Honkai Impact 3rd: Don't Die For Me/ Book 1: Promise

Chapter 56 Measure Up

<Lanshau>

Sile was fatigued he had scoured the city in an attempt to find the places of commerce for the underground. But all he was able to find were a few smuggling dens. He reported a few dens, the ones that sold drugs and ores. But he left the ones that smuggled food alone. It was strange, the underground was as loose as he had observed. No proper form of communication could be observed, no network could be rooted out. It was as if the people who ran this shell of an immoral system were just doing odd jobs to make money on the side. It was no grand criminal empire as it had been before. But the days before he had caught wind of the mention of Fan. It was by chance in a more well-off section of the city, near the river. A group of ordinary men was discussing something about an auction and the profit it would bring in. In the city there were only two auction houses, one was owned by the government and the other by a prim and proper Golden Toil family.

Maybe the underground had set up a base on the outskirts of the city. No, they couldn't have, not when the recent uptake on Honkai Beasts activity. The only logical conclusion Sile could draw was also the most absurd and ridiculous one he could think of. The Underground had moved above ground, they hid in plain sight. Otherwise, why would he not be able to find it? He was the fool of the town, a rat that scoured every place in secret. Yes, it was possible that the underground was cautious of his existence but he couldn't believe that could coordinate so well that he would not be able to catch a whiff of their presence.

Sile walked down the even rectangular stone tiled road of the city towards the wall's edge. The sun was setting and it was three days after they enlisted the help of Liling. His fatigue was evident, a middle-aged man of the streets should not spend his days crawling and exerting himself with no sleep. He arrived at his destination, he thoroughly hated the place. It was proper and strict, an enforcing ground he had come to many times. But it was now his temporary base of the operations, Lanshau's Stone Prison.

A wave of exhaustion overcame Sile as he entered through the door of a little building beside the prison. A semiabandoned interrogation house, complete with one-way windows and various minor torture rooms.

"Careful."

A strong pair of delicate hands caught him gently as he nearly fell. Though he could never forget the fear she instilled in him, he could appreciate her nature. Though she was arrogant and prideful she was a good person at heart.

"Thank you Lady Liling."

Sile collected himself and walked before the group gathered before him. They were an old bunch ruffled with grey hair and scars. He recognized a few of them, he had been caught by them before. They looked at him expectantly but knew from experience that sting operations and other tactics of work often turned up with no trail.

"No leads," Sile said heavily.

A collective nodding and sighing clustered the building.

"I've also looked at some of the potential places. The old fountain and the run-down butterfly garden are both untouched. No sounds, no rope track entrances, no hidden trapdoors."

The veterans listed off their own observations for a collective report. The general consensus was the same they found nothing.

"I looked a little further in those smuggling dens. But nothing turns up. One smuggled only food and had no deeper ties. Haha, it's strange to work like this brothers? Use old dogs being as secretive as the crooks we used to catch."

"It's better if none catch wind we're on to this. On that note, the records of the previous arrests turn up dry. The system using trained mice to communicate is gone. Even the encrypted lotus flowers by the rivers are unused."