Chapter 5 – Bodyguard

Su Mo walked into the cold and desolate manor. After passing through a passageway covered with black and violet flowers, he entered a dark corridor. He stopped to look at some rusted and stained windows and closed them.

Su Mo then pushed open the heavy doors in front of him, causing them to creak.

Afterwards, he carefully closed them. Only then did he let out a sigh of relief, and he smiled at Lady Cathy Bary sitting at the table, eating.

"Beautiful Lady, please forgive me for disturbing you!"

It was a pity that Lady Cathy Bary had since lost the ability to act like the young miss of a noble family. She turned around and gave a hiss-like roar.

She had the appearance of something from a horror film.

Lady Cathy Bary's face had already become rotten and apart from being filled with holes, there were some maggots writhing around in her nose and eyes. She held a rotten arm in her hands; that was what she had been eating.

"Apologies for disturbing your meal. Lafu, don't look down on her; it's your time to shine." Su Mo summoned his pet, and a black crossbow appeared in his hands.

The space here was quite limited, so using the faster crossbow was more advantageous than using the slower bow that dealt more damage.

Savage Wolf Lafu raised its head back and howled before rushing at his target. It had very limited intelligence and could not sense its owner's mocking tone.

Su Mo's equipment was not great, and he was somewhat lacking in skills. His battle style was essentially to spin around and jump about.

Jumping as he shot, jumping as he evaded, agile like a monkey.

Most players could not do such a thing unless they were like a monkey in real life. While other people would defeat a Boss like Lady Cathy Bary through traditional battle techniques, what Su Mo relied on was his real life abilities that were superior to others.

The battle concluded quickly. Lady Cathy Bary's level was not very high, and the monsters that she summoned—the servants buried in the graves—were all locked outside the door. Adding on Su Mo's advantage in levels, this B+ difficulty dungeon directly fell to E difficulty.

If it wasn't for the fact that Su Mo's equipment were all Blue and Green grade, a beggarly assortment, the battle would have been even easier.

After the Boss fell, the manor once again became peaceful.

There was a Level 15 Green grade equipment, a letter, and a Festering Toe.

Su Mo would sell the Green grade equipment, while the Festering Toe was the material that Su Mo's client needed.

Baron Bary's name was written on the letter's envelope, so it was most likely connected to him. Su Mo planned to find an opportunity to take some of the Baron's riches. After all, the death of the servants was not unrelated to Baron Bary.

After returning to the tavern in Purmo Village, Su Mo logged off.

The benefit of logging off in a tavern was that based on the time that one logged off for, one would receive double EXP for a certain amount of time. It would also restore a certain amount of stamina. As such, it was very common for players to log off in a tavern.

After taking off his VR headset, Su Mo chose to conclude his session and pay, and he took out his account card from the card slot.

New World's identity verification was a thin card, and secondary verification was either iris verification or fingerprint verification. One person could only have one account card.

"Big bro Mo, were you able to find the material you wanted?" The net café employee diligently brought Su Mo's jacket over. The headset was one that made one completely immersed in the game, so it was quite easy for things put on the chair nearby to be stolen, so the net café provided a service for storing clothes and valuables.

"I found it. I have some things to take care of, so I'll treat you to a big plate of chicken next time," Su Mo said as he put on his jacket and ran outside.

September in Modu was quite warm, and the roads were packed. Only a few of the maglev train routes were working; after all, the past ten or so years of development had all been used for the war effort. The post-war recovery was quite good; in just a few years, the wounds from the war could no longer be seen in this large, sea-side city.

Su Mo arrived at the airport at just the right time.

"You're finally here. I thought you weren't coming," Tian Dazhuang finally let out a sigh of relief seeing Su Mo. He grabbed Su Mo and hustled him into a van, hurrying him to change his clothes.

Soon, Su Mo changed into a suit. He already had a crew cut, so they did not need to style his hair.

"Heheh, this outfit looks way better on you than on us; you can start your career now. Here are your sunglasses and earpiece, put them on quickly. Channel 3165, just follow me later on."

"Alright boss, thank you." Su Mo put on the earpiece and followed behind Tian Dazhuang, walking to the arrivals area.

Dafeng Security was a very small security company, and the members were all comrade-in-arms from back then.

They had survived the battle in Formosa and Tianzhu and participated in the Tugrik military campaign. Only then did they return to normal life.

However, normal life was not good to them.

After being discharged, they had all run into walls for half a year, and only then, with Su Mo's help, had they established Dafeng Security. At that time, Su Mo's father had not been bankrupt yet.

Even though life was just as difficult as before, they at least had their own careers.

Su Mo was a casual member of this small security company. Before, he would only rarely join them, but he had started joining them more as he desperately lacked money.

"The client's here. Luo Xia and I will make our way to the front. Little Mo, you stay with the client, and Yun Fei, you take the rear. If any danger arises, Little Mo, you take the client away immediately," Tian Dazhuang's steady voice sounded in everyone's ears.

Su Mo felt as if he had returned to the battlefield.

The boom of cannons, the burnt stench of ruins, as well as lives that might fall at any moment.

Their client today was a celebrity. Even though Su Mo was a young man, he was not interested at all. He did not even know if the client was a singer or actress.

However, when this female celebrity walked out, he had to admit that she was very pretty.

The female celebrity had quite a big group with her, made up of her manager, makeup artists, hair stylists, assistants, and some other people whose occupations Su Mo could not recognize.

Apart from fans, there were many paparazzi and different types of cameras. Before she even came out, there were flashes everywhere. This was why most bodyguards wore sunglasses; it was not to look cool—rather, in such a situation, they would not be able to see clearly or do their job properly without them.

The female celebrity was quite impressive. Facing such dense flashes of light, she could still smile so easily and brightly.

The instant that the celebrity walked out, Su Mo and his comrades directly shielded her and started to move outside. It was just that there were too many people and they were too excited, so Su Mo had to fully focus. He simply could not understand what was with these people. Celebrities were also people, so what were they getting so excited over? He was just worried that there were people with ill intent hidden among the fans.

The most annoying thing was that the celebrity continuously stopped to shake hands with fans and sign their things. This made it even more difficult for them to get through the sea of people. The bodyguards could only let the celebrity do as she wished while they did their best to protect her.

Su Mo's eyes quickly looked for suspicious-looking people, preparing to react at any moment.

"Please maintain your distance, thank you for your cooperation." Su Mo did his best to make the excited fans stay away from the celebrity, and he needed to block some dirty hands.

From his professional viewpoint, with a crowd of fans this size, they should have had a separated area from the start.

Fortunately, nothing happened during this time, and their jobs were over after two hours.

It was easy to earn money from celebrities like this; they had money and needed to show themselves in public.

"There was a concert that we were going to be hired for, but now it might be cancelled or postponed. Our job has been completed ahead of time, and the payment has already been transferred to us; I'll send you your shares later. Little Mo's with us today, so let's go have a meal today, my treat!" Tian Dazhuang said.

"Roger, captain!" everyone cheered when they heard that Tian Dazhuang was going to treat them.

They did not go to some high-class place; it was just a bit better than street stalls. They were not very rich, so they did not splurge too much.

There were four of them in total and they ordered three dishes, a few bottles of white wine, and two cases of beer. The owner of the restaurant was quite generous, and their dishes were brought in big dishes filled to the brim. He also gave them a private room so that they would not disturb others.

The dishes were all extremely big, so they did not hold back.

"How's playing the game? Did you make much money?" Tian Dazhuang asked Su Mo.

"I've earned a bit; it's actually quite easy to earn money there. I've only just started; things will be better in the future," Su Mo said as he nodded. He did not tell them about the Boss monster chat group, but he gave them a basic introduction to the requests he had taken, and he explained that he received his information from friends.

"It's good as long as you're earning money. No need to rush, just don't do anything illegal," Tian Dazhuang said.

"Mm, I know. Don't worry, boss." Su Mo nodded. After being a soldier for five years, he had that much common sense.

"Don't be like Old Cat…"

"Second bro should be coming out soon; it's been three years." Su Mo stood up and poured some more wine for the others.

"That's right, it's been three years. The fifth of next month—let's go and pick him up together." Tian Dazhuang downed his cup in one go and paused before he said, "He owes you money but won't be able to pay you back any time soon. We'll take on his debt for now."

"Does second bro have any plans after getting out? How about we get him to join Dafeng?" Yun Fei's capacity for alcohol was average, and he was already a bit tipsy.

"Last time I went to visit him, he said he wanted to go overseas to be a mercenary. He's not interested in small money like ours," Tian Dazhuang said bitterly. 

"Little Mo's family is going through difficult times, so he wants to return the money to Little Mo as soon as possible. Dealing with money requires sincerity."

This group of soldiers, who had faced waves of bullets and seen all kinds of situations, had their throats grabbed by society's economy.

Li Xianmao's mother was a paraplegic and needed money for her treatment, and he also needed to pay money to those he had injured and killed.

Back then, Su Mo's family had not gone bankrupt, so it was Su Mo's family who had paid for these things—it had been a few million dollars. Working as a security guard, one might not even be able to earn that amount in ten years.

"Being a mercenary is too dark and dangerous. Before, when we risked our lives, that was all blood that should be spilled, but that's not the case with mercenaries. Second bro is too moral and impulsive," Luo Xia said.

His head was quite good, and he was often the one coming up with ideas in the group.

"It's becoming harder and harder to make money; there are only small jobs, earning us a few thousand dollars at a time. Taking away transport costs and equipment, there isn't that much money to be earned," Tian Dazhuang said out of frustration.

As VR technology became more and more advanced, people stayed at home more and more. Even recording dramas or holding concerts could be done through VR without stepping out of the house, so they naturally did not need to spend money to hire security guards. As for escorting antiques or precious stones, they needed to compete with the large corporations. Most of the time, Dafeng Security's people did not have much to do.

"Boss, how about you guys play New World as well? I feel that VR technology has become very developed, and the developers spent a lot of effort on the game. It will continue being popular for at least the next ten years." Su Mo also did his best to think of ideas for the others. He suddenly had an idea and thought of the game he was playing.