Reminder

Now that's sexual harassment!

While Su Shijie was taking the money, the woman in the shirt viciously grabbed one side of his ass. She stormed off, flashing them the middle finger behind her back.

Having already collected the money, Su Shijie hesitated. It seemed that according to city regulations, he really couldn't charge her any more.

Sure enough, anyone who could make a living in that line of work had some skill. She knew how to exploit the rules thoroughly.

"Hero, you're awesome!"

An excited voice came from beside him. The little blond's nostrils flared as he kept huffing hot air, his face filled with excitement.

His originally passable face looked so punchable like this that it made people want to hit him on sight.

The two bodyguards beside him followed over helplessly. Judging from their positions, they were still guarding against Su Ren, as though the lazy-looking disabled old man put them under immense pressure.

Looking sideways at the little blond, who was practically pressing his face against his own, Su Shijie felt it would be better not to get too involved with him.

He seemed to hold some status in the city, and the fact that he hadn't beaten or killed that woman showed that his personality wasn't quite as bad as his earlier "this lord, this lord" attitude suggested.

But there was something wrong with his head.

"Sir, it's already very late. We need to rest."

Su Shijie said coolly.

"Okay, okay, get some rest, get some rest. My name's Chuan Ziliu. Hero, come find me when you have time. There isn't an entertainment venue in Prosperous City that I don't know. My Personal Terminal's city communication number is 134131..."

Only when the door closed did that incessant chatter finally stop.

Su Ren had been watching how Su Shijie handled things from the side. After they returned to the room, he nodded as well.

"You handled it well. But there was no need to take those 7,000 Credit Points in the end. Someone who set their sights on people from the City Lord's Mansion—even if he was only from a collateral branch—would definitely have some connections. At the very least, he's a local snake.

"We made appointments, registered, and paid through self-service the whole way. There wasn't a single manual step. Yet she knew we had just entered the city and casually used that as evidence. That means she has a direct contact in the city guard department, someone who could promptly look us up in the system and relay the information back to her."

Although Su Ren said that, the fact that he hadn't stopped him from the beginning showed it wasn't much of a problem.

His son had grown up. Sooner or later, he would have to stand on his own. Su Ren only needed to let him make his own choices while fulfilling his responsibility to offer reminders from the side.

"That does seem right. It won't cause any trouble, will it?"

After hearing his father say that, Su Shijie felt it made sense. She hadn't been targeting the two of them. She had probably happened to be fishing for targets at this hotel, looked them up, discovered their rooms could be used, and come over directly.

That meant she had direct contact with her informant in the city guard department. The information probably hadn't passed through anyone else in between.

"In most cases, no. There's nothing to gain from it. In the adult world, pure spite usually only happens when it's convenient.

"Besides, your old man isn't helpless. I can handle a minor issue like this. It's only a reminder, not something I truly care about..."

Su Ren smiled.

Given his son's special circumstances, there would come a day when Su Ren's perspective and experience could no longer keep up with him. He might even mislead him.

So he needed to cultivate Su Shijie's ability to be independent. Unfortunately, his son had previously been like a salted fish, spending every day immersed in games. Starting now was probably a little rushed.

"How did you know he was from the City Lord's Mansion, Dad? Just because his surname is Chuan?"

"That's one reason. His name sounds familiar. His father should be Chuan Zitao, a late-stage Level Seven Awakened Rank, with Knight Bloodline. He's the Prosperous Sky City trade office representative stationed in Binhai City."

Su Ren's words left Su Shijie clicking his tongue in amazement.

Now that his immersion had been completed, his father's memory naturally wouldn't be poor. But even so, the fact that he had specifically paid attention to the name of the son of someone inferior to himself revealed something about how his father normally handled matters.

At the very least, if it were Su Shijie, even though he could almost claim to have a photographic memory, he wouldn't pay attention to many trivial things that didn't matter. For example, he couldn't even name all the students from the other Advanced Classes.

Yet his father remembered the name of a collateral branch son from Prosperous Sky City who didn't visit often.

"It's just a habit of gathering information and intelligence. You never know when it might become useful, and it doesn't take any special effort or time."

Su Ren slowly imparted some of his experience in dealing with people.

Thinking about it, Su Shijie realized that was true. As long as they paid a little attention, their processing power would preserve an impression without needing them to deliberately memorize anything. When they needed it, they could recall it.

He would need to pay more attention to gathering information in the future too. Who knew when it might come in handy?

And so, just when Su Shijie thought he could spend the night peacefully, he was awakened once more by whispers in his ear that night.

'Slaughter... Dark Light... blood...'

There really were Evil God Cultists!

Right inside the city!

"You heard it again?"

Su Shijie's sudden awakening also roused Su Ren, who had remained vigilant the entire time. Seeing Su Shijie's expression, he roughly understood what had happened.

"Prosperous City has a population of over seven million, and the population density is high. Evil God Cultists occasionally appearing isn't strange at all. Compared with the wilderness, it's far more normal."

Unlike the last time, when Su Ren had stayed awake all night, this time he merely paid attention for a moment before lying back down.

"Tomorrow, after we finish handling the documents and buying what we need, I'll submit the intelligence about the suspicious people we encountered in the wilderness. This time, you really don't need to worry too much."

After hearing his father's words, Su Shijie relaxed. Still, he hadn't realized Prosperous City had a population of over seven million. In terms of land area, it wasn't on the scale of those super-metropolises.

But when he thought of those towering modular buildings and how the city fully utilized vertical space, it seemed normal enough.

Still, if he kept hearing these strange voices every so often, wouldn't he eventually develop neurasthenia?

Lost in wild thoughts, Su Shijie sank into the soft bed and slowly drifted off to sleep...

Early the next morning, Su Ren woke Su Shijie, had him pack up his things, and headed to the administrative building next door.

The administrative building looked somewhat like the Pentagon from the outside, housing all of Prosperous City's various government departments under one roof.

The pass authorization process was simple enough. Su Ren already had C-1 clearance, so he did not even need to queue. He went straight in through a special passage, then shut Su Shijie inside a small room.

All he had to do was use the danger instincts unique to the Awakened Rank to dodge a few rubber bullets.

The whole process took less than ten minutes, and his Personal Terminal had already been granted C-3 clearance.

"That easy?"

"It was that easy. After all, they had to account for Awakened Rank individuals who advanced through drugs.

"But that was only C-3. C-2 required tests of parameters like strength and speed. Awakened Rank Level Four could generally obtain it.

"For C-1, you also had to demonstrate actual combat ability. You could choose different assessment methods based on your own strengths. It was usually obtainable at Awakened Rank Level Seven. Most Floating Cities had similar evaluation methods—it was considered a default standard.

"Also, C-level clearance like this was generally universal. That meant we should have no problems in most other Floating Cities, too."

Hearing his father's explanation, Su Shijie mulled it over. There might also be assessment items for non-combat specialties. For example, Awakened Rank individuals who had advanced through drugs might have a question bank resembling an exam.

At the same time, though, it showed the prevailing worldview of this world: people considered it perfectly natural to divide society into privileged classes based on ability.

From the Awakened Rank onward, one was already above ordinary people...

"Most ordinary goods here can be bought directly by connecting your Personal Terminal to the city intranet. Drones will deliver them right to your door.

"But for weapons, we'll have to make the trip ourselves. The same goes for exchanging those four remaining bottles of Awakened Rank potion you have."

After leaving the administrative building, Su Ren expertly booked a self-driving hover taxi.

Just as they reached the street entrance from the administrative building, the reserved hover taxi descended from the sky, landed before them, and automatically opened its doors.

It looked incredibly cool, but so was its starting fare. Getting in cost at least 40 Credit Points. Considering the purchasing power of Credit Points, ordinary people probably would not use one unless they had something urgent to do.

The rail car only cost 2 Credit Points for the whole trip.

Still, his father had casually picked the 580-credit suite last night instead of the 320-credit standard room. And considering how much Su Shijie could earn from gaming alone, this expense really was nothing.

As Su Shijie worked out the numbers in his head, the taxi rose from the ground and flew forward, gradually picking up speed.

The buildings on either side and the other hover vehicles swept backward in a blur. Most of the buildings had been "assembled" in a modular fashion, giving them a different kind of grandeur.

Compared with the Pentagon-like administrative building, once they entered the main road, the feeling of a "steel forest" became even stronger. It had an imposing severity that the dazzling splendor of the city at night lacked...