"...Sorry. I originally thought you were with Genesis Biotech, but based on your words and reactions earlier, it seems I might have misunderstood."
After a moment of silence, Tan Rui spoke slowly.
"Since you aren't from Genesis Biotech, it proves we aren't necessarily enemies."
"Genesis Biotech has committed so many atrocities. For instance, the excruciatingly painful gene-editing surgery was pioneered by them. Having undergone such surgery yourself, don't you want to take revenge on the culprits?"
Cipher remained unmoved. Setting aside the fact that this man had arrived with the intent to kill her, she had already stated multiple times that she had never undergone any gene-editing surgery. Yet, this man seemed to have no ears, insisting that she had.
All this incessant babbling... wasn't he just trying to say that since he had a grudge against Genesis Biotech and she should have one too, she should be egged into joining them for revenge?
'He's honestly delusional. No matter how much I explain, he just doesn't get it.'
Seeing that Cipher had no intention of responding, Tan Rui closed his mouth and stopped making a fool of himself.
After a while, the cat ears atop Cipher's head twitched. She heard the sound of numerous footsteps rushing toward her location.
Judging by the sound, there were about a dozen people.
Soon, a group of men armed with rifles entered through the warehouse's main entrance, blocking the exit.
Cipher opened her eyes, casting a disdainful gaze at these uninvited guests.
"This is your so-called backup? A bunch of ordinary humans with rifles?"
"Not just them. There's also us, Miss Cipher."
A gentle male voice drifted over. Cipher looked toward the source and saw a stranger wearing gold-rimmed glasses and white gloves.
Two others, a man and a woman, stood slightly behind him on either side.
The man wore a ring on his finger, while the woman wore a strange helmet. Notably, both the ring and the helmet were embedded with a colorless gemstone.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Chu Ke from the Resistance Alliance. Our purpose today is actually to invite Miss Cipher to join us."
"You want me to join you right off the bat? Where do you get your confidence from?"
Cipher rolled her eyes at the man named Chu Ke. Her tone was laced with contempt, as if she didn't think much of them at all.
In fact, she truly did look down on this group from the bottom of her heart.
Hearing her question, Chu Ke's eyes gradually turned fanatical. He raised both hands and shouted loudly:
"Because we are the Resistance Alliance! Our ideal is to make those high-and-mighty megacorps show expressions of terror before they crumble at our hands!"
"Tch." As someone with the common sense of a modern human from her past life, Cipher didn't believe a word of it.
Although she hadn't been in this world for long, based on what she knew, she didn't believe these megacorps would be so easily toppled by a so-called "Resistance Alliance."
Four megacorps—military, medical, logistics, and entertainment. Each focused on a different field of technological development, which meant they all relied on each other's tech to fill their own gaps.
To put it bluntly, this place was essentially built by these four companies and the government. If even one company went missing, the technological development of this region would become incredibly deformed.
Therefore, if someone wanted one of these companies to fall from grace and collapse completely...
Unless they possessed technology that surpassed that company to replace it as the new generation's megacorp...
They would have to ask the other three companies and the government if they agreed first!
Thus, Cipher gave her evaluation of the Resistance Alliance.
"Big ideals, pity about the brain. It's like a toad dreaming of eating swan meat."
The moment those words left her mouth, Chu Ke, who had been in a state of frenzy, froze.
He slowly lowered his arms, and his expression returned to normal.
"We all live here in the Pitbottom District. You should have seen how difficult life is for the people here, right?"
At this point, his tone became somewhat confused.
"We are all people who have been persecuted by the megacorps. So why do you speak on their behalf?"
"Could it be... that Tan Rui's judgment was wrong? Are you actually someone from Genesis Biotech?"
After saying this, he turned his head toward Tan Rui.
Tan Rui looked equally lost; he didn't understand either.
In this place, there were generally only two types of people.
The first type mostly appeared in the Hive District. They looked up to the megacorps, wanting to fly above the clouds and become a part of them.
The second type appeared in the Pitbottom District. They hated the megacorps because those companies never looked down at the Pitbottom. The corporations' monopolies made their lives incredibly difficult, leaving them to watch their family, friends, and loved ones struggle for survival in the Pitbottom until they died in despair.
As for people who neither yearned for nor hated the megacorps, Tan Rui had only ever met one: Boss Shen Yan.
But why... did he see a shadow of that same attitude in Cipher?
Seeing the confusion in Tan Rui's eyes, Chu Ke sighed and looked back at Cipher.
"Although I don't understand your identity, it seems unlikely you'll join us for now."
"Forgive me then. All I can do now is capture you and bring you back to the organization for a proper interrogation."
At this point, the temperature around Chu Ke plummeted.
"Take her alive. Move out."
Before his voice had even faded, the colorless gems on the ring and helmet of the two people behind him began to glow with a faint white light.
Right then, Cipher, who had been leaning against the wall, suddenly felt an intense gravitational force pressing down on her. Caught off guard, she was forced to stoop slightly. She also felt the air around her become dense, as if the atmospheric resistance had increased significantly.
It felt exactly like being hundreds of meters deep in the ocean. Aside from the lack of water and being able to breathe normally, every other sensation was identical to being in the deep sea.
Watching the visible change in Cipher's posture, Chu Ke flashed a smile.
"Allow me to introduce them. The gentleman on my left has a C-rank Gravity Control anomaly, and the lady on my right has C-rank Telekinesis. Now, both of them are using standard purity Potential Stimulation Crystals to boost their abilities to C+ rank. So, Miss Cipher, under this double restriction I've prepared specifically for you, can you still display that incredible speed of yours, nyaa?"