The bank staff member took the ID card and swiped it on the machine. He nodded and said, "Okay."
"Then I'll apply for a card." Yang Jia said.
The staff member said, "Please go to the counter and fill out the information first."
Bai Ting finally took the opportunity to ask Yang Jia, "What are you doing?"
"Do you all have your ID cards with you?" Yang Jia asked. "Get a PIN. It will be more convenient in the future. You won't have to carry so much cash around."
"It's actually possible!" Bai Ting exclaimed softly.
Yang Jia had already walked to the counter, took out the information that needed to be filled out, gave one to each of them, and then began to fill it out, so she didn't see it. At this time, Bai Ting turned her head to look at Li Bai, and Li Bai just shook his head slightly.
Perhaps because Yang Jia was so used to it, she didn't realize that her familiarity with the game world far exceeded the capabilities of a typical player. This peculiarity was immediately apparent.
Fortunately, she was with the main force before and went outside the city, and Yang Jia herself didn’t know anything about that place, otherwise her specialness would have been exposed to everyone.
After returning, she had only interacted with Bai Ting and Li Bai, so these two were the only ones who noticed something was wrong with her. Bai Ting seemed carefree and outspoken, and she was the one who started asking probing questions. But at crucial moments, she knew exactly what to say and what not to say, and when Li Bai shook his head, she shut up.
Anyway, the boss must know what's going on, so all I have to do is follow her instructions.
However, Li Bai didn't really know that in his heart.
She naturally had her own theories about Yang Jia's identity. The game "Real Online," while open to everyone, was actually just a cover for a joint project developed by the top brass of the three districts. The fact that the three districts put aside their differences and worked together to develop this project was inherently significant. This importance also meant it would attract considerable attention, and each district would, of course, employ various tactics to secure an advantage in the project.
In order to maintain the independence of this project, senior officials from the three regions jointly signed an agreement, guaranteeing that they would not interfere with the operation of the project and would only provide basic guarantees for it, thereby giving researchers maximum freedom and not causing any interference to the project.
Therefore, even if they want to use some means, they can only do it in secret.
The most significant move was to include some military personnel. Just as the Chinese region was willing to send Li Bai, the ace in the outer space war, to play the game, the other two regions naturally had their own plans.
But this wasn't enough. After all, these were military personnel, and everyone would know them at a glance, and would be wary of each other. It was inconvenient to do anything in the game.
During the game's debugging process, researchers discovered that the autonomous operation of the system's mainframe, Feitian, hindered their ability to monitor and adjust data in a timely and fluid manner. Consequently, the project team, after a vote, submitted a request to establish real-life NPCs in the game. This meant recruiting a group of players, signing contracts that would allow the game to monitor their data at all times and periodically assign them additional tasks. This would have a slight impact on their in-game lives, but the financial implications would more than compensate.
The secret agents arranged by all parties are hidden among this group of real-life NPCs.
Because their number is not small and their sources are complicated, it is naturally difficult to distinguish which ones are real-life NPCs and which ones are spies from various districts.
However, everyone wanted to lock these people down, so white surprise cards, different from the blue identity cards of ordinary players, came into being. In order to conceal the existence of real NPCs, the game developers also selected a group of ordinary players and gave them surprise cards based on their performance in the novice tasks.
So the result is that the identity of the player holding the white card is very complicated.
Even Bai Ting wasn't entirely clear on the intricacies of the situation. She only knew that Li Bai was looking for someone with these cards, likely a player or a real-life NPC. But Li Bai's status was special, so she'd known the news early on. When she saw the surprise card in Yang Jia's hand, she'd been keeping an eye on him.
At first, she thought Yang Jia was just an ordinary player, the kind who lived at the bottom of the city and barely played games, only to get lucky and get a surprise card. While holographic online games were becoming commonplace, even in the 29th century, they were still not affordable for everyone. The gap between the rich and the poor in society hadn't narrowed despite rapid technological advancements; on the contrary, it had widened.
However, there were too many suspicious points about Yang Jia, so Li Bai didn't rush to draw conclusions. However, after getting to know him so well, she had already overturned her original conclusion and felt that Li Bai was more likely to be a real NPC, and even had some connection to the official, otherwise he wouldn't be able to always bring surprises.
Surprise cards bring good luck? No, that's just a white lie.
But Yang Jia is indeed very special, so special that Li Bai still cannot draw a conclusion now, so she is still in the stage of testing and understanding, but she is not in a hurry.
All the questions in this world will eventually be answered in their own way. Li Bai is not a particularly curious person, so for her, if she doesn't understand something, she should put it aside for now. Maybe one day, it will become clear.
…
After filling out the information and getting the card, Yang Jia approached a Taobao store selling mobile phones in the bank lobby and, using his bargaining skills, managed to get the final price down to 250 yuan. Although this number seemed ridiculous, Yang Jia was still quite satisfied, after all, he had saved more than 700 yuan.
As she placed the order, Yang Jia imagined a group of fifteen people walking down the street, clutching cell phones. Someone uninformed might think it was a new trend, and that would be a beautiful sight. Then…she quietly bought one for herself, too.
She will be a player in the future, so of course she should follow the player configuration.
Although I placed the order on Taobao, the store owner actually lives in Phoenix. He promised to ship the goods today and will definitely deliver them tomorrow morning.
Yang Jia relayed this to Li Bai, and then took the two of them to get a mobile phone card. Since the ID card was valid, she naturally got a new card for herself as well.
After all this was done, Yang Jia came out of the business hall and asked Bai Ting, "What are you going to do next? Leave the city?"
She was now extremely interested in going out of town to kill monsters. Firstly, this would allow her to level up and quickly catch up to the other monsters in terms of combat power. Secondly, the materials she obtained could be exchanged for money to support her daily life. If she thought about it carefully, wasn't this the kind of life she had longed for?
—Just mindlessly kill monsters and level up, and you'll have everything. No need to worry about finding a job, rent, or utilities. If you want to fight monsters, you can. If you don't want to, you can find a place to enjoy the scenery. Although Yang Jia found it a bit hard to accept that life had truly become a game, once she accepted it, she adapted quickly.
Bai Ting shook her head, "We're not leaving the city today. We're going to the City Lord's Mansion."
"City Lord's Mansion?" Yang Jia's heart skipped a beat, and he thought of the City Lord's Seal that Li Bai had obtained. Now that he had the key item, the next step was to find a way to seize power in this city, right? As long as Li Bai became City Lord, Phoenix City would be hers. She was truly a winner in life, even playing games with such grandeur, unlike the petty skirmishes of others.
Then she remembered her mission of distributing flyers. "Then I'll go to the City Lord's Mansion too. I can take on a mission there."
"What mission?" Bai Ting asked.
Yang Jia thought about it. She didn't know how special her ID card was, but she relied on the fact that even Mr. Zhang hadn't seen through her identity. Plus, ordinary people wouldn't have such wild imaginations. Considering that Bai Ting was an NPC, they would at most think she was a little special. So she wanted to find out something from Bai Ting, so she said, "It's the task assigned by my ID card. I received the travel brochure that way last time. I thought it was over, but when I went to claim the reward, I found a new task."
Bai Ting was indeed interested. "What is the mission this time?"
Yang Jia was embarrassed. "Let's just hand out flyers. They didn't specify what the mission was, so I asked them to go to the City Lord's Mansion for consultation."
Bai Ting turned to look at Li Bai again, but this time Li Bai didn't react. Yang Jia also noticed her action and immediately guessed that his card was indeed special, so he looked forward to opening it.
Bai Ting turned back and stroked her chin and asked, "Are you interested in joining our team?"
"Huh?" Yang Jia didn't expect the topic to jump so much, and asked in surprise, "Why?"
Bai Ting leaned close to her ear and said in a low voice, "Stop pretending. You are a real NPC, right? You are all from the Chinese region. Don't deny it. Otherwise, why do you always follow our boss?"
Hearing the words "real person NPC" surprised Yang Jia. She'd seen this concept in online novels before, but she hadn't expected such a setting to exist in the game world she lived in. It turned out everyone else thought she was a real person NPC; no wonder no one had ever questioned her identity.
However, there was one thing Yang Jia couldn't understand. It was fine if others couldn't see it, but why didn't the system respond? Moreover, as an employee of the game company, Mr. Zhang didn't even suspect it.
What went wrong?
Without knowing the answer, Yang Jia felt a constant sense of urgency, as if his life was in someone else's hands. He couldn't relax. He didn't know how this identity came about, nor did he know when it would be revealed. He was constantly worried about it.
But she didn't have much time to think about this question, Bai Ting was still waiting for the answer.
Yang Jia's heart was pounding. Since the misunderstanding had already occurred, he might as well let it continue. He could just pretend he was a real NPC. A half-player, half-NPC existence might better explain his uniqueness.
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