The System's alert tone did not cause even the slightest ripple on Li Ang's expression.
He stepped into the elevator, backed against the elevator wall, and as he took his phone from his pocket, he had Miss Chai detach and phase into the elevator shaft.
Li Ang had Chai Cuiqiao hide inside the passage. She was to move along the ceiling to position herself outside Room 2084 and monitor the clearly abnormal model. Meanwhile, he made a QQ call to Wang Congshan on his phone, chatting casually without truly engaging.
For instance, he told her that his QQ pet's birthday was today and hoped Wang Congshan would sing it a Happy Birthday song. After being refused, Li Ang smartly sent Wang Congshan a fifty-cent red packet, hoping she would return one for double the amount.
Wang Congshan accepted the fifty cents and playfully sent back an idiom chain red packet with the phrase "one equals two."
Fury rose in Li Ang's heart, a wicked idea taking root, and so he invited Wang Congshan to watch the latest premiere of the abysmal domestic sci-fi romance film, *Yin City Fortress*, intending to subject them both to a terrible experience.
The two of them chatted idly. While Li Ang monitored the sounds from Wang Congshan's home via the QQ call, he rode his bike out of the residential complex. A kilometer away, he arrived at a public restroom in a surveillance blind spot. After hanging up the QQ call, he used the Origin of Life and makeup equipment to complete his disguise.
When Li Ang walked out of the restroom again, he had transformed into a broad-shouldered, burly young man about 1.7 meters tall.
He had a buzzcut and a potbelly. He wore sunglasses, flip-flops, a black T-shirt, and denim shorts. Around his neck hung a copper chain as thick as his little finger, and on his chunky wrist, he wore a gaudy, counterfeit Rolex. With a tattoo sticker, he adorned his arm with a fierce-looking green dragon.
He had the unmistakable look of a thug you wouldn't want to mess with.
This disposable Vest, let's call him "Brother Hu," was characterized as tough and foul-mouthed, someone who loved to act cool, pull stunts, and talk big. He was the half-brother of the previous Vest, "Brother Han," from different parents.
With the help of the Origin of Life, the new Vest was almost flawless. Even if a hundred plastic surgeons were to consult, they wouldn't be able to detect anything amiss with his face or body.
Li Ang left the restroom and walked back to the residential complex where Wang Congshan's family lived, arriving at a passage between two buildings.
Since the last incident involving Room 2084, the complex management had urgently installed a batch of new surveillance cameras and arranged for security guards to patrol regularly to calm the residents' fears.
However, in front of Brother Hu, such surveillance and security teams were trivial. He casually picked up a pebble from the ground and, with a fierce flick of his thumb, sent the pebble flying.
SMACK! The high-mounted surveillance camera was struck by the pebble and knocked askew, left pointing uselessly at the road, motionless.
After disabling the camera, he dug his fingers into the crevices of the building's wall. Climbing swiftly like a gecko, he quickly reached the twentieth floor.
This was the place.
Li Ang listened carefully. Mixed sounds emanated from Room 2084: the "dog" in the living room corner was crunching on feed, the television was playing a talent show-type variety program, and instrumental music, seemingly for yoga, drifted from the master bedroom.
Was the model doing yoga?
Li Ang reached out to open the kitchen window. His burly frame slid through the somewhat narrow window as if boneless, without making the slightest sound.
He moved through the kitchen without a whisper, retrieved a silenced Glock 19 handgun from his inventory, pointed it toward the master bedroom, and slowly stepped out of the kitchen.
As soon as his figure became visible, the man in the dog skin, inside the cage in the living room corner, immediately stopped gnawing on his dog food. His eyes flashed with ferocity as he prepared to bark at Li Ang.
But before he could make a sound, Li Ang activated Cat's Eye's hallucinatory Special Effect, plunging him into an illusion, leaving him sitting motionless in the dog cage.
Just as Miss Chai had said, this ugly-faced, middle-aged man wore no clothes. A layer of fur, like that of a large golden retriever, was firmly stuck to his body, and a stainless steel chain was fastened around his neck. A hideous scar stretched across his brow bone. The left eye socket, bisected by the scar, was empty.
At this moment, Miss Chai, noticing his arrival, also floated up from the floor and merged with Li Ang's body. She whispered that the model had been doing yoga in the master bedroom all this time; to avoid detection, she hadn't entered the room to monitor the model.
Li Ang, saying nothing, held his pistol and moved forward slowly. He casually unleashed his [Fragment Scatter] skill, blasting the bedroom door open from a distance, and stood in the living room looking inside.
The bedroom was empty. On the pink yoga mat spread on the floor, a smartphone continued playing pleasant instrumental music.
Where is she?
Li Ang found this strange. He lightly tapped the floor with his foot, releasing an extremely faint burst of Ripple Energy that quickly spread across the surrounding floorboards.
As the Ripple Energy spread throughout the room, in a corner of the living room near the balcony, the air shimmered. A translucent, human-shaped silhouette lunged straight at Li Ang.
Player? Or monster?
Li Ang's expression remained unchanged. He raised his silenced handgun and, amidst the sounds of the variety show on the TV, fired at the humanoid silhouette.
The figure clearly lacked the courage to meet the bullets head-on. It ducked low, sliding across the floor to evade the gunfire. Then, planting one hand on the ground, it pushed itself up, its other hand shifting from an open palm to a fist, delivering a thoroughly unremarkable uppercut towards Li Ang.
In the Killing Field game, skills and equipment were incredibly diverse and often bizarre; directly tanking another player's attack was the worst possible option. Li Ang stomped, retreating half a step. He holstered his silenced handgun and retrieved the Triangular Bone Tipped Spear from his inventory. Gripping the long spear, he swung its steel shaft forward forcefully, whipping up the air with a sharp SWOOSH.
In the confined space, the figure could only retreat hastily. However, the spear's bone tip suddenly extended, thrusting straight towards its chest.
TSS—
The translucent figure was struck in the chest by the spear, which carried immense force. Yet, it wasn't impaled as expected. Instead, as if hit by a sledgehammer, it was sent flying, slamming into the wall with a THUD.
[Warning: Cooperative mission teammate damage detected. Friendly fire reduction activated.]
[Reminder: In cooperative team missions, deliberate malicious attacks between teammates are prohibited. Violators will be penalized by the System.]
Li Ang narrowed his eyes, watching as the human-shaped ripple slowly got up from the floor. It gradually regained color, revealing the female model in her dress.
"You heard the System prompt too, didn't you?"
She stared straight at Li Ang, her lips curling into a cold sneer. "Armed, barging into my home, sneaking around, acting suspiciously... Some teammate you are."
"Who's your teammate? Sister, you've got the wrong person."
Li Ang rested the spear on the ground and laughed. "Your Brother Hu here works for the Administrative Department of Urban Appearance and Environmental Sanitation for the Yin City Metropolitan Area Construction's National Resource-Conserving and Environmentally-Friendly Society Comprehensive Support Reform Pilot Zone, part of the Southeast Coastal Development Initiative.
"Recently, Yin City launched a strict inspection of fierce dogs. My department is coordinating with animal epidemic prevention agencies to handle resident dog licensing.
"A large dog like yours, with such high shoulders, is very likely to injure people. It absolutely must be licensed, you understand?"