Becoming The White Moonlight’s Human Weapon After My Death

Chapter 17

Chapter 17: “Executioner Third Grade (First Volume)”

“………………”

Yan Chenli turned his head back slowly and looked at Shao Dongmi with a complicated expression.

The atmosphere seemed to freeze.

Shao Dongmi scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

On the other hand, Shen Lu, who hadn’t said anything all this time, gave a quiet laugh, “It seems like Mr Shao and Venus are working together quite well, Yan, you worried too much today.”

Yan Chenli drew in a deep breath.

“…It’s fine, it’s fine. It’s always better for Shao Dongmi to have killed fifty one people than for Shao Dongmi to have been killed by fifty one people.” He muttered, though it was unclear if he was trying to comfort Shao Dongmi or himself.

Shao Dongmi shrank back, “I’m sorry Captain. It was an emergency, I couldn’t think of a better way…”

“Since the other party came prepared, I can’t blame you for that either. You kept yourself safe and brought the suspect back into custody, that’s already very well done. After all, in a place like Augustus, this level of damage from fighting is common…” Yan Chenli lifted a hand and rubbed Shao Dongmi’s head, then sighed softly, “It’s just that I’m still not used to this level of casualties.”

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The three people took the suspect from the armoured vehicle and escorted him to the detainment area, then locked him in. Standard interrogation rooms were equipped with a one-way mirror, but this place clearly didn’t have any. Luckily there were security cameras, so they could still carry out an observation as normal.

The interrogation room was a small, narrow room with no windows, there was only a table and chair affixed to the ground, and the middle-aged man was slumped lifelessly on the chair, not saying anything, staring blankly.

Although there was only one person in the interrogation room and no interrogators, the interrogation had already begun from the moment he entered the room. Yan Chenli and Shao Dongmi stared at the security cameras from the next door room, carefully observing the man’s every move.

The preparation for the interrogation was also a very important part of the process, Shao Dongmi had accompanied him on countless interrogations before, but this time was not the same, and he found himself stuck from the very beginning.

“Are you sure about the first suspicion?” Yan Chenli asked.

“Yes…” Shao Dongmi nodded, “We need to analyse the case materials before the interrogation and become familiar with all the details, but when you think about it carefully, we simply have no way to be sure that there’s even a case! From my point of view, someone made a report so I rushed to the scene and was met with fierce resistance, then I arrested the head of the organisation. But from his point of view, it’s completely possible that he was staying at home, and I rushed in to his house and massacred people then tied him up. So the bandit turned out to be me.”

Yan Chenli couldn’t help but laugh, “Then, do you think he’s an innocent civilian?”

Shao Dongmi stared at the surveillance monitors and thought about it carefully, “Doesn’t seem like it.” But he immediately shook his head again, “But, Captain, you’ve also said that we can’t handle a case by relying on feelings alone.”

“Why doesn’t he seem like it?” Yan Chenli asked again.

“I can’t really tell… But before, if we grabbed the wrong person, the person would be so upset they’d want to tear our roof down.”

“Yeah, you aren’t seeing wrong.” Yan Chenli laughed again, “He’s too calm. When a normal person suffers an injustice, they’re either angry and indignant or anxious and worried. This man isn’t showing any signs, which means’ he’s definitely guilty of something.”

Shao Dongmi’s eyes flashed: “That’s just what I——!”

Yan Chenli interrupted his untimely excitement, “Do you still have the things you found on him? Show them to me.”

Shao Dongmi took the things out, it was a stack of wrinkled banknotes. Then, he remembered something else and took out an evidence bag with things inside, “Oh, right, there’s also this… It’s Liu Hao’s cellphone.”

It was an old cellphone, covered in scratches from having been used for who knows how long, the paint in the back had long since rubbed off, the corners were dented, and the screen had cracks everywhere.

Yan Chenli turned it over again and again, examining it, “Did you look into it?”

Shao Dongmi was a little dejected as he spoke of this: “I don’t know how many times the old phone has changed hands, there’s a bunch of messy data, all kinds of pictures, and the contacts book only has seven or eight contacts all called ‘mom’. Even if there were some clues or traces before, they should all have been covered up already. It’s more complicated than just a simple deletion and reformatting.”

Yan Chenli nodded, thinking deeply as he spoke, “This means the other party has received an education, and he’s knowledgeable in modern technology. He doesn’t want us to find clues about his identity, which means he has a fixed identity and residence, moreover, it should be easy to narrow down, which means his position in society shouldn’t be low, and the direction should also be very distinctive. This kind of conjecture would be useless in Yinjiang, but here in Augustus there aren’t many people like that.”

Shao Dongmi nodded a little excitedly, “That’s what I thought too!” He couldn’t reveal anything about Kevin’s call, but Yan Chenli had already reached pretty much the same conclusion, so he couldn’t help but let out a breath, “Captain, are you going to do the first interrogation now?”

“We’ll watch for a little while more, let him cool down for two hours.” Yan Chenli grabbed the phone and the cash and put them both into a box, “I’ll hand these over to Zhang Jing later, he’ll send it back to Yinjiang for evidence analysis. Although I don’t have much hopes, it’s always better to try than do nothing.”

Hearing they still had two hours, Shao Dongmi felt he’d found a chance,” Then, Captain… I still have questions. Big questions.”

Yan Chenli saw through Shao Dongmi’s thoughts at a glance, “Do you want to ask about the Executioners?”

Shao Dongmi nodded repeatedly.

“Fine, you like working overtime, right?” Yan Chenli smiled, then patted Shen Lu on the shoulder, “A-Lu, help me watch over the suspect for a bit, I’m going to bring Shao Dongmi to the data room.”

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The doors of the data room had electronic locks, the level of security was clearly much higher than other places. One could feel that the room was cramped and oppressive as soon as they stepped inside, with black machines that looked like bookcases filled with wires sticking out of them covering the entire place. These were servers set up for the Tribunal, and because the place was packed, there was only a corridor one metre wide left for people to pass through.

Apart from the computer data, there were also a few paper files on shelves next to the machines.

The servers in operation emitted a hum and heat from their engines, but the AC in the room was also in operation, so it was actually very cold when they came in.

“Since, aside from the data, the Tribunal’s servers are also here, it would be very troublesome if someone were to break things by accident, so only a few people have permission to be here, and I’m one of them.” Yan Chenli took back his keycard and brought Shao Dongmi inside, “If you want to look for something in the future and I’m not there, you can go find Mr. Chuan Beixiang, he’s easy to talk to.”

“There are still paper records nowadays?” Shao Dongmi carefully grabbed a folder and looked at it, it really looked like a personnel file, with pictures and a résumé.

“Since Augustus’ communications towers were pretty much destroyed, sometimes we have no choice but to use paper records. And since we lack personnel to manage it, sometimes there’s no time to import everything into the computer.” Yan Chenli warned him, “Be careful when you flip through them, if the files are burnt they’re really lost.”

Shao Dongmi was looking through the file in his hands and found that, aside from a résumé, there were also criminal records, a court verdict, and even an execution date.

Shao Dongmi gulped, “…Hey, Captain. I really want to know… are all Executioners made from dead people?”

Yan Chenli simply handed him a thin file, “The original file is very long, I compiled this version in an easy-to-understand manner, which was originally meant to be given out during preparation training for newcomers. Since you’re curious, go ahead and read it first.”

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『The Executioner is the technological foundation for the Tribunal’s peacekeeping experiment operation, a human-shaped weapon developed for the purpose on non-nuclear war.

Executioners are manufactured by extracting and processing the deceased’s consciousness from their body, then matching it with a new body specialised for combat. The body is composed of self-healing cells1 and specially strong metal bones and joints. Executioners have sharper combat senses, stronger combat skills, and a higher physical quality that far exceeds that of an ordinary person.

Strictly speaking, the Executioner’s consciousness is not the one which was extracted from the person before their death, rather, it is new artificial thoughts based on the traits of the extracted consciousness. This is in part due to technological limitations, and due to the costs of manufacturing an artificial consciousness from scratch, which are too high to be feasible. Perhaps this will be able to improve in the later technological iterations.』

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The record contained a few of Shao Dongmi’s guesses.

“But I still don’t really understand, why use a human consciousness?”

“Actually, computers have been able to imitate a living creature’s electrical currents and control muscle movement since a long time ago. But mobilising the human body to conduct self-learning iterations and controlling it in a fight requires huge calculations, and the volume of a computer that could perform this large amount of calculations would be far larger than that of a human brain.” Yan Chenli did his best to explain it in a simple and easy-to-understand way, “And the reason why they use a deceased person’s consciousness is because that is the most convenient.”

“This is also why an Executioner will have human-like flesh and blood, instead of purely being made out of metal and machinery. Living cells can self-repair, learn, restore themselves and evolve, and metal cannot.”

“Of course, since the new consciousness is constructed based off of the deceased’s thoughts, the Executioner’s thoughts and actions will be deeply influenced by the deceased. Which might give you the impression that the other is still alive and has just been transformed… right?”

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“Dang, that’s the kind of philosophical discussion I hate.” Shao Dongmi had a bit of a headache as he scratched his head, “[If a consciousness changes body, then is the body or the consciousness the original person?], [If you make a copy of a consciousness, can the newly-made person be considered the original?] …I used to get headaches just from seeing others discuss this before, and now I have to confront it myself?”

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“There’s no use in worrying about this. Because…” Yan Chenli’s voice was very calm, but also seemed a little cold, he looked down at the thin file in his hands. “…An Executioner’s consciousness will be worn away and deteriorate.”

Shao Dongmi looked up at him in astonishment.

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“An Executioner’s duty is to obey. As long as their thoughts deviate even a little, they will trigger a forceful warning, and their consciousness will suffer a certain degree of wear. It’s just like if your thoughts were a car, and the orders of the person who wakes you and the Executioner’s standard regulations are the traffic lane. If the regulations say you have to turn 90° to the right, but you only turn 80°, then you would have deviated from the path, and you’ll bump into the protective railing and get scratched and damaged. These protective railings forcefully bring you back into the prescribed road, and you will continue on your way as before, but the damage suffered will always stay with you.

“This kind of process repeats and never stops, until you can only carry out orders perfectly and not have any distracting thoughts. The process is called ‘polishing’.”

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Shao Dongmi’s eyes widened, and he felt a shiver running down his back, “Captain, you mean that, no matter what they’re like now, in the end they’ll all be…”

“Yes. The ‘human side’ an Executioner displays is just a flaw of the technology. They only have two outcomes, either the polishing fails and negative traits that significantly affect performance emerge after the deterioration, such as delayed movements and a decline in the senses, after which these non-compliant, defective products will be handed over to the relevant departments to be decommissioned and destroyed.

“Or the polishing succeeds, and their flaws are fixed until they forget their true identity and become a perfect, emotionless killing machine.”