Fatal Shot

“Having said this much, I bet everyone is a little confounded as to why, since Yamamoto Ichiro is the key character in this issue, we never provided you with Yamamoto Ichiro’s information before. Why didn’t we let everyone mark him as the assassination target right from the start?”

Haruko looked around at everyone once more.

Her words indeed raised a valid question. If the final goal of the mission was to kill Yamamoto Ichiro, why not finish Yamamoto Ichiro off right from the start when he was unprepared instead of undoubtedly seriously alerting him via the various assassination operations?

Of course, the reason was 100-percent discernable from the perspective of the players. Doing missions was just like fighting through dungeons; since Yamamoto Ichiro was the ultimate Boss, how could he possibly appear right at the start? A whole half of his henchmen had to be wiped out before he could be seen! However, the system’s justification could also be explored.

“Although Yamamoto Ichiro is indeed the source of the evil, the higher-ups did not have the intention of killing him at the start.” Haruko’s face was cold as she spoke. “He is, after all, a Lieutenant General of the Federation. Plus, having operated for so many years in Dongsang City, he is powerful and has been deeply rooted. He holds various powers in Dongsang City, so it wouldn’t be so easy to take down. Furthermore, once he dies, Dongsang City’s state of affairs will certainly be in a predicament. It is very likely that the rebel army will jump at the chance to attack and conquer Dongsang City!

“Hence, the original decision of the higher-ups prevails. The previous operations were actually just an act of deterrence toward Yamamoto Ichiro. The objective was to observe his attitude in response...” The side Haruko’s mouth revealed a slight mockery at that moment. “Isn’t this quite ironic...?”

“Governance is essentially a trade-off of interests...” Feng Luo said flatly.

“So why do we have to kill him now?” said Phoenix, the female Light Armor Warrior. “Because of his bad attitude, desperately wanting to oppose the Federal government?”

“His attitude is certainly not good, but this is not the main reason!” Haruko said. “Actually, Yamamoto Ichiro hasn’t been in Dongsang City at all. He was not in the military base either but on an isolated island.”

Hearing this, everyone understood why Haruko had said before that the Dongsang City mission had to be temporarily suspended. Because this mission of assassinating Yamamoto Ichiro could not be done in Dongsang City at all!

“If such a huge matter happened in Dongsang City, how can he still be on vacation on an island? This really is...” Big Pineapple scratched his head, a little speechless.

“What’s he doing on an island?” The teenage girl player, Number 187, had curious eyes under her black-framed spectacles.

As for him being on vacation, only Big Pineapple thought that way.

An unusual look appeared on Haruko’s face. “He is preparing a very unique ‘game.’ A game that will be participated in by four parties: adventurers, civilians, the rebel army, and our agent organization!”

A game! What game?

At that, everyone was absolutely clueless. What the heck was the system up to?

Suddenly wanting everyone to play a “game”? And, moreover, a game participated in by players, the rebel army, civilians, and the players representing the Federation?

“This game is called a ‘battle royale’!”

Haruko reached out a hand and held onto the black samurai sword placed on the floor in front of her.

“A battle royale?!”

Everyone looked unconvinced. Only Feng Luo’s face was stiff!

“That’s right, a battle royale!” said Haruko. “A death game to be carried out on an isolated island, where all the participants will be prey and predators for one another, hunting down and killing one another. The one who survives until the end will be the champion!”

It was as if Haruko’s jet-black eyes had engulfed the light, flashing a somewhat peculiar aura of killing intent!

“Also, under typical circumstances, assassinating Yamamoto Ichiro, who is heavily guarded and has powerful personal abilities, would be extremely difficult. But this time, when Yamamoto Ichiro was inviting the top three departments of the Federation with agent authority to participate in this ‘game, he promised that those who successfully lived to the end of the game would have the opportunity to engage in a battle to the death with him!”

“Indeed!”

A Japanese film that Feng Luo had seen on Earth had already come to his mind. He instantly drew a parallel between this sickening type of gameplay and that movie of the same name in his memory!

“A battle royale!” His eyes flashed with a spark.

“This really is a battle royale game!”

“This type of game is just sickening!”

“I’m rather a little interested in this game already!”

Hearing about this type of gameplay, the five people had contrasting reactions. The faces of Feng Luo and the Number 37 player disguised as a young white-collar looked indifferent. Big Pineapple, on the other hand, was loudly giving an evaluation of the degree of “perversion” of this type of game. While Phoenix’s reaction was a look of great enthusiasm with her face flushed and her lips pursed—this woman’s way of thinking was clearly beyond compare!

But even Feng Luo himself actually felt a measure of excitement inside. Among the five, it was, unexpectedly, the high school girl in the spectacles, who had remained so composed, who had the strongest reaction. When she heard the game rules, her face had instantly turned grim, as if she were extremely troubled.

Haruko glanced at the five people, the five fingers on her right hand lightly caressing the icy-cold sheath of her samurai sword. “Everyone ought to have already guessed that the purpose of asking the five of you here is because you who have passed the Hidden Investigation will have the right to the priority of choosing whether to participate in this killing game!”

The Number 37 male player disguised as a white-collar suddenly spoke up. “Miss Haruko, I have a few questions. Could I ask?”

“Mister Masao, please ask!”

“You spoke of the right to the priority of choosing just now. This means that it’s not compulsory to participate in this battle royale mission. Which also means that we can choose to stay at Dongsang City and continue conducting the original investigation missions?”

“Correct. The participation in this mission is not mandatory due to the danger of this mission, which you all must be able to imagine. In such a hunting game, the proportion of people who will be able to live to the end is certainly not high!” Haruko’s eyes were sparkling.

“Thanks.” The Number 37 male white-collar player nodded his head.

Number 187, the high school girl, heaved an obvious sigh of relief.

“Miss Haruko, I have two questions as well,” Feng Luo said. “I’m not sure if I could ask.”

“Please ask, Mister Feng Jian...”

“In this mission, how many participants will there be in total from us? Also, you said just now that the Federation still has three organizations of agent authority. I’d like to know—which three? And if we’ve passed the investigation, which department will we belong to at the end?”

“The Federation has three organizations of agent authority: the three departments of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Safety Bureau.” As Haruko answered, her eyes flashed with a sense of praise and admiration. “However, due to certain reasons, everyone now has some overlap in responsibilities. Hence, the relationship between them is not so good!”

“Recruiting you adventurers as agents this time is a matter of participation by the investigations and recruitment of the three departments combined. However, due to the higher-ups permitting a quota of only five, the issue of allocation became a somewhat tricky problem. But after Yamamoto Ichiro invited the three departments to play this ‘game’ together, the higher-ups found a way to solve this problem! And that was to choose five people from those who have participated in the investigation from each of the three departments, then have an agent instructor lead them in this battle royale.

“The department that is victorious at the end will have all of you as the first batch of adventurer agent commissioners within that department.” Haruko, in her black samurai attire and with her black samurai sword placed in front of her, sat up straight, an even more radiant spark appearing in her eyes. “It is I who will be your agent instructor, representing the ‘Federal Investigation Bureau’!”