Hearing the voice beside her, Xie Antong turned around in surprise.
What did he just say?
That's really rare to hear from him...
Tsk, seems like I've already gotten used to him wearing that mask, so hearing such conscientious words from him is truly uncommon.
This face, it's been so long since I last saw it.
"Ahem..."
Lu Ce let out a soft cough, and under this subtle reminder, Xie Antong suddenly snapped back to reality.
Had she been staring at Lu Ce's face for too long just now?
Controlling the corners of her mouth that were threatening to curve upward uncontrollably, Xie Antong composed her expression and said calmly.
"It's nothing, it's what should be done. Consider it as internal protection for personnel within Divine Punishment."
"Mm, organizational personnel planning is often about protecting members!" Zhao Jiacheng suddenly interjected at this moment.
Because of this matter, he actually held quite a favorable impression of Divine Punishment. Compared to the terror-organization-like structure of the Heaven and Earth Society, the humanistic care of Divine Punishment felt somewhat similar to Dragon Group.
This was also one of the reasons why Divine Punishment could have official protection.
"Since you've joined, you should still follow organizational management."
"By the way, I asked you earlier if you wanted to switch to a gathering residence for players? It's free, but you need to register with the authorities, and there will be some obligations during critical moments."
Free?
Lu Ce shifted his gaze to this very enthusiastic red-clothed Dragon Group member.
"What do you mean? Where would I live?"
"Oh, this actually requires a bit of testing."
Zhao Jiacheng slapped his forehead as if he had thought of a perfect solution.
"Right, Miss Xie probably still has matters to attend to now. The Divine Punishment personnel she needs to contact aren't just you."
"Let's not disturb her for now, you come with me first."
Xie Antong: ...
Lu Ce: ...
Both of them were somewhat speechless, thinking to themselves that this guy was actually the one who didn't understand the situation.
Xie Antong's eyes even began to emit killing intent.
But after a moment, she still stepped forward toward the other end of the corridor.
"I'll take my leave now, I'll contact you later."
"Also, regarding that residence matter, you really should consider it. It's quite good."
Watching her back disappear, Lu Ce followed Zhao Jiacheng downstairs.
The game situation had become very widespread now, so the two didn't need to conceal their player identities and could chat normally.
Along the way, through Zhao Jiacheng's introduction, Lu Ce roughly understood what this so-called "gathering place" meant.
It was essentially a community developed for confirmed elite personnel who frequently participated in games, a kind of "housing allocation."
Many peripheral members of Dragon Group also lived there.
To enter, you only needed to register personal information, but to attract players who valued privacy, all in-game information could be kept confidential.
However, in real society, you would be in a kind of "semi-recruited" state and couldn't arbitrarily use your player identity to commit evil deeds, otherwise the authorities would severely punish you when they found your information!
It was also a method of social stability maintenance. After all, if organizations like the Heaven and Earth Society were completely rampant, the world would fall into chaos.
"So, sounds pretty good, right?"
As Zhao Jiacheng spoke, the two had already arrived at an empty sports field.
"Theoretically, this kind of thing requires you to apply yourself and undergo assessment, but since I see you're from Divine Punishment, I'm proactively inviting you."
Lu Ce thought to himself, when exactly did I join Divine Punishment...
"What assessment?"
"Easy! If you're willing to disclose your player information and have participated in more than seven games, then you pass directly!"
"If not willing?"
"Then, do you consider yourself a strategy-type player or a combat-type? Or do you have any special skills?"
Lu Ce: ...
His mind ran through his seven masks, and after brief consideration, he still said:
"Let's go with combat-type then."
"Hiss~, then the requirements are quite high."
As Zhao Jiacheng spoke, he raised his shield and aimed it at Lu Ce.
"I can serve as the regional examiner. Just attack me directly, and I'll get a rough idea of your strength."
If Perfect Life were here, his yin-yang hands would definitely sense that the character for "death" had appeared twice above Zhao Jiacheng's head within a single day.
He really was asking for trouble too much.
But this time, Lu Ce didn't indulge him either. After consideration, he thought it wouldn't be bad to change locations.
On one hand, it would improve living conditions; on the other hand, hiding in plain sight among a group of players who had concealed their game identities would be even safer.
So, he raised his hand.
"Are you ready?"
Just as Zhao Jiacheng was about to speak, the large hand before him had already descended!
With a whistling sound of forceful wind, a palm "forcefully" struck the raised light shield.
Lu Ce currently had no mask enhancements and was already restraining his strength as much as possible.
But still, an explosive roar echoed.
BOOM!
Zhao Jiacheng, holding his light shield, was forcibly plowed backward, his feet carving two several-meter-long furrows in the ground.
Feeling his numb arms and sore feet, Zhao Jiacheng looked up in shock at Lu Ce across from him.
Are you fucking this strong?
For a moment, he was somewhat unable to accept it, to the point of being speechless.
"You... you must have participated in quite a few game sessions with strength like that? What enhancement skill was that just now?"
"Did I pass?" Lu Ce didn't answer, instead asking directly.
"Pass, pass."
Zhao Jiacheng rubbed his arm, thinking to himself, had he encountered someone stronger than himself?
"You haven't recently made it to the peak rankings, have you? Want to check after this game ends?"
In his impression, the peak rankings had ten thousand spots total, and those at the bottom didn't seem much stronger than him.
"Won't." Lu Ce shook his head.
He wouldn't just be making the rankings now—no need to check. He had been ranked first since the rankings began.
"Alright then, I won't pry into your privacy. Let's go now to register."
As he spoke, Zhao Jiacheng pulled Lu Ce to leave. Because of what just happened, quite a crowd had gathered to watch.
"Wait." Lu Ce suddenly spoke, his feet seemingly rooted to the ground, not moving at all.
"Is there something you haven't finished saying?"
"You mentioned earlier about 'obligations after joining.' What does that refer to?"