Chapter 989: Picking Peaches
Translator: Sean88888 Editor: Elkassar1
(TL: The title is Chinese slang which means to profit without putting in the effort.)
To be honest, the preferred type of missions for most contestants are assassination missions.
That's because contestants are more violent than ordinary people, and violence is the easiest way to kill. Assassination missions present many advantages for contestants - they are simple, convenient, fast, direct, and have no strings attached.
The mission put forward by Vincent at the moment was much more complex than assassination missions of the same difficulty rating. It may even involve decryption and other complicated tasks. For example, let's say the difficulty of the <> mission was B. An assassination mission with a similar difficulty rating of B would have been more popular with contestants, even if the reward it offered was not as generous.
But Sheyan and the rest only had one hour left in this world, and beggars can't be choosers. They accepted the mission one after another.
[ You have triggered the side mission: Return ]
[ Mission Briefing: We will often treasure something only after we have lost it. Vincent, who was pushed out of Cyberdyne Systems, was desperate to return to the magnate of the weapon industry. He is willing to receive the help of anyone in order to achieve this. ]
[ Mission Hint: The difficulty of this task mainly is mainly focused on three people: Supervisor Khaleed, Technical Director Pippen , and his former assistant, Ritton. As long as these three men are present, Vincent has zero chance of returning. But if extreme measures are taken against these three, it will draw the attention of Cyberdyne Systems and that will also destroy the hopes of Vincent's return. It falls on you to find the balance. ]
[ Mission Deadline: 2 weeks.]
[ Mission Penalty: The relationship between you and Vincent will become hostile, and you will be deducted 10,000 utility points. ]
A pressure was immediately lifted off Sheyan's shoulder once he saw the mission deadline. The reward for this mission was probably not that great, but honestly, the two-week deadline was already the biggest reward he could ask for.
Sheyan strongly suspected that this may be a privilege given by Noah Realm C within its scope of authority, that was, to provide them with a terrible mission that had a bad reward and very complicated steps, but came with a very long deadline and very low penalty for failure.
Other contestants may spit at Vincent's feet and curse him out when they were presented with this mission, but it came as a pleasant surprise to Sheyan. The mission was perfect for him.
There was one problem: Vincent had become the target of another contestant and, if they were not careful, he might be made into the contestant's servant. If any mishap befell the mission issuer, the mission would naturally be halted. They had to find a way to protect Vincent.
After some discussion, they decided to split up. It should be safe to that now since the mastermind had left. Zi would be in a group with Reef. It would be a group with a melee and a ranged contestant; an MT and a DPS -- a perfect combination. They would protect Vincent and complete his mission at the same time.
Sheyan took Sanzi and Brother Black to work on his personal mission. The others would regroup with them if required.
The troublesome thing was, the mastermind had really harmed Sheyan's mission with the bomb he planted. Although it stopped short of doing Sheyan in, it totally destroyed the core area of the mission.
Furthermore, an explosion of that scale would surely turn the mission's core area into a no-go zone. Every notable force in Los Angeles would have their attention focused on the Knox Factory now. Investigating the place would not be easy.
Sheyan could only sigh and take one step at a time, improvising as he go. That was why the two-week deadline was so precious to him.
The work on the first day progressed as follows: Zi and Reef found out the whereabouts and personality of Supervisor Khaleed. He was a hard-headed, old-fashioned man, and to impress him, Vincent would need to produce tangible technical results, ie. procuring a certain amount of technological samples. This means that Zi and Reef had to get him three T-750 CPU chips and one T-800 CPU chip. The road ahead looked long and rough, but at least they had a goal now.
Meanwhile, Sheyan had nothing to show for his day's work. He had spent the whole day having coffee in a nearby cafe with Sanzi and Mogensha. At the end of the day, they were stuffed so full of coffee that they they felt like caffeine was flowing in their veins instead of blood.
On the second day, Zi's group suffered harassment from some contestants, but when they discovered the presence Reef, an MT, in the group, they beat a hasty retreat. Afterwards, the group examined a time displacement sphere laid down by Skynet and successfully eliminated two T-750s. They managed to obtain an undamaged CPU chip from one of the two Terminators.
Despite the recent high frequency of Terminator invasions, the government deemed the situation to be manageable because Terminators were by no means invincible. But the use of powerful weapons means that the Terminators were often torn apart, so an undamaged CPU chip was difficult to obtain. Therefore, CPU chips remained scarce resources. The chance of getting an undamaged CPU chip were much higher for contestants, who had superhuman powers.
Sheyan continued with his coffee-drinking operation on the second day. But this time, while they were drinking coffee, Sanzi had also sent his mice into the Knox Factory. At this point it was almost certain that Sheyan, the holder of the metal nut, had to personally enter the Knox Factory and reach the designated location to trigger the relevant follow-up storyline.
But the cruel truth was the designated location - the abandoned warehouse - had been reduced to ashes thanks to the mastermind. Sheyan would never know now what could have happened if he stepped foot inside the warehouse.
Sheyan had two objectives now. One, he must find out what was so special about that destroyed abandoned warehouse. Two, he must take a walk inside the Knox Factory and try his luck.
On the third day, Zi and Reef were just one T-800 CPU chip short of Vincent's request. With these samples in hand, Vincent would only need an hour to produce something that would impress Supervisor Khaleed.
And similarly on the third day, Sheyan took his group for some coffee again, but for some reason, their drinking spot had changed from the usual cafe outside the Knox Factory to a Starbucks outside a rich area in the city of Orange. When the bloodstreams of Sanzi and Mogensha were once again full of caffeine, Sheyan finally stood up.
It was seven o'clock in the evening. The other two thought the day's work was over, but Sheyan took them to an avenue nearby instead. Standing in the darkness and under the shade of the lush trees lining the avenue, and the trio looked very inconspicuous.
It had started to rain and snow earlier in the afternoon, so the sky had already turned dark around 5 p.m. The three men waited in silence for half an hour before they saw a seemingly low-profile car emerge from the rain, slowly moving towards the residential area nearby.
Two black Buicks followed thirty meters behind the car. The two Buicks both carried members of the secret police. They were apparently protecting the car in front.
The three men continued to wait. An hour later, they realised that four secret agents had been left behind to carry out the protection.
Mogensha snuck his neck back inside the windbreaker and cautiously said, "Boss, that guy's a big fish. If we touch him, we'll be poking the hornet's nest."
Sheyan smiled. "I gave them forty-eight hours to carry out the investigation. I believe that with their ability, they would've found out everything about the warehouse by now, down to the number of bricks used to build the warehouse and their individual production dates. What I'm going to do now is to get all this information from Senator Kane. It'll be worth all the trouble in the world."
Sanzi closed his eyes. The mice he sent out began to paint the terrain around the senator's residence and the interior of the house. Sheyan also signaled to Mogensha to change into anesthetic bullets. After all, the consequences of stunning a few people with a anesthetic bullets were quite different from killing a few people. Sheyan wanted to concentrate all his effort on the mission itself, so he would like to keep the pressure from the government to the minimum.
Due to a lack of replenishment, the negative energy in Sheyan's body had been reduced to the size of a pea, which seems to be the limit as it no longer decreased after that. It lay in Sheyan's body like a bone-sucking maggot and would cause a sharp sting from time to time to remind Sheyan of its existence. Sheyan could not do anything about it. The good news was, though he was still affected some, his strength had recovered by 90%. That was more than enough for this operation.
Few people were willing to patrol outside on a cold, rainy night, so the guards would not be too much trouble. They just had to watch out for the numerous surveillance cameras in the neighbourhood.
Mogensha's rifle scope was locked on the back of a secret agent. He pulled the trigger, and the powerful anesthetic shot produced by the realm quickly showed its effect. Mogensha immediately signalled to Sheyan.
"They'll make regular contact every twenty minutes, Boss, so if you don't want to cause a ruckus, you'll have to get everything done in these twenty minutes."
Sheyan was already standing quietly in the grounds of the neighborhood. The cold muddy rain penetrated his shoes, but the discomfort kept his mind clear. Sanzi quietly slipped in after him.