The Guide

They arrived at the conference hall early.

At this moment, there were still ten minutes until midnight. You Huo glanced inside and said, "No one."

"Not one is here?" Qin Jiu said, "Then that's fine. These invigilators are all NPC's, none are original. If it was, 009's group would already be here an hour ago."

The two of them couldn't be more familiar about this place. They went through the emergency passage and moved over to the roof.

There was a skylight on the roof outside. Through the glass, you can overlook the scene inside the conference hall. The view here was also very good, allowing you to see the nearby streets extending in all directions. Whoever comes and whoever leaves, everything could be seen clearly.

You Huo picked a place the moonlight could not reach and bent down next to the skylight to look at the conference hall down below. Qin Jiu flipped over a water tank and leaned against a pipe staring into the distance. His dark eyes swept back and forth between the streets.

"They're coming." He turned back to notify You Huo.

Soon, the door to the conference hall was opened and meticulously dressed invigilators poured into the room like a wave. In a blink of an eye, the seats were almost completely filled.

Once everyone sat down, You Huo picked up his phone and took a look —— Without missing even a single second, it was exactly midnight. For one to be able to do this, it could only be NPCs.

Immediately afterwards, he saw Gao Qi, Zhao Jiatong, 021, 922 and the others in the crowd…..Without going out of his way to look for them, he saw a lot of the invigilators in his rebel army.

He lowered his head slightly, expanding his field of vision more. At the head of the conference table sat a man whose handsome features were highlighted by the glow of light in the room.

You Huo stared at that man with narrowed eyes before looking over at the water tank.

"What is it?" Qin Jiu asked.

You Huo pointed down, "Fake 001 is sitting down there. Do you want to take a look?"

"Me?" Qin Jiu hopped off and deliberately supressed the sound such that it was almost completely silent when he landed. This however didn't prevent him from making it appear easy and fluid.

He bent down by the skylight and saw "himself" sitting at the head of the table. He didn't find it strange and instead looked on with interest.

"He indeed looks like me." He turned his head to You Huo and said, "If we end up in a chaotic fight, don't confuse your boyfriend."

You Huo internally rolled his eyes but his mouth said, "We'll see."

Qin Jiu sighed. He straightened up and reached out to rub the corner of You Huo's lips, "I have always wondered. It's clearly so soft here but why are your words so sharp."

You Huo glanced at him and replied lazily, "Special skill."

Those simple two words combined with his cold expression seemed to amuse Qin Jiu. With his arm around You Huo's shoulder, he lowered his head and chuckled for a long time.

You Huo allowed him to lean on him with a sullen face but his eyes continued to look down below.

It was good for them if all the invigilators are NPC's. Firstly, they didn't have to worry too much if they had to fight and secondly, NPCs are easier to deal with than real people. 

The minds and emotions of real people can be very complicated but NPCs are not. The sole purpose of their existence is to achieve the purpose of the exam.

And what was the purpose of the exam? Obviously ——– It is to get rid of the examinee and protect the core.

That would be the main train of thought and objective behind the actions of all these fake invigilators.

In response to anything that happens in this exam, these invigilators will respond with this goal in mind. If you take an example; if there was an accident in the Invigilator's District and the specific location of it cannot be determined immediately, what would these NPCs invigilator's do?

Unsurprisingly, they will subconsciously try and confirm the safety of the core first.

This was the reason for You Huo and Qin Jiu presence here at this very moment.

In the conference hall, more than a thousand invigilator's slowly settled down and relaxed.

At the moment when they are most relaxed, Qin Jiu sent out a message from his phone.

With 922 working together with 154, they had taken advantage of the shared lines between invigilator's phones to establish a temporary communication network for them to use during this operation.

At this moment, Qin Jiu's message was sent to all the invigilators scattered around the examination centre.

More than thirty mobile phones vibrated at the same time.

At the edge of the forest north-easterly, 021 glanced at her phone and directed the excited examinee next to her, "Bomb it."

Several young people headed by Yu Wen and Di Li raised their weapons and shot it diagonally up at the sky both nervously and excitedly.

On the west coast, Gao Qi himself carried a handheld rocket launcher. He tilted his head and squinted, "This kind of launcher can be used without any training. Just relax. Remember all the important points we talked about just now? Here, let's go!"

The next second, six or seven lights flew out.

This was also the same to the south, in the city centre, from the town square, from some roofs...

They had been waiting for Qin Jiu's notice as they waited at the various places they had been scattered at.

In an instant, sounds of explosions came from all directions.

This came so suddenly, the entire conference building shook.

The NPCs in the conference hall were taken aback. They immediately stood up, picked up their weapons and rushed out.

They subconsciously looked towards the sky, but it was still hard to find the source of the sound.

The next moment, this ant-like crowd started to move ——- except for a select few. Almost all NPCs turned in the same direction and subconsciously started to rush over.

You Huo stood on the top platform, giving him a wide view of the events happening right now.

"Don't blow up the other places. Let those north east continue."

As soon as he finished saying this, Qin Jiu had already sent out the notice. 

The next second, there was another explosion.

When the NPCs heard this, they seemed to be able to tell the direction in came from. The footsteps that had slowed quickened once again.

Under the lead of the two demons, the examination centre was bombed here and there. Each explosion worked like a carrot hanging in front of a horse, leading the NPCs forward.

About an hour later, 021 received Qin Jiu's final order and it was followed with another wave of explosions.

"I wonder if this was effective..."

She mumbled this as she got into the passenger's seat. As soon as she settled in, she heard another examinee shout, "Car! Car! Several cars are coming over!"

021 stuck her head out and snatched over a telescope from an examinee. When she the scene in the far distance, she shrank back into the car again.

She grabbed the window frame and said to the other invigilator in the driver's seat, "Quickly drive! A and 001 really got it right! Someone's here to lead the way! That group of fake invigilators are coming over!"

Their equipped car looked like a giant crocodile lurking inside a wetland. With a flick of its tail, it dashed out, rushed through a forest, went over a small hill and hid at a place they had set up beforehand.

As soon as their engines were turned off, they saw a group of cars speed by. It crossed the woods and continued ahead.

Seeing them go past, 021 quickly typed a new message to Qin Jiu:

『Confirmed. The core is at the tower by the north-eastern forest! What's next? 』

Only one word was returned:

『Wait.』

Gripping the phone, 021 held her breath and waited.

They didn't have any lights on. Without lights, the whereabouts of the fake invigilators and the surroundings became easier to see.

Soon, a light turned on in the tower. Someone had probably entered to check on the situation.

The more careful you are, the more important that place must be.

The invigilator sitting in the driver's seat grabbed a telescope and leaned over the steering wheel. He muttered, "I just saw myself."

021: "Huh?"

"In the first car that's rushing into the tower."

021: "Oh….."

"My fake self will soon find out that it is all peaceful and nothing had actually happened." The invigilator clutched his forehead, "I feel like I was the one actually played with, so distressed."

021: "...…"

Before this sharp-tongued young lady had the chance to curse him out, another one who was played with came——– 

Just as the group of NPCs circled around the tower and realised that they were searching the wrong place, there was another explosion in the examination centre.

This time it came from the south west, and it just happened to be on the completely opposite end of the tower they are at.

Across the forest, 021 could tell how frustrated this group of NPCs were feeling.

But since they exist in this examination centre, they could only continue doing what they should do.

So soon, most of the cars at the top of the mountain had turned their lights on again and rushed over to the other side, leaving only one car behind to continue guarding the tower.

Earlier, 021 didn't dare act too rashly but now that there was only one car left, she had nothing to fear.

Sure enough, a few minutes later Qin Jiu's message came again. This time the content was very short.

『Go.』

The moment she received the message, the two equipped cars closest to her just happened to arrive. Ten other vehicles were also on their way over, gathering from all different directions.

Only one drove against the current.

Qin Jiu sat in the driver's seat leading the large train of invigilators across the examination centre.

Biting onto his glove, You Huo calmly sent messages to 922 using his phone:

『We'll lead the group away. You blow it up with all the firepower you have.』

After sending it out, he stuffed the phone into Qin Jiu's pocket and put on his gloves.

He grabbed roof as the car made a sharp turn and stood up firmly. He picked up a rocket launcher with one hand and leaned out the open window...

While the centre of the city was in chaos, a large patch of light suddenly appeared beside the tower in the north-eastern forest.

Gunpowder, smoke and fire interweaved into an overwhelming net, enveloping the tower from all directions.

At that moment, everyone's hearts were excited. It was as if the next second, they would witness the tower crashing down, revealing the main control centre inside.

But even after bombing it for more than half an hour, that white tower was still intact.

Not to mention turning it into a pile of rubble, there weren't even any traces of damages.

021 sent a message to Qin Jiu as they continued to attack.

In fact, it didn't matter whether or not she sent this message because You Huo and Qin Jiu had already become aware of this problem.

With more than half of the weapons they had acquired consumed, all the buildings were shrouded in greyish-yellow dust. The group of NPCs were indeed trapped by them in the city but at the same time, the two of them were also trapped there.

Because the building couldn't be broken through, and the people here couldn't be beaten to death.

Those more than thousand invigilators seemed to be made out of copper skin and iron bones. What they looked like before the gunfire enveloped them was what they looked like afterwards. At most, their movements may have slowed down slightly but they looked completely....unscathed.

It was as if all the attacks didn't land on them, as if they had all along been fighting a group of shadows.

KK has something to say:

They're quite literally bombing the exam