Star Ocean: Starting from the Abandoned Mining Space Station.

Chapter 291 The mastermind behind the scenes, the greed of the Fifth Legion
Chen Ming walked towards the small building.

As he walked past Qian Mian and pushed open the door of the small building, he asked, "What do you want to do?"

Qian Mian sidestepped Chen Ming, walked in front of him and said, "I'm just showing you my past and telling you what you have to face. I'm already dead, so there's no need to retaliate to a dead person like me. Are you wary?"

"You don't look like a dead person."

"If you feel it carefully, you will know that I am really a dead person."

Chen Ming entered the small building without saying much.

Dirtyness was the first impression the small building gave him.

There were stains everywhere and various furniture that showed no signs of cleaning were scattered haphazardly on the first floor.

When Qian Mian saw these things, his eyes were a little disgusted, and he took Chen Ming straight to the attic.

When passing the stairwell, Chen Ming could see several different types of card tables on the second and third floors of the small building.

Scattered piles of cards, overturned teapots, cigarette butts and garbage on the floor are the main tone of the second and third floors.

It wasn't until Chen Ming entered the attic that he felt that the environment was obviously much better.

However, there are still various debris accumulated in the attic, making the entire space station appear very cramped.

Moreover, there was only a small window in the corner of the attic, making the entire attic very dark.

Chen Ming soon noticed that next to the small window, there was a small bed that a thirteen or fourteen-year-old child could only lie down on with his body hunched over.

Qian Mian came to the small window with familiarity, opened the small window, and sat on the bed.

"Seeing this, you probably know what I was like before."

After Qianmen finished speaking, he opened the drawer of the small bedside table next to it that was probably used as a desk and groped around inside.

"I experienced a lot of domestic violence when I was a child and was treated badly by my father. My only entertainment at that time was playing this with my peers nearby."

Qian Mian finally took out a transparent plastic jar from the drawer, filled with various colored glass beads.

It is also the external manifestation of Thousand Faces Psychic Power.

"My first glass bead was picked up, and I won the other glass beads myself."

"I felt happy winning glass beads from other people, but my father couldn't stand it and one day he spilled all the beads on the road outside."

Qian Mian pointed out the window.

Chen Ming leaned over and took a look.

Opposite this row of small buildings is a road. Next to the road is a fairly large grassland, all covered with dense weeds. Beyond it is a river.

Chen Ming turned his gaze back and continued to listen to Qianmian's story.

"That day, my happiness disappeared. I didn't notice it when I got home. It wasn't until I finished my homework, finished eating, and cleaned up the house that I realized that my glass beads were missing."

"I didn't dare to ask my father. I only dared to look for it myself. Finally, I found a few of my glass beads in the weeds across the road."

"I spent a lot of time picking up the glass beads, but there were still a lot less, and it was already late at night."

"When I got home, my father was furious and smashed the jar full of glass beads I had picked up on my head."

"What I heard before I fell into coma was the sound of glass beads scattered all over the floor."

"When I woke up the next day, I was surprised to find that all the glass beads had been collected and placed in this jar."

"I thought my father had it figured out, but I soon found out I was wrong."

"What he meant was for me to throw these things into the river with my own hands."

"I don't want to. There will only be insults and beatings."

"Finally, he dragged me, who had been beaten until I couldn't move, and used my hands to pour the glass beads into the river."

"I kept crying, which annoyed him a little, so in the end, he even forced me to eat a glass bead that didn't fall into the river."

"He threw me like a dead dog by the river. I only heard the last two words he said before leaving, 'trash.'"

There was no twists and turns in Qian Mian's tone, as if what he was telling was not his own past, but the story of a stranger.

"When I woke up the next day, I was already in the hospital, and the glass beads were removed from my stomach."

"This glass bead happens to be the first glass bead I picked up. What a coincidence, right?"

"I returned home with this one remaining glass bead."

"I apologized to my father, admitted my mistake to my father, and pretended that I had reformed."

"I broke up with my friends who played with glass beads and stopped communicating with them. I pretended that I would never touch glass beads again."

"I studied hard in school, studied hard with those kids that others said were good, learned their strengths, and made myself a collection of strengths, pretending to be what everyone wanted to see."

"During that time I was desperately trying to prove that I wasn't a loser."

"I did it."

"But it didn't work."

"Everything I showed was useless."

"My father still treats me like a beast, and no one around me can interfere with my family."

"But I'm still pretending, at least it will save me some pain when I get home."

"Although this doesn't stop him from beating me until I have difficulty moving after drinking too much."

Qian Mian said, raised his head, and shifted his gaze from the jar on his lap to Chen Ming's face.

Then he saw Chen Ming leaning against the window with his head tilted as if he was listening to nonsense.

"Hey, I'm dead, can't you just listen to a dead man explain things clearly?"

"You're already dead. Can you hurry up? I still have things to do outside."

"You can tell that the space and time of this consciousness pass very slowly, right? At least listen to me explain my last words clearly, right?"

Seeing that Chen Ming still had the same attitude, Qianmian's remaining consciousness could only compromise: "Okay, I'll hurry up."

"Later, I would further disguise myself. I learned some makeup and cross-dressing techniques, disguised myself as a stranger and started looking for people to play with glass beads again."

"I started from the only glass bead I had left and won more."

"Not just glass beads, but money."

"I hid all the glass beads in other places and hid all the money."

"In this way, I was lucky enough to survive until the day I reached adulthood."

"On that day, I brought back home a knife, the glass beads I had won over the years, and a savings card with enough money to support me from childhood to adulthood."

"I gave the card to my father."

"He didn't care at all about the glass bead jar in my other hand. He only cared about the money I gave him."

"He praised me for the first time, and then went out for an afternoon with the money. When he came back..."

Chen Ming suddenly interrupted: "I guess he lost all his money in one afternoon, and he continued to ask you for it. If you didn't give it, he would scold you and even want to beat you."

"...Is there any cigarette?"

Chen Ming used his mental power to create a small box of cigarettes that he had seen in reality in this space, and handed it to Qianmian.

"Cigarettes specially provided within the Fourteenth Army Corps. What a good thing."

Qian Mian took out a cigarette and held it in his mouth.

Chen Ming helped him light a fire.

Qian Mian closed his eyes and took a big puff, and while slowly blowing out the smoke ring, he asked: "This is a very old-fashioned story, right?"

"Correct."

Qian Mian took another drag on his cigarette and continued very calmly: "He wanted to beat me and find more money from me."

"And I took out the knife after biting off one of my own fingers."

"I am already a strong adult. Even if my hand is injured, I can easily beat that drunkard, smoker and gambler."

"I cut off his hand tendons and hamstrings, cut off the tongue he used to scream, and paid back all the beatings and pain I had suffered over the years,"

"Finally, I stuffed all the glass beads I had won over the years into his stomach one by one."

"Just like when he stuffed glass beads into my stomach."

"Watching the glass beads filling his stomach and esophagus until the moment they couldn't fit in anymore."

"I'm very happy."

"I am satisfied."

"It was after he died that I awakened my psychic powers."

"My spiritual power can not only copy other people's spiritual powers, but I can also copy everything about other people, including their height and appearance."

"Only psychics can have concrete products, that is, those glass beads. The specific name should be the Heart Gathering Beads."

"It was quite simple for me to deal with his funeral. I directly told the public that he drank to death, and no one said anything."

"Anyway, he is such a person. No one doubts what I, a good boy in everyone's eyes, say."

"Later, some creditors that he owed money that he had not repaid came to him. Of course I can repay the money he owed, and I also repaid him."

"I also killed some people who didn't have eyes and wanted to cause trouble for me."

"I was planning to start my life again somewhere else."

"But just before I left, someone told me that my father lost too much money due to gambling. For money, he went to Xin Zuo Jing."

"I was already a psyker at the time, and I knew I had powers, so I chose to investigate the Left Path."

"At that time, I discovered that the Zuo Jing on the surface was just a cover. The real Zuo Jing was a powerful force hidden in the empire and funded by many parties."

“So I had an idea to join Left Trail.”

Qian Mian's words just came out of his mouth
The surrounding environment suddenly blurred for a moment, as if there was a moment of garbled code.

Qian Mian didn't show any reaction to this situation, but he could obviously see the changes in the surrounding environment. He stopped sitting on the bed and stood up.

Just after he stood up.

The surrounding environment has completely changed.

From the attic of the former dilapidated building, it became a basement.

The shape and structure are very similar to the Zuojia base located underground in the cafe where Chen Ming stayed.

Chen Ming and Qian Mian were standing at the corner of the basement stairs and could clearly see the entire basement.

At this time, some other people besides the two of them appeared around.

However, Chen Ming did not pay too much attention to these people.

Instead, he looked to the deepest place.

There, young Qianmen was sitting at a desk.

Behind the desk is a person completely hidden in the shadows, completely unable to see clearly.

At this time, some strange noises and inexplicable sudden changes in tone appeared in the voice of Qian Mian beside Chen Ming.

"I joined Left Trail to satisfy my crazy ideas."

"?"

Is this too much of a leap? Qian Mian's previous performance sounds like something that a normal person who is somewhat consistent with his three views can do.

Why did he just say that joining Zuo Jing would satisfy his crazy idea?
What crazy idea?

Chen Minggang wanted to ask Qian Mian around him. But suddenly he found that there was something wrong with the picture in front of him again.

Looking forward, all that's left is complete chaos.

Everyone, including the young Qianmen and the man in the shadow, disappeared, only Qianmen remained by his side.

what's the situation?
Chen Ming looked at Qianmian.

I saw pain, hatred, despair, anger and many other negative emotions on the faces of thousands of remaining conscious faces next to me.

And these complex emotions boiled down to one in the end.

resentment.

The remaining consciousness of Qian Mian felt that he was approaching the end.

The space station built by Chen Ming's mental power can no longer be protected.

So he moved.

He walked into the chaos full of resentment.

All the places he passed were restored to their original state, but the people who were supposed to be there were nowhere to be seen.

He walked over to the desk, not sitting where his younger self had just been.

Instead, he sat in the position of the person in the shadow.

He looked at Chen Ming.

Just when everything was about to end, the surrounding environment was completely distorted and blurred.

The thousand faces changed.

In the chaos, Chen Ming could barely see one face clearly.

An ordinary face that looks like he is in his forties or fifties.

But his eyes were deep and attractive.

It seemed like it had everything inside.

Immediately afterwards, Qianmian's consciousness completely dissipated.

The last trace of existence in the world disappeared.

Only the dark and void space of consciousness where Chen Ming was at this moment was left.

Chen Ming did not rush out of here, but carefully recalled what had just happened.

The previous words are all nonsense, just a dying...dead person telling others about his past that is not easy to tell others, to vent.

The key is that last scene.

Although it was just a glimpse, Chen Ming had already completely remembered that face in his mind.

This face must be that of the brainwashed psyker on the left path.

And the last scene was imitated by Qianmian on his own initiative.

Chen Ming probably already understood what happened to Qian Mian after he joined Zuo Jing, and he also understood what Qian Mian meant.

The answer is actually very simple.

Qian Mian was brainwashed.

He had just awakened to his psychic powers, a fledgling psychic.

After investigating the problem of left path, I chose to add left path.

Qian Mian's original intention to join Zuo Jing was definitely to eliminate Zuo Jing, but after joining Zuo Jing, he gradually got along with Zuo Jing.

Apparently it was because Qian Mian had bad luck.

He was purely brainwashed and had his mind gradually changed.

He just wanted to satisfy the bad thoughts that he had suppressed deep in his heart for a long time, and that should never appear in this life.

Such a person who came out of an extreme environment, after gaining strength, not only did not vent wantonly, but only resisted those who caused him pain, and was even willing to take the initiative to pay off debts to those who demanded debts.

It shows that he still maintains a stable mentality, desire for revenge, and tolerance for civilians. He is a normal person.

Such a person became a complete madman after joining Zuojia.

The culprit behind all this can only be Zuojia's brainwashed psyker.

The face transformed into the remaining consciousness of Qian Mian left a deep impression on Chen Ming.

He must find this person and deal with this person.

Right now, deep underground.

Unfortunately, Chen Ming still had two questions that he didn't have time to ask.

That's how the mind-rage entity that Thousand Faces turned into died, and why Thousand Faces called him a monster.

When a person is about to die, his words are also good.

Chen Ming could feel that none of what Qian Mian said before was a lie. After his remaining consciousness was no longer controlled, he was already conveying news about Zuo Jing to Chen Ming, and should be able to answer these questions.

But Chen Ming really didn't expect Qianmian's consciousness to dissipate so quickly.

If I had known better, I wouldn't have given him a chance to talk nonsense.

Forget it, it’s not a big problem.

These two problems are his own problems, and he will figure them out sooner or later.

Chen Ming left this consciousness space built by his mental power and Qianmeng's remaining consciousness, and supported by him.

After discovering that he was back underground in the energy supply tower, he took a deep breath.

Plasma began to condense on his fist again.

The enemies have all been cleared, so the next step should be the last.

But at this time, he was still thinking about Qianmian.

From Chen Ming's point of view, Qian Mian was indeed a good person, at least before he joined Zuo Jing and was brainwashed, and even matched his views on some things.

At that time, Qianmian didn't do anything extraordinary. The only people he took the initiative to kill were his biological father who was a domestic abuser, and those who wanted to do something to him because he was young and rich.

It's a pity that everything changed when he started investigating Zuo Jing and joined Zuo Jing.

It's because of Zuojia's brainwashed psyker that he became what he is now.

It's a pity.

Originally, a person like Qian Mian would probably be absorbed into the local government department after being noticed.

After all, nothing he did before was truly evil.

Of course, if Qian Mian was still alive now, Chen Ming would definitely not let him continue to live.

The current Qianmian Na is indeed a complete evil person.

Only after he died could Chen Ming give him the reputation of a good person.

In addition, Chen Ming actually has another pity.

That is, after joining Zuo Jing, Qian Mian's consciousness had no further manifestations and no more information was revealed to him.

What Qian Mian remembered seemed to end the moment he joined Zuo Jing and met the psyker.

Nothing follows.

There is no information on the brainwashed psykers, the location of the Left Path's main stronghold, or their activities over the years.

Chen Ming still had to continue downward.

The plasma in his fists was charged to the extreme.

But just before he was about to swing his fist down, he suddenly discovered that beside him, on a fist-sized stone, there were twisted and sharply targeted sharp intertwined patterns and psychic energy fluctuations.

This is an ectoplasm stone.

The plasma in one of Chen Ming's hands was temporarily moved to the side.

So that he could reach out and pick up the ectoplasm stone.

The moment he picked it up, Chen Ming felt extremely strong resentment from this spiritual stone.

This is the ectoplasm stone left behind by Qian Mian.

The last trace of Qianmen's conscious psychic energy fluctuations that escaped the control of the brainwashed psyker was transformed into a Resentful Spiritual Stone.

The moment Chen Ming held onto the Resentment Spiritual Stone, an illusion naturally appeared in front of his eyes.

A vision of a brainwashed psyker who killed Zuo Jing.

This is also a resonance ectoplasmic stone.

"It's really hard to say anything."

Chen Ming put away the spirit stone and continued downward.

The recipient below should be the brainwashing psyker.

Find him and kill him.

This is what he does next.

As long as he can be killed, perhaps the Zuo Jing force will gradually disappear under the empire's encirclement and suppression.

Chen Ming continued to collapse the ground of the energy supply tower, and continued to move towards the underground where psychic energy fluctuations were still spreading.

at the same time.

The main ship of the Fifth Legion in the president's air finally brought its fleet to the edge of the Luci Galaxy.

This is an ordinary offensive-class heavy battleship with extremely strong armor performance and attack capabilities.

After coordinating the long-awaited Fifth Legion fleet, it sailed into the galaxy and headed towards the Prometheus class on the left path.

The battle between the main fleets is not something that cruisers and fleets below can intervene in, but there is no problem in watching them from a distance.

So at this time, Chen Ming's Afterglow Fleet and some fleets from other forces gathered at the edge of the galaxy to watch everything that was about to happen in the galaxy.

I saw that the Fifth Army's offensive activated the joint shield according to the normal process.

The lower-level spacecraft gradually formed a formation for the upcoming battle.

Although for some reason the Fifth Legion's fleet has no advantage in terms of number compared to Zuojia's fleet spacecraft.

But no matter what, the people of the Fifth Legion are stronger than those who were brainwashed and mixed by Zuo Jing, right?

And at the moment when the fleets of both sides entered the range of the battleships.

What should have been exciting did not happen. The main weapons of the two battleships were not activated, and they did not bombard each other. Instead, they continued to approach, as if they were going to fight with the lower-level spacecraft.

This... sounds pretty normal.

In main-level fleet battles, you can rely on the battles between lower-level spaceships to gain an overall battlefield advantage and save battle readiness for the battleships.

When the lower-level fleet gains the upper hand, it is also a reasonable tactic to rely on a large number of lower-level spacecraft with connected shields to surround the enemy's capital ship from all sides.

But everyone who is paying attention to this battlefield obviously will not see that things will happen as expected.

Especially when he was going deep underground and continuing to observe Chen Ming on the battlefield outside, the words that the president came to say to him before appeared in his mind.

I'm afraid things won't develop so smoothly.

(End of this chapter)