Day 7 of customs clearance

"So you decided to become traitors to escape the control of the Black Masks, and now you regret it," Adrian clapped his hands and concluded. The two of them had different ideas. Perhaps their initial idea was to pursue a bright future, but becoming traitors was full of risks, with danger and death always at their side.

Then everything got out of control.

“…Yes,” Elena said, her face pale, as if she were furious that her cowardice had been seen through. “I just wanted to save people, I just regret it.”

"Can you promise to do it right away? It'll be too late after dawn," Elena said, tears streaming down her face. Her hair was disheveled, and her eyes were filled with desperation, like a cub driven to the brink of despair. But how much of it was genuine?

"You need my help."

The cold, indifferent voice left Elena puzzled. Whose help did he need? What was he doing?

Adrian, fearing she might not understand, patiently repeated, "Say you need my help," feeling like a brand-new human-machine interface afterward.

"I need your help."

As clever as Elena was, she quickly realized that this was probably some kind of quirk of the mysterious person. She suppressed the urge to curse and thought to herself, "What kind of rigid program is he? Oh well, I should be tolerant of the old man."

If old man Adrian could read minds, he would surely grab Elena by the back of the neck and shake her a couple of times to empty her head of all the water.

He also found the process annoying; these steps were like taking off your pants to fart.

"You lead the way. If you go the wrong way, I won't take responsibility for you. You'll have to bear the consequences yourself."

“…Come with me,” Elena said, pulling away from Adrian’s hand and keeping her face tense.

Hopefully he'll be of some use; if not, let him be used as cannon fodder to buy time.

Elena prayed desperately that the strange gray-eyed youth wouldn't suddenly run away.

*

Save file +1

Save file +1

[Save + n]

...

The fact that the missions keep failing but the ability to reload saves makes it very user-friendly for players to try and fail.

The diversity of failures is eye-opening: rushing in without enough firepower, lone wolf players without teammates to draw attention, lack of help, the enemy having too many advanced weapons, and being backstabbed, etc.

I failed many times and fell into many traps.

Adrian lay on the steel frame and sighed softly. He only had one chance, and he was doomed. He glanced at Elena beside him and sighed again. She was his teammate, and she was the one who stabbed him in the back, but he had no choice.

At first, he would get angry when the game was reverted, and he would rather kill someone to get revenge. But after being stuck on the level, Adrian became obedient.

Why does the game keep getting stuck on certain plot points? Don't you even understand the players?!

Adrian doesn't care about terrible game plots. What kind of good planner would design something like this to create something disgusting?

Adrian continued to sigh.

Out of the corner of my eye, I think I saw a figure dart out.

Adrian? ??

"This wasn't in the previous gear!" Adrian grumbled, but still managed to grab the man quickly.

He did it to complete the storyline!

Elena, who was caught by Adrian halfway back, wanted to sigh even more.

"Boss, what do we do next?" Elena tried to distract the lunatic, who was making her uneasy.

"Don't call me 'boss,' it makes me feel uncomfortable."

"Then what should I call you? I can't just keep feeding you like this," Elena's expression changed repeatedly. Could his quirks be that unique?

Or was he trying to kill her? Elena was wary.

Adrian finally realized he hadn't told Elena his name. Realizing he already knew Elena's name, Adrian paused. "Ali, you can call me Ali."

Elena immediately changed her tune: "Ali, what should we do next?"

She was wondering when they could make their move when Elena glanced cautiously at Adrian.

Is he reliable?

"There are too many people, let's wait a bit longer. Besides, your sister Alice is perfectly fine there."

Elena forced a smile. If there was no immediate danger to her life, then everything was fine. She forcibly withdrew her worried gaze.

Dark red and gray-blue lettering, painted on the wall by some disillusioned people, local slang and profanity, word order fanatically reversed, rusty tripods, and a rusty iron cage.

A fully grown woman was huddled in a cage that could only hold half an adult; a closer look at her twitching fingers revealed that she was still alive.

Alice's face was numb with pain, she couldn't feel anything, she must have been slapped into a pig's head. She mocked herself for being lucky enough, at least she didn't break any bones, at most she was covered in bruises.

It wasn't that she was exposed as a traitor, nor was it a mission failure; they were simply trying to squeeze every last drop of value out of her. They had planned this all along.

Alice gritted her teeth, hating herself for not having the means to deal with them.

There wasn't a sound coming from the cage covered by the black cloth behind her. The sound of tactical boots clattering underfoot, playing repeatedly in Liz's ears, almost overwhelmed her. No one was chatting. Would she die?

The hostages won't die, not a single one. Adrian chased Elena away and squatted on the concrete platform, counting down the time as they waited.

The benefits of repeating the process multiple times are obvious; it's tantamount to a prophecy, which allows him to achieve his goals. When Adrian saw the white mist rising from the middle of the factory, he knew the time had come and the people had arrived.

Adrian is full of resentment and is truly a "key figure".