"Miss Hong Guoguo, are you alright?"
Members of the two gangs rushed over. Upon seeing Hong Guoguo's blood-stained dagger and the signs of a struggle, they hurriedly stepped forward to check on her.
"What's wrong? What happened?"
Hyacine also "woke up" (feigning it). Seeing her room door open, she quickly walked out clutching the still-sleeping Little Ica and approached Hong Guoguo.
Hong Guoguo had already reverted to her ordinary appearance. She turned to the gang members and said irritably:
"I was fighting that assassin up here for so long—why didn't you guys react at all? You only show up after the assassin has run away!"
The two men looked at each other blankly and shook their heads in unison.
"We only came up because we heard a noise from the upstairs window just now. Before that, we didn't hear a thing."
"Didn't hear a thing? How is that possible?"
Hong Guoguo was stunned. Were all the loud noises she just heard fake?
"It was likely because of this."
At that moment, Hyacine leaned down and picked up a hemispherical device.
"That's... that's the thing the assassin dropped!" Hong Guoguo immediately pointed at the object in Hyacine's hand.
[Sound Isolation Device] (Item, Damaged)
Effect: Upon landing, it continuously releases sound waves that prevent sound from traveling outside a ten-meter radius. Duration: 10 minutes.
"Once this device is activated, it prevents any sound within a ten-meter radius from leaking out. That's why the sounds of your fight with the assassin didn't reach anyone."
"So that's it!"
Hong Guoguo had a moment of realization, but she quickly became dejected again.
"It's a shame the assassin got away. I only managed to grab this tuft of hair."
Hong Guoguo handed over a clump of black fur. Hyacine took it and stared at the black strands, putting on an act of deep contemplation.
"Hmm, this is feline fur. Was the assassin a cat?"
Hearing this, Hong Guoguo waved her hands frantically to explain:
"Of course not! That assassin was a cat-type Genetically Modified Human from Genesis Tech. She said so herself!"
"Oh, I see."
Hyacine nodded, then gave Hong Guoguo a grateful smile.
"Then thank you for blocking that assassination attempt for me. I really appreciate it."
"No... no need for thanks. You've saved so many people... you're a good person. I won't just stand by and watch a good person die when it's within my power to help!"
With that, Hong Guoguo turned to head back downstairs. Just as she reached the halfway point, she suddenly turned back and shouted at Hyacine:
"Also, you're being targeted by Genesis Tech now! Try to be a little more vigilant, okay? I can't always make it in time!"
Then, Hong Guoguo disappeared down the stairwell. Watching her retreating back, the corners of Hyacine's mouth curled into a slight arc.
"Clean up the traces in the hallway. Since the assassin has been driven off, I'm going back to sleep."
After addressing the two gang members, Hyacine turned back into her room and closed the door.
"Uh... clean it up now?" one gang member asked the other blankly.
The other member rolled his eyes and turned to walk downstairs.
"Clean my ass. Can the two of us actually get this spotless? Just call the cleaning service."
"Oh, right. Forgot about that."
"I didn't expect this kind of harvest tonight."
The moment the door closed, Cipher appeared in the room, speaking to Hyacine with a playful tone. Hyacine nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, it was quite a surprise."
The instant the assassin had entered the inn, Hyacine had detected the intruder. She immediately had Cipher use Godspeed to rush over while she faked sleep to see what the intruder intended.
Originally, seeing the assassin looming over Hyacine's room, Cipher was ready to move in and finish her off. But before she could act, she saw a silver-white "little kitten" stealthily approaching the intruder with a dagger in hand.
Cipher had immediately held back, choosing instead to watch the two cats scratch at each other with great interest.
However, although the white "little kitten" was stronger than the black "bad cat," the black one still managed to escape. Left with no choice, Cipher waited to ensure the white kitten was unharmed before chasing down the black bad cat herself.
"I'm actually quite curious about what their world is like. Is there any way to make her expose her true form? After all, logically speaking, you aren't supposed to know her identity, and I've never appeared in front of them before, so I shouldn't know either."
Cipher stroked her chin, lowering her head in thought.
"Can't we just point it out directly?" Hyacine suggested tentatively after thinking for a moment.
Cipher immediately shook her head in refusal.
"No, that's no fun. It's better to find an opportunity for her to expose herself."
"Fair enough..."
In a conversation that felt more like a internal monologue shared between two people, they both fell into contemplation.
Suddenly, Hyacine seemed to remember something. Her eyes lit up as she pulled a bag of Dried Small Fish from her System Inventory. It was the type pulled from the system specifically designed for "Anti-Cat" purposes.
The moment Cipher saw the item in Hyacine's hand, her eyes grew terrified, and she instantly leaped several meters away.
"Are you really going to use that thing?! Don't you know how much damage that stuff does to me?!" Cipher pointed at the bag of fish in disbelief.
"But this is specifically for cats. I'm not a cat, so it should be... fine for me, right?" Hyacine muttered to herself.
As she spoke, she slowly tore a small opening in the bag.
"Bartholos! Get back! If you don't go back now, there's going to be trouble!" Seeing this, Cipher shouted to Bartholos, who was disguised as the Flipping Coin.
A portal instantly appeared beside Cipher. Activating Godspeed, she vanished into the portal in a flash.
From Hyacine's perspective, she only saw a purple portal flicker briefly before Cipher disappeared.
"Is it really that scary?"
Hyacine murmured, leaning in to sniff the opening she had torn. Hmm, smells like normal seafood snacks.
Seeing that the smell was fine, Hyacine popped a piece of dried fish into her mouth. After chewing a few times, she narrowed her eyes, savoring the flavor.
"Mmm... it's quite tasty. While it's not as ridiculously delicious as it was back then, it's definitely a top-tier seafood snack."