Chapter 375: Paying with a Smile

As a staff member specializing in cleaning up special pollution, seeing a mental monster and immediately choosing to clean it up was, of course, a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

But he was currently eating, surrounded by who knows how many people. Firing a gun out of the blue would definitely cause panic. Besides, using special bullets cost money. So, letting his sister handle it was also quite reasonable.

“Huh?”

But actually, even without Lu Xin’s warning, the moment he sensed danger, his sister had already appeared beside him. Her eyes shone slightly as she looked at the mental monster whose head poked out from the ceiling. Excitedly, she climbed up the adjacent wall.

She seemed to think it was fun too, directly reaching out her two little hands to grab it.

*Buzz…*

Sister’s sudden appearance also seemed to stun the thing on the ceiling.

It stared blankly at Lu Xin. Only when Sister dashed right up to it, reaching out her little hands to grab it, did it finally react. Startled, it raised its small, dark, skinny claws to hold onto the top hat on its head.

At the same time, the air around it distorted, forming a vortex in the middle. With a sudden retraction of its head, it ducked into the vortex.

Sister grabbed, but only caught a swirl of vortex-like air. The little monster had already disappeared.

“Hmph!”

Sister was a little angry now. Clinging to the ceiling, she searched here and sniffed there, seemingly unwilling to give up.

“Hmm, not strong, but fast…”

Lu Xin frowned, preparing to notify the Special Cleaning Department here.

Just then, the communicator in his hand suddenly vibrated slightly.

Looking down, he saw a warning pop up on the communicator.

“Please do not harm the Undercover Unit. Otherwise, you will lose all privileges related to the Undercover Units and may even be expelled from the Club!”

…

“What the heck is this?”

Seeing this warning, Lu Xin finally understood.

That thing just now… was an Undercover Unit?

This discovery startled him, and immediately many thoughts came to mind:

The Undercover Units were a special team directly under the Research Institute. They were touted as the best intelligence organization.

There was supposedly no place an Undercover Unit couldn’t reach, nor any information they couldn’t dig up.

But as for what Undercover Units actually looked like, few people seemed to know. After all, they were undercover.

So…

Lu Xin suddenly got it.

For a Research Institute that could use mental monsters for patrols and guarding doors, creating a team like this seemed quite logical, didn’t it?

Does that mean… I almost let Sister attack a public servant of the Central City?

Lu Xin felt slightly embarrassed and shot a reproachful glance at his sister.

He had just gotten out of the detention center, and now Sister almost sent him back in…

He gently persuaded his sister to go play by herself first, saying he had official business to attend to. Only then did he tap the button again.

The communicator vibrated slightly, releasing the signal once more.

This time, Lu Xin waited patiently. It took longer though, about two or three minutes, before he sensed something.

Looking up, he saw a distortion in the air appear again on the wall near the door, far from his position.

From within the small vortex, a little monster emerged cautiously. It was entirely black, small and skinny, about seventy centimeters tall. Its eyes were large and bright, but its arms were withered and dark. On its head sat a large, black top hat.

Keeping its distance, it watched Lu Xin warily.

“Sorry, that was a misunderstanding just now. I mean you no harm.”

Lu Xin raised both hands to show he wasn’t dangerous.

However, this action almost scared the Undercover Unit into retracting its head again.

“Can you talk?”

Lu Xin looked at the Undercover Unit, waiting for an answer.

The Undercover Unit remained silent, staring at him with its large eyes.

Lu Xin said, “I need you to do something for me. There’s a convoy that owes me money. The captain’s name is Gao Ting. Her convoy has about thirty people now. They went out of the city last night. I don’t know if they’re back yet. Can you help me find them?”

The Undercover Unit remained silent, staring at him with its large eyes.

Lu Xin asked, surprised, “Undercover Units are supposedly omnipotent. This task shouldn’t be difficult, right?”

The Undercover Unit looked at Lu Xin silently, then slowly raised a skinny claw and made a writing gesture.

“You need it in writing?”

Lu Xin found this a bit odd, but he still took out the gold-threaded steel pen from his bag and roughly wrote the request on a napkin.

When he tried to hand it over, it didn’t dare approach. It just pointed, signaling Lu Xin to put it on the table.

Lu Xin had no choice but to place it on the tabletop, then gently spun the table to send the napkin closer to the unit’s position.

Only then did the “Undercover Unit” jump down from the ceiling, grab the napkin, glance at it, and then jump back up to the ceiling. It held the napkin in its mouth and watched Lu Xin quietly, seemingly waiting for something.

Lu Xin was also watching to see what it would do, so he waited quietly too.

You’re quiet, I’m quiet.

Finally, the Undercover Unit couldn’t resist anymore. It slowly took off its black top hat, turned it upside down like a bowl, and held it out towards Lu Xin.

The intention was quite obvious.

Lu Xin was somewhat stunned. “Isn’t it free?”

The Undercover Unit held its hat firmly, its gaze fixed eerily on Lu Xin.

Lu Xin hesitated, patted his pockets, took out two coins, then put one back.

Just as he was about to put the coin into its hat, the Undercover Unit withdrew its hand slightly.

It gave Lu Xin an eerie look, then extended the top hat again.

“Still too little?”

Lu Xin felt a headache coming on.

Should he report this Central City public servant for soliciting payment while on official duty?

Just as the two were in a standoff, the communicator vibrated slightly again, and a “reminder” dialog box popped up.

The text was very polite: “Detected that this member has low clearance. Cooperation with Undercover Units operates on a paid mission release model. Payment can be made via 5,000 Alliance Coins, 5 Credit Points, or one ‘Smile’.”

“Five thousand?”

Lu Xin almost threw his phone.

Even if he found the convoy, he’d probably only get back about a thousand, right?

As for the five Credit Points, he didn’t quite understand what those were. He had just gotten this communicator and hadn’t fully figured it out yet. He didn’t even know if he currently had any credit points. So, the last option was…

A smile?

“A smile can count as payment?”

Lu Xin found this strange but quickly made his decision.

Either way, it was better than spending money.

So, after mentally preparing for a moment, he looked up at the Undercover Unit, and the corners of his mouth curled upwards.

He tried hard, sincerely, to produce a smile.

The air seemed to faintly distort again.

The skinny, black little monster stared fixedly at Lu Xin, its small body trembling slightly, as if almost scared away.

But gradually, as it stared at Lu Xin’s smile, its eyes grew brighter. One could even discern a hint of excitement, an agitated expression, on it. Soon, it was staring intently at Lu Xin, the corners of its own mouth starting to lift upwards, its eyes narrowing.

Gradually, its expression became identical to Lu Xin’s.

The two were separated by a round table, one on the ceiling, one in a seat.

Face to face, smiling like reflections in a mirror.

“Is this okay?”

Lu Xin’s face was starting to ache from smiling when he finally asked.

The Undercover Unit suddenly shivered.

Then, wearing that fake smile, it nodded. Contentedly, it slowly retreated back into the vortex.

Lu Xin touched his own face, realizing the smile had vanished. But aside from that, he didn’t feel any strange changes, not like the exhaustion he felt after dealing with the “god” created by the Black Table.

In that case, the Undercover Unit took his “smile” as payment, but what exactly did it take?

It seemed, maybe, just a tiny feeling… that through the smile, it had taken a minuscule amount of his mental power?

But it was so tiny, so small he really couldn’t tell if anything was taken at all…

…

Lu Xin stuffed the last bite of egg fried rice into his mouth, planning to head back to his hotel room first to study this communicator.

Having seen the true appearance of the Undercover Unit, he was becoming somewhat interested in this Club.

He really wanted to see what the other two software programs could do.

He had thought that even if the Undercover Unit was fast, it would take an hour or two to get back to him. But just as Lu Xin left the cafeteria, took the elevator back to his floor, and before he even reached his room door, he saw a distorted patch of air appear on the carpet in front of him.

A small figure emerged from the vortex.

It wore a black top hat on its head and still had that obviously fake, yet festive, smile on its face.

“Hm?”

Lu Xin was a bit surprised. “Why are you back again?”

Before the thought even faded, he saw another small head emerge from the vortex beside the first Undercover Unit. It looked at Lu Xin with a blank expression, its eyes wide, seemingly curious, perhaps a little expectant, standing timidly next to the smiling monster.

The two of them, one wearing the fake smile from before, the other looking timid.

Together, they took off their top hats, nodded and bowed towards Lu Xin, and held the hats out to him.

“Didn’t I already pay?”

Lu Xin thought, but seeing their eager attitude, he suddenly understood.

They want a tip?

He clicked his tongue softly.

Fortunately, since the tip they were asking for wasn’t money, he wasn’t angry.

Besides, this was his first time cooperating with Undercover Units; making a good first impression was very important. It was better to be generous.

So, Lu Xin pondered for a moment, then forced another smile onto his face.

He even gave them an encouraging nod and praised, “Keep up the good work, no problem.”

Both Undercover Units’ eyes instantly widened.

One of them already had a smile plastered on its face. The other, looking dazed and silly, simply stared at Lu Xin’s face with sparkling eyes. Gradually, the corners of its mouth also pulled sideways, its eyes narrowed slightly, eventually synchronizing with Lu Xin’s smile.

Then, their eyes seemed filled with joy. They bowed simultaneously to Lu Xin.

One of them took the napkin out of its hat and placed it on the carpet.

Only then did they, hand in hand, slowly shrink back into the vortex and disappear.

…

Lu Xin took a few steps forward and picked up the napkin from the floor.

He looked at it and saw an added piece of information: “Satellite City Seven, North side, Dacheng Motel, Common bunk, Room 021.”

“These Undercover Units are quite efficient…”

“But why do I get the feeling they’re like beggars?”