Chapter Forty-Six: I Have Many Names

The girl was clearly very familiar with the hotel’s routines. She walked straight to the end of the corridor and leapt out the window, landing on an exterior fire escape. Instead of descending, she climbed upward, heading directly for the rooftop. From the entrance on the roof, she slipped back inside to the top floor.

Once inside, her posture visibly relaxed. Seeing Gao Ning surveying the space, she explained, “This used to be our dormitory, along with the boss’s office area. Later, after our boss got word that this area had been designated for experiments, he had the top floor sealed off. There’s no access from the stairs; climbing over the roof is the only way in. Even the windows are boarded up. If anyone does stumble onto the rooftop entrance, we can easily defend ourselves from a strong position. There’s plenty of weapons here—enough to hold out for eight hours.”

Gao Ning raised an eyebrow and pointed to a bloodstain on the floor. “I’m not so sure this place could last eight hours.”

The girl looked down and quickly covered her mouth. A thick pool of blood had seeped from the corner, soaking halfway up the wooden partition. The lighting was dim, the partitions many and cramped, more crowded even than shared apartments. The air was a jumble of scents—traces of cosmetics lingering, but overwhelmed now by the iron tang of blood.

Fumbling, the girl reached for her gun, but Gao Ning waved her back and pulled her behind him. He had already seen on his minimap that only one survivor remained on this floor, hiding in the second cubicle on the right. At that moment, the survivor was pressed against the thin partition, clearly waiting for a chance to ambush.

Gao Ning had no patience for this. He raised his hand and fired.

With a bang, a man tumbled out clutching his throat. Blood spurted, running down his chest and pooling on the floor. He stared incredulously at Gao Ning, his body twitching involuntarily before falling still.

The girl's lips trembled, her gaze complex.

“Do you know him?” Gao Ning asked.

“That’s Jason, our boss. He was always pretty decent to us, though he took a hefty cut. But why…”

She trailed off, the answer dawning on her—money.

In this wretched world, money was all that mattered. For the sake of profit, the pimp had chosen to kill the goose that laid the golden eggs. With overpopulation and rare opportunities, joining the game netted five thousand, and killing someone brought two thousand. If he killed all the girls under his control, he could even afford a ticket to the Elysium Zone.

Faced with such temptation, who could resist?

Sure enough, in a larger cubicle nearby, they found the girls, gunned down by machine fire.

The sight was so grisly that even Gao Ning could hardly bear to look.

These lunatics!

This world was a heap of filth—top to bottom, all maggots fit for hell.

A surge of nameless rage rose in Gao Ning, a vow of destruction swelling within him.

They found a relatively clean room and sat amid a mess of clothing, both silent. Above, the ventilation fan squeaked, straining to draw in fresh air, but the stench of blood was unshakeable.

After the initial chaos, the outside gradually quieted. Now and then, bursts of gunfire would ring out, only to fade again. The riot phase had passed; the hunt had begun. Until dawn, it would be a deadly game of cat and mouse.

In their haste, Gao Ning had left behind the small bag he’d picked up earlier. He discarded his own pistol, grabbed the girl’s bag, picked out a weapon that looked serviceable, checked the magazine, and tucked it into his waistband.

“Lisa!” the girl suddenly said.

“What?” Gao Ning hadn’t caught it.

“My name is Lisa Coulson.”

He gave her a look. “But before, you told me you were Elizabeth.”

Lisa rolled her eyes. “Right, and I’ve been Angelina, Daisy, Tracy, Jessica… but I always end up as Lisa.”

Gao Ning nodded, neither confirming nor denying. “Gao Ning.”

Lisa hesitated, then said, “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For not killing me, I suppose.” She seemed lost in thought, memories flickering across her face.

Gao Ning gave a small smile but said nothing more, and silence fell again.

Only then did Gao Ning notice that on the Red Alert interface, the communications icon was flashing persistently. He felt a jolt of surprise and clicked it.

The minimap flickered, then a communications window popped up—it was Major Eva.

“Thank God, the signal’s finally through. Hello, Commander, I’m your dedicated communications officer, Lieutenant Eva. After studying the items you sent back, we’ve made preliminary progress in locking down your space-time coordinates, but interference remains. We can’t guarantee how long we’ll stay connected. For further confirmation, Command requests you continue to send back critical items—”

Before she finished, the screen flickered and reverted to the minimap.

Gao Ning was speechless. What was this? Another half-finished message?

Sure enough, a new line of text appeared on the Red Alert panel:

Mission One: Trigger war, eliminate ten enemies.

Status: Complete.

Mission One completed. Mission Two unlocked.

Mission Two: Collect a Planar Relic.

Reward: Recycling Factory (single-use).

Gao Ning’s eyes lit up. A building, just like that? But why a recycling factory? Aside from exchanging items for money, it wasn’t of much use. More importantly, he couldn’t produce units yet, and even with money, he had no way to spend it. Was he just supposed to watch his gold pile up and grin like a fool?

He touched his nose, puzzled. Still, useful or not, he’d claim the reward first.

What Planar Relics did Elysium Zone hold? Weapons and equipment? Or perhaps the technology to use the human brain as a hard drive? No, the most remarkable things here, aside from the universal medical pods, were the RoboCops. Yet their numbers hardly qualified them as rare relics.

Could the task refer to a RoboCop production line?

As he pondered, the Red Alert interface changed again. Unnoticed, the clock had ticked past 3:00 a.m. Seeing the summoning countdown finish, Gao Ning was overjoyed—his golden finger was finally ready.

He quickly selected a drop point and stood to leave.

Lisa, worn out by terror and exhaustion, hadn’t slept—how could she, with screams and gunshots echoing outside and the eight hours not yet up? Gao Ning’s sudden movement startled her.

“Where are you going?” she asked anxiously.

Gao Ning smiled. “To find a computer. And pick up two people.”

Lisa stared at him, baffled. “Huh?”