Assistant Yan didn't immediately respond to Lieutenant Colonel Lu's greeting. His gaze first swept over Zhang Yingying, pausing for a moment, just in time to meet the latter's gaze.
Assistant Yan was in his early thirties and of medium height. He might not even be as tall as Zhang Yingying in high heels, but his posture was strong and his face was quite handsome. It was just that the corners of his lips were habitually pursed, and his expression was cold and solemn. He did not look like someone who was easy to talk to.
What left the deepest impression was his eyes. His pupils were slightly dark red, and a similar color seeped out from the edges of his eyes, especially at the corners of his eyes, where the protruding veins and veins near his temples were intertwined. It was a rather uncomfortable feeling.
Lieutenant Colonel Lu saw that the two of them were sizing each other up, but he pretended that he didn't know and didn't help to introduce them.
"Assistant Yan, what can I do for you?"
"According to the command center's suggestion, a batch of detection equipment has been transferred from my company to be used to screen the suspects temporarily detained on the ship."
Assistant Yan's face was expressionless as he directly operated his wristband. He indicated to Lieutenant Colonel Lu and quickly passed the authorization verification.
"Detection equipment?" Lieutenant Colonel Lu asked curiously. "Is the search over?"
"Not yet, but the precision of the equipment is quite high, and the installation and debugging will take some time."
"Understood, understood."
Lieutenant Colonel Lu felt a bit regretful. Since it was equipment acceptance, as a supervisor, he had to be present. That was the end of his friendly interaction with the young female lawyer.
He signaled Assistant Yan to wait for a moment and turned to Zhang Yingying with a smile. "Miss Zhang, shall we stop here first? It's still early, so I'll arrange a cabin for you to rest first. I'll arrange for someone to send the information to you later."
"Thank you, Lieutenant Colonel."
Zhang Yingying knew that it was no longer suitable for her to stay in the monitoring center alone, so she took the initiative to shake Lieutenant Colonel Lu's hand and bid her farewell.
When she passed by Assistant Yan, Zhang Yingying gave him a friendly smile. She narrowed her eyes and activated the automatic camera function of her contact lenses, saving a photo of the person's face.
The corners of Assistant Yan's lips twitched. He didn't know if that was considered a response. His line of sight did not land on Zhang Yingying either. Judging from the angle, he was looking at the surveillance footage in the room.
Zhang Yingying glanced back the instant she walked out the door. Lieutenant Colonel Lu could be considered quite cautious. He didn't want to give others a handle. He had long since indicated to his subordinates to switch out Luo Nan's close-up. Luo Nan's figure had already disappeared into a dozen or so similar images on the monitor screen. He couldn't be considered too eye-catching.
But Zhang Yingying had a strong feeling:
The focus of this Assistant Yan's gaze was aimed at Luo Nan, and it had been a long time since he moved.
Walking in the corridor inside the warship, Zhang Yingying entered the image she had just taken into the database and confirmed the search criteria.
"Judging from the uniform, it's Sky Blue Security, a professional security company under Quantum Corporation. They're able to communicate directly with the military, so their position should be high up. And those eyes…"
A few seconds later, a warning sounded. "Information listed as secret. You do not have sufficient authority."
Zhang Yingying wasn't particularly surprised. She pursed her lips and switched to another channel. Not long after, she pulled up a simple personal file.
The reason why it was called "simple" was that there was still a considerable portion that had been blocked. However, she could already verify a portion of her conjecture from the current information.
The electronic photo at the top of the file was precisely Assistant Yan's appearance. He was just younger by seven or eight years, and he was revealing a spirited smile.
Yan Yongbo, former lecturer of Acumen College. He left his post of his own accord in 90.
His father, former professor of Acumen College, Yan Hong.
"Okay then. Enemies really do meet on a narrow road… Speaking of which, did he recognize me in the end?"
Zhang Yingying thought back to the conversation she had with Xie Junping before she boarded the warship. She had no choice but to make an amendment: "This giant ship of Quantum Corporation doesn't care about little ants, but the spider and whatnot on it might not."
This seemed to be a very troublesome choice… Give it up?
Luo Nan's thoughts stirred, and the marvelous scene that appeared beneath the tip of his pen flowed within his mind.
"It's really cool…"
Luo Nan, who was very cool, was still drawing with his pen. Even though he had already entered the Fixed Space, locked onto the source of interference, and confirmed the true identity of the specter, he didn't have any intention of stopping.
The feeling of the pen and mind merging into one was truly very marvelous.
The burning wraith was an inconceivable existence. Luo Nan didn't know how to categorize it or determine its nature. Even though he had entered the Fixed Space, he didn't have too many clues as to how to deal with it.
But when he held the luster pen in his hand and allowed the lines to flow from the tip of the pen, all the problems were no longer problems.
The material and the mental, the real and the illusory, the present and the future—multiple dimensions interwove together to depict the same goal from multiple angles. His inspiration would never dry up no matter what.
The distorted sketch of the prison building that was filled with symbolism revealed more and more clear conceptual clues.
Luo Nan's lips unconsciously opened and closed slightly. He silently recited the mnemonic chant that he had long since become familiar with. He only chose the first four words:
My heart's a prison!
He silently recited it without a sound, but the intent it carried had never been as condensed as it was now. It broke through the boundary between the real and the illusory to attack the plane of the visualization. It was as if it had transformed into an iron hammer that smashed heavily onto the visualization diagram.
It was like the ringing of a bell. It was like the striking of a chime. Countless silver threads were extracted from the diagram amidst the fine vibrations. They split apart to randomly construct countless flickering structures. And they clearly had a close relationship with the prison building in the notebook.
Some were clear and proper. Some were distorted and blurry. There was also an enormous difference in their forms.
There were tightly woven fences inside. There was a sealed iron cage. There were leaping arcs of electricity. There was a malevolent beam gun… In short, each and every one of them was a symbol of violence and coercion. They were the embodiment of the details of the prison drawing.
Due to the leaping of consciousness and the haphazard brushwork, the majority of the structures were only superficial. They didn't conform to the principles of construction at all. The time they existed was extremely short.
But every time the intertwining and shattering structures of silver threads swept past, the burning wraith that had already penetrated into the inner layer of the visualization diagram acted as if it was facing a great enemy. It moved endlessly in defense, cutting quite a sorry figure.
The burning wraith also wanted to carry out interference and destruction. But the problem was that the process unfolding in multiple dimensions at the same time had already completely exceeded the scope of its control.
Luo Nan didn't understand why the burning wraith, which was over a hundred meters tall when it howled at the sky, had become so unbearable. But he wouldn't stop.
The chanting never stopped. The visualization never stopped. The tip of the brush never stopped!
Gradually, Luo Nan gave up on injecting the inspiration of details into the sketch. Instead, he began to subtract. He revolved around the increasingly clear conceptual clues and strengthened them.
Within the visualization diagram, those leaping and combining silver threads seemed to respond to the intense and pure intent of his mind. Hundreds and thousands of flashy but impractical constructions collapsed with a rumble, revealing the simple and pure composition of the tetrahedron once again.
At the center of the diagram, at the center of the inscribed sphere, there was a crashing sound. It was as if the heart was trembling.
The burning wraith actually lost the courage to linger any longer when faced with this change. Within the darkness, the light of the flames curled up and separated from the visualization diagram. It transformed into a streak of red light that pierced through the sky and left.
This was the visualization plane. Where could it go?
Before this thought could finish, the world of nothingness shook once more. The red light seemed to penetrate an incorporeal membrane. After a slight pause, it increased its speed and pierced through the sky.
Luo Nan's consciousness suddenly went into a daze the instant the "membrane" was penetrated. An ice-cold metal wall appeared in his field of vision. A notebook was placed on his lap, and… he was drawing with his pen.