006: This Boss Was Handsome and Had a Way with Words!

When Alton and the other two followed Sui out of District Nine, they felt as if they were dreaming.

The whole thing had been so surreal it hardly felt real!

From the boss's knowledge of firearms to his negotiation with the other side's leader, his unmatched eloquence and quick thinking had left them in awe.

As far as they knew, when had their boss found the time to learn all that?

But any sense of unfamiliarity vanished the moment they saw the stack of bills worth a full 960 Void Abyss Coins!

The three stared at the gleaming purple bills, their hearts pounding and mouths dry.

They had never seen so much money in their lives!

In Rootvine District, a steady income of 20 Void Abyss Coins a month was enough to live quite comfortably.

An ordinary person barely earned around 10 Void Abyss Coins.

After all, a night with a beautiful woman in her early twenties cost only 5 Void Abyss Coins.

Even a clean, decent room somewhere sunlight could reach cost just 7 Void Abyss Coins a month.

And here was a full 960 Void Abyss Coins!

They wouldn't have dared dream of a number that big.

They were bursting with excitement the whole way, but they followed Sui's instructions. None of them dared speak.

Once they had taken a winding route back to the hidden passage, Rijia could no longer hold it in and blurted out excitedly,

"Boss! Boss! We're not dreaming, are we!?"

Mota stammered, "B-b-boss! Can... can I see it again?"

Alton swallowed and slapped his cheeks. "Boss, that was real money just now... right?"

Su Yi took out the stack of bills and handed it to them with a smile. "Come on, feel it for yourselves. See if it's real!"

Alton's eyes went wide. His hands shook as he took the money, wetting his lips while he looked it over and counted it again and again.

Mota and Rijia couldn't wait. "Hurry up! Hurry!"

Only after the three had spent a full half hour handling and counting the stack of bills did they return it to Sui.

"Goddess above," Rijia said excitedly. "I couldn't save this much cash in a lifetime!"

Alton had calmed down a little. "Boss, what do we do next?"

Su Yi smiled. "Get more stock and keep selling! They'll need plenty of bullets for target practice!"

"What about the three hundred you put in? If you need it urgently, you can take it back now."

"But if you leave it in, we can buy more stock and make more money!"

All three shook their heads furiously. "We're not taking it back! Let's get more stock!"

The profits were outrageous!

Su Yi nodded in satisfaction and led them down a deserted path strewn with obstacles and rubbish toward the debt-collection area he was responsible for.

Most of the people they dealt with owed less than 10 Void Abyss Coins.

They had three households to visit today, owing 15 Void Abyss Coins in total.

They had barely made it halfway when a scream suddenly rang out in the distance.

The three tensed at once. Alton reached inside his coat and gripped his gun.

Su Yi signaled them to stay put, then quietly climbed a piece of broken warship armor embedded in the ground and peered over it.

Not far away, at the edge of a run-down shantytown, someone threw a corpse with a smashed skull into a drainage ditch.

A man and a woman sat nearby, breathing hard.

"Boss! That's Rag. Is he dead?" Alton climbed up too, his face full of shock.

"Good riddance," Rijia cursed. "That bastard was always provoking Boss!"

Rag was one of Mad Dog's seven team leaders and had clashed with Sui several times.

But Sui wasn't looking at Rag's corpse. His eyes were on the man and woman.

It's Winter and 108!

Winter was a striking woman with a high ponytail and a denim jacket lit with neon.

108 was a powerfully built young man with extensive cybernetic modifications.

His arms in particular were frighteningly huge.

Su Yi rubbed his chin, his mind racing. I didn't expect to run into them here. That means the initiative is mine.

In the future, both would become top figures across the Star Systems.

Winter's class was Hacker Analyst, one of the ten major classes.

When hacker builds were at their weakest, she alone had kept the entire playstyle alive.

She later developed Meltdown Style, Borrowed Predator Style, Infinite Exile Style, and many other builds.

108 was even more formidable. A Mechanical Modder, he held the top spot on the melee combat rankings for three major versions straight.

In several later battles on a Star System scale, he was the first to board the enemy vessels and racked up decapitation strikes that seemed like cheating.

108 had led the first boarding assaults that killed Zombie Sui and Ember Sui.

Right now, though, the two were still rookies, only level 4—just like Sui.

"Wait here. I'm going over," Sui told his underlings.

"Boss, it's dangerous!" Alton said quickly. "Let me scout ahead!"

Su Yi waved him off. "No need. Those two aren't a match for me yet."

With that, Sui vaulted over the moss-covered armor fragment and jumped down.

Beside the ditch, 108 panted. "Hot damn, that felt good!"

"That was a boss for you, sis. If I hadn't pulled these Vajra Arms, we'd have died here."

Winter was calmer. She curled her lip. "The moment you got those SS-rank Vajra Arms on your first pull, you stopped being my brother."

The two were siblings in the real world.

Each of the ten closed-beta players had received a free ten-pull at the start.

Winter had gotten only a C-rank Hacker Phone.

108, meanwhile, had pulled SS-rank Vajra Arms on his very first try.

Her punches dealt 2 damage each. His dealt 30!

A minor boss like Rag had only 400 HP in total.

As they talked, 108 spotted a tall, stern-looking young man with black hair walking toward them.

"Sui Horus Constantine Gherros... Hahaha!"

"Sis, that name is all over the place. If you swapped Sui for Arthas, it'd be unbeatable."

Winter shot to her feet and snapped, "What are you laughing at? He's one of the seven bosses we're supposed to kill!"

At the Border Tavern, they had accepted a hidden quest to kill seven bastards collecting debts in the area.

Each kill paid 10 Void Abyss Coins.

Compared with their earlier quests, which paid only two or three Void Abyss Coins apiece, it was an incredible payday.

After an exhausting fight, they had finally killed one of the bosses, Rag. They had barely stopped to catch their breath when another boss found them!

"Fuck, that's rotten luck!" 108 cursed.

"Sis, if it comes to it, take the loot and go. I'll hold him off."

"If anyone leaves, it's you," Winter said tensely. "That SS-rank cyberware of yours is worth the most!"

Then Winter checked the young man's status panel, and her expression grew grimmer.

"Holy shit, 500 HP! And he's an extraordinary with a Void Abyss Projection! This Sui is way stronger than Rag!"

108 went numb. "What? Didn't the quest NPC say all seven were ordinary people?"

"That lying bastard of an NPC!"

108 was furious.

If he lost his SS-rank Vajra Arms here, he was going to kill that bastard!

As the two cursed the unreliable NPC and tried to work out an escape plan, Sui's voice reached them.

"You two from the Human Alliance can relax. I mean you no harm."

Both were already on edge, and his words caught them off guard.

108 sent a private message: "Sis, what's going on?"

Winter gave a slight shake of her head. "Take the loot and go. I'll talk to him."

108 wasted no time. He turned and ran.

Sui made no move to stop him.

He stopped two meters from Winter. She asked, "Sir, how did you know we're from the Human Alliance?"

"Haven't you been standing up for the poor and opposing our company lately?" Su Yi said.

The players were revival envoys working to restore the Human Alliance of five thousand years ago. They had come to help Rhode's native nobles resist the Black Sun Group's colonial oppression.

Su Yi wasn't lying. The players' recent actions really had caught his boss's attention.

Winter narrowed her eyes and tightened her grip on the disposable homemade pistol behind her back. "What are you getting at?"

Su Yi brought his hands together. "Admiration."

"Huh!?" Winter blurted.

Su Yi put his gift for persuasion to work.

"Drawing your blade to right a wrong—that's chivalry."

"Facing danger without fear of death—that's courage."

"I admire people like that."

The sudden praise left Winter unsure how to respond.

She had been ready to respawn, but now she realized this boss was a little strange!

"I've always felt sorry for the people at the bottom," Sui said. "But my circumstances haven't left me much choice."

"I've been sick of those bastards for ages. Good riddance!"

Winter reacted quickly, immediately thinking, Is this boss a traitor? Maybe he has a hidden quest!

Then Winter said politely, "Thank you for the compliment. What brings you here today...?"

Su Yi took out a 50-Void Abyss Coin note. Winter's eyes immediately locked onto the large bill.

In all the days since launch, she had never seen a note with such a high denomination!

"These people are just hired lackeys," Sui said. "The one really controlling us is a man called Mad Dog."

Winter's interest stirred. She remembered the quest NPC mentioning Mad Dog.

"I can give you information on Mad Dog and his weaknesses," Sui said. "In return, you help me take him out. How does that sound?"

Winter managed to drag her gaze away from the fifty-coin note. "You trust me that easily?"

What I trust is that players won't turn down a hidden quest and its rewards, Sui thought.

He said, "I've heard stories about the Human Alliance."

"They say its people are heroes who charge ahead without fear and have the noblest of hearts."

As he spoke, he stepped forward and placed the bill in Winter's hand. "Well?"

Winter swallowed and looked up at Sui. Suddenly, she realized this boss was handsome—and he had such a way with words.

"The money's beside the point," she declared firmly, full of righteous indignation. "What matters is ridding the people of a menace!"

As she spoke, she gripped the bill tightly and slipped it into her pocket.