Infinity Armament

Sorry for the long delay…

Book 3, Chapter 18: Tricked

Civil unrest made New York’s industry depressed. Because of the lack of bustle, the first to receive a shock was the tourism industry. With the increase in the number of hotel room suites vacated, the hotel owners introduced a variety of discounts and favorable terms in order to gain customers.

Shen Yi’s group chose to live in the Imperial Hotel – one of the best hotels in the United States.

Only two hundred dollars was enough to live in the President Room, which in the past was something that they could not think about.

For safety reasons, six people hired three rooms, but the other two were only for deceiving other’s eyes and ears.

After fighting for a day, everyone wanted to take a bath and a break.

Wen Rou exited the bathroom, feet bare as she walked upon the gorgeous carpet, wearing high-end pajamas and her head wrapped in towels, two white arms exposed. A scene to make any man drool.

Hong Lang praised her: “I really cannot figure out how you ended up a police officer. With your beautiful figure and face, a lot of better careers are waiting for you.”

Wen Rou gave him a supercilious look. “Are you sure you have a good job with your body and face?”

Hong Lang immediately shut up. Jin Gang and Shen Yi clutched their mouths to stop laughing.

Jin Gang said, “In fact, with Wen Rou’s looks, police uniforms are also good.”

Shen Yi replied, “Solemn?”

“Yes.” Jin Gang slapped his thigh. “That’s it.”

Wen Rou smiled.

Shen Yi suddenly changed his tone. “There is a term: uniform charm.”

Wen Rou, shy and angry, grabbed an ashtray and threw it at Shen Yi. Shen Yi laughed and hid in the bathroom.

In the bathroom, Shen Yi’s laughing expression gradually faded away, becoming dignified and serious.

Wen Rou was a careful girl. After bathing, she refilled the bath with water.

Lying in the bath, large enough to accommodate a total of four men, Shen Yi closed his eyes and remembered the day’s fights.

The adventurer from the North; an event that had touched him deeply, shocking him to the core.

Until now, he was very confident that, in the Bloody City, maybe he wasn’t the strongest adventurer, but definitely among the top adventurers on the same Difficulty Level. Although he was not good at fighting, he never thought he would lose in battle.

Even facing melee adventurers like Hong Lang, Shen Yi was confident that he could defeat them.

But today, facing that Northern adventurer, Shen Yi was very quick to understand that if they fought one-on-one, he did not have any hope of victory.

Remembering how the adventurer got the upper hand only by using ordinary attacks when fighting Wen Rou and Hong Lang, Shen Yi felt a chill in his heart.

He realized that his first two Missions were too successful, causing him to underestimate them. And the adventurer from the North not only gave him a blow, but reminded him that in this Bloody City, there were very, very many strong ones.

They might not be famous, but their strength was amazing, and they also had the courage to ignore life and death.

Shen Yi knew about Expert-Level Fighting Forte, but Shen Yi had never heard of anyone who could only rely on Expert-Level Fighting Forte to become that powerful. It was obvious that the ability was only one aspect; more important were the people who used it.

Shen Yi was sure that even if he also had Expert-Level Fighting Forte, it was impossible for him to replicate that adventurer’s crazy, fast, fierce, and vigorous performance.

This kind of performance was not something Expert-Level Fighting Forte alone could provide.

Abilities allowed you to do something, but how to do it depended on the user.

That adventurer’s bloodthirsty character was the reason he became so strong. Even if he did not have Expert-Level Fighting Forte, maybe he’d still dare to fight one-on-two with Hong Lang and Wen Rou, and still gain the upper hand. At most, his ordinary attack damage decreased a little.

Thinking of this, Shen Yi suddenly saw the main point.

Those abilities were just tools Bloody City gave you. How to use it creatively, the user had to figure out for himself. Just using an ability, in fact, was far from enough.

At this time, the sound of Bloody Crest suddenly emerged.

“Your understanding of fighting has increased. In this world, you enter the Innate-Awakening period. During this period, the Bloody Crest will evaluate your style of fighting to determine your strengths. The period is 24 to 48 hours, and within 48 hours you must use your own expertise to fight as much as possible. During this period, the Bloody Crest will identify your expertise in order to systemize it, and officially awaken your Innate Talent.”

This sudden prompt stunned Shen Yi.

Gaining Innate Talent turned out to be like this?

The Innate Talent was actually a specialty.

Awakening the Innate Talent was the process in which the adventurer’s special style of combat officially entered the system.

A human is a being that cannot be calculated, while the Bloody City had given him a factor that could be calculated. Since life could be calculated, then the specialty should be the same.

The meaning of Innate Talent lay in this.

The only problem was Shen Yi did not know what his talent was; he did not know what style of fighting he was good at.

Thinking of this, Shen Yi could not help but smile. “The most unclear things people see are their own matters. Maybe the Innate-Awakening period is a self-awareness process. You have to know what you are good at and what you are bad at. Only after that can you play your speciality and walk on the right path. So what is my speciality?”

His head lying upon his arms like on a pillow, he stared at the ceiling and meditated for a long time.

————-

When he came out from the bathroom, Hong Lang was waiting anxiously.

Shen Yi stared at him. “You will not go to another room to take a bath?”

“This is the President Room. I had never had a chance to live in one.” Hong Lang  laughed.

Shen Yi smiled and gave him a punch; Hong Lang dodged to the side. But he did not expect that Shen Yi would step forward to keep up, left elbow crashing into Hong Lang. Hong Lang backhandedly pushed Shen Yi, but Shen Yi made a short body rotation and his left hand severely hit Hong Lang’s lower abdomen.

Hong Lang yelled, “You want to go serious?”

He was not polite anymore and kicked at Shen Yi. Shen Yi jumped to dodge, right hand pushing Hong Lang’s arms, throwing him off-balance, while one foot stomped on Hong Lang’s knee. When Hong Lang was about to fall to the ground, he tried to grab something, causing a vase to drop.

Seeing that the vase was about to shatter against the floor, Shen Yi, who was standing next to it, hooked his leg and captured the vase. He grabbed it and placed it where it had sat originally.

This performance stunned Hong Lang. He shouted, “How could you do this? How did you know?”

Shen Yi gave a faint smile. “When I came out, I wanted to practice a bit, so I predicted a bit of how you might attack and how to respond; the rest is the implementation.”

“I asked about the vase.”

“That was not within the scope of my calculation, but I put it into the variable factors. Although unplanned for, it was possible to deal with.”

Hong Lang shook his head. “I do not understand.”

Shen Yi shrugged. “Honestly, I do not quite understand myself. I just tried to use my favorite way of fighting, of thinking, and attempted a variety of moves. When I stepped on your knee, I quickly analyzed what you could do. I couldn’t be sure that the vase would fall down, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was whether I was in the right place at the right time.”

“Why did you make it so complicated?”

Shen Yi explained about the Innate-Awakening period.

“You mean you can already wake up the Innate Talent?” Jin Gang was very curious.

Shen Yi said, “Just entering the Innate-Awakening period, you can tell the formal awakening is completely different. Innate Talent is the only ability that differs for different people. Each person’s Innate Talent is unique and so is its effect. It can be called the most unfair reward in Bloody City.”

“So what is your Innate Talent in the end?” Wen Rou asked.

“I do not know,” Shen Yi helplessly answered.

Before the formal awakening of Innate Talent, Shen Yi himself did not know what his Innate Talent was. He could only experiment to see what he was good at. A person may be good at a lot of things, like Shen Yi was good at cooking and had always been very interested in cooking, but he did not want Bloody City to identify that his talent was cooking and give him an Innate Talent based on it. That would be really bad.

So even if Innate Talent was for developing a person’s own expertise, it still should be treated with caution.

Everyone joked for a while, then Shen Yi let Fatty bring the boy over. Fatty might not have other skills, but he was really good at taking care of the child. Moreover, he was hardworking, doing all of the tiring things.

When the boy came in, Shen Yi was holding the electronic map up carefully, not far from Wen Rou who was reading a book with relish.

Shen Yi touched a spot with his finger. The corresponding building appeared as an enlarged three-dimensional figure.

The little boy had never seen such technology. His eyes revealed his great surprise.

“Sit down.” Shen Yi didn’t raise his head. He lifted a finger and pointed to the sofa opposite of him, speaking coldly.

The boy stood there, unmoving.

Shen Yi looked up at him and said, “It was not a request.”

The boy sat down, clearly unwilling.

Shen Yi continued to observe the map, head bowed. “What is your name?”

“Jerry Lacios,” Fatty answered quickly.

Shen Yi coldly said, “I did not ask you.”

Fatty immediately shut up.

Shen Yi asked again, “What is your name?”

The little boy was unwilling to answer. “Jerry Lacios … you devil!”

Shen Yi laughed. “Luo Hao, this little guy is braver than you.”

Fatty smiled and touched the back of his head.

“So … Jerry Lacios, can you tell me something about the mutant’s settlements? Because of your naughtiness, I have lost my lead to finding the mutant, and you must compensate for it.

The little boy grinned. “I do not know … even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”

“I think you know. I advise you to spit it out. Even though I do not want to start with a child, if you really force me …”

“Do what you want to do! I’m not afraid of you!” the little boy shouted.

At that moment, the little boy’s stubborn expression appeared to Shen Yi as a living photograph – he seemed to see his own childhood.

Shen Yi stared at him for a while, then suddenly burst into laughter.

Shaking his head, Shen Yi moved to Wen Rou’s side. “Guess what I just thought of.”

“What?” Wen Rou asked.

“I thought of the German general in our last mission. He said the same thing I said as I threatened the child just now. I suddenly felt that I would be like a Nazi, threatening a child and forcing him to sell out his kind, betray his compatriots. I was like an officer of the SS, looking for Jews everywhere … ”

“That was not your fault, we had no other way.”

“But that does not mean that I can do the same thing they did.” Shen Yi looked back at the child.

“Do you have any other way?”

“No, I cannot do that to a child,” Shen Yi replied. “We have to give up the idea of ​​getting information from the boy.”

The answer made Wen Rou and Fatty sigh at the same time; the little boy was cheeky. At that moment he felt like he was a little hero who just defeated the demon king, and highly raised his head.

Everyone seemed a bit depressed. As for the little boy, it seemed that nobody was interested in him.

The little guy was idle, so he studied the map on the table.

This was the first time he saw such a high-tech map. Each point could be projected into a three-dimensional image; it made him very curious.

He touched a building, then another building, apparently enjoying himself.

“How was this map made? It’s amazing!” the boy exclaimed.

“Future technology, but it cannot be used to help us find the people you want to find.” Shen Yi sighed, returned to the boy’s side, and played with him a game of zooming images.

His finger fell on a shopping mall on 198th Street. The three-dimensional image of the mall immediately appeared, including the doors, windows, and floors.

Shen Yi pointed to the building and said, “We know that the mutants are in a building on 198th Street, but not which one. Perhaps in this building? Or in other places? 198th street has dozens of shopping malls.”

“You will never find them,” the boy answered loudly.

“Not necessarily.” Shen Yi just pointed to the building and then moved back, putting his finger on the intersection of 198th Street “Mutants want to hide their own, so their base must meet the most basic conditions. One: it must be a hiding place, so the space needs to be large enough, and the more people around the better, which is conducive to maintaining secrecy. Two: they must have an escape route, so there must be a way to reach the road. They can’t hide in the middle of the road; if that were the case, the United States government forces would only need to block the two ends of the street. Unless there is a mutant with a special escapist ability, most people would be trapped . Three: people have to eat; mutants are no exception. If you can choose a spot in the vicinity of a mall or supermarket, you can solve a lot of unnecessary problems. Considering these aspects, the most suitable hiding place should be in the 198th Avenue East Plaza area, where, having roads, there are many pedestrians, convenient for transportation.”

The boy’s face slightly changed. Apparently everything Shen Yi just said was right.

But the next moment his calm quickly returned. “In East Plaza, there are three large supermarkets, four large shopping malls, two large parking lots, there is a financial trade fair and a large square, there are countless small shops. If you have to look, I assume you would need a year.”

“That’s right, so I still need the exact address.”

“I will not tell you.” The boy was triumphant.

He moved to the building on the east side of the street in 198th, and was flying.

Shen Yi sat there motionlessly, watching the boy’s fingers dance on the map.

Moment later, he suddenly said, “East Plaza, in addition to three big supermarkets, four large shopping malls, and two large parking lots, has a very prominent large-scale construction you haven’t mentioned yet.”

The boy hesitated. Shen Yi’s fingers fell on a certain point on the map.

The image of a large building immediately appeared in front of the boy.

Isabel Catholic Church.

The little boy’s face suddenly became ugly. Horrified, he looked at Shen Yi.

Shen Yi lightly said, “You just mentioned so many places, except this, you did not even mention. I deliberately lure you to touch the Eastern Plaza, those architectural scene, all of your buildings are basically over the only, and only this, you don’t even touch. Why?”

The boy’s body trembled.

“They were there.” Shen Yi stood up and turned to Wen Rou. “Starting tomorrow, attack the church.”

“Bastard! You lied to me!” the boy shouted angrily.

Shen Yi went back to his room.