Volume 4, Chapter 0 – A New Beginning

Anran did not tell Aila about Sandi until they got back that evening.

As expected, Aila fell silent.

But she did not appear especially sad, nor overly agitated.

No matter what, Aila was still just a robot.

Even if her AI chip was highly intelligent, it was probably still difficult for her to truly understand what revenge felt like.

She could probably understand the concept, but simulating that kind of more complex emotion was hard.

So Aila simply remained quiet. As for what kind of expression and mood she should have, Aila was still learning.

Only after watching her enter sleep mode and confirming that nothing unexpected had happened did Anran begin taking stock of what she had gained today.

She was dressed rather lightly, sitting cross-legged on a stool in front of a small table.

Spread out on the table were the things distributed by Nine Songs.

First came the “virtual” rewards.

The EXP from the kill plus the EXP from the mission came to a total of 20,000 EXP.

And then…

Verbal praise from her superiors, and envious looks from her “coworkers”!

Right.

That stuff was useless. Better to get something tangible.

There were material rewards for hunting down important Morningstar figures.

Naturally, Anran took all of it in cash.

Ten thousand Bilu was not that much, but it was certainly not a small amount to Anran either.

…

After Sandi was executed, the first to arrive were some well-meaning citizens.

When they saw Anran covered in blood, standing beside a mangled corpse and a cute little girl, they were so frightened that they immediately called the police.

But Feilian and the others got there first.

Feilian, an old hand from Nine Songs, happened to know the police officers who arrived, so that saved a lot of trouble.

Sandi’s body was handed over to Nine Songs for processing, along with that radio device used for communications.

“We investigated him. This guy was the deputy captain of the guard unit of Morningstar’s Far East Branch. A genuinely dangerous person.”

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Feilian spoke with feeling, and the look in his eyes when he looked at Anran basically said, I kneel before the master.

Anna thought about it, then decided to forget it. Better not compete with Anran after all. She looks so busy, she definitely doesn’t have time to compete with me. Then Anna quietly edged two steps to the side.

“Cut the chatter. Get back to base already. I need to clean up my wounds.”

It really hurt.

That was what Anran thought.

“This is…?”

Feilian glanced at Aila.

“My little sister,” Anran replied.

Aila cooperatively added, “Anran is my big sister.”

“Oh.” Feilian nodded.

Then let’s take her along for now.

After that, Anran cleaned her wounds, bandaged them, and applied medicine.

The relevant report was sent up, and the higher-ups immediately dispatched people to verify the situation, which more or less confirmed Sandi’s identity.

After that came the commendation.

“Take a look at this file too. Our next task will probably be to coordinate with Nine Songs branches in other places and head to these two locations,” Feilian said, handing Anran a stack of papers.

…

That stack of papers now lay on the table.

There were four files in total.

They concerned Sandi, Heloise, Morningstar’s Far East Branch, and the war in Wutong City.

“Sandi.”

Anran opened the first file and gave it a rough scan.

A war orphan.

After losing both parents, he had been taken in by one of Morningstar’s institutions.

A brutal executioner.

Though he had once lived a miserable life, he was not worthy of sympathy in the slightest.

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There was not much information on Sandi. Multiple massacres had been pinned to his name.

Intelligence Department Analysis: cold-blooded, pathological, strongly anti-human in tendency. Currently deceased.

Apparently the body had been taken away for analysis?

“Heloise.”

Setting down the first file, Anran picked up the second.

Full name: Heloise F. Cecil.

Birth: unknown.

The new head of the Far East Branch, parachuted in from Morningstar’s Canyon Continent Branch.

Closely connected to the Canyon Continent Strategic Research Office. Details unknown.

Suspected esper. Details unknown.

Height unknown.

Weight unknown.

Measurements unknown.

All right, Heloise’s file only had a few lines in it anyway. Most of it was rumor, with nothing very substantial.

Skip it.

Anran picked up the file on Wutong City.

It was about the state of the war.

Morningstar’s surprise assault caused Wutong City, whose communications had been paralyzed, to fall not long afterward. Fortunately, Twinmoon City’s reinforcements arrived in time, so they were barely able to keep Morningstar tied down.

According to the intelligence, the government forces were now concentrating their troops on defending the area around the hydroelectric plant.

But the situation was already turning grim.

The Morningstar forces roaming around everywhere were simply infuriating.

If the hydroelectric plant fell, the regions downstream of the great river would be finished.

Reinforcements from other areas were still arriving one after another, but this time Morningstar seemed determined to seize that hydroelectric plant.

The earlier destruction of the signal towers and the large-scale cyber intrusion both seemed to have been preparations for this moment.

The last sheet contained information on Morningstar’s Far East Branch.

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Anran glanced over it. Quite a bit of the information on it had actually come from Zhou Jieyu through her.

Looks like the government forces will be making a move soon.

Whether it was Twinmoon City’s Security Department in its current state or this Morningstar stronghold, both sides had taken a major hit in strength. It was basically a pathetic slap-fight between weaklings, but they were still going at each other with plenty of enthusiasm.

Operations like this were the real opportunities to earn EXP and raise titles.

Anran sighed inwardly.

If this stronghold could be wiped out before the players came back…

Anran let out a sly chuckle.

She wondered what those players who had already joined this stronghold would think when they logged back in and found government flags planted all around them.

That would definitely be amusing.

The night was already deep. It was time to rest.

Anran spread bedding on the floor and lay down.

The reason she did not climb onto the bed was that she had discovered she had a bad habit when sleeping. She always rolled over toward Aila without realizing it.

Normally that would not matter, but today she had medicine smeared all over her body, plenty of bandages wrapped around her, and her wounds had not improved yet. If she kept rolling around restlessly in her sleep, wouldn’t she just be asking for suffering?

…

The night passed without incident.

Anran was recovering, and so was Aila.

Since something had happened just the day before, Anran did not let Aila go back to the shop.

Besides, with the players gone, there was barely any money to be made anyway.

So Anran let Aila relax by playing on the computer.

The two of them lazed around at home for most of the day. Anran pulled out the mechanical footgear for repairs, and played some games with Aila along the way.

After that, with nothing better to do, she browsed the forum.

Although the game was undergoing updates and maintenance, the forum functions had not been shut down.

A whole bunch of people were there talking nonsense, discussing the game, talking about life, and talking about girls.

The ones who wanted to curse each other out did exactly that, and the ones who wanted to simp were simping hard. It was incredibly lively.

But there was not much useful information. Quite a few people were discussing how to move real-world industries into the game to make money.

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For example, the entertainment industry.

Obviously, with more time on their hands, they could produce more works.

That made Anran think of Li Zhuying.

What was that lewd girl doing right now?

As it turned out, Li Zhuying was doing the same thing Zhou Jieyu was doing:

Sleeping!

The only difference was that Zhou Jieyu was sleeping soundly, while Li Zhuying was having a rather blush-inducing dream.

“Hehehe…” A glistening thread hung at the corner of the girl’s mouth as she curled herself into a ball, lying on her side on the bed.

That afternoon, while recuperating at home, Anran received some less-than-good news.

Gray would be stepping down this weekend and transferring to New City.

This weekend.

Wouldn’t that be just two days from now?

Anran immediately sank into distress.

Morton’s attitude was still unclear, but it probably would not be good. If she wanted to borrow the workshop in the future, it would definitely become troublesome.

If that happened, her career as a Mechanic would run into a crisis.

…

“I heard Sandi is dead?” said a steady voice from the other end of the phone.

“Mm.” Heloise leaned against the wall, looking utterly unconcerned. “His location was exposed. He got taken out by Nine Songs.”

“…”

The person on the other end fell silent for a moment. “If he’s dead, he’s dead. Leave Twinmoon City aside for now. The focus is on Wutong City.”

“No problem,” Heloise replied.

Then she hung up.

Dead was dead. He was nothing more than a pawn that could not be controlled anyway.

A failure produced by drugs, and absurdly swollen with self-importance. The organization was probably better off with trash like that dead.

Heloise opened the door and walked out.