Seeing the familiar face under the mask, Clarice thought she must be imagining things.
In fact, when the mysterious man said, "So this is your so-called friend's birthday party?" she already had a guess.
The birthday party excuse was something she had made up on the spot, and only told two people—her mom Roland and her brother Raymond, who just came home.
Also, the voice was so familiar; even though she didn't recognize it right away because of shock, when Raymond mentioned the birthday party, she realized it was him.
When Raymond took off the mask, she was finally sure she hadn't heard wrong.
But because of that, she had a hard time believing her eyes.
Raymond had always been a role model for her. Not only did he get into a top university, but he was also well-known in psychology.
When guests came over, they always praised her parents for raising such a smart son.
This made Clarice want to be as great as Raymond when she grew up.
However, the Raymond in front of her was a mysterious shooter who alone wiped out a fully armed group of mercenaries in less than half a minute.
That didn't seem to match a psychology expert at all.
Does psychology teach you to do this?
Before Clarice could fully recover from her shock, Raymond suddenly pulled out a handgun from his waist and fired randomly behind him without looking!
Only then did Sonya and the others notice that among the three survivors, one was trying to quietly reach for a gun nearby, but Raymond shot that hand right away!
"Stay here. Don't move… and don't get too close over there," Raymond said without greeting Clarice, just pointing to the old building. Then, he walked toward the three survivors.
When he reached them, he casually shot the one who had tried to grab the gun in the head.
Then he put away the handgun, slung the red rifle on his back, and picked up the remaining two survivors, one in each arm, walking toward the old building.
Soon, he disappeared from Clarice and the others' sight.
Clarice didn't know that the Raymond who had just spoken with her was actually the "Deadshot" personality of Raymond.
Even the first sentence he said was planned by Raymond so Clarice wouldn't notice anything strange.
But following the "say less, avoid mistakes" rule, the Deadshot personality didn't talk much with Clarice and just took the survivors away for questioning.
This was just another usual task for him.
Only after the "Raymond" carrying the two survivors disappeared, did Sonya finally relax and ask Clarice, "Clarice, who was that just now?"
"That's my brother. I think I told you about him before, Sophia…" Still shocked, Clarice answered slowly.
"Your brother? The psychologist you mentioned?" Sonya reacted just like Clarice did when she saw the man under the mask—full of disbelief.
Even Michelle and Irene, who had been sitting weakly on the ground, finally found some strength. Supporting each other, they stood up, surprised and whispIreneg:
"That's your brother?"
Clearly, Clarice had mentioned her brother to her two close friends before.
"Yes." Clarice nodded with a complicated look.
She had almost lost hope, but she never expected her brother to save them—and in a way that felt like a sudden appearance from a James Bond movie.
"So cool!" Michelle's eyes sparkled.
"Does your brother have a girlfriend?" Irene asked, clearly more practical.
As soon as Irene asked this, Michelle gave her a challenging look that said, "Are you trying to compete with me?" But Irene didn't back down; she stared back just as strongly.
"You two really are something…" Clarice laughed and cried at the sight of her two friends joking around at a time .
She felt that her friends were much braver than she was. Her heart was still racing from being surrounded by mercenaries.
"What exactly is your brother? How is he so… so strong?" Sonya wasn't as dreamy as the other two. She wanted to know who Raymond really was.
At first, she wanted to say "brutal," but then she thought it might be rude since he was Clarice's brother, so she chose to say "strong" instead.
"I don't know when he became this strong. I don't think he knows about me either. I didn't even expect him to show up…" Clarice said quietly.
She didn't tell the full truth—she left out that Raymond mentioned the Shield yesterday because she wasn't sure if sharing that would affect him.
Sonya probably noticed that Clarice was hiding something; it was part of her ability, after all, but she didn't ask any more questions.
Everyone has their own secrets. Friends can't always be 100% honest. That's just normal.
So Sonya just nodded and said, "Anyway, we really owe your brother this time. If not for him, we would have definitely been caught."
"What do we do now?" After a silent stare-off, Michelle and Irene remembered that they weren't safe yet and looked at Clarice.
"My brother said to wait here, so let's wait." Clarice hesitated.
Before she finished, a horrible scream came from the old building, sounding like someone was being tortured.
Since 'Raymond' had left a few survivors on purpose and told them to stay away from the old building, they quickly guessed why he said that…
Michelle and Irene were still lost in admiration.
But Sonya's expression changed slightly, showing a bit of pity.
Even though these people just attacked them, if it were her, she could never kill them. That's not how the mutant underground group worked.
But 'Raymond' wasn't one of them, and he just saved them, so Sonya had no right to say anything.