49: The trial never ends.

The bloody light, like a venomous snake, injected itself into the gray profile picture.

Zhou Zhengguo's face, which was always filled with authority, slowly lit up on the screen.

It was like a cold memorial portrait placed prematurely on a shrine.

Inside the command center.

The cheers of those who had survived the disaster stopped abruptly, like a chicken being choked.

The air instantly froze into ice harder than the permafrost of Siberia.

"No..."

Zhao Dahai's pupils suddenly contracted into the most dangerous of pinpricks!

He abruptly turned his head to look at the old man standing behind him, who was equally filled with shock and horror!

Su Qingxue's hand instinctively gripped the sidearm on her waist, her knuckles turning a deathly pale from the force.

Director Qian, who was from the Provincial Department, had a face usually filled with arrogance, but now it was left with only the comical blankness of cognitive dissonance!

Insane!

This world was completely fucking crazy!

On the screen.

The digital phantom "Gao Fan," who had just been "judged" dead by the entire city, had vanished without a trace.

Replacing him was the elegant yet cruel voice of "The Emperor," echoing through every corner of the city via the Human Court APP!

"A wonderful performance, my dear 'Judge'."

His voice was full of the exhilaration of meeting a worthy opponent, mixed with the playful mockery of a cat catching a mouse.

"You used one lie to bury another lie."

"You used my court to judge my piece."

"You turned everyone in the city into the sharpest knife in your hand."

"However..."

His tone suddenly shifted, plunging like a poisoned dagger straight into the hearts of every police officer present!

"You forgot that a knife has no mind."

"It only obeys... the command of the one holding it."

"Now, this knife belongs to me."

The moment he finished speaking!

On the screen, several lines of shocking, blood-red text slowly appeared beneath Zhou Zhengguo's profile picture!

[Defendant: Zhou Zhengguo]

[Charge One: Twenty years ago, using his authority to conceal the truth of the No. 13, Haitang Road massacre, and classifying the file of the main culprit Lin Yuan (Gao Fan) as 'Permanently Sealed'!]

[Charge Two: Fifteen years ago, using his authority to forcibly terminate the investigation into the Severed Finger Nursery Rhyme case, leading to the deaths of multiple children!]

[Charge Three: ...]

Charge after charge, like red-hot iron spikes, were mercilessly hammered into Zhou Zhengguo's pillar of shame!

Every single one was enough to ruin the reputation of this old man, who had fought his entire life in the police force, condemning him to eternal damnation!

"You... you're talking nonsense!"

Zhou Zhengguo's body swayed violently; he pointed at the screen, his lips trembling too much to utter a complete sentence!

"These... these are top secrets! How could you possibly..."

"Secrets?"

"The Emperor's" voice was filled with undisguised mockery.

"In this world, there are no secrets I do not know."

On the screen, the image changed!

Confidential internal documents, each stamped with a vibrant red seal, appeared!

On every document was Zhou Zhengguo's personal signature!

In the Human Court live broadcast room, after a brief silence, the bullet comments exploded with a ferocity a hundred times greater than before!

"Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit! The Director is a protector?!"

"He knew the truth twenty years ago! He's been covering for that animal all along!"

"No wonder those cases became cold cases! So the rot started here!"

"Kill him! Judge him! This scumbag doesn't deserve to be a police officer!"

The public's emotions, like a pot of boiling oil, instantly lost control again!

Only this time, their butcher's knife was aimed at the guardian who had once sworn to protect them!

"No... it's not like that..."

All color drained from Zhou Zhengguo's face; he let out a desperate cry, like an old wolf driven into a corner.

"The situation back then... it was too complicated... I..."

"Yes, the situation back then was very complicated."

"The Emperor's" voice was like a merciful pastor listening to a sinner's confession.

"So complicated that you needed to use the family of an innocent police officer as the scapegoat, right?"

The moment he finished speaking!

On the screen, the image changed again!

A face appeared, one that everyone was incredibly familiar with, yet it caused their pupils to contract sharply!

That was... the patriarch of the No. 13, Haitang Road massacre twenty years ago!

The man who had been pursued as the killer for twenty years... Chen Mo's father!

[Name: Chen Jianguo]

[Identity: Former Undercover Detective, Jiang City Municipal Bureau!]

[Mission: Infiltrate the predecessor organization of Tartarus, codename 'Scorpio'.]

[Outcome: Identity exposed, executed by the organization, and framed by his superior (Zhou Zhengguo) as a suicide due to fear of punishment!]

Boom!!!

The entire command center seemed to have been leveled by an invisible, all-destroying nuclear bomb!

Zhao Dahai's body suddenly stiffened!

He stared intently at the familiar face on the screen—the face of his former comrade, his best brother!

Then he turned back to look at the Director, who was now slumped in his chair, his face ashen.

"Zhou Zhengguo..."

He ground out three words through gritted teeth, each one tasting of blood.

"Is what he said... true?"

Zhou Zhengguo did not answer.

He merely closed his eyes in pain, two streams of turbid old tears silently tracing paths down his wrinkled face.

As for Chen Mo.

He just stood there quietly.

He looked at the man's face on the screen—the familiar yet strange face of the father of this body.

All shock and anger vanished from his eyes, which burned with a cold flame.

In its place was the dead calm of someone who had seen through everything.

He understood.

He understood everything.

"The Emperor's" game was never about judgment.

He merely wanted to watch... the grandest circus of human nature.

And now, this circus had finally reached its climactic movement.

"My dear 'Judge'."

"The Emperor's" voice was full of devilish pleasure and... anticipation.

"Now, it's your turn."

"Will you choose to believe this 'hero' who sacrificed your father and twenty years of your life for the sake of the so-called 'greater good'?"

"Or..."

He paused, his voice filled with seductive magic.

"Press that button, and personally complete this twenty-year-overdue... revenge for your father?"

On the screen.

The three blood-red options appeared once more!

[A. Acquittal]

[B. Permanent Imprisonment]

[C. Death Penalty]

Everyone's gaze subconsciously focused on the young man standing before the main control panel.

He had become the court's sole, and final... judge.

His choice would determine one man's life or death.

And it would also determine the final fate of this city.

Chen Mo slowly raised his head.

He looked at the man's face on the screen, the man who had given him this body yet burdened him with twenty years of nightmares.

Then he turned back and looked at the old man slumped in the chair, awaiting his judgment.

He suddenly laughed.

The laugh was hoarse and weary, yet carried a sense of... release.

Slowly, he raised his hand.

Under the horrified gazes of everyone present.

He reached for the button representing... [C. Death Penalty].