True Apocalypse Game

DRIP... DRIP...

The interrogation room was terrifyingly quiet, the only clear sound that of blood dripping onto the floor.

Bound to the interrogation chair, Joe was a bloody mess.

His face was almost unrecognizable. One eye was swollen shut, and the other had been gouged out.

The wound, however, had already been staunched and was securely bandaged.

At the same time, two IV bags fed a constant supply of blood into him, preventing him from dying of excessive blood loss from the prolonged torture.

There was hardly an inch of skin on Joe’s body left intact. He’d had nearly a full-body blood replacement. Blood covered the entire floor, draining away through the sewer grate.

The constant, unending pain nearly drove him mad. He wanted to pass out, but was jolted awake by the cardiotonics and adrenaline injected by the two Demons before him, making it impossible to faint.

At first, Joe had tried to resist, but he quickly broke down completely, spilling everything he knew. He even recounted various experiences from his childhood, repeating all of it many times over.

He didn’t know how many times he had begged, pleading for them to stop for even a minute.

But these people seemed completely unable to understand his words, as if he were just an animal.

’No, even an animal shouldn’t be treated like this...’

Now he finally understood what had really happened inside Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp.

These people could make him live in Hell, yet not allow him to die.

Eventually, he even completely forgot about the Whisperer and once again embraced God in his soul, trying to find some peace.

Seven hours and fifty minutes passed. The two Demons before him finally stopped. The tall man who had been sitting off to the side lifted his eyelids, stood, and walked out of the room.

Leaving only the two Demons with him.

The woman named Natasha leaned on the back of a chair, looking at him expressionlessly, as if looking at an ant.

And the man named Yimer didn’t even look at him, constantly playing with the eyeball in the box.

Even though he longed for death, Joe still felt fear in his heart.

He had never imagined that sometimes, being alive was far more terrifying than Hell itself.

Liu Jing closed the interrogation room door, twisted a stiff neck from sitting so long, and walked to the desk, leaving a string of crimson footprints. He dialed a number.

"Ivan, we have the answers. After three random verifications, it seems he isn’t lying."

Ivan’s voice sounded anxious.

"Damn it, the game restarts in ten minutes! Did you really interrogate him for seven hours and fifty minutes? Is there a compiled report? Do I need to come get it?"

He sounded hesitant as he said the last sentence.

Ivan was very familiar with the methods of his old friend Liu Jing and really didn’t want to be in this place.

After all, watching a living person who had been turned into a pile of mangled flesh was not a pleasant memory to make.

"No need. I’ve memorized it all," Liu Jing said slowly. "What about the target? I heard the order to capture him came directly from the Commander. Does he need to be kept alive? What did the Commander say?"

Although he was the undisputed authority here, the moment he mentioned the Commander’s name, he immediately became much more tense.

He had heard from Ivan before that he had personally heard the Commander’s voice and received instructions in the real world. Liu Jing was extremely envious, but he did his best to hide it.

Ivan said:

"That’s great. To be honest, the Commander only gave the capture order and didn’t specify how to handle him. That’s to be expected. Otherwise, if the Commander had to do everything himself, what’s the use of us trash? This Joe is a world-famous celebrity, after all. If we’ve really gotten all the information he has, I think it’s better to make him disappear. After all, only the dead keep secrets, and our war with the Purification Society is far from over."

Liu Jing nodded and said:

"I was thinking the same thing. There’s no problem with the intel, I can guarantee that. No conscious person could keep a secret under that level of pain... To be honest, that kid from Guantanamo is a real piece of scum, a fucking pervert... Of course, the girl under my command is a Devil, too..."

On the other end of the line, Ivan couldn’t help but let out a wry smile.

For Liu Jing, the deputy director of the Federal Security Service, to say that meant those two torture experts were truly twisted. He couldn’t help but feel a little glad he hadn’t stayed.

Otherwise, even if he didn’t have nightmares tonight, he definitely wouldn’t have been able to eat.

"Alright, see you in the apocalypse then."

Liu Jing nodded. "See you in the apocalypse."

Then he hung up.

Looking at the wall clock, there were five minutes until the True Apocalypse Game restarted after the total wipe.

Liu Jing picked up the intercom on his desk, looked at the blood-red interrogation room on the other side of the one-way mirror, and ordered Natasha and Yimer:

"Clean it up."

He then turned and left the office, heading for his personal lounge.

After Liu Jing left, Natasha and Yimer, who had been looking bored and cleaning their nails, finally moved.

Yimer came up behind Joe and grabbed the top of his head with one hand, while Natasha leaned in and gripped Joe’s chin.

"What... ugh... are you doing... Kill me... ugh... kill me..." Joe stammered, trembling, not knowing what new, horrific punishment was about to befall him.

In the next instant, two powerful forces came from their hands, and Joe’s neck was suddenly twisted backward.

"SNAP."

His cervical vertebrae were instantly broken. His head immediately lolled down, and he died without a sound.

After that was done, Yimer brought over a suitcase, stuffed Joe’s body inside, and headed for the building’s incinerator.

Natasha, meanwhile, brought in a bucket of water and a mop from outside and began to scrub away the blood. She worked very diligently; if not for the crimson floor, she would have looked exactly like a pure and lovely cleaning lady.

From beginning to end, neither of them asked Liu Jing what the words Joe had spoken actually meant.

They understood that their job was simply interrogation and torture. They only needed the target to give up the answers. Everything else was none of their business.

Liu Jing had reached his lounge and was lying on the bed.

He raised his arm and looked at his watch. There was one minute until the True Apocalypse Game restarted.

Perfect timing.

He immediately put on the Virtual Reality Headset.

Soon, the crimson eye icon appeared again. Liu Jing’s vision went black, followed by a slight dizziness, and he entered the game once more.

A white light flashed, and Liu Jing appeared inside a building. It was an office, with a military uniform and a battle map hanging on the wall.

He nodded slightly, understanding that he had appeared directly inside the military base outside New York City.

This was completely different from the previous random logins. He guessed the Commander had made some adjustments after the last mission, eliminating many unnecessary steps.

He walked to the office door, opened it, and strode out.

He saw players appearing in some of the adjacent rooms, all clearly having just logged in.

The military base outside New York City had now become the new respawn point.

This could be considered the Commander’s way of indirectly lowering the game’s difficulty for them.

Apparently, everyone else had realized this too, not just Liu Jing. Their faces were all slightly flushed; this group of human elites was a little embarrassed.

’How mortifying...’

To have the Commander proactively lower the difficulty for them was humiliating beyond belief.

Liu Jing followed the flow of people out of the rooms and saw the relogged Salvation Army Warriors gathering on the training grounds outside.

Besides how to destroy the giant towers, the other topic of conversation was the Space Wormhole at the bottom of the sea in the Arctic Circle.

Their concern for the Space Wormhole even surpassed their concern for the game’s mission, since the wormhole existed in the real world.

Seeing the back of a military greatcoat in the distance, Liu Jing nodded, knowing the Legion Commander was also here.

The entire loose command structure of the Salvation Army had now returned. Judging by their conversation, they were clearly discussing news about the Space Wormhole.

Liu Jing took a deep breath, leaped onto the roof of a military jeep in one bound, and shouted:

"Everyone, I bring news from the Commander!"