"Still being chased by the authorities??"
After a whole night of League, Liu Haoming glanced over at Chu Yao's computer screen once again and was genuinely puzzled.
Had she really been on the run from the authorities all night long? Was there even any fun left in a game like that?
"This time it's even more over the top — they've even sent out helicopters. Even if her character can dart around like Superman, she still won't be able to shake off a helicopter's tracking. She's probably done for."
Liu Haoming mused to himself. Only in a game could you get such an exaggerated scene, as lifelike as some blockbuster crime film. There was no way it could happen in reality.
He was actually pretty curious. What heaven-outraging crime had Chu Yao committed in the game to make the authorities mount such a massive operation to arrest her?
Perhaps the girl who was so keen on crime in the game, so unruly and rebellious, was the real her after all.
Plenty of people were like that — meek and self-effacing in real life, hiding who they really were, yet online they cut loose and showed their most genuine side.
Liu Haoming watched the girl's screen a little longer, then looked away.
Everyone had their own life to live, and by the same token, everyone had their own game to play.
His game had begun.
"Shurima, your Bronze Emperor has returned!"
***
Since the man kept up his desperate, obstinate resistance and refused to see reason, Chai Jin finally stopped showing mercy and gave the order:
"Fire!"
Rat-a-tat-tat!
The officers aboard the seven helicopters leveled their muzzles and opened fire on Chu Yao from every direction. Bullets poured down like rain.
"How can you just start shooting like that?!"
Chu Yao jolted in fright. She hadn't expected them to actually go through with it.
Those were guns. If she took even a single round, wouldn't that be instant game over?
Above all, Chu Yao knew how realistic this VR game was — it even simulated pain. She really didn't want to find out what getting shot felt like. That would hurt like hell!
Bang bang bang!
The windows along both sides of the skyscrapers shattered one after another under the hail of gunfire, and the citizens' terrified screams rose in waves.
Chai Jin kept his eyes locked on the desperately fleeing figure. A short, sharp pain beat a long, drawn-out one; he hardened his heart and resolved to capture the man. If he let him keep running, the fallout would only grow worse and worse.
These guns were not firing real bullets but specially made tranquilizer rounds. The instant a round struck a body, its tip would vaporize and melt, injecting the anesthetic inside. Each round held enough anesthetic to knock out a grown man.
The bald, burly man clearly hid an enormous secret. Until they had gotten to the bottom of it, Chai Jin had no wish to take his life — and the other high-ranking officials felt the same.
"What do I do now? I'm so anxious! Can someone teach me?"
Chu Yao was frantic with worry, and her feet never stopped for a moment. More than anything, she wished a game walkthrough would appear in front of her.
It never once occurred to her to fight back and shoot the aircraft down, even though she was perfectly capable of it.
Everyone in the game felt utterly real; killing them would feel just like killing a real person. Chu Yao was a kindhearted high school girl who would never take a life — even knowing full well it was a game, she still wouldn't do it.
"Whatever — let me hide somewhere crowded first."
Chu Yao darted headlong into a nearby residential complex, ripped a unit's entrance door off with her terrifying strength, and slipped into the stairwell.
Sure enough, the officers held their fire rather than risk hitting bystanders. Even with tranquilizer rounds, they couldn't just fire wildly at ordinary people — if a shot landed badly, it could still cost someone their life.
Chai Jin quickly adjusted his tactics. Seven ropes dropped from the helicopters, and dozens of special forces troops rappelled rapidly down with guns strapped to their backs.
Chu Yao saw all of it clearly through the stairwell window. She had reached a dead end. Just as she was at her wit's end, a flash of inspiration shot through her mind.
It seemed like she'd... forgotten something very important.
"Invisibility Art!"
Chu Yao finally remembered her small goal.
She had actually saved up more than enough Anomaly Coins for the Invisibility Art long ago; she'd just been having so much fun slaughtering Anomalies that she forgot all about it. It took real danger to remind her.
Chu Yao swiftly opened the shop panel, pinning all her hopes of breaking the deadlock on the Invisibility Art.
The instant she tapped the 【Buy】 option, Chu Yao felt her mind hum, and in that moment she was elevated.
Like a sudden enlightenment, the way to cast the Invisibility Art poured into the depths of her mind. A single stir of thought was all it took to cast it at any time.
One second before the officers came charging up the stairs, Chu Yao got the Invisibility Art off in time.
【Player has entered stealth. Only beings with Mana higher than the player can see through the player's disguise. Consumes 100 Mana per second. Current Mana: ???】
"Up there, don't let him escape!"
The officers swarmed right past Chu Yao toward the upper floors. She instinctively tried to dodge out of their way, but there were simply too many of them — one officer plowed straight into her and tumbled down the stairs.
"You okay?"
"I'm fine, just got shoved."
The officer scrambled back up and charged on without a second thought, assuming a colleague had jostled him off his feet.
Before long the whole group had pounded up to the upper floors, and Chu Yao seized the chance to slip out through the doorway she had torn open. Up in the helicopters, Chai Jin and the other officers looked right past her as if she weren't there.
"So invisibility isn't about disappearing — it's about making other people unable to see me."
It dawned on Chu Yao. She crept quietly out of the complex, leaving the officers to turn the stairwell upside down.
"With this invisibility skill, I'll never have to fear being chased by the officers again!"
Chu Yao laughed happily. To her mind, the officers were far more trouble than the Anomalies — after all, she still hadn't run into a single Anomaly that could threaten her. Anomalies she could simply smash with the pestle, but against the officers she'd had no answer at all.
"I wonder what the Flight Art will be like — will it feel exactly like really flying?"
Chu Yao began to look forward to the flight skill. With her current strength she could easily leap a dozen-odd meters high, but that was still a far cry from true flight.
There was also one other thing that bothered her: her Mana value still showed three question marks. She didn't know how long a Mana pool of "three question marks" could keep her in stealth, especially since the system said it burned a hundred Mana every second — which sounded like an awful lot.
Chu Yao puzzled over the Mana question for a while but still couldn't figure it out, so she set it aside for now.
"Next I should go wipe out those five Anomalies. This time I'm definitely going to force that Mid-Tier Anomaly to spit out the reason they descended on the Demon Capital!"
***
"Constable-Captain Chai, we didn't find the suspect. The suspect... vanished!"
In the complex's stairwell, the officers nervously radioed Chai Jin.
"WHAT?!"
Up in the helicopter, Chai Jin's expression changed drastically:
"How could he vanish? From the moment the suspect entered the stairwell until now, not one single person has left the building. Don't tell me the suspect can turn invisible!"
"He must be hiding in one of the apartments. Search the place — dig three feet down if you have to, but find him!"