After the meeting ended, the Commander-in-Chief arranged additional teams to strengthen patrols of dungeons in Zone A and to pay closer attention to players moving in from other zones. Meanwhile, Zone B seemed completely unaware that their administrator candidate had crossed paths with people from Zone A. Both sides tacitly treated it as if nothing had happened.
With the tacit approval of the command center, He Wuning and Yi Luo drove the milk tea car to Zone C.
Originally, He Wuning had planned to go in alone. Although Yi Luo claimed he had already left the combat department, in anyone’s eyes, he still belonged to Zone A’s combat forces. After all, he had once been the “Light of Humanity,” and he was still somewhat well known in other zones.
“Ah…” Yi Luo leaned back in his seat and sighed, looking displeased. “Retired heroes have no freedom.”
Q-chan enthusiastically offered a suggestion. “How about a disguise? As long as people can’t recognize you!”
He Wuning looked him up and down before finally shaking his head. “You should just wait outside.”
Yi Luo clutched his chest. “...You’re despising me.”
“No need to worry,” He Wuning glanced at him and offered what barely counted as comfort. “Usually, the people who run into me are the ones in danger.”
“I know that.” Yi Luo lifted his eyes and shrugged lightly. “I’m never worried about your strength. I’m just worried someone might trick you… or you might run into some thug.”
He Wuning stared at him expressionlessly.
“Q, turn around for a moment,” Yi Luo said, pointing at Q-chan.
“What for?! What bad thing are you planning now? We’re supposed to be doing serious work!” Q-chan glared at him angrily, but obediently turned around anyway. “Be quick!”
“That might be a bit difficult for me… ah—” He Wuning lightly kicked him. Yi Luo immediately stopped joking around and lowered his voice. “You’ll stand out a lot in Zone C. Before you find the administrator candidate, the current acting leader of Zone C—J, that extremist—might notice you first.”
“We still don’t know much about J. At previous meetings he always just sat there without speaking; his secretary spoke for him. Apparently, he’s an extremely devout religious fanatic and once claimed he was following divine will when he wiped out the royal family.”
“His reputation outside isn’t good. His methods are extremely cruel, and judging from his style, he doesn’t have much of a moral standard. We don’t trust him very much.”
Yi Luo leaned closer. Even though he was saying something serious, his posture and expression made it look like he was whispering something intimate.
He Wuning stiffened and leaned back slightly like a wary animal.
Smiling, Yi Luo slipped something into He Wuning’s pocket, his fingers brushing his skin through the fabric. “I’ll go up to one of the tall buildings nearby. If anything unusual happens, throw this into the sky.”
He Wuning paused, then slowly nodded.
Yi Luo smiled with satisfaction and lightly tapped his forehead. “You need to stay alert around the players inside. Xue Xun suspects that some players in Zone C have secretly reached agreements with the believers—helping the monsters while pretending to be players.”
He paused. “We even suspect that J himself might be doing something like that.”
“In a formal meeting there’s no evidence, so it’s not convenient to say things like this. He could only remind us privately.”
“So any player in Zone C—even the administrator candidate, even a child—you can’t let your guard down. Understood?”
He Wuning looked into his eyes and leaned back slightly before speaking slowly. “I understand. But I have a question.”
“Hmm?” Yi Luo tilted his head with a smile.
He Wuning stared at him expressionlessly. “If that’s all you were going to say, why did you make Q turn around?”
Yi Luo gave a helpless smile. “Because he’s a system that can’t lie. If he knew these things in advance, he’d definitely react strangely.”
He Wuning nodded. The explanation seemed barely reasonable. But before he could even look up again, Yi Luo leaned closer once more. “And besides… I did want to do something that Q shouldn’t see.”
He Wuning watched as Yi Luo suddenly moved in, grabbed the back of his head, and bit his neck.
He Wuning: “……”
Yi Luo raised his head in satisfaction, then pinched his cheek and kissed him. “Just marking you first.”
With his ears flushed red but his face still cold and expressionless, He Wuning lifted his eyelids slightly. “Sometimes I wonder if you can smell some strange scent humans can’t.”
Yi Luo laughed, his finger brushing along his neck. “Maybe. Then guess what you smell like right now?”
He Wuning immediately stood up. “I’m leaving.”
He called for Q-chan, who hurried after him.
Halfway through flying off, Q-chan suddenly turned back with a guilty conscience and tried to comfort Yi Luo. “Y-you don’t need to feel sad! It’s just because the language in Zone C is different, so he has to bring me!”
Yi Luo chuckled, leaning on the back of the chair. “Of course I know. If you think you can compete with me for affection, you’re still a hundred years too early.”
“What?!” Q-chan flew up angrily, instantly regretting his kindness. Just as he was about to yell, He Wuning grabbed him and dragged him off the car.
Yi Luo watched them leave, tapping his fingers on the chair back.
Then he walked to the storage area of the milk tea car and changed out of his obvious combat uniform into ordinary clothes he rarely wore.
He put on a black mask, pulled up his hood, deliberately relaxed his normally straight posture, altered his walking style, shoved his hands into his pockets, and slouched slightly. With a common Zone C rifle slung over his back, he walked into the safe zone.
He looked a little suspicious—but in Zone C, that was actually quite normal.
The streets of Zone C’s safe zone were nearly empty of players. The few who could be seen all carried weapons, walking quickly with vigilant expressions. None of them relaxed just because they were inside a safe zone.
Walking there, Yi Luo blended in perfectly. Even if He Wuning saw him, he might need a moment to recognize him.
He went straight toward one of the taller nearby buildings. Not far behind him, a small-time thug peeked around suspiciously and followed him into the building.
Moments later, several gunshots shattered the quiet inside. The thug staggered out and fled in panic.
……
Meanwhile, He Wuning and Q-chan were walking openly down the street.
It was obvious at a glance that he wasn’t from Zone C. He looked like a tourist who didn’t belong there—hands in his pockets, slowly examining the surrounding buildings. Q-chan floated around him, trying to chat with every player who glanced their way out of curiosity, but hardly anyone responded.
Most people simply walked away with wary expressions. Only a few muttered short syllables of refusal.
The naturally optimistic system seemed to have no concept of frustration and kept looking for the next person to talk to.
An elderly voice suddenly spoke. Finally, someone responded to Q-chan. He Wuning looked toward the source of the voice. It was an old man sitting on the ground who looked like a beggar.
He was wrapped in layers of filthy cloth that seemed to be everything he owned. His beard was the color of dirt, but his eyes were still bright. He repeated what he said to the system, though his gaze was fixed on He Wuning.
He Wuning wasn’t sure whether the old man had recognized him. He looked at Q-chan.
Q-chan hesitated before translating. “I asked like you told me—whether anyone knows young people around here who take mercenary jobs. This man says…”
“As long as you pay him, he can find anything for you.”
Q-chan glanced suspiciously at the old beggar. The man looked so shady that even the normally naïve system suspected he might be trying to scam them.
“Don’t look at me like that, respectable young man,” the beggar grinned, showing sparse teeth. “I’ve lived a long time and know all kinds of people. As long as you have money—alcohol, women, items, intelligence, or the mercenaries you’re looking for—I can find them.”
Q-chan faithfully translated his words, blinking at He Wuning as if trying to warn him about scammers.
“Intelligence?” He Wuning raised an eyebrow. “Then let me ask something. Do you know anything about players here helping monsters?”
He took out a handful of game coins.
The beggar looked at the coins and sighed regretfully. “That kind of money isn’t usable here.”
“You two don’t look like people who live here. Seems you don’t understand the place very well.” He cautiously pulled a stamped paper slip from his pocket and showed it to them. “This. This is the money that can be exchanged for food and treatment here.”
Q-chan stared blankly. “But that’s just paper…”
The beggar shrugged. “But J’s army will give you food for it.”
“Or you can just give food directly.”
He Wuning raised his eyebrow slightly. “How do you get that kind of money?”
“Exchange with J’s army.” The beggar clicked his tongue. “You trade rare items or equipment. If it’s not good enough, they won’t give you anything.”
“But even if it’s good equipment, they won’t give you much. I’ve never seen anyone get more than three notes. One note can only buy one potato… or one treatment.”
He shook his head. “Everyone’s barely surviving.”
“That sounds way worse than selling to the system,” Q-chan muttered. He looked at He Wuning. He Wuning nodded and took some instant food from his backpack. “This.”
“Yes, yes!” The beggar’s eyes lit up. He immediately sat up, suddenly full of energy—completely different from the dying appearance he had just moments ago.
Just as he reached out to grab the food, He Wuning didn’t give it to him immediately. Instead, he slowly opened the package, broke off a small piece, and tossed it to him. “Answer my question.”
“There really are people like that,” the beggar replied quickly. “They pretend to hire mercenaries, lure players into the wilderness, then hand them over to monsters waiting there. I don’t know what those idiots are thinking. Do they think monsters will give them soft bread to eat?”
He Wuning: “……”
The beggar smiled flatteringly. “Of course, I never suspected you. After all, no scammer would pick such an obvious outsider as bait.”
He Wuning noticed that the beggar clutched the food tightly but didn’t immediately eat it. A guess formed in his mind.
He tossed him another piece of food. “Second question. You didn’t eat immediately after getting food. I’m guessing you have companions moving with you.”
The beggar’s expression changed slightly. He Wuning hadn’t even changed posture, still looking down at him calmly. “Are the brats standing behind me right now your companions?”
-----
The author has something to say:
He Wuning: Using the same excuse as the scammers…
----------
No comments:
Post a Comment