Everyone was shocked by Qin Siyang's sharpness and keen insight.
'Isn't he just a seventeen-year-old high school student?'
'This is seventeen?'
Seeing Qin Siyang make initial progress, Chen Zhongming's typing became even more cheerful.
Li Tianming, standing beside him, also relaxed, hands in his pockets, watching Qin Siyang perform on his own.
Qin Siyang continued to press on the issue of equal treatment for both the accuser and the accused, directly questioning the head of the Management Department, Crawford.
"Practicing double standards is a violation of the United Government's laws. Director Crawford, how do you view this matter?"
Crawford dodged the question, "Qin Siyang, you are a sequence ability user, and as such, you are subject to the supervision of the Sequence Ability User Management Bureau. Therefore, it would be best if you didn't react too aggressively to my words. Otherwise, it may affect how your colleagues perceive you."
There was a veiled threat in those words.
Since Qin Siyang was going to university soon, he didn't really need to be too concerned about Governor Jonathan.
But the fact that he would always be under the Management Department's jurisdiction was unchangeable.
Crawford believed that Qin Siyang wouldn't dare to offend him.
However—
That was just Crawford's own wishful thinking.
Since Crawford had come here to oversee his interrogation and even allowed the accuser, Florence, to sit at the same table, it was already clear that they were enemies, not friends.
He had no intention of actually investigating the accusation. He was here solely to force Qin Siyang to admit guilt.
The grudge was already set in stone.
Crawford had already put a knife to his neck, and yet he still wanted to act as if there was room for negotiation?
Did he really think Qin Siyang was just a naive seventeen-year-old kid?
Qin Siyang was not some obedient pet. There was no way he'd just sit and wait to be slaughtered.
"Director Crawford, I am indeed under the jurisdiction of the Management Department. But what does that have to do with the question I just asked?"
Crawford's expression immediately stiffened, and his gaze grew colder.
"So, Director Crawford, let me ask again. On what grounds are Florence and the other accusers allowed to sit and interrogate me? Have I already been convicted? If I have, please present the official documents from the Management Bureau!"
"I will not accept such an unjust investigation!"
If Florence and the others had to stand beside him, it would be utterly humiliating for them.
After thinking for a moment, Crawford said, "Then I'll have someone bring you two chairs."
A staff member left the room and soon returned with two chairs.
"No, I want to sit at the main table as well. Why should they all sit at the long table while I sit alone on this isolated chair? I demand completely equal treatment."
"But the long table is already full."
Qin Siyang glanced at the official who had just spoken against him and said, "You talked a lot just now. You must be tired and might want to step out for a break. After this meeting is over, we can revisit the issue of you convicting me on your own."
The official was momentarily stunned. He hadn't expected Qin Siyang to ease up, and he immediately nodded, "You're right, I am a bit tired."
He had been worried about getting into a prolonged conflict with Qin Siyang, which could cost him his job.
Since he was now given an easy way out, he didn't care how ugly Jonathan and Crawford's expressions became. Without hesitation, he stood up, grabbed his notes, and walked out.
When he had been in trouble earlier, no one had stood up for him, so he wasn't going to keep serving these big shots now.
Qin Siyang then walked to the seat beside Crawford and said to the person sitting next to Florence, "You, move over. This seat is mine."
The person frowned, "Why should I?"
"Are you saying all the accusers should sit at the top, while I, the accused, sit below?"
The person didn't answer.
His status was second only to Florence's, so there was no way he would go sit at the far end next to Chen Zhongming. That would be an insult to his position.
At this moment, an official near an empty seat smiled and said, "I think we can all just shift over one spot to make room for Qin Siyang."
As he spoke, he moved to sit in the empty seat beside Chen Zhongming.
Seeing this, the others also adjusted their positions accordingly.
After all, they couldn't really force a high-ranking official to move to the end of the table.
The person sitting beside Florence saw that others had made space and reluctantly moved over, giving up the prime seat.
Qin Siyang sat down with confidence.
Li Tianming smiled, casually taking one of the extra chairs and sitting down, looking completely at ease.
After all, he wasn't the main player here. He was just here to watch Qin Siyang cause trouble.
And from the looks of it, Qin Siyang wasn't going to lose.
"Director Crawford, I believe we have now achieved equal treatment for both the accusers and the accused. You may begin the investigation."
Nearly an hour had passed, and they hadn't managed to get a single useful word out of Qin Siyang. Instead, they had been utterly humiliated by him.
Crawford was extremely displeased, but he had no choice, "Professor Florence, please explain why you reported Qin Siyang."
"The reason for my report is simple—there is no way that a Doom Fate Octopus could have over 800 scale plates with more than 800 points of accumulated energy. Therefore, the scale plates he submitted are definitely problematic."
Qin Siyang narrowed his eyes, "I thought you had some solid evidence. You say it's impossible, so that means it is? Did you give birth to the Doom Fate Octopus or something?"
The person sitting beside Qin Siyang spoke up, "We have studied the Doom Fate Octopus for a long time, and there is a consensus among all researchers that its scale plates cannot exceed 800 in energy points."
"A consensus? That just means the researchers in our safe zone still have a long way to go."
"This is the result of scientific research, based on years of diligent work. It's not something you can just dismiss with casual words!"
With that, the person pulled several documents from his briefcase, "These are research papers on the subject, and they serve as our evidence for reporting you."
Qin Siyang took them and glanced at them—three research papers.
"Papers? As evidence?", He scoffed.
Although his college entrance exam scores hadn't been great in his past life, he had still studied hard and managed to get into graduate school, where he had some research experience. During his master's studies, he had read countless papers for his research projects.
And one thing he had realized while reading them was that the quality of papers varied greatly.
Many papers, in order to highlight a specific idea, ignored numerous objective factors. Making their research value practically zero.
In other words, a lot of them were just fluff.
So he didn't take research papers as evidence seriously at all.
"Our laboratory is the most specialized in studying the Doom Fate Octopus in the safe zone. Professor Florence is the most authoritative expert in the field. So our report is not baseless."
'The most authoritative?'
'If even the most authoritative expert got it wrong, doesn't that just mean their research on the Doom Fate Octopus is flawed?'
Qin Siyang chuckled, flipping through the papers.
"Theoretical Proof That a Doom Fate Octopus's Scale Plate Energy Cannot Exceed 800."
"Modeling the Upper Limit of a Doom Fate Octopus's Energy Accumulation."
"The Relationship Between a Doom Fate Octopus's Tentacle Count and Scale Plate Energy Growth."
Crawford glanced at Qin Siyang, "These studies are only done at the university level. You, a high schooler from the edge of the safe zone, barely understand anything about sequences and divinity—can you even understand these papers?"
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