Volume 3, Chapter 28 – Unworthy of Her Own ID

A careful count of the pitch-black gun barrels gave a total of thirteen, and seven of them were aimed at the trembling Zhou Jieyu.

So it really wasn’t her fault that she was shaking so badly.

Even though she had an “immortal body,” Zhou Jieyu ultimately wasn’t the kind of player who was “all guts and charges in headfirst.”

To be precise, she was just a casual player.

It was only because she had “luckily” run into Anran that she had begun to change.

Once she confirmed that these were the retired official’s guards, Anran relaxed halfway.

The other half of her worry was that if they delayed here too long and Morningstar rushed over, they would become live targets.

“Don’t get excited. We’re a special operations team sent by the government!” Anran shouted.

“What proof do you have of your identity?” said the captain of the retired official’s guards.

Anran nodded. “Of course.”

She reached a hand into her pocket.

Several guns immediately swung toward Anran.

The other side was extremely alert, their fingers already resting lightly on the triggers. If Anran made any unusual move, the bullets from assault rifles and submachine guns would turn her into a sieve.

Anran had no intention of trying any tricks anyway.

She still needed this group of guards. They were an indispensable source of support at the moment.

If they started fighting among themselves, that would be exactly what Morningstar wanted, and the dungeon mission would become very difficult to complete.

What Anran took out was a little booklet, the identification the dungeon had assigned them after they entered.

Without that proof, there was no way they could get close to the retired official, much less protect him.

“This is it. This is my identification from the Security Department!”

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“You, go get it!” the captain ordered one of his men.

That man walked over, his entire body tense, afraid that Anran might suddenly attack.

Everything went smoothly. After handing over the little booklet, Anran merely said calmly, “You’d better hurry up. Otherwise the people from Morningstar will be here soon.”

“Morningstar?” the captain said in surprise.

He took the booklet from his subordinate, flipped it open, and gave it a look. The exterior looked right, and all the anti-counterfeiting measures were there too.

He nodded. “Fine, I’ll believe you for now. So can you tell me what your purpose is in coming here?”

“People from Morningstar want to eliminate your employer. The Security Department sent us here to protect him,” Anran said quickly.

The captain looked as if he had suddenly heard some kind of joke, and his eyes widened at once. “No way. Just the three of you?”

It wasn’t really his fault for reacting like that. Zhou Jieyu’s performance had simply been too embarrassing.

“…”

Anran felt helpless too.

But time was tight, and she had no time to show off in front of this group and recover some dignity.

The facts would prove many things, for example…

“You heard that explosion just now too, right? That was a fragmentation grenade thrown by Morningstar. The fact that they dare use bombs so casually in town makes it obvious they’re determined to eliminate your employer at any cost.”

Anran started making things up. Zhou Jieyu wanted to say something, but after Leading the Charge glared at her, she immediately shut her mouth obediently.

This was way too humiliating. She wasn’t even in the mood to argue with her brother anymore.

“When we came over just now, we saw that the people from Morningstar were already less than a kilometer from here. Even if they’re moving slowly, they should be here soon. If you still don’t make preparations, then when the time comes…” Anran gave a dry chuckle.

The guard captain frowned. He couldn’t tell whether what Anran was saying was true or false, so for now he could only choose to believe her.

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He waved a hand at the men beside him.

“Tell the brothers to lock down the positions first. The Minister’s safety must be guaranteed.”

“Yes, sir.”

His men moved quickly and in an orderly fashion.

The captain then said to Anran, “For safety’s sake, I need to verify the identities of your two companions as well.”

“No problem.”

Zhou Jieyu and Leading the Charge also handed over their little booklets to the captain.

After confirming there were no problems, he said, “Since the Security Department sent you to protect the Minister, then at a time like this we’ll have to rely on your strength as well.”

“Naturally.” Anran nodded.

There were quite a few guards. Including those staying behind, there were twenty in total.

Although they still couldn’t compare to the invading Morningstar forces, they were already a fairly solid fighting force.

If used well, they could hold out through several waves of attacks.

…

Once they had taken up positions, it wasn’t long before Anran noticed movement on the opposite side.

“Attention…”

The captain of the guard unit slowly raised a hand.

His men all focused at once, their gun barrels trained on the opposite side, showing a pretty impressive level of skill.

The sight made Anran a little envious.

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After all, she was a future BOSS acknowledged by the organization.

And yet she didn’t even have a single subordinate right now, much less any reliable ones.

In the future, she absolutely had to find some subordinates she could order around. What kind of BOSS didn’t have a few “lackeys”?

Back when she had been the pirate princess, Anran had once had a whole ship full of “maids.”

They were called maids, but they were really just a bunch of female pirates.

There had even been high-level crew members at level 130, terrifying beings capable of blowing up stars and roaming the universe.

But damn it, they all got killed off by the plot,

“Rat-tat-tat…”

The sudden burst of gunfire instantly snapped Anran out of her brief distraction.

She quickly raised her gun. The captain beside her glanced at the three of them, then focused on exchanging fire with the people from Morningstar.

Zhou Jieyu and Leading the Charge raised their guns and were about to fire, but Anran immediately reached out to stop them.

“What’s wrong?” Miss Zhou was about to become Miss What’s Wrong.

“Conserve ammunition. They’ve got the front line covered. We fire only after we’ve aimed properly.”

“Oh, oh, oh, got it.” Zhou Jieyu immediately understood.

She liked this kind of playstyle best, where other people charged at the front while she slacked off in the back.

But ever since meeting Anran, it felt like she had become the one charging forward instead, even though Anran wasn’t slacking off in the back either.

Still, it somehow felt like she was letting down her own ID.

Zhou Jieyu raised her little pistol, quietly edged it outside, copied the people beside her, narrowed one eye slightly, and lined up the crosshair with the head of a dark figure.

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In the game, there were things like HP bars, attack power, and stamina. Right now, everyone’s level was low, so firearms still had a fairly high chance of dealing fatal damage. Later on, they might only scrape off a sliver of HP.

So Zhou Jieyu felt she should develop the good habit of going for headshots.

Aim, fire.

Bang!

Bang! The two gunshots overlapped, and then Zhou Jieyu swiftly collapsed to the ground.

“…”

Anran hurriedly lowered her gun and turned to look at Zhou Jieyu. “Hey, hey, hey, are you okay?”

She pressed a hand to Zhou Jieyu’s chest and shook her. She hadn’t even had the chance to do anything useful yet, so how had she gone down so easily?

“I’ve been shot. I’m not going to make it.” Zhou Jieyu began to whimper.

Leading the Charge frowned and asked, “How much HP did you lose?”

“Hm?”

Zhou Jieyu froze for a moment. She seemed to be checking her status panel.

After a short while, her face suddenly flushed red, and she said in a small voice, “10… 10 points.”

“…”

“…”

Wow.

Anran looked at Zhou Jieyu, who was trying to sit up. “You’re injured, so you’d better lie down and rest for a while first.”

The corner of Leading the Charge’s mouth twitched immediately.