Chapter 1 When Li Ang Opened His Eyes Again

When Li Ang opened his eyes again, he was sitting in a seat.

The seat was covered in soft blue fabric, with gray plastic armrests on either side.

To the left of the seat was a window that couldn't be opened. The wilderness outside was speeding past – judging from the speed and the style of the window frame, it must be a high-speed rail train.

"Your appearance has changed!"

Chai Chai, hiding inside Li Ang, said in a deep voice, "You look like a middle-aged office worker with short blond hair, wearing a light purple suit, a green shirt, and a tie."

Li Ang had instructed Chai Chai to describe his appearance as soon as they entered the script, in order to determine his role.

Normally, Li Ang would have feigned calmness and started patting his pockets, looking for items containing personal information.

But now, his attention was focused on the other three people around him.

Next to him sat someone draped in Eastern-style red and black leather armor, wearing a Yaksha helmet, with a sword at their waist.

Across the wooden table,

Sat a girl draped in a black cloak, wearing a pointed hat, and a figure clad in Gothic-style gold and silver full plate armor.

In the eyes of Chai Chai and the train attendant pushing the dining car, all four of them, including Li Ang, were ordinary office workers. Only they themselves were scrutinizing each other, without saying a word.

The four were located at the rear of the train car, with few other passengers around.

Just as the four were cautiously examining each other, a system notification sounded.

[Phase One Mission Objective: Arrive at the Pacific Bank near Central City Station before 9:00 AM]

[Mission Time Limit: None]

[Mission Reward: None]

[Mission Failure Penalty: None]

The four looked at each other. The girl with the pointed hat was the first to reveal her player ID.

[CircleOfReason·Witch] [Lv17]

Following her lead, the others did the same.

[Architect·SunsetMoltenGold] [Lv15]

[RegretlessLakelight·TwilightKnight] [Lv16]

[Delver·LiRisheng] [Lv15]

The four lines of transparent text floated in mid-air. Li Ang leaned back silently, sinking into his seat.

They were all people he knew...

[SunsetMoltenGold] was a companion of Black Stallion. He had added him as a friend in the square before.

[TwilightKnight] and Li Ang had experienced a mission in the Aberrant World before, but the mission was very short, and Twilight Knight was taciturn, so the two weren't familiar.

And this [Witch]...

Judging from the Delver's mind-reading effect, she seemed surprised to see him as well.

Then, she should be the witch from the Syndicate organization who flew around on a cleaning robot in the Underworld mission last time.

"I wonder what method she used to find out my player nickname."

Li Ang thought silently, reaching into his suit jacket pocket.

"It's 8:45 AM now."

The Witch (who, to Chai Chai, looked like a well-dressed white-collar woman) glanced at the electronic clock at the end of the train car and said indifferently, "Let's not waste time."

She took out paper and pen from thin air and placed them on the table. "Let's each write down the mission prompts we heard and show them to each other to prove that we have a common mission objective and are companions for this mission. What do you think?"

Li Ang nodded. SunsetMoltenGold looked at Li Ang but didn't speak.

TwilightKnight remained silent, silently taking out a piece of parchment from his inventory.

Seeing that the three players had agreed, the Witch picked up the pen and began to write.

TwilightKnight followed closely behind.

Li Ang took out a pinch of earth, placed it on his lap, and covered the arc of light from the alchemy array with the lapel of his suit jacket, using alchemy to create paper with writing on it.

SunsetMoltenGold reached out and grabbed the water glass on the wooden table.

After finishing writing, the Witch, Li Ang, and TwilightKnight held up the pieces of paper with writing on them.

SunsetMoltenGold released the water glass, and a ring of tiny ice crystals remained on the inner wall of the glass, forming the words of the mission description.

Seeing that the missions were exactly the same, the four of them secretly breathed a sigh of relief and then greeted each other amicably and introduced themselves.

"I have a wallet in my bag."

The Witch took out a business card from her wallet. "The business card says that I am a front desk clerk at Pacific Bank, and my name is my player nickname, Witch."

"Me too."

Li Ang took out the business card from his jacket pocket, as well as a brand-new ticket. "The point of origin is Saint Anne City, and the destination is Central City Station.

The estimated arrival time is 8:50 AM."

"I have several tickets here for consecutive days, with the same point of origin and destination."

SunsetMoltenGold shrugged and said casually, "According to the disembarkation time and the mission objective description, Pacific Bank should be near the disembarkation point.

It seems that the system has arranged for us to be colleagues at the same bank.

They have a good relationship, live relatively close, and take the same train to work every day."

"So, just ordinary office workers?"

Li Ang thought for a moment, stood up slightly, looked around the car, and then sat down again. "The other passengers in the car seem normal. They don't have extra limbs or octopus heads or anything.

I can't see any signs of the supernatural yet.

Hmm... the mission objective is to arrive at Pacific Bank in Central City to work.

It wouldn't really make us work a whole day as ordinary people, would it?"

"How is that possible?"

SunsetMoltenGold twitched his lips. "That would be too easy. According to the system's personality, it will definitely set up all kinds of perverted links."

"Damn it, don't think of work so simply!"

Li Ang frowned and shook his head. "Skiving off when the boss isn't around, killing ruthless customers, and destroying the body without being detected by surveillance.

After a whole day of earning meager income, you still have to go to the underground black market to fight, watch the venue, and sell illegal drugs to supplement your family income.

How could a white-collar worker like you understand the bitterness of a lower-level office worker?!"

"Where did you get this tone of a senior teaching a junior? And what dimension's lower-level office worker has such a rich life?!"

SunsetMoltenGold subconsciously complained. It was only now that he understood how objective Black Stallion's evaluation of Li Ang was.

"...I have a newspaper here."

TwilightKnight, clad in full plate armor, interrupted the two's nonsense in a muffled voice.

He took out a newspaper from his pocket. The newspaper's name was "Central City Times," and its front-page headline was "Dimensional Ascension Ceremony Will Be Held in Central City."

The two figures in the accompanying picture were standing on a platform similar to an arena, waving and smiling at the dense, cheering audience below.

One of these two people was a bald, bearded man wearing a brown military uniform, a steel helmet, and special symbols engraved on his forehead.

The other was a kind-faced, white-haired, white-bearded old man wearing a white robe and holding a staff.

Coincidentally, all four players recognized them.

Yuri, and Gandalf.