Slap!
A crisp sound echoed through the basement as Cipher sent Shen Yan tumbling to the ground with a single strike. The physical wake-up call worked instantly; within seconds, a dazed Shen Yan pushed himself up from the floor.
He rubbed his left cheek, muttering to himself, "Hiss... Where am I? Why does my face feel like it's burning...?"
Reality set in quickly. He realized he remained in the basement, and standing before him was the culprit behind his kidnapping: Cipher.
"What else do you want to know? I told that other woman everything she asked. Isn't it about time you let me go?" He continued to massage his cheek while struggling to pull himself back onto the chair.
"Do you know the location of the Backcurrent Alliance's main headquarters?"
Shen Yan froze at the question, then immediately shook his head.
"I'm just a small-time branch president of the Mercenary Association. How could I possibly know the secret lair of an organization that practically blankets the entire Pit District?"
Cipher eyed him with suspicion, noting his unnatural calm. "You aren't lying? I have ways to detect falsehoods, you know."
"I'm not," Shen Yan replied evenly. "If you don't believe me, use your lie detection method right now. I'll repeat exactly what I just said."
As soon as he finished speaking, Cipher felt a ripple in her Divine Power of Deceit. Suddenly, a shimmering golden thread manifested within her body.
'Is this... Aglaia's Golden Thread? He actually believed me just like that?'
Cipher felt a surge of surprise at the resonance of her divine power and the appearance of the thread. She had been fully prepared to spend Credits on a system function to force a lie-detection ability into existence, but Shen Yan had taken her word as gospel without the slightest hint of skepticism.
'Does he really not have a single rebellious bone in his body...?'
"Then repeat what you said. I'm turning on the detector this time."
After staring into Shen Yan's calm eyes for a moment, Cipher made her demand. A golden thread emerged from her hand, slowly coiling around Shen Yan's wrist. Although she felt fairly certain he was telling the truth—at least regarding his previous statement—she wanted to hear it again for insurance. It was also a good chance to test how effective this "lie detector" actually was.
Shen Yan didn't resist. He glanced at the extra golden string on his arm and repeated his statement word for word.
The moment he finished, a peculiar thought drifted from the golden thread into Cipher's mind:
I reckon he's probably not lying.
Cipher's lip twitched as she processed the meaning. She couldn't help but complain internally.
'I know the result is accurate, but why does the golden thread sound like it's just "reckoning"? And what's with "probably"? Is this really Aglaia's Golden Thread? It feels incredibly unreliable, nya!'
"Well... is the test over? Do you have more questions?" Shen Yan prompted, noticing that Cipher's attention seemed to have wandered off to somewhere nonsensical.
"Oh, right. One more thing." Cipher snapped back to reality and focused on him again. "Since you say this organization is spread across the entire Pit District, they must have sub-bases, right? As a branch president who deals in information, don't tell me you don't even know where a few of their outposts are."
Cipher crossed her arms, fixing Shen Yan with a gaze that screamed "confess and be spared, resist and be punished."
After a period of silence, Shen Yan spoke up. "...Is my terminal still with you?"
"It is. Why do you suddenly want it back? Planning to call for backup?"
"No." Shen Yan shook his head. "You asked for their branch locations. I have that information collected, but I don't memorize every single detail. I need to look through the files on my terminal. Rest assured, I won't try to contact anyone."
He watched Cipher, waiting for her to return the device. Cipher, meanwhile, kept her eyes glued to the golden thread on his wrist, unsure if he was telling the truth.
I reckon he's probably not lying.
The golden thread gave its verdict after a brief pause.
'He really isn't telling a single lie. Why is he so honest? I wanted to see how the thread would react to a real lie...'
Cipher sighed. Since Shen Yan was being so cooperative, her conscience pricked at her to stop bullying him. She pulled out his personal terminal—having already swept almost all his Credits, leaving him with a measly ten thousand—and handed it back.
When Shen Yan took the terminal and saw his balance, his face contorted. Seeing his original three hundred thousand Credits drop to two hundred thousand, and now down to ten thousand, he didn't know whether to cry or feel lucky.
He felt miserable that his savings from several years were gone, yet relieved she had left him ten thousand. At least he wouldn't have to borrow money just to keep his business operations afloat. However, these emotions lasted only a second before he regained his composure. He was still a prisoner, after all; such things would have to wait until he was free.
Shen Yan performed a series of complex maneuvers on the terminal that Cipher couldn't follow, eventually opening a hidden folder.
"Alright. Here are all the base locations for the Backcurrent Alliance within a fifty-kilometer radius. Anything beyond that is outside my information network's coverage." He handed the terminal back.
Cipher scanned the data. "Only seven branch bases in a fifty-kilometer radius?"
She looked up at him, puzzled. Fifty kilometers was no small distance; most cities in her previous world were only about twenty kilometers wide.
"Correct. Because of the AMA's purge eight years ago, the Backcurrent Alliance lost a massive number of bases and personnel. Even after eight years, the organization hasn't fully recovered. That's why there are only a few locations available." Shen Yan nodded, answering her doubt.
★ ★ ★