Lady Flux turned her gaze to the screen. She asked, "I heard that there was a character who went on a heroic crusade during the flood incident. Has the character been identified?"
Anderson_Shoeberry said, "Unfortunately, we have been unable to verify the identity of the character."
Lady Flux furrowed her brows. She asked, "Why?"
It didn't make any sense to her that with the technology available, it would still be a problem to identify a character who paraded the streets on a flying sword.
The other characters seated at the table had their gazes glazed over. Anderson_Shoeberry sighed, acknowledging that he was abandoned to present the embarrassing answer to Lady Flux's questions.
Anderson_Shoeberry said, "Lady Flux, our surveillance systems couldn't properly register the character. But we have managed to confirm that the sword which the character flew on was the Black Riot."
Lady Flux queried, "You are sure that the character wasn't Merlin_13."
Anderson_Shoeberry said, "Based on testimonies from multiple eyewitnesses, including a few A-rank and B-rank people, the character in question wasn't or didn't look like Merlin_13. However, Merlin_13 was seen during the incident…"
Lady Flux interjected, saying, "I know about that."
"Merlin_13 is dead. No one beats the system when it comes to the death penalty," she added.
A doorbell echoed within the room. Everyone's turned their attention to the door.
"Who is it?" Anderson_Shoeberry asked.
A hologram image appeared before the door. It was the real-life image of the person behind the door, Rodrygo. He was the same Rodrygo from the AR gaming pub that Ivan visited yesterday. Although his image appeared in the room, the real him on the other side of the door couldn't see what was going on in the room.
Rodrygo said, "Mr Anderson, I have information for sale."
Lady Flux's gothic armoured summon appeared behind her. The intensity of the green glow in its eyes increased, causing the other special characters seated with Lady Flux at the table to become invisible.
The door unlocked and swung open. As the door swung open, Anderson_Shoeberry observed that only Lady Flux was seated at the table and there was a person in gothic armour standing behind her. He controlled himself from expressing his shock at the development.
Meanwhile, the other characters who had become invisible noticed that they were enveloped within a barrier. They all had the feeling that the barrier prevented being noticed from the outside world. They all noticed Anderson_Shoeberry's subtle shocked expression. They gazed to the right at Lady Flux. Lady Flux met their gaze with a nod and a smile. The expression from the S-rank character was soothing, relaxing their tensing nerves.
They also noticed a green glow that casted on Lady Flux's back. They followed the glow to the source and met the green eyes of the gothic armoured summon staring back at them.
"What the fuck!" Brainboss_7 flinched to his left, frightened by the sight he beheld.
The other characters also had the same reaction but were controlled and silent.
Rodrygo walked into the room. What caught his attention as he crossed the frame of the door was the gothic armour summon that was behind Lady Flux. It awed him, and he couldn't take his eyes off it as he walked into the room.
"Rodrygo?" Brainboss_7 said with a reprimanding tone.
Rodrygo snapped out of his awe. He had an elated smile on his face; he was glad to see the summon in person. He had seen the summon on videos and wished that he would be privileged to see it one day in person. His wishes came true.
"Good day, Lady Flux," Rodrygo bowed, greeting Lady Flux.
"Is that really the Grimm Bastard?" He asked, hoping the summon was really the Grimm Bastard.
Grimm Bastard vanished from sight.
"Yes, it's the Grimm Bastard," Lady Flux replied.
"Cool," Rodrygo calmly exclaimed.
He took out his phone and sent some videos to Anderson_Shoeberry's contact. Yesterday at the gaming pub that he worked at, a lot of guests visited to rank up in their facility. Rodrygo was like a mole in the facility; he sold information about 'interesting' visitors to Anderson_Shoeberry. However, he was a loyal customer of Anderson_Shoeberry, and he had never sold information to anyone else.
In the presence of Lady Flux and the secret observation of other special characters seated at the table with Lady Flux, Anderson_Shoeberry and Rodrygo went through every video. The video that intrigued them the most was the video in which Ivan was featured. What made it intriguing was Ivan pulling out the C-rank switch-axe.
Grimm Bastard appeared before the screen and reached his hand to touch the position where Ivan's kit bag appeared. The glow in its eyes dimmed when it touched the location. It jarringly turned its head 180 and spoke to Lady Flux in a voice that was imperceptible to others.
It said in a disjointed manner, "S-rank weapon in bag."
Lady Flux remained composed. She began formulating how to keep tabs on Ivan. She wasn't planning to let Anderson_Shoeberry and his team do the work for her because she didn't trust Anderson_Shoeberry.
====
Ivan and Daiyu had arrived at Ivan's apartment building, and they proceeded to enter his apartment. Ivan walked straight to his bed and collapsed on it.
He shut his eyes and said, "No comfort matches the comfort of home's bed."
Daiyu was standing in the room, nervous. She was nervous about how to open up to Ivan about her feelings. She felt that opening up now was bad timing; on the other hand, she felt that if she delayed opening up, she would never have the opportunity to do so.
Daiyu sat down beside Ivan on the bed. She drew a deep breath before she proceeded to speak. She said,
"Ivan, I have something that I deeply wanted to tell you."
"Uh-huh," Ivan said half-sleeping.
"I like you, and I want us to be more than friends." Daiyu spoke every word slowly.
"Yeah," Ivan nodded in his half-sleep state. He didn't process the information quickly.
Ivan's eye jolted open after a few seconds. He sat up to look Daiyu in the face to know if she was pulling his leg.