Seeing Sharon's avatar flashing in the internal communication channel—the forum—Luo Shu instantly realized that the sultry nun was reaching out to him.
"She's contacting me this early in the morning? Looks like she went and got something done after she left last night…"
Luo Shu didn't believe for a second that Sharon, who regarded him as her god, would contact him without reason. If she was reaching out, there was definitely something to report.
"Still, this alert function on the forum is pretty nice. Feels just like having a QQ notification sound on you at all times. Might get annoying when there are too many people in the future, but at least for now, it helps avoid missing important messages."
Thinking that, Luo Shu focused his intent and clicked on the flashing avatar.
Sharon's icon instantly expanded and transformed into a virtual window—visible only through Luo Shu's left eye—displaying a scene.
It was a forest, bathed in the golden light of early morning.
Surrounded by lush green trees, Sharon knelt on one knee amidst fallen leaves. Her hands were clasped together, her eyes gently shut in a prayerful pose.
Far away in Tokyo, Luo Shu silently watched the nun through the system's shared vision.
Just like when they first met, Sharon was still wearing that deep purple nun outfit. However, the way her outfit split at the hem revealed the faint outline of her white stockings, and the tight contours of her figure—enhanced by her kneeling posture—made Luo Shu's throat go dry.
"...Vixen," he muttered under his breath, forcing himself to look away and focus on the man lying among the withered leaves next to her.
The man's eyes and mouth were wrapped in bandages, and his arms and legs were cuffed to two iron rods deeply driven into the ground. He wore a tattered blue pajama set, and his protruding belly made it obvious he was a middle-aged man.
Luo Shu's eyes scanned the man's form for a moment. The man's hands, still cuffed, were covered in blood and missing fingernails—clear signs that he had already been interrogated by Sharon.
"A nun with a whip doing interrogations… I'll admit, that sounds kind of interesting. But I doubt this poor guy feels the same way."
With a soft chuckle, Luo Shu used his mind to initiate communication with Sharon and then spoke aloud:
"What is it?"
His calm tone, transmitted through the system's internal comms, transformed into a low and majestic voice by the time it reached Sharon's ears.
["What is it?"]
The divine, dignified voice descending from the heavens made Sharon's body tremble slightly. Already bowed low in prayer, she lowered her head even more.
"Your Excellency," she began reverently, "I've captured a subordinate of the Yakushiji family who appears to be connected to demon. However, there was a magic seal embedded in his mind, and I couldn't extract accurate intel from him."
Her voice was tense and faltering by the end.
"Please forgive this servant's incompetence."
Incompetence? If anything, you're too competent...
Even Luo Shu hadn't expected that in less than one night, Sharon would already have managed to capture someone this important within the Yakushiji family.
For someone to have a seal implanted in their mind—preventing them from divulging what they know—they had to be a high-value asset. Even if not a family member, the man was clearly a major operative.
The odds that he held sensitive secrets about the Yakushiji family were extremely high. He might even be a key figure.
As for Sharon's comment about the seal preventing proper interrogation, Luo Shu had a few ideas.
In his opinion, Sharon's class—Saint Maiden—was primarily combat-oriented. She probably wasn't skilled at interrogation, so it was no surprise she couldn't determine the truthfulness of the information.
It was only natural.
But among the people he knew, there was someone perfect for uncovering hidden intel.
That person, of course, was Kasumigaoka Utaha!
Her full, shapely thighs wrapped in black stockings had left quite the impression on him, to the point that whenever he thought of her, her voluptuous figure popped into his head.
Anyway, what could be more effective in an interrogation than a mind-reading ability?
And conveniently, Luo Shu had a material that could enhance Kasumigaoka Utaha's mind-reading powers. This would be the perfect chance to give it to her—strengthening her abilities while also getting her to help him with a task.
If the intel could be successfully extracted? Then it was a double win.
And even if it failed, it wasn't a loss to him.
After all, Sharon was the one who did the kidnapping. What did SDS operative Luo Shu have to do with anything?
Having decided, Luo Shu gave a calm command:
"In that case, offer him up as a sacrifice to me."
At the word "sacrifice," Sharon remained expressionless—but the bandaged man began trembling violently, his entire body writhing in terror.
Clearly, he understood just how dangerous that word was.
His mouth began frantically twitching beneath the bandages, and eventually he managed to force out a desperate plea:
"I'll talk! I'll tell you everything! Whatever you want to know, I'll say it! Please, believe me! Believe me!!"
It was clear now—his mouth was far weaker than the seal in his mind.
Without a change in expression, Sharon stood up and grasped the bracelet on her right wrist, preparing to teleport her "trophy" to the Astronomy Club's secret space.
To her, torturing this unlucky guy into talking wasn't the hard part. The real issue was verifying the accuracy of the information.
Because it was her first time working for Luo Shu, Sharon didn't dare be sloppy. That's why she'd been so anxious earlier.
After kidnapping a major figure from the Yakushiji family, any rational person would assume the family would immediately feed him false info to throw off pursuers. That meant getting reliable intelligence in the shortest time possible was Sharon's top priority.
But it seemed that she wouldn't need to handle that part herself anymore.
As the bracelet activated its teleportation function, a dark light flickered. Amid the man's despairing screams, his body was transported into the secret space.
Once his figure vanished completely, Sharon solemnly declared:
"Praise be to You, my great Lord."
She instinctively tried to raise her hands and draw a prayer symbol in the air, the kind often used in the Church. But halfway through, she suddenly remembered that Luo Shu wasn't a god of the Church—causing her hands to awkwardly freeze mid-gesture.
Luo Shu didn't mind this. He merely glanced at the message that the sacrifice had cost him 5 system points, then turned his gaze to the secret space of the Astronomy Club, where the captured man now stood frozen like an insect in amber.
With that, Luo Shu pushed open the door and walked toward the elevator.
His destination, of course, was Kasumigaoka Utaha.