Chapter 1 Agrolo Prison City

Agrolo Prison City was a giant fortress made of steel, located on the Agrolo Joint Garrison Satellite, one of the seven satellite spheres of the New Faelan Federation's main star. It was used to hold important criminals from various Alliance members, such as political prisoners, war criminals, and traitors. Sylvia's father, Langly, was imprisoned inside.

The New Faelan Federation was a small civilization alliance in the Shattered Star Ring - Colton Star Cluster - Ryan Star System. In the vast sea of stars, there were countless civilizations, and political alliances of this kind were countless. Some civilizations made alliances with each other, helping each other and taking what they needed. Generally speaking, civilization alliances were regional, and most were civilizations within a certain area that decided to develop friendly relations and govern together, so they formed alliances.

The New Faelan Federation had eight members, all of which were small interstellar civilizations, ranging from galactic to planetary levels. These civilizations were once countries on the same planet, and the mother star was called Faelan. After Faelan's technology entered interstellar space, the countries could not reach unification. They could not agree, so they split up. There were so many resources in the universe waiting to be developed, so there was no need to hang on one tree. They wanted harmony, not war. Thus, the most powerful country stayed on the mother star, and the other countries took immigration spaceships and migrated to other planets. In the end, they all developed and became different civilizations.

Fundamentally speaking, these civilizations were of the same root, and their technology and culture were closely connected. Therefore, after many years of division, they finally united again and formed the New Faelan Federation, which was the most powerful force in the Ryan Star System.

In his previous life, the forums discussed this form of civilization. Since Earth could not be unified, perhaps this form of civilization would not be bad either. A peaceful breakup was good. Of course, this was more idealistic, and the issue of limited resources had always been very complicated. Moreover, whether Earth could develop to the interstellar level was a problem, and now, Great Technician Han no longer needed to worry about this problem.

Langly was originally a high-ranking military officer of a country, a warlord who could dominate one side. He had a good life and a decent salary, but one day, he exerted his influence to instigate the army, secretly colluded with many people, gathered a group of rebels, and wanted to form his own country. He called it an uprising, but in reality, he did evil, making his base impregnable. After years of infighting with his old employer, a large wave of interstellar mercenaries descending from the sky directly attacked his core and beat him until he could not breathe. Black Star Mercenary Group was one of these mercenaries, accepting the Purple Gold Legion's invitation. A total of seven mercenary groups cooperated to complete this mission.

At this time, Han Xiao was piloting the Rainbow Conch spaceship, arriving in the territory of the New Faelan Federation. He had informed them in advance, and the Federation Affairs Department welcomed the mercenaries who had cooperated with them before, agreeing to his request to visit the prisoner.

The spaceship landed at the Agrolo Joint Garrison Satellite port. He took a ground vehicle to the Prison City. Han Xiao only brought a few people with him this time: Aroshia, the tied-up Sylvia, and a few players including Meat Bun. The others were waiting on the ship. This time, he was just letting Sylvia see her father; there was no need to make a big show.

"You... why are you doing this?"

In the steadily moving ground-hugging hovercraft, Sylvia's eyes were complex. When the assassination failed a few days ago, she thought she was dead, but she didn't expect Han Xiao not only to not kill her, but also to bring her to see her father. During the few times she was awake along the way, she was wondering if she was dreaming. Without the Alliance's permission, she wouldn't be able to enter the heavily guarded Agrolo Prison City at all. She thought she would never have a chance to see her father. Sylvia didn't understand why Han Xiao was helping her.

"To let you know that your hatred is meaningless, how unworthy it is to die for it, and by the way, to let your father know about your death, because I really want to see his expression after his lies killed his daughter. I like killing people's hearts the most."

Han Xiao shrugged, too lazy to look at Sylvia's angry and frantic expression again, and opened the panel on his own.

After sparing Sylvia's life, he triggered a new mission, [Lies], which required Sylvia to recognize the so-called "truth". The reward was acceptable, 540,000 experience, and the truth didn't need to be investigated at all; he could just come and ask her father.

In the previous life's character background, Sylvia's father was blown into pieces by the mercenaries who didn't know how to hold back, but now he was captured alive by Han Xiao, because the live capture reward for that mercenary mission was higher, so he let Langly live, which provided convenience for this time.

Agrolo Prison City was very majestic, with many guards. There were many snipers and machine gunners stationed high up, and the searchlights rendered the night sky as bright as day. The group entered the prison smoothly, and a warden came to greet them.

"Black Star, I've heard so much about you." This warden had a thick beard and an outgoing personality. He reached out and shook Han Xiao's hand heavily, laughing enthusiastically, "My friend Barney serves in the 37th Field Regiment. He participated in the Langly base annihilation operation, fought side by side with the mercenaries, and witnessed your strength. He often talks to me about you. I'm stuck in this lifeless prison city every day, and I've finally met a famous person like you."

"You flatter me." Han Xiao maintained a reserved smile, exchanging pleasantries with ease, and followed the warden forward.

Soon, the group stopped in front of a metal door to a single cell.

With only a door between them, Sylvia's face was excited. She couldn't wait to rush in and see her father, but Han Xiao grabbed her shoulder, preventing her from moving, and said, "Warden, I want to meet with Langly alone first."

"No problem." The warden nodded.

"What do you want to do to my father?!"

Sylvia was like a cat whose fur had been ruffled, with flames burning in her eyes. She bit Han Xiao's palm hard, but it didn't hurt Han Xiao. Instead, she was stunned and a "-13" reflection damage popped up above her head, while "Immune" popped up on Han Xiao.

"What do I want to do to him? Good question. I want him to not look so presentable when he sees you. It would be best if he was missing an eyeball or an ear."

Han Xiao curled his lips and walked into the cell alone. The metal door closed behind him, cutting off Sylvia's roar.

The room was dimly lit, and an electrically heated iron cage divided it into two areas. The cage was the cell. Langly leaned against the black wall, which was covered with moss and dirt. His face was full of stubble, his eyes were dull, and he looked much more weathered and decadent.

Hearing the noise, Langly thought it was a guard and subconsciously turned his head to look over, but saw the nightmare engraved in his heart. His expression quickly became terrified, and he jumped up, "It's you! How are you here?!"

"You're afraid of me?" Han Xiao was expressionless as he walked to the iron cage. "Shouldn't you be thanking me? If the mercenaries who came had been different, it would have been difficult to even piece together your corpse. Are you still able to stand here in one piece?"

Although there was an iron cage between them, Langly did not feel safe at all. He retreated in a hurry, his back hitting the wall, his throat twitching, and he swallowed nervously. The pain in his knees became more and more intense. He still remembered the situation at the time, a group of armored mercenaries descended from the sky, killing their way into his core and cleaning up his army like cutting vegetables. This mercenary waved his hand and summoned hundreds of Gatling guns, killing at least a thousand people. He killed his way to himself and shot through his knees with two shots, causing him almost to suffocate from the pain.

Until now, Langly had to rely on a simple nerve stent implanted in his knees to stand up.

"Enough with the small talk, I came here specifically to find you." Han Xiao said lightly, "Your daughter, Sylvia, I don't know what lies you told her, but she believed your nonsense and thought you were a great man, a pioneer of liberating the people or something like that, and wanted to avenge you, trying to assassinate me..."

"What!!"

Langly's face changed drastically. He pounced on the railing, grabbed the heated railing tightly, ignoring the burning smell of his palms being scorched by the high temperature. He was almost face to face with Han Xiao, with an anxious and angry expression.

"You, what did you do to her?!"

"What else could I do?" Han Xiao made a gesture of waving a knife. "Of course, I killed her. A shot went in from her jaw into her brain. A hole was blown in the back of her head, and brain matter and blood splattered all over the wall. One of my subordinates thought she was quite pretty and was going to skin her face and use it as a specimen."

Langly almost fainted. His daughter was all the motivation he had to live now. His expression became twisted, and emotions such as rage, regret, heartache, despair, and hatred flashed through his mind. He let out a howl like a dying beast, roaring madly, and even the fear of Han Xiao was thrown to the winds.

"I will kill you! I will definitely kill you!!"

Calmly watching the furious Langly, waiting until his voice was hoarse and he could only pant and stare at himself, Han Xiao slowly said, "Alright, enough with the jokes. Your daughter is right outside the door. I caught her, and this time I specifically brought her to see you."

Langly was stunned, with a blank look on his face, unable to react. His emotions rose and fell sharply, and he felt almost exhausted. He sat down on the ground with a thud, his trembling hand pointing at Han Xiao, but he couldn't say anything.

Han Xiao squatted down, meeting Langly's eyes. "You're a smart man. Whether I kill your daughter or not depends on you."

Langly's face changed several times. He lowered his head and remained silent.

"Speak. I don't have time to wait for you to consider." Han Xiao tapped the iron cage impatiently.

"I'm not a good person... but you're even more evil than me." Langly's eyes were complex as he said in a hoarse voice, "I'll do it. I'll tell her everything, all of it. From the beginning, I was a high-level spy planted by other forces, controlled by others. Everything I did was to subvert the order of the New Faelan Federation. I'll let her know that I've been deceiving her. I'm not the kind of person she imagined at all. I'm just a despicable traitor, an evildoer who destroys thousands upon thousands of families for my own selfish gains. I'll destroy the image she has of me... and make her completely disappointed in this father..."

"You can do whatever you want," Han Xiao said, getting up.

Langly raised his eyes and looked up at Han Xiao. "Will you let my daughter go if I do this?"

Han Xiao was too lazy to answer and turned to walk toward the door, leaving a sentence, "In any case, if I don't like the result after the conversation, I'll make what I just said come true... I'm only giving you one chance."

Opening the door and leaving the cell, he immediately saw Sylvia's anxious face, glaring at him, but her eyes couldn't help but glance at the crack in the door.

"Go in, you only have ten minutes."

Han Xiao waved his hand, telling Aroshia to release Sylvia. Sylvia rushed into the cell impatiently, eager to see her father.

Closing the door, the warden called up the surveillance footage, monitoring Sylvia and Langly's conversation outside the door, able to clearly see the changes in Sylvia's expression.

From the initial anxiety, it gradually turned into astonishment, then shock, then a heated argument. Even through the heavy iron door, they could vaguely hear Sylvia's emotionally out-of-control roar, and finally, tears streamed down her face.

……

[【Lies】Completed]

[You gained 540,000 experience]

"Ten minutes are up."

The warden opened the door and brought Sylvia out.

She was listless, her eyes were dull, and there were still dried tear stains on her face. She had lost all her fighting spirit, lifeless like a walking corpse. The vitality she had ten minutes ago was gone, as if the faith she had always held on to had collapsed.

Just now, she learned that the shining image of her father in her heart was actually built on lies. She had been deceived for more than ten years. He was not a great man, and everything he did was despicable. It was his own fault that he ended up in this state. Even if the mercenaries hadn't intervened, he would have been annihilated by the army sooner or later. If it weren't for Black Star, her father wouldn't even be alive.

The world seemed to have been turned upside down, and those childhood scenes filled with warm sunshine in her memory seemed to have changed.

Everything was a lie!

Her heart felt like it had been riddled with a thousand bullets.

She couldn't digest this information at all in a short period of time. Her vision was spinning, a daze. All the sounds became distant, indistinct, as if she was isolated from the world.

Thump.

Sylvia fell to the ground and fainted.

Through the gap in the slowly closing door, Han Xiao took one last look at Langly.

The rebel leader seemed to have aged several decades, but his face was very calm, and there was even a hint of... relief.

Shaking his head, Han Xiao grabbed Sylvia by the back of her collar, carrying the little brat on his shoulder like a sack, and curled his lips.

"Congratulations, you've grown up."