144: Chapter 144 The Rooftop, a Place I Have a Special Affection For

While Zhao Hongxiu was collecting rare treasures at the auction house, Chen Aoyun walked into a store selling camera equipment.

The Famous Scholar [Ranger] only provided one micro-camera, which Chen Aoyun felt was far from enough, so he purchased over twenty in one go at the mall.

After buying so many micro-cameras, Chen Aoyun arrived at an area where wanted criminals might appear.

The streets were bustling with traffic; horses and cars competed for space, and pedestrians dressed in clothing from different eras were hurrying along.

Chen Aoyun looked up and scanned his surroundings, quickly locking onto the tallest building.

Arriving at the rooftop of this building, Chen Aoyun took out a micro-camera, switched it on, found a spot with a good view that was not easily noticeable, adjusted the angle, and hid the camera.

"What is he doing? The Dragon Countryman isn't hoping to just find a random spot, hide a camera, and catch footage of wanted criminals and officials trading, is he? He's overthinking it. How could such a coincidence happen? You think you're God, placing a camera wherever criminals and officials will happen to be trading?"

The audience watching the live stream found Chen Aoyun's behavior ridiculous, and even the two professional commentators in the studio didn't know what Chen Aoyun was planning.

After setting up the camera and returning to the street, Chen Aoyun clutched a large handful of coins. Just as he was about to crush the coins in his hand with force...

Suddenly, a line of small text unfolded on the compass in his heart. It was a rule: [Rule 1: Every Raider who sacrifices themselves in one act will be automatically resurrected in the next, but the death toll will affect the final ranking of the Game of National Destiny.]

The rule did not have a "First Act" prefix, indicating that this rule did not only apply to the first act but would persist throughout the entire Game of National Destiny.

A rule appearing out of nowhere, and one related to sacrifice at that—Chen Aoyun's action of crushing the coins paused, and a sense of foreboding welled up in his heart.

"Rules don't appear for no reason; someone must have triggered the content of this rule. Could it be..."

Just as Chen Aoyun had a bad premonition, his phone received an image from an unknown number.

Chen Aoyun had obtained the phone numbers of all the [Strategists] from every country from Adar, except for those from Sakura. This unknown number, unsurprisingly, came from a Sakura person.

It was a photo of Zhao Hongxiu after she had been killed, her body being stepped on by Togaya Atsuto before it disappeared!

The "senior phone" had poor resolution, but Chen Aoyun could still see Zhao Hongxiu's tragic state from the photo: messy hair, cheeks swollen to the point of deformity, shocking wounds on her body... and that arrogant, smiling face of Togaya Atsuto making a peace sign.

The photo contained no text, but every pixel was a provocation against Chen Aoyun and the Dragon Country!

Staring at the photo, a wave of anger surged into Chen Aoyun's heart.

"To humiliate my Dragon Countryman like this... Fine, I've noted this debt!" Chen Aoyun gritted his teeth, his voice hoarse.

Taking a deep breath, he forcibly suppressed the anger in his heart. Chen Aoyun knew that the best counterattack was not impotent rage, but completing the favorability mission and winning the first act.

As he exerted force with the hand inside his pocket, a large amount of coins was crushed into powder by Chen Aoyun.

After crushing a whole handful of coins, Chen Aoyun still felt it wasn't enough.

A second handful, a third, a fifth... Chen Aoyun crushed an entire pocketful of coins in one go!

The coins contained power capable of amplifying "Civilization Traits." The invisible energy unleashed after crushing such a large amount of coins expanded rapidly from Chen Aoyun as the center in all directions, covering the entire current "area where criminals appear" with the energy wave!

Have you ever heard a joke from the Old Era of the Dragon Country? Have you ever watched spy thrillers or police-and-thief movies from the Old Era of the Dragon Country?

The scenes that frequently appeared in these jokes and films converged into one sentence: [You undercover agents are really interesting, always meeting on the rooftop]!

"Meeting on the rooftop"! That was exactly the four words Chen Aoyun wanted. He was using the power of the coins to influence this "area where criminals appear," causing those who came here to meet to subconsciously choose to rendezvous at a rooftop, specifically the highest rooftop where they wouldn't be noticed!

This was not a "Civilization Trait" in the true sense. Just like using "jokes to replace historical allusions," Chen Aoyun was trying to use plotlines similar to jokes, disguised as "Civilization Traits," to guide the meeting between the criminals and the officials.

The Sakura people always said he, Chen Aoyun, was cutting corners, but this time, he was the one truly cutting corners.

Fortunately, there were no rules regarding [Divine Judgment]; perhaps the first act didn't allow for Judgment at all. Even if Judgment were allowed, the Sakura people shouldn't be able to find a direction for it.

To be honest, Chen Aoyun was gambling. He was not only betting on whether the sentence [You undercover agents are really interesting, always meeting on the rooftop] would be regarded as a "Civilization Trait" and influence the criminals and officials, but also betting that no one would be able to initiate [Divine Judgment] against it.

There wouldn't be results immediately, and Chen Aoyun didn't stop his actions. After one area was arranged in this way, Chen Aoyun carried his backpack filled with cameras and headed to the next area.

The same bustling traffic, the same process of finding the tallest building. The rooftop of this tall building was quite large, so Chen Aoyun found a good angle and installed two cameras before coming down from the rooftop, taking out the coins from his backpack, and crushing them handful by handful.

The map provided by the Famous Scholar [Officer] that showed where wanted criminals might appear had marked sixteen areas. Under the guise of his plan, Chen Aoyun installed cameras on top of all sixteen high-rise buildings.

The coins were crushed handful by handful; it was fortunate that the shell company operated by Fan Ling earned enough, otherwise, even if Chen Aoyun had this idea, he wouldn't have enough coins.

It took an entire morning for Chen Aoyun to finish all of this, and what followed was waiting. It wasn't just Chen Aoyun who was waiting; the audience watching the live stream was also waiting.

- "If he can actually capture footage like this and complete the Famous Scholar [Ranger]'s mission, I'll livestream on my social media platform and kowtow to him with my whole body on the ground!"

- "Kid, don't speak so confidently. The one thing the Game of National Destiny doesn't lack is accidents, especially regarding the Dragon Country and actions involving this Chen Aoyun; there are even more accidents. Do you dare to reveal your social media account? In case the Dragon Countryman actually pulls it off, I won't get lost."

The person from before hesitated, but unable to withstand the urging of others, they still reported their social media account. The live stream continued.

The live stream allowed viewers to freely choose which perspective of each country's Raider to watch. However, those rooftops where Chen Aoyun had installed cameras could not be broadcast.

The midday sun shifted bit by bit until, just before sunset, Chen Aoyun began to retrieve the cameras from those rooftops. Needing to return to the small inn before nightfall, Chen Aoyun simply retrieved them without checking the content on the cameras.