Chapter 857: It's All in the Name

“Key room… OK! We’re done, brothers, no more pretending, we’re showing our cards! Time to pull out the guns and fight!” Seeing the alarm and countdown prompts appear, Zhang Yi finally burst out laughing, pulling out a hardened criminals’ special AK47 from his waistband and shouting loudly.

Once again infiltrating the car dealership, they finally found the bald manager, got the key from him, entered the room, found the newly hired employee's name, and hacked into the computer.

However, while searching for the key room, they were spotted by a security guard, causing their stealth attempt to fail again. This extinguished Zhang Yi and his teammates’ last bit of patience.

Stealth? Stealth my ass!

Just grab a gun and charge! Anyway, they only play on the lowest difficulty!

It wasn't that they didn't want to challenge higher difficulties, but rather that they simply couldn't win.

Because the ‘car dealership heist’ level was completely different from the previous levels they had played.

They didn't know if there would be even more complex levels later.

But for now, ‘car dealership heist’ was definitely the most complicated level they had ever played.

Question: How many stages are needed to drive the sports cars out of the car dealership?

Answer: First stage, you need to infiltrate the car dealership to find the bald manager and get the keycard from him.

In this stage, the bald manager in the game doesn't spawn at a fixed spot. Sometimes he's in the manager's office, sometimes he's harassing female colleagues, sometimes he's in the restroom… It can be said that his location requires players to effectively identify him.

The second stage: Use the keycard to open the meeting room door. Inside, there's a small blackboard with the newly hired employee's name on it. Note this name down as it’s needed for hacking the computer later.

The third stage: Among the messy workstations, find the newly hired employee’s workstation and hack into their computer to open the access control for the key room.

The fourth stage: Enter the key room to get the keys, preparing to drive the sports cars away and make a getaway.

Fourth-and-a-half stage: Place explosives on the road under maintenance outside, blow open the roadblock, and enter the underground tunnel.

The reason it’s called the fourth-and-a-half stage is primarily because this stage can be handled in advance by sending some people out to place the explosives early.

That way, when the explosion occurs, they can drive the sports cars seamlessly away.

It sounds like it's not that difficult; you just need to avoid security guards while getting the keycard, then stealthily retrieve the keys and drive the car away, all while blowing open an escape route.

But when actually playing the game, the feeling for players is completely different; it's simply too demanding.

Not only do you have to avoid various cameras and complete all the above tasks while security guards are patrolling, but more importantly, the moment the key room's access control is opened, it immediately triggers an automatic alarm, and all security guards in the car dealership are alerted. At the same time, the police will immediately send reinforcements to the car dealership.

Moreover, a crucial point is that the car dealership heist mission is a timed mission. In previous robbery missions, theoretically, if a player was tough enough, they could transform into a magical robber fighting clone soldiers on the spot until they got tired or were arrested.

However, in the car dealership heist mission, there's a time limit. After the alarm is triggered, every second counts, otherwise the mission will directly fail. Many times, Zhang Yi and his teammates weren't killed on the spot, but rather failed the mission because they ran out of time.

So after numerous failures, Zhang Yi and his teammates had accumulated enough experience.

Pure stealth always ended in discovery and complete failure.

Pure brute-force was too difficult due to the time limit.

So Zhang Yi and his teammates chose to endure temporarily. They started with a stealth approach for getting the manager's key and hacking the computer.

But as soon as the computer was successfully hacked, they would rip off their false masks, lay their cards on the table, and go all out.

And after ripping off their masks, the suppression they had felt during the earlier stealth phase was completely unleashed.

Gunfire, electronic music, robbery, luxury cars—all these stimulating elements combined to give Zhang Yi and his two teammates immense satisfaction.

“Honestly, Old Zhang, I think our previous failures were all because of our names. Look at our IDs; only I look like a cultured person, so stealth has nothing to do with us. Charging in like this is the right way!” Song Ren, who had just finished placing the explosives outside, laughed heartily.

Look at their three IDs: Zhang Mazi, Wang Dabiao, Song Silang. What even are those? Clearly, they have nothing to do with intelligence.

“Oh, come on, Old Song, every time you’re the one who ruins our great stealth mission. Last round, you even flipped the car over; I don’t know how you even managed that!” Wang Han couldn’t help but complain in the voice chat.

The three of them chatted while wreaking havoc amidst the frantic electronic music.

Under the assault of grenades and bullets, the glass shattered into powder, scattering across the floor with a crash.

Staring at the reinforcements arriving at the car dealership, the three suit-clad hardened criminals unleashed a barrage of gunfire outside.

Timing it perfectly, each of the three grabbed a luxury sports car and floored the accelerator.

The luxury cars, already refueled with the help of an insider, roared their engines before bursting out of the car dealership with immense power.

Boom!

And just as the cars sped out of the dealership, a loud explosion erupted from the asphalt road under maintenance on the street. Black smoke billowed up, and a large hole was blasted into the ground, revealing an underground tunnel that hadn’t yet been opened to traffic.

The three cars drove directly into the large hole, leaving the police behind, unable to match the speed of these three super sports cars, and were quickly left trailing far behind.

Twisting and turning through the underground tunnel, the sound of police sirens gradually faded.

10…9…8…

With about ten seconds left on the countdown, the three arrived at the agreed-upon dock, hiding the three cars inside containers.

Then, they immediately left in a Jeep, planning to return and deal with the stolen goods once the commotion subsided.

“Awesome!” Wang Han exhaled, looking at the mission complete screen.

“It’s truly exhilarating when there’s a gunfight! Stealth is just for an occasional novelty,” Zhang Yi agreed.

“Exactly, it’s not that we’re not smart enough, it’s just that we don’t want to be,” Song Ren nodded in agreement.

But the next second, two pairs of eyes converged on him.

Wang Han and Zhang Yi’s faces darkened.

If you can’t say anything sensible, don’t speak!

However, this resentment was quickly washed away by the rewards.

The high reward of a million dollars made all three of them beam with joy.

The highly professional scouting and robbery plan before the game, the intense BGM during the heist, and finally, the sight of stacks of banknotes as a reward—all these elements ignited the thrill to the maximum. This rush of adrenaline was simply unstoppable.

Not just Zhang Yi and Song Ren, but also more and more players were joining ‘Payday’ across various communities, video, and live streaming platforms.

Related Tieba forums and other places were filled with players' discussions. Hardened criminals from all over were forming groups, eager to pull off a big score in the world of Payday!

(End of Chapter) <>