"You are different from the rumored virtues." Silver said, with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall.
"Really?" Lila responded indifferently.
This won't work, no matter how you frame it, it's easy to reveal the truth. The correct approach is to respond with a vague attitude.
"They say you are as cold and calculating as a machine, as precise as a computer, a harsh executioner. Although you haven't awakened any extraordinary abilities, you are an indispensable strategist for the organization."
"Heh." Lila let out a chuckle.
Her laughter carried little joy or sense of satisfaction.
Silver's pale pink eyes met her deep black eyes for a moment, and she said indifferently, "No reaction at all."
"What kind of reaction do you want?" Lila said, "I can give any reaction that the character I'm playing is meant to have."
"Are all undercover agents as dedicated as you? " Silver frowned, "Even in front of your comrades, you don't reveal your true self?"
Lila calmly looked at Silver until Silver averted his gaze.
"What are the next instructions?" Silver's pale fingertips splashed out a small water flower, and he tossed the ball of water up and down in his hand, saying listlessly, "Don't forget, we only have less than half a month left."
From his few words, it can be seen that in this task force of two people, Lila occupies the position of decision-maker and ruler, while Silver is the executor. Lila's status in Mechanical Dawn is also higher than Silver, and members of the organization have a very good evaluation of her.
"Go to the port, go to the scene of the explosion and investigate."Lila issued the "instructions".
After repeated deliberation, she felt that issuing this instruction was relatively appropriate.
Based on the materials she has read and the intelligence she has gathered, the port is a place where various gangs are entrenched, and there have been multiple bombing incidents there. The cause of the bombing incidents could be gang feuds, or it could be something else... For example, Mechanical Dawn may have chosen to bomb the port to prevent the Craken from docking, so that cargo ships would be unable to berth.
Before carrying out the port bombing mission, it is necessary to clarify some basic information, so Lila needs to give this instruction to Silver.
Silver did not object to Lila's instructions. He asked in detail: "What is the investigation about? Personnel turnover, on-site explosion investigation, or tracking and surveillance of suspicious persons?"
The port has seen more than one explosion incident.
"Investigate everything."Lila said.
"You're being overly cautious." Silver muttered, "Okay, I'll go now. If there are any temporary instructions, contact me through the wristband."
He put on the silver mask, pulled down the brim, and walked out to the balcony. Silently, his body dissolved into a transparent stream of water, merging with the heavy rain outside and vanishing into the night.
Lila went to close the window to prevent the rain from splashing into the room.
Silver was dismissed with a gesture, allowing her to reflect on some matters in a quiet environment.
Lila is a person who is very good at formulating learning plans and managing her study time. Her Grade 11 homeroom teacher praised her for arranging her study tasks in a well-organized manner.
Now she will use the planning skills honed during her three-year high school hell to plan her future.
Lila entered the bedroom, took a sheet of white paper from the desk, and a pen with only half a cartridge of ink left.
This is her habit, writing things down on paper can make her thoughts clearer, and the sound of the pen rubbing on the paper can make her more focused.
Currently, Lila's main crises come from two aspects.
"First, Mechanical Dawn. Second, Investigation Department." She wrote on the paper.
The work as an undercover agent in the Investigation Department is highly dangerous, but Lila has the materials provided by the organization as a support. She plans to stay up late to thoroughly review the hundreds of pages of information and thoroughly understand the Investigation Department, the federal government agency. The information related to "security guard Lila" needs to be memorized in detail, including her biography, her network, and her living habits, without any mistakes. Feigning amnesia is a temporary solution, but it is not a long-term solution.
As an intern security guard, Lila did not stay long in the Investigation Department, and it is normal for her to be unfamiliar with her colleagues. She does not need to be overly familiar with her team and team leader, and it is best to maintain an appropriate relationship.
Compared to the Investigation Department, Mechanical Dawn made Lila more uneasy.
The Investigation Department has a lot of materials that are hundreds of pages long for her to reference and understand, but what about Mechanical Dawn? There is nothing. She is extremely unfamiliar with this organization, she does not know the purpose of the organization's establishment, she does not know who the organization's leader is, and she even needs to gradually explore and guess what role she plays in the organization.
Lila's teammate "Silver" is bound to her, and fortunately this person has not had any prior contact with the original body. Based on his performance, it seems he lacks experience, like an inexperienced youth, and is relatively easy to deceive, allowing Lila to smoothly get through the situation.
It may not necessarily work out with a different person.
Lila's pen tip tapped on the paper as she pondered.
In her future undercover life in the Investigation Department, Lila sought to be cautious and stable. She established the principles of not fighting, not grabbing, and not standing out, instead focusing on listening, observing, and learning more.
Six basic guidelines.
The Mechanical Dawn organization is quite difficult to deal with. Lila has a mission and is also an undercover agent, so she will likely have few opportunities to interact with other organization members. The main trouble is Silver, who is constantly by her side. Fooling Silver will solve the problem for the time being.
Lila has planned the solutions for the crisis and crossed out the words "Mechanical Dawn" and "Investigation Department".
The next thing to be planned is the "task".
She currently has two tasks.
Task one, investigate the cause of the port explosion. This task is issued by the game system.
Task two, prevent the Craken ship from docking in Heihai City. This is a mission assigned by the Mechanical Dawn organization.
Lila marked a cross on task two with an expressionless face.
She may be able to uncover some clues by working in the Investigation Department regarding the explosives case, but going to blow up the port and sink the cargo ship is simply courting death.
This is a real game, a game with no save function, if you lose your life, it's likely gone forever, she can't gamble with her life. This kind of dangerous task wouldn't be enough even with a hundred save slots.
Lila bit the pen, her brow furrowed, as she began to analyze the task.
The causes of the explosion at the port were not as simple as a gang fight. It is highly likely that they are related to the arrival of the Craken.
I don't know if the Investigation Department is aware of the unusual aspects of the bombing case
Additionally, Lila suspects that there is a "third party" involved in the case.
There is more than one organization or force that wants to blow up the port.
She created a relationship diagram.
The First Department, Investigation Department. The purpose is to guard the port and pursue criminals.
The second group, Mechanical Dawn. The purpose is to blow up the port.
Mechanical Dawn has assigned Lila the task of "blowing up the port," which was the mission directive she had just received, and the organization had also assigned her a teammate, "Silver." However, before she accepted the mission and officially crossed over to the second world, half of the moored port had already been blown up.
Who did this blast?
Gang conflicts are quite common in the simple and honest Heihai City. Ordinary gang conflicts would not prompt the game system to issue a dedicated task, so this bombing case must have some unique aspects compared to previous incidents, which triggered the task.
Lila wrote on the paper--
The third party, pending. The suspected cause of the explosion is related to the Craken.
But the above is just a guess one, there is also a guess two.
Lila's second guess was that Mechanical Dawn had sent out more than one task execution team, and the previous explosion case was carried out by another group of Mechanical Dawn's task force, but they failed.
Silver said: "It doesn't matter if we die, our comrades will complete the mission before August 11th."
Blowing up the port and destroying cargo ships is a task that Mechanical Dawn could not have placed its hopes on a single squad. The correct choice is to have multiple squads carry out the task together. Therefore, the perpetrators of the previous wave of bombings could still be Mechanical Dawn.
Lila added a sentence under the words "Third party, TBD": "The third party is suspected to still be Mechanical Dawn".
She looked at the few short lines on the paper and pondered for a very long time.
The turbulent waters of Heihai City, the frequent explosions at the port, the orders of Mechanical Dawn, the tasks issued by the game system... All of these point to a central focus - the Craken, the massive cargo ship that is about to dock in Heihai City.
The Craken is the eye of the storm, harboring conspiracy and fog, slowly approaching.
Lila grabbed the paper on the table, tore it into unidentifiable small pieces, and then walked to the toilet and flushed the shredded paper down the toilet. This paper had to be destroyed, and it couldn't be seen by anyone.
She knew where the breakthrough to completing the task was.
Kraken
Uncovering the cargo on the Craken and understanding why Mechanical Dawn was so afraid of its docking in Heihai City would resolve the matter.
Lila returned to her room, sat down in a chair and thought for a moment, then opened her encrypted network and searched online for information about the "Craken".
The page pops up.
The Craken, a giant bulk carrier, was built in 2086 and is now in its first year of service. The Craken has a maximum carrying capacity of 800,000 tons, making it the world's largest bulk carrier.
Bulk carriers usually transport goods that cannot be loaded into containers, such as sand, oil, and coal.
What will be transported on the Craken?
Lila searched several times, but there was too little information about this cargo ship, she couldn't find any useful intelligence, so she opened the task chip given to her by the organization, where there was more content left unread.
She clicked through the materials and reviewed them from start to finish, and as she had expected, there was not a single piece of specific information about the cargo carried by the Craken.
The situation is very delicate.
Lila's thoughts stirred, and the game system's holographic display appeared.
She blinked her eyes and was pleasantly surprised to find that the investigation into the port explosion case had somehow advanced.
[Task Progress]: 5%.
The scattered data at the very least proves that her investigation direction is correct, and she should continue to follow this clue.
Lila let out a long sigh.
Seeing progress on a task gives a sense of accomplishment, similar to solving a difficult math problem... no, even more so than solving a math problem - this sense of achievement is second only to earning money from a job.
Lila leaned back and fell onto the not-so-soft bed, sluggishly rubbing her eyes. She was not sleeping, but switching the content displayed on her wristband, with the vigor of reciting course materials to interpret ancient poems and verses, reviewing the "Lila" life information and intelligence from the Investigation Department that had been assigned to her.
She watched from darkness to daylight, and the heavy rain outside never stopped during that time.
At nine o'clock in the morning, the terrace window was pushed open.
Silver crawled in through the window in a disheveled state, soaked from head to toe, with a bloody trace on his face and neck, having been injured.
Silver looked at Lila coming out of the bedroom and opened his mouth to say: "Hey! You....."
"I'm not called 'hey', it would be best if you call me by my code name." Lila looked at his wet footprints, "You've dirtied the floor."
"Rich, Wealthy Woman......you..." Silver's expression twisted as he called out the code name, then he quickly shut his mouth and said in self-abandonment, "It doesn't matter what you call me, I'm injured. Do you have a first aid kit here?"
Lila got the medical kit from the bedside.
Silver casually removed his mask, his pure white hair was damp and stuck to his forehead, and his already pale lips seemed even paler. Silver casually took off his coat and threw it on the ground, there were actually three huge gashes on his chest, the wounds were very deep, but in this situation, he did not lose too much blood and die, and was still lively and energetic.
Lila looked at the ground, the water trace left by him walking through the balcony was transparent, without any blood mixed in, and the clothes on his chest were only stained with a small patch of blood. "The monsters lurking in the dark have increased." Silver grimaced as he took off his shirt, opened the first-aid kit, and expertly poured hydrogen peroxide for disinfection, then self-medicated and bandaged the wound. Lila subtly repeated: "Increased?"
"Yes, more than before, I encountered three of them last night." Silver finished wrapping the bandage and paused to catch his breath, then said solemnly, "They landed during the heavy rain and were roaming the docks filled with shipping containers, searching for hosts..."
Monster? What monster?
Lila anxiously wanted to bite her lips.
The second world has too many things that are beyond her comprehension. Last night, she was even learning how to use facial recognition payment correctly, how to enter and exit public places, how to shop online, and how to use portable devices... She also hastily learned the historical knowledge of this world, from the establishment of the Federation to the glorious history of the technological explosion and humanity's attempt to establish colonies in outer space, as well as the names and general course of some major historical events.
The appearance of player Xi reminded Lila that she should be more careful, and she should not make the same simple mistakes that Xi had made.
Lila is in a state of panic, but the "monster" that Silver mentioned has once again exceeded her understanding.
To conceal her own anxiety and unease, Lila said to Silver, "You've brought in too much water, clean up the balcony and living room."
Silver: "..."
"If it weren't for my ability to control liquids, I would have bled out and died long ago. You didn't help me bandage up, and you even blame me for making a mess on the floor." He angrily rolled up the water stains on the ground.
A water ball thrown into the kitchen sink.
