The faucet on the lawn sprinkled water in a circle. Zhang Heng looked up at the sky and found that today’s weather was good. There was plenty of sunshine and wind. Occasionally, a few white clouds would drift by him. However, Zhang Heng noticed those white clouds; movement looked a little dull.
When Zhang Heng checked his body, he realized that he was carrying all the game items with him, including his Pestilence Bone Bow and his new blade, Shrouded Sheath. His current appearance made him looked like one of those bad people.
If he walked on the street with such an appearance, the authorities would probably bring him back to the bureau for questioning. However, Zhang Heng realized that the residents of this community did not show much surprise when they passed him, as if it was normal for someone to show up in such a state.
Zhang Heng also noticed one more peculiar thing. He saw that everyone was wearing a bracelet, including himself. If he was right about it, this bracelet should be his terminal. The weight of the bracelet was very light, probably only less than 50 grams or so, and it was made of titanium. This personal terminal could project images mid-air. Its technology was too advanced.
Zhang Heng saw a young couple navigating to a restaurant with their bracelets, and a woman looking like a housewife also went shopping with it.
So Zhang Heng followed them and used his fingerprints to unlock and summon his terminal projection. In a way, this titanium bracelet worked just like a mobile phone, a piece of equipment with a unified operating system with various functional modules.
The first thing that Zhang Heng checked was his mailbox.
Since his emails were arranged by date, the first email was usually the most important one.
From: G7Z Security Company
Time: March 15, 2077
Attention: Zhang Heng (G7Z security employee E group 3-07958)
Subject: Work notification (read)
[Hello Zhang Heng, employee E3-07958, the company hereby asks you to Room 3094, Unit 12, Yacheng Apartment, Area D, 3rd Floor, before 14:00 on March 15, 2077, to work as a bodyguard. Your target person is Xu Qian (photos). You are required to protect her for two weeks. The mission ends at 14:00 on March 29, 2077. During this period, please ensure the safety of the target. You can discuss the specific details with the target. If you have any questions, you can also contact the company.]
[I wish you great success in completing the task.]
…
Sure enough, when one did not know what to do, it was always the right move to read the emails. The title for this round of the game was Bodyguard; hence, the contents of this email had to be related to Bodyguard as well. The email gave Zhang Heng a set of clear instructions and revealed his current identity. Now an employee of the G7Z security company, he received a notice to protect a person named Xu Qian for the next two weeks.
After that, Zhang Heng looked at the time displayed on his wristband. He still had half an hour left before 14:00. When he looked at the warning sign on the lawn, he realized that he was now at Yacheng Apartments.
That said, Zhang Heng did not rush upstairs to meet Xu Qian.
Instead, he spent some time searching online for some information before finally managing to figure out the background of this quest.
The year was 2077, but this world did not share the same timeline from where he came from. The background of this quest was similar to the American drama “The Man in the High Castle,” albeit not that dark. Everything looked rather positive so far.
U.S., China, and the Soviet Union still won the final victory, and the world still suffered a huge loss from World War II. Human beings learned a precious lesson, so they finally decided to set up a union, and it became a huge federal state after that. They also shared all of their technology and culture with others. This explained why the system mentioned that the new Shanghai 0297 belonged to the federation.
The establishment of the federation had brought mankind into an unprecedented era of peace. With disappearing wars, the people here could develop and build the city with peace of mind. Coupled with the sharing of science and technology and culture, human development on this timeline was slightly more advanced than Zhang Heng’s world.
After the elimination of trade barriers, the new economy also ushered in unprecedented prosperity. Monopolization and capital’s pursuit gave birth to several huge conglomerates, Sheng Tang Morgan Group. Meanwhile, humans weren’t satisfied that they had to keep staying on the earth. So, they started to make a plan and explore space.
New Shanghai 0297 was born under this background.
It was a huge space station city. The centrifugal force generated by the center rotation simulated gravity. And to control the Coriolis Effect, such a space station city was usually built on an enormous scale.
…
After that, Zhang Heng closed the web page and checked all the other emails he received. Most of the emails were advertisements recommending a variety of products and their discount information. Unfortunately, Zhang Heng could not find the information about shellac records mentioned by the system earlier.
Other than that, he saw that the senders of a couple of emails were his friends and family. The friends that he had were the employees of the G7Z security company as well. As for his family, Zhang Heng’s parents were still alive.
And Zhang Heng also found out that he had a sister in this timeline; his wristband containing his family’s photos and videos. Never having seen these people before, they had nothing to do with his family members in the real world.
The three who were on earth and would communicate with him once a month. Zhang Heng last communicated with them about a week ago, so as of now, he did not need to worry about this matter.
The above was the information he collected in twenty minutes.
For now, he did not see any possible threats that he would face in this quest. According to the information he found on the Internet, the third floor of New Shanghai 0297 was very safe, having a very low crime rate. Zhang Heng traveled back to when he was still a high school student in the first Proxy War’s dungeon. And it did not take long for him to discover the alien creatures hidden in human society. After learning his lesson, Zhang Heng would not take the quest lightly this time.
He looked at the time and realized that there were only ten minutes left until 14:00. Without wasting any time, Zhang Heng turned off the projection of his bracelet and decided to meet his target named Xu Qian first. He wanted to learn more about the mission.
Since his main quest did not require him to protect Xu Qian, theoretically speaking, even if Xu Qian died in front of him, it would not affect his quest. Zhang Heng could even walk away after he met Xu Qian and asked for a leave of absence from the company.
And after that, he could focus on collecting the shellac records. With a total of 240 days of playing time, Zhang Heng believed he would be able to find all the shellac records in New Shanghai 0297. Could this quest really be that simple?
