Chapter 126: 126

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 .