"Alright. You got one point. You need two more points,' Ryder said as he gazed at the man who was groaning in pain. His leg had stopped responding, but the pain was still terrifying.

As the room was fully closed, no voice left the room even though the man was making a lot of noises.

The room was noisy, but the outside was silent.

"Alright. Next question. Where is the base of the Dark Uprising! Tell me about their base!" Ryder asked the next question 

The man was already sweating in pain. He was upset. Not only did Ryder not help him, but he also continued asking.

The man answered, "I don't know! I never knew about that. I only had a link to one of the members who I provided information to. He never told me about their base, and I never asked."

Ryder didn't comment anything. He turned back as he started laughing.

The man finally breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that he got another point. Now he only had one more question left.

He gazed at his leg and wondered if he could save it if he was freed and got help in time. He had stopped groaning in pain. He was still hurt, but he had adjusted to the pain.

Right when he was lost in his thought, he heard a sound which made him know exactly what to expect since he heard the same sound when his first leg was shot. Another scream escaped his lips as his second knew was shut as well.

He screamed like a dying man as his body twisted and turned. His waist raised upwards, creating space between the ground and his back as he cried in pain.

His eyes were already bloodshot red.

"You bastard! Why did you shoot me now! Even when I told the truth, you still did it!" He screamed in rage as he controlled the twitching of his body.

'Oh, good. So he wasn't lying,' Ryder thought as he nodded his head. From the reaction, he was certain that the blonde man wasn't lying.

He also found this awkward since he had shot even after getting the right answer.

He shamelessly smiled, calmly. I did this because you lied again," he said.

"I fucking didn't lie! You don't have any way to know. You're randomly shooting since you did even after I told the truth! You have no intention of freeing me! You bastard!" the man cursed.

"You sure you didn't lie?" Ryder asked as he smirked.

"You said you never knew about their bases. It was a lie since you found out about their bases when you leaked the information of the future raids. That's why they weren't there. You could've said you don't know about their base. But you never knew about their base was a lie," he continued.

His words stunned Handerson, who never thought like that. He didn't know that even the past bases that were abandoned needed to be counted in his answers.

"I think you might have misunderstood the question. Even though you lied, I'll still give you the point," Ryder let out.

"One last question. You only need one answer. If you're right, I'll free you," he said.

"Last question... Is the Director also a modified human like you who doesn't die?" 

Hearing the question, the man's face went pale. How did Ryder know that he got operated on? It was right. He was exactly like Riya, who didn't die from bullets or wounds.

"Confused? Are you wondering how I knew it?" Ryder assumed, looking at the stunned look of the man. 

The man who was groaning in pain like he was dying, stopped pretending. He started laughing.

"Exactly. How did you know?" He asked, laughing.

"It's simple. Do you really expect me not to know that you were acting? Even though you were shot in the leg, your reaction was all wrong. I've shot plenty of people in the knee. Their reaction is quite fascinating. I must say, your family was not bad. But it wasn't close to good either. It was obvious that your reaction was fake," Ryder answered.

"Who exactly are you?" Handerson asked, squinting his eyes.

"Who am I? I'm a thief, I told you at the start," Ryder replied.

"You're not going to answer. Let me take a guess... You are the one who messed with the plans in DC and the one which our Kings want to catch," Handerson took a guess.

Since Ryder knew so much about them, it was certain that he was the one. The one that the kings called the Masked Hero.

'The Kings, huh? Now that I think about it, the one who asked to have Bastion assassinated was a King too. Could he be related to them as well? Most probably. The night of the explosions, one of the targets was Esmi's club,' Hearing about the Kings, Ryder understood a few things. He was able to establish a few links and get a clearer picture. 

'I was wondering why they chose such a small place. After that was the assassination attempt on Bastion, it's certain. They have some kind of hostility with Bastion's family,' he thought.

" I won't accept nor deny your guess. You can think what you wish," Ryder answered the man.

"Anyway, since you didn't answer my last question, let me change the question. How did you contact the Uprising? Let me take a guess as well; you use your phone. You have the number of someone from the group saved as a random name, and you use that to call, am I right?" 

"You're not stupid. But I'm not telling you which name," the man answered.

"Don't worry. I know you won't tell me about that, and I don't expect you to tell me either. What I know is already enough," Ryder answered, smiling.

He kept the gun back in his inventory.

"W-what? How?"

Watching the gun disappear into thin air, Handerson was shocked. He had seen magicians, but this was too real.

"Stunned? That's nothing. Let me show you more," Ryder said, smirking.

Seeing his smirk, Handerson grew to have a bad feeling. His forehead was actually sweating as he watched the devil-like smile on Ryder's face. 

He watched the hand of Ryder to see what his plan was while he actually started to struggle to free his hands.

"Don't worry. I've taken proper precautions. The ropes won't break so easily," Ryder answered, noticing his effort.

He brought another item out of his invention, which happened to frighten Handerson.

Handerson was modified in such a way that he didn't die from wounds. Bullets were useless as well, but his head was important. If his head was cut off or his whole body was blown up, there was no way for him to survive. He could see Ryder planned to do the first thing since there appeared a sharp sword in his hand.

"You... Wait... Don't do it... I can h-" he was making excuses to calm down Ryder since he was actually scared for his life, but before he could even finish his sentence, Ryder swung his sword.

As the sword came to a halt, a voice stopped, and a head rolled over to the ground. 

Watching the head of Handerson lying on the ground, lifelessly, Ryder sighed as if he was tired.

"There goes another life. I wonder if he could even be called alive," he muttered as he wiped the blade of the sword with the clothes of the man.

After being done, he kept the Sword back in the inventory.

He had previously already searched the body of the man, so he didn't need to do that again. He already had all the keys and the phone of Handerson.

"Now I need to spend the night here. I can get back to work in the morning," he muttered as he gazed at the time on his phone.

He dialed the number of Alice from his phone.

"Hello," he said. 

"I am a little busy at work. I won't be able to come back today. Eat alone and sleep. I should be back tomorrow night," He informed Alice.

"Can't you come even at night? Do you really need to do so much work that you won't even sleep?" Alice asked, concerned.

"Don't worry about me. We have a room here with a bed. I can take a nap there after I'm finished. Traveling is just not feasible. I do have good news, though. My work is going great. I should be finished with work on time. After that, we can enjoy our trip," Ryder informed her, comforting her.

"Fine. If you say so, I will wait for you to come back tomorrow—best of luck with work. I'm sure you'll make a killing," Alice said before she disconnected the call.

"I will certainly make a killing," Ryder muttered as he gazed at the phone. He kept the phone in his pocket and sat down near the body. 

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