by <unknown>
“The eyes should be lower… his nose is a little crooked… hair is shorter…”
With the man’s help, Han Xiao was able to produce sketches of Lu Gao En with a 70 or 80 percent resemblance. He then passed them to the trio and instructed, “Let’s split up and get the security officers to keep an eye out for this person. Li Ya Lin and I will take her car to the furthest city entrance, while each of you will go to the other two.”
Zhang Wei’s face twitched as Han Xiao gave them the orders. ‘Am I still the leader of this team?’
Nonetheless, he let it slide as it was an emergency.
As they set off, Han Xiao immediately hopped into the driver’s seat of Li Ya Lin’s car.
“Hey, it’s my car!” grumbled Li Ya Lin immediately. “I’ll drive.”
“You drive too slow.”
“You don’t trust the driving skills of a top agent‽” Li Ya Lin was so outraged that her eyebrows were almost contorted upside-down. Unfortunately, she knew that there was no time to argue, so she grudgingly got into the passenger’s seat.
“Tighten your seatbelt,” reminded Han Xiao.
Li Ya Lin rolled her eyes at him, replying, “You must be joking. I’m a pugilist; I’ll be fine no matter how fast you go.”
“Suit yourself,” replied Han Xiao with a plain nod as he stamped on the accelerator.
…
Half an hour later, a yellow sports car appeared at the South Entrance. Spinning almost full-circle, the car left four sizzling, black tire marks on the road as it came to an abrupt stop.
“Bleargh—”
“Hey, hey, I thought you were a pugilist?”
“You… don’t talk to me n— bleeaarrgh—”
Li Ya Lin puked non-stop as she leaned on the car door.
“Half an hour, and 27 car accidents… or was it 28? My head’s spinning so much that I can’t even count.
“Who taught you to drive?”
Han Xiao raised an eyebrow.
“Does driving have to be taught?”
“D-doesn’t it?”
“The first driver didn’t have anyone to teach him, did he?”
Li Ya Lin gaped in the face of Han Xiao’s perfect logic. She was about to shoot back at him when, suddenly, the urge to vomit kicked in again, causing her to throw her head back to the side.
“Really? I only drove a little fast, that’s all.”
“A little fast? I doubt the word ‘brake’ even exists in your vocabulary!”
“Fine, fine, let’s stop wasting time.”
As Li Ya Lin tried to get back on her feet, she lost balance and almost tripped into her own pile of vomit. Fortunately, Han Xiao was able to provide support in time. Shaking his head, he began to drag her along with him toward the sentry post.
As they neared the post, the stationed troop yelled out, “Stop! Show your ID!”
As Han Xiao reached into his pockets to take out his ID card, his expression froze as he realized that he had forgotten to bring them along. Without asking, he directly reached into Li Ya Lin’s pockets to find hers.
Top pockets… none.
Bottom pockets… none.
“Where’s your pass?” he asked.
As Li Ya Lin still seemed too dizzy to think straight, Han Xiao continued feeling around that dynamite body of hers for it.
‘I— I’m being taken advantage of‽’
“Ah! I found it,” rejoiced Han Xiao. He then held the pass up toward the guard, who had been gulping at the show.
“Oh, you guys are agents. Come on in.”
As Han Xiao took a few steps forward, he discovered that Li Ya Lin was still rooted to the spot, giving him a deathly stare.
“What’s wrong? Hurry up.”
Li Ya Lin took a deep breath to compose herself.
“Give me my ID back,” she said stiffly.
“Why so fussy?” replied Han Xiao impatiently. He then casually walked back toward her and slotted the pass back into her rear pocket.
Li Ya Lin’s eyes widened.
‘I— I’m being taken advantage of again‽’
Han Xiao then strode toward the sentry post to give the military officer in charge of security the sketch of Lu Gao En.
“Please wait a moment as the system performs a footage scan.”
Li Ya Lin entered the sentry post still biting her lips. The way that Han Xiao had felt her up did not seem to contain any ill-intentions at all. As such, she was having a hard time even getting angry at him. She was just very unhappy, for some reason, and she continued glaring at him.
…
Lu Gao En worked for an intelligence organization known as Storm Eye, one of the many sub-groups that were secretly under the wing of the Germinal Organization.
In most cities, Storm Eye had one ‘head contact’ in charge of relaying information back to the Germinal Organization, as well as a few covert agents who gathered intel and only reported back to the head contact.
One of Lu Gao En’s agents had reported seeing someone matching Zero’s description in District 7. While at first unclear of Han Xiao’s location, Lu Gao En had discovered, after repeated investigations, that there was an area in District 7 that seemed to be cordoned off and watched closely by Division 13. It was most likely where Zero was hiding.
Upon finding out that transmissions leaving the city were being blocked, he realized that Division 13 must have gotten wind of him somehow. Hence, he decided to go offline and take his computer apart in order to prevent being traced before heading toward the city entrance to leave.
At present, Lu Gao En was blended in with a crowd of people approaching one of the city’s entrances.
‘Norsa must have completed the assassination by now.’
Suddenly, the great metal-fenced gate before him closed up.
“What happened?”
“Why are we being stopped?”
“We have orders to temporarily seal the exits,” announced a soldier, starting a commotion among the crowd.
‘Why would they close the gates‽’ Lu Gao En was shocked. ‘Did Norsa fail?’
Still, as he had been extremely careful for the past two to three years, he was not worried of being discovered.
“He’s the one!”
The sudden shout from behind caused Lu Gao En to turn around. There was a bunch of troops walking menacingly in his direction. They were obviously after him.
‘Impossible!’
Lu Gao En immediately looked around him to find an escape path, but it was too late. Not only was he surrounded by the crowd, there were simply way too many troops in the vicinity. As despair filled him, he allowed a soldier to pin him onto the ground without resistance.
As Han Xiao appeared at the scene, he sighed a breath of relief.
“We made it in time.”
“You really did!” Li Ya Lin was amazed.
“How did you guys know it was me?” asked Lu Gao En as he raised his head to look up at Han Xiao.
Han Xiao looked back at him plainly. In Galaxy, Lu Gao En was the primary contact for all Germinal-allied players in the Western Capital.
As Lu Gao En resigned to his fate, he decided to activate the poison sac stored in his tooth. He would rather die than divulge any information regarding the organization that he had dedicated his whole life to.
Suddenly, Han Xiao pulled out his handgun to fire a shot at Lu Gao En’s head, sending a trail of blood and brain matter spurting out.
_____________
You have killed Lu Gao En (Lv.12), gaining 3,500 experience.
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Han Xiao raised his gun up to blow off the smoke from its barrel.
‘If you want to die, at least give me the experience.’
“Why did you kill him?”
Li Ya Lin was stunned by Han Xiao’s sudden action. Division 13 could obviously have extracted a lot of vital information from him.
“There’s p
oison stored in his teeth, his nails, and he even has some needles concealed in his clothes. We wouldn’t have been able to stop him from killing himself.”
Han Xiao shook his head.
In any case, Lu Gao En’s death was truly insignificant to him; he already possessed all the information that he needed. Nonetheless, things were getting a bit dicey.
‘Looks like I’d better speed things up,’ he thought.
Chapter 63. End of the Beta Test |
In Black Raven Valley Base, the Throne of Gods guild had gathered together for a meeting in-game.
Things had not gone according to plan. As the other beta testers were all preoccupied with leveling up, their call for information had gone unanswered. Just as Jupiter was fuming over what to do, someone shouted, “Leader! The quest hint changed!”
Jupiter gave a start. Upon checking the quest tab, he discovered that the quest location had actually been updated. It now stated that Zero was inside the Western Capital.
“The mission was updated‽”
Jupiter scratched his head. However, while he was confused, he was not upset. It was the 12th and last day of the beta test, and they had barely made any progress thus far.
“We’ll send members to search the Western Capital after the official launch.”
Once the game launched, the guild would be able to make full use of its advantage in numbers. With so many members, there was no way that they would not be able to find him.
Jupiter clenched his fists.
“This B-class quest is ours for the taking!”
This was their chance to take a step ahead of their rivals.
…
In Germinal’s headquarters, a report was being read out to the boss.
“Commander Rosa was last heard from in the Western Capital. Another man also disappeared along with him: Lu Gao En, our head contact in Storm Eye. Li Ruo has said that he will find a replacement for him immediately…”
“It’s Zero,” said the boss abruptly. “He silenced Rosa and Lu Gao En in order to keep his exact location a secret. Humph, so you are in the Western Capital. Stardragon’s Division 13 must be keeping him under their protection!”
Rosa was the ace assassin of the Germinal Organization, while even Lu Gao En had given the boss a favorable impression. It was a huge loss.
That blasted Zero!
The boss was furious.
‘Zero… did you think that you would be safe as long as you found protection?’
While he had at first belittled Han Xiao, over time, he had come to recognize the threat that he posed.
According to the analysis of the security footage from the Valkyrie Laboratory, Zero had never displayed any unusual behavior. Where he had gotten hold on their intel from remained a complete mystery.
“Order Storm Eye to pinpoint Zero’s location. I don’t care if he’s hiding within Division 13’s HQ, find him no matter what it takes!”
The boss’ voice was filled with murderous intent.
As there was no way to know exactly what other vital information Zero possessed, getting rid of him before he caused further damage was the only option.
“Get five commanders and two hundred Night Owls ready to take action as soon as he is found. I will permit the use of guided missiles.
“Zero, you’re dead meat!”
…
‘The beta test is ending.’
00:00:00:30
Frenzied Sword sighed as he watched the countdown timer. If only he could have just a bit more time to train.
Of course, he was overall still quite happy with the progress that he had made. Han Xiao’s quests might have been very unseemly, but they sure did give a ton of experience. Furthermore, all the equipment that he had purchased from him helped to boost his combat power significantly.
Although the skill set of the Mechanic class revolved largely around crafting, which he disliked, seeing Han Xiao’s strength had given Frenzied Sword all the affirmation that he needed.
‘I, too, will gradually become that strong!
‘There will be a spot among the pros for me!’
…
_____________
Beta Test Concluded. Countdown to Game’s Launch: 122 Days, 1 Hour, 23 Mins.
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Han Xiao shook his head upon discovering that the discussion board button had been grayed out.
‘Looks like I was right, the amount of time between version changes in the real-world is not synced with my current time.’
“Why are you shaking your head?” asked Gu Hui suddenly. “I wonder what other information you possess.”
Han Xiao was currently inside a conference room back at Division 13’s headquarters. There were three big shots seated in front of him: Gu Hui, the Division Director, as well as the two heads of the Intelligence Department and the Secret Ops department.
Division 13 had known all along that Han Xiao must possess some degree of combat ability, but he had completely exceeded their wildest imaginations. Yet, what was more perplexing was the degree of ease at which he had been able to single out Lu Gao En.
Lu Gao En had been operating from within the city for over two years without ever leaving a trace. Division 13 had attempted to look for him many times, but they had all ended up in failure. The fact that Han Xiao could so easily locate him served as solid proof that he knew way more than even they themselves.
And so, this meeting had begun. Simply put, Gu Hui wanted to learn more of Han Xiao’s intel.
Breaking out of his daze, Han Xiao stroked his chin as he evaded the question. “My location is now exposed. Germinal might not know exactly where I live, but they will definitely send even more killers into the city.”
Gu Hui furrowed his brows. Although unsatisfied with Han Xiao’s reply, he followed Han Xiao’s lead.
“Then what do you intend to do?”
“There’s no more need for hide-and-seek. I want to participate in the next operation.”
“It’s too dangerous!” protested a livid Gu Hui. “If you show yourself, that will only give them the chance to take action.”
Han Xiao faked a cough.
“Can we talk alone?”
The two department heads exchanged exasperated glances. ‘Do we seem that untrustworthy?’
Han Xiao glanced at his surroundings before whispering, “I can change my appearance.”
Gu Hui was visibly shocked.
“You have superpowers‽”
Han Xiao shook his head.
“I can create a gadget that allows me to alter my looks, so there’s no way that they will be able to find me.”
‘A skin mask? Not a bad idea,’ thought Gu Hui. However, Han Xiao sounded as though he meant something more advanced than a simple skin mask that Division 13 already employed.
“Even if you use a mask, it’s still too risky. You will have to take it off eventually.”
The corner of Han Xiao’s lips curled up.
“My mask is more convenient than that.”
“Alright, then show it to me before I approve.”
There were two reasons behind why Han Xiao wanted in on the action. The first was, of course, for the experience. The second was that he did not want to remain cooped up inside the Western Capital. This was the only way that he would be able to participate in more incidents.
Ever since the assassination attempt, Han Xiao had been spending a lot of time thinking about his next move.
The Black Raven Valley Base was situated near the border of Hesla, one of the Six Nations. It was a major base on a completely different scale from the three sites that Division 13 had taken action on previously. Not only were the security and defenses extremely tight, the commander of the base was a superhuman! He was known as the Sword Phantom, Pan Kuang, a Pugilist close to reaching D-level.
Near Black Raven Valley was a gathering spot for many wanderers known as Black Raven Village Town.
It was a beginner starting zone.
Han Xiao planned to destroy Black Raven Valley Base as it would prevent a substantial number of new players from joining the Germinal Organization simply because of the base’s proximity. This idea had occurred to him upon discovering the Throne of God’s post, after which he had given it some proper thought and became fond of it.
It was not only an act of revenge toward the Germinal boss, but it was also a preemptive strike that would have unseen but deadly impacts.
Han Xiao grinned with glee at the prospect.
Chapter 64. Accelerated Learning! |
“Near Hesla’s border?” Gu Hui slammed the desk. “We will need to get in touch with them before making a decision.”
“I await your decision,” declared Han Xiao as he took his leave.
Feng Jun was waiting for him outside with a gloomy face.
“Why didn’t you tell me about the assassin immediately? Because of that, I had to endure a yelling from my superior.”
“Why would I inform you? It’s not like you could have helped,” teased Han Xiao, causing Feng Jun to become enraged.
“We might be buddies, but I’ll still get angry if you insult me!”
Han Xiao smirked.
“Perhaps I should have a talk with the director over how my location got exposed…”
“Oh you—hahahaha—you little devil. I was just kidding.”
Han Xiao rolled his eyes.
Under Feng Jun’s subservient escort, Han Xiao left the headquarters to return to the workshop.
Altering his appearance was an idea that he had thought up a long time ago. He had known all along that the Germinal would resort to drastic measures against him once his location was discovered.
As it was more likely than not that the operation would be passed, Han Xiao also needed to prepare new equipment. The mecha arm and the retractable knife would not allow him to keep up with the level of the opponents they were about to face. It would also be nice if his current team was able to participate in the operation.
Thinking about his team reminded Han Xiao of the need to upgrade Zhang Wei’s power suit.
The cost of the upgrade would not come cheap.
As Han Xiao stroked his eyebrows, he searched through his memories for blueprints suitable for this mission.
