Chasing the Gang Leader into the Sewer / Hehehe

Bai Ye said he wasn't taking the blame for this...

All he could say was that there had been too many coincidences. Him barging into the Guards Bureau had only been a trivial little matter...

"By the way, who's this young man? He's really handsome..." Hoshiguma said, looking at Bai Ye. It was her first time seeing him.

Hoshiguma was a forthright person. Oni were generally like that. She had spent so long in the Lungmen Guard Department, yet her temperament had never changed.

Swire rolled her eyes and muttered from the side, "He's the boyfriend that Chen found."

Though she had muttered it, some people still heard what the little tiger had said.

"Huh?!"

"Chasing the Gang Leader Through the Sewers"

"Did you hear? Officer Chen got herself a boyfriend..."

"Damn, that guy's got guts. Who'd dare date Officer Chen..."

"Maybe Officer Chen likes pretty boys. I snuck a look, and that guy was way too handsome. Even the night couldn't hide it."

"Swire, are you looking for death?!"

Officer Chen let out a roar that was scarcely quieter than Swire's usual shouting.

This time, Swire knew she was in the wrong and didn't say anything, merely mouthing, "Damn."

Angry, but she didn't dare speak...

Bai Ye chuckled from the side, completely unaware that the whole matter had started because of him. Instead, he happily watched the show.

Hoshiguma was watching as well. Standing beside Bai Ye, she said, "Don't worry. Those two fight every other day. They'll be fine in a while."

"Big Sis Oni works hard every day too..." Bai Ye couldn't help sighing.

This guy had already started calling her Big Sis Oni.

Still, Bai Ye had heard in his previous life that the Lungmen Guard Department had its "dragon and tiger clash, ghosts weep in despair." It seemed the reputation was well deserved.

Hoshiguma smiled and shook her head. "They've known each other since childhood. Maybe they're too familiar with each other, so they can't stand the sight of one another. All I can do is try to mediate."

Chen and Swire both knew what mattered most. After gathering Squad Five, they headed toward the location revealed by Safra's cleanup crew.

Chen, however, called Bai Ye aside.

"Bai Ye, the Guards Bureau's deployment is too conspicuous. I'm worried we'll alert them, so I've decided to send people ahead to watch the gang's hideout and prevent the ringleader from escaping."

"That's a good idea." Bai Ye strongly agreed.

"You'll take the plainclothes officers from before and go ahead first," Chen continued.

"Huh?!"

Bai Ye was rather surprised. How had this ended up falling on his head?

"Officer Swire will assist you."

Everyone knew that Miss Swire was basically a mascot, but she had plenty of drones. After all, she was rich...

Naturally, Bai Ye would help. Besides, he felt there was no downside to building a good relationship with the Lungmen Guard Department.

Chief Chen was a decent person, someone he could get along with, and she wasn't rigidly dogmatic.

More importantly, according to Bai Ye's player-style pragmatism, anything that could make the system generate quests and earn experience was useful.

Contrary to what everyone imagined, the mastermind's hideout was not in the slums. Its headquarters had been set up in the sewers.

Using a factory as a front, they secretly manufactured and sold prohibited drugs. They lured the Infected in under the name of miracle medicine, then got them addicted until they couldn't break free.

The Infected who mysteriously disappeared from the slums either became forced laborers or were sent into underground black-fist arenas, where they served as gladiators for entertainment.

Though Lungmen under Wei Yenwu's rule was vastly different from before, there were always shadows growing beneath the sunlight.

With Swire and Bai Ye leading the way, a group of Guards Bureau officers set out for the sewers. The journey, however, seemed less than pleasant.

"Don't hold on so tightly!"

Swire's face was bright red, filled with embarrassed indignation.

Bai Ye was somewhat helpless. "But I don't have a choice. I really can't ride this motorcycle."

Bai Ye could drive, but unfortunately, he wasn't some passing Kamen Rider. He had absolutely no confidence when it came to motorcycles.

Still, to take the shortcut to the sewers, they could only temporarily play at being street racers and ride motorcycles through Lungmen.

Bai Ye sat behind Swire, his arms wrapped around the girl's slender waist, drawing a cry from Miss Swire.

"I knew that Chen had bad intentions..." Miss Swire snorted. "Damn dragon, Rice Noodle Dragon, Lungmen swear word."

"Would it have been better if Big Sis Oni came?" Bai Ye whispered from behind Swire.

Yet those words displeased the young lady again. "Are you saying I'm not good enough? Don't think you can do whatever you want just because you're handsome!"

Sorry, Miss Swire. Being handsome really did mean he could do whatever he wanted.

Since crossing over, Bai Ye felt that what he used most wasn't the knowledge he had accumulated in his previous life, but the face that had never been useful back then.

The friendly aura brought by such a high Charm stat made anyone without hostility toward Bai Ye feel favorably toward him on their first meeting. Even Players were drawn to him.

"Officer Swire, we'll need to work together shortly. I may have offended you just now, so please don't take it to heart," Bai Ye said, though his hands did not dare loosen. He was afraid of being thrown from the bike.

"I don't believe you, Swire!"

Amid the bickering, they soon reached the sewers. The factory before them was the enemy camp.

"Our task is surveillance, not a frontal assault, so we need to arrange our personnel properly."

After getting off the bike, Bai Ye began assigning tasks.

Swire jumped down from her bike and stared at Bai Ye for a while, her face gradually turning red.

"What's wrong? Did you get so stunned you forgot how to talk?" Bai Ye had spoken for quite some time without receiving a response. Looking up, he saw that the little tiger looked rather dazed.

"Ahem, don't flatter yourself." Swire was exceedingly tsundere, but she had at least come back to her senses.

"Deploy the drones, and have some officers guard the surface. That way, the upper level will be sealed tight."

Bai Ye then found a map and the engineering blueprints for the industrial foundation of this district on Swire's police terminal.

Then, Bai Ye marked several locations on it.

"The factory must have secret passages. Officer Swire should send people to guard these exits."

"What about you?" Swire asked doubtfully.

She had no objections to Bai Ye's suggestion, since it made sense.

But she was curious what Bai Ye himself planned to do.

"I'll guard a secret passage too, but I'm going directly below."

Bai Ye was all too familiar with delving into lower-level structures. Lungmen was already tangled and complex aboveground, while its lower levels were practically a maze.

Bai Ye naturally intended to guard the exits from the lower levels.

He only needed Flanka, Scythe, and himself.

What Bai Ye hadn't expected was that the Players would learn of the Guards Bureau's operation before the enemy did.

On the first day of open beta, the Players witnessed a major operation.

The first to notice were naturally the Players wandering the streets. When they saw police cars howling past in a convoy, they knew something unusual had happened.

This was the scent of trouble!

So the Players made forum posts, spread the word, and gathered at the sewers.

Besides, Zhai Mao had long since shared the details of her quest on the forums.

Everyone knew that the NPC Bai Ye would be going too.

That confirmed it.

In their eyes, the game developers had indeed arranged some kind of major quest or instance before the open beta ended.

Thus, when Chen led the main force to the factory by the sewers, she discovered that more and more "strange people" were gathering there as well.

"Pfft..."

Bai Ye browsed the game forums during a spare moment and couldn't help laughing aloud.

"What's wrong?" Flanka and Scythe both looked bewildered.

Bai Ye shook his head. "Chen is probably going to have a headache, and she'll definitely wonder what these idiots are trying to do."

Bai Ye had not expected that the Players would stumble into a major incident by sheer accident.

Still, at their current level, this open beta was merely for experiencing the game. Most had only done a few small quests and gained, at most, one level. Was getting involved in such a major quest this early really a good thing?

Bai Ye believed that perhaps the Players would reveal their unusual traits sooner.

"Hehehe"

Officer Chen was indeed rather surprised. Why had so many people suddenly appeared around them? Could it be that...

The sensitive officer thought it over and felt it made more and more sense. This mastermind selling prohibited drugs, whose name was still unknown, was terrifying indeed. First, he had sent people to force their way into the Guards Bureau and even injured officers in the process—utterly arrogant. Then, he had pulled in a large group of refugees from outside, even going so far as to block the city gates. Now, he had sent refugees here to cause trouble. What a scheme.

She had never expected there to be such a figure in Lungmen, someone who dared cover the sky with one hand in this place. Fortunately, the Guards Bureau had reacted in time, so they would not have to wait until an even greater disaster erupted later.

At the same time, she was glad she had brought along the Lungmen Guard Department's elite—the Special Inspectorate Team. With the mastermind having made so many arrangements, his armed forces must be formidable as well.

Thinking this, Officer Chen told Bai Ye her speculation.

Bai Ye, who had come over from the underground level, was stunned when he heard it.

He stared at Chen, unable to say a word for a long time.

So I was the mastermind all along!

After all, he was the one who had broken into the Guards Bureau building. He was also the one who had drawn in the Players through Zhai Mao. As for the Players entering Lungmen after the open beta began, while it had nothing directly to do with him, he could not say he had no connection to it whatsoever.

Bai Ye had not expected Officer Chen to be so good at filling in the blanks that she had linked every matter together.

Bai Ye could not help mourning for the mastermind. That person was unlucky too—every bad deed had been pinned on him, and he had even taken the blame for Bai Ye on such a massive scale.

"Once we storm the factory, how should we deal with the people outside?"

Chen still could not determine what those Players outside were there for. She worried they would interfere once the operation began.

But the situation was already like an arrow nocked to a bowstring. It had to be loosed, because the Guards Bureau convoy had made such a commotion that the factory had likely already heard of it.

"It's fine. They aren't here to cause trouble. They can even assist the police," Bai Ye said. Naturally, he understood Officer Chen's concerns, but the Players were merely here to join the excitement and look for quests.

Though his authority was limited and he could not issue so many quests at once, Chen could.

As long as she issued quests to the Players, the system would automatically generate corresponding ones. This was naturally because natives like Chen could not have a game interface like Bai Ye's, so it could only be determined by the system.

Unlike Bai Ye himself, who could both issue quests and alter their details. He was practically an authority-abusing bastard.

Chen was not an indecisive person. She immediately made the decision.

This matter did not require her personal attention, so she picked an officer and had Bai Ye cooperate with him.

As for Chen herself, she would lead the others in storming the factory.

The officer Officer Chen selected for Bai Ye was a burly Fervent Hoof man. He wore a full set of Guards Bureau armor, and his voice rumbled heavily when he spoke.

Bai Ye had him bend down, then whispered a few words into his ear. The officer nodded repeatedly.

Then he and Bai Ye walked over to the Players.

This was Bai Ye's second appearance before a large crowd of Players, and many immediately gathered around.