Paradise City, around six o’clock in the afternoon.
Beside a bustling avenue filled with people and vehicles, in a spacious and well-lit café, a tall female gunfighter player and a shorter but stronger male gunfighter player sat face to face on opposite sides of a coffee table, each with a cup of latte in front of them. However, both seemed to have little interest in drinking, their brows furrowed.
"Mr. Yan, I’ve asked about the Black Fist Gang. To join them, you must win a match in their underground black boxing arena. Their black boxing matches are said to be bare-knuckle death battles, very bloody and often lethal. I feel it’s very risky to choose to join them."
The male gunfighter player spoke first, sharing his latest intelligence with the tall female gunfighter surnamed Yan opposite him.
"You need to win a black boxing match just to join a gang? Haha... this Black Fist Gang really lives up to its name..."
The female gunfighter surnamed Yan let out a cold laugh, clearly disdainful of such rules.
"On my end, I visited the Golden Brick Association and the Phoenix Group. The Golden Brick Association requires an entry fee of one million currency. I checked this amount, and it’s quite difficult to gather. If we want to obtain it in a short time, we’ll probably have to rob a bank. The Phoenix Group is even more disgusting—they actually want me to do that kind of thing before they allow me to join! I was so furious I almost couldn’t resist going into bullet time and taking them all out!"
The female gunfighter shared the intelligence she had gathered with the male gunfighter, indicating that her progress was also not going smoothly. It seemed both of them were stuck at the initial step of joining a gang faction.
"Mr. Yan, there’s no need to rush. There are more gangs in Paradise City than just these few. The scenario will surely arrange a suitable gang for us to join. We can take our time to find it."
The male gunfighter replied, appearing slightly more composed than the female player opposite him.
"There’s definitely no need to rush... Actually, even if we did successfully join a gang, it’s useless; those three also need to join together, or we still can’t complete this scenario."
As the female gunfighter spoke, she turned her head to glance out the window, seemingly observing the surrounding environment inconspicuously.
"Oh, speaking of the three of them, I almost forgot that the fat guy sent me a note with his summoned hawk. Their progress seems to be going well."
When the female gunfighter mentioned their other teammates, the male gunfighter suddenly remembered something, pulling a sheet of white paper from his pocket. It appeared to have a few lines of writing on it.
"They contacted you again? Let me see."
The female gunfighter looked slightly surprised upon hearing this, reaching out to take the note from the player opposite her. She opened it and glanced at it for a moment, then quickly lifted her head to speak to the male gunfighter:
"They want us to wait and join... the Iron Wolf Gang? How long has it been? That was fast! Could there be some kind of plot?"
The female gunfighter found it hard to believe the information written on the note. According to it, the progress of the other three teammates far exceeded theirs; not only had they already joined a gang, but they had also managed the gang relations well, just waiting for the two of them to join. This kind of efficiency, considering they had only been in this scenario for half a day, was unbelievably quick.
"I find it hard to believe too. It feels like maybe someone from the slums caught them and wants to use them as bait to catch us."
The male gunfighter expressed his doubts as well. It was not that they were overly suspicious, but as players, they needed to be constantly alert to any irregularities related to the scenario, or they might easily make a wrong move and fall into an inescapable abyss.
"It’s possible... but we also can’t hold a completely negative attitude. Maybe their luck is incredibly good... Have you arranged a meeting time and place with them?"
The female gunfighter pondered for a moment before asking her teammate across the table.
"Not yet."
The person shook his head.
"But that fat guy’s hawk should easily find our location. They’ll probably come on their own."
After the male gunfighter player said this, he took a sip from his latte cup, and suddenly heard a few sharp hawk cries from outside.
"Ha... speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrives."
As her gaze happened to fall on the scene outside the window, the female gunfighter player directly spotted a fast-moving figure in the sky. It was undoubtedly the flying eagle summoned by the fat guy!
"Be careful, get ready for combat."
The male gunfighter immediately put down his unfinished latte, reaching under the table with his right hand and drawing out a shiny-shelled pistol out of thin air.
However, the tall female gunfighter only smiled faintly, responding quite calmly:
"No need to be so tense; from what I know, this place is under the protection of a major gang called Hongwang United. Nobody would dare to cause trouble here casually."
As she spoke, she continued to observe the outside scene and quickly noticed two somewhat familiar figures coming into view, walking towards them from the street outside the café.
It was a guy in a blue checkered casual outfit and a young girl with glasses. The two approached the café with a pretty clear sense of direction, talking and laughing as they walked, discussing something unknown.
"It really is them, and they don’t look coerced at all. There’s no suspicious figure around either..."