuwubo and Suiyang. The spontaneous human combustion phenomenon that happened to the officer is also a thorny problem, but Adler seemed to have a bold guess before. His intuition is very accurate, so it seems that we can look forward to it."

"That's about it." Xing said to everyone.

"Thank you for this long and boring narration. You must be tired, right? I am tired of listening to it anyway." Latio shook his head slightly.

"So, the last time you met Black Tower was in her office... You took the commission and ran around looking for rare objects, and you were completely unaware of other things until Miss Estella contacted you. If this is what you claim, then let me ask the question: Can anyone prove this?" Latio looked directly at Xing with a serious tone.

"Heita himself." Xing gave her answer without a moment's hesitation.

"Mr. Latio, your way of asking questions always has a tendency to be biased." ScrewGum said to him

"Excuse me, this is my bad habit. As an academic, it is always difficult for me to believe something. On the contrary, it is much easier to question it."

"From experience, this is the most efficient approach. Seeking with a negative attitude is also a form of seeking, and it can also help us reach the right destination."

"If she is indeed innocent, then use her answer to clear herself of suspicion." Latio turned to Xing again and looked at her sitting on the chair.

Then Latio spoke again: "According to your statement, the reason you met with Black Tower was because you received a special commission."

"But the commission is to find a strange object whose name is unknown."

"But Black Tower's collection is as numerous as the stars. It's hard to imagine that she would treasure such an ordinary and rare item so much."

"But the prerequisite is that it is an 'ordinary' rare object!" Xing retorted.

"Why don't you just say what you want to say?" Latio stared at Xing.

"From the correct perspective, the Black Tower should not be focusing on the strange object itself." Screw Gum reminded from the side.

Latio nodded slightly, his eyes focused on Xing again.

"In order to investigate the lost artifact, you asked Estelle for help." Latio said slowly.

"Yes, I did this to get more information about the rare objects. Although I didn't get a direct answer, Ester introduced me to a suitable clerk." Xing explained in detail.

"But before the interrogation began, she didn't say a word about this matter." Latio turned to look at Estella with a hint of doubt in his eyes.

"Mr. Latio, this is because..." Estelle was about to explain, but was interrupted by Latio's words.

"I'm asking her a question, Miss Ester. Since you started to be ambiguous, your testimony is no longer credible." Latio said to Ester, and then turned his eyes to Xing again: "But... I'm beginning to wonder, are you lying, or is she hiding something?"

"Esther didn't mean to hide it, but because of her position..." Xing explained.

"Is there any position more important than the safety of the Black Tower?" Latio questioned.

"Then let me ask you, what will happen to the safety of the Black Tower?" Xing stared at him, and their eyes began to confront each other.

"You guys... stop arguing... Since I tacitly allow Mr. Latio to participate in this matter, he is no longer an outsider."

"Xing, it's okay, tell him."

"Speculation: Ester chose silence." ScrewGum looked at Ester.

"Let's not talk about this for now. Regarding... the series of disappearances of officers... I have also heard about the mission of Defense Section Captain Alan."

"Yes, I met Alan on my way to visit Adler," Xing explained.

"Adler?" Latio asked doubtfully.

"A Level II officer, who was described by the head of the World Species Department as 'the person who knows the most about strange things in the World Species Department'. He happened to be assisting Alan in investigating the series of disappearances at the time."

"Did he tell you the answer?" Latio asked.

"Adler seemed to have thought of something at that time, but he didn't contact me afterwards." Xing shook his head.

"But this obviously has nothing to do with the attack on the dolls we are discussing." Latio asserted.

"No, if I remember correctly, this is what Esta said. A doll was attacked for unknown reasons and its whereabouts are unknown. Its signal can never be located. Missing... isn't that the same as missing?" Xing analyzed calmly.

"She did say it, so what? If you want to prove that the two are the same thing, then produce evidence." Latio crossed his arms and examined Xing.

"The evidence should exist. Alan discovered something strange when investigating the series of disappearances. Before and after the clerk disappeared, there was a record of the space station's automatic fire extinguishing system being briefly activated. Alan described it this way: the disappearance of each victim was accompanied by bizarre spontaneous combustion..." Xing said firmly.

"Huh? But there's no sign of fire anywhere in the space station..." Estelle asked in confusion.

"This is exactly what's strange, but right now, this information has a more important meaning. Although it cannot be used as direct evidence, if the system also shows records of the activation of the fire extinguisher before and after the puppet was attacked... then there is sufficient reason to suspect that the two incidents are related to each other." Xing said.

"Don't play dumb, you know what I'm talking about..." Latio looked Xing straight in the eyes.

"No matter how suspicious you are, I'm just an unrelated person who was accidentally involved. I'm no different from you who was also accidentally involved but started to play the role of interrogator." Xing said, shaking his head.

"Oh, so what?" Latio looked at Xing.

"Correction: There may be a connection," said ScrewGum.

Latio was silent for a while and then said, "If the two incidents were indeed committed by the same person, then your suspicion will be reduced a lot, but the premise is that there is a record in the system that you claim exists.

"We'll know if we go to the main control room. Let's go... Hey, what's going on?" Just as Estelle finished her words, a burst of urgent alarms suddenly sounded, breaking the original calm.