Chapter 173
Thomas thought for a moment before finally making his decision, "Alright. Let’s do this."
Leonard broke into a grin and gave his shoulder a firm pat. "Knew you’d agree."
There wasn’t much else to do, so Leonard immediately dragged him off to pry the door open.
Outside, the wind howled and thunder rolled. Any noise they made would be swallowed by the storm.
It was the perfect timing.
Before leaving, Leonard called out, "Suzy, we’re going to check it out first."
She blinked in surprise. "Uncle... you know how to break a lock?"
"I don’t," Leonard said without hesitation. "But he does, right?"
He looked at Thomas, expecting a confirmation.
Suzy did too.
Being stared at by both of them at once made his expression visibly stiffen, the tips of his ears turning red.
"...Yeah," he said at last, somewhat embarrassed.
Then, almost as if explaining himself, he added, "You run into situations like that on missions."
Both of them nodded in understanding.
"Do you need any tools? I’ve got everything," Suzy smiled.
Before everything collapsed, she had stocked up on all kinds of equipment she might ever need.
Screwdriver sets, hardware tools, drills, saws...
"No rush," Thomas replied. "Let’s take a look first."
Leonard chimed in, "Yeah, maybe we’ll even find a key."
Suzy twitched. "Uncle, what kind of fantasy is that?"
As if they’d just randomly stumble across a key.
Leonard scratched his head and muttered, "You never know. I’ve been pretty lucky lately."
She still thought he was being ridiculous.
"Alright, go take a look first. I’ll come find you later," she said.
Leonard nodded and pulled Thomas out with him.
Suzy didn’t follow.
The system had just notified her. The reward algorithm had finished updating, which meant that she could finally claim her reward.
The moment they left, she returned to her room and began communicating with the system.
"System, can I claim it now?"
[Yes.]
"Then I’ll claim it. Let’s start with Liam’s binding reward."
Compared to max favor rewards, binding rewards were of a lower tier. And Suzy liked to save the best for last.
[Understood.]
[Issuing rewards—]
As the system’s voice faded, three options appeared before her.
[Reward 1: Mind Reading Card]
[Reward 2: Malice Detection Card]
[Reward 3: House Reinforcement Card]
She scanned through them one by one.
...These felt a bit underwhelming. All three were limited use cards. Compared to that, she preferred ability cards, ones that permanently enhanced her body.
It made her wonder if the system was deliberately scaling things back after giving her too many good rewards before.
The upgraded system clearly wasn’t as generous.
She looked over the options again, still not entirely satisfied.
A mind reading card... Well, it wasn’t completely useless.
At the very least, she could use it on Wendy.
But that would mean interacting with Wendy. Just thinking about it was irritating.
Honestly, Suzy didn’t even need a mind reading card to know what Wendy was thinking when facing her. It was nothing good.
On the surface, Wendy always acted pleasant, but the malice in her eyes slipped through again and again.
Suzy could feel it.
And very clearly.
Using a mind reading card on her would be a waste.
What about Liam?
It wasn’t impossible, but Suzy felt it wouldn’t be particularly useful either.
She dismissed the first option without hesitation.
As for the second one, there was even less to consider.
In her eyes, the malice detection card was even more useless than the mind reading card.
There were only a few people around her right now, and she had no plans to go out anytime soon.
Leonard and Thomas, the two people she would interact with the most, were already guaranteed by the system. They would never betray her, let alone harbor ill intent.
Liam wouldn’t either. She had already successfully bound him.
There was no conflict of interest between them, and he even owed her a favor. At worst, things would remain neutral.
As for the only person in the entire building who might hold malicious intent toward her, she didn’t even need to think to know who that was.
So, for her current situation, this reward was completely useless.
She ruled it out immediately.
That left the final option.
Her gaze settled on the third reward.
House Reinforcement Card.
It seemed to be the most practical of the three.
She tapped it to check the details. As the name suggested, it could upgrade a house.
More precisely, it functioned like a transformation.
As long as she provided the required materials, the house could be upgraded into whatever form she wanted.
The only downside was that the process was a bit troublesome. It required materials to be submitted.
Not as straightforward as the other two options, she thought.
And her current safehouse was already in perfect condition. She didn’t really need an upgrade.
So this card would just be—
Wait.
Suzy’s eyes suddenly lit up. She might not need it, but Thomas did.
After this phase of torrential storms would come extreme cold. The unit across the hall was just an ordinary apartment. It had no insulation, no heating.
Her own place had already been modified and could easily withstand freezing conditions.
But if Thomas moved next door, he would face serious problems.
The biggest one being warmth.
If she used this card, wouldn’t all of that be solved?
"System, can this house reinforcement card upgrade a place into a full safehouse?" she asked.
When in doubt, ask the system.
[Yes.]
[As long as the host can provide the required materials.]
Her excitement grew.
This reward was good. Very good.
If it could directly upgrade a house, it would save them a huge amount of effort.
Reinforcing a house manually would create a lot of noise and could easily attract unwanted attention.
With this card, all her concerns could be resolved.
The only question now was what materials were needed—and how many.
But overall, this was clearly the most useful option.
"System, I’ve decided. I’ll take the house reinforcement card."
[Reward issued. Please check.]