17: Chapter 17 Live Radio: A Call from Hell

Dragon Country, a detention center in a southeastern city.

This was a specially made interrogation room with padded walls to prevent prisoners from self-harm.

The "drunken vagrant" Wang Wu (Death Soldier) who had been caught was slumped in the interrogation chair like a pile of mud. His hair was disheveled, his eyes were unfocused, and he was humming an unknown tune, letting out a few silly giggles every now and then.

Across from him, Police Captain Li Guofeng and his old partner Zhao Qiang had dark circles under their eyes, their faces full of exhaustion and irritability.

This was already the fourth interrogation.

"Wang Wu! I'm asking you one more time! Who exactly are you? Why did you kill Wang Defa?" Zhao Qiang slammed the table, making the goji berries in the thermos jump.

Wang Wu was startled, shrinking his neck and giggling foolishly, "Kill... kill pigs... New Year... eat meat..."

"Bullshit!" Zhao Qiang was so angry he wanted to throw his notebook. "Captain, this guy is definitely playing dumb! Why hasn't the psychiatric evaluation report come out yet? I don't believe a madman could kill someone so cleanly and then accurately dodge all the surveillance cameras."

Li Guofeng took a deep drag of his cigarette, his brow furrowed into the shape of the character for 'river'. He had been in criminal investigation for twenty years and had seen all sorts of cunning criminals, but with someone like Wang Wu, he was truly at a loss.

No such person found.

Fingerprint database, DNA database, facial recognition—none of them matched. This person seemed to have popped out of a crack in a rock. Moreover, his madness was thorough and lacked any logic, making it impossible to find a breakthrough.

"Let's leave him alone for a while." Li Guofeng stubbed out his cigarette and was about to get up to get some fresh air.

Just then, Wang Wu, who had been as limp as mud, suddenly stiffened in an extremely eerie way.

It was like a machine that had been disconnected from power suddenly being hit with high-voltage electricity.

Those eyes, which were originally cloudy, unfocused, and even had a bit of sleep crust, suddenly became clear, cold, and devoid of any organic quality in that instant.

Li Guofeng had only seen that kind of look in one type of person—the kind of top-tier killer who had crawled out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, or... a dead person without emotions.

"He..." Zhao Qiang was about to speak but was held down by Li Guofeng.

Wang Wu slowly raised his head, his originally tilted neck snapping back into place with a 'crack'. He looked at the one-way glass in front of him as if he could see the people behind it, a stiff smile that didn't belong to him curling at the corners of his mouth.

Then, a clear, standard Mandarin—completely different from his previous silly giggles and even carrying a bit of a metallic quality—came out of his mouth:

"Receive them."

Two words.

Like a clap of thunder, it exploded in the small interrogation room.

The hair on Li Guofeng and Zhao Qiang's bodies stood on end! This wasn't Wang Wu's voice at all! It was as if... another person was speaking through Wang Wu's mouth!

"What... what did you say?" Li Guofeng instinctively placed his hand on the holster at his waist, even though he knew the other party was handcuffed.

Wang Wu's eyes didn't move, staring straight at Li Guofeng as he continued in that emotionless tone:

"Codename: Sovereign."

"Location: Northern Myanmar, Kokang, Feifan Park."

"Event: The park has been breached. Rescued Dragon Country citizens, count: 3,124."

"Instruction: Order your side to immediately proceed to the XX border port in Southern Yunnan to receive them. Repeat, Sovereign has rescued over three thousand compatriots; order your side to immediately proceed to the border to receive them. They will not wait past the deadline."

As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Wu's body trembled violently, as if his soul had been sucked out.

The shrewdness and coldness of that moment vanished instantly, replaced by the previous cloudiness and dullness. He slumped back into the chair, saliva dripping from the corner of his mouth, looking around with a dazed expression as if everything that had just happened was a hallucination.

"Hehe... meat... meat is delicious..." He started talking nonsense again.

There was a deathly silence in the interrogation room.

Li Guofeng and Zhao Qiang looked at each other, both seeing the shock in the other's eyes.

"Boss... did... did I hallucinate?" Zhao Qiang felt his throat go dry. "Sovereign? Northern Myanmar? Three thousand people? Is this a damn sci-fi movie?"

Li Guofeng's hands were trembling slightly, but he quickly calmed down and grabbed the recording pen on the table: "Did you record that just now?!"

"It's... it's recorded." The young policeman responsible for the records was so scared his face had turned pale.

"Immediately! Right now! Seal the recording! Notify the Bureau Chief! No, contact the Provincial Department directly! This is a major situation!" Li Guofeng's voice was hoarse and urgent. "If it's true... if it's true, this is a monumental event!"

A madman had suddenly turned into a human radio transmitting top-secret information.

That place in Northern Myanmar where people are eaten alive without even spitting out the bones was taken down? And three thousand people were saved?

If it's true, what kind of god-like figure is this so-called "Sovereign"?!

...

At the same time, at the Daluo Port on the Southern Yunnan border.

This was an important passage on the China-Myanmar border, usually busy with trucks and border residents. But this afternoon, the border guards suddenly noticed clouds of dust rising on the mountain road opposite them.

"Alert! A large group of unidentified personnel is approaching!"

The observer on the watchtower sounded the alarm.

Teams of fully armed border guards quickly rushed to the defensive line, forming a human wall with riot shields, their muzzles pointed forward.

However, as the crowd drew closer, everyone was stunned.

It wasn't an army, nor was it refugees.

It was thousands of people in rags, supporting each other... Dragon Country people!

Some had broken legs, some were blind, some were skin and bones, but every single one of them had tears on their faces and a look of ecstatic joy at having survived a disaster.

Walking at the very front was a young man waving half of a torn shirt. He shouted with a hoarse voice, using all his strength:

"We are Chinese! We're home!"

"Don't shoot! We're on the same side!"

"Wuwuwu... PLA comrades... save us..."

The crowd surged forward like a black tide, their cries and shouts converging into a massive wave of sound that struck the heart of every soldier.

"They really are our compatriots! Quick! Open the gate! Medical team! Stretchers!"

The border company commander roared with reddened eyes, being the first to rush out of the cover to support a woman who was about to faint.

This scene was faithfully recorded by the surveillance cameras and reached the capital via military fiber-optic cables with the highest priority.

What the "madman" Wang Wu had said came true.

Over three thousand compatriots struggling in hell had truly been snatched back from the jaws of King Yama by that mysterious "Sovereign" and brought to the gates of the country!

The entire high-level leadership of Dragon Country was shaken.