Setup and Counter-Setup 2
After Liu Zheng told about four attempts at awkward jokes, the prisoner finally confessed. He'd rather face life imprisonment than endure another minute of this police officer torturing him with such outdated humor—it was practically cruel and unusual punishment.
Liu Zheng sighed. Sure enough, not everyone in this world was Xu Lingqu. Her skill had unlocked, and several bullets of varying functions materialized in her hand.
Sniper rounds—no special firearm required, only the shooter's personal ability. High range, strong penetration, perfect for silent assassinations and decapitation strikes.
Incendiary rounds—hitting a person or object produced a blaze of flames. An area-of-effect attack, best used in densely packed crowds.
Toxin needles—as the name suggested, needle-shaped, carrying a lethal dose of toxin. Made of a special material, they dissolved automatically once injected, making them highly concealable. In a sense, they created the illusion of killing without a trace.
After confirming that she could leave the station to enforce the law, Liu Zheng told Xu Lingqu about her situation.
Xu Lingqu said directly, "Come to the mall."
The mall in Sin City was bustling, with people coming and going in an endless stream. Thieves and robbers ran back and forth while shopping NPCs ignored them and went about their business. Even if someone got cut down by a murderous lunatic, they'd just respawn at their NPC checkpoint and leisurely walk back in to shop.
The two didn't take the conventional route. Using grappling gear, they stormed up the mall's outer wall and robbed a suit shop. Shen Shouli had said there was no need to go through the trouble of getting him a change of clothes, but Xu Lingqu insisted on stealing—and furthermore, insisted on stealing the style of suit Shen Shouli liked to wear. After all, he'd shown up to report to Moye Military Academy wearing a little suit.
Shen Shouli's feelings were complicated. He'd already prepared himself to fight through the entire map looking like a mess, constantly brainwashing himself that this was just a holographic game and none of it was real.
He hadn't expected Xu Lingqu to be so considerate of his feelings. After Shen Shouli changed and came out, Xu Lingqu looked at him and nodded. "Now ditch the sunglasses and mask, and go stand in the very center of the first floor."
"Hold a fan meeting."
Shen Shouli: ...???
Xu Lingqu naturally understood that Jia Xiangying had deliberately lured her here—she'd just taken out three Dolanston students, and immediately after, the three Moye students at the mall got ambushed.
As for why she'd been lured, Xu Lingqu already had a guess on the way over.
With the more optimistic guess, Jia Xiangying was as impulsive as ever and planned to make a move on her right here at the mall. With the worse guess, Jia Xiangying had calmed down and realized that given the current kill differential, Dolanston only needed to avoid combat as much as possible to win. This mall setup was merely to obtain information on Xu Lingqu's skill.
The latter probability was ninety percent—and Xu Xiqin had sent back word confirming it.
The master thief Xu Xiqin was currently crouched on the roof of the News Building. "I can basically confirm this is Dolanston's main base."
The News Building wasn't in the city center but on the edge of Sin City. From here, you could see the sea directly outside, with only Bliwell Huabin Avenue separating the News Building from the water.
Xu Xiqin had traced her way over from downtown, having locked onto that 1.9-meter-tall Dolanston gangster, Hei Yingzhi, and followed him all the way.
His counter-surveillance was pretty strong, and he'd nearly shaken her off several times, but Xu Xiqin had managed to keep up on instinct alone.
The mall was a good distance from their main base at the News Building, and Hei Yingzhi hadn't come to the mall—he'd stayed behind.
It was basically confirmed that Jia Xiangying's setup wasn't meant to kill Xu Lingqu. She wanted to probe her skill.
Just as Xu Xiqin's thief skill allowed her to learn a participant's skill by stealing their belongings, Dolanston surely had someone with a skill that could likewise examine a participant's skill.
Xu Lingqu stood in the shadows on the second floor of the mall, watching Shen Shouli take his position at the center of the first floor.
If Jia Xiangying wanted to check, let her check.
Thanks to his celebrity status, more and more people were crowding around Shen Shouli. He stood wooden-faced in the middle of the crowd, attracting his fan NPCs.
Not far away, Guan Zhongli was hiding in a coffee shop. He had a transparent protective barrier skill and was currently using it on Shen Shouli, lest the Dolanston people attack him directly and let him die for nothing.
The biggest difference between participating students and NPCs was the communication earpiece. Most people would disguise it with scarves, hoods, or ear accessories. On Xu Lingqu's orders, Guan Zhongli had removed his earpiece entirely and blended in among the NPCs at the coffee shop. Her only task to him was to protect Shen Shouli from a distance and coordinate with him.
Though the NPCs in Sin City had a high degree of freedom, there was still basic logic to their behavior. Those who killed, robbed, and looted killed, robbed, and looted; those who swooned swooned. They didn't interfere with one another.
The men and women surrounding Shen Shouli formed their own little cluster, and once they'd gathered, they stopped moving. Guan Zhongli stared at the crowd around Shen Shouli and suddenly noticed one NPC break away and walk off.
"That one should be an NPC... because I've memorized the faces of everyone at Dolanston, and that face doesn't belong to any of them. Her ears are bare too—no disguise, no communication earpiece." Guan Zhongli put his earpiece back on and reported to Xu Lingqu.
"No, that should be one of Dolanston's people. She probably has a skill that lets her disguise herself as an NPC." Xu Lingqu had seen the person Guan Zhongli was talking about too. The route she took showed strong autonomous counter-surveillance awareness—she looped around before heading toward the fourth floor. No NPC moved like that.
"Then why would she leave the group right after reaching Shen Shouli? That kind of behavior is way too obvious." Guan Zhongli had his doubts.
"She probably has a skill for identifying participants' abilities." Xu Lingqu's gaze drifted upward.
"So she can disguise herself AND identify other people's skills?" Guan Zhongli frowned. "It shouldn't be that unbalanced."
"So she has an accomplice here." Someone was helping this person with the disguise, trying to get Xu Lingqu's skill information through this unexpected method in the mall and then retreat safely. That was Dolanston's original setup.
But Xu Lingqu hadn't taken the conventional route from the start—she hadn't entered the mall through the door, and she'd thrown Shen Shouli out as bait directly.
The Dolanston people knew Shen Shouli was bait too, but he was an S+ single soldier after all.
Weighing everything, they decided to take the bait. You couldn't catch a wolf without risking a child—so they turned the Dolanston member with the skill-inspection ability into bait as well, sending her to the fourth floor, hoping to make Xu Lingqu reveal herself.
They were each luring the other.
Xu Lingqu didn't head for the fourth floor. Instead, she made her way toward the top.