The Trap

Not long after Wang Qianduo entered the city, a mysterious figure dressed head to toe in black crept up beside him and whispered:

"Sir, need a ride?"

Wang Qianduo: "..."

Why was a driver acting so mysterious? He'd thought the guy was selling bootleg discs!

What a letdown!

"No!" Wang Qianduo refused and walked straight ahead.

"Sir, I'm a private driver. Someone booked me, but they canceled at the last minute. I've already come all this way, so I can't just drive back empty-handed.

"How about this? If you take my car, I'll give you half off. What do you say?

"And I promise you'll be satisfied with the ride." The man kept pestering him, as if he'd set his sights on Wang Qianduo.

Wang Qianduo stopped, because something was off about this man. For an NPC, he was talking too much.

Which meant...

"Hello. Is there anything I can help you with?" Wang Qianduo asked with practiced ease—the classic line for accepting a quest.

Driver: "..."

This guy seemed to have a few screws loose!

"Uh, I need you to take a ride in my car. Will you?" he tried asking.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go! I'm heading to the Task Hall in the city center."

The NPCs called players "recruits," but that was only because most players couldn't get anywhere near the military.

The Task Hall was the first place most players headed after arriving in a new location, and the Black Shark Pirates' Secret Hideout quest started there.

"Please, get in!"

The driver led Wang Qianduo to a black car and said,

"Everyone else's cars are red or white. Why's yours black?" Wang Qianduo asked, eyeing the car in front of him.

"This is a private car!"

"Is that so?"

"It is!"

Wang Qianduo glanced at him and said no more. He got straight into the car, which already looked a little old.

And he expected people to be satisfied with this?

The driver got in right away and started the car. After driving for a while, he turned on the radio. With a car around, radio would never go out of style!

"This is News 7080. Here are today's headlines: multiple incidents of unlicensed drivers robbing passengers in our city..."

"Channel 3065... The victims said the drivers were driving a battered black car..."

"Channel 3014... An investigation has found that the perpetrator behind the recent murders committed by unlicensed drivers is a pirate from the Black Shark Pirate Group..."

"Channel 2333... Stay safe when you travel. Don't ride in unlicensed cars..."

"Damn it!" The driver switched through six channels in a row, and every single one was reporting on unlicensed drivers robbing visitors from out of town.

He angrily smacked the radio, trying to turn it off, but the battered old thing stopped working altogether.

He glanced sadly at his radio, then at Wang Qianduo, who was sitting there with his eyes closed, looking perfectly calm.

Stupid radio stations! So many officials had died in Fairy City recently, and they didn't report on that. Instead, they kept focusing on a handful of them. What the hell!

How many people had they actually killed? It was such a pain now that their connections had been wiped out!

At least they knew how to pick their targets. They only went after people who looked like rich outsiders with no backing.

Who knew how long they'd keep reporting on them? Good thing this time's mark was dumb and naive enough!

"Driver, are we going the right way?"

The question startled the driver so badly that he nearly lost control of the wheel.

Hadn't he fallen asleep?

"Yes. We're taking a side road. The main road's jammed right now."

"Oh! Then why is it so deserted?"

"It's a side road. That's normal."

"All right!"

Wang Qianduo didn't press him too hard. He just sat quietly as the car took him to an abandoned factory in the middle of nowhere.

Even in a bustling city like Fairy City, places like this still existed on the outskirts.

"We're here! Get out!" Once they entered the abandoned factory, the driver sounded a lot more confident.

"We're here? This isn't the Task Hall." Wang Qianduo said it even though he already knew.

But he was a terrible actor. He couldn't manage to look nervous, and he even thought he'd done a great job.

"Not bad, you've got guts! What crew are you with?" Someone called out his act. Wang Qianduo followed the voice and saw a bald man with a shark tattoo on his head approaching with a group of men.

"Hmm... Huarong Path!"

Bald Man: "... Why not say you're Guan Yu while you're at it? Huarong Path, for crying out loud!"

"You know about Lord Guan, too!"

"Of course! Everyone in our line of work worships Lord Guan.

"Bah... Is that what I'm talking about? Kid, hand over everything valuable, and I'll spare your—"

Bang!

The bald man started walking toward Wang Qianduo, but before he could finish speaking, a gunshot rang out.

He was flung backward, blood pooling across the ground. He was clearly done for.

Back in the car, Wang Qianduo had asked Zero to investigate this bunch.

They were real scumbags. Robbery, human trafficking, murder—they did it all.

Why had so many channels in Fairy City been broadcasting news about them? To distract people from the massacre of the city's officials.

And why had they chosen to focus on this particular gang? Because their crimes were serious enough.

Their crimes were also tangled up with those who'd been killed, sending a message from the people who were left.

Wang Qianduo held up his Desert Eagle, watching the scene with a cold expression. The game's realism was on full display, and he felt as if he'd really shot someone.

But for some reason, he wasn't bothered by it at all.

He looked at the others. They'd been terrified by the sudden turn of events, and when they saw Wang Qianduo's gaze, their first instinct was to run.

But how could anyone outrun a bullet?

After a rapid series of gunshots, only the driver who'd brought Wang Qianduo there was left.

Wang Qianduo calmly reloaded his Desert Eagle as he watched him. The man didn't have a Mana Mech, so Wang Qianduo wasn't worried about him doing anything.

Only the bald man had a Mana Mech. But he'd died too suddenly, and none of his underlings had one.

Unlike players, the native NPCs had only about a one-in-a-thousand chance of awakening a Mana Mech.

Most of them didn't have one, which was why the henchmen in Instance Dungeons drove Artificial Mechas.

The driver saw Wang Qianduo reloading and knew this was his only chance. He charged at him with a ferocious look on his face.

Wang Qianduo kicked him flying with a single blow. When Unit Zero evolved, Wang Qianduo's body had also undergone an Epic enhancement, bringing him close to the limits of human ability.

Otherwise, how could he have fired a Desert Eagle, with its enormous recoil, over and over again?

"I'll give you a chance. Take me to the Black Shark Pirates behind you, and I'll let you go!" Wang Qianduo walked over to the man he'd kicked to the ground and pointed his gun at the man's head.

"Big brother... spare me... please! The Black Shark Pirates' leader behind me... Sharkface Billick... you already k-killed him!

"We all followed him. I don't know if there's anyone else behind him!"

The driver had been so frightened by Wang Qianduo that he'd wet himself. He seemed to be telling the truth. Who'd have thought that one random shot would take out a mini-boss?

Bang!

Once he realized the driver was useless to him, Wang Qianduo shot him dead. Considering what these men had done, they all deserved to die, and Wang Qianduo had no intention of sparing them.

What would he keep them for? New Year's?

But after killing them and picking up the key dropped by the leader, Wang Qianduo realized he'd acted rashly. He didn't know how to drive!

Now that he was stranded in the middle of nowhere, how was he supposed to get back?

"Zero, do you know how to drive?"

"I do, but this car is too old. It doesn't have self-driving capabilities."

"Then what should I do?"

"I suggest you try summoning your Mecha, then wait right here."

"Is it really that simple?"

Wang Qianduo tried Zero's suggestion, and soon three Mechas came flying over.

After checking out the situation, they contacted someone and "escorted" him to the Police Station in the center of Fairy City.

Wang Qianduo repeatedly insisted he'd acted in self-defense and that the dead men were Black Shark Pirates who'd been completely out of control. But the police still gave him a present.

Summoning a Mecha in the city was a serious crime.

"So this is the great idea you gave me?" Wang Qianduo sat in the police car, looking at the high-tech "present" on his wrists as he spoke to Zero.

But Zero didn't answer. These Handcuffs could block Mechas and backpacks, and Zero had been locked away inside them, too.

"You totally screwed me over!"

T_T