Rolling Up

The young master knew he'd been played, but he couldn't complain. Who told him to flash his wealth earlier? Backing out now would be a slap in his own face.

"Let's go." Qi Tongda stood up and straightened his collar.

It was just one meal, after all. He wasn't short on cash.

...

After the meal, the group piled into Qi Tongda's flashy red flying vehicle and cruised through the towering skyscrapers of the Federation Center.

That was Qi Tongda's request.

The young master liked to go for a drive after meals.

No one objected.

"Ding-ding."

Tu Ran's communicator buzzed from the passenger seat. She glanced down—it was a schedule from the Executive Department's External Affairs Group, sent by Zero.

It clearly showed that they were in working hours.

"Isn't this... technically work time?" Tu Ran said, casting a sidelong glance at Ye Qingcai, who was driving.

The car was Qi Tongda's, but the young master never drove himself, so Ye Qingcai was at the wheel.

Ye Qingcai looked a bit awkward, unsure how to explain to their newest member that he, the group leader, had led the whole team in skipping work. He pressed his lips together, stared straight ahead, and kept driving as if he hadn't heard a thing.

Tu Ran: "..."

She checked the others in the rearview mirror.

Xiao Miao was staring out the window, pretending to be calm.

Qiangzi was fiddling with a bomb model, head down.

Young Master Qi had an arm around Xiao Miao and the other around Qiangzi, gazing up at the sky—the vehicle had a skylight that offered a view outside.

Meanwhile, Zhou Ming had sprawled across the entire back row, feigning sleep, though it was hard to tell if he was actually dozing.

In the back, only Qiu Jian caught her eye.

He said frankly, "With nothing to do, better to cruise around than be cooped up in the office."

The moment he spoke, the others, who had been busy with their own things, chimed in unison: "Right!"

Tu Ran: "..." How to put it? She suddenly felt she fit right in with this group.

She still had one lingering worry. "Don't we need to clock in? We haven't done that yet..."

"What's there to fear?" Qi Tongda finally lowered his noble head to meet Tu Ran's gaze in the rearview mirror. "The logistics office that handles clock-ins has my people in it. With me covering you, no one's missing a shift—salary and bonuses will be paid just the same."

Tu Ran raised a big thumbs-up to Qi Tongda in the back seat. "The young master's got it."

Qi Tongda basked in Tu Ran's praise, eyes narrowing as he enjoyed the breeze slipping through the slightly cracked window.

Up front, Tu Ran typed a line into her communicator: *You already found out? Aren't you reporting it?*

*[Of course I'll report it]*

*[But I can only report to the logistics office]*

*[The head of the logistics office is Qi Tongda's sister]*

*[Reporting is useless]*

Tu Ran watched the lines appear and vanish one by one, feeling for the first time the sorrow of Zero, the all-knowing, having to stay silent in the human world.

With no lingering worries, Tu Ran immediately threw herself into the moment and enjoyed the ride.

The seven of them cruised for over an hour until there was truly nothing left to see, then headed back to the Administrative Building.

They parked in the underground lot, took the elevator, and rode up to the 72nd floor, where the External Affairs Group Nine office was located.

The Executive Department's headquarters occupied floors 60 to 80 of the Federation Administrative Building.

Within those twenty floors were five external parking lots, housing the patrol vehicles used for missions.

Back in the office, Tu Ran grabbed her gear and called out to Qiu Jian, "Let's head to the training grounds."

"?" Qiu Jian looked at her, puzzled.

Zhou Ming, who had already pulled a pillow from under his desk in preparation for a long nap, thought, *So hardcore? Isn't it lunch break right now?*

Although the Executive Department had no official lunch break, normally, if there was no mission at this hour, he'd definitely be asleep.

Even if he wasn't sleeping, he'd be gaming or messing with Qi Tongda—anything but heading to the training grounds at this time.

The others clearly thought the same.

They only went to the training grounds on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Tu Ran hadn't caught on yet and explained, "The group leader asked me to get more familiar with you. We're both assault specialists, and there's no better way to get to know each other than training together."

Tu Ran had no concept of a lunch break.

Since arriving in this world, her days and nights had been flipped upside down—she slept whenever she found time, and as long as she got a solid six to seven hours a day, she spent the rest of her waking hours on other things.

Qiu Jian reluctantly rose to his feet.

He followed her out of the office.

The people left behind exchanged glances. Zhou Ming felt a strange knot in his stomach—he had always looked down on Tu Ran, thinking she was just slightly more talented than him. But what had just happened told him she wasn't just more gifted; she was also more hardworking.

Losing all desire to nap, Zhou Ming shot up, tossed his pillow at a cleaning bot, slung his sniper rifle over his shoulder, and left the office with a grim face.

The remaining four were baffled.

Young Master Qi, who had been about to binge a drama, couldn't sit still either. He shut off his screen outright. "Shit! Let's see who outworks whom!"

Grabbing a pile of reconnaissance gear, he stormed out.

The three left behind—Xiao Miao clutched a stack of books and ducked into the equipment room in the office's back section to dive deep into study.

Qiangzi, cradling a new bomb he'd rigged up, headed to the demolition room on another floor.

The last one, Ye Qingcai, gazed at the now-empty office and broke into a gratified smile. As it turned out, Tu Ran joining External Affairs Group Nine wasn't all bad—at least these members hadn't shown this much competitive drive in a long time.

His team was putting in the effort, so as the leader, he couldn't slack off either. He switched on his workstation computer and logged into the commander training site.

Tu Ran had no idea her casual invitation to Qiu Jian for joint training had sparked such a frenzy of competition.

At that moment, inside the training grounds, Tu Ran and Qiu Jian were doing shooting drills.

Qiu Jian glanced at Tu Ran's target—only her first shot had missed; every other round hit dead center—and couldn't help asking, "Wasn't your shooting supposed to be pretty bad?"

Tu Ran was reloading her magazine and replied without looking up, "Zhou Ming tell you that?"

"Mm." Qiu Jian began to suspect Zhou Ming might have been deliberately badmouthing Tu Ran.

On reflection, given Zhou Ming's personality, that was highly likely.

Over at the sniper range, Zhou Ming, aiming at a target eight hundred meters out, rubbed his nose. "Why's my nose itching again?"

Tu Ran had finished loading the magazine. Her wrist was steady as she aimed at the bullseye and fired thirteen rounds in a row: eleven hit the center, all passing through a single hole, with the remaining two within the inner ring but slightly off.

Tu Ran was fairly satisfied with the result. Compared to the original body, she'd improved a lot.

"I trained specifically in this area," she said.

"I always thought you had no talent for it," Qiu Jian said bluntly. "Because Zhou Ming never brought up any other aspect of you besides dragging you down for shooting accuracy—that shows you excel at everything else. With all that excellence and only shooting lacking, I instinctively figured it was a talent issue. Now it's clear: you're all-round."

Perhaps because Qiu Jian spoke so directly, without sparing his own or others' feelings, his compliments came across as all the more credible.

Tu Ran smiled. The original body truly had been all-round.

Her? Not really. She was just riding on the original's coattails, doing everything she could to keep that light burning.

"Let's practice in the simulation room," Tu Ran suggested.

"Okay."

The two headed to the simulation room, preselected a scenario, then changed into sim suits and donned specialized sim goggles. Instantly, they were immersed in the scene—their field of vision filled with a derelict factory.

Their mission was to rescue a hostage inside the factory.

Tu Ran took point, Qiu Jian covered the rear. Thugs kept popping out from behind cover, firing at them. The bullets striking their bodies didn't hurt, but being hit forced an immediate exit from the simulation—equivalent to failing the level, and they'd have to restart.

On their first attempt together, their coordination was clearly lacking.

As Tu Ran crept forward, Qiu Jian failed to keep pace, leaving her back exposed. A bullet hit her, and both were forcibly ejected.

"One more time. I'll slow down; you stick close to me." Tu Ran summarized their problem and re-entered the simulation.

Same scene. This time, they made it safely inside the factory and reached the floor where the hostage was held.

The hostage's cries for help drifted faintly from behind the wall.

Tu Ran used her scanner to pinpoint the approximate positions of the hostage and the captors, revealing five dots on her goggles.

Four captors, one hostage.

Judging by the positions, two captors guarded the windows, two lurked behind the doorframe, and the hostage sat in the center.

Tu Ran gestured to Qiu Jian behind her: *I'll go in first to take out the two behind the doorframe and draw fire from the two at the windows. You use that chance to snipe the window pair. Got it?*

Qiu Jian paused, looking confused, but eventually gave an OK sign.

Tu Ran counted down in her head and burst in. The two at the door didn't react in time and were taken down instantly. Then the two at the window swung their guns toward her.

Tu Ran hit the ground and rolled behind a pile of construction debris.

The captors' bullets all slammed into the heap.

Now was the moment!

They were side-on to the doorway. If Qiu Jian seized this opening, he'd definitely take them both out.

Tu Ran could already see the light of victory.

Unfortunately, she waited over ten seconds without hearing a gunshot.

The two red dots on her goggles were drawing closer to her.

Meanwhile, Qiu Jian's green dot—her teammate—stood motionless behind the wall.

What was going on?

Tu Ran called out directly, "Why aren't you coming in?!"

"Huh?" Qiu Jian's voice came through bewildered. "Weren't you going to handle it yourself?"

"I'll deal with two, and you—"

"BANG!"

A bullet to the head.

Yanking off her sim goggles, Tu Ran stared expressionlessly at Qiu Jian two meters away.

Though being shot in the simulation didn't hurt, the moment the bullet struck, brain matter splattering with red blood—the visceral image was all too real. Experiencing a headshot left her feeling awful.

Tu Ran asked patiently, "What did you think my hand signals meant?"

Qiu Jian repeated her earlier gestures as he said, "I take out the two behind the doorframe first, then the two at the window, while you stay put here to guard against a sneak attack from behind."