hours before the outbreak of full-scale war.

Inside the Ausen Technology Innovation skyscraper, red laser lines passed by, and two people cautiously crawled on a ventilation duct. The narrow environment made Four-leaf Phoenix Tree unable to stretch fully, and they had to crouch down and crawl forward.

"Hurry up, Young Master Zhou."

"Don’t rush, don’t rush. If you’re capable, don’t crawl through this broken duct with me."

"Those people outside are frantic searching for us."

"If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t need to enter the skyscraper this way."

"Alright, stop complaining. Just crawl quickly."

Soon, they passed through the duct, confirming that the researchers below had tidied up their files and left. Zhou Zhao lifted his leg and kicked off the duct’s vent, jumped down from above, and clapped his hands.

Inside, the Ausen Technology Innovation skyscraper was intricate and complex, a ’small’ mega-building standing 376 floors high, bordering the North France 3 Silicon Valley District to the north, extending to Energy Zone 6 of the skyline to the south. ’Small’ only in comparison to other mega-buildings; the nearby residential high-rises had formed a mega-building ecosystem, appearing minuscule next to this behemoth, like a shrub in a thicket.

They were currently located on the third floor, D4 area of the administrative building. Their destination was the ’Shrine’ 50 floors underground. In a highly informationalized era, any information that once existed could never be completely erased.

It must exist in some form within the binary gaps, like scrap paper left behind in corners after a household cleaning. Early on, ’cleaners’ were responsible for uploading consciousness to the network, sweeping out these scraps, and storing them in boxes.

The cleaner’s work was extremely dangerous. If they came into contact with a firewall, a data stream being deleted, or a redundant process, or mistakenly identified as an intruder, their brains would be incinerated to ashes.

Most of these cleaners were death row prisoners, with chips implanted in the back of their heads, contracted by corporations and governments to carry out cleaning tasks, forced to continue until they died during a clean; then, their consciousness data was cleared by companions, in a cycle.

Later on, because cleaning required too many resources and was too costly, most corporations opted to establish ’Shrines,’ specialized servers designed to accept ’destroyed’ data, buried deep underground, similar to an information landfill.

Data can’t be 100% deleted, but it can be 100% transferred.

Shrines typically don’t connect to the skyscraper’s information network; they have separate networks and warning measures, deeply buried underground, with coordinates completely unknown, making it extremely difficult for even the most capable hackers to connect externally to Shrines.

Due to the chaos of data there, all deleted data floats within as electronic ghosts, essentially unattended. The Shrine is almost always in a state of ’data storm,’ and few are willing to risk their lives taking on a commission to invade a corporation’s Shrine.

Thus, Shrines became an excellent confidentiality measure.

Their faction is ’Firefly,’ and the organization’s upper echelon provided them with the Shrine’s coordinates, claiming this was closely related to the creator of the first-generation Black Box, instructing them to collect data within the Shrine without alerting Ausen Technology Innovation.

Initially, they were troubled over being cut off from the Black Box’s clues due to the Cyan Divine Lion’s assassination. Now, it felt like someone handed them a pillow when they wanted to sleep, especially when the mysterious hacker ’March’ proactively approached them, claiming they had a way to bring them into the Ausen Technology Innovation skyscraper and suppress the rampaging data storm within the Shrine, aiding them in delving deeper.

They had no reason to refuse this mission.

As anticipated, the two found two researcher’s uniforms in the room, along with work badges proving their identities.

"She could get her hands on work badges?" Zhou Zhao’s mouth twitched slightly.

"I’m already feeling the overwhelming bad taste; let’s hope she’s a reliable figure." Four-leaf Phoenix Tree sighed.

Donning their outfits, the two confidently walked out of the room, heading down the hall and nodding greetings to researchers they passed by.

Judging by the situation, their rank didn’t seem low; the expressions on the researchers were full of respect. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Within the mega-building, worrying about unfamiliar faces was unnecessary; two employees from the northwest and southeast could go their entire lives without meeting.

"Do you say, with such ability and means, why would she want to help us?"

They carried briefcases into the elevator heading underground. As the elevator door closed, Zhou Zhao’s tense expression eased somewhat.

"There must be something she wants from the Shrine; it’s impossible for the other party to benevolently help us. We must have benefits awaiting exploitation."

"You’re speaking as if we’re tools."

The mayfly’s work, coupled with recent happenings at Alfas, made Zhou Zhao resistant to the word ’tool.’

He had just recently been betrayed, nearly silenced by that woman named Omega from the Judgement Court, and he was still being hunted by people from Sky City.

Four-leaf Phoenix Tree looked up at him:

"Not a tool, but a trader, each getting what they need."

"Even if that fellow named March doesn’t help us, we’d still find a way to enter the Shrine. Since she’s choosing to help, lending a hand with this transaction, giving her what she wants is the trade."

"Trader?"

"Yes," Four-leaf Phoenix Tree lowered their gaze. "Trade."

A few drops of bright red fell into one corner, staining his vision red.

Innocent students were sent to prison by his own hand; their anguished cries echoed in the abyss. The power holders who begged in despair took their own lives under his indifferent gaze. All those tied to the high-level people would be eliminated; some were guilty, some were innocent. As an Executioner, that’s what he was supposed to do.

He spent a peaceful time in his life on a small seaside town, devoid of tasks, cries of injustice, nor the troublesome scent of sea buckthorn flowers that he loathed but filled Nest City everywhere.

During that time, he fell in love with a lively girl and ultimately sent that girl’s father to prison by his own hand.

The girl’s father was a wealthy businessman or rather an entrepreneur, quite prestigious locally, also the union’s chairman, having spoken many times for laid-off workers and fought for the lower-class’s interests.

Perhaps his own interests were considered, but the man’s display in various aspects of life can be called a good person. Maybe it was an unintended word that offended a big name above, or maybe it was knowledge of something he shouldn’t have known, leading the higher-ups to demand handling the person.

Though often feeling morally uneasy, Four-leaf Phoenix Tree didn’t think he was wrong or believed he was serving big wigs blindly; it was a transaction.

He solved the big names’ troubles, and they gave him wealth and status. Even if he didn’t do it, another Executioner would. He could only try to make them suffer less...

Lost in thought, the elevator doors slowly opened.

Four-leaf Clover’s earring gently swayed as Four-leaf Phoenix Tree raised his head:

"It’s all a transaction."