46: The dead prosecutor, the gun was pointed at you.

The cheers of survival stopped abruptly, like a chicken whose neck had been squeezed.

The air instantly froze solid.

"No... Impossible..."

The smile on Li Hu's face froze.

Staring at the familiar yet unfamiliar face on the screen, he retreated step by step, as if he had seen a ghost.

Su Qingxue's body suddenly stiffened.

For the first time, an emotion named "horror" surfaced in her eyes, which were usually cold as frost.

Zhao Dahai's pupils suddenly contracted into a dangerous pinprick.

He clenched his fists tightly.

His fingernails dug into his palms, drawing blood, yet he was oblivious.

"Bastard..."

He squeezed those three words out from between his teeth; every word carried a scent of blood.

Director Qian, who was from the Provincial Department.

Over the past twenty hours, his worldview had been repeatedly crushed, reorganized, and crushed once more.

At this moment.

He looked at the dead man on the screen who should have been lying in the morgue.

His legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the ground.

He muttered to himself.

"Devils... They are all devils..."

Amidst this deathly silence.

On the screen, the lifelike Gao Fan, constructed from data, moved.

He offered a gentle yet sorrowful smile to all the citizens across the city who were watching the trial.

That smile was identical to the one he wore just before shooting himself in the warehouse.

Exactly the same.

"Hello, everyone."

His voice rang out through the mobile phone speakers in every corner of the city.

It was not a cold, electronically synthesized voice.

That was Gao Fan's voice!

Carrying his unique, slightly hoarse magnetism!

"I am Gao Fan, former leader of the Major Crimes Unit of the Jiang City Criminal Investigation Detachment."

"Many of you may know me. More of you may have just learned of my death from the news."

"But as you can see."

He spread his hands, like an actor receiving applause on a stage.

"Justice cannot be killed."

"I have returned."

"I have returned to personally send the demon who ruined my life and countless families to the judgment seat!"

Madness!

The entirety of Jiang City had gone completely mad!

In the live broadcast room of the [Human Court] APP, bullet comments instantly flooded the entire screen like a bursting dam!

"Holy crap! It's Officer Gao! He really came back!"

"Digital immortality? A dead police officer transforming into an AI to seek revenge on the murderer! What the hell kind of cyberpunk plot is this!"

"Kill Lin Yuan! Officer Gao is watching us from above! We are his hands! His gun!"

The public's emotions were instantly ignited to their peak!

They didn't care if it was logical; they only wanted a carnival of revenge!

In the command center.

Li Ke's face was as white as paper.

His fingers frantically hammered the keyboard, trying to trace the source of this data stream.

"It's no good! Team Leader Chen!"

He let out a desperate shriek!

"This isn't a video! This isn't a recording! This is a... real-time rendered, interactive program!"

"His data source... is that crystal chip! 'Emperor' used that crystal chip to replicate Gao Fan's... thought patterns and memories! He turned him into a... digital specter!"

"He isn't attacking our plan."

Su Qingxue's voice was cold as ice.

Staring at the eloquently speaking "Gao Fan" on the screen, she stated word by word.

"He is... taking over our plan."

"He turned the stage we painstakingly built into his own show!"

Chen Mo did not speak.

He just watched the screen quietly.

Watching the devil "Lin Yuan" that he personally created, and the phantom "Gao Fan" resurrected by "Emperor."

The chess game he had set up was checkmated by the opponent in a way he had never anticipated.

He thought he was on the fifth floor.

It turned out the opponent had been operating in the stratosphere all along.

"Emperor" wasn't trying to expose his lie.

What he wanted was to seize Chen Mo's directorial authority in front of the entire city.

And then use Chen Mo's actors to stage a... crazier, bloodier script that he wrote himself!

What should he do?

Deny the identity of "Gao Fan"?

That would be equivalent to telling everyone that this trial was a joke from the very beginning.

The alliance of hatred they had just established against "Lin Yuan" would instantly collapse!

Acknowledge "Gao Fan"?

That would mean willingly handing over the dominance of this trial!

They would completely devolve from players into... pawns!

This was a checkmate!

"Chen Mo..." Zhao Dahai's voice carried a hint of helplessness.

Chen Mo slowly raised his head.

In his dead, silent eyes, all traces of shock and bewilderment vanished.

Replacing them was an unprecedented, almost palpable, towering fighting spirit!

He abruptly snatched a standalone microphone from the command desk.

This microphone was connected to the official news release line of the Municipal Bureau.

"You want to play?"

In his heart, he let out a silent roar toward his invisible nemesis.

"I'll play with you until the end!"

He pressed the talk button.

His voice forcefully cut into the live broadcast of the [Human Court] through a special encrypted channel!

"Citizens."

Chen Mo's voice was calm, yet filled with undeniable power.

The live broadcast room instantly fell silent.

Everyone's gaze shifted from "Gao Fan" to this suddenly inserted voice representing the authorities!

"I hereby confirm, in my official capacity."

Chen Mo looked at the face of "Gao Fan" on the screen, which bore an eerie smile, and stated word by word:

"The 'Chief Prosecutor' you see before you is indeed the... consciousness backup of our bureau's fallen officer, Comrade Gao Fan."

"This is the final Plan B we prepared for Officer Gao after learning he was controlled by the 'Emperor' organization."

"We will allow this digitized hero to personally deliver his... final blow against evil."

Boom!

If Gao Fan's appearance just now ignited the public's emotions.

Then Chen Mo's words were like throwing a red-hot branding iron directly into a pot of boiling oil!

He didn't deny it!

He admitted it!

Using a grander, more heroic narrative.

He forcibly explained "Emperor's" bizarre maneuver as a contingency plan the police had prepared long ago!

He turned a passive defense into an active offense!

He wanted to tell "Emperor," and also tell the entire city—

I am still the director of this stage!

On the screen.

The gentle smile on the face of the digital "Gao Fan" stiffened for an instant.

He seemed not to have expected that Chen Mo would use this method to neutralize his checkmate.

But the next second.

That smile became more playful, and more... cruel.

"Thank you, Team Leader Chen."

"Gao Fan's" voice, transmitted clearly through the speakers, reached everyone's ears.

He deliberately emphasized the pronunciation of the two words "Team Leader," filling them with unconcealed sarcasm.

"Thank you and the Municipal Bureau for giving me this opportunity."

He slowly turned around, facing the avatar belonging to "Lin Yuan," which was nailed to the pillar of shame.

"Then, my prosecution begins now."

"Regarding the crimes of the defendant Lin Yuan in the 'Severed Finger Nursery Rhyme' case and the 'Haitang Road Massacre' case, which the prosecution just listed, I fully agree."

"But..."

His tone suddenly shifted!

"I want to add a piece of brand new evidence that even the police failed to grasp."

In the command center, everyone's heart leaped into their throats!

Just then, the screen flashed!

A photo appeared.

A photo... that no one had ever seen.

It was a desolate demolition zone located in the suburbs.

In the center of the photo was a half-demolished abandoned residential building.

And on the wall of that building.

A huge and eerie symbol was painted using red paint.

An emblem... composed of an Ouroboros and a broken crown!

"This is..." Zhao Dahai's pupils suddenly contracted!

"This is Lin Yuan's... initiation pledge when he joined the 'Emperor' organization fifteen years ago."

"Gao Fan's" voice was cold and merciless, like a judge from hell.

"And the content of this pledge is..."

He paused, seemingly enjoying the thrill of keeping everyone in suspense.

"It was personally killing his biological parents."

"And the remains of the couple he killed are still buried beneath that wall to this day."

"As for this evidence..."

The cruel smile on "Gao Fan's" face grew deeper.

"It is what I glimpsed from the depths of his memory, twisted by the crystal chip, while he was attempting to brainwash me."

"And besides me, this digital specter, who can prove all this..."

His gaze seemed to pierce through the screen, through time and space, landing precisely on Chen Mo's face.

"There is one more person."

"One... who, like him, can hear the heartbeat of sin."

"One who was present at the scene but, due to cowardice, watched helplessly as the couple was buried alive... the sole witness."

"That person is..."

"You, right?"

"My dear colleague..."

"Chen Mo."