116: Chapter 116 Self-Deprecation

When Zhen Lu arrived at the church, the morning light was streaming through the stained-glass windows, casting large patches of colorful light onto the benches in the side nave.

He sat in the side nave for a while. Several monks passed by, some nodding in greeting, and he responded to each one.

Everything in the church was as usual. Having confirmed that he had established enough of a presence, he stood up and exited through the side door.

Walking along the streets of Central City toward the Branch Bureau, he had just entered the lobby when he saw Lu Ming turning from the side corridor, holding a cup of coffee. Seeing him, Lu Ming grinned and walked over quickly.

"Zhen Lu! I was just looking for you. Come on, let's go sit in the lounge for a bit."

As the two walked along the corridor toward the second floor, Lu Ming lowered his voice.

"Have you heard? Our bureau had a major operation last night; they caught an important leader of The Resistance. It's that Mr. A, who's been involved in several cases in the city recently. The Deputy Director led the team personally. So many officers were deployed last night, with several teams moving out together—it was quite the spectacle."

Zhen Lu tilted his head to look at him.

"Mr. A? I haven't really heard people mention him before. What did he do?"

"I'm not too sure about the specifics, just that he's suspected of being involved in several recent attacks in the city."

Lu Ming pushed open the door to the lounge, gestured for him to sit at the bar, and leaned against a high stool nearby, taking a sip of coffee.

"Our Third Team was also temporarily called back to standby last night. We crouched in the hallway for quite a while, but in the end, we weren't deployed. It was all for nothing."

Zhen Lu picked up the coffee pushed over by a team member behind the bar and took a sip, chatting idly with Lu Ming about the Branch Bureau's recent logistics and training schedules.

Lu Ming complained a bit about the price of nutrient solution rising again and how next week's training schedule was packed. Zhen Lu listened, occasionally responding with a grunt or two.

After chatting for a while, Lu Ming was called away by a passing team member to sign some form. Zhen Lu took the opportunity to put down his coffee cup and climbed off the high stool at the bar.

"I'm going to the restroom."

He patted Lu Ming's shoulder and walked out of the lounge.

Lu Ming was looking down, swiping at his data pad, and replied without looking up, "Sure, let's talk when you get back."

Zhen Lu pushed open the lounge door. There was no one in the corridor, and the fire door to the emergency stairwell was half-open; he could hear the occasional static from walkie-talkies drifting up from the lobby below.

He pushed open the restroom door; it was empty.

He walked to the sink, turned on the faucet, braced his hands on the counter, and looked up at himself in the mirror.

The Branch Bureau had set a trap last night, and the target was Mr. A.

The Resistance had been using the fictional persona of Mr. A to consolidate their subordinate forces, so among the peripheral members of The Resistance, Mr. A did indeed carry weight.

The Branch Bureau had seized upon this point to set up last night's trap.

If he hadn't refused Sun Yi last night, the person sitting in the main seat of that private room wouldn't have been a body double, but himself.

With his current abilities, it wasn't that he couldn't escape, but the clues and trouble left behind would make it impossible for him to move freely in Radiance City in the days to come.

What made him even more silent was something else.

The image of Mr. A—the robe, the physique, the sense of oppression, the combat style—was all meticulously crafted by The Resistance based on how he had disguised himself last time.

The Resistance had used his shadow to paint a mask, and then that mask was put on the Branch Bureau's wanted list, exploited by The Resistance, and treated by everyone as a genuine threat.

He had been wondering who would intentionally harm him, who was plotting against him, but this matter hadn't been targeted at him from start to finish.

He had simply accepted a mission, and then inexplicably became the wanted fictional leader.

He had framed himself. It was a good thing he sent the ornament away today; this city was becoming a bit dangerous.

He looked at himself in the mirror. Then he turned off the faucet, dried his hands with a paper towel, and pushed the door open to leave.

There was no one in the corridor.

As he walked, he thought that the Deputy Director's public declaration of catching Mr. A had an obvious intent: to cause internal instability among the forces that The Resistance was trying to recruit.

Those fence-sitters would definitely waver upon hearing that Mr. A had been caught.

If The Resistance wanted to stabilize the situation, they had to make Mr. A appear again to quell the unrest.

The spearhead was still pointed at Mr. A.

He estimated that Sun Yi would call again today, asking him to disguise himself as Mr. A once more.

But being a sitting duck at this time was no different from courting death.

The Branch Bureau had just closed their net last night; although they only caught a body double, the reaction speed and containment efficiency of the entire operational team were very high.

If he went to disguise himself again today, the Branch Bureau would likely have a contingency plan in place, ready to close the net again at any moment.

He pushed open the lounge door and sat back down at the bar.

Lu Ming was still leaning on the high stool drinking coffee; seeing him return, he asked, "Why were you gone so long?"

Zhen Lu picked up his own cup of coffee, which had already gone cold, and took a sip.

"Nothing, just washed my face."

He spent another while in the Branch Bureau's lounge in the afternoon, chatting idly with a few team members who came for coffee. He ate lunch in the Branch Bureau's cafeteria—four dishes and a soup—and left after finishing.

He walked along the streets of Central City back to his apartment.

Pushing open the door, he draped his coat over the back of a chair, went to the kitchen to pour a glass of water, and sat down on the sofa with it.

He didn't log into the game all afternoon. His communicator was lit up, with the intelligent agent continuously pushing information from every corner of Radiance City: the investigation progress within the Branch Bureau, the movements of The Resistance's peripheral strongholds, the follow-up handling of the Crick Family incident by the Nobility Management Authority, announcements from the surface marshals, and news privately circulated by a few intelligence brokers in the gray zone.

He reviewed these pieces of information one by one, piecing together an increasingly complete city map in his mind.

Radiance City might become one of his battlefields in the future; the more he understood, the safer he would be.

He spent the entire afternoon immersing himself in this invisible web of information.

Around four or five in the afternoon, the communicator rang.

An encrypted frequency, no number. He glanced at it and pressed connect.

Sun Yi's voice still had that faint background hum of static. He got straight to the point: "Xiao Liu, I need you to disguise yourself as Mr. A tonight and go to a certain location to stabilize the situation. After the Branch Bureau's raid last night, they deliberately blew things out of proportion. Now everyone outside thinks Mr. A has been caught. Several of our partners below are wavering. The Resistance must have Mr. A show his face again to let them see that Mr. A is still around."

Zhen Lu leaned against the sofa, holding his glass of water, his tone very flat: "I can't do this. This is clearly a trap. You just had a body double caught last night, and the Deputy Director is currently worried about not catching the real one. If I go, I'll definitely be caught. You're asking me to go to my death."

Sun Yi was silent for a moment on the other end, then spoke: "I know you have some other special abilities. Two million. Complete this mission, and I'll give you two million. Think about it, how does that sound?"

Two million.

Zhen Lu's hand holding the water glass paused for a moment.

He quickly calculated in his mind; the mission itself wasn't difficult. It was just to show his face and hold the ground, similar to what he did at the noble gathering last time.

The Branch Bureau had just closed the net last night; logically, they wouldn't set a second trap in the same place today.

If he planned his entry and exit routes in advance, the probability of being caught wasn't high.

Two million was just right for him, and besides, he was no longer afraid of Sun Yi knowing he had other abilities. But the prerequisite was that he had to clear away any hidden dangers.

"Two million is fine. I can agree to that."