Chapter 363: You Are Surrounded

The Law Enforcers in the instance couldn’t be bribed, but that didn’t mean they were without loopholes.

As an ace game tester, Duan Fei knew every possible in-game loophole like the back of his hand. Exploiting them was his specialty.

As a blue-blooded descendant of a noble family, Flora had no idea how to break the law. After standing on the street for ages, she finally mustered her courage, stopped a passing old woman, and asked, “May I bully you a little?”

The woman clearly wasn’t scripted for this kind of interaction. She just shot Flora a look and walked away, which almost made the little girl cry.

‘The people here are so cold.’

Noticing she was on the verge of tears, Duan Fei asked with a sigh, “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know how!”

“…You didn’t seem to have a problem when you were going trigger-happy with your gun.”

“That’s completely different!”

“Forget it. You can at least fire a shot into the air, right?”

“I can do that.”

Flora fired a shot into the sky, and Law Enforcers arrived immediately.

Seeing that Duan Fei had already arrested Flora, the officers nodded and said, “Thank you for your assistance, Duan Someone.”

“You’re welcome. I’d like to ask, can this criminal be bailed out?”

“Yes, she can be bailed out for ten thousand.”

“Oh, then I’ll bail her out.”

Flora stared wide-eyed at the whole procedure, feeling like she’d been left behind by the times.

‘This works too?’

Arrested and bailed out on the spot. It was like some kind of fully-automated catch-and-release machine for farming merit.

But the shocking performance wasn’t over yet.

Before the Law Enforcers left, Duan Fei said to Flora, “What are you spacing out for? Shoot.”

“Oh.”

Flora could only fire her gun. The officer who had just gotten into the police car got out again and said to Duan Fei, who had arrested Flora, “Thank you for your assistance, Duan Someone.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll bail her out. Here’s ten thousand.”

After repeating this process another eight times, Duan Fei, for the price of one hundred thousand, successfully completed the side quest.

After telling Flora to go back and continue her tea, Duan Fei hopped into a police car and followed the Law Enforcers to the Law Enforcement Headquarters. He registered his personal information and emerged a proud new Law Enforcer.

Flicking his gleaming badge, he walked up to the headquarters’ front desk and said to the young lady there, “I want to raise my police rank. What should I do?”

“Fighting crime is what you should be doing. I suggest you dedicate yourself to cracking down on all criminals, protecting the innocent…”

“That sounds rather lengthy. Let me ask a different question, then. How do I get on everyone’s good side?”

“Just treat everyone to donuts. No one can resist the charm of a donut. If they can, then make it two.”

“Understood. I’ll treat everyone to donuts, fifty times over.”

Fifty rounds of donuts and three hundred thousand dollars later, his favorability with the headquarters was instantly maxed out.

All the male Law Enforcers started cheering for Duan Fei, and all the female Law Enforcers started screaming for him. At that moment, he was the brightest star in the entire headquarters, a superstar built on a mountain of donuts.

Every man wanted to do him favors, every woman hoped he would leave his mark on her, and the chief even ran out to ask if he wanted a statue of himself erected in the courtyard. Meanwhile, the criminals could only glower at him and gnash their teeth, even though Duan Fei hadn’t actually done a thing.

Having maxed out his favorability so easily, Duan Fei felt that the difficulty of this instance was a bit low.

‘I hope the guys from the Madhouse can give me a bit more fun.’

With a yawn, Duan Fei realized there was only half an hour left before their free time was over.

He found the Knight Order’s corporate address on a headquarters computer, rallied most of the officers, and dozens of police cars sped off, sirens wailing, toward the Knight Order’s headquarters.

Meanwhile, at the Knight Order headquarters, they were celebrating.

For this mission, they had sent their most charismatic representatives: Lancelot and Alstof.

Lancelot was an exceedingly proper and handsome man. Aside from a weakness for unavailable women, he was almost flawless.

He was powerful, handsome, and possessed an elegant personality.

Other than that one weakness, he really had no flaws.

The other representative was Alstof, who was not tall, but strikingly androgynous.

Hobby: cross-dressing. Passion: cross-dressing. Gender: unknown. His small body hid unbelievable Power, and his ambiguous gender had earned him a special following. He was preparing to make a killing here.

Because they had just killed one of the enemy’s Servants, the atmosphere was charged with excitement.

A Servant’s revival cost was two hundred thousand. In the early game, two hundred thousand was comparable to two million in the late game. This was undoubtedly a significant blow to the Salted Fish Inn.

Their failure was their victory.

Thinking about how their side had made Duan Someone suffer a setback, the Magician—who had once been defeated at his hands—couldn’t help but muse aloud. Swirling the red wine in his glass, he said, “Duan Someone. A pity it wasn’t you who died.”

“Don’t underestimate him,” Nemo said from the side. “That guy is definitely not the type to let things go.”

Beside him, a Succubus whose body was shattered and whose limbs were entirely composed of insects clung to his side, gazing obsessively at Nemo.

The Nemo of today had already inherited the Clockmaker’s legacy, and his personality had become more composed.

He was still slowly digesting the Clockmaker’s Power, and at the same time, he understood why the Clockmaker had chosen him.

His body’s compatibility with the Clockmaker was just too high.

The essence of both the Puppet Master and the Clockmaker was creation. Once linked, they even allowed his puppets to gain clockwork-related Skills.

It wasn’t that the Clockmaker couldn’t have survived. Temporal regression, temporal premonition, multi-dimensional evasion… he had plenty of trump cards for survival.

But he could also perceive spacetime and see the one and only future that led to the Creator’s whereabouts.

In order to learn the Creator’s location, the leaders of the Pseudo-men would sacrifice anything, including themselves.

Such was their conviction.

And Nemo was the key they needed.

Nemo was filled with resentment for these people, but he knew he had passed the point of no return.

Having learned so much of the truth, he had come to realize that *Abyss* was no simple game. This realization made him aware of the Abyss, and in turn, made the Abyss aware of him.

From this, a resonance was born.

This resonance caused his true self to be watched by the Abyss. The whispers of the Abyss arose, beginning to drag him down into its depths.

Letting out a long breath, Nemo walled off his consciousness, cutting off his thoughts. He forced himself to focus on anything else, doing his best to ignore the Abyss’s lure.

And then, he heard the sound of police sirens growing closer.

He immediately dashed to the window and saw a fleet of police cars pulling up to the company entrance. Duan Fei, clad in a Law Enforcer’s uniform, stepped out of a car. Holding a megaphone, he shouted up at the building:

“You are surrounded! Come out and surrender! Leniency for those who confess, severity for those who resist!”

“Fuck!” Nemo swore viciously after seeing who it was.

“So cool!” the Magician shouted with delight, seeing the very same person.