Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Looking at the notification in his system logs, Feng Luo nodded satisfactorily.
“185 points. Not bad!”
It was currently the fifth day since the mission had begun. Over the course of those five days, Dongsang City, infamous for its high crime rate, had turned into complete chaos in no time at all. Thousands of Guards in the Guard Bureau were completely swamped.
Stemming from the earlier “terrorist attack” at the airport, incidences had begun to occur at every turn in Dongsang City, every day. A company’s important documents suddenly went missing; high-ranking officers of some corporate groups were kidnapped, and there were also chaotic scenes happening in various parts of the city and at various times. And then there were also the assassinations of key members of the government and the military…
The city was situated at the periphery of the Federation-controlled territories, and they often had to face the militants of the rebel army and the illegal militants from the sea, so the city had always had poor security; the citizens were used to that type of lifestyle.
If this had been another city, all its citizens might have already surrounded the municipal government and started protesting by now! However, even if there were no protests, public approval within Dongsang City municipality had reached its lowest point. In fact, the leaders could hardly face anyone anymore. This was because, in the past few days, the Dongsang City’s Guard Bureau director had already changed three times. The previous two bureau directors had been assassinated by the “terrorists!”
It was, without a doubt, a direct challenge to Dongsang City’s defense capabilities, which humiliated the Guard Bureau!
The saving grace was that the Guard team were no pushovers. Over the past few days, they’d killed a total of over 190 “terrorists” and taken out almost 100 adventurers who had used the opportunity to disturb the peace.
“We will not let another terrorist attack occur!” said the new bureau director, Murata Musashi, on a live broadcast to the entire city in his inauguration ceremony.
However, in less than an hour, the lawless “terrorists” forced him to eat his words!
******
Obtained the confidential document chip with the codename “Dark Night Operation.” Rewarded Points: 250.
Took part in Operation 10. Mission Contribution: 33%. Obtained Points: 66.
Killed Advanced Level Rebel Army Intelligence Officer, Uesugi Masaki. Rewarded Points: 200.
…
Examinee Number 99. Current Cumulative Points: 1,264. Current Ranking: Four!
Feng Luo went through the missions that he had participated in during that span of time in his system logs. His attention rested on the word “Four” at the end.
Yes, only ranked fourth! Although it wasn’t too far away from the 1,435 points held by the first-place person, Feng Luo could not help but admit that he had underestimated the people who chose to rub elbows with the Hound Organization.
The hidden profession mission was supposed to be a simple solo competition, but it had created an extrinsic motivation for some because star coins were involved. For others, it was clearly harder for one to compete against a group.
The points on the ranking list were still normal on the first day, and the gap between each player wasn’t all that big. However, starting on the second day, the gap between the top five players and the rest grew as if a rocket had been launched. Even Feng Luo had been a little unprepared in the beginning and had been knocked down to a double-digit ranking.
If it hadn’t been for the fact that, as a Sniper, he was adept at these assassination and intel collection missions—and that he had successfully “cut off” his opponents three times in achieving their mission objective in the past two days—there would have been no way for him to get to fourth place!
The strength of a group is definitely significant. Or perhaps one should say that wealth was power. Feng Luo felt it quite strongly this time.
“But this fourth-place ranking should be enough to make some people choke!”
Feng Luo smirked. He wasn’t all that worried about his current fourth-place ranking. The content he’d memorized from the screen in five minutes during the first test wasn’t useless. One might say that the information could even become a lethal weapon. Moreover, when it came to things like ranking, who could ever say anything for certain until the final buzzer sounded?
It was fair to say that it would be fine even if he failed to catch up. Because, for this mission, the person with the highest cumulative points wouldn’t be the winner. Instead, the winner was the one with the highest cumulative points—who was still alive!
“Yup. Kabuki Town. Dongsang City’s famous red-light district. You can’t not visit this place at least once if you’re in Dongsang City!”
Feng Luo said this with a smile on his face while looking down below the automatic hovercraft, which was in browsing mode at that moment and moving ever closer to a busy district of red and green lights.
******
“F*ck! If I knew who that guy was, even if I were to spend 10 million, I would get someone to bring me his head!”
“Argh! What a bitch!”
Inside a luxury hotel suite, the Wind Manipulator wearing an entire set of the best gear had a terrible expression. He extended his hand and threw all the utensils, bowls, and plates on the table down to the carpet.
“Young Master Xiao. Why should you be angry and take out your anger on these kitchen utensils?” said the Light Armor Warrior who was a member of the Hound Organization. He wore the same smile as he always wore.
“Not get angry? Why should I not be angry!?”
The Wind Manipulator’s face was completely distorted as he turned around and shouted, pointing his finger at the smiling man. “Remember, your Hound Organization promised me that I would be ranked first in this profession change mission. I gave you 2,000 million, and now you’re telling me I’m in fifth place? Tell me, what should you do!?”
“Then there’s my eight million,” said the Scout wearing the full set of rare equipment. “I’m not even in the top five.”
“Our mission targets were stolen by that Sniper three consecutive times, and this resulted in the loss of our initially substantial lead as our points did not even go up. And now, I’ve already fallen to seventh place!”
As the Scout spoke, a greedy glint could be seen in his eyes. “Can you even do it? If you can’t, then we’ll switch you to the group with that beauty to help us.”
“I’m sorry, Young Master Gou. Since the teams were prearranged, it is better for different teams to reduce the probability of running into each other; this is to prevent the NPCs from discovering clues to take us all out completely!”
“You should also know that the NPCs in this game have higher IQ, so it’s better to be more cautious when doing these sorts of missions.” The smile of the Light Armor Warrior remained, though his eyes showed a bit of disdain.
“F*ck! You should at least give us a solution!” the Scout player said angrily upon seeing his request rejected. “If you don’t get rid of the Sniper, I will be very unhappy! I feel like I’ve lost all motivation to complete missions and don’t feel like doing it anymore!”
However, after having lost to NPCs, he knew that the mission could probably not be completed by sheer firepower alone. That was why he thought he could not directly confront and create a scene with the player who called himself “Hound 0033.” It was because if it weren’t for the fact that someone had planned and made arrangements in their previous missions, they would have already died a few times.
“I never imagined a situation like this occurring! Not since the beginning! Truly!” The Light Armor Warrior’s smile was more reserved now, and his expression also seemed more serious when he spoke. In regard to the identity of that Sniper, we now have three guesses as to his identity. The only thing is that up until now, we haven’t even been able to see his face once. And we have also failed to determine just who he is. After all, there are at least a dozen Snipers taking part in this mission!
“Then tell me, what should we do?” The Wind Manipulator called “Young Master Xiao” became restless and annoyed once he heard about the mysterious Sniper who had cut off his mission multiple times.
“Time to adapt to the scheme and make it work for us instead!”
The Light Armor Warrior laughed again, looking remarkably confident.