Heh

"Max, get in the car!"

Sitting back in the driver's seat of Bumblebee, Li Si looked at the hesitant Max and smiled, "Don't worry, I'll drive slower this time. Before was just a speed test."

"It's not that..."

Max sat in the passenger seat, hesitating, "Li, I think I saw someone watching you earlier. You know me, I've always been sensitive to these things. Several people had their eyes on us the whole time..."

"Watching?"

Li Si instantly understood what Max meant.

It seemed some of these lawless players could no longer suppress their greed.

"Relax, Max. Don't forget that our ride is Bumblebee!"

Even though he understood the situation, Li Si comforted Max with a nonchalant shrug.

If they had tried to make a move last time, they might have had a chance, but now... Li Si could only chuckle to himself.

"That's true, I forgot about the big guy we're sitting in."

Reminded by Li Si, Max slapped his forehead and gave a goofy grin.

The car started up quickly, and Bumblebee sped off again, though Li Si intentionally drove a bit slower to accommodate Max's nerves.

However, they hadn't gone far when he saw a small white van following them in the rearview mirror. To make matters worse, the driver was trying to be sneaky by keeping the headlights off—a total rookie move.

"Someone really has a death wish!"

Li Si gave a helpless smile, pulled the car over to the side of the road, and stepped out with Max, leaning against the side of the vehicle to wait quietly.

Screech!

The white van behind them slammed on its brakes and came to a sudden halt.

Max, experiencing something like this for the first time, backed away nervously until he hit the body of Bumblebee, which helped him steady himself.

The players in the van behind them looked completely bewildered, never expecting their target to stop and wait for them.

"We thought it would take a lot of effort to force you to stop, but you actually pulled over yourselves!"

Six players climbed out of the white van.

"Oh, look at that, all familiar faces. Did you guys form a circus troupe?"

Once he saw them, Li Si was genuinely amused.

Aside from the flat-topped man with glasses leading them, whom he didn't recognize, he had dealt with all five of the others before.

First were the two goofy tall and short guys from a couple of days ago, followed by the three players he had beaten up at school last Friday. He hadn't expected them to be so persistent; they were still wearing casts and already out trying to rob people.

"I can't believe you actually remember us!"

The trio of street thugs looked at Li Si with pure hatred, raising three old revolvers and aiming them at him, "You think you're tough? Why don't you see if you can dodge bullets?"

"I actually can!"

Li Si raised an eyebrow with interest.

The trio of thugs grew furious at his response, their hands trembling as they held the revolvers, clearly on the verge of opening fire.

Just then, however, the flat-topped man with glasses—the one Li Si hadn't met—waved his hand to stop them.

"You're not an NPC, are you?"

The man adjusted his glasses, and his opening question caught Li Si off guard.

"What makes you think that?"

Li Si quickly regained his indifferent smile. He hadn't put any effort into hiding his status as a player anyway, so it was only natural he'd be found out.

Besides, it wasn't a big deal. He had only pretended to be a hidden game merchant to lure players to New York and provide a layer of insurance for his own safety during trades; that was no longer necessary.

"Heh, I wasn't sure at first, until I noticed this!"

The man with glasses gave a cold, mocking laugh and pointed to the top of his own head.

Only then did Li Si notice that the man had no green name floating above him.

So, he had discovered the name-hiding function.

It had taken them this long after the server opened to find that feature, yet the man was acting as if he had everything under control. Li Si didn't even know how to respond to that.

Did people really think wearing glasses made them look like a mastermind? It was more like a moron.

He rolled his eyes, "So? Are you here to rob me?"

"Heh, I guess you aren't completely stupid!"

The man with glasses gave another cold laugh, "Just tell me the crafting recipes for those two pieces of equipment, and I won't even take the money you earned last time!"

"Has anyone ever told you that you're incredibly punchable?"

Hearing that mocking laugh again, the veins on Li Si's forehead began to throb. He had completely lost his patience, and any thought of toying with these clowns had been tossed out the window.

"Heh, you want to hit me? You'll have to ask these guns in our hands first..."

"Bumblebee, Combat Mode!"

Li Si shouted with an expressionless face.

Clack! Clack-clack!

A continuous series of metallic clashing and grinding sounds rang out.

"Holy sh*t!"

"My god!"

"What the... hell..."

The flat-topped man with glasses and the other five players instinctively glanced toward the source of the sound, their eyes suddenly bulging out of their sockets and their mouths dropping open into "O" shapes.

It was a bright yellow, ordinary-looking sports car.

But now, limbs had sprouted from the undercarriage of the car, propping it up. The hood separated and shifted to its chest, and after a series of mechanical transformations, it stood as a massive robot over four meters tall—taller than a single story of a building.

"Is this the 'player' you kept going on about? Can a player pull off something like this?!"

Jack Frank, one of the trio of thugs, glared at the flat-topped man with gritted teeth; if looks could kill, the man would have been sliced into a thousand pieces by now.

The three of them were covered in injuries. They had known their limits and hadn't intended to come back for revenge, but if it weren't for the flat-topped man constantly baiting them with talk of "players" and "huge profits," they would be lying comfortably in a hospital bed right now.

"I..."

The flat-topped man was also starting to panic. He looked left and right, then forced himself to stay calm and stubbornly insisted, "Everything is still under my control. You can rest easy; he's an NPC, he wouldn't dare kill anyone inside the city!"

Seeming to convince himself with this improvised excuse, the flat-topped man's emotions actually steadied quite a bit. "Besides, we just need to hold someone at gunpoint and..."

"Is that so?"

Li Si snapped his fingers with a grin.

With a few more metallic clicks, the forearm armor on Bumblebee's arms abruptly split down the middle, ejecting two massive six-barreled Gatling guns. The micro-missile pods on both shoulders also popped open, revealing a dense array of cigar-sized missiles.

"..."