Chapter One Hundred: The Sorrow of Eternal Night

Chapter One Hundred: Chapter One — The Sorrow of Eternal Night

Xia Zheng came to the first dark green war banner, and at once a line of semi-transparent white text appeared before his eyes: this chapter contains four stages, namely Ambush, Survivors, Crisis, and Blood Clan. The difficulty is rated B-plus. Please choose a specific stage, or begin from the first.

Naturally, Xia Zheng would not skip ahead. He chose the first stage, Ambush. Immediately, the banner burst into green light, showing that it was loading the scene, events, characters, combat settings, and so on. Since this was the first entry, the loading time would be a little longer, about ten minutes or so.

While the instance was loading in earnest, the prompt text continued to change, offering little hints and an introduction to the story background.

The main hint explained that the instance system would sense the participant’s physical condition. Once the participant’s overall vital-sign index dropped below thirty-five percent, the training would end at once, and the participant would be teleported out of the instance for treatment.

The story background began eleven years earlier, at the end of the Spring Festival holiday, and the point of view rested on one member of a special operations team at a police bureau.

One day in late February of Federal Year 217.

The bustling and noisy Eternal Night City had only just finished its New Year holiday when the Special Investigation Division of the Police Bureau in District Seven of the southern quarter received a thorny case. In the satellite city known as Peijer, twenty kilometers from District Seven, a series of horrifying abductions and deaths had occurred.

As more and more police officers and ordinary citizens vanished, the number of casualties rose as well, and the case was therefore transferred to the Investigation Division. The Special Investigation Division was the federal police bureau’s covert operations unit. Its members were usually genetic enhanced humans or individuals with special talents, and any case that was particularly troublesome or highly difficult would be handed over to them.

At last, loading finished. Xia Zheng felt the dark green banner before him grow even richer in color, and then a gust of wind rose, sending the banner unfurling and expanding without limit, until it engulfed him in an instant.

When Xia Zheng opened his eyes again, he found himself standing before a mirror in a restroom. He looked up and saw that the face in the mirror was his own, though his hairstyle and hair color had changed somewhat. He was wearing a bulletproof vest over a sky-blue police shirt, a service pistol was holstered at his waist, a military dagger and similar gear were strapped to his leg, and on his feet were a pair of sturdy black mountain boots.

He tried it out then and there. Although he could move around, he could not leave the restroom. It seemed this instance really was like a game: he had to play through a stretch of the story first.

So Xia Zheng returned to the mirror. This time, he turned on the faucet, and the plot was triggered at once.

The sound of a toilet flushing came from within. Then, with a creak, a somewhat broken toilet stall door opened, and out came a tall white man. He wore a full beard, his hair was a bit unkempt, and his whole appearance was rather slovenly. He looked to be a man in his fifties.

He was dressed in black leather gear, with weapons at both thighs, apparently a dual-wielding type. In addition, a katana or something similar hung on his back, making him look a bit like Blade.

The man clanked over with heavy steps. His boots were much weightier than Xia Zheng’s, almost metal-like in appearance. When he walked, one could hear a deep, dull thud, like the boots of a medieval knight.

He came up beside Xia Zheng, turned on the faucet, washed his hands, and asked, “How is it? You’ve gotten used to life in the team lately, haven’t you?”

Xia Zheng felt somewhat at a loss, but still chose a vague answer. “Ah... more or less.”

The man finished washing his hands, pulled two paper towels from a machine on the wall beside him to dry them, and then said, “I know you’re outstanding—a top student from Azure University, with excellent potential for genetic enhancement. The Investigation Division here really isn’t in ideal condition. You should have stayed at the Presidential Mansion or in the Ministry of War. At the very least, you could still have become a senior civil official under the Federal Chief Constable. But I still hope you come to the Investigation Division in Eternal Night City to temper yourself. It’ll be good for your future growth.”

“Uh... I understand.” Xia Zheng replied in the same evasive manner.

After drying his hands, the man patted Xia Zheng on the shoulder and said, “No need to be so formal. Just call me Uncle Dirot. Your father, John, fell too early, and your mother, Martha, raised you with great hardship. Her greatest wish before she passed was for you to follow in your father’s footsteps. As your uncle, I’m only doing what little I can.”

The man called Dirot turned and walked away. Xia Zheng was a little dazed. It seemed the identity assigned to him in this instance was that of a rookie policeman, one who should have had a bright future but was brought by his uncle Dirot into the Special Investigation Division of the Police Bureau in District Seven of Eternal Night City for training because of certain family reasons.

With the end of this scene, Xia Zheng finally found that he could leave the restroom.

Outside was a corridor shaped like a T. The passage to the right seemed to lead to the conference room, while the other direction led to the police bureau’s various offices.

Just as Xia Zheng was worrying about where to go, a nimble female officer approached hurriedly. She had short red hair and wore attire much like his own. Upon seeing him, she immediately said with displeasure, “Wood, what are you doing standing around here? Come to the conference room with me. The tactical meeting is about to begin.”

Only then did Xia Zheng notice that her name appeared above her head: Carol Green. The person he was now playing could be seen in the character status bar at the upper left corner. His name was Benson Wood. That meant the uncle from earlier must have been Dirot Wood.

Xia Zheng gave an “oh,” then followed Carol’s pace and ran toward the conference room.

The conference room was fairly large, but there were only seven or eight people in the meeting. Adding Carol and him, there were only ten in total.

Rather than sitting around a large conference table like the bureaucrats in Azure City, everyone was gathered while Dirot stood before a whiteboard, writing and drawing as he spoke at length, assigning tasks one after another. Aside from Dirot, Carol, and Benson, the other seven members included six men and one woman.

Compared with Carol, the lone woman looked much more rugged. She had thick, muscular arms, dirty braids, dark skin, and slightly full lips. While wiping down the long rifle in her arms, she handled a double-barreled weapon shaped somewhat like a hunting gun, though the body was more refined and it even had a scope.

Her name was Elinor. The other six men were Kelly, Jonathan, Jim, Jeremy, Chen Hui, and Mario.

When the crowd saw Xia Zheng and Carol arrive, they paid them brief attention. Several of the men greeted Carol. By contrast, Xia Zheng found that the only person who greeted him was his uncle, Dirot.

“Looks like this character’s social life isn’t very good,” Xia Zheng thought with a self-mocking smile. Then he took his place at the back and formally joined the operation briefing.