Banana: The mission world this time refers to something happened back in Shimane on 2013.
Jiang Dong came to Lou Fan’s residence on time, at 10.00 am again. The group of 5 people sat together, with a pot of sweet fruit tea at the side, which is Lou Fan’s favorite.
After Chen Shuyang made the last stroke on the notebook, he raised his head and adjusted his glasses. Then he said, “In 2013, there was a supernatural incident in the Shimane Prefecture Office. There were 250 clocks in the prefecture office, and they all stopped at 1.35 am at the same time. The next morning, the staff set the clock back to the correct time, but no one knows why the 250 clocks stopped working together. This is my summary of the paranormal event in Shimane Prefecture.”
Jiang Dong has a smile on his face as he listened to Chen Shuyang’s words attentively, occasionally showing a contemplative expression.
Lou Fan spread his hands, “Alright, the mission world is completely paranormal. Does anyone else know more about it?”
Qin Tan and Wen Lang cannot be counted on so Lou Fan looked at Jiang Dong expectantly. Seeing Lou Fan’s hopeful eyes, Jiang Dong couldn’t hold back and chuckled. He is a handsome guy with a defined face, so his smile is quite attractive.
“I don’t understand this kind of thing. So sorry.” Jiang Dong said.
Fine then. Lou Fan doesn’t expect anyone to know the inside story anyway. After all, he is not from the R country (Japan). For Chen Shuyang to know even about this, it’s amazing.
“Okay.” Lou Fan slumped on the table weakly, “Qin Tan, I’ll leave it to you.”
Qin Tan gave Lou Fan a helpless look but his eyes are filled with smiles, “Okay. Then, let’s discuss what we need to prepare.”
The world background is a modern society and a prefecture office no less so field tools are not needed. The most important thing is food and drink, as well as lighting tools, etc. These are not within the scope of Lou Fan’s consideration. He only needs to know what to bring in the end, and then proceed with the exchange. To put it bluntly, he only needs to spend money.
However…
“Doctor Jiang, this is only a suggestion of what to prepare. You can see for yourself what else needs to be added or removed.” Lou Fan is afraid that Jiang Dong would mistakenly think that they are making a list of must-bring items, so he quickly explained.
Jiang Dong nodded, “I know. Your plan is very comprehensive, I think it’s very good.” However, he is currently a poor man. He didn’t bring anything back from the last mission, so the things he can bring to the next mission are not much.
Wen Lang and Chen Shuyang developed a new function for Chen Shuyang’s book. They put everything that could be put in and brought a lot of gadgets. For example, food and drink, knives, daily necessities, etc… It has become a treasure chest of small items. As for the big items, they didn’t bring much this time. Chen Shuyang felt relaxed and only has to carry his precious book in his backpack. Now, he no longer felt that his book is useless.
When Jiang Dong is about to leave, Qin Tan stopped him. “Doctor Jiang, do you need our help? If you don’t have enough points, we can prepare a set of necessities for you. Even if you are not in our team in the future, we can continue to use the items. Or, you can return it to us when you have points, which is fine too.”
Jiang Dong felt surprised but he is an easy-going person, “Okay, please help me to prepare a set.”
When Jiang Dong didn’t speak, Qin Tan can guess about his situation. They are in the same team now. Daily necessities are actually very cheap, but when one has nothing to exchange for them, it is a huge sum of money.
December 6th at 11:00 pm.
The group of 5 gathered at the station on time. Anticipating that there might be a fierce battle tonight, everyone took a nap a while earlier. Except for Lou Fan, they all waited energetically for the train to arrive.
At 11.30 pm, 3 men and 3 women walked to the platform and stood beside their group. The leader is a long-haired woman who is a charming and mature big sister type. She is very beautiful, the type with a high rate of turning heads (to check her out). If she wears a pair of garter stockings, it can make all men have nosebleeds.
Lou Fan is dozing off against the pillar when he heard someone talking nearby. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw a beautiful woman standing in front of Qin Tan, and immediately woke up.
“Are you the leader?” The big beauty is a little cold, but she looked at Qin Tan with a friendly look, “My name is Tong Fei, and I’m the leader of the intermediate level[1] team. Your mission world is Shimane Prefecture office, right?”
Qin Tan nodded, “Yes, Shimane Prefecture office. I’m Qin Tan.”
Tong Fei narrowed her eyes and is about to speak again when Lou Fan called out, “Qin Tan, come here for a second.”
Qin Tan turned around immediately. Lou Fan pretended to search around in his bag and asked Qin Tan, “I don’t think I brought my flashlight?”
Qin Tan took the bag and fished out the flashlight from the inner compartment, “I put it in the inner compartment for you.”
Lou Fan smiled, “Oh, I thought I didn’t bring it.”
Behind Tong Fei, Jiang Rou and Wang Xiaoyun get together and scream in a low voice, “Damn, that person felt like a true ‘shou’ ah! He’s a good match with the team leader!”
Wang Xiaoyun glanced at the group of 5 people and nodded with satisfaction, “All 5 are good-looking and have a great appearance. I bet there are 2 pairs (of lovers inside).”
“Why don’t you say that there is a love triangle inside instead?” Jiang Rou rolled her eyes and stared at Lou Fan and Qin Tan. Drooling again, she said, “Look at how gentle that leader is, he even helped to take the backpack! Come on, give a princess carry.”
Wang Xiaoyun felt speechless and said, “Hey, calm down! Don’t be so loud.”
Tong Fei looked back at the 2 lightly, “You two behave. It’s not nice if the others heard it.”
Jiang Rou and Wang Xiaoyun immediately motioned to zip their mouth with a smile.
Lou Fan got up and walked to Tong Fei with Qin Tan. Tong Fei’s eyes swept over the two of them, revealing a thoughtful smile. “Can you tell me about your mission?”
Qin Tan: “Restore 250 clocks to the correct time. The time limit is 7 days.”
Tong Fei raised her eyebrows, “Our mission is to find the murderer of Riri Ono before 01:35 am, based on the testimony of the 6 suspects and Riri Ono. The location is the innermost conference room on the 6th floor of the prefecture office.”
Both teams have different types of tasks. One is paranormal while the other is puzzle-solving. It seems they can’t help each other.
Lou Fan felt like he heard something wrong and asked, “What about the time limit? It just stated ‘before 01:35 am’?” This time limit is too strange.
Tong Fei looked helpless as she said, “We don’t know either. The mission only gave us this time limit, we can only find out later.” Glancing at Lou Fan’s bow, Tong Fei gave a word of appreciation, “Your spirit weapon is good.”
Lou Fan laughed and glanced at the weapon beside her, “My name is Lou Fan. Your weapon is cool too.”
Tong Fei’s weapon is a big sword, which is close to 1 meter long. With her temperament, she is extremely domineering. It seems that no one would be that blind to covet her beauty.
The two smiled at each other. After that, the teams stood separately. When the whistle of the train appeared, everyone who seemed to be calm took a deep breath and stepped on the train.
10 minutes later, the train arrived at its destination, the Shimane Prefectural Office.
Time: 01:00 am.
As usual, the newcomers screamed and shouted but this time no one tore up the flyers, and they all left the station smoothly. When they saw the Japanese words, they realized that this is not a prank.
The lower-level team has 5 members, the higher-level team has 6 members, and there are 5 newcomers. A group of 16 people stood outside the door of the prefectural office in the early hours of midnight. Looking at the gloomy prefectural office in front of them, they only felt a chill running down their bodies.
“Where the hell is this place? Wuuuu…”
“I want to go home…”
The newcomers huddled together and cried softly.
Chen Shuyang pulled up his collar, “It’s really cold, what season are they having now? Fortunately, I listened to Brother Lou and wore more clothes.”
Lou Fan also pulled up the zipper silently but the cold air is still pouring in from his neck. This cold is not a problem of lack of clothes, but a type of bone-bitting cold.
The newcomers at the back are very noisy. Jiang Dong kept his eyes fixed to the front. But Wen Lang felt a little irritable, and shouted at the back, “You guys, keep quiet and don’t talk nonsense. Just follow along and obey the instructions on the watch. Talk more will only make you die faster.”
The newcomers got frightened by the last part of his sentence and stopped talking as they looked at their watches.
Tong Fei and her team took out their weapons, getting ready. Tong Fei said to Lou Fan’s team, “We are going first, I wish you all the best.”
Qin Tan nodded, and Lou Fan said, “You too. If we finish ahead of time, we’ll come up and take a look.”
Tong Fei showed a friendly smile but said nothing, and left with her team members. Their goal is the conference room on the 6th floor. There is still half an hour left, and they don’t know what kind of situation they will meet.
Watching the other team leave, Qin Tan asked Wen Lang to explain a little to the newcomers and ask them to find a place to stay by themselves. As for food and water, they couldn’t provide for them this time. The newcomers could only rely on themselves.
Seeing that it is already 1:20 am, Qin Tan and the others are about to enter the prefectural office. Walking to the door, Jiang Dong suddenly called out to stop Qin Tan.
“Leader Qin, shouldn’t we go in after 1:35 am?” Jiang Dong glanced at his watch and said, “Since the clock stops at 1:35 am, it’s not time yet, which means it’s still running. It’s useless to go in now.”
After Jiang Dong said that, Lou Fan felt that his words are reasonable. He hadn’t thought about this issue before. Since the time limit is 7 days, waiting a few more minutes won’t hurt. Lou Fan and Qin Tan looked at each other and nodded, “Dr. Jiang is right. Why didn’t we think of this issue before?”
Jiang Dong: “I’m also reminded of this after hearing Tong Fei’s task.”
The newcomers hid in the reception room tremblingly. Their task only needed them to stay in the prefectural office for 7 days. Once they entered the building, the countdown began.
15 minutes later, their group of 5 people entered the gate of the prefectural office. Tong Fei and her team members had already disappeared from the door, and the inside looked no different from the general prefectural office. The only difference is that it is colder inside.
There is not much difference between this prefectural office from China’s one, they are all the same office space. As soon as one enters the building, there is the main hall, and then there are various offices on both sides.
Lou Fan suddenly had a headache, “Could it be we have to search in every office? I have a bad hunch, maybe this is a game of hide-and-seek. It will take a lot of time to find all 250 clocks.”
Qin Tan glanced left and right, “Let’s take a look together first, where to go?”
Lou Fan thought for a while, then stretched out his hand and pointed to the left, “This way.” Qin Tan raised his foot and walked to the left.
Jiang Dong walked beside Chen Shuyang and asked in a low voice, “Why Leader Qin…”
Before Jiang Dong could finish his words, Chen Shuyang understandingly took over, “Brother Qin doesn’t like to make choices, so he usually let Brother Lou choose. Also, Brother Lou has good luck every time.”
Jiang Dong nodded to show his understanding. Luck is also a part of strength, especially in this world.
The doors of the office are all closed. Lou Fan don’t recognize the words on the doors, and of course, he didn’t want to either. Qin Tan held his Tang sword in his hand and gestures everyone to stand behind him. Lou Fan held the bow in his hand while Wen Lang pinched a poker at his fingertips. Chen Shuyang stood behind Lou Fan with the short sword in his hand, and Jiang Dong stood at the back with a relaxed look.
Qin Tan gently twisted the doorknob and pushed it open with the tip of his Tang sword. The door creaked and opened slowly.
Raw word count: 3189
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[1] Banana: The author wrote intermediate level but their mission is the harder one. Not sure if the author mentioned about the levels somewhere and I missed it, but from what I understand, whichever team has higher overall level than the other team, they will be taking the higher level mission despite their level is not high enough to be expert or something.
Random: If you don’t know already, 250 means idiot in Chinese slang, hehe
Banana: Also, I am going to continue the translation of this novel until further announcements from JJ, like the intl ver is starting and this novel received its official MTL heh.