Facing the sudden dagger, Shirou did not panic in the slightest.
Leaving aside whether the dagger could even break through the defensive power of his Mystic Code, the target was not even his body. As long as he did not recklessly move closer, the dagger would only end up firmly embedded in the floor in front of him.
Even so, the act itself carried a strong sense of provocation. Shirou had no intention of indulging the other party, so he directly reached out and caught the dagger.
With the reinforcement magecraft and the Mystic Code enhancing him, Shirou's hand suffered absolutely no damage. In fact, with a little more force, he could have crushed the dagger outright.
Originally, Shirou intended to throw it back. However, after turning around and seeing the other party's appearance, he gave up on the idea.
It was the hooded person he had encountered last time at the factory together with Lin Yuhsia. Although he had never seen the other party's face before, the identical hood design and the red and orange cloth strips on the person's hands were enough for Shirou to recognize them.
More importantly, after seeing Shirou catch the dagger barehanded, the other party immediately raised both hands in surrender, leaving Shirou unsure whether he should even attack.
The situation back then seemed to have been the same as now.
To be honest, the way the other party raised both hands in surrender looked rather cute. In the end, Shirou still did not make a move. He simply spun the dagger around twice in his hand before holding the blade between two fingers and extending the handle toward the other party.
"Do you need something?"
At the same time, he shut off the communicator and looked at the other party while asking.
Things were already chaotic enough. He had no idea why this person from Reunion had suddenly appeared here.
"Nothing... no, something, something! I have been watching this place for a long time. I want the stuff upstairs."
Seeing the unfriendly look on Shirou's face, the hooded person's brain seemed to stop working for a moment, and even her speech became stuttered.
She had heard of someone disarming blades barehanded, but she had never seen someone directly catch one with their bare hand. If he had at least been wearing gloves, she would not have been this shocked.
"Upstairs? Weapons and equipment? Or something else?"
After hearing her words, Shirou narrowed his eyes slightly and probed carefully.
If she meant the weapons and equipment, he would immediately tie her up and hang her from the rooftop until the Lungmen Guard Department arrived to arrest her.
If she meant the inhibitors... then he would simply turn a blind eye and pretend he did not know they were up there. After all, he had not reported them to Chen yet.
At times like this, his moral standards were surprisingly flexible.
He had learned that from the members of Penguin Logistics.
"Inhibitors. I have my eye on the inhibitors upstairs. Also, can you stop staring at me like that? Has nobody ever told you your eyes are terrifying?"
Pressed by Shirou's questioning, the hooded person immediately admitted what she was after.
Judging from Shirou's actions up until now, she believed he had only come to hand everything over to the Guard Department. In order to get those life-saving medicines she had stepped in.
Although there were infected people on her side who could provide treatment, there were simply too many patients.
The pile of inhibitors upstairs would completely solve their short-term medical shortage.
For the infected, those inhibitors were life-saving medicine.
"So it is inhibitors?"
After hearing her answer, the sharpness in Shirou's gaze weakened somewhat.
As long as she was not after weapons or similar items, it was manageable. After all, decent people did not stockpile weapons, right?
As for her comment about his eyes, he ignored it. Back in the early days, people really did say his gaze looked frightening, but after coming here, he rarely heard that anymore.
After all, the people around him had all experienced countless hardships. Whether it was Penguin Logistics or the Guard Department, they had definitely faced people far more vicious-looking than him.
In fact, Texas and Chen normally looked even scarier than he did.
As for the slums?
Come on, with Jaye around, the gazes of the two women he had just mentioned could practically be considered gentle.
"I see... I had originally planned to wait until there were fewer people over the next couple of days and then snatch some away. I did not expect you to attack this place directly first."
Without that fierce stare fixed on her anymore, the hooded person felt much more relaxed and casually explained the situation.
With nobody around at the moment, this was a perfect opportunity to exchange information.
Normally, she did not even dare contact Shirou directly, afraid someone else might notice.
Forget Shirou. Right now, even sending a message back to Alina had become difficult for her.
"Is that so?... Hey, what was your name again? How many people do you have over there?"
Shirou did not pay much attention to her explanation.
As long as she was not hostile at the moment and did not interfere with him setting up obstacles for the weapons and equipment, it was fine.
Right now, all he wanted was to resolve this matter quickly and then go support the other locations.
Especially Penguin Logistics.
Just earlier, he had heard a huge amount of clanging sounds coming from their side, making him feel that their situation might be a little bad.
However, when he wanted to ask how many people she had, Shirou suddenly realized he did not actually know her name or codename.
It seemed she had never mentioned it during their last meeting either.
"Crownslayer. That is my codename. As for manpower, I already gathered everyone here. They are all blocking the first floor right now."
Seemingly noticing that she had never introduced herself before, Crownslayer briefly explained. At the same time, she removed her hood and mask, revealing her red hair and crimson eyes.
"That codename really is... forget it. Tell your people to come upstairs. There should not be anyone left up there. The commotion I caused earlier was pretty loud."
Originally, Shirou wanted to complain that the codename sounded a little too chuuni, but after remembering the many strange titles attached to himself, he silently swallowed the remark.
After all, Croissant had already proven through personal experience that the louder you laughed now, the more awkward it would be when people used it against you later.
And Exusiai had already proven that point before, so Shirou naturally knew exactly how embarrassing it could be when people mocked you over something like that.
"Alright."
After hearing Shirou's words, Crownslayer immediately used a rather old-fashioned communicator to contact the people below.
She had already thoroughly investigated the personnel distribution inside this building. Even if Shirou had not wiped everyone out earlier, he had at least eliminated ninety percent of them.
The remaining people were basically incapable of causing any trouble anymore, so naturally she hurried to have her people come upstairs and carry away all the medicine.
As for the weapons and equipment... although her side did need some of them, after recalling the unfriendly look Shirou had given earlier, she decisively abandoned the idea.
"Want to head up together? We can chat while we are at it."
After finishing the call, Crownslayer asked Shirou.
"No—"
Just as Shirou had spoken halfway, Crownslayer directly interrupted him:
"It is information related to the people who have been attacking you lately, you know?"
Seeing that he was about to refuse, Crownslayer quickly threw out bait that she was certain would interest him.
"...Fine."
After hearing her words, Shirou reluctantly agreed.
He had been troubled by this issue for quite some time already. Now that there was finally someone directly involved who could explain the situation to him, there was no reason for him to refuse.
The unfortunate ones were Penguin Logistics instead. Shirou wondered how much etched ammunition Exusiai would need to burn through this time to deal with the enemy.
Fortunately, Rhodes Island's branch office was covering the expenses. Otherwise, not only would they fail to make money from this job, they would also lose a massive amount of bullets in the process. Exusiai would probably end up clinging to his leg and asking him for spending money just to survive.
Originally, Shirou had planned to seal off all the useful supplies as quickly as possible and then hurry over to provide support. Now it seemed he would have to take things slowly.
Mainly because Crownslayer looked as though she had been holding back a great deal she wanted to say, making Shirou feel that this conversation was going to take quite a long time.
He only hoped she could provide information that was actually useful.
The two of them headed upward together. While handling some of the more dangerous supplies, Shirou listened as Crownslayer explained the situation on their side.
Simply put, it was almost exactly the same as what he and Yith had speculated earlier. Reunion had split into two factions.
One side was more radical. Those were the infected people he had been sending to prison lately.
The other side was more moderate. Those were the infected people cooperating with Rhodes Island's branch office.
Crownslayer herself had always wanted to find a chance to contact him, but there were constantly people watching her, making it difficult for her to take any major actions.
This time, however, those people had all been dispatched because of the current operation, giving Crownslayer the opportunity to slip away and search for medicine while also trying to contact Shirou.
She simply had not expected to run into him during the search.
From what she said, the more radical infected faction had all received orders to cause disturbances over the next few days in order to draw the Guard Department's attention away, and they had indeed succeeded in doing so, keeping the Guard Department overwhelmingly busy.
"So there is another objective behind all this?"
After hearing Crownslayer's explanation, Shirou's instinct immediately told him that there was a much larger scheme hidden underneath.
Otherwise, how could a group of infected people willingly devote themselves to such dangerous actions, even at the cost of their own lives?
"I do not know about that. I belong to the moderate faction."
Facing Shirou's question, Crownslayer shrugged.
She had already told Shirou everything she knew. She genuinely did not know anything else, and she personally strongly disagreed with this kind of meaningless troublemaking.
At the same time, she pulled her hood and mask back into place again. She simply was not used to going without them.
"Tch, troublesome."
Shirou clicked his tongue in irritation. This solved part of the mystery, but at the same time created new questions.
And the parts that had been answered were things they had already suspected anyway. Crownslayer had merely confirmed that their guesses were correct.
"..."
Watching Shirou's temper gradually worsen, Crownslayer silently took two steps backward.
She had seen him casually pull out blades taller than herself and use them as obstacles earlier. She really did not think her body could survive something like that.
The sword from last time had already been absurd enough. Not only could it disperse her smoke just by being swung, but a casual slash could shatter reinforced concrete.
It was honestly ridiculous.
In any case, she had absolutely no interest in personally experiencing how fast or sharp Shirou's blades were.
After waiting a while longer, and only after Shirou no longer looked quite so angry, Crownslayer finally continued:
"However, I do know who is directing those infected people from behind the scenes."
Shirou: "?"
Hearing Crownslayer's words, Shirou stopped what he was doing and turned around, looking at her with a doubtful expression.
Could she not have said something this important earlier?
"Who is it?"
Shirou hurriedly pressed for an answer.
If they could directly arrest the mastermind, then this whole infected riot should come to an end, right?
"It is a small logistics company that rose to prominence recently. They specialize in taking the jobs that your Penguin Logistics does not accept."
Realizing that she probably should have mentioned this much earlier, Crownslayer sounded somewhat embarrassed as she explained.
She had been so shocked earlier by Shirou casually catching the blade barehanded, along with the pressure from his glare afterward, that she completely forgot about those matters. If Shirou had not specifically asked, she might really have forgotten to mention it.
"I do remember something like that..."
After hearing Crownslayer's explanation, Shirou felt that the name sounded somewhat familiar.
If he remembered correctly... it seemed to be called Iron Bull Logistics.
He thought he had seen it in the news before, and Exusiai had once mentioned that the reason they managed to get those contracts was because Penguin Logistics always rushed back to the dormitory for dinner every night and never accepted nighttime jobs, which left those openings available.
Shirou still remembered how his boss had taken several newly printed Lungmen bills and used them to wipe nonexistent tears over the lost revenue.
In the end, it was only after his boss made a deal with Wei Yenwu, sending Shirou over to the Guard Department and obtaining a few special privileges for Penguin Logistics, that the situation improved slightly.
"They infiltrated Lungmen a long time ago. Hiding behind the cover of a logistics company makes a lot of things convenient. Remember the infected disappearance cases from before? That logistics company was the one secretly transporting people out under the guise of deliveries."
Crownslayer continued speaking.
"You knew about all of this the whole time?"
After hearing that, Shirou's expression became somewhat ugly.
Of course he remembered the disappearance cases. That was the exact reason he had been dragged into the Guard Department as free labor and ended up working overtime here.
"I only found out while gathering information some time ago, but after that I never had the chance to contact you or anyone else."
Crownslayer knew why Shirou was asking, but this was not intentional concealment on her part. Ever since learning about it, she simply had no opportunity to contact the outside world, so the matter kept getting delayed.
Although she actually had chances to pass the information to others... trusting Shirou did not mean she trusted everyone else.
If she released the information and it ended up intercepted by the opposing faction, confirming her as a traitor, then her situation would become even more precarious.
At that point, things would become truly dangerous. If events really developed that far, then infected people from both sides would likely be mobilized into participating in this operation.
Right now, the only reason things had not escalated to that extent was because she was standing in the middle holding everything back.
"Understood. It should be fine for me to pass this information to the Guard Department, right?"
After taking a look at Crownslayer and confirming that she was not lying, Shirou prepared to pass the information along to Chen so she could make arrangements.
"I gave the information to you. What you do with it is your business."
After repeatedly making sure she had not forgotten anything important, Crownslayer left the matter entirely in Shirou's hands. At the same time, she had her people finish carrying all the inhibitors downstairs.