Although Ren Suo knew that the suspicious person had the weapon he wanted, when he approached, he discovered that the "Stealing" option only appeared when he stood behind the man.
However, as "Stealing" took several seconds, and the person often moved, interrupting the progress bar for stealing, the Assassin could only follow him, waiting for a moment when he would stand still for a longer time.
Unexpectedly, the NPC suddenly turned his head and looked at the Assassin with some confusion, "Friend, what are you following me for?"
"Huh? No, nothing," the Assassin chuckled, and at that moment, the game popped up a message:
"You've drawn the suspicious person's attention."
"Seems I can't just follow him blatantly..." Ren Suo had no choice but to make the Assassin walk aside and follow the suspicious person with his eyes.
"Ah, it's you again!"
While moving about, the Assassin accidentally bumped into someone—unluckily, it was the same lady from before, and even more unfortunately, she was holding a wine glass. The glass tipped, spilling wine onto the upper garment of the middle-aged man who was conversing with her.
A nearby waiter quickly came over with a spare towel, and the middle-aged man took it to wipe his clothes, frowning, "Be careful."
The lady relentlessly said, "Who are you? You have no manners at all, how could you attend the Ranpelrouge family's dinner..."
Ren Suo quickly directed the Assassin away, complaining, "Is this game too realistic or what... Real-time calculation? Is the Mini-World Game Console this powerful?"
Suddenly, Ren Suo had a good idea. He continued to target the suspicious person, and when he passed by a young man holding a wine glass, Ren Suo quickly approached and bumped the young man.
The wine from the young man's glass spilled onto the suspicious person's garment, and then the Assassin 'left the good deed unsigned' and slipped away, while the young man hastily apologized to the suspicious person, and a waiter quickly handed over a towel.
At this point, the Assassin had stealthily moved to the back of the suspicious person, pretending to be interested in the commotion while in fact, the "Stealing" progress bar was rapidly increasing as the person wiped his clothes...
"You have acquired 'P19C', with 17 rounds, equipped with a silencer for the pistol (installation required)."
Finally having acquired the weapon, Ren Suo had just breathed a sigh of relief when he saw a young man in a brown suit suddenly appear behind the Assassin, laying a hand on the Assassin's shoulder.
"Don't move," the young man in the brown suit said in a low voice.
"You've drawn the suspicious person's attention."
"The suspicious person has spotted you!"
"[Firearms Mastery] Skill activated, you have located the 'Beretta 92' pistol"
"The location of 'Beretta 92' has been marked."
"You have located a suspicious person, the location of the suspicious person has been marked."
"You have been taken hostage by a suspicious person, you are in danger, and any action you take could lead to an attack."
Then Ren Suo saw that the young man in the brown suit was holding a pistol that glinted red, aimed at the Assassin's abdomen, while the Assassin was wrapped in purple-blue chains, looking as if he had been captured.
"Come with me."
Now, if Ren Suo didn't take control, the Assassin would automatically follow the instructions of the young man in the brown suit to the entrance of the banquet hall.
He pretended to take the Assassin to the restroom, walking to the corner where the Assassin had earlier disrobed.
"I don't know who you are, but you've discovered us and dare to target us…" The young man in the brown suit said from behind the Assassin, moving the pistol to the backs of his heart, "If you want to live longer, don't pry into too many affairs."
Suddenly, a sharp gunshot rang out from the banquet hall, and the young man in the brown suit seemed to falter for a moment—because Ren Suo saw the purple-blue shackles wrapped around the Assassin disappear, and the game displayed a prompt "Press □ to counterattack."
Without hesitation, Ren Suo commanded the Assassin to forcefully bump backward, slamming the young man in the brown suit against the wall, and then pressed him with a shoulder strike, and pulled out his pistol and aimed it at the young man's head—
biu!
Ren Suo couldn't help but marvel at how terrifying the real-time calculations in this game were—the young man in the brown suit now had a tiny hole in his forehead, from which blood flowed. His body went limp and fell to the ground.
"The current time is 20:00. The mercenary organization 'Cards' has launched an attack on the Ranpelrouge Family." The game's prompt popped up: "Please escort the important person, Karen Lanpelucci, to safety."
"So, this isn't an assassination mission, but a protection mission?" Ren Suo was slightly taken aback and hurried back to the banquet hall, only to find it in chaos. The high society that had been mingling cheerfully just moments ago were now either screaming in pain on the floor or cowering and trembling in a corner of the hall.
At the entrance of the banquet hall, three assassins were firing pistols at guests attempting to flee while others rushed out toward the bathrooms, elevators, and safety exits. On seeing the 'Assassin who seemed to have come out of the bathroom,' they didn't hesitate to draw their guns and shoot!
The game prompted: "Hold R1 to activate the Skill."
Ren Suo quickly pressed and held the R1 button, then he saw the game screen turn a light blue, as if time had frozen. The two assassins in front of the Assassin were slowly drawing their pistols to aim at him, and the screen even predicted their bullet trajectory!
Bald Assassin's Skill, "Bullet Time"! Not only could it slow down time, but it also allowed him to see the bullet paths!
Ren Suo also quickly had the Assassin draw his pistol and enter aiming mode. He had several seconds to aim at the assassins' heads, and even with a controller, it was fairly easy to blow their heads off with a single shot.
"Who's there?"
Two more people ran over. Ren Suo swiftly dealt with them in "Bullet Time," then the assassins guarding the banquet hall entrance shouted, "We've got a sharpshooter, find cover!"
Ren Suo chuckled to himself, realizing he could go on a rampage in the game. He then controlled the Assassin to boldly enter the banquet hall. Assassins hiding behind tables and pillars fired at the Assassin, and Ren Suo repeated his trick of entering Bullet Time, dodging bullets while aiming at their heads...
Suddenly, the blue tint of time receded like the tide, and a prompt appeared in the lower-left corner: "Insufficient Instinct Value, Skill casting ended."
What?
Ren Suo was momentarily stunned, then the Assassin was shot through by several guns.
"You died."
The game did not offer a direct reload but instead gave two save options: "Save 0: Assassin emerging from the alley," "Save 1: Arrival of the Nameless Guest."
Ren Suo chose Save 1 and started directly from the banquet hall. On closer inspection, he noticed an energy bar in the upper left corner with the information: "Instinct Value consumed when casting Skills. When not using Skills, the recovery rate is 1 point/s."
He had a total of 5 points of Instinct Value, with maintaining "Bullet Time" consuming 1 point, meaning he could maintain Bullet Time for up to 5 seconds before having to wait for Instinct Value to recover.
"Looks like this will be a bit challenging to clear." Ren Suo was intrigued, as the level's challenge further sparked his interest.
Suddenly, Ren Suo noticed that when he controlled the Assassin to move, a red light burst out among the guests.
"You have spotted a suspicious individual, the location of the suspicious individual has been marked."
"You have spotted a suspicious individual, the location of the suspicious individual has been marked."
"You have spotted a suspicious individual, the location of the suspicious individual has been marked."
...
In no time at all, Ren Suo had spotted 8 suspicious individuals, without doing anything!
Last time, he had to bump into someone to spot a suspicious individual. Why was it so easy this time?
At that moment, Ren Suo saw the young man in the brown suit who had threatened the Assassin with a gun earlier. He, too, was emanating red light and was marked as a 'suspicious individual' by the Assassin.
As Ren Suo continued to observe, he realized that the facial features of NPCs in the banquet hall were distinct, none of them cheaply made from the same model. Among the suspicious individuals marked by the Assassin, Ren Suo recalled that five of them were the same assassins killed by the Assassin in the previous loop.
The other three, although Ren Suo didn't quite remember them, were all standing near the banquet hall and were likely responsible for guarding the entrance.
"Hmm?"
With a flash of insight, Ren Suo thought, "Could it be that with each reset, the game character's progress isn't lost but accumulates as known information for the next loop?"