Aftermath

Qi Lin was completely at a loss. Could this be some kind of hidden game mechanic too?

Unable to figure it out, Qi Lin gave up thinking about it and asked curiously, "Other than telling me, have you told anyone else about the Vision equipment?"

"Other than the sheriff lady, only that uncle called Hawkeye. He happened to see me when I obtained Vision." Dun Qu Qi Yi blinked, understanding what Qi Lin meant. "Don't worry. Vision is one of the rare bound pieces of equipment in the game. It can't be dropped or traded."

"Besides, I made an agreement with Uncle Hawkeye. Whatever equipment he wants, he can come to me to have it crafted." Dun Qu Qi Yi lifted her little face, her expression plainly saying, Praise me already.

Qi Lin smiled. From the way she looked, she was obviously still just a child, yet she was vastly different from her in-game appearance.

Dun Qu Qi Yi's game avatar was a female Elf with waist-length white hair. Her features were exquisite, her skin fair, and her azure eyes made her beauty soar beyond the heavens.

Who would have thought that such a beautiful girl possessed such a pure and simple heart?

"Then can you help me process these berries?" Qi Lin brought up the reason she had come here again.

"No problem. As for berries, the only recipe I know is jam."

"Jam? What does it do?" Qi Lin asked curiously.

Dun Qu Qi Yi answered without hesitation, "Adding it to food improves the taste and gives some experience. Do you want some? I can make it."

"Then I'll trouble you. I have ten berries here."

Dun Qu Qi Yi took the berries Qi Lin handed over and explained, "These are enough to make three jars of jam, but I'll take one jar as payment."

"No problem. I'll leave it to you, then." Qi Lin readily agreed to Dun Qu Qi Yi's request.

Watching Dun Qu Qi Yi take out several wooden cooking utensils and rub her hands together to ignite a small flame, Qi Lin could tell this was not her first time doing this. The game's closed beta had only just begun, yet she handled it with such practiced ease.

Sitting beside an ancient tree in the forest, Qi Lin asked curiously, "By the way, including cooking now and blacksmithing before, how many secondary professions have you learned in total?"

"Sister Sheriff, you got that wrong. I know blacksmithing too, but what I traded to Uncle Hawkeye before wasn't a weapon I forged. It was an alchemy item." Dun Qu Qi Yi corrected her very seriously.

"Doesn't that mean you've learned three secondary professions? Cooking, blacksmithing, and alchemy. Are you planning to learn skills from other professions too?"

"Can you even keep yourself that busy?" Qi Lin could not help teasing her.

Dun Qu Qi Yi put one hand on her hip and said proudly, "What's so hard about that? In the future, I'm going to become the first all-round scholar-class player on the entire server."

Just as Dun Qu Qi Yi and Qi Lin were discussing her future career plans, the scene shifted elsewhere...

"Coulson, are the results out?" Hawkeye, who had just traded enchanted arrowheads with Dun Qu Qi Yi, looked curiously at his partner for this mission, who was crouching nearby.

"Agent Hawkeye, how many times do I have to tell you? We're on a mission. You need to address me by my codename. That's my game ID." As he spoke, Coulson pointed at the ID displayed above his game avatar's head.

"Ah..." Hawkeye let out a long sigh and looked at the ID over Coulson's head: Captain America's Loyal Fan. With such an awkward name, how was Hawkeye supposed to say it aloud?

Although everyone in the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division knew that Coulson idolized Captain America, no one had expected the normally dependable Agent Coulson to have this side to him.

Hawkeye wrestled with himself for a long time before finally saying, "Fine, you win. Agent Coulson, Captain America's Loyal Fan, how did your tests go?"

Coulson's expression turned solemn as he immediately entered work mode. "It's truly incredible. The physical constants here are roughly the same as in reality. Even every individual particle is different."

"So the conclusion is?" Hawkeye seemed to already have an answer in mind, but he still asked to make sure.

"This world has been simulated perfectly. If it weren't for the IDs above every player's head and the system's logout option..."

"If those things weren't constantly telling me this is only a game, I would have thought Elf Network Company had turned an entire world into a game," Coulson added.

"Looks like a second Stark Industries is about to emerge. Those investors who didn't invest in Elf Network Company are going to be heartbroken." Hawkeye smiled. "At least we'll have a report for the Director tomorrow."

"It seems you saw it too."

"What's there not to understand? Virtual reality gaming and accelerated thought processes—put those two together, and isn't that another form of immortality?" Hawkeye curled his lip.

"I reckon capital tycoons will soon set their sights on this company, then swallow it until not even dregs remain."

Coulson shook his head, disagreeing with Hawkeye's assessment. "Before logging into the game, I investigated Elf Network Company's background. Guess what I found?"

Hawkeye stood to the side in silence.

Coulson shrugged and could only continue, "According to my investigation, this company is extremely secretive. There are no fewer than a dozen Lineages backing Elf Network Company."

"The oldest of those Lineages can be traced back five hundred years."

Hearing that, Hawkeye laughed. "Then when it comes down to it, who swallows whom is anyone's guess."

"After hearing your analysis, I almost want to get my hands on some Elf Network Company shares too."

"Unfortunately, you can't buy Elf Network Company stock." Coulson poured cold water on him. "Elf Network Company hasn't gone public yet."

"What a pity." Hawkeye waved a hand and quickly cast the thought to the back of his mind.

"Since we've finished looking around the safe zone, let's go check out the dangerous zone marked on the map."

With that, Hawkeye and Coulson chose a road leading toward the dangerous zone.

On the way there, Coulson recalled the girl who had traded arrowheads with Hawkeye earlier and could not help asking curiously, "Agent Hawkeye, how did you come to know that girl you traded with before?"

Hawkeye gave Coulson a strange look. Just as that look was making Coulson's skin crawl, Hawkeye asked oddly, "Agent Coulson, I made an agreement with that girl. This has nothing to do with our mission, does it?"

Just as Hawkeye's gaze was about to turn into the look one gave a scumbag—

Coulson hurriedly waved his hands and explained, "No, no, you misunderstood. Since I already have an account for this game, I plan to manage it properly in my spare time outside missions. After all, time moves ten times faster here. So I wanted to ask that girl to craft some equipment for me."

"So that's how it is." Hawkeye withdrew his gaze and continued onward. "No need to make it so troublesome. Just give her my name."

After that, Coulson and Hawkeye headed toward their destination.

Neither of them could have imagined that someone had been watching them from beginning to end.

On the World Tree, Cheng Jue withdrew his gaze, musing over Coulson and Hawkeye's conversation with an amused expression. "Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division... It hasn't been renamed S.H.I.E.L.D. yet. I wonder what they'll manage to discover."

But even if they saw through it, so what? Cheng Jue had never tried to hide anything.

His gaze shifted toward Cheng Yaowen, Ge Xiaolun, Zhao Xin, Liu Chuang, and the other super soldiers from the Super God Universe.

To be honest, aside from Qi Lin, who had graduated from the police academy, the rest could only be called a pile of mud.

Speaking of Qi Lin, Cheng Jue's gaze turned toward her again. This time, however, he was not looking at Qi Lin, but at Dun Qu Qi Yi beside her.

Cheng Jue's gaze softened.