The woman spurted out the coffee she was drinking. After cleaning her mouth with a napkin, she looked at Saksham carefully and then looked at a device placed in front of her. Her eyes twitched a little as she turned her head towards Saksham. She carefully said, "Are you sure you are a woman?"
Saksham's mouth also twitched a little as he had a huge urge to slap himself twice. After reading many novels, Saksham remembered the times when the MC is being interrogated by the police and when they ask the MC about his gender even though they see him face to face, the MC replies with a "Female". He really wanted to try it himself today. But now he was regretting it. He coughed a little and said, "It was just a joke. I am male."
The woman looked at Saksham with a smile on her face but for some reason, Saksham felt that her smile was getting colder by the second even though there was no change in her facial expression. Saksham hurriedly changed the subject and asked, "Oh, this reminds me. The one who brought me here told me about some partnership programs with the IOEA. What is that about? I am a little interested in that."
The woman took a deep breath as she calmed down her anger. She gently said, "Let's get over with the questions first, and then I can tell you about that."
Saksham nodded and said, "Yes, of course. Let's do that first."
The woman once again sorted out her emotions and asked, "Did you kill those 100 people of different gangs?"
Saksham paused for a moment but then eventually nodded. The woman looked at the device on the table and then nodded. She once asked, "Your powers belong to the assassin type, right? You can 'disappear' from under normal people's eyes. Have you ever misused these powers to steal something from someone?"
Saksham shook his head lightly and said, "Indeed, my powers belong to the assassin type. But I have never stolen anything from ordinary people."
The woman once again glanced at the device on the table and nodded. Till now, expect from the question about the gender, Saksham told nothing but the truth. This was rare up until now for the woman. She once again looked at his figure carefully and secretly thought in her mind to pay attention to him in the future. She nodded and asked again, "So, what do your powers do? You are an Unusual, right? We need this information for the research purposes, so tell me about your powers."
Saksham hesitated a little and asked, "Is this really necessary?"
The woman nodded and said, "Had you been a [Physical] power user, [Elementary] power user, or [Soul] Power-user, we wouldn't have asked this question. But every single Unusual has different powers than these power users. So, IOEA records all the powers of the Unusuals for future research purposes and other matters. So, this is very necessary."
Saksham nodded and said, "I can go 'invisible' if people stop paying attention to me, and the more people I kill, the stronger I become."
As soon as the woman heard the second part of the sentence, a chilling light flashed in her eyes as she said, "Is that so?"
Saksham didn't pay attention to those eyes as he said, "But the effect is temporary. After a while, I return to my normal state. So, don't worry about me going crazy to kill people."
As she heard this, the woman also chuckled a little. She said, "The one who should be worried here is you. If you had not explained that properly, maybe you wouldn't have been able to leave this place ever again."
Saksham also nodded and said, "Of course I know that. With how many people you have around here, I bet even a ghost won't be able to leave this place in one piece."
Saksham's words shocked the woman greatly. She never expected that someone would be able to sense the people hiding in her room. This was the first time someone has sensed them. She once again looked at Saksham carefully before she opened her mouth and said, "Alright. You have answered all the questions that needed to be asked. Seeing that you have spoken the truth in all of them, I will end this questioning session here. So, how about we start with the partnership program of IOEA?"
Seeing Saksham nod, the woman started, "So, IOEA made a partnership program in which any power users can work for IOEA in a cooperative relationship. There are many benefits to this. Like, you can get big discounts on the items in the store of IOEA. You can also get support from IOEA at times. And many more."
Saksham raised his eyebrows under the hood. He looked at the woman and asked, "What kind of work are you talking about? IOEA should be a pretty big organization on its own. It shouldn't need help for trivial things from the stranger Power users for no reason. And why would IOEA need many power users to work for them? With the powers they have, unless there is a big war, using them out in the open would be bizarre. I think there is more to this situation than it looks like huh?"
The woman didn't feel embarrassed after being caught red-handed for hiding some information. She smiled instead and said, "You are smarter than I thought. Indeed, there is more to this. This information is top-secret so I don't really want to talk about it, but seeing the honesty from your side, I am willing to tell you about it."
The woman's facial expression suddenly turned solemn as she said, "You are right about IOEA being a big organization and not needing any help from stranger Awakened for no reason. But the reason we are doing it is pretty nasty. You won't believe it if I say that every 100 years, a wormhole opens which connects to an unknown place in this world. But the real problem here is that the creatures living in that place travel through the wormhole and come to earth and cause destruction. We make an analysis of their powers with the help of our top-notch instruments and then call out for the corresponding level power users. We put on a reward on its head. And whoever takes it out, earns a handsome amount."