No Metaphors, Rhetorical Questions, or Hints Allowed

Jiu De Mayi carefully placed the miniature pinhole camera, listening devices, and other equipment in the corners. The devices she used were all covert surveillance tools that could be hidden in wall cracks, ceilings, furniture, and other places.

They had low power consumption and high durability, allowing for long-term recording and monitoring, making them essential for home security against thieves and cheating spouses, and for covert eavesdropping, theft, and photography when out and about.

Adding in the few trackers she'd already placed, Jiu De Mayi finally used up most of the small equipment she had brought.

Ugh, I'm about to die of exhaustion, this damn place is really huge!

A trace of resentment, born from prolonged nervous tension, welled up in Jiu De Mayi's heart. However, as a ninja who had undergone professional training, she had excellent discipline. Although it was hard and tiring, she would never be careless with her work.

Mainly, this damn place... Tsk, the Chen Family base had several signal jammers, so she had to repeatedly move around, searching for suitable places to place the equipment. Some key laboratory areas were important, but the security was very strict, so she could only install equipment on the outside...

Sigh, it was possible the signal wouldn't transmit, meaning the equipment would only save the recordings locally, and she'd have to come back another time to retrieve them...

The blurry black smoke transformed from the Word of Power: Underworld Reflection thus drifted through the building late at night. She had now almost confirmed the key locations.

First of all, most of the industrial park here consisted of high-tech research institutes, medical institutions, biological research institutions, and supporting data centers invested in by the Chen Family. The place most likely related to Death Servant research was a medical institution next to a testing and inspection center.

She collected a large number of import cargo lists from inside.

Hmm, the content of the lists wasn't important; it was definitely packaged information anyway. But the problem was the source of the goods shown on the lists.

There were two main sources for the goods: one was a gang from the South American region, and the other was a gang from the Eastern Ocean region... Why are they all gangs?

If they were gangs, then there was a problem... a huge problem.

Jiu De Mayi pursed her lips. As an Eastern Ocean native, she was very clear about the situation in her hometown. The local gang group, the Yaqi Eight Families, could be said to be the leader of the entire country's dark underworld.

In addition, there was also a gang organization composed of dangerous Hybrids called the Fierce Ghost Society, but most of the Fierce Ghost Society members had defected from the Yaqi Eight Families... These two organizations basically covered or led all the Hybrids in this country. Those like her, Jiu De Mayi, and Emiya, who went out on their own, were the minority.

So, goods that were related to Hybrid organizations and required secret transactions could basically be locked into the perennial categories of Dragon Blood research, bloodline potion experiments, and so on. It wasn't surprising that Death Servants were involved.

As for the other South American gang involved in smuggling on the list Jiu De Mayi collected, she hadn't heard of them. After flipping through a pile of lists for a long time, she finally got a valuable name:

"Boar Neo".

A strange nickname, Jiu De Mayi shrugged when she saw it. She hadn't heard of him. She'd let Chip Girl check it out later.

It seemed that human trafficking was rampant in South America. Could it be that the Chen Family was trading South American Hybrids in bulk from there for bloodline experiments, which led to the creation of Death Servants?

While thinking, Jiu De Mayi left the medical institution with its hidden secrets and returned to the testing and inspection center where the Chen Family's eldest daughter had first entered.

This should be the most problematic place besides the institution she had just left.

There were clearly no research projects here, yet the Chen Family patriarch ruthlessly escorted his own daughter inside.

Jiu De Mayi saw the pale corridor from a distance, where dense light streamed down from high-hanging lamps. It was from here that Nono was escorted deeper inside.

At this moment, everything was silent, the world was extremely quiet, terrifyingly quiet. The darkest depths at the end of the corridor were like a ferocious monster waiting to devour people, as if provoking it would inevitably invite deadly fangs to tear and gnaw.

Jiu De Mayi remembered that she had also attached equipment to Nono. She didn't know what the Little Witch would encounter. She'd retrieve it later and see.

"?"

She tilted her head. Had she heard a scream?

In a daze, a terrifyingly cold mechanical voice repeated: "Frigga Three refuses to answer. Increasing intensity. Commencing the 45th execution!"

An endless sense of suffocation surged from all directions countless times. Nono was close to a breakdown from the pain, plummeting into an endless dark abyss.

Until a certain moment, the sound of chains clanging suddenly came from beside her ears. The biting cold forced Nono to wake up from the terrible dream.

—So she opened her eyes and found that everything was dark, and she was bound to a solid metal interrogation rack. Heavy chains were tied tightly, as if she were some dangerous Hybrid... Wait, why is this exactly the same scene as in the dream?

Good news: The previous one was a dream.

Bad news: The dream had now come true.

Nono's pale face lifted. At this moment, a blinding light, like a hospital operating room lamp, shone down, causing her to immediately close her eyes.

The mechanical voice, as cold as in the dream, delivered a merciless declaration into her ear:

"Frigga Three, please begin your statement. Clearly describe the 'bloodline memory' scenes you obtained through Spiritual Vision. Note that in such statements, the use of metaphors, rhetorical questions, hints, and other rhetorical devices is prohibited."

Huh? Nono was full of questions. She barely had any opportunities for Spiritual Vision, so where did all this messy bloodline memory come from...

Wait, could it be... the words the ninja master taught her before?

"Please note the time, Frigga Three. Based on the conclusion of the previous generation sample, 'Frigga Two,' the interval between executions has been conventionally adjusted and extended. You have ten minutes of free time to recall."

The mechanical voice paused for a break, and the operating lamp suddenly dimmed. Connecting this to the scene in her dream, Nono trembled slightly and looked around. She finally saw the tall, thick, cold-gleaming solid alloy walls in the dim room, and the source of her deathly despair next to her.

—They were two identical execution racks. On the metal chains, which were already covered with a layer of dust, were intertwined strands of messy red hair that were all too familiar to her, hanging in mid-air like dried, solidified specimens of dark blood threads...

Nono tilted her head. She lowered her eyes and could barely see the situation on the closer execution rack... Below the metal chains was a dark brown container resembling a coffin. In the colorless liquid inside, a red-haired corpse with no signs of life was indeed floating—

Nono's face instantly drained of color and turned deathly pale. Profiling was almost passively activated, and a flood of information about cloning, formaldehyde, dozens of interrogations, and more poured into her mind...

That was undoubtedly another her... the corpse of another Frigga experiment subject!

So, she was a clone, Frigga Zero—a copy of the real "Chen Motong"!

Therefore, her memories, her past, were fake...

Including her cherished deceased mother, the family she found so disgusting she wanted to vomit... Everything she possessed originally belonged to the real Chen Motong.

And she had never owned anything of her own. From body to soul, she was merely the afterimage of another, a false mask!

The Little Witch, the Chen Family's eldest daughter—it was all just a beautiful, carefully constructed shell. Once shed, the aura of nobility vanished, and the vibrant life dissolved into emptiness.

A moment later, a blinding white light suddenly flared.

With a drip, the chains tightened even further, forcibly dragging Nono back from her rapidly escalating despair to the grim reality.

The mechanical voice spoke again: "Frigga Three, time has run out. You have not provided a meaningful statement. Increasing intensity. Commencing the 46th execution."

"Ahhhhhhh—"

Thanks to @君雾尘@老子是欧提不是非提@输油唱歌@つ3つ@书友

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