Translator: Atlas Studios
Editor: Atlas Studios
The teleportation process was smooth as usual. When Li Ang opened his eyes once again, he discovered that he was standing in a desolate place.
Below his feet was a relatively-narrow loess road lined with dense forest. The trees in the forest were tall, yet they grew in a curved manner with branches growing vertically. They looked like bodyguards observing the five figures standing in the middle of the road.
It was evening and the sun was hanging in the sky in the distance, where the mountain ridges were. Sunlight bathed the Earth, yet it provided no warmth for this forest-lined road.
The five figures stood in a pentacle. No one spoke, but the atmosphere was oppressive.
Everyone was observing each other.
The first person was a tall, burly, square-faced middle-aged man. He looked unapproachable and calm while he was standing rigidly upright. Although he was wearing a leisure shirt and Bermuda shorts, one could still sense the rigid aura he emitted from inside.
Was he a soldier or a policeman?
The second person was a steady-looking man in the 30s. He had a wide forehead, the end of his eyebrows curved upward, his eyes were small, and he had two small tufts of a mustache. He was wearing a pair of sunglasses, a white shirt, yellow beach shorts, and flip-flops. The aura he gave off was that of a greasy middle-aged man.
Yes, he looked like the character of Tian Boguang in the martial-arts TV series Laughing in the Wind, who had been portrayed by Sun Haiying.
The third person was a tall and slender young lady with long hair and black ninja clothes. She looked quite pretty, but there was no expression on her face. As a result, she seemed indifferent and unapproachable.
An iceberg beauty… just like the ones in novels.
The fourth person was a gentle and charming young monk wearing a gray robe.
He was indeed the muscled monk Li Ang had encountered a few days ago at the Jingan Temple.
However, in the Killing Field game, his facial features were slightly altered. Li Ang only recognized him thanks to his ingrained ability to differentiate between things.
“Hey.” The Tian-Boguang-lookalike looked at Li Ang and complained, “Punk, why are you narrating on your own and introducing everyone here? Also, how do I even look like Tian Boguang? Talk nonsense again and you shall be hearing from my lawyer!”
Li Ang definitely looked the weirdest out of the five people, as he was wearing a helmet, knee-high boots, a Monkey King mask, and a bulletproof shirt. He also had an AK47 gun in his hand and a fat backpack on his back.
He could not be a patient from a mental health institute, as he was holding a real Kalashnikov rifle, nor could he be a professional soldier since he was wearing an extremely hilarious Monkey King Sun Wukong mask.
Li Ang, who had been narrating, smiled and said, “So sorry about that. I felt that the atmosphere was too oppressive, which is why I did that to liven it up.”
The desired effect had indeed been attained. The square-faced middle-aged man’s gaze swept across everyone present before he said, “Everyone, we are now on a team quest. Based on its bountiful reward, the quest difficulty should be quite high.”
The man, who seemed to be a soldier, added confidently, “This is different from the electronic games we play. The team quests of the Killing Field game do not include the setting of ‘shielding attacks from players of the same team’.
“Players in a cooperative quest can attack one another, but the effects will be reduced significantly.
“In addition, any players who commit such an act will be severely punished by the system.
“Punishing methods include deducting all Game Credits, destroying all items in the inventory and all kinds of equipment, or immediately being forced to accept an even more difficult mandatory quest whose death rate could go as high as 80 percent.
“Therefore, when it comes to team quests, we do not have to worry about being backstabbed.
“From now on, it would be best if we lowered our guard around each other and worked together. Otherwise, the whole team will be eliminated during this high-difficulty quest.”
The square-faced man actively publicized his own player information after saying all that.
[Tall and Upright- Xing Hechou] [Level 6]
Xing Hechou was not his real name. He was Xing Chou, a player awakened two months prior.
There were three reasons why he had chosen to step out and take control of this situation.
One, the difficulty level of this quest should be quite high so everyone needed to cooperate in order to complete the quest successfully.
Two, due to his observation, Xing Hechou believed that he possessed the highest level among the players there. Therefore, he was qualified and obliged to control this situation.
Three, Xing Hechou had once been a major in the military. After becoming a player, he had reported to his superiors and been transferred to the Special Affairs Bureau.
This department was a special department urgently established seven months before that was inferior to the Security Bureau but possessed extremely high authority.
Seven months ago, the Intelligence Bureau of the Republic had received a report about a game called Killing Field. This report had caused the State Apparatus to operate. A highly-classified conference had been held over a period of several days by numerous think tanks and high-ranking officials in a number of huge halls.
A think tank composed of nearly 1,000 experts and industry leaders quickly came up with a detailed opinionated report complete with an evaluation and forecast.
Using this report as a foundation, it was decided that the Killing Field game would be analyzed, deciphered, and utilized, thus becoming one of the most important jobs of the State Apparatus at present.
Military affairs, political affairs, the economy, the culture…
From then on, the State Apparatus started to slowly and subtly change society in various aspects. After all, this matter did not simply concern the livelihood of the citizens.
It concerned people’s life and safety, the country’s rise and fall, the Earth’s power, and the survival of its living organisms.
The first step to this large-scale reformation was establishing the Special Affairs Bureau.
As a member of the Special Affairs Bureau, Xing Hechou had already memorized the directives of the conclusion the think tank had illustrated and worked by following them.
Xing Hechou’s logical and persuasive performance was partly attributed to his experience as a soldier.
The other part was the directives sent out by the country’s think tank’s psychological analysis team. Compared to the directives established by more than 1,000 psychiatrists, ordinary players were easy to predict and manipulate.
As expected, upon hearing Xing Hechou’s speech, the other four people publicized their player information as well.
The greasy middle-aged man, who was a Tian-Boguang-lookalike, was [The Sentimental Swordsman- Hanging Sword for Ten Thousand Miles] [Level 5]
The iceberg beauty was [Wudai] [Level 4]
The gray-robed monk was [Hui Bing] [Level 4]
The monkey-masked mercenary was [Li Risheng] [Level 3]