Gambit

[Discovered something interesting, so contacted you ahead of schedule!]

[Regarding a certain mental simulation game in Newest City, I've found its system to be robust and unbreakable, even burning out some interesting components in the process.]

[So I'm planning to meet you once, although it's a rather risky move for me. If you can successfully hack into its main server...]

[Then I think this game will most likely end with your victory.]

[But that's not very likely. After all, if you were far better than me, you would have successfully ferreted me out long ago, wouldn't you?]

[You have half a day to prepare. Tonight at 7:30 PM, Area 13 of a certain public space. I'll be there for an hour. The code is the joint operation from three months ago.]

[Don't disappoint me, Sun.]

[--Your 'loyal' partner]

Mu You stared blankly at the decrypted message in front of her, and not just any kind of blankly. She felt like her whole person was not well!

To make it easier for the two of them to not have to rely on high-difficulty temporary conflicts as the only means of communication every time, the two who formed 'Black Sun' randomly selected a low-end phishing site as a message board, agreeing to exchange information on it every once in a while, and discuss matters other than attacking each other.

Of course, if there was really nothing to say, a simple message like 'The weather is nice today' would also be okay.

To this day, countless large-scale hacking operations have been negotiated and communicated in this extremely low-level place.

And while leaving messages for each other, they would also try to make things difficult for each other. The content was written in code, and the corresponding codebooks were mostly recent chapters, magazines, and gossip, but occasionally there would be things like the Bible, the Xinhua Dictionary, or famous novels to increase the difficulty.

Fortunately, the decryption method for the message that CK left Mu You was relatively simple, just a newspaper column from two days ago. Obviously, he didn't want her to waste time on that.

Because the content itself didn't leave her much time...

"7:30 tonight... Area 13 of a certain public space... A certain mental simulation game in Newest City..." Mu You stared intently at the computer screen, gently pursed her lips, and whispered, "What the hell are you doing! Are you deliberately trying to confuse my thoughts, or..."

She glanced back at the tracking program that was only halfway done, and murmured, "Or did I misunderstand from the beginning? Or maybe it's a trap or something, damn it!"

Mu You frantically rolled off the bed, rolled around on the soft carpet, rubbed her cute baby face hard, and after fussing for a while, she got up with messy hair and directly hacked into the backend of that phishing site, using a pager input format to leave a message.

[I'll be there, and please spare me the brain-dead hints like 'the game in Newest City'. It's obviously too simplistic!!!]

"Phew~" After typing, Mu You squatted back in her chair, directly terminated the tracking program, and then simultaneously played her favorite new anime, old anime, and... uh, not that kind on the surrounding screens.

While watching the anime, she was rapidly thinking about the whole thing. The power struggle between her and CK had been going on for many years. Although she didn't know if the other side had made any progress, Mu You had indeed gained a lot, and had even locked onto some highly suspicious targets.

Among them was Mo Tan...

Although she only knew what he looked like and the possibility wasn't high, Mu You still included him on her list of suspects. It was simple, because she found that this person's information was a bit problematic, and even things like his residential address weren't registered online.

Although it was just some oddities, Mu You still remembered his face.

However, although she had some suspicions, she didn't pay too much attention to it. After all, the girl's suspect list had at least a thousand people, of different races and genders from all over the world, so she didn't care too much.

Until...

She met Mo Tan in Innocent World. Shuangye almost immediately tested this priest who didn't seem to have modified his appearance at all.

First, she immediately went offline to set up countless 'baits', and then subtly revealed that she was Black Sun during their second meeting, while having the AI continuously monitor the network situation.

And the result overjoyed her. The fake information that Type VI temporarily made was accessed more than three million times in one day. She was overjoyed when she just learned this news, and was preparing to conduct further verification... and even invited herself to meet in the public space of [Innocent World], and seemed to completely unaware that she had already started playing the game, thinking that he was the first person to try to break through Innocent World's firewall.

What the hell is this?!?!

Although she replied that the other party's hint was too lacking in technical content, Mu You knew very well that finding this game was originally very simple. The real difficulty was getting a set of equipment directly in one afternoon, so that she could log in to [Innocent World] at 7:30 PM sharp. She definitely wouldn't have time to make that thing herself.

And two days after the server opened, the popularity of this game had already set off a frenzy. It wasn't easy to buy a game pod immediately without an appointment anywhere in the world, but in the city where Mu You was located, the reservation records she found were already scheduled for two days later, and most other places were the same.

The conditions set by CK were very harsh.

However...

The girl turned her head and looked at a 'game pod' in the corner of the room, based on a bathtub and with a large number of peripherals and cables added, feeling particularly speechless.

She had already spent a whole day two days ago referring to a large amount of data to make such a thing.

And she had indeed told that priest named 'Hei Fan' about this. "It's getting more and more confusing~" Mu You pushed her glasses, put her two slender legs (as usual) on the table, and pouted, "Forget it, I'll know after I meet him~ Going to the public space at 7:30 tonight is fine... Huh!?"

She suddenly covered her small mouth and exclaimed, "Wait! If it's 7:30 tonight..."

Mo Tan was sitting in front of the computer leisurely drinking coffee, well, the instant kind.

A few minutes ago, the overwhelming targeted attacks and searches from Sun had completely ceased. A large-scale offensive ended like this, but Mo Tan himself was not surprised at all. After receiving the reply, he had already determined that the girl named Shuangye in the game was Sun herself, and was probably in a state of slight confusion at the moment, completely the same as the result he had expected.

Now all that was left was to put on a 'good show'.

"A brain-dead hint..." Mo Tan blinked as he looked at the message in front of the screen, "If there wasn't this, it would actually hint you more things, right."

He drank the coffee in his hand in one gulp, turned off the computer and walked back to the sofa and sat down, closing his eyes with a slightly playful expression.

There was still a lot of time, and there were still some details that needed to be perfected, and it had to be the kind that he could easily do even in his other personality.

7:00 PM

[Your mental connection has been detected, synchronizing personal information...]

[Connection complete, reading character information]

[Welcome back, Absolutely Neutral Hei Fan, loading Innocent World, good night]

Mo Tan appeared in a corner of the military camp, not where he logged off, but in a deserted area with no one around, not far from the Fenrir Squad's location.

"So you appear nearest to where you logged off, in a place unnoticed by other NPCs..." Mo Tan softly repeated what he'd seen on the forums, nodding to himself, "That's quite convenient."

It was just dawning in the game, and most of the Autonomous Army camp was resting, so it looked particularly deserted. However, it was almost time for the Fenrir Squad to assemble.

After getting his bearings, Mo Tan walked briskly towards his post and soon saw Ned and the others checking their weapons and equipment in front of the barracks.

"You're here?" Yinna, with the sharpest eyes, inserted a few arrows into her quiver and greeted Mo Tan loudly, "Hurry up, hurry up, we're about to set off."

Ned glared at her, "Keep your voice down, some people are still resting, and we're going on patrol! Not a picnic!"

"Tch, those lazybones who are still sleeping at this hour don't have the right to complain about others being noisy!" Yinna stuck out her tongue and retorted, "Besides, a routine patrol is no different from a picnic, isn't it peaceful lately?"

"If only that were true, you're not the only one who wants to take it easy here." Ned shrugged at her, then turned to Mo Tan and asked, "Do you need any weapons?"

Mo Tan smiled mysteriously, took out the scripture that cost 20 copper coins, and shook it, "This will do. Surely you wouldn't make a priest like me charge into the front lines, would you?"

Crab, who was sharpening his axe, looked up at him, casually took a spiked hammer from the shelf behind him, and grinned, "Take this, it's free from the army anyway. If you don't like it, sell it later and buy me a drink."

"That's against regulations..." Ned said weakly, then whispered to Mo Tan, who picked up the spiked hammer, "Unless you include me when you drink. There's a weapon shop in the south of the city that recycles these things, you should know that, right..."

Mo Tan chuckled, hefting the spiked hammer in his hand, and nodded, "I know, I know. By the way, where's Shuangye?"

He hadn't forgotten that in other people's eyes, he was someone who owned property in Rockpile City. It would be too strange if he didn't even know that there was a blacksmith shop in the south of the city...

The problem now was, why hadn't Shuangye arrived yet!?

She wouldn't be planning to ditch everyone just to meet me in a public space, would she! That would be difficult to handle...

"Not yet." Ned spread his hands, "She doesn't live in the military camp like you. It's not easy for a girl, especially a mage, to get up so early."

At this moment, a lazy voice suddenly rang out from behind them, "I just ate breakfast a little longer, please don't underestimate girls~~"

Shuangye rubbed her eyes and slowly walked over, pouting at Ned in dissatisfaction, "And I shouldn't be late, right? Captain?"

"No, there are still a few minutes left." Ned smiled awkwardly, "I wasn't talking about you behind your back, oh."

Shuangye tilted her head noncommittally, then tugged at Mo Tan's sleeve and whispered, "Come over here for a second..."

She pulled him aside.

"What's the matter?" Mo Tan looked at the girl in front of him with a very suspicious expression and asked, "And why do you look like you haven't woken up yet?"

Shuangye stared at him for a while before waving her hand indifferently, "It's about work, let's not talk about that. Can you do me a favor?"

"A favor?" Mo Tan blinked, "If I can handle it, I don't mind."

"It's not a big deal." Shuangye said with a grin, "I have some work to do in reality later, you're good with words, can you discuss it with Ned and cover for me?"

Mo Tan scratched his head, "Cover for you?"

"Yesterday I asked the captain about the specific patrol tasks." Shuangye said quickly, "Logically, you and the captain should be in a group to inspect the mines in the wilderness south of the city, Salazar and Crab, those two with distorted aesthetics, should go to the west to see if those dog-whatever-people's two tribes are peaceful, and Yinna and I should go to recharge the magic crystal lamps on the northern road."

Mo Tan nodded and asked, "And then?"

"Priests have mana, right? Even without me, you should be able to help recharge them, so..." Shuangye looked at Mo Tan expectantly, "Can you ask for leave for me and go there instead?"

Smart!

Mo Tan praised inwardly, but his face remained inscrutable as if he was pondering, and after a while, he nodded, "I think there shouldn't be any problem."

"Hehe~" Shuangye smiled somewhat forcedly, "By the way, why did you suddenly log off yesterday? Without even saying goodbye."

Mo Tan immediately showed an embarrassed expression, turning his head away unnaturally.

"What's going on~" Shuangye certainly didn't let him go, and immediately asked, "Could it be about the Black Su..."

"Actually." Mo Tan smiled a little embarrassedly, "I had a stomachache..."

"..."

"What's with that expression?"

"Nothing, I just feel like an idiot."

"Oh..."

Then Mo Tan helped Shuangye, who had low social skills, ask Ned for leave, and the reason was simply glossed over with something about family matters.

Ned was also a relatively humane guy and nodded in agreement without much hesitation. Anyway, this kind of small-scale patrol task wasn't a big deal and didn't need to be taken too seriously.

"Alright then." He nodded, "Then Hei Fan, you and Yinna go to the North Avenue to help. Actually, our squad didn't have this task originally, but now that we have a spellcaster, Gart asked us to go and routinely recharge the lamps. How about this, I'll go to the mines alone."

Shuangye smiled sweetly, "Thank you, Captain~"

Then she trotted out of the military camp, and soon Mo Tan saw the offline notification from his friend Shuangye.

A few minutes later, the Fenrir Squad set off in groups. Almost as soon as they stepped out of the north gate of Rockpile City, Mo Tan leaned over to Yinna, who was humming a little tune beside him...

"Um, Sister Yinna... can you use mana?"

Chapter 14: The End

/47/4ml The fastest updated novel site!