Chapter 100

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

【Player Qi Leren, starting quest: Gangster Empire.】

【Quest background: On January 16, 1920, the prohibition of alcohol in the United States officially took effect, and the sale of bootleg alcohol became the main source of income for the American mafias. Mafias, politicians, and police colluded with each other. Various crimes emerged one after another, and society was in an unprecedented chaos. Billy, the mafia ruler of a city in Italy, Feikexin (1), is about to marry Willow, the daughter of the Irish mafia ruler, Louis. However, just before the wedding, Billy was shot dead in the underground brothel at 182 Spruce Street. His father, Mario, called back his second son, Duccio, who was studying in England, to act as an agent of the gang. After Duccio returned to China, he quickly sent someone to investigate the cause of his brother Billy’s death. 】

【Quest requirements: Find and kill three other groups of players within a month. For each player killed, you will get 20 survival days. Killing an NPC by mistake will deduct 5 survival days. Cooperating in manslaughter will deduct 30 survival days. If killed, 80 survival days will be deducted and you will exit the copy. Insufficient survival days will result in death. Find out who killed Billy and obtain 30 survival days. During the quest, it is forbidden to use the items and skill cards that you have. 】

【Data synchronization countdown, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, synchronization complete. 】

“Sir, do you need anything?” The plump woman with heavy makeup put on a grouchy smile at the handsome stranger.

The man in the suit pushed her away impatiently: “Where is Bond?”

The woman’s smile stiffened for a second. Ever since Italy’s great ruler, Billy, was found dead on Bond’s bed two weeks ago, this underground bar and brothel hasn’t been peaceful. Despite Bond repeatedly whining about how it had nothing with him, he was taking a shower when he heard a gunshot coming from the bedroom. He was trembling in the bathroom and didn’t dare to go out. When the security arrived, only Billy’s corpse, who was shot dead, was left on the bed.

No one knew who killed him, but it can’t be the little male prostitute.

“Take me to Bond.” The man raised his chin arrogantly and looked down at the woman.

“He…. he has guests.” The woman said while trembling, as if thinking of something, she became more and more frightened.

The man sneered, put his hand in his pocket, took out half of his gun, and put it back in.

The woman’s face changed greatly, she took half a step back, and said in horror, “Please, please come with me.”

The two walked in along the narrow passage of the underground bar. As they walked through the bar lounge, it was noisy all-around, the drunkards clinked their glasses and sang, gulping down the cheap but prohibitively expensive alcohol in their glasses.

The man always kept his distance from this group of drunkards, showing obvious disgust for this absurd place of sensuality.

After leaving the bar lounge, the two returned above-ground, which is a renovated residential house. The underground part is used to avoid the police’s sight to entertain drunkards, and the above-ground part is a blatant red light district. It’s not just women who provide services, but also beautiful men.

“This is it.” The woman said, pointing to a red wooden door.

The man took out his hand-gun, opened the safety lock, and kicked open the door. The two who were snuggling and flirting behind the door immediately sat upright in fright.

“Oh my god!” The woman covered her mouth and hurriedly ran away as if she had seen a ghost.

“Get out.” The uninvited man pointed his gun at the client’s head and said.

The client, who was about to curse at him, looked like a rooster with a pinched neck when he saw the black muzzle. He immediately raised his hands and scrambled out of the room in a hurry, closing the door for them.

Now, in this bedroom with only a bed and a sofa, there’s only a dangerous man of unknown origin with a gun, and a beautiful blond male prostitute.

“Are you Bond?” The man asked.

Bond raised his head, and there seemed to be something brewing in those green eyes under his thick eyelashes.

“Yes, sir.”

“Really?” the man asked again.

There was danger and doubt in his tone.

Bond raised his lips and asked sarcastically: “What are you suspecting, sir? You’ve made me lose a customer.”

“If you’re not honest, you’ll lose more than a customer.” The man said.

“On the 30th of last month, the one who died on your bed, tell me about him.” The man said coldly.

“What do you want to hear? If it’s about his fetishes, I can talk for at least half an hour.” Bond said.

“At least?” The man raised his eyebrows with interest.

There was a flash of light in Bond’s eyes, the two of them understood and smiled tacitly.

“Yes, at least.”

The two put down their guard at the same time. Bond took out a Queen of Diamonds from under the sofa, and the man took out a King of Diamonds (2) from his shirt pocket and they threw them on the coffee table together.

An hour ago.

“There are four people who have received this black invitation. The invitations in your hands are spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs, and each of them carries a teammate——your teammate seems to be reluctant.” The old woman shrouded in a white robe spoke to the player holding the invitation letter with the clubs symbol (3).

The player was wearing a mask and brought his teammate with him, however, unlike several others, who’s willingly there, his teammate was brought in a sack.

“I randomly caught him on the road.” That person smiled, with a relaxed and pleasant tone, as if he had invited a passerby to join a cheerful outing.

The man noticed that the two players standing beside him turned their heads and stared at the player with the club invitation.

Do they know each other? The man thought.

Next, the eight of them were informed of the rules and given a card of the corresponding suit (4). Instead of in their original bodies, they will enter the copy by possessing a random NPC. They need to find the other players and kill those who’s not a teammate. The old woman kindly reminded them to make sure they have enough survival days, otherwise once they’re killed, those who don’t have enough survival days will be wiped out immediately.

“Let’s make a code.” The man said.

“What code?” His teammate asked.

“When talking to someone who seems to be a teammate, add the word ‘at least’ at the end of one of the appropriate sentences, if they respond with ‘at least’ in a questioning way, then that’s the code. How’s it?”

“Good idea, hopefully the NPC I possess isn’t too ugly.” His teammate said.

“Who knows, maybe it’s a beautiful lad.” The man laughed.

“He really is a beautiful lad, but he turned out to be a fucking male prostitute!” Bond slapped the table furiously and swears, “Fuck, I almost strangled the client when he touched my thigh just now!”

“Killing an NPC will deduct 5 survival days.” The man holding a King of Diamonds reminded him.

“I know, jeez!” Bond took a hard puff of his cigarette, and the nicotine calmed him down a bit, “What’s your current identity?”

“Duccio’s subordinate, now named Ivan. Duccio just came back from England to take over the family affairs, so he sent his right-hand man——that is, me——to investigate the cause of his short-lived brother Billy’s death cause he felt something was wrong, maybe the group of Irishmen had no intention to cooperate after all.” King of Diamonds stroked his cigar, he turned his head and asked Queen of Diamonds, “You got any clues?”

“How would I know? I’ve just been a fucking male prostitute ever since I came here, I have no memory of the past, and it’s great that I don’t, otherwise I would’ve vomited the meal overnight! Those assholes (5)!” Queen of Diamonds was furious.

“Calm down, this quest is a battle royal type, the quest plot can either be done or not, but you must kill people. Right now the identities of the remaining six players are unknown. The NPC you possess is an obvious target. In order to investigate the cause of Billy’s death, many people will come for you. This is a great opportunity, we’ll set up a trap and wait for them, then we’ll kill them one by one.” King of Diamonds rolled his eyes and proceeds to make a plan.

At this moment, the door that was left ajar was suddenly kicked open.

The two people who were smoking on the sofa was caught off-guard and raised their heads. There was man in a black hat holding a gun, mouthing them “bye bye”.

With a “bang”, Bond’s beautiful head was blown away and blood splashed on the glass window behind him. He even maintained the motion of smoking before dying, and slowly fell to one side.

The system prompts: 【Queen of Diamonds is out. 】

King of Diamonds swiftly fell to the side and took out the gun from his pocket, but he was still too slow, the killer outside the door calmly aimed at him, another shot——the ammunition was stuck.

King of Diamonds, who nearly died, was lucky enough to get a chance to breathe. He had overturned the coffee table and scurried behind the sofa, pulling out his gun and firing continuously at the door.

The murderer also hid behind the wall, and the situation reached a deadlock.

“Dude, I advise you run now, our movements are too loud, the security’s gonna be here soon. Once there’s more NPCs, they’ll start shooting at you too. 5 days will be deducted if you kill one, can you kill some?” King of Diamonds tried to disrupt his opponent with words while slowly crawling behind the sofa, trying to find a convenient angle to shoot.

“You’re right, goodbye then.” The killer outside the door said.

King of Diamonds was stunned. He wasn’t sure whether the other party really left or if he was just tricking him to come out.

What do do? If he goes out now, will he be shot and killed by the guy who didn’t leave but was just waiting outside the door? But if he doesn’t go out and wait until the security came, how will he explain Bond’s death?

No, he can’t go, he’d be better off waiting for the security to come. He was obviously acting in self-defense. Even if he got taken to the police station, Duccio would bail him out. It’s unclear what would happen if he leaves now.

King of Diamonds calmed down and prepared to wait quietly for the security to come.

The sun in Feikexin City is still warm in the afternoon during fall, seeping into the room through the blood-splattered glass window, and King of Diamonds is trying to figure who the other party is. Why did he suddenly attack them, and how did he identify them both?

The only ones who knew that he had something to talk about with Bond were the woman just now, and….

That client!

King of Diamonds suddenly remembered the face of the man outside the door, it was the client who he kicked out of the room by pointing a gun at him just now!

He wasn’t an actual client! Just like him, he was a player who came to Bond to find clues about Billy’s death!

Shit, I was really careless just now!

King of Diamonds fell into remorse. If he had known earlier, he would’ve shot this guy before. What a great opportunity, he was obviously unprepared before, but he had a gun in his hand!

King of Diamonds pursed his lips and carefully recalled the client’s every move when he first entered the door.

His reaction was that of an ordinary guy who was cowardly and scared when he was threatened with a gun. No wonder he was so careless, he didn’t even think about this other possibility.

There was still no movement outside, and King of Diamonds became a little anxious. Are all the security guards here vegetarian (6)? It’s been so long and they’re still not here yet, he’s also not sure if the guy outside has left.

“You haven’t left yet.” A voice suddenly said from behind.

King of Diamonds sat on the ground in horror and looked out the window——outside the blood-splattered glass window, the man in the black hat pressed the brim of his hand in one hand and held his gun in the other, while smiling at him through the glass.

“Then I’ll send you off, bye.”

“Bang”, a gunshot rang out. The scarlet blood bloomed into a rotten flower in the afternoon sun of Feikexin City, indicating that the chaos in the city had begun.

The system prompts:【King of DIamonds is out. 】

PPS: Can you understand this chapter? I’m kinda worried people won’t understand it.

To put it simply, the man in the black hat (the client) is played by Leren, who killed the two opposing players that just successfully joined forces. I’m guessing everyone must’ve thought that Bond was the Le-mei (7) at first, naive, why would it be like that everytime 😀

The author has something to say:

PS: Some character’s prototypes are mixed with the real story of the Alcohol Prohibition Period during 1920-1933 in Chicago and New York, but particularly famous events like Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre (8) is out of the question. Feikexin (fiction) City is not real, there’s no such place. To make the character’s name easier to remember, the surnames have been omitted. This copy isn’t going to be very long either. It’s mainly a battle of wits and courage type thing. I wanted to try a style like actions and shootout films, I hope you like it.

Translator’s Notes:

Not an actual city.Referring to cards. The king and queen are diamond cards (方块).For those who may not know, spade is an upside down heart and club is a three-leafed clover.Referring to the 4 suits of cards: spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs.死基佬, actually means the f slur. I have no idea what this means. He’s either saying vegans are slow (which I’m not sure about) or it’s some Chinese inside joke.乐妹, 乐 from 齐乐人 (Qi Leren) and 妹 (mei, literally means younger sister). Like how you can use 姐 (jie) for older or a more mature woman, 妹 can be used for younger girls (But Leren is not a girl? It’s a joke).The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre was the murder of seven members and associates of Chicago’s North Side Gang that occurred on Valentine’s Day 1929.

Hello friends. Note that the names whether for the locations or the NPCs may not be accurate since I have no idea how to translate them. Also in chapter 98 I translated the quest name as “Gangster Empire” but I decided for “Mafia Empire” instead, it sounds fancier.