I Spy

After the bait ball was digested, she returned home. 

The children would be out of school soon. Since Zayne was still in the Ifrit's dungeon, she went to pick them up. 

As soon as she picked them up, the principal came up to her. 

" Miss Bassett, there is someone from the base who wants to speak to you. " 

" Are you Claire Bassett ? " The man asked, looking down on her. 

It's clear he is putting on airs as the personnel from the base. 

" Yes, officer. " Claire answered mildly. 

" You sold the fish to Percy Hornet ? " 

" Yes. '' she answered easily. This part could be confirmed easily, so, there's nothing they could do. 

" Where did you get the fish from ? " 

" They are from my boyfriend Zayne Rhafyre. He received them from his late brother, when he was alive. " Claire answered easily. 

The officer banged on the table loudly. 

" You will get capital punishment for lying to an officer. How could your fish be fresh for sure if they are from Rhafyre ? " The officer said angrily. It's an intimidation tactic. More importantly, it gave Claire the needed information. Since they have enquired about backgrounds of all involved, this case seems to be rather serious.

Claire calmed down. 

" Officer ! In this world of magic and swords, there are many ways to keep ingredients fresh, not just for days, but for centuries together. It's just a pity most of them belong to the rich. A class that my boyfriend is a part of, until recently. How are they fresh ? I did not ask, he did not say. " 

" Bullshit. It's possible to save a few kilograms of fish in the storage rings, but not hundreds of kilograms. You were going to supply the Hornet for a month. That's more than twenty kilograms of fish a day. No hunter stores that amount of food in their valuable storage. " The officer said smugly, as if he had caught Claire in a lie, so he was about to lob her head off. 

" Ah! That's a business tactic. We only had enough fish to cover for a day or two's supply, not a month. However, we can always go to the sea and fish. You do know our village is the closest to the sea among all the villages that belong to the base, correct ? Zayne thought he could reach the sea easily if he found the pre-apocalyptic highway. I thought the same. In fact, he went to find the sea route. He should be returning in a day or two. " Claire fibbed away. 

It's a solid explanation. 

However, a three tier beast has set up its territory over the valley that leads the road to the sea. To avoid the territory of the predator, then they would have to go through wilderness, which moots the purpose with how hard it is to travel through. If one can hunt in the wilderness, there's no need to go fish in the sea. 

The officer had nothing to say. 

" You are lying. Where did your fish come from ? " the officer snarked. 

" My boyfriend had the fish. His dead brother gave them to him when he was alive." Claire repeated. 

The officer repeated the question three times, forcing her to answer. 

Claire answered each time unwaveringly. 

" what are the types of fish you have ? " The officer asked all of a sudden. 

Claire's eyes widened … 

" Fish have types ?! Aren't they just red filets and white filets ? " she exclaimed, looking like an ignorant bimbo. 

The officer deflated upon hearing the answer. 

This is something only an ignorant little girl who knew nothing could say. 

" Here's my number. If your boyfriend wants to sell anything in the future, he can contact me. " The officer told her. One needs at least a low quality stasis storage device to keep the ingredients fresh. If the boy has resorted to selling food, then he will soon need to sell the storage device too. This move kills two birds with one stone, getting him a nice storage device, and confirming this suspicious girl's identity. 

She took the card, and thanked the officer. 

However, this incident reminded her. 

She can not sell her goods inside the base at all. If they are to live here, they need to maintain a low level of presence. Even in her last life, she did not go outside 91st base. The A - rank dungeon has become an S - Rank dungeon three years after her graduation. They did not even finish exploring the dungeon before the sea beast invasion happened. 

When she returned home, she finished cooking in record time. After some thought, Claire decided she still needs to check up on the officer, just to be sure. She memorized the car license plate number when she was returning from school with children. 

There's only one road connecting the village to the base. He must be heading straight back to the base. 

She stopped in the middle of the road.

Bent her right leg, then got to the ready position. She looked sideways to verify there's no one around her. Then, like an arrow released from a bow, she ran on the road. In a flash, she vanished from the country road. 

Outside the base, a small military camp was made. 

The officer returned to the military camp. Ofcourse, she did not follow there. Instead, she floated over to a nearby mountain. She cut off a nearby wood branch creating two pieces of wood, a finger in length, a finger in size. She used the pea sized sand she created with her spell to sand off two branches, creating an acorn sized cup, which looked very light. She threaded through the cup, moving it gently over the grass all the way to the edge of the military camp. 

As the cup reached the perimeter of the camp, she put it over the Ever so gently, she controlled the 'breeze' and 'shift', letting the thread float over the electric fence. Casting them over and over again, slowly letting the acorn drift over underneath the pedestal. 

She could not quite adjust it properly, but thankfully, the police officers are still joining a platoon, waiting for them all to arrive and assemble. 

" Did you catch any ? " one of the police officers asked another. 

" No. It's all duds ! Why do I feel that the young master is just throwing a tantrum for attention ? " one of the police officer mused. 

" If it were the young master alone, I would also think the same. However, Sir Prestly was with him. He would not lie even to save his neck. " another opined. 

" How about you ? " another turned to the police man who just arrived at the meeting location. He was the one who interviewed Claire. 

" Negative. It was just high school kids selling off their elder's goods. " The police officer answered simply. 

" Why do I think this might have something to do with the upcoming UBO membership ? " another piped up. 

" But who would care about us ? Sure, our country was relevant in a peaceful world, but in times of apocalypse, we are just a rock in the middle of nowhere. Except for people, we got nothing to offer. Even those people, any one worth their salt left ! " 

" Indeed ! " " yeah! " " yes " … 

They all put their heads together and thought.. 

There was much information that Claire received from this bout of spying. Their 91st base is vying for UBO membership. Among many amenities of UBO are the information sharing about criminals, especially dungeon traversers and smugglers. Secondly, it's not just their 91st base that's vying for the membership, but so were five bases in the K region. There were more than fifty wild dungeons in the region. The first one to get the UBO membership among these bases will be the one to occupy most bases among these five bases. 

Dungeon resources, hunter population and the public security count for the majority of the membership evaluation points. 

So, for now, despite looking for people, they probably do not want to make it a big deal. Even so, she kept listening. 

The 89th base has summoned the largest ever known hunter group to date on this side of the earth. They were going to raid the S-rank dungeon, Undead Valley. 

' Oh ! my god ! This expedition is starting now ? ' Claire thought utterly surprised. 

This was considered the greatest tragedy after the apocalypse in the news. Thousands of hunters gathered together to clear the Undead Valley. The mana crystals from the undead are the most stable currency in the current world. In the end, the entire expedition joined the undead army in the valley, increasing the difficulty of the dungeon from A to S. After that, three more expeditions attempted to clear the Undead Valley, at which point, the governments forbade people from attempting the dungeon at all. 

Instead, they built a wall around the dungeon, so that, when the dungeon breaks, teams of hunters will enter this arena to kill as many undead as possible, earning their keep. Claire joined this part of the expedition. 

She never even entered undead valley, for those who enter, can not leave before they clear the dungeon.