The only thing Bai Ye could use proficiently was Terra's terminal, which was basically a computer and phone.
"Be careful. If there's anything you don't know how to do, come ask me." Croissant still seemed worried before leaving and reminded him again. She was afraid Bai Ye might somehow blow up the room.
After Croissant left, Bai Ye lay down on the bed.
The moment he touched the bed, drowsiness quickly overtook him. Too much had happened since he crossed over, and he was exhausted beyond belief.
After checking the various details on his game panel and setting an alarm in the room, Bai Ye drifted off.
Melodious music began to play.
Bai Ye turned over and muttered groggily, "El, let me sleep for another hour. Then prepare breakfast for me."
But the music did not stop.
Bai Ye frowned. At that moment, the pleasant music sounded unbearably harsh to him.
He sat up in bed and opened his eyes, gradually coming fully awake.
Only then did he realize that he had already crossed over to Terra—to Arknights OL. This was not his home, and there was no fourth-generation AI butler El to handle his household chores.
Bai Ye turned off the musical alarm himself and let out a sigh.
Getting used to it in such a short time was truly difficult. He was already very familiar with Terra. In his previous life, he had played Arknights OL for six years and spent most of his time in the game pod, making him a veteran player. Even so, he had not adapted completely overnight.
If he had crossed over into a completely unfamiliar world, Bai Ye truly did not know what he would have done.
After washing his face with cold water and waking himself up completely, Bai Ye left the room.
Penguin Logistics' dormitory was quiet, and there was no one else outside either.
Rather than disturb them, Bai Ye headed straight for the training ground.
Players could gain experience through training. It was not much, but it was still quite useful in the early stages.
Especially when they had not accepted any missions, training was basically living off a minimum experience allowance.
It was not only for experience, either. Bai Ye also needed more training to regain his feel. The skill levels from his previous life had suffered quite a discount after being inherited by this real body.
Right now, he had nothing but theoretical experience and lacked muscle memory, so his Unarmed Combat and Crossbow Shooting levels were not high.
His Cold Weapon—Swordsmanship skill level was currently sufficient, but Bai Ye wanted to regain the feeling of using basic Originium Arts and combine his talent with swordsmanship.
Come to think of it, Bai Ye was not quite sure whether his current condition counted as having already undergone Magic Talent Awakening. Among Terra's natives, some would awaken special Originium Arts at a certain point in their lives. This was known as Magic Talent Awakening.
For example, Sora had already awakened her magic talent. She could unconsciously cast Originium Arts related to sound. Others found it difficult to learn such arts, because even the user herself might not understand the principles behind them.
Bai Ye's talent was somewhat special. He had tested it before. His Thought Acceleration ability did not require Originium to operate; the only fuel it used was his own mental energy.
Standing there with his sword in his arms, Bai Ye suddenly felt someone pat his left shoulder.
"Bai Ye!"
Yet Bai Ye turned his head to the right and saw Exusiai standing behind him with a bright smile.
"Huh? How did you know I was standing here?"
After being patted on the left shoulder, most people would instinctively turn left.
Bai Ye smiled. His senses were sharp, and he had a strong ability to pinpoint locations. Exusiai's prank had failed.
"You two came to train too?"
Bai Ye sheathed his straight-bladed sword, then took out a cup and drank some water.
Exusiai smiled and shook her head. "Training? Laterano people don't need special training for shooting. I just came with Texas."
"I don't believe your Pontiff Knights don't train." Bai Ye rolled his eyes. In his previous life, Players jokingly called those angels Gatling Knights. Under their barrages, everyone became capable of both singing and dancing.
"Ahem, that's too far removed from me. Right now, I'm just a happy Penguin Logistics messenger." Exusiai's expression stiffened slightly.
Texas added from beside her, "That smile looks fake."
"Ah, whatever. As long as I support you properly, isn't that enough?" Exusiai gave up trying to defend herself.
Bai Ye shook his head. "You don't need to worry about me. I'm only staying here temporarily, and I'll help you out now and then. I won't always be acting together with you."
In his previous life, he had never been good at coordinated squad combat, and so he had missed TeaParty's invitation. As a solo player, he was more than qualified, but whenever it came to team cooperation, he always fell out of sync.
"Huh? I thought you'd already joined us?!" Exusiai was greatly surprised.
Bai Ye shook his head. "You can come to me if you need help, but joining the team long-term is unlikely."
"Although it sounds like I'm taking advantage and still being picky, I haven't officially joined Penguin Logistics."
Texas and Exusiai exchanged a glance.
They understood now. The boy before them seemed to have his own considerations. He was not simply going with the flow; he had a complete plan.
Still, wasn't that a little too blunt?
None of the three spoke.
For a moment, the atmosphere became somewhat oppressive.
After a while, Exusiai suddenly said, "It's fine. We don't act together that often anyway. Most of the time, we handle commissions alone or in pairs."
Once she spoke with a smile, the atmosphere gradually eased.
Bai Ye let out a breath. He truly was not good at communicating. The only social skill he had learned in his previous life was talking to scrolling comments, but face-to-face, he never knew what to say.
After crossing over, he was simply relying on his high Charm stat to do whatever he wanted.
Exusiai looked at Bai Ye and suddenly laughed. "You're not as cold as Texas, but you two are actually pretty similar."
Rhodes Island
"Chief Chen, put aside what happened last night for now. There's something more urgent."
Hoshiguma entered Chen's office and placed a file on her desk.
"My informant sent this over. I organized it a little."
"Why didn't you send it directly to my terminal? The last time I saw a physical file was a year ago."
Chen raised her head, one hand resting on the papers.
"After the Guards Bureau sealed the building yesterday, the specialists inspected the entire place and found signs that the central database door had been opened. The security technicians are investigating and carrying out maintenance now."
As she spoke, Hoshiguma patted Chen's shoulder. "There's no way to get to the bottom of this. The technicians spent half the day checking and still couldn't figure out what that person did in the database. The cameras didn't capture anything useful either. It's practically a headless case."
Chen frowned. "So that person treated the Guards Bureau like an amusement park? They even stunned a police officer with electricity. They're completely lawless."
Hoshiguma shook her head reassuringly. "Set it aside for now. As long as they did something, they'll eventually reveal a flaw. We should deal with the case in front of us first."
She herself had been urgently recalled near midnight. She had even led a team to inspect the nearby facilities and lower pipelines, but they found nothing.
Chen was helpless, but she had no better solution. Setting the matter aside for the moment, she picked up the file Hoshiguma had given her.
"Slum contraband drugs, Infected, Rhodes Island...?"
A moment later, Chen shot to her feet from her chair.
"Chief Chen, pack your things. We're heading out."
"Is it that serious? Do we need to deploy the Special Inspectorate Team?" Hoshiguma was somewhat puzzled. The Special Inspectorate Team was the Lungmen Guard Department's most elite armed force and usually handled the most dangerous cases and missions.
Yet this case did not seem to have reached that level. The information in the file had all been collected by informants in the slums, and some of it was even vague.
"I suspect this is connected to yesterday's case."
As she spoke, Chen raised her right hand and stared at the lines on her palm. Slowly, she said, "Yesterday, I came face-to-face with the intruder and exchanged blows with them... That person was definitely no ordinary individual. Whether it was their techniques for applying and redirecting force or their swordsmanship, they were better than even the Special Inspectorate Team's elites. Their strength was a little lacking, though."
"Being able to take one hit from your baton means they have some skill. So, Chief Chen, you suspect the intelligence from the informant is related to that person too?" Hoshiguma asked thoughtfully.
Chen nodded.
"Pack your things. We'll go together and take a look at that pharmaceutical company called Rhodes Island first."
Following the map guidance on his terminal, Bai Ye finally found Rhodes Island's office.
Rhodes Island and Lungmen had not yet formed a close strategic partnership. It was merely one of Lungmen's many companies, and even its office was rather inconspicuous.
Rhodes Island, formally known as Rhodes Island Pharmaceutical, had a small land carrier as its headquarters. It was a recently registered pharmaceutical company with a complete armed force, pharmaceutical capabilities, and research technology, specializing in treating Oripathy patients.
Bai Ye only knew the basics about this company. In his previous life, he had heard that many Players had signed contracts with it. Among Players, it was considered the most famous native organization.
Bai Ye also had a naturally high favorability toward the company. The reason was simple: it was incredibly rich.
First of all, the company used a land carrier as its headquarters. It was practically a small Mobile City, showing just how deep its pockets were.
According to Players' research, that carrier was no ordinary vessel. Its mobility far exceeded that of other Mobile Cities, and it was even more formidable than warships from other countries.
Not only that, Rhodes Island had overseas offices in most countries around the world and cooperated with major corporate giants.
Of course, that alone was not enough. Like most Players, Bai Ye liked Rhodes Island mainly because it paid so generously.
The company issued missions through its offices everywhere, and the rewards were substantial. Its reputation was also excellent—it never withheld or refused to pay mission rewards.
One had to know that this next-generation fully immersive game was utterly malicious toward Players. Missions issued by some organizations were designed to screw Players over. Even after a mission was completed, they not only refused to pay the reward, but also robbed the Players outright.
Players accustomed to games of the old era always assumed that missions accepted from NPCs and generated by the game system would be reliable. Then, after working their asses off to finish them, they discovered they had been scammed, and the mission on their game panel had become invalid.
It was basically a joint fraud scheme.
After being scammed by other organizations so many times, Players felt that Rhodes Island was still reliable. It never withheld rewards, its benefits were friendly, and its NPCs were good-looking and pleasant to talk to. It was practically the developers' mercy toward Players.
So after crossing over, Bai Ye wanted to join this organization. He had heard Rhodes Island's entry requirements were not high. Even high school students could join, and there were children inside as well.
There were just a lot of Infected.
After straightening his clothes, Bai Ye entered Rhodes Island's Lungmen office.
It was not much different from the layout in his previous life. Nearly every Rhodes Island office followed the same standard, though dispatched operators sometimes decorated their offices themselves with posters, potted plants, and the like.
Perhaps because things were so quiet, the receptionist was actually asleep with her head on the desk.
She was a young Feline girl with a rather cute appearance. Bai Ye walked over and knocked on the reception desk.
"Mm! Ah—sorry, sir. I'm terribly sorry, I accidentally fell asleep."
The awakened girl raised her head and saw Bai Ye standing before her. She froze for a moment before repeatedly apologizing.
Bai Ye could not help smiling. As expected of Rhodes Island—they immediately gave off the feeling of a comedy act.
"It's fine. No rush," Bai Ye reassured her.
The girl let out a breath, then could not help glancing at Bai Ye again.
He was so handsome.
"Do you need to go wash your face? You have a lot of marks on it."
Seeing the girl staring blankly at him with a somewhat foolish expression, Bai Ye could not help waving a hand in front of her face.
The Feline girl's expression stiffened. Patting her cheeks, she said, "It's fine, it's fine. May I ask what business you need to handle?"
"I want to join Rhodes Island," Bai Ye said directly.
"Huh, join Rhodes Island... Oh, right, please wait. Let me check the procedure for that."
The girl became somewhat flustered. It seemed this was her first time handling such a matter.
Bai Ye stood there and waited. Then he suddenly saw two more people walking in from outside.
When he saw one of them, Bai Ye froze slightly.
Why was she here?
Coming to His Door
"This is Rhodes Island Pharmaceutical?"
Hoshiguma raised an eyebrow as she looked at the inconspicuous building before them.
Chen shook her head. "More precisely, this is Rhodes Island Pharmaceutical's Lungmen office. I just checked the database records. This company really does have some problems."
"What kind of problems?" Hoshiguma immediately became interested.
Before you continue