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The air conditioning was on, and after finishing the takeout snail noodles in the cool living room and fetching a bottle of chilled orange fruit drink from the fridge, Ren Suo felt absolutely comfortable, from his toes right up to his tongue.
With a full belly, Ren Suo lay on the sofa and continued to tackle the "Assassin" game.
After the first mission failure, the game automatically rolled back to when he was in the alley, indicating it had an auto-save feature.
He discovered the game had an excellent degree of freedom; it was neither "I give you freedom but you must do this" nor "I won't teach you anything; you figure it out yourself." Instead, when the character controlled by Ren Suo acted, the surrounding NPC characters would immediately react, providing instant feedback to Ren Suo.
Just now, Ren Suo accidentally had the Assassin take down a security guard, then he consecutively tried the other three options to enter the Black Thorn Building head-on. The result of option ①"I forgot my invitation at home" was that the waiter would immediately pull out a list with photos, and ask the Assassin to say his name so that the waiter could find the guest and perform a facial recognition.
Option ③ "(Attack him) Why should I report my actions to you?" needs no further discussion; just after the Assassin snapped the waiter's neck, he was shot to pieces by over a dozen guns within seconds;
Option ④ "(Hand over 5 pounds) Cousin, long time no see..." As for this option, it left Ren Suo both laughing and crying—the waiter took the money and then immediately stepped back, shouting, "We have a suspicious individual here!" Then two burly security guards came over and carried the Assassin away.
At a glance, none of these four options were viable, but within option ①, if Ren Suo could know the appearance and dress of a certain guest, maybe he could use the 'Clown Assassin's' skill "Thousand Changes" to infiltrate;
Option ③ was clearly not the right choice for this scenario;
As for option ④, Ren Suo suspected the issue was not enough money, but since the Assassin only had 5 pounds, there was nothing he could do.
He also tried to make his way around to the back of the building but shockingly found black-clad individuals on duty in the security passageway. They were all armed, and the moment a stranger approached, they were pointed at with guns; the most the Assassin could manage was to take out one before getting blown apart.
However, after several attempts, Ren Suo had vaguely found a correct method of infiltration. Now, once again trying option ② and being turned away by the waiter, the two burly security guards came to take him to the alley again.
Ren Suo estimated the distance the Assassin and the guards walked; when people outside couldn't see into the alley at all, he boldly made his move, letting the Assassin snap one of the security guard's necks!
The other security guard tried to retreat and sound the alarm, but the Assassin immediately rushed up to grasp his throat and pulled out his baton to knock him out with one blow.
—Heaven knows how Ren Suo just pressed the attack button and the Assassin managed all those moves.
After dealing with the two men, the Assassin changed into one of the guard's uniforms. After he was all dressed, the game prompted: "Do you want to pose as a Black Thorn security officer?"
Once confirmed, Ren Suo saw the Assassin put on the guard's badge, neatly stored his suit inside the security uniform, then used mud from the ground to disguise his face, and walked out of the alley towards the high-rise with perfect confidence.
Heading straight for the building, the waiter saw him and asked, "Where's Terry?"
"Him? He went to pee; I'll head back first..." Before the Assassin could finish speaking, the waiter stepped back two paces and shouted, "You're not Dennis, Dennis doesn't sound like that—there's a suspicious person here!"
The entrance fell into chaos in an instant, and then the armed black-clad men appeared again, and the screen lost all color...
This time, Ren Suo again chose to overpower one and knock out another, but he didn't approach the building's main entrance. Instead, he changed the Assassin's pace, circled to the side of the high-rise, and during the windy, rainy night, he punched through a window and slipped into the first floor of the building.
Then he headed for the security passageway. Three idle black-clad men inside looked at him and upon seeing a security officer, frowned and asked, "What are you doing?"
"Just ran into a lunatic; got myself all dirty." The Assassin shrugged, and the mud streaks on his face looked even filthier under the white light, "I need to go up and change clothes."
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The individuals clad in black exchanged glances and, feeling that there was no issue, allowed the Assassin to pass.
"Ha!" Ren Suo clenched his fist and cheered, "As I thought, the black-clad individuals and the security personnel aren't part of the same system!"
The waiters and security guards probably recognized each other. So after the Assassin disguised himself, a waiter could still detect the difference in his voice and see through his disguise;
However, these black-clad individuals were clearly 'equipped' with much higher-grade gear than the security guards. It now seemed they were part of a different system. The waiters and security staff were employees of the Black Thorn Building, while the individuals in black were temporary security personnel stationed in the building for tonight's banquet.
Running all the way to the ninth floor, the Assassin encountered three black-clad individuals at the staircase entrance. After getting past them using the same excuse, Ren Suo immediately controlled the Assassin to enter the ninth floor and, in a place hidden from view, removed the wet security guard uniform and put on his own suit to boldly enter the brightly lit banquet hall through the front door.
"You have entered the Ranpelrouge banquet with the identity of 'Unknown Stranger'. Save file 1 has been created." The game prompted, "Please find a weapon capable of inflicting damage before 8 p.m. and mark any suspicious characters at the banquet."
What the heck? Is this game mission really that open-ended?
Ren Suo checked the in-game time, it was 7:48 p.m. He knew that the game time passed 1:1 with the real world, so he had ten more minutes to find a weapon and mark suspicious individuals.
But what kind of weapon could there be at a banquet?
Ren Suo controlled the Assassin to wander around the banquet, and at a table offering forks and knives, he picked up a dining knife and a fork:
"Dining knife, weak damage, throwable."
"Silver fork, weak damage, throwable."
These hardly counted as weapons 'capable of inflicting damage'...
Bored, Ren Suo had the Assassin idly roam around when he accidentally bumped straight into an NPC.
The Assassin had previously bumped into a lady of high-standing by accident as well. The lady cried out in alarm, spilling her wine, and the Assassin kept backing away, continuously muttering 'sorry' 'sorry'. So, Ren Suo was very careful in controlling the Assassin's movements.
Based on Ren Suo's experience, if an NPC got bumped into, at most they would exclaim in surprise before being pushed aside. However, this NPC miraculously shifted their body significantly a moment before the collision, skillfully avoiding the Assassin.
At that moment, a series of messages popped up in the lower left corner of the game:
"[Firearms Mastery] skill activated, you have discovered the automatic pistol 'P19C'."
"The location of the 'P19C' has been marked."
"You have discovered a suspicious character; the location of the suspicious character has been marked."
Ren Suo looked at the man who was moving around the banquet with an air of confidence, his whole body emanating a yellow hue and a red light in the shape of a pistol shining at his waist. It was only then that he realized that 'finding a weapon' and 'identifying a suspicious character' were actually one and the same task—
The suspicious character had the weapon he was looking for on him!