Reincarnated NPC, But Arknights

Chapter Twenty-Six: Gathering

Bai Ye was actually no stranger to Blacksteel International.

In his past life, he had taken jobs from Blacksteel International as a mercenary. It was a private security consulting firm and also one of the most well-known security contractors, with its core business being the provision of private security consulting and defense contracting services.

Compared to Rhodes Island, this company was larger and more well-known, with its headquarters located in Columbia.

Bai Ye had learned shooting techniques from Blacksteel International in his past life.

Contrary to the preconceived notions of most players, firearms were not easy-to-master weapons on Terra. Unlike the kinetic weapons on Earth that only required pulling a trigger to use, the firearms in Arknights Online seemed more like magic staffs.

Using firearms required mastery of Originium Arts, and continuous firing demanded the delicate and sustained activation of Originium Arts. Any memory lapse would lead to shooting errors or even firearm damage.

Compared to crossbows, bows and arrows, and ballistae, the entry barrier for this type of weapon was quite high.

In his past life, Bai Ye had studied shooting theory provided by Blacksteel International. While the results couldn't compare to those from Laterano, it was sufficient to be called efficient and practical.

Of course, compared to Blacksteel International, Bai Ye preferred to call them "Black Silk International" because the uniforms of their female employees all included black stockings.

Take Scythe and Flanka, for example. Their fair and plump legs were encased in stockings, the fabric with its dark sheen creating a stark contrast with their skin, giving an indescribable visual impact.

After admiring them for a moment, Bai Ye subtly shifted his gaze. More than the black silk, he was curious why Blacksteel International employees were serving as operators at Rhodes Island.

He really didn't know much about this world... In his past life, Bai Ye wasn't an immersive player, nor was he a lore enthusiast. He simply enjoyed combat, shooting, and grinding. He knew more about enemy characteristics and weaknesses than their backgrounds.

For instance, some players could talk at length about the origins, characteristics, and even ecology of Originium Slugs, whereas Bai Ye focused on how to efficiently kill Originium Slugs and how to completely clear an Originium Slug nest.

While thinking, Bai Ye spoke, "By the way, ladies, are either of you Infected?"

"I am." "She is."

The two spoke almost simultaneously.

Flanka was the one infected with Oripathy. Bai Ye couldn't help but re-examine her. He had to admit that as an Infected, this smiling fox lady was much more cheerful than ordinary people.

"Then I'll have to register you and record your identification code..." Bai Ye took out his terminal and began contacting Officer Chen.

"Aren't you afraid? I'm Infected, you know," Flanka suddenly asked.

Bai Ye, operating the terminal, casually replied to the question, "Of course not, why would I need to be afraid? According to the medical theory of Oripathy, there's no human-to-human transmission."

As he spoke, Bai Ye looked up at the long sword placed on Flanka's lap. The sword was sheathed, and perhaps because it was a bit long, its hilt extended to Scythe's seat, occasionally poking Scythe's leg.

"If I were to be afraid, perhaps I'd be wary of this long sword."

"There's no need for that. It's just an ordinary decoration. I'm actually not good at using this kind of weapon," Flanka said, lying with her eyes open.

Bai Ye was unfazed.

As a veteran player who had fought in the game for six years in his past life, Bai Ye had seen too much. He himself primarily used a sword. If he couldn't tell that this young lady was a master swordswoman, then he'd lived in vain.

How could he tell?

Bai Ye wasn't a theorist; he relied on intuition.

As expected, Flanka's good partner quickly exposed the young lady's lie: "If we need to cooperate in combat, concealing your abilities is not a wise choice."

"Just so you know, Flanka, Blacksteel's master swordswoman, first place in the annual sword competition, known as Blacksteel's Sword Saint."

"If you continue like this, you'll lose my friendship, Scythe," Flanka said, blinking, showing no embarrassment at being exposed.

Scythe retorted, "Did we even have friendship to begin with? That's quite surprising, Flanka."

Bai Ye listened from the side and couldn't help but chuckle. These two seemed to have the potential to be comedic duo. Why hadn't he met them in his past life? He had missed out on a lot of fun.

"Right, why are Blacksteel International employees at Rhodes Island?" Bai Ye finally asked his question.

"I became Infected, and the company arranged for me to go to Rhodes Island for treatment. Along the way, we established a cooperative relationship, and I became a temporary operator for Rhodes Island," Flanka explained.

So that's how it was.

Bai Ye suddenly understood. In his past life, Rhodes Island was known for having a "face-palm fruit" ability, able to strike up conversations and build connections with anyone they met, no matter where. Adding a few Blacksteel International employees to that now didn't seem so incomprehensible.

As they spoke, the vehicle passed through the checkpoint. Thanks to Officer Chen's assistance, Flanka, as an Infected, was not given any trouble. She registered her Infected identification code and could move freely in Lungmen.

"You seem to be doing well in Lungmen. What's your relationship with that fierce police lady?" Flanka asked, a bit gossipy.

Inwardly, she had been filled with curiosity about Bai Ye for a long time. This very good-looking young man seemed to be full of mysteries.

"Convenience comes at a price. We need to quickly assist the Lungmen Guard Department in resolving the case of illegal drugs among Infected in the slums." Bai Ye temporarily ignored Flanka's question and shifted the topic.

Scythe looked at Bai Ye with an expression of approval. When dealing with someone like that, you couldn't go along with their rhythm, or they would drown you with a barrage of questions, jokes, and teasing.

Finally, Bai Ye and the Blacksteel duo arrived at the Rhodes Island office.

At the same time, Officer Chen, along with the otaku cat player she had met earlier, rendezvoused with everyone there.

All the necessary elements were gathered.

Chen distributed the case-related documents to Bai Ye and Rhodes Island.

"Recently, a gang has been transporting and selling illegal drugs in the slums. This drug is highly addictive. The gang even uses 'special Oripathy medicine' to package the illegal drugs, deceiving the Infected into taking them. They then exploit the Infected's dependence on the drug to extort money. Those unable to purchase the drug are forced to sign unequal contracts and become puppets of the gang."

Chen briefly described the situation, then added, "Reportedly, someone saw the Rhodes Island logo on the drug packaging."

Chapter 27: The Correct Way to Use Players

The homebody cat sat in the middle of the important figures, looking completely bewildered, like a husky in a pack of wolves, its natural style completely different from the others.

"Meow meow meow?"

"Rhodes Island? Infected? Guards Bureau? What are you talking about, I don't understand anything."

She felt like she had skipped an episode.

When you skip all the story cutscenes to complete a mission.JPG

However, this was a 100% realistic (claimed) full dive game, which barely used game cutscenes to describe the plot. Therefore, any information about the world-building, character introductions, or plot needed to be explored by the players themselves.

At this moment, among the bullet comments, besides those spamming and making random jokes, many were starting to analyze the game's world-building and plot.

Plot enthusiasts and lore hunters existed in almost every game. The earliest games were limited by storage capacity and required a complete set of long narrative texts, similar to novels, to be fully appreciated. Even if they were obscure and difficult to understand, players still enjoyed them.

This was even more true for Arknights Online. The developers had released almost no information about the world, but they had provided the entire world itself. This was a carnival for plot enthusiasts, and lore hunters were also trying to find the intersection between reality and the game.

Later, things like "Zhou Xue" (Arknights lore studies) also emerged, but that was a story for another time.

In short, after playing the role of a good child for a long time, Officer Chen Hui Jie finally noticed the homebody cat sitting beside her.

"Bai Ye, you asked her to find me and have me take care of her. Do you have a plan for this?"

Currently, note that it was "currently," in the eyes of Chen Hui Jie and the people of Lungmen, the players were refugees from some disaster-stricken city or town. This situation was commonplace on the continent of Terra.

Not everyone could settle in mobile cities. Countless small villages and towns were scattered across this land. Some were fortunate enough never to be affected by Catastrophes, while most would be destroyed by the arrival of a Catastrophe.

One of the jobs of the Catastrophe Messenger was to warn these villages to evacuate their villagers before the Catastrophe arrived. However, this land was too vast, and the Catastrophe Messengers clearly could not, and would not, be everywhere...

Of course, the statistical analysis of the players' origins was clearly a failure.

"Bai Ye, come with me."

Officer Chen Hui Jie stood up from her chair and, to the astonishment of the Blacksteel comedy duo and the homebody cat, grabbed Bai Ye's hand and pulled him out.

"..."

As a player, Bai Ye instinctively wanted to resist, but Chen Hui Jie was full of martial spirit. Bai Ye found himself unable to resist the power of the Dragon from Yan, and awkwardly failed to resist, allowing the girl to drag him out.

Embarrassing.JPG

It had to be said that the land of Terra was never fair. It showed excessive favoritism to some races, such as the physically strong Vayfs, Dolaks, and the Dragons of Yan... and even more outrageously, the chaotic Sarkaz.

These races, which were almost like fantasy creatures, possessed extraordinary bloodlines and talents from birth. Some were even so powerful that they were on the verge of extinction.

In short, Bai Ye was embarrassingly dragged out by Chen Hui Jie.

As expected, he was still too weak, lacking power.

Chen Hui Jie and Bai Ye walked out of the Rhodes Island Lungmen liaison office and said softly, "Are you sure you want to use these refugees?"

"It's not prejudice, but these refugees are all a bit strange and suspicious. To put it simply, their declared places of origin are all over the place. I'm not even sure if they exist."

Chen Hui Jie shared some of the information with Bai Ye, her expression somewhat solemn: "I suspect there might be some fugitive criminals mixed in..."

"And some are not mentally stable."

"Their names are also very strange, almost as weird as... forum nicknames on the intercity network."

"Pfft—"

Bai Ye looked at the information and burst out laughing.

"What's wrong?" Chen Hui Jie frowned, slightly displeased. It was fortunate that Bai Ye had the Charm attribute; if it were someone else, this rather ill-tempered police chief would have likely scolded him directly.

"Cough, I just remembered something happy..."

Bai Ye looked at the origins and personal information reported by these players, and he couldn't hold back his laughter.

M78 Nebula, Shocker Organization, Saint Petersburg, Holy Roman Empire, Lubyanka...

The players were truly talented individuals, fond of creating memes, and their declared places of origin were so varied that it was impossible to make sense of them.

It was somewhat amusing. They were happy indulging themselves, but Bai Ye was the only one in this world who understood them...

Restraining his smile, Bai Ye looked at Chen Hui Jie and said, "Officer Chen, you can trust me. For now, most of these refugees are not dangerous."

Players were indeed an uncontrollable and complex group. Due to their immortality and origin from another dimension, they naturally stood on a certain height. However, they could not be described as absolutely dangerous.

At least, a large portion of these players were good-natured and positive.

Let's ask a simple question.

In old-era games, you could kill NPCs on screen without batting an eye. "Because they have nothing to do with you, you know it's fake, and the game can't affect reality."

But when you're in a full dive game, when a living "person" stands in front of you, when it's almost indistinguishable from reality, would you still attack them without reason, in a mad frenzy?

The boundary between illusion and reality had long been blurred by the advancement of high technology.

Moreover, the so-called "green game, healthy game" was not just for show. The system would constantly monitor the players' mental state, and if a player exhibited serious anti-human tendencies, they would be banned and kicked out of the game.

"What? You say the game is free, why can't I slaughter a city? Who's going to stop me if I kill civilians?"

Please refer to relevant legal regulations and game terms for details. Experts and parents had caused countless disputes over such matters, not to mention animal protection groups, feminists, human rights organizations... You're welcome to confront them; the game company is happy to see it.

Getting back to the matter at hand, Bai Ye, while sighing, informed Chen Hui Jie of his plan: "The gang selling contraband drugs is deeply hidden. Simple investigation through normal channels will likely be difficult to find them, so we can set a trap."

"Those in the know have probably already heard about the refugees. The city entrance has been blocked for so long; it would be strange if those guys didn't know. Therefore, this batch of refugees has a naturally high level of credibility. If we have that little girl pretend to be an Infected person to buy medicine, we should be able to catch the fish."

Chen Hui Jie was somewhat moved. The Guards Bureau didn't oppose this approach, and Chen Hui Jie herself even had informants in the slums.

However, she still reminded him, "First, we must get her consent. Even though they are refugees, they have passed the Infected person test and obtained temporary residence permits, protected by Lungmen law."

Bai Ye nodded, but then thought, Why would the player disagree?

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Dragon vs. Dragon

After Bai Ye and Chen Hui Jie finished their hushed conversation at the entrance of the office and were about to go inside, Bai Ye suddenly caught sight of an angry Feline girl rushing towards him.

"You good-for-nothing dragon, I was working myself to death over there, and you're here slacking off, I couldn't even find you."

The girl, like an angry little tiger, roared at Chen Hui Jie.

Her super long, fluffy golden hair emitted a dazzling sheen under the sunlight.

"Here, hurry up and stamp the approval. I went through so much trouble to find..."

The girl suddenly noticed Bai Ye standing beside them, froze, and the roar on her lips abruptly stopped. Her small face turned beet red.

"Keep talking. Why did you stop?" Chen Hui Jie raised an eyebrow.

"When did you get a boyfriend? Seriously, what does he see in you?" The Feline girl's words were shocking.

"Heh heh." Chen Hui Jie's expression immediately became lively. She looked at the girl, who was slightly shorter than her, and cursed, "Chashao Mao, you're asking for death..."

Bai Ye, standing nearby, was completely stunned...

What a fierce battle between dragons.