Establishing the special action team was Ethan's idea.

After the memorial service ended in a farcical manner, Mary gathered the predetermined members, along with Ethan, including the acting Prison Warden Mr. Sariman, who had a red slap mark on his face.

Of course, Mr. Sariman insisted that he accidentally fell while going downstairs, although even he couldn't explain why the fall left a slap mark on his face. This didn't stop him from claiming his authority at home, boasting that with just a glare, his wife would be too scared to even breathe.

"Your wife is here."

Sariman's boasting was cut short by Ethan's reminder, and his body reacted instantly—the motion of diving under the table was smooth as if he had practiced it countless times, showing how many "evacuation drills" he must have done when no one was watching.

Ethan looked at Sariman, who still stiffened his neck and stubbornly shouted, "Where? Where?" Suddenly, Ethan felt refreshed; when it came to home authority, it was definitely him.

Yesterday, he spent the whole night watching snow with Lindong, and the two of them returned to the hotel and fell asleep till morning.

Despite some small errors along the way, the "cat watching plan" achieved preliminary success, and Ethan decided to continue this plan.

However, on another front, Mary felt deeply worried about the future of the special action team.

"The patrol found this in Lower City."

Fortunately, the special action team still had a few reliable members.

Leon took out a scarlet fruit and placed it on the table, "According to the on-site guards and prisoners, Marshall ingested this fruit before his mutation."

The danger hadn't subsided.

As long as the fruit's source wasn't eradicated, more Marshalls would inevitably appear.

As a result, a single Marshall caused the disappearance of everyone in the Oasis City prison. If Sariman hadn't stepped forward in the critical moment, none of the guards and prisoners on site would have survived.

"I investigated Marshall's background, he's a frequent visitor to the underground tavern in Lower City, I wonder if any of you have heard of it?"

"Underground tavern..."

Sariman poked his head out from under the table, "My wife mentioned that place to me."

Originally located in a sewer, the tavern was meant to provide a haven for Lower City residents, preventing them from being thrown into prison by Upper City officials for voicing a random complaint, "When the tavern first opened, she even helped out there."

"That's great."

Leon nodded with satisfaction, "I need more detailed intelligence."

"At first, it was just an ordinary tavern. You know, a place where people would go after a long day to order a pint of malt beer, complain about how Oasis City was getting worse, get drunk, and then sleep till the next day, not remembering anything from the drunken night."

Sariman said.

He agreed that Lower City residents needed such a place.

As a prison guard, he knew many people got imprisoned for saying the wrong thing or writing anonymous complaints, and there was nothing he could do about it, except provide some privileges within his capacity to those unjustly imprisoned.

"But gradually, the atmosphere in the tavern changed."

With Pope Carlo's rise to power, the situation in the Far West worsened, making war with the empire a real possibility, and people going to the tavern were filled with hostility, even starting internal conflicts.

"My wife originally served there as a waitress, but one day she suddenly got dismissed."

Sariman shook his head helplessly, "The reason being that I was a prison guard in Upper City, and some people believed we were mere dogs of the officials."

There was no way for him to refute such claims.

Many neighbors had entrusted him to help appeal for those unjustly imprisoned or find ways to get them out, which was impossible due to his duties, and Sariman even had to admit he worried about implicating his family, suppressing many letters of complaint addressed to the Prison Warden and Mayor Hafeez.

They really didn't understand these officials.

The municipal hall mailbox was nothing but an ornament, a product of the imperial learning movements during Julius's era. Although its original intentions were good and systemically advanced, no one actually adhered to it.

Hafeez would rather spend all day watching plays at the Eternal Theater than bother to look at a single letter.

"That's exactly what I'm worried about."

Leon sighed, "While sorting through the Lower City missing person cases, I found out that aside from foreigners, other missing residents mostly had similarities with Sariman's family, having someone working in Upper City and being deemed as officials' dogs."

That was the first spark ignited by Laris.

For the residents in Lower City, storming into Upper City to face the security teams was impractical, but they could easily break into their neighbors' homes.

In the past, the Security Office rarely paid attention to cases in Lower City, and most people would just muddle through until things really blew up.

With the Security Office's director spending every day in the Eternal Theater, why would the ordinary staff even bother to put in effort?

Only those appreciated by nobility or officials got promotions, having either background or money. Ordinary people could risk their lives, but those big figures still wouldn't give them a glance.