At 1:30 in the middle of the night on August 27th, Longjun Shanghai, Temple Bar.
The name of this bar is very resounding, and it definitely seems like selling someone else's meat. Although the name "Temple" can't help but make people think of Nordic or Greek myths and legends, the decoration style of the bar is a formal Chinese style. Not only that, this bar is not following the most fashionable theme bar route at the moment. There is definitely no cosplay here. The bartenders and waiters are all ordinary white shirts and black vests, and the guests don’t know how to dress up. Become a monster to consume.
To sum up, this is an ordinary bar. Maybe its owner is a deep chuunibyou. This is also a good explanation for the origin of the name of the bar.
There was a young man and woman at the bar talking softly. In fact, they don't need to deliberately suppress their voices. Low-pitched and lazy jazz music floats in the air of the bar. Guests in groups are hiding in the shadows of the corners. The bartender is standing far away at the other end of the bar. In terms of the environment, the conversation between this man and woman is unclear. No one could hear it but them.
But when we participate in the chat between these two people from a God's perspective, we will immediately understand the rationality of their actions: what these two people communicate is indeed not something that outsiders can hear.
"Have all this year's third batch of newcomers been trained and onboarded?"
The inquirer was the younger of the two men. This man has an Asian face, black hair and black eyes, a thin build, and a small face. He is estimated to be in his early twenties. He is wearing a well-tailored black suit. He is asking while putting a glass of vodka to his mouth.
"Yes, but because of the rushed training time, the professional level is not satisfactory. It is incomparable with the old people in the department." The person who answered him was a woman with short chestnut hair, also very young, petite, wearing a black uniform Skirts seem to come from the same style as men's suits. There was a glass of sake in front of her, but she didn't take a sip.
"To be able to achieve a level of unsatisfactory performance in such a short period of time is beyond my expectation." The man waved his hand and continued: "As for comparing with the old guys in the ministry... there is no need to aim too high, good players are honed through action. If you come out, let these new people participate in a few more actual battles, and they will be rewarded."
For some reason, after hearing the man's words of encouragement and comfort, the woman's body trembled slightly unnoticeably. This is body language, which betrays that her true heart is not as calm as it appears.
"Yes, I will arrange actual combat training soon." The woman answered quickly, her tone as calm as water. When she wanted to continue reporting something else to her boss, the man interrupted her:
"That's it. I seem to have to work overtime tonight. Let's talk later." He drank the vodka in one gulp, and when he turned to go out, he added without looking back: "I'll do what you want, Jiazi. You do your work." I feel relieved.”
After being affirmed by the leader, Jiazi sat at the bar for a while with a normal expression, and then left. From beginning to end, she never touched the glass of sake the man ordered for her.
…………
Lu Yin walked alone on the empty street. This is not in line with our common sense, because even if it is past one o'clock in the night, midnight in downtown Shanghai should not be so deserted. At this time, there were few pedestrians on the roadside, and there were only sporadic vehicles passing by. It seemed that except for the occasional drunken man or two, there was no one around Lu Yin.
But he is not alone. There was clearly no one on Lu Yin's left hand side, but "ripples" rose in the air like a lake, swaying like water waves. A man walked out from the center of the ripples. He was also tall and thin, wearing a black suit, but he was taller than Lu Yin. , with an extra pair of black-rimmed glasses on his face.
"Shanghai is so deserted now that you can perform light and shadow magic on the street." Lu Yin sighed.
"Most cities in the south are like this, especially in the southeastern coastal areas. The overall decline is very severe. Although there have been nearly thirty years of cultivation, the population and city size are still not comparable to those in the north." The man with black-rimmed glasses said calmly. Narrating: "After all, more than forty years ago, almost the entire south of the Yangtze River was a war front. One-third of Long County's territory was destroyed, and it has not recovered yet."
Lu Yin nodded vaguely: "In addition to the impact of the war, the global pattern also changed from the traditional competition for sea power to land power because of the war. Coastal cities no longer enjoy the location advantage of convenient shipping. With the loneliness of the south, It is the revitalization of the Northeast and the rise of the Midwest."
The two of them chatted about the current situation for a while. When they were about to pass the end of the street and turn to another path, Lu Yin ended the topic: "Let's not talk about this anymore. No matter how much we talk, it will be useless." It’s useless. Lao Xia, you and I both understand that other cities in the south may not be sure, but Shanghai and Hong Kong will never develop, they won’t, and they can’t.”
The man known as Lao Xia did not refute, obviously acknowledging Lu Yin's point of view: "The population of these two cities is only about one million. Even if the fortress garrisoning the "passage" falls, the losses will be greater than the population of tens of millions. Mega-cities will be smaller."
"Stop being so cunning. How many times have we resisted this month? Eleven times or twelve times?"
"If you don't count the false alarm on the 19th, it should be eleven times."
The frequency of this beast wave made Lu Yin speechless: "I remember today is only the 27th, and there have been double-digit beast disasters before August is over. It seems that I should ask Yoshiko Kuriyama to recruit more people. I’m afraid three batches of newcomers are not enough.”
Hearing this, Lao Xia couldn't help but sigh: "You should know that Jiazi never drinks the bar you invited?"
The topic jumped too quickly, but Lu Yin picked up the topic: "I know, but whether she drinks or not is one thing, and whether I invite or not is another. She doesn't want to have a relationship with me. "We are "Friend" is such a delusion that I don't drink that glass of wine. I can somewhat understand this mentality."
"Yes, no one wants to be friends with someone who says "participate in more actual combats". After several actual combats, how many new people will be left in the group?"
"Unfortunately, this is not something we can control. You and I work for the Federation, just like two small pinions on the giant machine of the Federation. Our responsibility is just to keep the operation without error. Don't worry about what we turn and lift. The Confederate flag is still the knife of execution.”
Lao Xia was silent. He knew what Lu Yin said was right. He even knew that Lu Yin's "participate in more actual combats" was actually for the benefit of the newcomers - life-saving skills can only be learned in actual combat, but they You may not be able to bring the knowledge you have learned to the next battle.
Lu Yin waited patiently for Lao Xia's silence to end. He guessed that his old friend was almost done thinking, so he asked:
"How high is the confidentiality level of this mission?"
Lu Yin's dark ear did not receive the mission voice, and he did not find the mission information when he opened the black box. However, not long ago, he sensed someone coming in the bar, and it was Lao Xia who used superpowers to come in a low profile. Lao Xia's official position is not low. With Lao Xia's level in the department, the task was carried directly manually without equipment, and "Mist Hidden" was used along the way to avoid people's eyes. The confidentiality level of this task was basically A level.
"Double S-level, the mission order was personally issued by Mr. Qian." Lao Xia took out a piece of black paper from his arms. Lu Yin took it with a stern look, took out his "mobile phone" and swiped it on the paper. , the target information quickly appears "in front of your eyes" - literally in front of your eyes.
"Black box", "black letter", "black eye", "dark ear" - this "three black and one dark" combination is the standard equipment of the special departments under the federal government.
Dark Ear, an embedded earphone, can be fixed deep in the middle and rear of the ear canal for a long time without falling off. The sound transmission effect is not much different from the earphones of our era. The only advantage is concealment. When you wear it, you won't have the situation where the protagonist in the movie plugs his earphones and looks around for fear that others will not know that he is an agent.
A black box is a communication device that looks and functions like a mobile phone, but has a more sophisticated design. It can read the content stored in the black letter and project the text onto the black eye, which is attached to the eye like a contact lens. Lu Yin finished reading it in the blink of an eye. With the double blessing of his "ghost" level ability user's brain activity and aptitude, this information seemed to be engraved in his head in a short time.
"Xia Yan, is this the amount recorded in this black letter?"
The black letter is a black card the size of an ordinary poker. It looks unattractive and can easily be mistaken for insignificant waste paper. However, Black Letter is actually a storage device. In this era, the reading and transmission of information no longer relies on the USB interface, and only needs to be "scanned" with the receiving tool.
Xia Yan nodded: "I know you have a lot of questions, don't worry, I will explain it in detail when we get to the car." He held his eyes, narrowed his eyes and smiled: "After all, I am still relatively lazy, and I don't want to explain it again."
Lu Yin understood when he heard the words "get to the car", and his ability also sensed the person and the car.
A black car silently drove up from behind the two of them. The appearance of this car is slightly different from the vehicles in our world. The body is round and flat, almost soap-shaped, but the speed is not slow. From the time it enters Lu Yin's perception range to the time it stops beside Lu Yin, Xia Yan and the others, it also Just a few seconds.
"What kind of mission can bring Zhong Yi, me, and you in at the same time?" This was Lu Yin's first sentence after sitting in the car.
Zhong Yi was the man who drove up in the car. He was also Asian, tall and thin, and wore a black suit. However, it was obviously late at night, but he was wearing a pair of sunglasses on his face. As for Lu Yin's questions about the mission...either he forgot what he had just read, or he missed it, or it was not in the black letter. While this confused Lu Yin, it also made him feel dangerous: the black letter is a tool that can only be used to transmit and issue extremely confidential mission information within the federation, but it does not contain the mission itself... What a dangerous mission this will be. Woolen cloth?
"Well... the mission was dictated by Mr. Qian. He ordered me to dictate the mission to you. The time it takes to drive to the mission location is enough for us to understand and digest the content of the mission. So, gentlemen, please listen and remember me. I don’t want to repeat every word I say below.”
This is Long County, Shanghai. It is exactly two o'clock in the morning on August 27, 2049. A dark car is driving silently on the road, carrying three elites from the federal special department BTS towards their destination. These three people will completely change the fate of the Earth Federation in the near future. However, they knew nothing about it at this time.
