Your Unknown Attribute: 100】

【The ‘Prestige’ module is currently inactive and cannot be viewed】

【Please increase the awareness of Gotham’s citizens about you as soon as possible. The Prestige module will activate when over 50% of the population knows you are the mayor】

“……”

What’s with these NPCs?

Wait, Vivi figured it out.

She had locked Shelk under the desk, where, if she remembered correctly, the corpse from her first death was also stuffed.

Could it be that this guy is scared of corpses?

She recalled playing another building game where she built a cemetery in the city center and dumped all the corpses there, right next to a residential area. The NPCs still chose to settle nearby, didn’t they?

Why are the NPCs in this game so realistic, even afraid of corpses? Is it because it’s a holographic game?

Isn’t this an excessive pursuit of realism?

The most outrageous part is —

She once again dragged the [Not So Confidential Documents] icon onto Shelk’s head.

【Shelk, exhausted in spirit, refused your work arrangement, and you are not his real boss anyway.】

It seems that scaring someone out of their wits to make them cooperate is not feasible. She still has to complete the mission.

No… Vivi thought for a moment. A sudden idea occurred to her: it might not be necessary.

She firmly believed that the initial NPCs were gifts from the system, naturally with the lowest difficulty level, like her highly obedient secretary Millie. Shelk might appear as a red name, but he has high attributes and the potential to change —

If she really has to defeat Black Mask before making Shelk work for her, it’s theoretically reasonable but too slow. The difficulty of acquiring this NPC is unprecedentedly high, which doesn’t quite fit the normal logic of game design!

Usually, game designers would lightly let players off the hook at this point. And that Spider-Man too —

Vivi made a reasonable deduction: this should be a “plot kill”. In this time frame, lacking sufficient power, even if she successfully lured Spider-Man in, he would still escape.

The logic matched!

Therefore, in such a high-freedom game, there must be other ways to obtain Shelk (his labor).

She silently turned her attention to the 【Gold Coin Store】.

At this moment, there were only 7 minutes left until April 1st in the game time.

……

Shelk was sweating profusely.

Gotham’s weather in April was unpredictable, like a capricious beautiful woman. The indoor and outdoor temperatures were slightly cool, with night winds howling into the open lounge.

By now, he had crawled to the lounge door, using only his upper body. His eyes were focused only on the shattered glass — broken by the guards who rushed in after the mayor’s notification. The construction workers who tied him up wouldn’t have used fancy knots; as long as he got a piece of glass, he could cut the ropes.

But what drove Shelk to despair was the presence of the Mayor, Anna Alek, in the same room.

This terrifying woman seemed indifferent to him discovering her true face. She didn’t even stop Shelk from escaping — because his crawling seemed so ludicrous — Shelk’s crawling speed was naturally slow, and Anna only needed to walk a couple of steps to catch up with him.

Time seemed to stretch endlessly at that moment.

Tap, tap…

Those were Anna’s footsteps.

She stopped again, but through the corner of his eye, Shelk could see her staring straight ahead, one hand raised, leisurely waving in the air.

Shelk realized she was not looking at him; her walking behind him was like walking a dog.

He faintly heard something like: “GM… why is the mail so… slow…”

“Done.”

Shelk heard the voice that pronounced his fate.

Done… Done what?

He bit his teeth and struggled forward, overwhelmed with senseless despair. He didn’t know what Anna would do next, and it was this unknown that brought more despair.

Damn it — he regretted collaborating with Black Mask. If Black Mask had succeeded, Anna Alek should have been dead by now, but there she stood, perfectly fine! Was Black Mask useless, or was Anna Alek too cunning?

He decided to beg for mercy, which wasn’t shameful!

The man suddenly flipped over, but due to the afternoon’s experiences, he was too tense. He opened his mouth, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t make a sound. Then, he felt his foot being gently lifted by a hand —

If this was the Mayor’s strength, she could easily flip him over and smash him against the wall with one hand.

— Was this person really just a normal human?

Vivi held a can of bright red spray paint in her hand, aiming it at the man’s feet, spraying the paint onto the soles of the [former Chief-of-Staffl]‘s shoes.

【Floor Pattern Spray Paint (Red) x100l, Price: 100 Gold Coins】

【Spray out unpredictable marvelous patterns and decorate the floor. Employees will have greater work motivation when working on painted floors】

【There will always be employees who want to slack off, and that’s when you need this】

This was a product from the Gold Coin Store, but initially, the store only sold 700L large bottles and did not offer smaller ones, as if it were not a cosmetic product offering trial sizes.

But Vivi only had 100 gold coins left, so she sent an email to the GM. Through earnest words, the GM agreed to adjust the price and offer retail sales, however —

【According to the game settings, the minimum price for any item in the Gold Coin Store is 100 gold coins】

At midnight, a can of spray paint appeared in her hand.

After using it, Vivi stood still, silently waiting for a while. She noticed that Shelk’s eyes were wide open, and his expression of [Fear] had changed to [Desire] — it seems that spraying it at his feet was just as effective as spraying it on the floor?

She bent down and untied the ropes binding him.

Unexpectedly, probably because he had been tied up for too long, his hands and feet seemed to be rubbed raw when released.

Vivi: Awkward.jpg

Why does the game have to be so realistic in these aspects?

[Desire]

Another bubble popped up over Shelk’s head. The ordinary little dot on the map remained still for a while…

[Desire][Desire][Desire][Desire][Desire]…

The man wandered aimlessly on the spot, not running away even though he was no longer tied up, his eyes gradually reddening. Suddenly, he ran past Vivi, leaping out through the hole made by Spider-Man.

Vivi: “……” The door wasn’t locked, so why did he, too, not use the door?

On the map, this rapidly running little green dot headed towards the [Chief-of-Staff’s Office], then stopped moving.

And in the package —

[Not So Confidential Documents (A Bunch)] icon slowly changed shape to [Not So Confidential Documents (A Small Bunch)]

Vivi: Wow!

But speaking of which, are the files displayed in her package actually in the Secretary-General’s office?

So it turns out the mayor’s documents are kept in the Chief-of-Staff’s office. Understood.

— Anyway, she hadn’t been a mayor before and easily accepted this setting.

She looked around; the space under the desk was still open, the corpse lying obediently. She picked up the corpse and placed it in the bathtub of the bathroom, pulling the shower curtain closed.

Presumably, no one would ask the mayor to borrow the bathtub for a bath, so no NPC would discover the corpse again, right?

The cost of repairing the walls and windows together totaled 5000 gold coins, still paid for with public funds. However, the construction team wouldn’t start work until 10 a.m. the next day, so whether it was window shards or wall bricks, they were left on the ground, looking quite miserable.

To be honest, Vivi wasn’t actually angry at the NPCs, even though she had been killed twice, even though there were traitors in the City Hall, traitors who had made it to the position of Chief-of-Staff, or spies lurking among the guards, and a third of the citizens resented her as mayor, and the gang even hired assassins —

After all, they were NPCs, just programs.

So Vivi chose to curse at the planners!

The planners have no hoe!

After venting her frustrations, she tidied up and continued the game. This game was a hellish start for Vivi, but honestly, it was really fun. Compared to ordinary building games, the vast world view, diverse characters, detailed and realistic settings, and countless plotlines to trigger were all fascinating.

The planners always paid special attention to details, like —

The office computer could be turned on.

Previously, Vivi hadn’t thought of thoroughly searching her office, just following the system’s instructions to complete tasks. She still had the inertia of playing other games, thinking that the office was just part of the background scenery.

After searching, she found pleasant surprises.

She found a brand new computer in the drawer of the desk, which could connect to the City Hall network. In the wardrobe of the lounge, she found several outfits (free appearances), all of which she put in her package. There was also a bookcase in the lounge, filled with unopened hardcover books. Interestingly, each book had text on it, not blank when opened, and she decided to read them when she had time.

At the bottom of the bookcase were several dusty “top secret” documents, all seemingly about the same proposal —

“Feasibility of Establishing ‘Arkham City’ in the Centre of Gotham City — Quincy Sharp”

*

In the nearby Chief-of-Staff’s office.

The spray paint turned Shelk’s shoe soles red, and the bizarre patterns like grinning ghost faces.

Because Shelk’s current job was [Secretary], he was crazily craving to complete the work a secretary needed to do.

Shelk knew what he was doing, and he also realized the mayor had done something that affected his mind.

He wanted to handle work, work, more work — but that didn’t mean his intelligence became abnormal under the influence of the spray paint. He knew the problem was all on his shoes. If he took off his shoes, maybe he could escape this abnormal state, then go find Black Mask, and think of a way to kill this devil-like mayor.

But he didn’t do that.

Because handling work was really exhilarating, working gave him an inhuman pleasure, his eyes glued to the documents, even if his stomach growled with hunger, he couldn’t bear to look away from the documents in front of him.

Perhaps he would die from this craving, but he didn’t care at all!

To hell with Black Mask!

Because, work was just too great!