As soon as Claire entered the warehouse, she saw two people sitting on the left and right sides of a sofa, waiting for her arrival.
She first looked to her left and immediately recognized Chu.
Claire wasn't surprised by Chu's presence here; she was mainly curious about who the extra person was.
But when she turned to look to the right, Claire suddenly froze in place.
"You... how is this possible! How could it be you! You're not dead!"
Looking at the Middle-aged man sitting dejectedly on the sofa on the right side of the warehouse, Claire's eyes widened in disbelief.
But soon, Claire came to her senses.
Her expression turned cold again, and she questioned the man before her:
"Senior Zhen, it's been ten years... you've been gone for ten years! Everyone thought you were dead! Where have you been all these years?! And why am I encountering you in this place?!"
The Middle-aged man remained silent, merely stroking a silver dagger.
"Excuse me for interrupting your reunion."
At this moment, Chu stood up, breaking the atmosphere.
He stared at Augie, who was slung over Claire's shoulder, and slowly said with an unfriendly tone:
"Don't forget the purpose of your visit. You're here for a transaction, not a reunion."
Hearing Chu's words, Claire shifted her attention from the Middle-aged man and then dropped the two people she was carrying onto the ground.
"What price are you willing to pay to buy these two back?"
"Ms. Claire, you name a price."
"Let's round it up: Felix for 800,000, Augie for 1,200,000, totaling 2,000,000. How does that price sound to you?"
"We agree. Hand them over."
[Personal account credited: 2,000,000 credit points]
"?!"
This series of actions left Claire dumbfounded.
She quickly pulled out her terminal, staring at the 2,000,000 credit points that had genuinely arrived in her account, and stood there in a daze.
How could they agree so readily? Did she ask for too little?
Could she raise the price again?
No, no, no, Claire, you can't do such a thing that would harm your credibility!
As soon as this thought emerged, Claire quickly suppressed it.
"Have you checked? If so, release them."
Chu's somewhat impatient voice reached Claire's ears, snapping her out of her daze.
"Oh, oh, oh, alright, you can take them."
Claire quickly agreed, then stepped back a few paces, indicating that she would no longer pose any threat to these two.
Seeing Claire retreat, Chu Qingyu also walked over, intending to carry the two away.
But just then, an extremely intense feeling of death instantly swept over the three people in the warehouse. Then, they simultaneously looked outside the warehouse in astonishment.
'That's the aura of Cipher's friend! What's going on? Is Cipher in danger?!'
Thinking this, Claire immediately wanted to use her ability to teleport out of the warehouse.
"What?! Spatial Lock Anchor! Zhen, what are you doing?!"
Upon discovering that this place was locked by a Spatial Anchor, preventing her from teleporting out, Claire immediately realized what had happened. She then turned and shouted at the Middle-aged man.
"Sorry, I can't let you leave."
Facing Claire's questioning, Zhen merely answered her question numbly.
"Damn it..."
Looking at the utterly abnormal Zhen before her, Claire gritted her teeth.
She was well aware of Zhen's strength; if he truly intended to stop her, she would have no way to escape.
"Wait, credit points!"
Suddenly, Claire remembered what Cipher had said before.
'credit points have a special use for me. The more credit points I have, the stronger I can become through that use.'
Tsk, it seems this is the only way.
Thinking this, Claire quickly took out her terminal and transferred all the credit points in her account to Boss Cipher's terminal account.
Hopefully, this can help Boss Cipher...
Putting the terminal back in her pocket, Claire slowly raised her head, her eyes coldly fixed on Lin Zhenyi.
"Senior Zhen, although I don't know what happened to you, if you intend to stop me, I will not hold back just because you are my senior."
With that, Claire vanished from her spot.
The next instant, she appeared before Zhen, holding a sword, and fiercely swung it horizontally towards his chest...
Time rewinds to a little over a minute ago, outside the warehouse.
"A trapped beast in a cage? Who can say for sure?"
Looking at the two people before her, Cipher scoffed disdainfully.
"Just two rats who can't stand the light, not even daring to show your faces. Do you really think you can defeat a cat?"
"Hmph, arrogant."
Hearing Cipher's taunt, Jin snorted coldly.
"Then you can just watch as you, this cat, are brutally killed by two 'rats' you despise."
Saying this, Jin raised his hands, and two extremely destructive energy beams converged from the centers of his palms.
Immediately after, these two violent energies, carrying terrifying destructive power, rapidly assailed Cipher.
"Boom!"
The energy accurately struck the area where Cipher was, blasting a crater and stirring up plumes of smoke and dust.
Jin waved his right hand, and an Invisible shockwave quickly dispersed the smoke, but Cipher's shadow was not to be found within.
"Clang!"
A metallic clang sounded, and Jin abruptly turned to look behind him, as the sound had come from that direction.
But even if he turned quickly, it was useless; the sound rang out again, and this time, too, it came from behind him.
"Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang—"
A series of sounds continuously emerged, but this time Jin simply stopped dodging, standing silently in place with a mocking smile on his face.
"It's useless. With your weak power, it's impossible to break through Feng's barrier. What else can you do besides uselessly expending your own strength?"
"Tsk, a turtle shell."
Seeing that she couldn't break through the defense, Cipher simply stopped attacking.
She was currently in invisibility, standing silently to the side, not in a very good mood.
Attack has always been her weakness. Now, with that person named Feng deploying this turtle shell-like barrier, she couldn't inflict any damage on Jin at all.
Trickery? It won't work, because the premise for Trickery to be effective is that they believe I can do it.
Unless I have an attack method that can directly break through the barrier, they won't believe my lies, and I won't be able to gain the power to break through the barrier... 'I wonder if this can break through that person's barrier.'
Cipher opened her system backpack and silently cast her gaze upon the purple item, a wisp of aura.
(Because in Honkai: Star Rail's description, there's no precise explanation of how Cipher's Trickery should be used—sometimes it's enough for her to believe it herself, other times she needs others to believe it. So, I've decided to slightly clarify the setting for the use of Trickery Divine Power: as long as others believe Cipher possesses such a power/ability, then Cipher can temporarily gain that ability, even if they are only half-convinced. The more people who believe, or if the believer is very strong, then this ability can be retained for a long time.)