The duration of each episode of the animated series "Tom and Jerry" is generally six to seven minutes. After watching five episodes, another daily interactive task was completed.
[Game Task (1/1)]
Even though I had watched this animation at least once before in the "real world," after watching five episodes in a row, I still felt reluctant to leave. I really wanted to just lie on the sofa and watch animation all day doing nothing.
Illumi was a tough character. As soon as the time was up, he grabbed the remote and turned off the TV without the slightest hesitation. "Game task complete. Shall we go out and familiarize ourselves with the surroundings of the assassination mission location in advance?"
"..." I was wrong about you. You are indeed not a normal child. You don't actually like watching animation. Apologize to the creators for their hard work!
Alright, for my first assassination mission without adult supervision, it's true that I couldn't be too cautious.
Through the cold winters and hot summers, I was always a difficult person to wake up during my student days. I believed my high school teachers' hype that future days would definitely be easier than high school, and that adult life would be freer than childhood. In reality, after entering society, I still had to wake up early every day, only now the one calling me to wake up was poverty instead of my mom.
Damn it, why was my starting point the Zoldyck family? I finally got to be born into a super rich family, yet I still had to train, study, and work from dawn till dusk. This feeling is truly f**ked up!
According to the known intelligence, the target will arrive in this city tomorrow to spend a warm seven-day holiday with his wife and children. Our mission is to kill his wife and children before they leave this city, and to disrupt the harmony and happiness of this family.
Although the profession of assassin is inherently unethical and driven by money rather than personal conviction, targeting the wife and children instead of the target himself is truly a heart-wrenching act.
In this city, the target owns a private villa. If nothing unexpected happens, he should choose to stay at his villa.
For the two children, who are six or seven years old, they are too young to handle various procedures and matters independently when traveling. Therefore, after the accompanying female housekeeper organized the luggage, she changed into casual clothes, acted as our "temporary guardian" to help us enter various places, and served as the driver, taking us to the vicinity of the target's villa.
The villa, which had not yet been occupied by its owner, only retained the minimum essential maintenance staff. Today, our primary goal was to survey the distribution of surveillance cameras and the villa's structure.
Without Nen abilities to give us an advantage, the process of assassination missions is quite classical, or rather, quite primitive.
After scouting today, we will begin to carefully track the target tomorrow and find a suitable opportunity for assassination.
It is expected to be a very time-consuming and laborious process.
It's too troublesome that I can't just unleash an all-out attack and kill all the NPCs in the mission instance.
Illumi and I split up to investigate the villa. We reconvened half an hour later. I drew a floor plan of the villa, marking the surveillance cameras and personnel deployment, and handed it to Illumi for him to supplement and cross-reference with the intelligence he had obtained for integration.
This was all the intelligence we could gather today. I folded the villa floor plan and put it back into my rabbit satchel. I then opened the city map that Illumi and I had been looking at since we got into the car, pointed to a location on it, and gestured to the "temporary guardian" to drive us there.
"What are we going there for?" NPC Illumi couldn't discern the intentions of "gamer" me.
"Starting point," I replied to him using lip-reading. "It's my starting point for shopping."
Now that I've unlocked the new city map, of course I have to explore it thoroughly!
Our "temporary guardian" doesn't understand lip-reading, and that's not her fault. Lip-reading isn't a mandatory skill for a housekeeper. Besides the Zoldyck family members, not many people in the Zoldyck household can fully understand lip-reading.
When we got out of the car, I showed the "temporary guardian" the writing I had just finished in my notebook, letting her know that we were going to wander around, and if we needed her, we would text or call her.
Here it comes! The desire for one hundred percent exploration rate! My long-dormant RPG soul is burning!
When playing RPG games on the computer in the "real world," every time I entered a new map, I would meticulously explore every corner, not missing any items, not skipping any treasure chests, talking to every NPC, triggering all the mechanisms, and by the way, picking up quests from NPCs along the way, completing all the quests I could at once, and finally turning them in to the NPCs one by one.
The closest places to the starting point were several residential houses, which, like the filler city buildings commonly found in RPG games, were locked and inaccessible. However, with the skills I learned at the Zoldyck school, ordinary door locks on residential houses couldn't stop me, as long as I wanted to...
"Sister," Illumi, whom I was holding by the hand, gently tugged my right hand. "What exactly are we doing? Is there anything noteworthy about this house?"
Trespassing into residential houses in broad daylight is indeed inconvenient. Moreover, I have to respect the rules of RPG games. The filler houses in games truly wouldn't contain any items for me to pick up. Forcibly entering a house by exploiting a bug would be meaningless, apart from showing off my skillful maneuvers and satisfying a brief sense of vanity.
Shaking my head at Illumi, I held his hand and then hurried towards the杂货店 (grocery store) next to the residential houses. Standing at the counter, I looked at the owner.
"What would you like to buy?" the owner's words were exactly the same as the dialogue of many grocery store owners in RPG games.
Oh, owner, your dialogue box is the kindest I've ever seen.
To the right of his dialogue box, three options appeared:
[I want to buy...]
[I want to look around first]
[Leave]
As usual, I selected the first option to view the product list and see if there were any good items for sale in the store.
Unfortunately, after the options disappeared with my thoughts, the product list did not appear. I still had to browse the goods on the shelves one by one with my own eyes.
Releasing Illumi's hand, I took out my notebook from my rabbit satchel, wrote something, and indicated to the owner "I want to look around first."
"No problem, take your time," the owner's attitude was rather gentle. "Don't touch anything carelessly."
I didn't find anything I wanted to buy on the shelves, nor did I see any glittering items. However, at the corner where the end of the shelf met the wall, I discovered an ancient-looking red sandalwood box. Suppressing the excitement in my heart, I turned sideways, blocking the view of the grocery store owner and Illumi, pretending to look at the shelves, while stealthily reaching out my left hand to touch the red sandalwood box.
I swear by my years of gaming experience that this red sandalwood box must be a treasure chest! If not, I, "Mols Zoldyck," will do a handstand and... cough, no need, no need.
When I touched the box, the sensation of the box quickly disappeared, and text prompts appeared in my vision:
[Raw Ore x2]
[Shining Cabbage x1]
[Delicious Carrot x1]
Delicious Carrot?! How delicious?! I really want to taste it! No, Raw Ore sounds like it has some potential! Smelting, crafting, forging equipment!
I wonder if the function to process ore is not yet open, or if I can only take it to places like the blacksmith shop and have the NPC handle it? I rummaged through my in-game backpack looking at [Raw Ore], but couldn't find any special options.
Lingering in one spot for too long might arouse suspicion from the grocery store owner and Illumi, so I decided to focus on collecting for now and quietly study the newly acquired game items under the covers when I return to the hotel tonight.
It's not just about visiting shops one by one; according to my gaming experience, I shouldn't neglect the narrow alleys between the shops.
Alright! I found a glint! Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be ordinary reflection.
A coin of 1 Jenny, obtained.
That's it? Too little!
Despite that, I still blew the dust off the coin, wiped it a few times with my hand, and put it into my wallet.
Illumi was a quiet and sensible child. He walked with me for over three hours without complaining, a younger brother who didn't cause me any trouble. I was quite satisfied with that.
This three-hour collection journey was generally smooth. Only when visiting some special shops was I driven away by the owner, "This is not a place for children. Where are your parents?!"
The curtains were drawn, with a faint red light seeping through. The shop, named "Secret Garden," made me think it was a magic shop where I could buy potions or something! Disappointing!
Perhaps this is a game setting for age restrictions. Maybe I'll find special items if I visit such shops after becoming an adult?
I'm a little excited.
Lunchtime had long passed, and it was still a bit early for dinner, so I took Illumi back to a dessert shop we had visited earlier. The aroma there was the most pleasant. If I hadn't been in a hurry to explore the remaining areas, I wouldn't have just looked and not bought anything.
My years of accumulated pocket money finally found its use. I had withdrawn one hundred thousand Jenny in cash in advance, so my wallet was very full. Having money gives one confidence to go shopping!
The exquisite desserts in the glass display case made my mouth water. I looked from left to right and from right to left, back and forth several times, and for a moment, I didn't know which one to choose.
The shop was doing brisk business, and the two clerks were already overwhelmed. However, one clerk still came over to specifically greet me, saying, "Little one, if you want to eat them, you can ask your parents to buy them for you."
"We brought money," Illumi said. "I want to buy the Rainbow Mille-feuille, Hazelnut Heart Chocolate Roll, Strawberry Snow Cake, Black Tea Cream Cake, Taro Paste Nut Jelly, Caramel Honey Cake, and Frosting Cream Cheese Bun."
"?!?" x2
"Excuse me, little one, you said so many things at once, I didn't remember them," the clerk picked up the notepad from her apron pocket and held a ballpoint pen. "Could you say it again?"
"Mm, I want to buy the Rainbow Mille-feuille, Hazelnut Heart Chocolate Roll, Strawberry Snow Cake, Black Tea Cream Cake, Taro Paste Nut Jelly, Caramel Honey Cake, Frosting Cream Cheese Bun, and Mont Blanc," Illumi repeated the menu without taking a breath.
Good heavens, he didn't miss a single one, and even naturally added "Mont Blanc." He has great potential to switch careers to comedy... No, can you eat all that by yourself?
"What would Sister like to buy?" Illumi asked me.
Oh, you really intend to eat all those desserts by yourself!
Encouraged by Illumi's big purchases, I decided to be generous. I took out my notebook and first wrote down "Chocolate Cream Puff," then "Lemon Tart," "Almond Croissant," "Chestnut Cream Cake," and "Custard Caramel Pudding."
"Sister, be careful not to exceed your calorie limit," Illumi said. "Mom said your daily calorie intake cannot exceed 1500."
"?!" My rapid writing motion was immediately paused.
Kikyo, you, you actually have this trick?!
"Mom also said not to pick up things from the ground carelessly," Illumi took out a notebook. "I will record these matters."
"..." Not only do I, the mute, need a notebook, but everyone carries a notebook nowadays?!
Fine, Illumi, you little brat, so you're Kikyo's exclusive little spy. A mama's boy is right beside me!
As Illumi lowered his head to record in the notebook, I blocked the trajectory of his pen with my hand, making him look up and read my lips, "Why... why are you allowed to buy so many desserts?!"
"Huh?" Illumi tilted his head and said righteously, "Mom said I'm growing, so it's natural to eat more."
"!" Don't I need to grow too?! This is favoritism towards males!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Mom said that excellent girls need to pay attention to their figure management," Illumi paused. "However, I'm just a child, I don't really understand these things, and I'm not very good at distinguishing whether the desserts bought together are eaten by me or by Sister."
"..." Are you implying something to me?
"Yes, that's what I mean," Illumi raised his right hand. "I swear by our transaction, I am not lying."
This little scamp not only learns lip-reading well but is also good at reading micro-expressions. Truly terrifying.
"Alright," I surrendered and replied to him using lip-reading. "You can put this batch of desserts on my tab, and then my portion of desserts can be immediately erased, right?"
"Then can I add two more desserts?"
"...Don't push your luck."
The clerk stared blankly at Illumi's smooth "conversation" with me, who had no voice, and exclaimed, "It's so hard to understand how children communicate nowadays." She took the full page of desserts to the counter to organize the order.
Perhaps seeing our attire, which made us look like children from wealthy families—no, not *like*, we inherently were; the Zoldycks were major taxpayers in the Republic of Backtorria. The clerk never doubted whether two six or seven-year-old children had enough money to buy so many desserts.
Yes, this Lolita dress I'm wearing is very expensive. Kikyo said it was some kind of limited edition, but I wasn't paying attention and can't remember the details. To be honest, in the "real world," if I had such expensive clothes, I would definitely not dare to wear them out and get them dirty. I would usually keep them carefully in the closet and be satisfied just by looking at them. No, in the "real world," the thrifty me would never waste money on such gaudy clothes!
It's different in another world's game. The Zoldycks are too rich. My walk-in closet is piled high with clothes, enough for me to change into a different outfit every day for over half a year without repeating. Not a single piece of clothing there is cheap, so there's no problem of not daring to wear them.
For this outing, I have two suitcases full of my clothes (Kikyo's arrangement). I deeply suspect whether I'm going out on a mission or on vacation?
Illumi's additional expenses were truly unexpected. When it was time to pay, I simply chose to swipe my card.
If we were to return to the hotel, the "temporary guardian" might sell my calorie information to Kikyo. Thus, we found a seat in the shop and decided to deal with the desserts on the spot.
Illumi truly is Silva's biological son, with an appetite as astonishing as his father's. He can indeed finish all those desserts by himself. It's a pity that he focuses on efficiency when eating, lacking any visual appeal and the charisma that makes food seem delicious. Otherwise, I would strongly recommend him to become an mukbanger.
What about Milluki? In the future, he's the only one in the whole family who is fat. Isn't he a biological child?
As my thoughts fell into boring confusion, Illumi wiped his mouth with a tissue and commented briefly, "Not bad."
If he weren't staring at my desserts, I might have thought his praise was merely out of politeness.
Illumi propped his chin with one hand, his inorganic black eyes looking at me, watching me eat the chestnut cream cake bite by bite, his eyes unblinking.
If a naive child were looking at my cake like this, instead of these unsettling doll-like eyes, my appetite might not decrease.
I put down my fork, picked up the chocolate cream puff, took a big bite, and put it back on the plate. I pushed the plate a little further towards Illumi.
"?" Illumi removed his hand from his chin, sat up straight, and looked me in the eye.
"..." No need for words, I gave him a provocative look.
"??" Illumi glanced at the cream puff, then back at me.
He put on an expression of sudden realization and, without any further ado, picked up the remaining cream puff and ate it.
"..." As always, stubborn to the end. He's truly a tough one.
After finishing the chocolate cream puff, he looked at me, then at the chestnut cream cake in front of me. I underestimated him. I didn't expect him to be so greedy for delicious food.
When he reached his hand towards me, I quickly raised both my arms to protect my chestnut cream cake.
However, his hand didn't go down to touch my cake, but rather up, brushing past the corner of my mouth.
"???"
He retracted his hand. I saw some chocolate sauce on his fingertips.
"?!"
Then, he licked the chocolate sauce off his fingertips.
"!"
"Not bad," he commented.
"!!!"
"Do you want to eat more cake?" he asked.
As if waking from a dream, I picked up the cake and ate it, turning my back to him.
"Does Sister really not want to share with me?" his confused voice came from behind me.
"..." I just don't want to share with you! Shut up!