Chapter 707: Try to integrate

By the roadside, inside a small shop, the young Patrol Officer Mo Long and Li Qi stared at each other.

About ten minutes had passed since they finished eating.

After conversing with Li Qi for a while, the Patrol Officer’s face was filled with surprise.

He discovered that this mentally ill vagrant, who had nothing on him, actually possessed extraordinary knowledge and understanding, and spoke clearly, not at all like someone mentally unstable.

Still… he still thought this person was mentally ill, simply because of the ‘purpose’ the other party kept reiterating.

He kept saying that he was out to integrate into society.

This gave Mo Long a headache; the man spoke and acted very logically, with a gentle and elegant demeanor, but he always said astonishing and strange things.

The two men sat opposite each other, one asking, one answering, talking about this and that.

“Sigh, never mind. Consider yourself unlucky today. Let’s go back for a check-up first. I’ll verify your identity. Since you don’t have any devices on you, I can’t access your data, so we’ll have to go back and do a blood comparison,” Mo Long said.

“After the blood comparison, you can reissue my identity certificate, right?” Li Qi asked.

“Yes, since all your documents are lost and you have no devices. Oh, by the way, were you really not robbed?” Mo Long asked, somewhat unwilling to give up.

Li Qi replied, “Of course not. I told you, I’m just out trying to integrate—”

He was interrupted by Mo Long at this point. The Patrol Officer sighed, “Alright, no need to repeat it. I know you’re playing some kind of challenge. Are you a streamer doing challenge content? Or did you get a contract from a rich person to do some kind of extreme survival?”

“Of course not. As you can see, there are no devices, and no one else is recording. Live streaming isn’t possible, is it?” Li Qi chuckled.

“Then you’re really just challenging yourself?” Mo Long asked incredulously.

“Firstly, I’m not challenging myself. Secondly, I don’t need to challenge myself. I just want to integrate into society, interact with others, and get used to your pace. I’ve said it four times already, haven’t I? Patrol Officer Mo Long, you can absolutely trust my words. Moreover, I’m not unemployed and homeless… Uh, although I am unemployed, I’m not homeless. I have a place to live; I just need to get my identity sorted out,” Li Qi said, extending a finger and solemnly reiterating.

However, he could easily see that the other party didn’t believe him.

Even without needing True Knowledge Dao Resonance to read surface thoughts, he could tell from the expression alone.

“Alright, alright, I get it. After dinner, let’s go to the station. We’ll verify your identity first, then reissue your identity device. Oh, you said you have a place to live, do you have an income?” Mo Long asked.

“Well, not yet, so this meal will have to be on credit. But don’t worry, I’ll pay you back. I can write you an IOU,” Li Qi said, and suddenly paper and pen appeared in his hand. He then seriously wrote an IOU and handed it to Mo Long.

“…Never mind. Consider it my treat. Also, this kind of thing has no legal effect now. It must be linked to a notary office through a device to be effective,” Mo Long took the IOU, dumbfounded.

“It’s effective for me,” Li Qi told him seriously.

Mo Long originally wanted to mock him, but looking at the other party’s eyes, he suddenly had a strange feeling… as if the other party wasn’t joking.

As if possessed, he put the note away: “Then let’s do that. We’ve eaten, so let’s go verify your identity first.”

“Okay, let’s go,” Li Qi stood up and followed the other party out.

Of course, he could instantly conjure money, but… Li Qi didn’t want to disrupt this world’s financial System. Since he wanted to integrate into society, he would earn money slowly after integrating.

Mo Long was a very enthusiastic and kind young man, introducing various things to Li Qi along the way. They went to the designated place, first drew blood, then took it to the laboratory. During this time, he kept asking Li Qi if he had any family.

Li Qi didn’t lie. What was difficult to say, he didn’t say. What he did say was basically true, but to Mo Long, it sounded like stubbornness.

Li Qi said he had a wife and child, and a place to live, but his child was far away now, and his wife didn’t want to come out and integrate into society with him.

When asked if he had a job, Li Qi naturally said no directly, but he repeatedly emphasized that with his abilities, he would quickly find a job.

Hmm, Mo Long’s pitying gaze made Li Qi chuckle a bit, but he said nothing. Instead, he seriously simulated his blood, creating a fake blood sample that they could analyze.

If it were true four-grade blood, they would probably find it very difficult to understand.

Soon, Mo Long completed the procedures and then attached Li Qi’s identity and a simple verification device to him.

After checking and confirming it was active, he further verified Li Qi’s specific identity.

Hmm… he was indeed a legal citizen, and his record was clean. It showed… that this person had no learning or work experience since birth.

In other words, this person had never studied or worked since childhood. How did he survive then?

He looked at Li Qi in great surprise. This person… really was detached from society?

So, he was serious about wanting to integrate into society?

As for himself, he was now immersed in virtual reality. He could clearly feel that after the clothes he was wearing were connected to the device, they quickly presented a special sensation.

Hmm… it felt like a Tang Nation terminal, but it was quite different, because the terminal had no delay. No matter how much data, it arrived instantly; information was public, and you didn’t even need to download. No matter how large the file, you could read it instantly, regardless of configuration.

But this one clearly couldn’t. The information transmission speed of this device was severely limited by the grade of the Spiritual Artifact. The information processing speed of these Spiritual Artifacts wasn’t even as fast as Li Qi’s brain. Li Qi could do the work for these servers in the time it took him to nap.

But no matter what, it was his first time experiencing the true civilization of this world.

However, he had too few plug-ins on him. Looking at others on the street, they often had dozens or hundreds of plug-ins. If they were combat-type, like Mo Long in front of him, they would have five or six hundred devices on them, with expansion packs on their backs for all-terrain combat.

Currently, Li Qi only had the most basic identity device. Besides being able to access virtual reality, its only other function was identity confirmation.

“Alright, since everything’s done, good luck.” Mo Long greeted Li Qi and then saw him out the door.

Mo Long didn’t continue to pester Li Qi with questions. After all, he also had work, shifts, and meals. With so many things, he couldn’t revolve around Li Qi.

After seeing Li Qi off, Mo Long began his daily work. Of course, there wasn’t much work; he was about to get off duty.

He had worked a night shift yesterday, so he could rest for a whole day and wouldn’t start work until the day after tomorrow morning. In fact, he had already reached his off-duty time, but he stayed longer for Li Qi to finish his business before leaving.

“Director, I’ll be leaving now,” Mo Long greeted his superior, then, dragging his body tired from a day-long night shift, he embarked on his journey home.

He took off his uniform, put the equipment capable of shattering a nine-grade world back in the storage, retrieved his own devices, changed back into his clothes, and then dutifully walked to the public transport tram station.

After a while, the tram arrived. He stepped inside, squeezing in with the people who were just starting their shifts, completely indistinguishable from them, just an ordinary member of the crowd.

He waited on the tram for a while, played a game in the virtual world in his mind for a bit, felt tired, and simply turned it off. He decided not to play anymore and just rest.

Back home, Mo Long opened the door. He had already eaten breakfast with Li Qi, so he wouldn’t eat now.

He tidied up the trash in his room, took it outside, where an automated facility would collect it later.

He then saw a new family had just moved into his neighbor’s apartment. They seemed not to understand the building’s devices. Indeed, this building’s developer used custom devices, which were different from most universal ones.

Though once you got used to them, they were pretty similar.

Nevertheless, he proactively went over to teach them how to use it, how to command the automated facilities, and what the default facilities here were, helping them move luggage and such.

After receiving their thanks, Mo Long just waved his hand, saying it was nothing.

He did things like helping Li Qi and his new neighbors quite often. His colleagues all said he had too much free time.

However, he felt that if he could do something within his power, he should do it; it didn’t delay anything important.

Back home, he first reported his safety to his family and chatted with his parents and his younger brother, who was still in school, for a while. He had come to this big city alone to make his way. Fortunately, his job was good, and the remuneration was quite generous, allowing him to send some help to his family and also establish himself in this city.

After chatting for a while, sleepiness gradually crept over his eyelids. He turned off the communication and began to catch up on sleep.

Even though he could reach seven-grade combat power with Spiritual Artifacts, he was essentially just a nine-grade, and this nine-grade was achieved through prosthetics and body modifications.

His spirit was essentially that of an unranked Mortal.

Previously, when the Advancement Alliance was at war with other worlds, the opponents had used methods that affected the spirit, causing the Alliance huge losses.

Fortunately, anti-interference plug-ins were later developed, capable of resisting the strange brainwashing and even Possession abilities from other worlds, so there was no need to worry about these now.

Thinking about this and that, Mo Long gradually fell asleep.

When he woke up, it was already past midday. The sun was blazing, and he had slept for about five hours.

That was enough. He would sleep again at night anyway. He actually wasn’t used to staying up late, but with work, there was no choice.

After getting up and washing up, he prepared to go out for a walk and buy something for dinner, using his free time to train his work skills in virtual reality.

He had graduated from school with a near-perfect score, excelling in combat simulations. However, due to the years of peace, he had never experienced actual combat. Although equipped with seven-grade gear, he had never actually used it once.

Hmm… peace was a good thing after all. As a kind and cheerful young man, he didn’t wish for anything bad to happen. However, the feeling of having nowhere to use his skills was quite subtle.

Thinking these thoughts, he walked out onto the street.

Why did he seem to see a familiar face?

Walking on the street, Mo Long saw the unemployed vagrant named Li Qi, whom he had sent away that morning, again on the street.

To his surprise, this Li Qi was surrounded by several people with top-tier equipment, all from large organizations.

In the Advancement Alliance, the importance of equipment was evident. For people, choosing excellent components to attach to themselves was a matter of course. Poor components meant ‘ragged clothes,’ while top-tier components meant ‘luxurious attire.’ This was the aesthetic standard of this world.

Excellent hardware would attract envious glances from everyone.

And the beggar from the morning, who had not a single component on him, was surrounded by so many people by afternoon? Moreover, the components on him now were very good.

What happened? Was this person some rich Young Master? Was he no longer pretending, laying his cards on the table?

This made Mo Long surprised, so he proactively moved closer.

But before he even reached them, he saw that those people seemed to have failed in their negotiations with Li Qi and left dejectedly. Mo Long even heard them lamenting during their conversation, feeling regretful about missing out on some talent.

It wasn’t until he reached Li Qi that he saw Li Qi now wearing mid-to-high-grade equipment, aesthetically pleasing, with flashing lights and perfectly projected images.

However… all these devices were external, which was a bit strange.

External devices meant they were for external use, while internal devices could directly act on the nervous System, being more intuitive and convenient. Therefore, internal devices were generally more expensive, and most people would directly replace organs with internal devices, such as bionic eyes. These replacements usually occurred after adulthood, once the body had fully developed.

And this man named Li Qi…

Wait, this morning he had no devices on him at all, and now he was covered in external devices.

He? Could he be a natural person?

In this era, were there still completely natural people?

“Oh, Young Master Mo Long, we meet again, what a coincidence?” Li Qi waved his hand, smiling broadly as he greeted Mo Long.

Mo Long walked over, somewhat stunned: “Those people just now… and all your equipment now, by the way, why is it all external? Don’t you have any internal ones?”

“Oh, that? I’m not very used to modifying my body. External ones are sufficient. By the way, have you had dinner yet? My treat! I just earned some money this afternoon,” Li Qi said.

“Wait, it’s only been a few hours, how did you earn it?” Mo Long asked.