"Wait! Let me explain!"
William was thrown out of the Western restaurant, looking utterly despondent. He had a hundred thousand dollars now and wanted to treat himself, so the first thing he'd planned to do was enjoy a nice meal—like having a steak.
He'd gone to the restaurant and painstakingly read through the entire menu before finally ordering an expensive steak. The prices were all outrageous, far beyond anything William could have dreamed of affording in the past.
But now he was loaded. He could afford it without even having to think twice. The waiter had been very attentive, and William couldn't help wanting to tip him. But the moment he pulled out a stack of hundred-dollar bills, the waiter glanced at them and rolled his eyes.
"Sorry, sir, your money is counterfeit!"
William froze. What was going on? His money was fake?
William had gotten rich just last night, so of course he didn't believe it. He asked the waiter to bring over a bill checker, and it turned out not a single bill in the stack was real.
William couldn't believe his eyes. When he'd left home that morning, he'd just grabbed a random stack of cash. If those bills were all counterfeit, then the hundred thousand dollars in the briefcase had to be fake too.
He'd thought he was about to strike it rich, but it had all been wishful thinking. Who would've guessed that the Skull Gang's secret briefcase contained a hundred thousand dollars in counterfeit bills?
Surprised? Shocked?
"Damn it!" He couldn't help hurling the money to the floor, feeling completely disoriented.
At least the steak he'd ordered hadn't arrived yet. Otherwise, he'd have been washing dishes in the kitchen. After the manager learned he'd been trying to dine and dash, he smiled faintly and had the security guards politely throw him out.
Back home, William took all the bills out of the briefcase and spread them across the floor. He sifted through them, staring at the sea of fake money before him, close to tears.
That morning, he'd woken up happily planning how to spend the hundred thousand. But reality had slapped him hard in the face.
Stop dreaming, kid. You're not going to get rich overnight. Just accept your fate!
Just then, William remembered the Skull Gang's main quest. It required him to uncover a secret. He'd assumed the secret had something to do with the briefcase—perhaps the hundred thousand dollars inside it.
But now he knew the bills were fake. That meant the Skull Gang's secret had to be something else!
"I guess I'm just unlucky..." William sighed. "Athena, I've completed my main quest. What exactly is the Skull Gang's secret?"
"I can't tell you the answer," Athena replied. "But I can remind you that sometimes the truth is hidden where you can't see it."
"Where I can't see it?" William murmured. Yesterday, he'd been so caught up in the excitement over the hundred thousand dollars that he hadn't given anything else a thought.
Now that Athena had said that, he couldn't help thinking about the briefcase. If the money inside was fake, then it must have been nothing more than a disguise. The secret had to be hidden somewhere else.
He examined the briefcase from every angle, running his hand over its smooth exterior. Then something occurred to him. He knocked hard on the case and realized it was hollow!
William hurried to get a hammer and pliers, then took the whole briefcase apart. He ripped open the outer casing and found a compartment beneath the metal shell. Inside it was a mysterious silver key.
"The truth is hidden where you can't see it." William immediately understood what Athena had meant. He'd never imagined the briefcase concealed a secret like this.
He ran his fingers over the key's smooth, metallic surface. At the end was something that looked like a USB port. In other words, it was actually a flash drive.
He couldn't imagine what kind of surprise awaited him inside the secret he'd gone to so much trouble to uncover.
But first, he needed a computer!
To read the information stored on the drive, he obviously needed a computer. With no other choice, William spent some money to rent one. It was in terrible condition: the keyboard barely worked, and the screen even had a crack in it. It was a complete wreck.
Besides, he knew this couldn't be an ordinary flash drive. It might have some kind of tracking software, so the moment he inserted the key, someone could learn his location. Or it might contain a virus that could monitor his movements as soon as he went online.
To deal with those risks, he made careful preparations. He needed to find somewhere safe and keep the computer offline. If the enemy learned his location the instant he inserted the key, he wouldn't panic. He'd already planned an escape route and was ready to run at any moment.
If all else failed, he could transform into Soldier: 76 to deal with the danger. That was the worst-case scenario, of course.
Once everything was ready, William found a café and ordered the cheapest Americano. He sipped his coffee as he turned on the computer. But the thing was so old that it took two whole minutes to boot up.
As soon as it started, he disabled the computer's internet connection and took out the silver key.
William drew a deep breath, then plugged the flash drive into the port. A blue light came on, and the data transfer began.
William took a sip of coffee and waited two or three seconds. The computer chimed, and the flash drive connected successfully. He was just about to open its storage when the screen suddenly went dark!
"What the hell? Did it break?"
He pounded on the keyboard, but the black screen didn't respond at all. So much for secondhand equipment being any good. But he'd only rented the computer. Surely it couldn't have broken that quickly?
Just as William was wondering what was going on, the dark screen lit up again. A figure he knew all too well appeared on it: a white skull in the center, with a black snake slowly crawling out of one eye socket.
The Skull Gang's emblem?
William sensed something was wrong. Suddenly, the Skull Gang's emblem began to move. It was animated! The black snake opened its mouth, revealing sharp fangs. It looked incredibly lifelike!
Then a thirty-second countdown appeared beneath the Skull Gang's emblem. A deathly whisper came through the computer speakers. "Self-Destruct countdown initiated..."
"Holy shit!"
William jumped. He hadn't expected the flash drive to have a self-destruct safeguard. He didn't think this was someone's prank, because he saw the blue light on the drive suddenly turn red.
The red light began flashing faster and faster, like a C4 charge that had just been activated!
Hahaha, I hope you won't beat me up~
Before you continue