In the shelter's reception room.
When Sister Lin entered, she was momentarily stunned at the person sitting across the table.
"Zhao Ming?"
"It's me."
Sister Lin sat down across from him in surprise. "The shelter administrator just told me someone from the Countermeasures Research Office was looking for me. I thought I didn't know anyone there. I never expected it to be you..."
Zhao Ming said, "I really did join the Countermeasures Research Office."
Sister Lin's face showed surprise, then, remembering something, she asked urgently, "What about Boss Xuan and the others?"
"...After you left, we had two dead and two injured. I brought the wounded back to the city. Boss Xuan insisted on going to the Forest Park, and I couldn't stop him."
A trace of sorrow flickered across Sister Lin's face. She suddenly brought up something.
"Actually, I noticed he had psychological problems a long time ago. Once, in the middle of the night, I woke up and went out to use the bathroom. I saw him sitting alone on a small stool outside, holding a knife in his hand, the blade pointed at himself..."
"I think if it weren't for us, he would have already done something to hurt himself long ago. This time, he finally found a reasonable excuse that no one could blame him for."
Zhao Ming was silent.
He had the same thought. Boss Xuan's self-destructive tendencies and his sense of responsibility had been tearing at each other. This time, the rules had created an opportunity—
If dying to save someone was the reason, it was indeed a behavior that no one could criticize.
"...Zhao Ming, it's really good that you joined the Countermeasures Research Office," Sister Lin said. "Actually, I've always felt that staying with us was a waste of your talent. With your special ability, you need a bigger stage to perform on."
"Don't say that," Zhao Ming shook his head. "If Boss Xuan hadn't saved me, I would have died long ago. What use would the best talent be then?"
Sister Lin gave a bitter laugh. "More than half the people in the camp were saved by him, but we couldn't save him. The world is just this cruel."
"If it's really too exhausting, maybe letting go of everything and leaving is an option too. But we, Boss Xuan, and countless others were ultimately twisted beyond recognition because of the disaster caused by the Fire Thief."
"...The reason I joined the Countermeasures Research Office wasn't to get a safe and comfortable life. I have only one goal—to use the powerful resources of the authorities to uncover the secrets of the Fire Thief and ultimately make it pay the price."
Zhao Ming's voice was not loud, but it carried a steely resolve.
This made Sister Lin realize for the first time that this thin, quiet young man from the camp actually had such an unyielding heart inside.
"I hope you can do it," Sister Lin said, putting aside her past grudges, speaking sincerely. "Really."
"I know." Zhao Ming stood up. "After this, I probably won't be coming again. Please take care of yourself and keep going."
Sister Lin nodded.
She knew that from the moment Zhao Ming joined the Countermeasures Research Office, he and the others in the camp had entered two completely different worlds, and those two worlds would almost never intersect again.
After Zhao Ming came out of the shelter, a Sisiya teenager with slightly curly hair was waiting beside an armed vehicle.
Despite his young age, his physique was already quite burly, with even more muscle mass than most adults who rarely exercised. He waved at Sister Lin: "Sister Lin-ge, over here!"
Sister Lin walked over, and the teenager smiled. "I volunteered to come pick you up and take you back to base. Heh, I hardly ever get a chance to go out. I had to pester the teacher for ages before he agreed."
Zhao Ming asked, "And you are?"
"Just call me Aaron! My brothers, my sister, and the teacher all call me that."
"Aaron, right, nice to meet you. Sorry for the trouble."
"Don't mention it. Let's go, I'll drive!"
...
"Is it okay to bring her here? Does she have a tracker on her?"
"Even if she does, no problem. I've already destroyed it with an electromagnetic pulse, and Shadow can..."
Through her grogginess, Black Widow vaguely heard two voices conversing nearby.
Then, as if noticing her waking up, the voices stopped.
A moment later, one voice said, "She's awake."
Black Widow opened her eyes. She immediately saw herself bound by a patch of shadow. She struggled, but found herself completely unable to move.
Lifting her head, she found herself in a place that looked like an old barn. Two people stood before her, both of whom she recognized.
"Isn't this... our great man from Suroma, Adam."
Upon seeing Adam, Black Widow cracked a grin, revealing an undisguised, mocking smile.
"The once foremost, universally admired Ascendant of Suroma, now a cripple... forced to hide in a place like this like a rat. How pitiful."
Adam didn't seem angered by her words. He smiled indifferently. "Crippled a bit, sure, but not useless. Besides, even a cripple is still better off than someone who's not far from death, wouldn't you say?"
Black Widow's mouth twitched. She shifted her gaze and landed it on Guan Tong.
The latter stood with his arms crossed over his chest, his handsome face expressionless.
Black Widow thought back to everything that had happened at Andrew's villa. Her eyes showed a barely concealed fear as she looked at him, and the teasing words she had been about to say died in her throat.
"You... you can actually use the power of the rules? How did you do it?"
She was certain that the terrifying scenes she had witnessed were created by the power within the seventeenth Doomsday Rule [Crimson Gaze], the force people called "Scarlet Fear."
This meant that Guan Tong could harness the power of the rules for his own use. To her, this seemed like something out of a fairy tale, completely unheard of.
"That's not the issue you should be concerned with right now," Guan Tong said.
"You mean I should be thinking about how to save my own life?"
"You don't need to think about that. No amount of thinking will help. From the moment you decided to kill me and put it into action, there was no way I was going to let you go."
"Heh... you're pretty direct. Then why should I listen to you? Either way, I'm dead."
"Death is the same, but the way you die is different," Guan Tong said. "If you cooperate, I promise you a quick, painless death. If you don't cooperate..."
"If I don't, you'll torture me?" Black Widow retorted. "You think I'm afraid of that?"
"I won't resort to torture. But I will leave you under the influence of Scarlet Fear until you die."
"..."
The smile vanished from Black Widow's face.
She had to admit, that truly was the most terrifying torture in the world.
Because that crimson space, that power, would generate the most horrifying scenes she feared deep in her heart.
If Guan Tong hadn't withdrawn his power earlier, she would probably have already had a mental breakdown. Now, just thinking about the prospect of being terrified to death in that space, even she, who had endured severe interrogation and torture, couldn't help but get goosebumps all over her body.
She then rolled her eyes and looked at Adam.
"Hey, we're both from Suroma, aren't we? Are you just going to sit there and watch a fellow countryman get bullied by someone from Beixing?"
Adam looked exasperated. "I've never met a 'fellow countryman' whose first words were calling me a cripple."
"Am I wrong?"
"I suggest you stop wasting time with useless talk. We both know no one is coming to save you."
After speaking, Adam looked at Black Widow and sighed.
"I think we both know what the Senate and Silus and the others are really like—once a pawn loses its usefulness, it's worth less than a dog in their eyes."
"Black Widow, I'd heard of you back when I was still on the island. I heard you were an assassin, specializing in poison kills. When the Doomsday Rules appeared, the Senate took you in and turned you into their private armed force."
"Their task for you was probably to monitor Andrew and kill him at the critical moment... But have you ever thought, even if you could complete the mission, did you really think you'd make it back alive?"
Adam said earnestly, "They knew from the very beginning that 'Shadow' would come for Andrew. So what do you think? Did they believe you could survive 'Shadow' after killing Andrew? Your fate was sealed the moment they gave you that mission."
Black Widow let out a cold laugh. "Such clumsy rhetoric. Do you think I'll turn against the Senate just because you say that? Since you know I was a professional killer, you should know our code: never betray the employer. Besides..."
She looked at Guan Tong, a strange, indefinable longing burning in her eyes.
"...And besides, I chose to take this mission myself. I knew I would very likely run into you, the legendary World's Number One Ascendant, Shadow! Killing you would be even more satisfying than killing a president! If I succeeded, what assassin in the world could surpass me? I would become the world's number one killer!"
"So, you know, when I found out that Andrew failed to kill you, I was absolutely thrilled. Someone like you couldn't possibly die at the hands of a stupid dog like him."
"And do you know... another reason I took this mission was so I could kill that garbage who dared to associate his name with yours. Someone as strong as you must be killed by someone like me. The names of a legendary Ascendant and a legendary killer, side by side—that's how it should be!"
"..."
After hearing Black Widow's tirade, both Adam and Guan Tong were completely stunned.
They realized only then that this Black Widow was fundamentally a mentally unstable lunatic. On the surface, she seemed normal, but in reality, it was impossible to communicate with her like a normal person.