Zhang Yi, in the game, was extremely excited.
Unlike the calm tutorial levels before, now that he had officially entered the game and started the robbery, he had only one thought.
That was, 'Excitement opened the door for excitement's mother; it's reached its peak!'
FPS games are inherently a very popular and thrilling genre, and with the added element of a bank heist, plus the restless, rhythmic electronic background music, it was simply exhilarating.
“Old Zhang, reinforcements are here! The cops' reinforcements are here!”
Song Ren’s voice came through the voice channel. Due to the theme, their way of communicating had shifted to slang learned from TV shows and movies.
“Gather up, let’s go to Old Song’s side. We’ll control a few hostages to make the cops hesitate. When the safe opens, we’ll see if there’s enough cash. We can’t go empty-handed on our first score!” Zhang Yi declared decisively.
Mainly because he found that while smashing cash registers and stealing all the money felt incredibly satisfying, the convenience store actually didn’t have much cash. Most of the loose banknotes were two, five, or ten-dollar bills, occasionally mixed with a few twenty or fifty-dollar notes.
It looked like a lot, but in reality, they only got a few hundred dollars in total.
“Oil prices have been rising recently. Just this small-time convenience store robbery for a few hundred bucks, what if we don’t even cover our costs in the end?” Zhang Yi mused in the voice chat, looking at the paltry banknotes in his bag.
After all, this wasn't a cost-free business.
Masks, firearms, clothes, gas, and even the car—none of it came for free.
As Zhang Yi was lamenting, police reinforcements had already arrived outside the coffee shop.
Police sirens blared, and unrelated bystanders on the street had already been quickly evacuated by the police. Immediately after, the officers used the haphazardly parked vehicles on the street as cover, slowly advancing towards the shop.
However, by this time, Zhang Yi had already led the hostages to the antique store.
‘Da da da da da…’
As soon as he entered the antique store, Zhang Yi heard the sound of a drill working. In a corner by the counter, an embedded safe had a working drill set up in front of it.
“This is taking too long!” Zhang Yi grumbled, looking at the 170-second countdown displayed on the drill’s screen.
“It’s a game, after all. Quick, Old Zhang, get ready to defend, the cops are here,” Song Ren explained.
While Payday had many excellent details, and Chen Xu had even specifically studied professional knowledge and theory with the development team,
at its core, it was still a game. Many settings, besides aiming for realism to immerse players, also needed to consider the gameplay mode.
Furthermore, and more importantly, this was just a game about robbers; it wasn't meant to be a robbery instruction manual.
So, in the game, things were basically half-true and half-false. In reality, no robber would foolishly guard an antique store, watching a drill work on a safe of unknown value for three minutes. If there were, it would essentially be a dead end. In a sense, it was also a cautionary game.
But Zhang Yi and his crew in the game didn't care about any of that.
Because the officers outside had already begun their probing attack; clearly, in the game, the hostage stalling time was over.
At this stage, the officers were still focused on rescuing hostages and had not yet launched a full assault.
However, compared to some officers who were hesitant due to the hostages, Zhang Yi and his crew in the antique store were far more reckless. Seeing the approaching officers, they simply raised their guns and unleashed a burst of bullets.
Da da da… dong dong.
The moment the gunfire erupted, two approaching officers fell to the ground.
And as if a switch had been flipped, the two officers who were shot down caused the remaining police officers to all pull out their pistols and start firing back.
Suddenly, dull gunshots echoed through the street, plunging the entire area into an ocean of intense gunfire.
‘Da da da… tu tu tu’
Switching from pistols to assault rifles, Zhang Yi and his crew in the antique store also noticed that the police officers' rank seemed to have increased.
Initially, they were just officers in simple bulletproof vests, but now fully armed SWAT officers appeared, wearing heavy bulletproof vests and riot helmets, holding ballistic shields, and slowly approaching the antique store.
Shrapnel flew everywhere inside the cramped antique store, and people constantly fell.
“Holy cow, why are these cops multiplying like clones?” Wang Han exclaimed after emptying a magazine, realizing her ammo was depleted. She ran through the hail of bullets to the bodies by the door, making a round to replenish her ammunition.
Fortunately, it was the lowest difficulty. Although she took a few bullets, only her armor was depleted, and her health wasn't significantly damaged.
“Isn’t that obvious? We’re not fighting just one precinct; there will certainly be an endless stream of soldiers arriving.” With a click, Zhang Yi reloaded his magazine and unleashed a burst at the door. As he was speaking, a stray bullet shattered an antique vase behind him, startling him.
“I’m disgusted! Who sold me this shoddy drill? It’s even malfunctioning and shutting down! I’m going to kill them later!” Song Ren was frantically repairing the drill, which had stopped working and was now beeping an alarm.
“Don’t panic, after this job, we’ll have money! First, I’ll give them a big treat!” Zhang Yi pulled a grenade from his pocket.
As for bullets, you could kill officers and pick up their ammo to replenish, but grenades were truly one less with each use. So far, Zhang Yi hadn't used any, saving them specifically for when the enemy numbers were higher. Wasn’t now the perfect time?
Pulling the pin and throwing the grenade in one smooth motion.
‘Boom!’ A deafening explosion echoed.
Then, Zhang Yi’s expression under his mask froze.
Because in his vision, a line of text appeared.
[Civilian killed, 8000 deducted for cleanup expenses]
What the heck!?
Looking at the prompt in his vision, Zhang Yi was completely bewildered.
Killing hostages in this game actually deducts money!?
And so much!?
Looking at the hostage, who had turned into a corpse not far away, Zhang Yi had yet to recover.
‘Bang…’
At that moment, the safe next to him made a crisp sound, and the drill finally broke it open.
Inside were stacks of banknotes.
With a rustle, Song Ren and Wang Han stuffed the banknotes into their backpacks, but the number that appeared made all three of them fall silent.
+7500
Actually, this number was quite substantial. Compared to the initial task, this one safe alone directly brought them half of the required amount.
But thinking about the cleanup fees incurred from killing the hostage just now, the feeling suddenly changed.
“Old Zhang, let’s be kind to the hostages. If this continues, we’re not here to make a score; we’re here to do charity,” Song Ren said with a sigh.
He still didn't know what exactly those cleanup fees were for, but whatever they were, 8000 dollars deducted had completely shocked him.
What if, in the end, the money they stole wasn’t even enough to cover the cleanup? Then what was the point of them being robbers?
“And, after that hostage died, these cops got all pumped full of adrenaline!” Wang Han exclaimed, full of emotion, watching the police officers, now free from any restraints, swarm in.
“Say no more. There’s something called ‘restart.’ Have you clicked it?”
(End of Chapter)
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