After a while, the gunfire stopped, and then a conversation could be heard coming from outside the door.
"Big Bear, do you think these cultists are out of their minds? The mission was to drive them away, but these people would rather be beaten to death than run away."
"Perhaps these cultists are trying to protect something. We'll find out once we go inside."
"That's right, Xiaowei, come here quickly, it's safe here."
Big Bear, Little Wei? It seems the invading group won. But were those black-robed men actually cultists?
Listening to the voices of a man and a woman outside the cabinet, Cipher fell into thought.
After thinking for a while, Cipher discovered a key point in the conversation between the two.
They say those cultists are guarding something... but what's in this room?
Wait a minute? Is that thing that the cultists are protecting me?
But haven't I just come into this world?
Cipher eyes widened, feeling somewhat incredulous.
"Hey, Xiaowei, come quick! There's an altar here! That's probably what those cultists were guarding. See if it's worth anything!"
"They're here."
It was another unfamiliar voice.
Cipher's cat ears twitched slightly, interrupting her thoughts.
"This altar... I can't tell anything about it, and I just scanned it with my terminal. The altar is made of very ordinary stone and is not worth anything at all."
"Ah... how could this be... does it mean we exceeded the mission's objectives, but besides the original mission reward and some semi-homemade pistols, we got nothing else? But didn't the news say that cults like this are the richest?"
"Captain, it's already dark. Stop daydreaming. If we were facing one of those cults that would make the news, we would have been kicked to death long ago."
"Alright, let me see if there's anything else here..."
After hearing those words, Cipher clearly sensed footsteps approaching her wardrobe.
Seeing this, Cipher didn't intend to do anything. Instead, she sat obediently in the cabinet, waiting for the person outside to open the cabinet door.
With a creak, the cabinet door opened, and Cipher immediately recognized the person who opened it—the girl who had been hiding behind the two-meter-tall, burly man.
Cipher looked up at the girl in front of her, and the girl seemed to be in a daze when she saw her, staring blankly at her as well.
After a few seconds of eye contact, the girl finally realized what was happening, and her eyes became much clearer.
Just when Cipher thought the girl in front of her would immediately shout to her teammates, "There's someone in the closet," or point a weapon at her warily.
The girl did something she hadn't expected.
The girl muttered to herself, "I must be seeing things. How could there be someone in the closet, and such a pretty girl at that?" Then she suddenly... slammed the closet door shut.
Yes, she closed the door!
"What's going on?"
Cipher said that this time it was her turn to be dumbfounded. Who would find a stranger in a locker in an enemy stronghold and not immediately react by being alert or reporting it, but by thinking they must have seen wrong and closing the door?!
Looking at the cabinet door that had been closed again, Cipher fell into deep thought.
Should I go out now or not?
...
"Captain, what happened?"
Hearing the noise, Lin Wei turned around with some confusion and saw her captain standing in front of a cabinet, his eyes showing a look of bewilderment.
"Um... Xiaowei, I think I saw someone in the closet..."
"What? There are still enemies hiding here?"
Lin Wei was somewhat surprised. She thought that all those cult members were fearless, but she didn't expect that one of them had actually hidden himself away.
"Where are the enemies?"
Upon hearing the word "enemy," Xiong Lei's face immediately turned fierce, and he began to look around furtively.
"Wait, wait, wait!"
Seeing this, Lorraine immediately realized that her teammates seemed to have misunderstood something, and quickly spoke up to stop them.
"The person in the closet isn't a cult member, but a very beautiful girl!"
"A girl? How come there's a girl here? Was she kidnapped by those cultists?"
After listening to Lorraine's description, Lin Wei asked with some doubt.
"It's real! It's right here in this cabinet!"
As she spoke, Lorraine opened the cabinet again.
Now everyone could see what was in the cabinet.
It was a girl who was curled up hugging her legs, wearing a black and gold bodysuit and gold high-heeled boots.
What caught their attention even more were the pair of animal ears on the girl's head that were clearly not human, and the tail beside her.
...
After some conversation, Cipher successfully learned their names and that they were a mercenary squad.
Their team, named Spark, had come on a mission to drive away the cultists occupying the area.
Cipher told them her name, but she claimed to know nothing about why she was there or what she did before, and could only brush them off by saying that she couldn't remember anything.
After all, she has only just arrived in this world, so it would be strange if she knew these things!
So Cipher used her ability to make her words more believable to others. As a result, the Spark Squad accepted Cipher amnesia and began to fill in the blanks in their minds.
At this moment, Cipher was sitting obediently inside the house, while the members of the Spark Squad had come outside and were discussing something with each other.
The question is whether or not to take Cipher into the team.
"But Cipher has lost her memory! Such a beautiful girl, plus amnesia, if we don't take her in, her fate will definitely be terrible. You all know how chaotic the Pit Bottom area is!"
Lorraine was very worried. After all, in the bottom of the pit, where there was virtually no order, it was no different from living in hell for a girl who looked weak and had amnesia to live alone in such a place.
"But… Captain…" Lin Wei hesitated for a moment, but after a while, she still brought up the problem their team was facing. "We don't have much money left. We're already struggling to even cover the team's basic expenses. If we add another person, our team's funds might just collapse."
"this..."
After listening to Lin Wei's words, Lorraine didn't know what to say for a moment, because Lin Wei was talking about their team's difficulties: a shortage of funds.
But Lorraine quickly rallied.
"So what! If it really doesn't work... we can just take on more missions! Besides, most of our funds are spent on weapon replenishment and maintenance. Cipher doesn't need to fight, so if she joins, it will just mean we need to buy two more energy bars every day, which won't cost us many credits."
"Captain... well, alright then."
Seeing the captain's expression, Lin Wei opened her mouth, but ultimately said nothing and helplessly agreed.
After they finished discussing, the two turned to look at Xiong Lei, who was sitting to the side.
"Don't look at me, I have no opinions, I'll listen to you all."
Xiong Lei felt uncomfortable being stared at by the two women, so he quickly waved his hand and called out.