Chapter 1: Tell Me, Who Are You?

  "When you're down on your luck, even cold water get stu your teeth."

  Hit by a car.

  Transmigrated.

  Captured upon arrival.

  Why?

  No idea.

  Lucas felt he was tied to a cold iron chair.

  A hood ced over his head, plunging his vision into darkness.

  The coarse burp lining the hood stuck to his cheeks, sticky and greasy, with a rancid smell of blood stantly assaulting his nose.

  Whip cracks echoed nearby, apanied by someone's tinuous wailing.

  "Speak! Where is it?" a rough voice demanded loudly.

  The beaten person pleaded desperately, "I really don't know what you're talking about. Please, stop hitting me. Let me go… I'm just a petty thief. All my money is hidden in the bird's oatue on the east side of Albian Square. It's all yours… just let me go…"

  The rough-voiced man seemed to ask another person, "He probably really doesn't know…"

  A gunshot! The thief's pleas fell silent.

  The rough-voiced man said, "Now, we're down to the st suspect. If he's not the one who stole it… we'll all be punished."

  A female voice responded, "No, we won't be punished. He will tell us where it is…"

  "Are you sure he's the one who stole it? Why interrogate the others?"

  The woman replied, "They just don't get it. As long as he fesses and says the item was thrown into the Lilim River, whether we retrieve it or not won't be ency's . It might have been thrown somewhere hard to find. As long as he fesses… at least he won't die here. If he doesn't… we go out and catch more people."

  Lucas khese words were meant for him.

  They couldn't find the thief, so they wao pin it on someoo report to their superiors.

  fess?

  What would be the oute of a fession? Lucas heard footsteps approag, and a hand grabbed the hood...

  At that moment, a few key phrases from the earlier versation fshed in Lucas's mind.

  "Albian Square," "statue," "bird's ," "Lilim River," "agency."

  In a single-pyer open-wame he pyed called "Epoch," there was an Albian Square in the Seawall District of the Argent Empire's Storm City.

  On the east side of the square, there was a statue with a bird's where pyers could find a bag of s. Fifteen gold s were a nice surprise for a novice pyer.

  The Lilim River flowed through Storm City.

  The agency... was the Argent Royal Secret Intelligence Bureau, a powerful anization with iigative, enfort, and execution powers, instillihroughout the Argent Empire.

  The Seawall District had a branch of the Intelligence Bureau...

  There was a joke cirg about this bran the game.

  "One day, a noblewoman lost her pet rabbit and asked the Seawall Distritelligence Bureau to find it. The day, the bureau brought back a bear. The bear, beaten bd blue, y on the ground shouting, 'I'm a rabbit! I'm really a rabbit!'"

  This was how the Seawall Distritelligence Bureau operated. Funny as a joke, but not from the bear's perspective. Lucas was now certain.

  Even if he fessed, his fate would be a sudden violeh after signing the fession.

  Dead men tell no tales! A on tactic of the Seawall Distritelligence Bureau.

  Now he had to gamble... The hood was being lifted.

  Lucas angrily shouted, "Zane, get your oil-sted meical hand off my head!"

  The hood, already at his , stopped.

  The rough-voiced man asked in shock, "How do you know my name?"

  So, this was ihe Seawall Distritelligence Bureau.

  "Zane, not only do I know your name… I also know you have a amed Miley, and you hold her every night when you sleep."

  Zane was even more shocked, "How do you know about Miley! I hid her so well."

  The woman ughed heartily, "Zane, you actually have a amed Miley! You've truly shown me a new side of you…"

  At this point, Lucas said, "Shelley, born in the Empire's Extraordinary Species Researstitute, is a third-geion hybrid of human and Medusa, with a Medusa's eye for her right eye.

  At 18, you joihe Empire's Royal 469th Infantry Regiment.

  At 25, you were transferred to the Royal 10th Steam Fortress as the Captain of the 398th Rapid Assault Team and participated itle of Fior Hills.

  At 36, she romoted to Third Officer of the 10th Steam Fortress, during which she took part in the Barn Campaign, personally leading the capture of three enemy steam fortresses.

  Later... due to severe injuries, you were appointed as the first ander of the 10th Steam Fortress aeo 45 years in prison.

  However, in the sed year of your sentence, you joihe Intelligence Bureau uhe alias 'Bck Mamba' and have been w in the Seawall District branch ever since."

  After Lucas fihe room fell into silence.

  Quiet!

  That meant his words had an effect.

  Now, just wait. A test of patience.

  After a while, Zane suddenly said, "Boss, you're 46 years old now. How do you still look like you're in your twenties?"

  "Shut up!" The woman's mood clearly turned irritable. She asked Lucas, "Who are you? How do you know all this about me?"

  Lucas replied authoritatively, "Shelley, take off my hood. I don't trust Zane's meical hands. If I get even a scratch, your punishment will be far worse than another 45 years in prison."

  After a moment, the hood c Lucas's head was removed.

  The dim room was lit by a gring indest mp hanging from above. It took Lucas a while to adjust to the light and see his surroundings clearly.

  A fined interrogation room. Seven people tied to chairs, six of them dead.

  All had been shot in the head, leaving red and white matter all over the floor.

  Standio him was aremely burly old white man, his exposed upper body covered in tire-like bulges of muscle, with metallic meical arms.

  In front of him.

  A young red-haired beauty, her right eye covered by a bck eye patch, twirling a revolver in her hand.

  The gun had a long barrel, engraved with golden runes, and the grip emanated a green glow.

  Wham!

  The ropped her right foot on the chair Lucas was sitting in, positioning it between his legs.

  A bde sprang out from the heel of her shoe.

  "Now, mister irafit, how about you tell me… who exactly are you?"

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