"Open the door! Routine inspection!"
Hearing this abrupt and panic-inducing shout at the door, the adventurers, whose hearts had not yet completely settled, felt their anxiety rise again.
However, after the previous warnings, the adventurers did not dare to disobey and could only bite the bullet and open the door.
"What are you going to do?"
Looking at the five-man team wearing participant armbands, with fierce expressions and sharp eyes staring at him from outside, the adventurer who opened the door asked with a sense of numbness.
"Identity investigation. We only require your cooperation to answer one question," the leader of the visiting team said with a friendly but firm smile.
Then, without giving the adventurer a chance to refuse, he pushed past him and led the team inside.
"It is time for the identity investigation. Is everyone in your Familia here?"
The rest of the adventurers in the room did not understand what was going on, but the leader spoke sharply, commanding attention.
"Everyone... everyone is here," the leader of this small clan replied with some anxiety.
"Very good. We will start the roll call. Answer when your name is called."
The team leader took out a list of names and began the roll call without any further explanation. The adventurers cooperated blankly, and soon all names were called.
After confirming that everyone was present, the leader took out a truth-detecting magic item.
"Now, the investigation begins. The people whose names are called must come up one by one to answer the question."
Immediately, the first adventurer was called out. Before the adventurer could react, he was suddenly asked:
"Do you have any dealings with the Dark Faction?"
They did not ask if they were members of a Dark Faction Familia, but took into account that some people might be related to or colluding with the Dark Faction without being official members. In order to eliminate these associated individuals, the scope of the question was defined a bit more broadly.
"What?" The adventurer was stunned for a moment, then his expression changed, and he quickly denied it. "No! Absolutely not! How could I be connected with the Dark Faction! I do not even know what the people of the Dark Faction look like."
The team leader looked at the truth-detecting tool in his hand. Seeing the green light indicate the truth, he nodded.
"All you need to do is answer yes or no. Do not talk so much nonsense. Okay, you have passed the test. Stand aside. Next one."
The team leader waved his hand and continued to call names.
The process continued efficiently. Because they only needed to answer yes or no, the group of adventurers successfully passed the truth detection test very quickly.
"Let's go to the next house."
The leader made a note on the list, reported the results through his headset, and then led his people away without another word, leaving only the bewildered adventurers behind.
The same procedure was happening throughout the entire neighborhood and was being carried out in various places simultaneously.
After a block was investigated, the personnel organized the adventurers who had passed the test and whose identities were proven innocent to block the roads, preventing uninvestigated people from sneaking in. The adventurers in this block now understood what was going on and immediately responded actively to the call, strictly blocking all routes.
The adventurers were angry at being interrogated like this, but they did not dare to complain about those participating in the investigation. They could only vent their anger on the Dark Faction that had caused them so much trouble.
In this way, one block after another in Orario was investigated and marked as a purification area on the operational map at the rear command headquarters.
At the same time, rats were occasionally flushed out. The teams on-site, or members of the Familias with top combat power such as the Loki and Freya Familias, as well as the girls from Dimensional City bearing the banner of the Hestia Familia, took immediate action to capture them.
This allowed the cleanup of the Dark Faction in Orario to proceed steadily.
This systematic approach caused the Dark Faction members hidden in the areas that had not yet been investigated to gradually begin to panic.
"What do we do? Their people will be here soon!"
"Damn it! How did they find our people so accurately?"
Due to the martial law in the city, these members of the Dark Faction dared not send people out to spy on the news, so they were unaware of the existence of the truth-detecting equipment. Otherwise, they would probably have gone crazy.
You are cheating! Good cat and mouse game, why don't you just activate a Friend-or-Foe identification function?! This is so disrespectful of the warrior's code!
"Now is not the time to think about what methods they used. Come up with a solution quickly. If this continues, we will be exposed!"
"What else can be done? The entire Orario is surrounded by a barrier. Leaving aside whether we can break through the barrier and escape, even without it, the whole city is currently under martial law. As long as we dare to show our heads, we will be caught in minutes by those armored figures flying in the sky."
"So, do we just wait here for them to catch us?!"
"Okay, stop arguing!"
"What time is it, and you are still quarreling!"
"If we cannot hide, we must not sit still and wait for death. Let's run separately. As long as we sneak into the areas that have been investigated and hide there, we may have a chance of survival."
"Their combat support troops do not have that many people. As long as everyone runs away separately, there will always be some people they cannot catch."
"Alas, that is all we can do now."
There was no other way. This was their only choice.
These hidden Dark Faction members all made the same decision simultaneously. They rushed out of their clan stations one after another and fled in all directions.
Surprisingly, this trick actually worked to some extent. Although many people were arrested in the blink of an eye, so many people escaped at the same time that the support troops responsible for the arrests everywhere really could not handle the sheer volume immediately.
When the news was passed to the investigation operations headquarters, Riveria raised her eyebrows but was not surprised. This situation was exactly what she had expected.
Although there was no need to worry—it was impossible for these small fry to break through the barrier set by Takumi anyway, and it was almost impossible to sneak into the investigated areas that were now blocked by adventurers—since the enemies had exposed themselves, failing to deal with them smoothly would be disappointing.
Riveria turned to Granny Setsuno, who was drinking tea leisurely, and said:
"Lady Setsuno, I will have to trouble you with these remaining escape targets."
"Oh, haha, it is finally time for me to take action."
Hearing this, Granny Setsuno put down her teacup and stood up with a groan, giving the impression of a frail, dying old lady.
"Umm..."
Finn and the other deputy operations commanders looked at Granny Setsuno blankly after hearing Riveria's words. Seeing this scene, they were speechless for a moment.
"Can she really do it?"
Some people could not help but express doubts, and others nodded in agreement.
It could only be said that Granny Setsuno's appearance was too deceptive. Who would have thought that such an old lady would actually harbor power within her body capable of shaking a planet?
Riveria did not explain anything; she just smiled and said, "You will know by watching her. She was specially invited by Takumi to help."
As soon as they heard that Takumi had invited her, everyone immediately put away their doubts.
Especially Finn. He looked at Granny Setsuno in surprise. He knew the truth about Takumi; his strength was even greater than that of the gods. If Takumi had hired someone to help, her strength must not be much weaker than his own!