Chapter 2244: Unified Residence Permits Tomorrow
It was almost eight o'clock, and energy would be cut off in various parts of the city again, with no going out at night. So Shen Fu and Shi Meng also took shelter in the law enforcement building early. Once the city gradually darkened, Xu Huo, along with Zhu Xiaojin and the others, took turns using props to cover the law enforcement building.
The "One-Third Game" had a concept of "recruiting people." To avoid being wiped out in one fell swoop, aside from using defensive props, they also sent out flying recorders to patrol.
Zhu Xiaojin and the others were very interested in the damaged armed robot. They marveled at Xu Huo's deep pockets. Becoming a temporary law enforcement officer wasn't as simple as just submitting an application. Given the dog-like attitude of the Buliucheng city government, they wouldn't even bother to acknowledge someone showing up at their door, let alone reply to an email. For things to suddenly move this fast, it had to be due to the power of money.
"That must have cost a lot too," Cheng Zhongzhi said, having some knowledge of robots. "A relatively new model, with modifications, and the weapons are all from Platinum Eye. Honestly, using it in a fight against players is a huge waste, and the effect isn't great."
Xu Huo knew that, of course. For high-level players, with this kind of armed robot, if its speed couldn't keep up, everything else was useless.
"Anyway, this armed robot has already been donated to the city government," he said. He opened the main door of the law enforcement building, moved the robot outside, and pasted up notes saying "Government Property, Do Not Touch Casually" and "Handyman Wanted."
"Isn't this a form of entrapment?" Cheng Zhongzhi rubbed his chin. "Even a broken armed robot of this level could sell for a good price."
"It would be great if someone actually came to steal it," Tang Yu said with a smile. "We'd catch them red-handed."
Since they couldn't go out at night, the group decided to cook together.
Tang Yu and the others had a full set of cooking utensils. They also had plenty of portable dried meat strips and vegetables, so making a few dishes wasn't a problem.
"In the past, we'd just gnaw on dry rations in the game. Even though most B-rank instances are non-enclosed spaces, I still got used to bringing pots and pans," Cheng Zhongzhi said, adding water to the pot. "When you're out and about, eating and sleeping are the most important things."
After expanding the luggage compartment space, any player who cared about their quality of life would think about improving their living conditions.
Shen Fu and Shi Meng helped Xu Huo bring down some paper documents from upstairs. The former said, "There are some legal clauses inside, but they're printed separately. They don't look like official law books or announcements from the city government. They might have been written by later players themselves, so they might not be accurate."
It was clear that the players here were eager to make newcomers fall into traps. Not only was the Message Collection Terminal a mess, but even the wanted notices, newspapers, magazines, and flyers visible around the city were full of false information.
Xu Huo collected the information from these papers using a recorder, organized it, and created a document. He then sent it to the internal information network through his law enforcement officer backend to verify whether these legal clauses were authentic and valid.
Additionally, he packaged the recorders he had promised and sent them to the city government—three went through the Under Dimension channel, and two connected to his own recorder and flew over the city.
Of course, Xu Huo also pasted notes on them, stating they were city government property and that damaging or stealing them was a crime.
However, the players here were clearly not that honest. The recorder hadn't been flying for ten minutes before it was shot down and completely destroyed.
It was hard to find the culprit for this, so Xu Huo borrowed a loudspeaker prop from Zhu Xiaojin and publicly announced that, as the temporary law enforcement officer, he would definitely crack down on this kind of knowing violation of the law. Furthermore, starting at dawn tomorrow, he would begin registering residents in his jurisdiction and issuing permanent and temporary residence permits. He asked regular residents to prepare their information.
"Everything in this building has been cleared out. Where are we supposed to find residence permits?" Zhu Xiaojin asked, holding a bowl of rice and stuffing meat into his mouth. "We can't just write them by hand, can we?"
"That's exactly what we'll do—write them by hand," Xu Huo said, pulling out a stack of paper. He first made a sample. "Like this."
Zhu Xiaojin took a look and couldn't help but laugh. "A permanent residence permit, and it just says those five words?"
"When registering, we'll write the resident's name and address below, paste a photo, and that's pretty much it," Xu Huo explained. "We need to explain the basic rules to everyone clearly. Starting tomorrow, this will be the ID card for District 5. If it's lost, it needs to be reissued, and reissuing costs money."
"Will those players listen?" Tang Yu asked. "The local ordinary people will definitely cooperate."
"They will listen," Xu Huo said. He hand-drew a map of District 5 and assigned streets to the group. "Two people per team tomorrow."
"This method is quite interesting," Shen Fu couldn't help but say. "If someone doesn't cooperate, we can just act first and report later. After all, we're the ones submitting the applications. As long as we have solid evidence, the city government has no reason not to approve."
"We still need to figure out the situation in the city center," Xu Huo said. He and his group had only recently arrived and hadn't unlocked a large area. They also couldn't get in touch with the player organization in the city center. Becoming a temporary law enforcement officer was just a buffer. If the player organization in Buliucheng wasn't large, the best course of action would be to directly take over the city government.
The local government was recognized by the game. This could be confirmed by the Painting Woman; the game also recognized the transfer documents of the local government. He guessed that the main reason the city government wasn't managing things was a lack of manpower. But the administrative and law enforcement powers recognized by the game were still in their hands. Only by obtaining this power could one truly be considered in control of the city.
"No problem. I'll scout out a few influential players tomorrow," Zhu Xiaojin immediately said. "But we're only here to kill a few wanted criminals. Do we need to make such a big fuss?"
Zhu Xiaojin, Cheng Zhongzhi, Tang Yu, and another person, Qiao Jieping, all had clearance tasks of around fifty people. Fifty wanted criminals. Without knowing if killing the wrong person would affect their clearance progress, fifty people wasn't actually easy. Ordinary people were easy to catch, but even with the use of potions, they themselves might not know if they were wanted criminals—the original city residents had all been granted amnesty after the player organization took power. Someone who was once a criminal might not be one now.
There were plenty of players who broke the law. Their strength was one thing, but whether the authorities had issued a wanted notice was another. In short, screening and identification alone was a major hurdle.
If Xu Huo's task was fifty people, even identifying them one by one wouldn't take much effort. But with so many people, he had to think of another way.
"What if killing the wrong person is one of the ways to enter the One-Third Game?" Shen Fu posed a soul-searching question.
"Don't even mention it," Zhu Xiaojin said helplessly. "Why can't anyone remember what the game actually is?"
Xu Huo had already written their temporary residence permits and handed them to them. "Keep these safe. Paste your photos on them. While I'm in District 5, don't change your photos casually."
Tang Yu took hers, holding up the light piece of paper. "Isn't this too much of a joke? There isn't even an anti-counterfeiting mark."