The Trial Begins

At exactly nine in the morning, the Federal Court officially opened proceedings.

Before the trial began, Prisson arrived late, just as Gu Ding had expected. Gu Ding finally got to see the guy named Prisson.

The moment Gu Ding saw him, he almost laughed. The word "spherical" could not have been more fitting to describe his figure. His legs, however, were completely disproportionate to his body—thin as bamboo poles and seemingly only half the length of an ordinary adult's. By comparison, his arms looked somewhat too long. Yet that bizarre combination was not the end of it. His face was even harder to look at.

His face was covered in flesh, and folds of fat on his neck piled upward, making it seem as if he had three extra chins. His mouth was tiny and brightly colored as though he had applied lipstick; calling it a cherry mouth would not have been an exaggeration. The nose above it, on the other hand, was excessively large—three times the size of an ordinary person's—and its tip was blotchy red. Higher up were eyes the size of mung beans. "Mung-bean-sized" was not a figure of speech here; his eyes really were only that big. As for eyebrows, there were none to be seen. No one knew whether he had shaved them off himself or simply had never grown any. In any case, every feature on his face was hideous enough on its own, and put together, they were utterly unbearable to behold.

After one glance, Gu Ding could no longer bear to look at him and silently marveled at the Creator's wonders.

"The time is up. Let's begin," Prisson urged after checking the time. His voice was effeminate and chilling, enough to make one's hair stand on end.

Gu Ding nodded to the judge as well. "It's fine. Let's begin."

Reed had not arrived, but Gu Ding was not worried. Though Reed was usually not only a chatterbox but also a gossip, and always looked like he did not take anything seriously, he was fairly dependable when it mattered.

The Chief Judge finally struck the gavel and announced the opening of court, allowing Prisson, the plaintiff, to begin reading the indictment.

Gu Ding listened silently from the side. In the indictment, Prisson not only accused him of releasing the wanted criminal Kane, but also pinned the system failures at Tianhe Prison Headquarters and more than eighty branch facilities on him. He heavily emphasized that this was an A-grade crime that had caused unrest throughout the entire star region and demanded immediate execution.

Although the Tianhe Prison system failures had indeed been caused by him, judging from Prisson's expression, Prisson did not seem to know that Gu Ding was the real culprit. He merely wanted to shift that portion of responsibility onto Gu Ding to increase the severity of his charges.

Gu Ding had been dragged into Federal Court at the last minute and had not had any time at all to prepare a defense statement.

The presiding judge said to Gu Ding, "If you do not have a defense statement, just say a few words. He said so much just now; you should have objections."

Gu Ding nodded. "I'll only say one thing: if you claim I did all those things, then show the evidence!"

The presiding judge lowered his head and summarized both sides' statements before moving on to the evidence examination process.

Gu Ding had no materials to submit, but Prisson's side had not prepared much either, because they had no solid evidence to begin with.

All of those materials were electronic files. Sea Emperor reviewed them in less than a second and told Gu Ding, "His so-called evidence is nothing more than videos of prison system abnormalities and chaos, along with some speculative written claims."

After reviewing the materials, the presiding judge raised an objection to Prisson. "Mr. Prisson, the materials you submitted contain no actual physical evidence. If anything was omitted, please submit it as soon as possible."

Prisson's expression darkened, and just as he was about to speak, his lawyer stopped him.

"We have not prepared any new physical evidence yet, but we will have some very soon." After saying that, the lawyer whispered something to Prisson.

After listening, Prisson glanced toward Gu Ding and revealed a sinister smile. He had no idea that Sea Emperor had heard everything the lawyer had said.

"That lawyer said getting physical evidence would not be difficult. If there is no result in court, the prison can unilaterally apply to detain a suspect for seventy-two hours until the case is concluded. During detention, he can use his authority to torture you into confessing, then use your fingerprint and iris scan records to fabricate physical evidence," Sea Emperor relayed what he had heard.

"Don't fingerprints and iris scans have recorded timestamps?" Gu Ding lowered his head and entered his question on the screen of his smart watch. Everyone else assumed the device on his wrist was just an ordinary Civilian Smart Watch and did not pay attention to what he was doing.

"Changing the recorded time is easy. Anyone who knows a little about record-keeping programs can do it," Sea Emperor explained. "If you do not want to suffer, you had better win this case today."

They were about to enter the witness questioning stage, but Reed was still nowhere to be seen. Gu Ding began to worry slightly about his safety. Logically, Reed should have come straight over after breakfast. Forty minutes should have been enough, but an hour had already passed.

What Gu Ding did not know was that Reed had run into another matter.

After receiving Gu Ding's call, Reed hurriedly changed clothes and headed out. Though he had told Gu Ding not to worry, he himself was quite concerned. For breakfast, he had simply bought a donut and a can of milk from a roadside stall, eating as he headed toward the parking lot.

He had only eaten half the donut when he reached the parking lot entrance and his communicator rang. It was an unfamiliar number. He took one look and hung up. But two seconds later, the communicator rang again. He hesitated. Though he did not know who it was, it seemed to be something urgent, so he finally answered.

"Hello, who is this?" Reed stuffed the donut into his mouth in two bites and asked indistinctly.

"Are you Reed?" A woman's voice came from the other end. It sounded quite sweet.

"I am. What is it? I'm a little busy right now." Reed tossed the remaining half-can of milk into the trash bin at the entrance and walked into the parking lot.

"Do you know where Gu Ding is?" The woman's question made Reed freeze.

"Who are you?" Reed immediately became alert.

"I'm Pa Ma from the Pharmacy Department at Hai Lan Star Basic Military Academy. I have some potion formulation questions I'd like to ask him about." Her answer made Reed even more wary.

"Sorry, you've got the wrong person. Gu Ding doesn't know how to make potions." With that, Reed hung up. He became even more convinced that what Gu Ding had encountered this time was no simple matter.

Less than three seconds after the call ended, his communicator rang again. It was still the same woman's number. He hesitated, but answered anyway, wanting to hear what kind of story she would make up this time.

"Why did you hang up on me?!" the woman demanded.

"Miss, I'm really busy right now. When you make up a story, could you at least check the other person's background first? Don't just casually say things that are obviously full of holes..."

Before Reed could finish, she interrupted him. "Reed, if you want to successfully receive your graduation certificate and enter the Advanced Military Academy, I advise you not to hang up and to listen until I'm finished."

There was something bone-chilling in her voice. Even Reed, who had always been bold, was briefly stunned by the threat. "Who exactly are you?!"

"I told you, I'm Pa Ma from the Pharmacy Department. I did not expect Gu Ding had not told his closest friend that he is a pharmacist." Pa Ma's tone finally softened somewhat.

"Pa Ma... Why does that name sound familiar..." Reed finally realized. "You're that pharmacist professor?! The genius woman who became a B-grade pharmacist at twenty-two and currently serves as an elder at the Tianhe Star Region branch of the Medicine God Alliance?!"

"That's right, it's me! Are you interested in telling me about Gu Ding now?" Hearing the surprise in Reed's voice, Pa Ma sounded slightly pleased.

(Sorry, I finished writing this chapter after eleven last night, but when I tried to schedule the upload, I discovered the internet was down. I called the landlord this morning, and he only just came over. Although I mentioned in the group last night that today's update might be late, some new readers who have not joined the group would not know. Anyway, I'm posting both updates together so no one has to keep waiting.)