Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After a moment of consideration, Feng Luo told Mu Zi, “Mu Zi, stay here and wait for the girls to come out. I will go walk around on my own. Beware of strangers. Do not let them come close to you.”
“Sure thing. Be careful, Brother Feng.”
Mu Zi nodded without questioning his actions.
******
On his own, Feng Luo followed the paper map of Roguetown that he had bought from a shop along the streets and walked toward the guard bureau slowly and carefully. He remained vigilant as he walked, observing his surroundings to avoid any sudden attack—as in Resident Evil.
He tried to recall the vague conversation he had overheard between the two saleswomen. There had been three unusual deaths in the past month. According to the guards, the cause of death was a beast. But that contrasted with the conversation of the saleswomen, so things just did not add up.
The two saleswomen seemed to have a lot to hide while he was questioning them regarding the matter. The reason was quite obvious. Roguetown’s main source of income was its tourism, so if something like this happened, it wasn’t going to reflect well on their business.
Since he knew he was not going to get anything out of questioning them, Feng Luo decided for a change of plan.
As he walked toward the guard bureau, he looked for a specific dark alley and entered for a while. When he finally left the alley, he was holding a silver metallic briefcase with a trace of golden light seeping through the gap.
“Status check, is everyone alright?”
Brother Ling’s voice broke out from the team channel.
“Number one, all clear…”
“Number two, all clear…”
Each and every player reported their status through the channel accordingly.
“Number 14, all clear!” Feng Luo answered.
“All right then. Everybody be careful. Don’t let your prying for information expose our identities as players.”
After finishing that last sentence, Brother Ling resumed radio silence.
Feng Luo walked with his silver briefcase in hand, sighing heartily. It had been Brother Ling’s idea for all of them disguise themselves as a group of tourists for this mission. But Feng Luo begged to differ.
In his opinion, if they carried on with this strategy, as soon as something happened to one member, the others would be implicated and suspected. It was just a game, but considering that the NPCs were AIs, Feng Luo would have preferred that the team entered the game in groups of two to three. Each group would pretend they didn’t know each other and would only communicate through the team channel.
This way, their cover would be much better, and they wouldn’t have to worry about their identities being compromised due to one or two black sheep.
Sha Lang saw eye to eye with him in this matter, so when he heard about Brother Ling’s plan for the mission, he immediately rejected him with a cold expression. However, they were fairly helpless, as their disguised identities had already been arranged. Data in the disguise chip showed that the team had boarded the same aircraft, sat in the first-class section, and had already arrived at Storm City. They couldn’t change the plan even if they wanted to.
Regardless of how reluctant he was, there wasn’t any way to change the strategy now. The only option was to just go with the original idea of a group of tourists. In the meantime, Feng Luo could only hope that the rest of the group was cautious enough to not make a mistake.
He walked along the bluestone path at nightfall, carrying his silver briefcase as he observed his surroundings. For the past two hours, it seemed as though he was only doing something mundane. In reality, he was observing the town to determine if there were any surveillance systems hidden in the corners.
So far, this town did look just how it had been described in the tourist guide: “primitive.” There wasn’t any sign of advanced technology besides the basic lightning, let alone a surveillance system.
This was undoubtedly great news. Of course, there were chances that the surveillance installments were too well camouflaged—to the point that he hadn’t noticed any.
Seven minutes later, Feng Luo arrived at the guard bureau. It was a three-story stone building. Despite the building being disguised as an antique that blended in with the surroundings, one could still tell that underneath it was a fortress equipped with machine guns and defensive heavy weapons. Judging by the conversation of the two saleswomen, Feng Luo estimated that the death of “Billy” was quite recent.
After surveying things, Feng Luo walked into the cafe directly opposite the guard bureau. He picked a seat on the first floor by a window.
After ordering a cup of coffee, he raised the magazine he had bought just across the street, reading it with gusto. So far, no one had noticed that there was a special wave transmitting through the silver briefcase of his.
Following that, from a place beside the guard bureau where Feng Luo had just passed by, a semi-transparent beetle that was about the size of a fingernail flipped its wings silently and flew into the guard bureau. On the outside, it seemed as though Feng Luo was only reading a magazine, but what he was seeing was completely different.
The Scout Beetle flew rather slowly, but it made almost no sound, and even if did, no one would have noticed a semi-transparent beetle that was the size of a fingernail. With 24K’s “Mental Link” skill in the briefcase, Feng Luo commanded the Scout Beetle to fly further in. Through the beetle, he could observe and listen to the conversation between the NPC guards.
According to the two saleswomen, Billy’s death had happened recently. At this moment, the guards in the bureau ought to still be discussing this matter.
For all those NPC guards, who were similar to police, death—and especially serial deaths—were the most exciting topic to talk about.
To Feng Luo’s disappointment, he had guessed incorrectly. In fact, not one person mentioned the name “Billy.” After entering the guard bureau, the Scout Beetle flew for five to six minutes, yet it still did not catch anyone mentioning Billy.
Meanwhile, the psionics index of the Level 20 24K (the name he had given to the Golden King Beetle) had been used up to the point that there wasn’t much left.
The highest psionics index of 24K was only 300 points (an increment of 10 points per level, with a bonus of 50 points for Level 10 and Level 20). It only had 50 points left after it incubated the Scout Beetle.
He had used the Mental Link skill in the previous two hunting missions, and the psionics index was wearing off. It had recovered a little during the journey, but after the last usage, it was only left with less than 20 points. It could only go on for another one to two minutes, maximum!
Feng Luo was anxious, but he suddenly heard something from the Scout Beetle at this eleventh hour.
“Yes, I have helped to cover up the Billy issue.”
Feng Luo’s heart skipped a beat. He commanded the Beetle to enter a room with a sign saying “Director” hanging at the door. In front of his “eyes,” was a luxurious office, an authentic leather sofa, real wood flooring, expensive antiques, golden decorations, oil paintings…
And there sat a large, obese man with a huge belly on a leather massage chair behind the 1.5-meter-wide redwood table, talking into a communicator.
“I already told you all, Billy’s issue has been settled,” he said. “But it still caused a public panic. If I didn’t tell them to put the town’s economic interests first and not spread the news, it would have indeed gone viral. You’d better come up with a good explanation this instant… 500,000?”
The corpulent director smirked, and a look of greed flashed in his eyes.
“No, I want at least a million points of credit in the form of energy crystals. And have it delivered to me. You need to understand the tremendous risk being taken. If the federal government found out about this, I would be facing life imprisonment at this moment!”
The fat director was still negotiating through the communicator.
“Fine. You need to lay low for a few days. You’ve got to remember that Rogue is my hometown, and as a guard who was entrusted by the citizens for their safety, I hope to see no more casualties.”
After negotiating the price, he replied in a bureaucratic tone just before hanging up. He then reached out to a drawer, grabbed a handful of diamond crystals in his pale, stubby hand with satisfaction written all over his face.
However, the communicator rang again shortly after he had just hung up.
“What’s the matter this time?” the obese director answered the communicator. “What? Three tourists tried to break into your sanatorium…? The security dismissed them, but you suspect that they have an ulterior motive… Do you want me to run a background check on them and keep watch over them for a few days…? All right, it can be done since it was such a pleasure working with you. I will help you for free. However…”
That was the last bit that Feng Luo heard, as 24K ran out of its psionic index, so it could no longer support the Mental Link. Yet, deep down in his guts, he had a hunch that something was not right.