Current Mission Evaluation Settlement... Your mission evaluation: S
He Ao lowered his head and looked at the detailed mission evaluations below.
Suspect Tracking Completion Evaluation: S (You successfully predicted Mu Xiu's movements and established communication with Mu Xiu.) Investigation Results Completion Evaluation: S (You successfully deduced why Mu Xiu entered Dawn City and received Mu Xiu's tacit acknowledgment.) Side Mission Completion Evaluation: A (You injured Dancer and, to a certain extent, helped thwart the Witchcraft Church's sacrificial scheme.) Hidden Mission Completion Evaluation: SSS (You perfectly completed Ander's revenge: the thug was dead, and Dancer was imprisoned.) Your overall evaluation: S
Judging by the mission evaluations from the previous newbie mission, the first two should have been the Main Missions.
Although the system had issued the mission to "investigate why Mu Xiu, priest of the God of Chaos, came to Dawn City," it seemed that simply guessing the answer was not enough to complete it. He also needed Mu Xiu to confirm it in person.
So when He Ao had initially guessed that Mu Xiu had come to Dawn City while pursuing Dancer, he had not received a mission complete prompt. Only after confirming it with Mu Xiu had he received one.
Of course, it seemed this confirmation did not require Mu Xiu to directly admit it. Tacit acknowledgment was enough.
And to find Mu Xiu for that face-to-face confirmation, He Ao had needed to accurately predict Mu Xiu's movements. Thus, the two Main Missions had been completed.
The Side Mission appeared to be tied to the Witchcraft Church's scheme. But when it came to thwarting that scheme, He Ao had not played much of a role. He had merely managed to survive against Dancer, injured her, and delayed her movements to some extent. The one who had truly crushed the Witchcraft Church was Smith.
Overall, this first official mission had not actually been difficult. Predicting Mu Xiu's actions and figuring out why he had entered Dawn City had both been easy, and He Ao had even had Selina as backup.
As long as He Ao had brought Selina, that powerful bodyguard, along when confronting Mu Xiu at the end, they definitely could have captured Mu Xiu by combining the strength of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Dawn City Police Department.
But if he had done that, he would not have been able to complete "revenge."
So he had chosen to face Mu Xiu alone. And it had not merely been his choice; it had also been "Ander's" choice.
Theoretically speaking, Mu Xiu had attacked He Ao first.
As an investigator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, He Ao had the right to kill someone who violently resisted law enforcement.
Well, it was legal.
However, among the four mission evaluations, He Ao's previous results had been S, A, A, SSS, while this time they were S, S, A, SSS. One A had become an S, yet his overall evaluation remained S. It seemed that once one reached S, improving the overall evaluation further became difficult.
As He Ao considered the mission evaluations, the text in his field of vision continued to change.
Settling Mission Rewards. Original mission reward: Basic Firearms Introduction Because your overall mission evaluation is S, and an individual mission evaluation reached Rank SSS, your reward has triggered a deluxe critical hit. Refreshing rewards for you. Refresh successful. Please choose two of the following three rewards: 1. Basic Firearms Proficiency 2. Soul Recovery Potion (with container) 3. Gauss Pistol (ten-round full magazines)
Two out of three. Last time, it had been one out of three.
None of the individual items seemed as good as the previous Talent Sequence, Mechanical Modification, or Vermillion Fruit, so this time the system had simply allowed him to choose two.
He Ao looked at the three rewards.
This mission had been relatively simple, so the original reward, "Basic Firearms Introduction," had seemed rather poor as well. Yet after the critical hit, the improvement in the reward seemed significant. He wondered whether that was because he had exceeded the requirements for the Hidden Mission, "revenge."
At that moment, He Ao's soul was still somewhat weak. He had fought Mu Xiu for roughly a minute, which meant he had forcibly unleashed Hyperthymesia for a full minute as well. Burning life force for temporary pleasure, cremation afterward.
Although the consumption of burning life force had decreased somewhat after Hyperthymesia advanced to E-rank, and he seemed to have received some soul feedback upon returning that replenished around two-thirds of what he had expended, he was still in a weakened state.
So for the first item, he chose "Soul Recovery Potion (with container)" without hesitation. As for the second item, he did not hesitate either and chose "Basic Firearms Proficiency." The reason was simple: in Central Land, possessing a firearm without authorization was illegal, so the Gauss Pistol was immediately eliminated.
He Ao was a law-abiding good man.
As for what use Basic Firearms Proficiency was without a gun...
In an emergency, disarming a criminal and using the weapon in self-defense was legal.
But that kind of maneuver was dangerous. Most criminals were vicious, and trying to seize a weapon during a struggle could easily fast-forward straight to a funeral. So most of the time, He Ao would choose to protect himself first and call the police.
As He Ao made his choice, the words in his field of vision gradually vanished.
What followed was a massive torrent of information suddenly flooding into his mind. In that instant, He Ao felt as though his already weakened soul were about to explode. But compared to the impact of the God of Knowledge, it was not particularly strong, so He Ao's consciousness remained clear and stable.
The sensation of impact quickly faded, and countless images echoed through He Ao's mind. After briefly observing them, he realized that they were Ander's training memories.
At the same time, as those memories replayed, He Ao felt a strange power permeate his body, altering some of his neurons.
Very quickly, it was forging his "conditioned reflexes"—his bodily memories.
As the memories in his mind fused with his body's memories, He Ao felt as though he had gained another life, one spent training diligently. He now understood firearm disassembly, assembly, maintenance, and use inside out. He could even perform certain shooting motions without thinking.
However, firearms in the Copy World still differed somewhat from those in the Main World, so He Ao could not directly apply these memories to using firearms from the Main World. But with this experience, mastering Main World firearms should not be difficult.
After all, the fundamentals were the same.
After He Ao digested the knowledge of Basic Firearms Proficiency, a silver test tube appeared in his hand. Transparent liquid glowing with a faint Purple Radiance rested quietly inside.
This silver test tube looked somewhat like the one that had held the "waiter's" secret medicine before. He Ao raised it and gave it a shake. It could not be said that they were unrelated; they were exactly the same.
The test tube that had held the secret medicine could contain extraordinary substances. He wondered whether this one could as well. If it could, then in a sense, this test tube was also a treasure, wasn't it?
He Ao carefully examined the test tube. Its design was simple, sealed with a brown cork that carried a faint, refreshing fragrance.
He Ao had never smelled that scent before and did not know whether it came naturally from the cork. But after it entered his nose, he could clearly feel his exhausted mind improve somewhat.
He pulled out the cork, slipped it into his pocket, then slowly brought the opened test tube to his lips.
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