NOVPUB38: Chapter 38: To Complete the Mission (Extra-Length Chapter, Please Favorite, Follow, and Vote)
38: Chapter 38: To Complete the Mission (Extra-Length Chapter, Please Favorite, Follow, and Vote)
[He Ao (Ande)]
[Permission Level: Ordinary Player]
[Physical Attributes: 15 (13) (ordinary person in Copy World is 10, ordinary person in the main world is 5)]
[Skills: Talent Sequences 272: Super Memory (Soul Bound) (E Rank)]
[Mechanical Modification: None]
[Martial Arts: Qi Induction (F Rank) (Not Usable)]
[Character Abilities: Basic Firearms Mastery, Qi Induction (Unranked)]
The level of Super Memory had upgraded from F Rank to E Rank, and his previously depleted spirit and energy were slowly recovering.
Perhaps this was the effect of the mysterious drug potion he had consumed?
Super Memory absorbed the power of the potion, not only replenishing the parts of He Ao’s life consumed but also leading to a promotion.
“How did you know that potion would be useful to me?”
He Ao turned off his attribute panel, leaned against the wall, and asked softly.
“Hm?”
At that moment, the little boy was holding up a metal-wrapped test tube, looking at its empty insides, and shaking it a few times.
He seemed puzzled about how He Ao had managed to absorb everything from it so thoroughly.
“I didn’t know,” he turned his head back, tucking the silver test tube into his pocket, “but you seemed like you really wanted it, so I fed it to you.”
“Is that so?
Looks like I’m pretty lucky,”
He Ao laughed, and by that time, he had regained some strength.
He reached into his pocket and fished out a toy gun.
Despite everything, the toy still lay peacefully in his pocket.
He handed it back to the boy, “Here you go, consider it your reward for saving me.”
This little boy was the one who had previously exchanged He Ao’s hot dog for a toy gun at the entrance of Crown Casino.
“That’s not enough, you have to add money.”
The boy took the gun, expertly pulled back the magazine, and discovered that the last plastic bullet was gone, looking somewhat disappointed.
But he didn’t say much, instead reinserting the magazine and attaching the toy gun to his toy police car.
Only then did He Ao realize that the toy gun and toy police car were a set.
He pressed the red button on the toy police car, and a piercing siren sounded immediately.
Upon hearing this siren, He Ao instantly understood the logic of the events.
The boy had used the toy car’s siren to pretend the police were coming to scare away the dancing girl, and then he fed He Ao the potion from the silver test tube, saving his life.
This was almost as he had guessed when he first woke up.
When he woke up and saw not Smith but the little boy beside him, he had roughly guessed that it was the boy who had saved him.
Although it looked like a fluke, it indeed had saved He Ao’s life.
“Don’t just press it!” the boy quickly knocked his hand away and pressed it again to stop the siren, “Batteries are expensive, and…”
“And what?”
He Ao asked curiously.
Just as his words fell, sudden, rapid footsteps came from the night.
A ragged, homeless man in a tattered leather jacket burst out.
He glanced around, saw the boy, and charged toward him angrily.
“I was wondering who’s been making noise here all night, turns out it’s you, you little brat.”
As he approached, he made as if to strike.
The boy instinctively hugged the toy car and curled up into a ball.
Bang—
Accompanied by the crisp sound of a gunshot, a bullet sped across and hit the concrete ground in front of the homeless man, sending slabs of concrete flying.
The once-threatening homeless man suddenly froze in place.
“Scram.”
He Ao put down the gun and said calmly.
This was an ordinary gun; he had tucked the Gauss Gun at his waist.
“I’m going, I’m going.”
The man immediately shrank back and scuttled away into the darkness.
This guy hadn’t failed to hear the sounds of the fight between He Ao and the dancing girl; he was simply intimidated by the might of the battle and had cowered in the corner, not daring to come out.
If the loud battle didn’t disturb him, how could the toy car’s siren?
He was just a bully who was afraid of a tougher fight.
The man had emerged perhaps also to test if He Ao still had the ability to fight.
If He Ao had been defenseless, not only would the boy have been beaten, but everything valuable on He Ao would have been taken.
The man hadn’t emerged earlier, most likely still spooked by the noises from the fight.
He Ao slowly put away the gun he was holding, and as he did, the boy’s gaze intently followed his hand movements.
“Are you a cop?”
The boy asked tentatively.
“Sort of,” He Ao thought for a moment.
An investigator was, in a sense, a special cop in the Copy World.
He looked at the boy’s toy police car, “Do you want to be a cop?”
The boy glanced at the toy car in his hands and shook his head, “No.”
He Ao watched him with a smile.
“Just a little, it looks imposing,” the boy pursed his lips, looked at He Ao, and changed the subject.
“Will someone come to rescue you later?
Will there be an ambulance?
I heard ambulances are very expensive but amazing, they can save people who are nearly dead.”
“Who told you that?”
He Ao struggled to stand and staggered toward the briefcase.
“My dad.”
The little boy reached out to help him, curiously watching his movements.
“Where is your dad?”
He Ao walked forward step by step.
“Dead,” the little boy answered calmly.
“Couldn’t afford to call an ambulance, then he died.”
Then he circled around He Ao.
“You haven’t answered me yet, do you have an ambulance?”
He Ao paused for a moment, then continued to move forward, “I don’t have an ambulance.”
“Can’t you afford to call an ambulance either?”
The little boy was somewhat puzzled.
“Mhm,” He Ao nodded lightly.
He squatted down in front of the briefcase, “Ambulances are too expensive, over a thousand federal coins for one trip.”
“That expensive, huh,” the little boy seemed to be hearing the price of an ambulance for the first time.
He counted on his fingers, “A big fried chicken leg for one federal coin each, over a thousand federal coins could buy over a thousand fried chicken legs!”
His eyes widened in shock, with an expression of amazement plastered on his small face.
“Mhm.”
He Ao opened the briefcase, which contained a tablet computer, already shattered by scattered stones, and three pens that had spilled out.
After searching, he found a paper notebook and a beautifully packaged, thumb-sized bottle of ink.
Copy Worlds were rarely using paper now, schools generally used high-precision pressure-sensitive e-paper for teaching, and social communication was all entrusted to electronic documents.
The decrease in demand had also driven up the prices of paper and books.
But the paper industry hadn’t disappeared.
The level of knowledge acceptance from paper books, in some cases, was better than that from e-paper.
Therefore, private elite schools and some universities still used paper, like the private school Ande attended as a child, which taught using paper books.
Besides, some society elites and ancient families still used paper to pass on certain documents or for writing, so using paper had become a symbol of the ‘upper class’ to some extent.
Finding a notebook, pens, and ink in the briefcase indicated that the man’s social status was not low.
He Ao did not know what the man came to see the Dancing Girl for, but after rummaging through everything, he found nothing else.
“Are you looking for a book?” asked the little boy confusedly as he watched He Ao’s actions, tilting his head before running a few steps and waving at He Ao.
“Come with me.”
He Ao watched him with curiosity, then picked up the notebook, pens, and ink, and followed him deeper into the building.
Along the way, they passed a burning fire where many homeless people gathered to warm themselves, watching them with the intensity of hungry beasts.
Then He Ao silently lifted the gun in his hand, and the gaze of the homeless people slowly shifted back to the fire.
After passing several such fires, the little boy finally led He Ao to their destination.
It looked like a small storage room locked with a large iron padlock; both the padlock and the door showed signs of having been smashed.
Next to the door was a small ventilated window, extremely narrow, through which an adult could barely fit their head.
The glass of the window had been broken.
Peering through it, He Ao saw that the room wasn’t big and was practically empty, with only a tattered overcoat and some bulging small bags visible.
“Wait here a moment.”
The little boy set down the toy, skillfully climbed through the window, rummaged in a bag, and soon after, he pulled out two books and ran over to He Ao, shaking them through the window.
“Are these what you’re looking for?”
He Ao looked closely; they were textbooks for lower grades of primary school.
He nodded, “That’s them!”
The boy climbed back through the window, beaming with pride as He Ao caught him.
As he caught him, He Ao looked inside the window, “You live here?”
“Yep!”
The little boy dusted off his clothes and handed the books to He Ao.
“Why do you go so far to Crown Casino?”
He Ao asked casually as he took the books.
“The gamblers there are generous when they win.
Plus, there are some shops that trade specifically with gamblers who’ve lost everything.
The food in those shops is very cheap, and I don’t have to pay for the bus,” the little boy explained shrewdly, standing at almost a meter tall, while the fare line for Dawn City’s buses was one meter ten.
He Ao flipped through the books the boy had given him.
Both were almost new, with few signs of being read.
He was curious, “Where did you get such new books?”
“Someone was giving out bread before; they were distributed together.
They seemed good for starting a fire, so I took them.
“Then they stopped giving them out and started teaching writing instead, only to children.
Attend a class, get a piece of bread—bunch of weirdos.
“But they gave out a lot of bread, and it tasted good.
Perform well, and they even rewarded with toys.
I quite liked them,” the boy stroked his chin, pondering. 𝚗ovp𝚞b.𝚌om
“It’s just that they haven’t been coming as often.
At first, it was once a week, then every two weeks, and now maybe not even once in one or two months.”
He Ao flipped the book to the back and saw a line of text, [Dawn Homeless Children’s Aid Association, Donation Hotline: 010****375]
“They probably ran out of money.”
He casually put the books away.
“By the way, what do you need these books for?” the boy asked curiously, looking at He Ao.
“Are you also going to school?”
“No,” He Ao shook his head and opened his character panel once more, looking at his name followed by (Ande).
“To complete a mission.”
This mission was finally nearing its last stage.
