The whole situation quickly changed, and the one who had the grip over it was definitely not César.
Maybe César is not a genius, nor the most intelligent man, but he is experienced.. more experienced than anybody else. It is thanks to the fact that he is in a game he knows, that he died multiple times, and those lives gave him the upper hand in almost every situation. He experienced what others would call Hell.
So of course he had no reaction to it, no reaction to the fact that Sirina, from the very beginning, came into the room with a purpose, that an agent had seen César… or at least somebody wearing the same outfit as him. Her whole excitement was built on that fact, because there was just no fucking way someone in the same outfit could be standing in the police department, casually getting water, while at the same time both the Chief and the star detective of the city were stressing like shit.
She pulled out her ace card at the right moment, which told César more and more that maybe she didn't have the eyes of those directors he had dealt with before, the ones whose darkness was purely psychotic. Instead, she was a little bitch operating on a completely different level.
She likes to play games, and she is only just beginning to play.
[System: I warned you not to walk out, and now you are in the trap of a director. Nice job.]
A sting operation, and I walked straight into it… Daisy was the bait… no, it's impossible they knew who I am… they can't know I'm the main character… nor could Daisy play the victim that well… nor her mother.
César's first thought was that maybe it was all a trap for him, but that would be straight‑up impossible, as the NPCs, or well, once NPCs but now real humans, do not know who he is, that he is a main character with a goal to achieve, so it would be impossible to set up a trap specifically for him. And even if it were a trap, it still wouldn't make any sense, because what they were about to do with Daisy's mother was real… and even Daisy herself was visibly terrified and afraid…
No sting operation, just an investigation I accidentally walked into, which means they know something is fishy about the department and the Chief… and that agent saw me that day.…
[System: Indeed that is possible, which also means the agent heard you declaring you with the Sierra cartel and that both Daisy and her mother are under your protection.]
No… she actually lied… César thought as he looked at her, a small smile appearing on his face. She lied… she said the agent saw me walking with Daisy and her mother, but I never walked with them. I only walked with Daisy's mother into the store, then I left them, which means the agent might have seen me… but now Sirina is just making up shit to pressure me to fold.
[System: Or maybe she wants to bait you in more.]
Maybe… did you initiate any quest?
[System: No, and I cannot even initiate a quest without warning you.]
What a fucking life is this… I feel excited about it. That smile spread even more across his face.
[System: I will be activated when you are getting tortured.]
Well, the System still held a little attitude against César, and it was right. All he had done so far was sprint toward death rather than build up his cartel. Sitting in front of the Director of the NSA in a police department, who now held the upper hand over him, everything could only go in the wrong direction… at least for the System, and it had its own reasons.
The System itself works like a quest map and has its own preferences for how to handle things. So, for the System, the best way for César would be to go quest by quest, achievement by achievement, and in the end, he would reach the top… but that only happened in his first life, when César woke up in Sandria. He followed the quest line, but it was just shit, it took too much time and that's when César started going by how he felt, and even now, he still does.
He doesn't care about achievements or quests, only if there is a Special Card worth pursuing. That's why he completed the torture achievement, that's why he killed so many people for quest rewards, but now there was nothing, not a single thing he could achieve with Sirina.
It was just his own way of pursuing greatness… or death.
"Maybe you are not an agent after all… then who are you?" César asked, with a smile still.
"Another strategy to get out of my grip, my question?" Sirina asked back as she once again started tapping her hand on the desk.
"No, but you know agents would never say her name out loud, and agents never talk about an active investigation involving a child and a judge. An agent would never be this unprofessional like you."
"True, César… but you forgot a thing." She smiled. "What if you are no longer just a random citizen, a witness, but now under the investigation of the NSA, moreover in custody?"
"Oh, why would I be in custody? For looking like somebody?"
The calmness of César still was something else to her, a surprise, because anybody else would be scared shitless knowing they're in the NSA's hands, but him, nothing, not a single word.
"You know the NSA is the most hated agency. Do you know why?" She asked, but now she had a different kind of smile on her face. It was the foolish one, the same that César had on his face earlier… the ear‑to‑ear smile.
Ohh, here it comes…
"Why?"
"Because when we want answers, we get those answers, whether it's from an ordinary citizen who was at the wrong time at the wrong place, or a criminal, we don't care." She didn't blink, her eyes wide open. "And if you don't want to answer, if you don't want to say out loud what we want to hear, then we will use some techniques to get those answers."
Huh… maybe she is indeed a crazy bitch… but this was the lamest way to threaten me… I should show her how it works.
[System: You need to get out of the situation fast. She is a wolf disguised as a sheep.]
Then what am I…?
[System: A monster.]
Monsters can eat wolves, aren't they?
[System: Exactly.]
It was enough for César… enough to start his shit.