The Space Spoon novel Chapter 22

With the light shining on them, Steffen's golden eyes gleamed into a vortex of despair. He had been interrogated extensively, and his responses were essentially the same each time. "Allow me to connect to a console, and I will provide you with any information you require."

That didn’t work out well for him. The inquisitor was relentless and didn’t want to make things easier for Steffen Madigan, who would rather be called the Jackeye.

The prisoner's wrists hurt. His mind searched frantically for the virtual world to which he was used to. This world had no meaning for Steffen. But he realized that in order to go where he wanted to go, he needed to collaborate, at least to some extent.

“Listen, we will consider your release if you tell us how you hacked into our database.”

“Ok, I will tell you. However, this won’t solve the issues you have,” Steffen shrugged, his blonde curls glued to his cheeks. The scorching heat made him sweat more than ever before. He couldn’t wait to get out of there and back to his world.

The nagging voice grew nervous. “What issues? Except you, no one could ever go past our firewalls and multiple layers of security measures. Not to mention that we have the best encryption methods that no one outside of this headquarters even knows exist.”

"Then my answer may be a shock for you. I know nothing about all that security stuff you keep enumerating. My mind resides in a virtual reality and I do normal stuff. From time to time, I level up some skills and do some quests. Again, normal stuff. When I complete the tasks, I get treasure chests. Sometimes there are useful things, like weapons or skill points or gold. Other times there are just information scrolls that go directly to my Codex."

The voice returned with a mocking tone. "Come on! You can't expect me to believe that nonsense. You have a smart brain; come up with a better..."

“A smart brain doesn’t make sense. It's just an organ,” Steffen interrupted.”It's the person who is smart... or dumb, in your case. Not the brain.”

A fist came out of nowhere, an uppercut right to his chin. Jackeye fell down on his back, together with his chair. The back of his head bumped against the white floor. Footsteps approached and with a swift motion, his chair reverted to its original position and so was he.

Sweat dripped down on the sides of his face as he spat blood. Now crimson liquid speckles dotted the floor's white slabs. Steffen would have been scared by now if this was to happen in his world. But here, here... He didn’t care what happened to him here.

As he prepared to say another thing that most probably would have triggered another punch or worse, Steffen heard the door opening and footsteps approaching. An exchange of words followed that he chose not to hear. He didn’t care what those guys were saying.