Cipher walked out of the basement, but she wasn't alone; a somewhat weak man followed behind her.
That man was Shen.
"Boss, you're out? Is this... are you letting him go? No more questions?"
Seeing Cipher emerge, Claire, who was sitting on the living room sofa, stood up. She first glanced at Shen, who was trailing behind Cipher, then shifted her gaze back to Cipher, asking her with a puzzled expression.
"I pretty much know everything I wanted to know, so Claire, please take him back for now."
Cipher pointed at Shen behind her and told Claire.
"As for other questions..." At this, Cipher paused, then turned to look at Shen, "If there really are other questions later, I'll just ask them when I'm a guest at Boss Shen's house, won't I? I don't think Boss Shen would mind, right?"
Hearing Cipher's words, which carried a hint of threat, Shen calmly wiped the cold sweat that had inexplicably appeared on his forehead, then obediently nodded.
"I have no objections."
"See? That works out perfectly."
Cipher looked at Claire again, her lips curving slightly upwards, and said to Claire.
"Alright, then we'll follow your arrangements, Boss."
Claire nodded, completely unfazed by the recent interaction between Cipher and Shen.
She walked towards Shen and said to him:
"Come with me, I'll take you back now."
After speaking, Claire walked towards the door.
Seeing this, Shen silently bypassed Cipher and left with Claire.
However, as Claire reached the door, she suddenly seemed to remember something and immediately turned to look at Cipher.
"Boss, Lauren and the others are still unconscious. If you need to go out, could you wait until I get back? In the meantime, please protect them for me, Boss."
"Of course!"
Upon hearing this, Cipher agreed to Claire's request without a second thought, as she had no intention of leaving three unconscious people at home.
Although she could have used Divinity Speed to send Shen directly, she primarily didn't want to expose her abilities like that, and besides, Shen was a bit dirty, and she had just taken a shower!
So she simply entrusted Claire to take him back. At most, she would just stay in the house a little longer...
In Claire's car, Shen sat in the passenger seat, staring blankly out the window at the scenery.
Dilapidated walls and houses, numb crowds navigating through piles of garbage, sewage flowing everywhere. In a corner, a child clutched a middle-aged man lying on the ground, crying helplessly. The man's body bore many gunshot wounds; he seemed to be a mercenary who had lost his life while taking on a mission for his livelihood and child.
"What's wrong? Mr. 'Shadow Demon,' a B+ who always hides in the Mercenary Association and refuses to go out, is actually staring blankly at a group of ordinary people in the Pit Bottom District?"
Hearing Claire's voice, Shen turned his head and refocused his gaze straight ahead.
"Nothing, just feeling a bit emotional. So many years have passed, and Pit Bottom still hasn't changed; it's exactly the same as it was more than ten years ago."
At this point, he turned his head, looked at Claire who was driving, and asked:
"It's you, though. As a former Purifying Knight, and with your rare and powerful spatial ability, your strength should be at least A Class. Why are you so... with Cipher, who is an A+? Did I misjudge her strength again?"
Part of what Shen said suddenly stopped, as if he was thinking of a suitable word to use without offending the person in front of him, but he couldn't find one for the moment, so he simply skipped that part.
Hearing Shen's words, Claire chuckled lightly and completed the missing part of Shen's sentence.
"You wanted to say something like 'lackey,' right? Although, to be precise, it's more like a 'cat's paw.'"
Shen was silent. He tacitly agreed with the statement and began to await Claire's next reply.
"It's fine to tell you. You're right, you did misjudge again. This morning we went to trade with the Reverse Current Alliance, guess what we encountered?"
"An A+ Class Vice-Leader and three people with A Class strength ambushing you?"
Shen frowned, offering his guess.
But what he got in return was Claire's mocking expression.
"Jin, Feng, Chu, and an A+ Class combatant completely unknown in our intelligence, all came to ambush the two of us."
Upon hearing this, Shen's eyes widened in disbelief. His usually calm face finally broke, appearing somewhat incredulous.
"Three A+ Class and one near-A Class combatant to encircle you? And you actually escaped..."
But before he could finish, Claire interrupted him and continued.
"Cipher and I were separated by a spatial lock. I faced Chu and that unknown A+ Class, while Cipher faced Jin and Feng."
"The result was, after I struggled for a few minutes, my enemies fled because Boss Cipher had already killed those two 'Vice-Leaders' within those few minutes."
"Now do you understand why I act this way?"
Silence. Only silence answered Claire. After she finished speaking, Shen didn't utter another sound. Instead, he shifted his gaze back to the window and remained motionless.
After a while, with the sound of brakes, the car stopped at the entrance of the Mercenary Association.
"Mr. Shen, the Mercenary Association has always maintained a neutral stance to establish itself in various cities and countries. I believe you are a smart person."
After saying that, Claire motioned for Shen to get out of the car.
Shen opened the car door and stepped out.
"Goodbye. I'm heading back now; Boss Cipher is waiting for me at home."
The sound of the car starting came, and after turning a corner, it left the area.
Shen watched the car depart until it rounded a corner and completely disappeared. Only then did he turn and enter the Mercenary Association.
The familiar smell of alcohol mixed with sweat wafted from inside. In the day since he left, the Association hadn't changed at all, as the time indeed hadn't been long.
However, Shen did hear a drunkard talking about the mass fainting incident from last night. They were speculating about what exactly happened during that event.
Some said an S-Class released their aura, which they couldn't withstand, but others argued that an S-Class wouldn't come here; it would be at most an A Class. Yet many felt that an A Class alone wouldn't cause all of them to faint. Everyone held their own opinion, and while arguing, the incident became a topic of conversation during their drinking sessions.
After all, no one was harmed in that incident.
Pushing open the door behind the counter, Shen entered his room.
He fumbled at the bottom of a drawer, and soon a secret compartment popped open. Inside the compartment was a notebook and a special pen.
The notebook was opened, filled with densely written text. Words like 'Reverse Current Alliance Leader,' 'IMA,' 'Genetic Editing Experiment,' and a series of others flashed across the pages.
Soon, Shen turned to a blank page, then wrote "Cipher" as the title on that page.
He meticulously recorded all his experiences, as well as the information he heard and saw, in the notebook. Finally, he wrote the last line of text in the notebook.
"Summary: Cipher, unknown origin, appeared within the Spark Team three days ago, possibly strongly linked to the 'expelling cults' mission at that time. Relatively friendly to those around her, likes credit points, capable of stealing credit points without alerting the IMA network defense. Hacking skills currently inestimable. Strength suspected to be S- (crossed out) S Class. Must not offend, but can cooperate."
After writing all this, Shen silently closed the notebook and put it back into the secret compartment.
"Alas, an S-Class Expert of unknown origin, with no previous records, has arrived in the Pit Bottom and even killed two Vice-Leaders of the Reverse Current Alliance. It seems the power distribution in the Pit Bottom is about to change again..."
At this, Shen picked up his personal terminal and dialed a number.