"That bastard..."
Edward clenched his fists tightly.
His sister's words had provoked him deeply.
She had actually gone to beg that bastard for her wages just to put his mind at ease... This was money she had earned, yet now she had to rely on begging and taking a kick just to get it.
The coins in that cloth bundle were like meat bones tossed to a persistent dog, yet they were forced to rely on this "benevolence" to survive.
Perhaps out of hatred for his own incompetence, tears flowed through the gaps of Edward's fingers on his right hand, dripping one by one onto the ground.
Just as Lina was about to comfort her brother, Syl spoke, breaking the oppressive atmosphere.
"One last question."
"What is the name of the factory your sister works at, and where is it located?"
Hearing Syl's question, Edward temporarily suppressed the complex emotions in his heart and replied, "It's called the Hancock Textile Factory, Miss... It's at No. 12 Kikaodi Street in the Iviza West District."
"The West District?" Syl nodded, picked up the banknotes by the window, and walked toward the door.
As she passed the dilapidated wardrobe, Syl casually tucked those 10 currency into the handle. She didn't spare the siblings another glance and walked straight out of the room under their watchful eyes.
10 currency might be spent in an instant in Syl's hands, but in the hands of those siblings, it was half a year's worth of food money.
Such massive disparities were everywhere, and there were many people worse off than them. The clown was no Savior, nor did she have the empathy to care about so many other people's affairs. Now that she had gathered the information, the next step was to confirm it on-site.
If she moved quickly, she could probably submit a satisfactory answer to the system before noon.
Perhaps even Syl hadn't noticed that as her fusion with the clown grew higher, her acting style and outlook were quietly changing whenever she became the clown.
In the time that followed, Syl followed the directions on her map to the location Edward had mentioned.
Along the way, she encountered a small chapel of the goddess of hope. Although the chapel was small, quite a crowd had gathered at the entrance to pray.
As if afraid that the tattered shoes passed down through countless generations would dirty the chapel floor, not a single person stepped inside. The church priest was forced to preach helplessly at the entrance.
"It seems the Church of the Goddess of Hope truly holds a very high status in the hearts of the people of the Ivisa District," Syl thought silently.
The things Edward said were gradually confirming Syl's deductions in reality. The only place left was that Hank Textile Factory.
Upon reaching the Iviza West District, Syl took out her pocket watch to check the time. It was nearly 10:30 AM. Just walking from the South District to the West District had taken her about forty minutes.
After another ten minutes of asking for directions and searching, Syl finally arrived at the Hank Textile Factory Edward had mentioned.
Looking at the familiar-looking row of four-story houses before her, Syl's brow furrowed slightly.
Although the words "Hank Textile Factory" were carved between the windows of the third and fourth floors, this clearly didn't match Syl's mental image of a factory.
It felt as if residential houses had been forcibly converted into a textile mill, and the surrounding area remained a normal residential neighborhood. In fact, Syl had seen many such factories along the way.
"Is this the factory?"
Before her were over a dozen female workers operating machines in front of steam looms. The air was filled with the pungent smell of coal, and the low roar of steam engines echoed in her ears.
Furthermore, if one went upstairs, there were three more floors. This meant that in such a connected row of houses, nearly fifty female workers were squeezed inside toiling away. Even though the doors and windows were open, Syl could still feel the sweltering heat inside.
"Capital controls the means of production, exploiting the poor of the Ivisa District, which runs contrary to the tenets of the Church of the Goddess of Hope. They are naturally on opposite sides... and the one manipulating everything to pressure the church is that Grand Baron Bonsandi..."
"Is that it? System?"
After stating her answer internally, Syl waited silently for the system's response.
"Are you sure this is the answer you want to submit?"
"Confirmed."
Quest: [Conspiracy Under the Haze] Completed
Rating: Average Success
Reward: Gacha Chance ×1
Hidden Reward: Failed to obtain
Triggered Chain Quest: [The Fall of Iviza]
Difficulty: ★★★★★
Introduction: The core of Suramar has long been chaotic and corrupt. Despair will spread to the entire city of Suramar sooner or later, and the poorest Ivisa District will be the first to bear the brunt.
"Instead of letting others harvest this ripening despair, why shouldn't the one who claims this massive despair... be you?"
"Come! Peel back the filthy core of Suramar, starting with the assembly of an Iviza riot army! Chaos! Madness! This is the salvation Iviza needs!"
Quest Reward: [Unknown] Bond Purple-Grade character card ×1
Syl looked at this maximum-difficulty quest, her heart unmoved.
"What's the time limit, System?"
"Maybe a month, maybe a few years. God knows how far ahead their plans go."
"Heehee... interesting..." Syl began to feel her mood starting to slip out of control under the influence of the clown card.
It seemed the system's quest description suited the clown's taste perfectly.
Inside the factory, some female workers had already noticed Syl outside. They felt a sense of dread as they saw her staring straight in through the window with a constant, eerie smile.
Especially that gaze... it was indescribable, filled with madness and pleasure. She didn't look like a normal person at all.
Fear: 4/100
A prompt from the system brought Syl back to her senses. In an instant, she returned to an expressionless state, as if nothing had happened.
She didn't know that behind her at this moment, a person completely shrouded in a black robe had been observing her.
Syl stopped looking toward the factory and instead asked the system:
"What is an 'Unknown' bond?"
"You can understand it as cards from the same series. By the way, the clown and the promoted Love Saint both belong to the [Unknown] bond."
"I see."
Now that the quest was complete, aside from the chain quest [The Fall of Iviza], only the clown's promotion quest remained. Syl decided to promote the clown first before considering whether to take on that chain quest.
But before that, she had to use up her gacha chance. That was something that could tangibly increase her combat power.
"System, gacha."
The clown didn't believe in any metaphysical gacha rituals. Even though there were crowds of people around—workers coming out of the factory to rest and eat lunch—Syl chose to draw on the spot.
Without any fancy special effects, a card glowing with blue light appeared out of thin air in front of Syl.
Fanatical Rapping Missionary (Blue)
Class: None
Rank: None
Strength: 8
Constitution: 9
Inspiration: 29
Agility: 9
Charisma: 17
Skills: [Whispers of the Old Gods], [High-Speed Incantation]
Card Pool: [terrifying clown], [mysterious physician], [Saintess of Hope]
Gacha Chances: 0
Overall Evaluation: It's time for this system's seventh favorite rap segment—HаыЖа!