Chapter 62 - I’ve got this Undercover Agent’s back (1)
Translator: Cyan
Editor: Sleepy Little Mushrooms
Note: This chapter was translated by Cyan. Please make sure to give her your thanks in the comments!
For once, the mission time was even more relaxed than before. It wasn’t until Film Emperor Gu confirmed that everyone clearly knew about their relationship that they took the opportunity to get away from the main plot line, using their marriage as an excuse to withdraw from the film industry.
Gu Qi was famous, so it took him a long time to completely fade away from the story line. The two of them stayed more than ten years in this world, before receiving a new task in another world. They exited this world and went onwards to their next goal.
“Host, I won the argument with the customer service!”
Before heading to the next world, Lu Deng temporarily returned to the main world for transit. When he entered the main control room, an excited mechanical voice came from the system in his mind. “The driver package from last time was sent because they mixed it up with another product with a similar name and accidentally shipped the wrong one. After negotiation, they decided to compensate the host by giving you another driving related skill package for free! You can import it now!”
“Thank you for your hard work.”
Unexpectedly, the system actually spent an entire world’s time to argue with customer service. Lu Deng laughed silently. He thanked it warmly, and quietly slipped the experience points he had planned to use to make up the difference into the system’s coffers.
The system was in high spirits from being praised by its host. Without any need for him to explain, it just automatically imported the new skill pack and installed it.
This time it was obvious that the driving-related skill was filling the database. After a quick browse, Lu Deng left the rest of the work to the system. He lifted his hand to open the new world introduction.
It was a modern urban world that focused on solving crimes.
The protagonist was Liang Xia, a young detective who has just joined the police force. He got involved in a complicated case by accident. The plot revolves around him and the case.
Although the main plot was relatively complex, the content of his mission wasn’t involved with it much, just a secondary plot that happened at the extreme edge of the case. Lu Deng briefly scanned through the synopsis, and without reading too much more, he opened his own task bar.
The innocent victim he needed to save this time was named Gu Pingming, a police officer who withdrew from his undercover mission due to his injuries. He was now in the “recovery period” of the undercover transition, his identity still confidential. He was currently in disguise, recuperating in the rehabilitation center.
Gu Pingming’s mission has nothing to do with the main case. It was just a key part of the protagonist path of growth. He once took action when the protagonist’s undercover investigation was about to be revealed. He also, leaving no trace of his help, guided the protagonist when he was confused by the case. He served as a guide, an instructor for the protagonist during the beginning stage. Like the sweeping monk, he was an important helping hand for the protagonist to be better.
The protagonist never asked for his identity. The two only met as friends but he was accidentally exposed because of this. Moreover, it attracted the crazy revenge of the villain he had crossed paths with while undercover.
The accident took place in the upper floor of a shopping mall. Gu Pingming was captured by a man with explosives. Although the police arrived quickly, they couldn’t guarantee that the criminal would be subdued without harming innocent people. During the increasingly dangerous standoff, the explosives were accidentally shaken and they collided with each other. Gu Pingming revealed his identity as an undercover police officer before jumping off the building, taking the criminal with him.
The explosion occurred in mid-air, shattering the entire two floors of reinforced glass.
This was also an important turning point for the protagonist, who, spurred on by the accident, changed his original casual style and ruthlessly pounced on the case, finally giving new insight to the case that was originally a dead end and solving it in one fell swoop.
While there was no connection between what happened to Gu Pingming and the main plot, the significance of both his appearance and his sacrifice was undoubtedly extremely important to the protagonist’s growth and transformation. To amend the plot without changing these two points, the difficulty was a notch higher than the original mission.
Lu Deng pondered for a moment, and tentatively asked, “Can I choose the villain as my identity?”
The police force was organized, and even if the system could help him fake his identity, it wouldn’t be easy to enter. If he could disguise himself as a villain, he could go through the scenario with Gu Pingming with little to no change to the plot, and with a slight change in the final outcome or a way to get the system to do a temporary blindfold, he could save his man without a problem.
The host’s way of thinking was always different from the other hosts. The system that has just loaded the skill pack was frightened by his question and reminded repeatedly, “It’s not allowed in a realistic world otherwise it will increase the risk of the world being subjected to a crack down and being locked… The host can choose a neutral character between the two parties!”
It’s not like being the villain wasn’t an option, but it was necessary to ensure that the host and the target never have a deeper emotional connection or else both may be forced out of the world.
Even though the system was reluctant, it knew it couldn’t stop the target who kept falling for its host, so it had to make some preparations ahead of time.
When reminded by the mechanical voice, Lu Deng’s eyes lit up. He opened the character candidate column and read it twice. After pondering for a moment, he chose the rehabilitation center’s newly transferred doctor.
The system had discovered the unknown addition to the funds in its small vault. Jumping with excitement, he immediately asked, “Does the host want to buy the relevant skill packages? I have a lot of experience points!”
“No, I bought them all a long time ago.”
Lu Deng smiled and patiently answered, touching the camera that had accompanied him for one entire world. He hid the developed photos in a drawer and also put the bell in.
Most of the scenes in the only movie he’d made with Gu Xi in the previous world were true.
He had started out from an abandoned place and so had once been convinced that if he did well enough to help others, he wouldn’t be left behind; even though the elders in his family had always been meticulous and gentle in taking care of him, such anxiety had always been buried deep in his heart.
He has bought and mastered almost all of the useful skill kits like this one. The uninterrupted learning gave him a sense of security, as though he could keep everything that came his way if he became useful enough to do so.
There wasn’t any possibility that these uneasy thought would appear in his mind now, but all of the original gains were still there.
Lu Deng curled his lips and raised his hand to press the world import button.
The system failed to spend experience points on behalf of the host. However, it was still unwilling to concede and it plunged headlong into the mall to pick and choose. Lu Deng was dumbfounded and he opened up the permissions control to let the system search at will. He stepped into the generated teleportation array and in the blink of an eye, disappeared into the vast starry sky.
*
The twilight was getting thicker, and the fire-colored sunset was reflected in the spacious office through the brightly polished glass.
Lu Deng sat in front of the computer, flipping through Gu Pingming’s medical records. He flipped through page by page and he couldn’t help but frown slightly.
During the previous worlds, he had promptly stopped any possible harm before it came and protected the other person well. Even during the first time when Gu Yuan had been tortured, it wasn’t serious enough to leave any lasting injury. After a few days of recuperation, the injury had mostly been healed.
This time it was different.
The gunshot wound caused a hemothorax (accumulation of blood in the thorax), internal organ damage, and multiple fractures. Just by looking at the medical records, one could guess how many life and death experiences the other had had.
It had been several months since the accident that caused Gu Pingming to break off his undercover work. Gu Pingming’s original physique was sufficiently good that he had already recovered enough to be discharged from the hospital. Despite this, some problems still remained and he had to continue his rehabilitation in the rehab center.
“Host, all these therapeutic drugs can be bought in the mall!”
Sensing that the host’s mood was not good, the system promptly chimed in. Not waiting for Lu Deng to speak, it had already bought and readied a bag of strengthening fluids for him. “The host can slowly nurse the target back to health. It would take two months at most and there will be no after-effects at all!”
At the very least, there would be no problem at all with his ability to hug the host to sleep!
Hearing the system’s confident assurance, only then did Lu Deng feel slightly relieved. He closed his medical chart and got up, “Just help me adjust my physical fitness to be as close to the level of an ordinary person as possible.”
Based on his experience in the last world, using his original body in the real world would often cause quite a bit of a minor chaos.
It was just fine in the entertainment circle, where people would at most just marvel at it a couple of times and not take it much to heart. But in a world that was infested with undercover agents, it was inevitable that his body would cause some chaos if he was too unrestrained.
They were in the rehabilitation center for now and according to the plot, there would be no danger for a while. If there was an emergency, it was still not too late to bring back his physical abilities.
The system responded with a busy tone and a short time later, the data had changed accordingly.
Lu Deng sat at the table for a while and when he gradually got used to his adjusted body, he got up and went out towards Gu Pingming’s room.
Attending physicians were too busy and had too many patients under their belts to accompany the other. Lu Deng’s identity this time was just a trainee doctor, named Lu Baiyu. The recent patients coming to the center for rehabilitation weren’t that many and he was assigned only this one patient to take care of. And so, there was a lot more he could do.
Most of Gu Pingming’s injuries had healed. Only his lung capacity and the nerves in his right leg had not recovered completely. Lu Deng was calculating the rehabilitation plan in his mind. He found the patient room and knocked on the door. He didn’t hear anyone answer.
Now was the time to rest and recuperate. Lu Deng was slightly perplexed. He knocked twice on the door and turned the knob to enter the room.
The room was empty.
Although it was a high-end patient room, the room still looked quite empty. There were a few scattered daily necessities on the table along with biscuits that were half eaten. Scattered the on bed was a still pure white three-piece suit that was generally distributed by the center. So, nothing unusual.
Lu Deng, however, could see that every single thing in this room was used to keep an eye out for prying outsiders at all times.
He used to do the same, placing everything as if they were randomly scattered, but in fact there was a pattern that he could find. As long as even one person came in to search and rummage, or touched something, he could immediately notice it the moment he entered the door.
It was the same with Gu Pingming.
It wasn’t that this place was more dangerous, but rather that he had become accustomed to doing this and only in such an environment could he feel more at ease.
Lu Deng pursed the corners of his lips and lightly closed the door, exiting the hospital room.
Gu Xi would always stay where he could see when he looked up and he would tell him in advance where he was going, with constant messages along the way. It had been a long time since Lu Deng had used the system’s location tracking program.
“Host, the target is in-”
The system hastily started up the program. As soon as it spoke up, Lu Deng just said, “The rooftop.”
The system was surprised for a long while and acquiesced.
There were only few places that the other party frequented and one could always guess if they thought about it calmly.
Lu Deng curled his lips, looked around and found a staircase. He quickly climbed up.
The rooftop was locked.
“Host, I can blow the door open!”
It seems that he had broken his system. It enthusiastically made such bold suggestions that Lu Deng chuckled and shook his head helplessly, “No need to be impatient. Let’s take a look.”
Having spent a lot of time in the modern world, he had learned quite a few human rules, and if a locked, spring-loaded door like this one was blown open in a hospital like this, it was likely that he would meet the other party directly at Gu Pingming’s workplace.
The fact that Gu Pingming could go up there meant that there must be a way in.
Lu Deng looked around. He selected a window that had fewer protective railings. With one hand on the window frame, he lightly climbed out.
*
Sitting on the rooftop, the cigarette between Gu Pingming’s fingers was burned halfway through. He coughed twice in the curling smoke.
His lung capacity was still not up to the standard, so the doctor said that smoking was not allowed. He could only find a chance to smell the smoke here and satisfy his craving.
The evening weather was just right, neither cold nor hot, and the air was fresh after the rain, so it was not the time to rest peacefully in his ward.
Gu Pingming was so used to being outside. It hadn’t been easy for him to stay put until he got out of the hospital but once he was out, he got thrown into the rehab center instead. It was so suffocating staying in his hospital room that he was already bored to death. When there was no rehab assignment and no one has prohibited him from going out and running around, he would try to go up to the roof for some air and then run back to his room, just in time before someone comes to check on him.
His cigarette was about to be finished, Gu Pingming took a deep drag and exhaled in a long, comfortable breath. Not until he had coughed out a sizeable smoke ring, were his eyes suddenly drawn to the edge of the building.
Usually there were only flowing clouds and birds along the edge of the building but now, there was suddenly a small head.
It was a very clear and pretty boy with such good-looking features, it was as though they had been drawn. He was wearing a lab coat that was in line with the forces that suppressed him. Clinging on to that little bit of concrete platform that was sticking out, his clear black eyes blinked at him.
The rooftop had been locked and this path was impossible for the average person to find. Gu Pingming saw the white clothing and hid the cigarette butt behind his back. That head, however, did not continue to emerge upwards, it was stuck in place at the edge.
Lu Deng: “……”
Lu Deng: “System, are you there?”
Lu Deng: “I can’t climb any further.”
“Ri-right away!”
It had accidentally weakened his physical parameters too much and the system data was in a mess. While the systems was incessantly looking for the parameters to readjust, Lu Deng’s strength had run out, he couldn’t help but slump down a little further.
“Watch out!”
Seeing the boy’s arms slacken, Gu Pingming’s heart tightened. He tossed out his cigarette butt and flew over, picking up the boy and lifting him into his arms.
Lu Deng was held firmly in his arms. Looking up at him, he suddenly remembered the other’s injuries. His heart tightened and he raised his hand to touch him. “Your injuries-”
“No need to check, little doctor.”
Gu Pingming chuckled, holding the hand that was groping his body all over. He looked down into clear, black eyes and the corners of his lips ticked up in amusement, “My waist is fine ……”