Chapter 5: Chapter 5 – Loading Save File
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Although that suspicious character possessed the weapon he wanted, Ren Suo realized that the ‘steal’ option appeared only when he was standing behind that man.
However, activating ‘steal’ required several seconds. Each time he attempted to ‘steal’, that man would move away, terminating the progress bar before it was full. The hitman had no choice but to follow him to see if he might stay in a spot for a longer duration.
Unexpectedly, the NPC suddenly spun round and stared at the hitman. With a quizzical look, he asked, “Friend, why are you following me?”
“Huh? I’m doing no such thing,” the hitman laughed. Just then, the game prompt appeared:
[You have attracted a suspicious character’s attention.]
“Looks like I can’t tail him…” Ren Suo had no choice but to move the hitman to a corner and track the suspicious character with his eyes.
“Hey, it’s you again!”
As the hitman moved, he knocked into someone accidentally. That someone so happened to be the fine lady from previously. Unfortunately, the lady was holding a glass of wine, which spilled its contents on the shirt of the middle-aged man she was talking to when the hitman knocked into her.
A waiter hurried over with a towel. The middle-aged man grabbed the towel and frowned, “Please be careful.”
The fine lady, however, was unwilling to let the matter go. “Who are you? You’ve got no manners at all. How can you be allowed into the Lamperouge Banquet?”
Ren Suo quickly commanded the hitman to leave. “This game’s way too realistic… It even reacts real-time? This Mini Worlds gaming console’s really powerful!”
Suddenly, a great idea struck Ren Suo. He looked for the suspicious character and waited till he walked past a young man holding a glass of wine. At the right timing, Ren Suo moved forward and bumped into the young man.
The young man’s glass tilted, spilling its contents onto the shirt of the suspicious character. Hurriedly, the hitman vanished into the crowd. The young man apologized to the suspicious character profusely, while a waiter hurried over with a towel.
At this moment, the hitman crept up behind the suspicious character undetected, pretending to be watching the commotion. In truth, while the suspicious character was wiping his shirt, the [steal] progress bar was rapidly filling up…
[You have acquired ‘P19C’, with 17 bullets and a silencer (needs to be equipped).]
Finally, he had a weapon. Ren Suo breathed out in relief. Just then, a young man in a brown suit appeared behind the hitman and placed his hand on the hitman’s shoulder.
“Don’t move,” the man in brown suit whispered.
[You have attracted a suspicious character’s attention.]
[A suspicious character has discovered you!]
[[Weapon Expert] ability activated. You have discovered pistol ‘Beretta 92’]
[Location of ‘Beretta 92’ tagged.]
[You have discovered a suspicious character. Location suspicious character tagged.]
[You are held hostage by a suspicious character. You are in danger and any action will cause you to be attacked.]
Then, Ren Suo saw the young man in brown suit hold up a pistol in red silhouette to the hitman’s abdomen. The hitman was covered in blue chains, looking as if he had been caught.
“Follow me.”
Now, if Ren Suo did nothing, the hitman would automatically obey the young man’s instructions and follow him to the entrance of the banquet hall.
He pretended to be taking the hitman to the toilet and walked till they reached the corner where the hitman had taken off his clothes.
“I don’t know who you are, but since you’ve discovered us and are trying to take advantage of us…” the young man in brown suit said behind the hitman. At the same time, his pistol moved towards the back of the hitman’s heart. “If you want to live long, don’t be a busybody.”
All of a sudden, a deafening gunshot from the banquet hall pierced the air. The young man in brown suit seemed to be momentarily distracted by the gunshot because Ren Suo saw that the blue chains on the hitman had been replaced by a game prompt: [Press □ to retaliate.]
Without hesitation, Ren Suo made the hitman slam backwards with full force, throwing the young man in brown suit into the wall. In one fluid motion, the hitman pressed himself against him, pulled out his pistol and put it against the young man’s head –
“Biu!”
Ren Suo could not help but exclaim inwardly. The game’s reaction was otherworldly fast. In the spot where the hitman’s pistol met the man’s head, a small hole had appeared, fresh blood oozing out from it. The young man fell limp on the ground.
[The time now is 2000HRS. Mercenary organisation ‘Poker’ has launched an offensive against the Lamperouge family.] The game prompt appeared: [Escort key personnel Kallen Lamperouge safely out of the tower.]
“Oh! So it’s a protection mission, not an assasination!” Ren Suo exclaimed. He hurried back into the banquet hall only to find it in a state of chaos. The socialites who had been chatting their lives away only a moment earlier were now either yelling in pain on the floor or cowering in a corner.
Three assassins armed with pistols stood at the entrance, shooting any guests who tried to flee. Some of them dashed towards the restrooms, elevators and fire exits. When they saw the hitman ‘who seemed to have just come out of the restroom’, they whipped out their pistols and fired without a word!
The game prompt: [Press and hold R1 to activate skill.]
Ren Suo quickly held down the R1 button. The screen turned into a faint blue and, as if time had frozen, the movement of the two assassins in front of the hitman slowed to snail pace. Slowly, they aimed their pistols at the hitman and the projected trajectories of their bullets appeared on screen!
It was the Bald Hitman’s ability – [Bullet Time]! Not only could it slow down time, it could predict the trajectories of bullets!
Ren Suo immediately made the hitman take out his pistol and aimed. He had a good few seconds to aim for the assassins’ heads. Even on the controller, he could blast off their heads easily with headshots.
“Who’s there?”
Yet another two men rushed over. Ren Suo dispatched them swiftly using [Bullet Time]. Then, the assassins who stood guard by the entrance of the banquet hall shouted, “Sniper! Find cover!”
Ren Suo chuckled, “Seems like there’s a god-like mode in this game!” Under his control, the hitman strode into the banquet hall like a boss. The assassins hiding behind tables and pillars fired at the hitman. Ren Suo repeated his tactic, entering [Bullet Time] and shooting their heads off while dodging their bullets.
Suddenly, the blue filter on the screen faded off and a message popped up in the bottom left corner: [Ability has worn out.]
What?
Ren Suo was in a daze. In the next second, the hitman’s body was riddled with bullets.
[You died.]
This time, instead of loading automatically, there were two save files for Ren Suo to choose from: [Save File 0: The Hitman Out of the Alley] and [Save File 1: The Arrival of the Nameless Guest].
Ren Suo chose Save File 1 and started directly in the banquet hall. He examined closely and found an ability bar on the top left corner. The information box introduced it as [Using abilities expends this ability bar. When not using an ability, the recovery speed is 1 point/second.]
He had a total of 5 ability points. Maintaining [Bullet Time] expended 1 ability point per second, which meant that he could at most maintain 5 seconds of [Bullet Time] before he had to wait for the ability bar to recover.
“Looks like passing this stage’s gonna be a challenge,” Ren Suo’s interest was piqued. A game with some challenge hooked him more than anything else.
As Ren Suo made the hitman move, he suddenly saw red silhouettes popping up among the guests.
[You have discovered a suspicious character. Location of suspicious character tagged.]
[You have discovered a suspicious character. Location of suspicious character tagged.]
[You have discovered a suspicious character. Location of suspicious character tagged.]
…
In a matter of seconds, Ren Suo had discovered 8 suspicious characters without having to do anything!
Previously, he had to knock into the suspicious character to discover him. Why was it so easy this time?
Just then, Ren Suo caught sight of the young man in brown suit who had threatened him with his pistol. He too was cast in red silhouette and tagged as ‘suspicious character’.
Ren Suo continued observing and found that all the NPCs in the banquet hall looked unique, unlike faces made of the same model. Among the tagged suspicious characters, Ren Suo could identify from memory five of them whom he had killed in the previous round.
As for the other three, Ren Suo could not quite remember them. But these three stood near the banquet hall and so were very possibly the ones in charge of standing guard at the door.
“Eh?”
Realisation dawned on Ren Suo. “So, every time load a save file, the character’s previous progress isn’t lost. It becomes knowledge already acquired in the next run!”