Translator: 549690339
Li Li’s face turned red!
Damn! What the hell! He was a PhD holder, for God’s sake, and a kid was lecturing him!
Pan Xiaoxin also looked embarrassed, feeling somewhat uneasy.
Tan Xiao, who never missed a chance for a spectacle, slapped his shoulder, saying, “Xiaoxin, give this bookworm a good lesson!”
“Hey! That’s going too far!” Li Li stood up angrily, his face grim. “I’m just concerned about safety! After all, none of us know what kind of game this is!”
“Alright ” Yan Qingwen patted his shoulder, “Relax. It’s unlikely that it’s a competitive format. Typically, reward-based game modes involve team play and strategy, it’s different from the previous games.”
The past games, the race between the tortoise and the hare, and the Quiz of Luck, were all about the players fighting each other.
Li Li sat back down, still appearing indignant, but he didn’t say anything else.
Yan Qingwen addressed the group, “To show sincerity, I’ll go first. As you all know, my name is Yan Qingwen. I’m 30 years old. I used to be a|special|forces|soldier. I was injured in a mission and retired afterwards, dealing in some private security business.”
He glanced at Li Li before continuing, “About half a month ago, I started working for the Li Family. The Li’s only son, Li Li, is a researcher for SCO. He got separated from his team while evacuating. He’s thought to be lost in the fog, and the Li’s hope that we can do our best to rescue him.”
Shen Mo asked, “You’re still doing business in this situation?”
Yan Qingwen chuckled, “The old man of the Li Family did me a favor. I owe him.”
The toughest debts to pay back are those of kindness.
Shen Mo nodded slightly, saying, “I’ve explained my situation earlier. National Security Administration, Supervisor of Special Missions, it’s a title in name only now. All of my team members have been sacrificed. The organization I am responsible for is practically non-existent. If I could escort Li Li to Shanghai with your help, I would like to see the progress of the research, about these games and mazes, what exactly are they.”
“Did your team members die because of the game?” Yan Qingwen asked.
“It seems so.” Shen Mo’s brows furrowed and his face turned dark, “While searching for the SCO research team, they were turned into dolls.”
“It might be the same as our last encounter ” added Li Li, “During the Quiz of Luck, we all entered the game, leaving only Su Man outside.”
Shen Mo nodded: “Doll games indeed have certain personnel requirements. After the incident, I tried to contact my superiors. Neither my mobile phone nor the internet was functioning and I suspected something had happened on their end. Later, I met Weiwei. We got to know Tan Xiao and Professor Cheng when we were leaving the city. We all narrowly escaped death in the same game, so we’ve been traveling together since then.”
“In fact, your circumstances are similar to ours.” Yan Qingwen commented, casting a glance at Lun Ang next to him.
Lun Ang nodded, joining in with his self-introduction, “I was on the same team as Yan Qingwen. YHe retired due to injury. I retired for making some mistakes. After leaving, I had nothing to do, so I joined him in the private security business.”
He paused, awkwardly adding, “I’m 35, that’s all.”
Next up was Li Li. He looked somewhat troubled. After hesitating for a moment, he finally said,
“Well what I’m about to say is actually classified but it doesn’t matter now, given that there aren’t many people left in the world.”
All eyes were on him, intrigued.
Li Li began, “Our original research institution was doing research in high-energy physics, also known as particle physics. This May, after that incident you know, the one where dolls suddenly appeared on the streets, we received a notification not long after. We merged with two other institutions to form a new organization called SCO, specifically researching these doll anomalies And indeed, we discovered something.”