Chapter 202: Disguise, Private Detective
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Dongsang City, Landing Point Number 1!
A large civilian airship flown from Storm City gradually landed. A few minutes later, a young man in neat silver, casual attire with meticulously styled hair walked down among the crowd.
On his face was a very cool pair of branded sunglasses, and in his hand was a “luxurious, limited edition” silver-colored business case. He walked intentionally slowly, even occasionally stopping in his tracks to look left and right. His purpose was obvious enough to be guessed—to display his glasses and the business case in his hand.
The glasses were the newest technology. Released by the famous federal spectacle company “Spectacular Snake” in the game, they were worth hundreds of thousands of credits and were said to be able to increase one’s vision by two times and increase facial aesthetic by 10 times. As such, it was well-loved by the many superficial youths in the federation, becoming a good display tool in crowded places.
But it was obvious that, regardless of the place, the youth who displayed their goods would not gain the attention of most people. Therefore, the surrounding NPC passersby just walked away hurriedly with one eye closed. The players were similarly in a rush. Those who had come to this landing point to spend time taking the airship were either in need of long-distance travel for missions or were returning from a mission and rushing to submit it.
As there were many more NPCs than players in War, everyone was already used to all kinds of NPC characters. With the landing point nearby, there wouldn’t be new players rushing over to make conversation or try their luck for the Hidden Profession, either.
Thus, having stood for a while in the crowd without attracting any looks of admiration, the young man looked right and left as if feeling a bit awkward. He muttered something. Then, holding his “limited-edition business case,” he continued following the crowd outside.
“Indeed, there’re quite a few people waiting…”
If one could stand closer, the young man’s words could have been discerned by his slightly, almost imperceptibly quivering mouth as he spoke.
Beginner Agent Glasses (Mission Item)
Grade: Rare
Made from full memory synthetic material, large-scale transformation capability. Beginner version can be changed into more than 50 designs (including the latest models of federal, branded items).
High scanning capability, capable of obtaining detailed information of most creatures and a large number of defense weapons when used with Agent Wristwatch “Hummingbird.”
Required Profession: Agent (Mission Access)
Required Level: 45
Disguised behind his luxurious sunglasses, Feng Luo scanned the surroundings through the Agent-Use glasses. Under the vision of the glasses, there was a rapidly changing number floating above everything in the surroundings.
With his field of view blocked and him “stupidly” standing there looking all around, it was not difficult to identify the players waiting for him through his observation.
As for these waiting players, were they “Hounds,” or were they competitors? Actually, it did not matter. Anyway, even though many had noticed them, they looked away after only a glance, continuing to look around within the crowd. It was because, technically, players who joined competitive missions would try their best to maintain a low profile—why the heck would there be anyone who desperately wanted to be high-profile enough for everyone else to see?
But that was exactly what Feng Luo wanted—to attract attention!
Other than being a counterintuitive disguise, his behavior was also due to the character of the identity of this NPC he was disguised as. His current identity was not Feng Zhi Luo Ye but an NPC named Gong Teng Xin Yi, whose profession was a small-time but relatively famous private detective.
This NPC, who was the combination of Feng Luo’s memory and the name of a famous detective character, had a completely opposite personality in War—arrogant, high-profile, and willing to violate laws to achieve personal goals. Only yesterday, because of his many incidences of illegal evidence collection and work, he had been arrested by the Federal Agent Bureau for accepting a bad check in Storm City.
His identity had been entered into the disguise chip. Based on the name and profession, this identity had been Feng Luo’s first choice when the female, white-collared NPC gave him the choices of disguise identities. At the moment, famous detective “Gong Teng,” carrying in his hand the “limited-edition business case” bought from a local stall with 300 credits, was preparing to enter an automatic hovercraft beside him.
Emergency, emergency!
A red message line suddenly popped up right in the forward field of view of the agent glasses.
“A business inspection team of 100 people will be boarding at the number 1 Landing Point five minutes from now. According to internal news, there are two advanced-level military personnel and one expert negotiator infiltrated in this business inspection team. Their purpose is to head for the rebel army region to personally meet them and represent Yamamoto Ichiro in discussing the rebellion.”
Announcing the first investigation mission. Intercept the business investigation team. Assassinate the three: Kashiwagi Yuichi, Amaha Eiji, and Minami Saburo!
The investigation rules are…
“Huh?”
Feng Luo paused in his actions, smoothly stepping into the automatic hovercraft.
But after entering the hovercraft, he said softly, “Engage one-way travel mode. Stop for a while once risen to five meters. I haven’t thought of where to go.”
“Yes, sir. One-way travel mode engagement in progress, please sit tight…”
After the female artificial-intelligence voice had spoken, the upper half of the automatic hovercraft body started to become transparent. The surroundings outside could be seen even through some parts of the lower half of the vehicle body.
This was a general purpose of “automatic hovercrafts” in the game specifically to allow passengers to enjoy the scenery while riding in them. Plus, due to the one-way light transmission, the people outside would not be able to look in.
Once the mode had been engaged, Feng Luo instantly turned back to look at the crowd of people near the entrance of the landing point. After that, he focused on the NPCs and players who were either standing rooted to the spot staring blankly, looking at their wristwatches, or wearing spectacles and completely motionless.
“One, two, three…”
Feng Luo’s eyes scanned through them, memorizing the appearances of these people.
The inclusion of players was because this mission was different from the one in Roguetown, where a disguise before infiltration might not be necessary.
It was important to note that the NPC resident population was around 5,000,000, and the player population was almost 2,000,000. Dongsang City was a second-grade federal city. For such a city, the number of foreign players who came for mission purposes every day was no less than 200,000. Hence, players’ identities were, in and of themselves, great methods of disguise!
If not for being worried that his identity would be uncovered by the Hounds, Feng Luo would have chosen to enter directly with his own player identity without using a disguise potion to disguise himself as an NPC like he had done now. But it was obvious that using such a drug was still worth it.
At the very least, he had found at least 15 suspects for competitive players at this time. Especially two of the players whom he had already discovered to be intentionally observant—they were simply marching straight to their own deaths!
“All right. To the Royal Hotel!” Feng Luo said after looking back. Then he continued to read the mission details on the agent glasses.
Agent-selected mission investigation mission rules: Every participating agent will earn unequal points based on their contribution. Assassinators will earn respective additional reward points for every mission target or for obtaining mission-required target files or informants.
Basic mission reward points!
Dongsang City Army Colonel Kashiwagi Yuichi: 400 points!
Eastern City Army Lieutenant Colonel Amaha Eiji: 380 points!
Dongsang City Government Chief Expert Negotiator Minami Saburo: 400 points!
There were also a simple video and a virtual portrait under each name. Seeing the looks of the three people, Feng Luo suddenly said softly in shock, “Eh? These three people!”