Volume 4, Chapter 45 – The Shadow Surfaces【1】

“Quick, quick, quick! Take pictures, take pictures! Hurry up and take pictures!”

“Is your brain short-circuited or what? Why are you still taking pictures? With this resolution, just record video! Foolish human!”

“…”

“What are you staring for? Hurry up. You aim at that loli, I’ll aim at the girl cutting watermelon.”

“Then what do I do?”

“You? Hmm… you aim at that robot.”

“…”

In the end, the three brothers divided the work reasonably, each aiming at one of the three “people” by the beach.

Momo slices!

The player filming Butler No. 1 came from Sichuan-Chongqing. His favorite “food” was momo slices, and he liked giving them to others to eat.

His camera shook from time to time.

He still wanted to look at the girl beside it.

Rat-a-tat-tat…

If the two beasts beside him had not said they would share the video with him later, he would have gone on strike right away.

There was no helping it. Who asked him to be only an intern, while those two bastards beside him were veteran employees?

The three of them came from a somewhat popular beautiful-girl magazine called Monday Sunshine. They were field reporters dispatched to Night of the Stars to gather material.

“Slice, crack!”

With a few sharp cuts, the watermelon was cut into eight pieces.

Anran picked up one piece and began eating it slowly.

Aila did not eat. She had no sense of taste. Besides, even if she ate it, there would be no benefit. The green, round watermelon rolling around on the sand beside her was still more interesting.

Aila pushed the watermelon around everywhere.

Butler No. 1 stood very dutifully beside Anran, holding up the umbrella for her.

All around them were noisy voices, the sound of the wind, and occasionally the cries of seagulls.

“Ou, ou…”

The moment the yacht appeared on the horizon, Butler No. 1 reminded Anran.

Anran raised her binoculars and looked.

It was three stories tall, and there was even a helicopter landing pad on the top.

This private yacht belonged to Longlier Mining Company. The person sitting on this yacht was Sven Aldington, a collateral branch member of the family behind Longlier Mining Company.

The Aldington family was the mining king of No. 1886.

They occupied more than 60% of the mining business in the Northern Hemisphere. It was said that the family’s greatest goal was to expand their mining operations onto other planets.

The first step was to introduce advanced alien technology and suppress the rivals who were still struggling internally.

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With just a little guesswork, one could tell that the person who issued this bounty had to be an enemy of the Aldington family.

Anran did not care to dig into who exactly had posted it.

The reason she accepted this mission was not for the 100,000 Bilu bounty. There were plenty of missions with higher rewards and fewer future troubles. Anran did not need to go after a mining tycoon for the sake of 100,000 Bilu.

Rather, it was because this mission had a very special note.

The Aldington family seemed to have come into contact with an alien force through a certain diplomatic officer from Morningstar.

Anran had always had Aila filter missions on the dark web.

Once she plugged in the data cable interface, Aila’s super-strong computing ability could complete the analysis in an extremely short time and find the information Anran wanted.

This mission was one Aila found three days ago, and Anran casually accepted it.

That note made her very interested.

Alien force. Morningstar diplomatic officer.

When these two phrases were combined, they could give rise to many guesses.

The Aldington family could contact an alien force through Morningstar. That meant the relationship between Morningstar and this alien force was even closer.

If this alien force was serving as Morningstar’s backing, then many problems could be explained.

But there were still many things Anran could not figure out.

For example, why this alien force wanted to support Morningstar.

To restrain the government army?

To stir up war on No. 1886?

What was the point of doing this?

At the end of the day, No. 1886 was only a neglected remote planet.

In short, in order to complete the main quest [Aila’s Heart], Anran absolutely would not let Morningstar have an easy time.

Perhaps through this mission, she would be able to find some clues.

The yacht drew closer and closer. Quite a few people could be seen chatting on the deck.

The target, wearing a black suit, was being lovey-dovey with a woman in a blue dress on the deck.

Very quickly, the binoculars captured the two of them.

Their bodies were pressed tightly together. Sven had one arm around the woman’s waist, and his other hand held a wineglass as he laughed loudly.

Scattering some dog food before dying was acceptable.

Anran waved at Butler No. 1.

That was the agreed action gesture.

Who would have thought that such a smooth, bare robot butler was the assassin?

Its chest opened, revealing gun barrels that were thick and black.

All of these movements were completed within half a second. The guns exposed by the specially modified Butler No. 1 were not machine guns, but two powerful rifles.

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At this distance, it was just right. It could perfectly bring out the power of these two guns.

Butler No. 1’s eyes completed auto-aim locking. Then the muzzle positions adjusted slightly, aiming at Sven’s chest.

“Bang.” “Bang.” “Bang.”

Several abrupt gunshots rang out on the beach before anyone had time to react.

In the field of view through the binoculars, Anran saw the wineglass in Sven’s hand slip to the ground. Then his body tilted and collapsed onto the deck.

She could not hear the startled cries on the distant ship, but the prompt from the game told her that the mission had already been completed.

“You have killed Sven Aldington and obtained 2,500 Free EXP.”

She had completed a mission in passing. Next, it was time to figure out the connection between the Aldington family and Morningstar.

…

“Aaaah!”

“There’s an assassin!”

“You bastards, Executive Sven has been shot! Hurry and call the doctor on the ship over!”

“Get down, get down! Hurry and get down!”

“Sven, Sven, waaah…”

“Fuck, where are the bodyguards? Where the hell did all the bodyguards go?”

“Bang, bang!”

As soon as the words fell, the bodyguards on the ship picked up their guns and fired wildly toward the beach.

However, their standard weapons were all pistols, so in the end, it was nothing but wasted effort.

“Hurry and notify the family. Sven has been shot. This negotiation is going to turn into a disaster.”

Several people hiding in the corner shouted one after another.

“I’m contacting them now.”

“Wait. The assassin is on the shore right now. This ship can’t dock. It can’t dock.”

“I’ll go notify them right away.”

“Tell the people standing by in the hotel to hurry to the beach. Don’t let the assassin get away! You pack of stupid pigs!”

…

“What was that sound just now?”

“The sound of firecrackers?”

“Who cares what sound it was? Hurry up and keep the camera aimed. Tsk, tsk. This body looks really firm. Who would’ve thought she was actually an athletic-type beautiful girl? Mm, I really want to see what the front looks like.”

“The loli playing with the watermelon still looks more interesting.”

“Tight waist and abdomen. Curves full of wild beauty. The butt…”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. As expected of an old driver.”

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Hmm?

Reporter A, who was in the middle of evaluating waists and discussing butts, suddenly froze. He did not recognize that voice. For a moment, he had not been paying attention, and someone had actually sneaked right up beside his rear.

“Officer, it’s these three people!”

“!”

Shocked.

“Come with us!”

As soon as the words fell, a series of clicking sounds instantly dragged the three reporters, whose attention had been focused on recording video, back to reality.

Standing behind them were two South Island police officers, as well as a very young female player.

Holy crap.

Reporter A immediately cried injustice. “Officer, what’s going on? We’re all law-abiding good citizens!”

“This lady is a woman! Uncle, my ass! C!”

The policewoman beside him instantly grew angry.

“Don’t call me uncle. You look much older than me!” The policeman handcuffing them also looked disgusted.

Old perverts pretending to be young.

South Island was a tourist city, and even more so a seaside tourist city. Beaches and beautiful women were its theme, so perverts who liked secretly filming and peeping were one of its dark embellishments.

Originally, Outsiders were not easy to catch. But this time, another Outsider had reported them under her real name and provided audio evidence, so they had immediately rushed over.

And what a coincidence.

As soon as they arrived, they heard these guys making indecent comments and showing serious criminal tendencies.

“You three are suspected of secretly filming girls and have seriously affected the reputation of South Island’s No. 1 Beach. Now come back to the station with us.”

“Officer, isn’t this a misunderstanding? We weren’t secretly filming at all! We were just looking at the sea view!”

“You think I’ll believe your excuses? Stop blabbering. Come back with us first and accept investigation.”

“Officer, without evidence, you can’t just casually believe a kid’s words.”

“Heh.” The female player who had reported them sneered. “You think I would talk nonsense without evidence? Perverts are perverts. Even in a game, you’re still perverts!”

As she spoke, she took out the recording.

Reporter C’s face flushed red as he argued, “I’m not, I didn’t, I really didn’t secretly film them!”

“If you have something to say, say it after we get back.” Naturally, the police did not believe him.

“I’m telling the truth. Officer, you have to believe me.”

Although he argued with all his might, Reporter C was still dragged away.

Damn it!

I only filmed a robot. Who would fantasize about a lump of iron shaped like a pillar?

A real man would never do that kind of thing!

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“Beep, beep. Beep, beep…”

While they were walking halfway back, the communicator at the male officer’s waist rang.

He immediately connected it. After only a few words, his expression changed at once.

“Xiao You, you take these three back first. Something happened at the beach. I need to hurry over.”

After the male officer finished giving instructions, he hurriedly left without waiting for the policewoman to say anything.

“Something happened?” Reporter C was stunned.

“Beauty, beauty, this really is a misunderstanding. We’re only field reporters from a beautiful-girl magazine. We’re not perverts.”

The policewoman raised her eyebrows. “Oh? Infringing on other people’s portrait rights. Another charge added. You’re in for it now.”

“???”

“Hey, hey, hey!”

So mad!

Reporter C angrily slapped the iron door, watching as the officer who had brought him over walked away. Detained for five days.

Momo slices, man!

The empty cell looked no different from one in reality. Sighing deeply, with nothing else to do, Reporter C could only go browse the forum.

He casually posted the video he had filmed of Butler No. 1 onto the forum.

Anran and Aila’s figures also flashed across the footage from time to time.

…

When the male officer rushed back to the beach, a large group of people with fierce eyes had already surrounded the beach.

The tourists playing on the beach were all instantly dumbfounded.

These people unreasonably controlled all roads in and out. No one was allowed to leave, and no one was allowed to enter. Even those swimming in the sea were forcibly ordered to raise both hands, not move around, and walk back step by step.

“All of you, behave yourselves. If anyone dares make any rash moves, don’t blame me for getting rough.”

“You, you, and you. Turn around. Let me see what you’re holding in your hands.”

The burly men were holding vicious large guns. Those NPC tourists had never seen such a scene before, and quite a few girls were scared into tears.

So fierce. So terrifying. If they were shot, they would definitely die!

“Wuu, wuu…”

When the Aldington family’s people rushed over, Aila was planting a watermelon in the sand.

The soft sand had been dug into a deep pit by her. After that, the watermelon was buried inside, and Aila was using sand to build walls around the watermelon.

Butler No. 1 held up the umbrella, completely blocking out the blazing sunlight, while Anran, who had been on the lounge chair, had long since vanished.

In fact, before this group of people arrived, Anran had already gone into the sea.

Emmm…