Watchdog

"Huh? Is this it?"

The video froze before Li Aoz explained the abilities of the "Mutant" in detail, abruptly ending the anticipation that had been building up. This left Lu Run feeling restless. "Wait a minute, I want to keep watching the plot. Why did it stop here? At least explain the abilities of the ' Mutant '! Once I've finished editing, I can use it directly as footage."

That being said, Lu Run had never seen such a powerful and impactful game storyline before.

In less than two hours of footage from the Nethermark Humanity Surveillance Center, the characters of Li Aoz, Nomi, and Qiu Ran were vividly portrayed.

"This [Mutant] Li Aoz is practically made for promoting the [Dominator] faction. Look at how smoothly he uses Aoneng, how freely he switches between abilities, and he even has the power to extract Aoneng from others—he'd be a protagonist in any other game, right?"

After watching the video, Lu Run was extremely excited. His mind was filled with thoughts of Li Aoz's movements and fighting style. Whether it was his aerial maneuvers, his stunningly beautiful sword dance, or even his wild and ferocious way of draining the enemy's life force, all of these demonstrated the characteristics of the [Dominator] type.

What do players want? Cool, powerful, and fun! Think about it, among the six systems, only the [Dominator] system has an initial class of only [Mutant]. In the past, it was thought that the population was not large enough and lacked appeal and potential.

But now, seeing how Li Aoz can switch between combat Aoneng so easily, and how he can be effective at both close and long range, the playability of this class has suddenly increased.

"You've finished watching?" Xue Nian and Luo Le hadn't watched the video carefully, but seeing Lu Run's excitement, they were curious:

"What exactly is the situation with that Li Aoz? Have you found out the cause and effect of his massacre of the Nethermark Humanity?"

"Hmm, I roughly know what it looks like."

Lu Run organized his thoughts and said, "The Nethermark Humanity is actually a research institution supported by the Frostplate Republic. Under the guise of Daoism, it is actually researching various biological and chemical weapons."

"Especially from the Outland and the Frostplate border cities, they intimidate the parties involved by speaking in the tone of ' Esha Infected,' so that the parties would voluntarily leave their hometowns and enter the Nethermark Humanity to receive treatment—that is, biochemical experiments."

"This video involves multiple factions. There are also some internal power struggles that I don't quite understand, but I can grasp some of them."

"The force behind the Nethermark Humanity — the Frostplate Law Enforcement Division Three Organizations—has been responsible for supporting the activities of the Nethermark Humanity. Its ultimate goal is to awaken the Aoneng of all women in Frostplate and consolidate women's political status."

"Currently, the Nethermark Humanity has developed a terrifying Esha Armed - each Esha Armed is modified from a child and is at least Alpha Rank, with Combat Power of level 20 or above."

"Nomi, Qiu Ran, Xue Nuo, and many other infected people, from young adults to infants, are all victims of the Nethermark Humanity experiments."

Upon hearing this, Luo Le couldn't help but lower his head and curse, "What a beast! How could he lay a hand on a child?"

"Even if the Nethermark Humanity really did these things, given Frostplate's nature, they won't admit it... On another note, what is Li Aoz's position? Nelia seems to have said that Li Aoz isn't a member of the Rose Army, right?" Xue Nian was concerned about this question.

After all, their mission objective was to help Li Aoz reveal the answer.

"I've read it several times. Li Aoz should be a member of the Red Arrow Empire, who has become a garbage collector in the Outland. He should be a chaotic neutral type of person, right?"

Lu Run wasn't sure either.

Although Li Aoz appears to have a lot of screen time and storyline, from their perspective, they never really know who the other person is.

"I suspect he might be a Main Storyline character in the [Dominator] faction, or even a professional mentor for the [Dominator] faction."

Xue Nian thought for a moment and then opened the Task Panel.

[Settlement Conditions]: A. Lawful Good - Wrong is wrong, capture/hunt down Li Aoz (Warning: Target is extremely dangerous, you do not meet the prerequisites) Reward: 1 million experience points, Primary Attribute +15 points.

"Judging from this, settlement condition A is clearly on Frostplate's side, so it's normal that the rewards are extremely generous."

B. Lawful Neutral – Right and wrong are irrelevant to me; justice resides in the hearts of the people. Investigate the truth about the Nethermark Humanity and Li Aoz (Your level is sufficient to complete this, and you must avoid engaging in combat with the target).

Rewards: 150,000 experience points, +1 point to Primary Attribute, +30 points to Li Aoz's Favorability;

"Looking at option B, based on the description, it seems to be a very neutral option. It doesn't antagonize Frostplate, nor does it completely side with the infamous Li Aoz. It simply reveals the truth. In my opinion, this is the most rational approach. It avoids a complete break with Frostplate and allows us to remain active within Frostplate's territory."

C. Lawful Evil – Although you're wrong, I'm no saint either. Team up with Li Aoz to wipe out all Bounty Hunter and Frostplate mercenaries, achieving 10% damage output. (You can easily complete this and avoid combat with the target.)

Rewards: 80,000 experience points, +50 Favorability with Li Aoz, and if you have not obtained the Main Class, you can unlock the [Mutant] class inheritance.

"Settlement condition C is quite interesting."

Xue Nian analyzed, pointing to the final reward and saying:

"Look, his mission rewards include unlocking the [Mutant] class. This fully demonstrates that Li Aoz has a close relationship with the [Mutant]. He is very likely the one who guided the players born from Frostplate to the [Dominator] path."

"That makes a lot of sense—it's truly a supercomputer; it's arranged everything perfectly."

Lu Run got excited again after thinking about it, "Hey, I suddenly remembered that the publicity team members of the other five systems haven't found a role similar to a professional mentor yet—doesn't that mean that as long as they follow Li Aoz, the players of the [Dominator] system will have much less pressure at the start?"

He glanced at the company's internal chat group during a break: as expected, everyone was working overtime to find mentors for each Main Class. Only the Heavenly Ring District had found a [Martial Artist] NPC from the [Destruction] profession and brought him over to serve as a promotional image; filming was underway.

"Then we need to speed things up."

Luo Le projected the map and glanced at the tired and weary GTB bounty hunters in the car—these outlaws were so blinded by the dream of upward mobility that they had no idea what kind of enemy they were about to face.

"We need to get ahead of these people and meet with Li Aoz. Otherwise, judging from the killing efficiency of this bastard in the video, it will be very difficult for us to communicate with him if a real fight breaks out."

Xue Nian nodded.

As game testers, they are subject to internal company requirements.

Players cannot join a faction, must be ahead of other players in level, cannot attack other players, cannot disclose information to outsiders, and so on.

If they can complete this task sooner, not only will they be able to leave work earlier, but Luo Le levels will also increase significantly. At that time, achieving their end-of-month goals will be much easier, and they won't have to work overtime every day.

"What should we do then?" Lu Run asked worriedly. "How can I film the footage if I don't have a close, one-on-one conversation with Li Aoz?"

"That's easy to say."

"Hmm?" Lu Run asked, puzzled.

"The video footage you have was taken from the Nethermark Humanity. If it's just for filming, we can change our approach—go directly to the P-205 Shelter in the Nethermark Humanity. It's only 30 kilometers away now. Searching, downloading, and editing the video will take less than forty minutes."

"Oh! But where are we going to get a vehicle..."

Xue Nian glanced at the GTB vehicle.

This transport vehicle was converted from an ordinary Frostplate unmanned bus. There was no real driver; it was controlled by a pre-written program. After all, what kind of good treatment could a bunch of Bounty Hunter expect—armored vehicle pick-up and drop-off, tanks, and Mobile Armor escorts? That's a bit of a pipe dream.

After glancing at Luo Le again, the old comrade-in-arms immediately understood his purpose.

Luo Le raised his hand and released a data cable, connecting it to the vehicle's air conditioning chip. His pupils immediately dilated, revealing the internal electronic camera, and a series of data codes flowed past his eyes.

"Although the firewall level is low, my RAM (memory) is insufficient to completely hack the car's controls—here's a solution: brake pads consume 15% of the memory, air conditioning consumes 17%, and the camera and location signals can be blocked. This way, the total memory consumption will only be 57%, how about that?"

Xue Nian nodded. "Don't be stingy, use the virus program we got last time we worked overtime."

"That's [Exquisite Craftsmanship] level, I haven't even figured out the Underlying Logic yet!" Luo Le muttered, "If the company didn't prohibit prisoners from trading game items, it would sell for at least 30,000 Derby points when it's released to players after the open beta."

"Trust me, it's worth the price."

Xue Nian slowly stood up, pretending to have been sitting for too long. He stretched and paced back and forth in the bus aisle, glancing at the other lazy Bounty Hunter. He then began communicating through the in-game voice chat:

"There are 21 people in this vehicle, all below level 10. Two of them are carrying military-grade rifles. I'll take control of the doors in a bit. You should lower the protective covers on the windows to prevent anyone from breaking through and jumping out."

"Alright, then you'd better watch your step." Luo Le nodded, then selected a virus package called "Master Scammer" from the program bar, dragged it over, and uploaded it to the vehicle.

"Huh? What are you two doing?" Lu Run was confused. The two of them were fine, so why did they suddenly start talking about something so strange?

"Hold on tight, photographer."

Luo Le grinned and gripped the handrail tightly. The upload progress bar quickly rose to 100%.

[Target has been hacked]

laugh--

The bus suddenly braked hard, the brakes slamming on, and the unsuspecting Bounty Hunter were instantly thrown from their seats, tumbling and scrambling around inside the bus.

"Damn it, what's going on? Has the AI rioted?"

A skilled Martial Artist was drinking beer when he stumbled and nearly fell in front of the car door, spilling his beer all over himself. He cursed and started to wipe the stains off when suddenly, a bear paw larger than a human head appeared in his field of vision.

"... Huh?"

He looked up in surprise and immediately saw Xue Nian's eyes—the latter's eyes were fierce, his irises glowed green, as if possessed by a demon, and his exposed, bulging muscles were immediately covered with a thick layer of brown bear skin.

"Go forth, you are a shaman—"

Splat!

Xue Nian raised his sharp claws and decisively snapped the Martial Artist's head off his neck, sending it flying.