Chapter 48: The Red Queen

“This mission is somewhat ridiculous!”

Feng Luo sat near the window of a tea bar, looking at a system prompt showing the mission details given by Master Roland with a troubled expression.

Mission Accepted: “Master Roland’s Request.” Mission requirements: Get to Gray Water, look for the military base S-53, retrieve a bottle of FX-9 nano liquid material and SH-3 biochip manufacturing materials!

Gray Water was a rather vast inland sea located roughly 700 kilometers south of Storm City. It had once been a military zone with high strategic value before the Great Destruction. Even now, numerous hidden military bases could be found scattered across the area. Meanwhile, the area had suffered from extreme radiation pollution in the past, and due to it being an inland sea, many creatures in the Gray Water had undergone mutation.

The monster level at the edge of Gray Water could reach Level 30 and above, and the average level of these monsters would get higher and higher as one approached the center of Gray Water. In fact, the levels of the monster in the area marked by the virtual map given by Roland Master was generally above Level 48.

“There’s simply no way for a lone wolf to complete this mission, I’m afraid!”

Feng Luo was troubled, it was not easy to sniff out an abandoned military base in the vast inland sea, especially when lacking the precise coordinates. Besides, this type of hidden military base was usually hidden away in the ocean or deep on an island. One would even trigger defense systems the moment one stepped into the base. Hence, to get into a base and retrieve a quest item, one would have to go through numerous obstacles.

This type of military base exploration was generally done by guilds or elite members of certain organizations, similar to an “open instance dungeon” in some games. For a solo player to try doing things that could only be done by elite squads organized by guilds… Even Feng Luo knew it was utterly impossible no matter how confident he thought he was.

“I’m screwed. I responded too quickly. I should have squeezed more intel out of him.”

Feng Luo thought back to how he had accepted the quest right away without any second thoughts after learning the value of the chip once it was fixed. The smile Master Roland had given him was so kind after his agreement. But, now that he looked back, Feng Luo realized that the high-level NPCs in this game were undoubtedly tricky!

“I can’t blame him, after all,” said Feng Luo. “This chip is likely to be the first ever ‘pet’ chip available in War, and thus, it’s to be expected that the task will be slightly difficult. If worst comes to worst, I’ll just hire NPCs to sail with me. Yet the coordinates are indeed an issue, and no relevant missions have been published by players on the forum, either.”

Some NPCs in the game were allowed to accept employment by players. Their roles were similar to those of mercenaries. This setting was primarily used to assist some of the solo players in completing their quests, since they preferred not to let others know the details of certain hidden special missions.

If one decided to hire an NPC, they are remarkably reliable in most situations and would not leak any sort of intel to anyone once the contract was signed. Yet players had to pay for a great amount of compensation if these NPCs were killed in action, and NPCs would not get involved in fights between players.

“Good day, Mr. Feng. I’m Green Plum Boiled Wine. Sorry for the wait!”

Just as Feng Luo was pondering with his mission plan, a lovely female voice came from in front of him, accompanied by a scent of sweet violet. A beautiful woman in a white office uniform sat in front of him, holding a light yellow briefcase.

“Greetings,” said Feng Luo.

He raised his head and looked at this clerk of the Starry Sky company introduced by Red Wine Coffee. She was about 1.65 meters tall with clean, shoulder-length hair framing a confident expression on her smiling face. With some light makeup, she was easily an eight out of ten. Her eyes and mouth were the highlights. The eyes were charming—slanted upward, slender yet lively, and a perfect match for her slightly upturned lips.

Everyone knew that the Starry Sky was undoubtedly one of the most outstanding equipment agencies in War, as all their attendants were carefully selected and had rather impressive temperaments.

Green Plum Boiled Wine took a glimpse at her communicator, and said in an apologetic tone, “Mr. Feng, the seller is already on their way and will arrive in roughly two minutes. Please wait until then.”

Feng Luo waved his hand and said, “It’s okay.”

“Well then, in this short period of idle time, would you mind if I brief you on some of our company’s business?” The charming eyes of Green Plum Boiled Wine blinked as she smiled, and she took out a stack of quality brochures from her briefcase.

“Uh, all right.” Feng Luo said. He was a bit taken aback, as this the first time he had encountered such a dedicated clerk in the game.

“Starry Sky is currently the largest in-game equipment sales company in War,” she began. “We currently own more than 40 auction houses, and over 15,000 employees are stationed throughout 30 or so cities in the War… The company is well funded. A few days ago, the top ten company in the federal government, Xiao Enterprise, even invested 23 billion yuan…”

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The fluent words of the smiling Green Plum Boiled Wine reminded Feng Luo of how different some places in this world were compared to Earth. Since the entire civilization spanned 24 administrative planets and thousands of resource planets, the Starry Sky Alliance far exceeded the riches and power of the entire planet Earth. Each of the top ten companies in the Starry Sky Alliance had a market capitalization that exceeded 20 trillion star coins, which was more than the total assets of a medium-sized country in the Federation.

In a federal society where politics could be manipulated by capital, these enormous companies were, in fact, no different than kingdoms! By contrast, the million credits Feng Luo had earned by selling his staff—and even the biochip, which would be worth three million credits when the mission was completed—was a drop in the bucket compared to dozens of trillions in capital. Yet even an enterprise of their size had created in presence in War, which spoke volumes about the value of this game.

Maybe, just maybe, a plutocrat of such a level could one day be born out of this very game. There’s no telling what will happen in the future!

******

“Mr. Feng, the seller has arrived!”

The seller of the rare skill chip “Extreme Shooting” had finally arrived. Feng Luo had been listening to a minutes-long promotion from Green Plum Boiled Wine and had promised to help out the business of Starry Sky in the future.

What surprised Feng Luo was the fact that there were three of them: one man and two women. The male was a Sniper, whereas the two women were Fire and Water element Manipulators.

“This is Mr. Feng Zhi Luoye, today’s buyer!” Green Plum Boiled Wine said, introducing the parties. “This is Ms. Red, Ms. Ice, and Mr. Black Panther!”

According to the company’s practice, she would only introduce the title to the seller instead of the full name. This was to prevent the seller from secretly intercepting and hijacking the buyer’s equipment in the case of an unsuccessful deal.

“Red Queen, Glazed Ice, Black Panther!”

Despite the company’s custom, the woman whose call sign was “Red” bluntly revealed their IDs rather than trying to conceal them. “Red Queen” was a name that fully defined her character. She was a woman in her early 30s, Fire Manipulator was her occupation, and her vibe emitted a strong feeling of arrogance.

“Take a seat,” Feng Luo invited with a nod.

“That’s okay. Let’s just get the work done while we stand,” Red Queen said with a shake of her head. “I bet Mr. Feng is rather curious about our intentions. Why would we purposely ask the Starry Sky to set us up with the buyer in a face-to-face conversation for a mere skill chip and even go out of our way to specify that the buyer must be a Sniper?”

Feng Luo nodded. “Yes. It’s rather strange indeed.”

“It’s because we need an expert marksman who is superior enough to assist us in a special mission,” said Red Queen. “Hence, we went through Starry Sky to sell this chip. This Rare-grade skill chip will straightaway be used as commission for this mission!”

Green Plum Boiled Wine furrowed her brow as she heard the words. She was about to speak, but Red Queen turned her head and said to her, “Ms. Green Plum, regarding the agency fees for Starry Star, I will make the payment accordingly, and your manager has already consented to this.”

“Very well then!” said Green Plum Boiled Wine. Then she shut her mouth and nodded helplessly.

“A mission,” Feng Luo said. “Got it. However, I would love to ask beforehand, is this chip only able to be obtained by assisting you on a mission? Maybe you can trade with me and take the money to the mercenary guild to hire an excellent Sniper!”

“No can do,” Red Queen replied immediately with a stern tone. “This chip will not be sold directly!”

“All right then…” said Feng Luo. “I wonder how you determine whether a Sniper is an expert? Equipment, character level, or his specialized skill level?”

He was rather confident in his own strength, but if the other party valued equipment or level over the individual, then he was nowhere near level of an expert—especially in the case of level, as Level 40 was somewhat looked down upon.

“Equipment ain’t important,” said Red Queen. “We can even loan you some, if need be. Neither does character level matter. Level 40 and above will do. The abilities of a true expert marksman cannot be mastered through an in-game skill tree, so…”

Red Queen looked at the Sniper whose name was Black Panther. Black Panther’s pupils shone like a cheetah’s eyes, and he stared at Feng Luo with careful scrutiny.

“We are not going to look at your level nor equipment,” said Black Panther. “All we want is a duel between you and me!”

A Sniper? thought Feng Luo, finally feeling thrilled.