He Ao (Ander)
Permission Level: Normal Player
Physical Fitness: 15 (13) (The average person in the Copy World is 10; the average person in the Main World is 5)
Skills: Talent Sequence 272: Hyperthymesia (Soulbound) (Rank E)
Mechanical Modification: None
Martial Arts: Qi Induction (Rank F) (Unavailable)
Character Abilities: Basic Firearms Proficiency, Qi Induction (No Rank)
Hyperthymesia had risen from Rank F to Rank E. His previously depleted mental and physical strength was gradually recovering. Perhaps that was the effect of the mysterious potion he had drunk? Hyperthymesia had absorbed the potion's power. Not only had it replenished the part He Ao had sacrificed with his life, but it had also advanced.
"How did you know that potion would work for me?"
He Ao closed the Character Panel, leaned against the wall, and asked softly.
"Hmm?"
The little boy was holding up the metal-wrapped test tube, staring at its completely empty interior and shaking it a few times. He seemed unable to understand how He Ao had sucked the contents out so thoroughly.
"I didn't," he said, turning around and slipping the silver test tube into his pocket. "But you looked like you really wanted it, so I fed it to you."
"Is that so? Looks like I got lucky."
He Ao chuckled. By now, some of his strength had returned. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a toy pistol. After everything that had happened, it was still safely tucked away in his pocket. He handed it back to the little boy. "Here. Consider it payment for saving me."
This little boy was the same one who had traded his toy gun for He Ao's hot dog outside Crown Casino.
"That's not enough. You need to pay more."
The little boy took the pistol and skillfully pulled out the magazine. When he saw that the last plastic bullet was gone, his expression fell. But he said nothing, merely slid the magazine back in and holstered the pistol on his toy police car.
Only then did He Ao realize that the toy pistol and toy police car were a set.
He reached out and pressed the red button on the toy police car. A piercing police siren immediately rang out.
The moment he heard it, He Ao instantly pieced together what had happened.
The little boy had used the toy car's siren to pretend the police had arrived and scare off Dancer. Then he had fed He Ao the potion from the silver test tube, saving his life.
It was more or less the same as what He Ao had guessed when he first woke up.
When he woke and saw the little boy beside him instead of Smith, he had already roughly guessed that the boy had saved him.
Though it appeared to have been an accident, the result was that he had indeed saved He Ao's life.
"Don't press it randomly!" The little boy hurriedly slapped his hand away, then pressed the button again to stop the siren. "Batteries are expensive, and besides..."
"And besides what?"
He Ao was a little curious.
Just as he finished speaking, hurried footsteps suddenly sounded in the darkness. A disheveled Homeless Man in a worn leather jacket rushed out. He swept his gaze around, spotted the little boy, and charged over with an angry shout.
"I was wondering who'd been making such a racket here in the middle of the night. So it's you, you little brat."
As he approached, he raised his hand as if to strike.
The little boy instinctively hugged the toy car and curled into a ball.
Bang--
With a crisp gunshot, the speeding bullet struck the cement ground in front of the Homeless Man, sending several chunks of cement flying.
The Homeless Man, who had been so aggressive moments ago, froze stiffly in place.
"Get lost."
He Ao lowered his gun and spoke calmly.
This was an ordinary gun. The Gauss Gun was tucked at his waist.
"I'm leaving, I'm leaving."
The Homeless Man immediately hunched over, nodded and bowed, then scurried back into the darkness.
It wasn't that this guy hadn't heard the sounds of He Ao fighting Dancer. He had merely been intimidated by the battle and cowered in a corner, too afraid to come out.
The sounds of a battle that loud hadn't bothered him, yet the toy car's siren somehow did.
He was simply bullying the weak and fearing the strong.
His appearance might also have been a test to see whether He Ao still had the strength to fight. If He Ao had lost the ability to resist, not only would the little boy have been beaten, but every valuable thing on He Ao would have been looted.
The reason he had not rushed out from the start was probably because the sounds of the battle had frightened him.
He Ao slowly put away the gun in his hand. As he did, the little boy's eyes followed his hand without blinking.
"Are you a police officer?"
The boy asked tentatively.
"More or less." He Ao thought about it. In a sense, investigators were also special police officers in the Copy World. He looked at the toy police car in the little boy's hands. "Do you want to be a police officer?"
The little boy glanced at the toy car in his hands and shook his head. "No."
He Ao smiled and stared at him.
"Maybe just a little. They look impressive." The little boy pursed his lips, then looked at He Ao and changed the subject. "Will someone come save you later? Will there be an ambulance? I heard ambulances are expensive, but they're amazing. Even people who are almost dead can be saved if they're carried into one."
"Who told you that?"
He Ao struggled to his feet and staggered toward the briefcase.
"My dad."
The little boy reached out to support him and watched his movements curiously.
"Where's your dad?"
He Ao moved forward step by step.
"Dead," the little boy answered calmly. "We couldn't afford an ambulance, and then he died."
Then he circled around He Ao. "You still haven't answered me. Do you have an ambulance?"
He Ao paused, then continued walking forward. "I don't have an ambulance."
"You can't afford one either?"
The little boy looked confused.
"Yeah." He Ao nodded lightly. He crouched before the briefcase. "Ambulances are too expensive. One trip costs more than a thousand Federal currency."
"That expensive?" It seemed to be the first time the little boy had learned the price of an ambulance. He counted on his fingers. "A big fried Chicken Leg costs one Federal currency. More than a thousand Federal currency could buy more than a thousand fried chicken legs!"
His eyes widened, and his little face was filled with shock.
"Yeah."
He Ao opened the briefcase. Inside was a tablet computer, already smashed by the scattered rubble. Three Fountain Pens had fallen out. He Ao searched around and found a paper notebook and an exquisitely packaged thumb-sized bottle of ink.
Paper was rarely used in the Copy World now. Schools generally taught with high-precision pressure-sensitive electronic paper, while social communication had been entirely handed over to electronic documents. Declining demand had also driven up the prices of paper and books.
But the paper industry had not disappeared. In some circumstances, people absorbed knowledge from paper books better than from electronic paper.
Thus, private elite schools and some universities still used paper. For example, the private school Ander had attended as a child had taught using paper books.
Besides that, some social elites and Ancient Families still used paper to preserve certain documents or write by hand. In a sense, using paper had also become a symbol of the "upper class."
The fact that the briefcase contained a notebook, Fountain Pens, and ink proved that this man's social status was not low.
He Ao had no idea why this man had come to see Dancer, but after searching through everything, he found nothing else.
"Are you looking for books?" The little boy watched He Ao's movements in confusion. He tilted his head, then ran a few steps away and waved at He Ao. "Come with me."
He Ao looked at him curiously, then picked up the notebook, Fountain Pens, and ink and followed him deeper into the building.
Along the way, they passed a burning fire pit. Many Homeless Men were gathered around it for warmth. They stared at the two of them like hungry beasts.
Then He Ao silently raised the gun in his hand, and the Homeless Men slowly turned their gazes away again.
After passing several such fire pits, the little boy finally brought He Ao to their destination.
It looked like a cramped storage room, secured with a large iron lock. Both the lock and door bore signs of having been smashed. Beside the door was a tiny ventilation window, so narrow that an adult could barely fit their head through it.
The window glass had already been broken. He Ao looked inside through the opening. The storage room was not large and was completely empty except for a worn overcoat and several bulging little bags.
"Wait here."
The little boy set down his toys and skillfully climbed through the window. He rummaged through one of the bags, and before long, took out two books. He ran over and waved them through the window. "Are these what you're looking for?"
He Ao looked carefully. They were two elementary school textbooks for lower grades. He nodded. "These are it!"
The little boy proudly hugged the books and climbed back through the window. He Ao reached out to catch him.
As he caught him, He Ao looked through the window. "You live here?"
"Yeah!"
The little boy patted off his clothes and handed the books to He Ao.
"Then why do you go all the way to Crown Casino?"
He Ao took the books and asked casually.
"Gamblers over there are generous when they win, and some little shops specifically do business with gamblers who lose everything. Food is really cheap at those shops. Besides, I don't have to pay for the bus."
The little boy spoke with great experience. He was only about a meter tall, while the fare line for buses in Dawn City was one meter ten.
He Ao flipped through the books the little boy had given him. Both were very new and looked as though they had rarely been opened. He was a little curious. "Where did you get such new books?"
"Some people came to hand out bread before, and they gave these out too. I thought they'd be pretty good for starting fires, so I took them.
"Afterward, they stopped giving them out and started teaching people to write instead. They only took children. You got one loaf of bread for attending a class. A bunch of weirdos.
"But they gave plenty of bread, and it tasted good. If you learned well, they even gave out toys as rewards. I liked them quite a lot."
The boy rubbed his chin and thought for a moment. "But later, they stopped coming so often. At first, it was once a week, then once every two weeks. Now they might not come even once every month or two."
He Ao flipped the book over and saw a line printed on the back: [Dawn Stray Children Relief Society, Donation Hotline: 010****375]
"They probably ran out of money."
He casually put the books away.
"By the way, why do you need these books?" The boy looked at He Ao in confusion. "Are you going to school too?"
"No." He Ao shook his head and opened the Character Panel again, looking at the "(Ander)" after his name. "To complete the mission."
This mission had finally reached its final stage.
Before you continue