◎ Accumulated 1 point of Internship Experience ◎
Jiang Qi stared in shock at the Train Conductor Panel that had suddenly popped up.
Experience!
So this was how she could gain internship experience!
Although it was a measly 0.001, it was a first step and pointed her in the right direction.
At this moment, Jiang Qi felt incredibly lucky that she had chosen to confront the player head-on; otherwise, she never would have discovered this.
However, her distraction lasted only a fraction of a second before her attention returned to the player in front of her.
In her eyes, this player was already showing his original appearance, but he himself was completely unaware of this. Having been caught stealing by an NPC and dragged out into the open, he panicked for a moment, but that panic quickly turned into humiliated rage.
He didn’t have much money, so when he entered this dungeon, he hadn’t exchanged any dungeon currency at all. Unfortunately, order hadn’t collapsed here yet; if you wanted supplies, you had to pay for them. He felt he had no choice but to take a little from these NPCs.
How could this be called stealing?
Once the order of the dungeon collapsed, wouldn’t the NPCs’ belongings belong to the players anyway? He was simply withdrawing his items in advance.
He shook off Jiang Qi’s hand and prepared to leave. “Mind your own business!”
Jiang Qi had plenty of momentum, but her physical combat skills were mediocre at best; she stumbled after being shoved. Fortunately, she wasn’t fighting alone. The nearby security guards immediately rushed out, tackled the fleeing player, twisted his arms behind his back, and pinned him firmly to the ground.
The player finally panicked, struggling desperately. “What are you doing?! Let me go! Do you know who I am? You @)&!~$*…”
The words that followed turned into a pile of unintelligible gibberish. He was likely talking about things related to the Survival Game, which triggered the censorship filter.
When a player wears a “Player Mask” for disguise, a simultaneous translation function allows the local inhabitants to understand them; however, any mention of things the locals aren’t supposed to know is automatically censored.
Jiang Qi shouted, “What kind of nonsense are you talking about! This man dared to steal from our supermarket; we cannot let him off lightly. Take him to the security room and call the police!”
The men restraining the player immediately understood—they were to take him into custody. They hauled him up unceremoniously and dragged him away.
“You dare arrest me! I won’t let you get away with this! In a few days, this place will @%￥#*… just you wait!”
As the player was led away, the onlookers quieted down significantly. Several players in the crowd peered over with strange expressions—some wary, some frustrated, some enjoying the show, and others disdainful.
Jiang Qi pondered how she could pull a few more players over. If she could see through their disguises face-to-face, she could gain more internship experience.
But she couldn’t just accurately pick out players every single time; that would be too suspicious.
So, looking at the chaotic crowd, she grabbed a megaphone and shouted, “Everyone, line up! We will enter the supermarket in batches to buy things. Don’t worry, our supermarket has plenty of stock; we won’t let you go empty-handed.”
As she spoke, she began directing people into lines, even aggressively pulling people into the queue. “What’s wrong with you? Stand here. You, come here… and you, stay in line, no pushing! Everyone keep an eye on your children, and don’t let go of your valuables…”
Perhaps because she acted with such natural authority and a forceful attitude, the people didn’t dare complain too much. They swallowed their resentment and silently lined up. The players in the crowd had no choice but to follow suit.
Taking this opportunity, Jiang Qi grabbed the hands of several players, seemingly by accident, and met their eyes.
At first, she had to maintain eye contact for three or four seconds to see a player’s true form. But as she did it more often, the time required gradually shortened. Eventually, all it took was a brief physical contact and a split-second glance to see through a player.
It was as if her skill was truly becoming more proficient.
Throughout this process, the Train Conductor Panel kept pinging notifications:
[Ding! You have seen through a passenger’s disguise. Gained 0.001 Internship Experience.] [Ding! You have seen through a passenger’s disguise. Gained 0.001 Internship Experience.] [Ding…] [Ding…]
By the time she had organized the massive crowd at the supermarket entrance, she had seen through the disguises of 29 players, and her internship experience had risen to 0.029.
There were more players on-site than that, but she could only interact with this many for now.
It was far from enough.
Zhang Zhengtian’s voice came through her earpiece: “Xiao Jiang, how’s it going?”
Jiang Qi returned to the office and explained the current situation to Zhang Zhengtian. “I need to come into contact with more players, and I need a logical reason to have physical contact with them.”
Zhang Zhengtian’s voice rose an octave, clearly excited. “Good, very good! Increasing internship experience is very important!”
After a moment of reflection, he said, “How about this: I’ll have someone close the other nearby shopping centers, forcing the players to go to Xinyue Supermarket. Then, you do this…”
Jiang Qi agreed. After a short wait, the supermarket manager came over to tell her that everything was arranged.
She went back out to the supermarket entrance, where several small tables had been set up. She sat behind a table, picked up the megaphone, and said to the people in line, “Everyone, come over and collect a wristband. Each wristband has a shopping time limit; you must leave the supermarket before the time is up.”
An older woman in line asked, “What do you mean by that?”
Jiang Qi said with a stern face, “There are too many people. Everyone is limited to fifteen minutes inside the supermarket.”
As she spoke, she pressed a button on a nearby machine. A blue wristband, similar to a hospital ID band, was printed out. She pointed to the time on it. “It is currently 9:34. You must finish your shopping and check out before 9:49. Look, the time is right here.”
The woman jumped up. “How can you have such a rule? The supermarket is so big; it takes several minutes just to get in and out.”
Jiang Qi spread her hands. “Ma’am, you might not know, but the wholesale market to the east was looted. Someone almost died. The entire market is closed now, and other shops are closing one after another. If our supermarket hadn’t received notice from above, we would have closed too. Now everyone in the area has to come here. Fifteen minutes is already very generous.”
With that, she personally fastened the wristband onto the woman’s wrist. “Scan the QR code on here when you check out. You won’t be able to pay if there’s no QR code or if it has expired. Alright, next!”
The woman wanted to say more, but realizing she only had fifteen minutes, she could only glare at Jiang Qi and rush into the supermarket.
After that, Jiang Qi put wristbands on people one by one. For every person, she had to look up and give them instructions. This act of looking up and speaking naturally allowed her to meet their gaze.
People passed before Jiang Qi one by one. Initially, there was only one player for every few dozen people. But as the surrounding shops closed, while ordinary citizens might be deterred by the hassle, the players—knowing that disaster was imminent—had to hoard supplies. Naturally, they began to swarm toward Xinyue Supermarket.
Consequently, the proportion of players in the crowd gradually increased, and there were even instances where an entire group of people consisted solely of players.
Jiang Qi’s efficiency improved significantly. The notification pings from the panel in her mind were so loud they made her head swim, yet she didn’t dare turn them off for fear of missing something vital.
Finally, just past twelve noon, she heard a new prompt.
[Ding! You have seen through a passenger’s disguise. Gained 0.001 Internship Experience. You have cumulatively seen through the disguises of 1,000 passengers. Congratulations, you have fully mastered this skill. Repeated use of this skill will no longer grant Internship Experience.]
Jiang Qi’s heart stirred. She secretly opened her panel, which displayed:
Name: Jiang Qi
Identity: Train Conductor
Level: Intern (1/100)
ID Number: ?
Train Number: ?
Note: You have fully mastered one basic Train Conductor skill. Please uncover more skills!
So, she could only gain a total of 1 experience point from this “See Through Disguise” skill.
Jiang Qi let out a soft breath. After all that effort, she had only gained 1 point; when would she ever reach 100?
So, do I have to discover and practice new skills? she wondered. What skills should a train conductor have? Driving? Checking tickets? Inspecting vehicle safety?
Furthermore, while mastering the “See Through Disguise” skill was good, what she actually wanted to know was how to counter it.
Another person approached the table. She habitually reached for a wristband, but as she looked up, she saw the person’s original player appearance immediately.
Her movements paused. So, now I don’t need physical contact or direct eye contact? I can see through them instantly with just a casual glance?
And what was that appearing above the person’s head?
[Second Class Carriage, Car 06, Seat 17]
She calmly withdrew her gaze and put the wristband on the person. Once they had left, she turned to look at the crowd. In an instant, blue subtitles began floating above the heads of the players among the masses.
[Second Class Carriage, Car 39, Seat 33] [Third Class Carriage, Car 412, Seat 11] [Fourth Class Carriage, Car 115] […]
“…” Jiang Qi took a silent breath. This was… the effect of fully mastering a skill was actually this powerful!
Suddenly, she noticed the text above one player’s head was flickering.
[First Class Carriage, Car 11, Seat 21]
The line of text flashed continuously; sometimes a few characters would vanish, and sometimes the entire line would disappear completely.
She focused her gaze and realized she could not instantly see through this person’s disguise.
Jiang Qi narrowed her eyes, immediately realizing that the person possessed a special disguise item intended to deceive the Train Conductor’s eyes.
…
In the crowd, Ain looked around. She had suddenly felt a chill down her spine, a sensation as if she were being watched by something dangerous.
Had a player targeted her?
With people surrounding her on all sides, everyone looked like an NPC. It was impossible to tell who was a player, let alone if someone was lurking in the shadows.
She was a First Class player. Carriage grades were often linked to a player’s wealth and ability; therefore, those in Special Class and First Class were objects of envy and jealousy.
However, people generally didn’t dare provoke those in Special Class, as the true “powerhouses” were mostly there. Consequently, First Class players became the prime prey for others.
In the last dungeon—and that was only the first one—people had formed groups to ambush First Class players, causing heavy casualties. This dungeon would only be more dangerous.
Ain squeezed the pendant beneath her collar, feeling a bit more at ease. She had this item to blur her identity; it was said it could even deceive the Train Conductor, let alone other players. Even if someone among the players had the ability to check carriage grades, they shouldn’t be able to see through her identity.
…
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