Chapter 3

As he walked along, he took out a cigarette from his pocket, put it in his mouth, and lit it, adopting a frivolous demeanor as he shamelessly sized up the young girls walking on the sidewalk.

When he approached the blue-green sedan, he stopped, using the rearview mirror of a delivery van to tidy his messy hair, then continued walking while humming a Thai tune.

Guo Bing sat in the car, waiting for the operation order, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t noticed the man approaching from behind.

She watched him walk to the hood of the car, then take a few steps back, and tap on the window with his curled fingers.

Xiao Tian looked over cautiously, and Guo Bing frowned, lowering the window to avoid unnecessary trouble, scrutinizing Lin Yue with a critical eye.

"Are you Guo Bing? Don’t be nervous, I’m one of your own."

Guo Bing's eyes changed, wondering if their plan had been exposed. This operation was highly confidential; no one outside the team could possibly know about it. Yet, this man, dressed like a local, spoke Mandarin without a hint of Thai, Burmese, or Lao accent.

Was he sent by a superior with a message?

No, a phone call could have resolved that.

At this moment, Lin Yue leaned in slightly, glancing back.

"See that black Chevrolet SUV and the white sedan behind you? They’re carrying Nongka’s trusted assistant, Weng Sha. They’re not just armed with AK-47s, but also rocket launchers."

Guo Bing glanced in the right rearview mirror, her eyes widening, and a hint of tension appeared on her face.

Lin Yue took the opportunity to snap a photo of Xiao Tian.

"What are you doing?" Guo Bing snapped back to reality, her right hand reaching for the gun at her waist.

Ignoring her, Lin Yue continued, "If I’m not mistaken, Weng Sha is here to rescue his comrades. If I were the commander of this operation, I’d immediately halt the rescue, either wait for the right moment to strike or change the plan to capture Weng Sha."

After speaking in a low voice, he looked at the street ahead and said in Thai, "What, we have to go further? This damn place is like a maze."

Guo Bing paid no attention to what Lin Yue said next, staring intently into his eyes, trying to discern his true intentions. He spoke Mandarin, knew what they were doing here, and claimed Weng Sha was in the Chevrolet SUV behind them. Who was this man?

"Mission accomplished, return to the main world?"

At the same time, Lin Yue heard a system prompt devoid of human emotion.

"I’ve delivered the message. Whether you accept my advice is up to you." He scratched his cheek, feigning confusion, "Cooperate with me, don’t let anyone suspect anything."

Guo Bing stared at him sharply for two seconds, then extended her arm out the window, pointing to the intersection ahead.

Lin Yue said "thank you" in Thai, picked up the plastic bag of pineapples, and walked forward at a leisurely pace, turning into a side alley at the first intersection.

Although the system didn’t force him to return, he was willing to help Guo Bing and her team. But thinking about the upcoming gunfight, he decided it was best to return to the real world.

After checking his surroundings to ensure no one was watching, Lin Yue silently thought, "System, send me back."

As he spoke, he felt his body lighten, and a blinding white light enveloped his vision, followed by a strong dizziness.

...

After an unknown amount of time, he felt his body and slowly opened his eyes.

The bed was covered with casually folded blankets, a Dell laptop sat in the middle of the desk, a coffee cup from a Coca-Cola promotion was placed beside it, and a trash can filled with crumpled paper was by the computer chair. A beam of light slipped through the curtain gap, illuminating the clothes haphazardly thrown over the chair.

A familiar room, a familiar layout.

This was the small two-bedroom apartment he rented in the outskirts of Jianghai City, over twenty years old, with a usable area of less than 70 square meters, and a monthly rent of 1,200 yuan per person when split with his roommate.

He didn’t expect the system to send him back home directly.

"Returned to the main world."

"Assessing mission completion."

The familiar voice sounded in his ear, followed by rapidly flashing text.

[Mission: Sword Casting Mekong] Accomplished.

Completion: Perfect.

Additional rewards activated.

"Now settling base rewards."

The screen switched to the mission tab, where the question mark next to [Mission: Sword Casting Mekong] flashed and transformed.

Reward 1: One 1907 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle gold coin.

Reward 2 (First completion bonus): Passive skill [Animal Friend LV1] (Description: Stare at any animal of a lower level to calm it).

The text's glow dimmed and eventually dissipated like smoke.

Lin Yue felt something hard in his palm and looked down to find a gold coin in his right hand, with the Statue of Liberty on one side and an eagle on the other.

A 1907 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle gold coin? Why was the physical reward this?

Lin Yue was puzzled, unable to understand why the system had given him a foreign coin for a domestic movie mission.

But since it was from 1907 and made of gold, it must be worth a lot.

He quickly opened his laptop, typed in the search keywords, and hit enter.

After browsing a few links, he found that this coin could sell for at least 50,000 yuan, nearly his annual income.

"Profit, profit, big profit."

Lin Yue flopped back onto the bed, rubbing the gold coin in his hand and chuckling to himself.

If the reward for a beginner mission was this good, what about higher-level missions? This was far more promising than running errands at a film studio.

"By the way, what time is it?"

He glanced at his watch; the date hadn’t changed, and the time was 16:53, less than two hours since he left the café on Changning Road.

"It seems the time flow in the movie world is much different from the real world. Should I take another mission to test it out?"

With that thought, he got up from the bed.

"System?"

A white glow spread, and the system interface appeared before him. On the left was the attribute bar, on the right the skill bar, and below the mission bar.

Lin Yue suddenly noticed he had 2 unassigned attribute points.

"Seems completing missions also rewards attribute points."

After a serious consideration—fast food, fast hands, fast boys, fast delivery, fast pace—modern society, in one word, fast.

So, he decided to increase his strength.

The skill bar now included [Animal Friend LV1], and the mission bar only showed the completed mission, indicating that he couldn’t choose missions but had to wait for the system to assign them.

"Didn’t I get additional rewards?"

Looking at the "completed" mark next to the mission name, he recalled the information that flashed before his eyes.

"Was the additional reward attribute points?"

Knock, knock, knock.

At that moment, a series of urgent knocks came from the door.