—There is no absolute right or wrong.
Ke Yiyi polished her weapons, a routine duty she performed daily. Her personal arsenal consisted of a standard-issue ‘Rational Number-14’ 9mm pistol and a custom-made blade, measuring 92 centimeters in length. She meticulously disassembled the pistol, cleaned each component, then reassembled and calibrated it. This was a crucial lesson her instructors at the Borzo Police Academy had repeatedly emphasized.
“Sister Ke, is your blade truly comfortable to wield?”
Li Qiwei picked up the freshly polished blade from the table, testing its weight and casually measuring its length with her left hand.
“I feel like eighty centimeters is already quite long, but yours is over ninety.”
“I find it manageable,” Ke Yiyi replied.
Li Qiwei glanced at Ke Yiyi’s height, then stood on her tiptoes to compare.
“Sister Ke, are you 170 centimeters tall?”
“Exactly 170 centimeters.”
“Huh? Even though I’m only 152 centimeters, we’re only eighteen centimeters apart… why do we have such different feelings about this blade? You find it easy to use, but I struggle just to pick it up!”
“Perhaps it’s because you don’t use blades often, so it feels unwieldy to you.”
Li Qiwei handed the blade to Gan Lan, who looked at her with a puzzled expression.
“Gan Lan, try it out. See if it feels right.”
“I don’t know how to use a blade.”
“Just try it, come on, just try it!”
Gan Lan reluctantly took the blade, weighed it in her hand, then deftly twirled it.
“See! You said you couldn’t use a blade, but you’re doing perfectly fine!”
Gan Lan’s face immediately flushed crimson as she handed the blade back.
“It’s… it’s quite comfortable, but I… I’m not good at it.”
Taking the blade back, Li Qiwei seemed to recall something and asked Gan Lan,
“Gan Lan, how tall are you?”
“152 centimeters.”
“Huh? Aren’t you the same height as me?”
She turned to Ke Yiyi, her face etched with disbelief.
“Could it really have nothing to do with height? Is it purely because I don’t use blades often?”
Ke Yiyi couldn’t quite grasp why Li Qiwei was so preoccupied with height; perhaps she wished she were taller. However, for players, such a wish was almost impossible to fulfill, as players did not grow.
“Li Qiwei.”
“Just call me Xiaomei!”
“Why Xiaomei?”
“My previous superior wasn’t very good at speaking Yan clan dialect. He tried to call me ‘Xiaowei,’ but it always came out as ‘Xiaomei.’ Eventually, everyone started calling me that, and I just got used to it.”
“Then, Xiaomei, what weapons do you usually use? I’ve never seen you maintain them.”
“My weapons are a bit troublesome…”
Li Qiwei produced her personal pistol, placed it on the table, and ejected its magazine. It was a ‘Calculus-17’ 7.62mm automatic pistol, fed by a 30-round double-stack magazine. Like Ke Yiyi’s ‘Rational Number-14’ pistol, it belonged to a series designed and finalized during the pre-war Academy of Sciences era. These two major weapon series, known for their precision and high-capacity magazines, were the most and second most equipped pistol series worldwide during that era. Due to their outstanding performance and numerous models, these weapons, originally designed by the Morningstar, continued to be used by many academies formerly aligned with the Morningstar even after its dissolution. Numerous improved variants were developed based on the original designs, and they remained popular among personnel across various departments—just as they had been in the past.
“Besides that, there’s this.”
Li Qiwei drew out a glove and slipped it onto her right hand. Embedded in the fingertips were five small components that emitted a faint glow. Ke Yiyi couldn’t immediately discern the material; it certainly wasn’t gemstone, as gemstones didn’t emit such a luster. Simply put, it possessed a glass-like sheen.
“What kind of item is that?”
The variety of items was incredibly complex, truly diverse and ever-changing. Ke Yiyi had once seen Section Chief Aiye use a strange item in Shell City—a hat that granted powerful invisibility when worn.
“This is a ‘Universal Mimicry Item’ crafted by ‘Three-Handed’ Wu Xian from Boson City. It can switch between five weapon forms.”
A small component at the base of her little finger flashed, and an oddly shaped scythe immediately materialized in her hand. This scythe wasn’t forged from a single piece of metal; instead, it appeared to be pieced together from unknown composite materials, forming a weapon that made one doubt whether it would shatter with the slightest impact, given its apparent lack of stability.
Li Qiwei then sequentially demonstrated the item’s other four forms: a heavy hammer, a greatsword, a large shield, and a peculiar weapon resembling a rocket launcher. Although the weapons were somewhat eccentric, Ke Yiyi noticed their peculiar weight distribution. Li Qiwei could wield them effortlessly with one hand, indicating they were light for the user yet heavy for the enemy—a testament to their excellent performance.
Each weapon form incorporated a component composed purely of energy, such as the scythe’s blade or the greatsword’s edge. Perhaps it wasn’t energy, but rather an integral part of the weapon’s ‘material form’? Ke Yiyi couldn’t grasp the underlying principle; after all, she wasn’t an ‘Item Crafter,’ and many items had mechanisms that even their users couldn’t fully explain, let alone an observer.
“Wu Xian was very fond of this item and wanted to name it after himself, but ‘Wu Xian’s Glove’ sounded a bit too strange.”
“So what did it end up being called?”
“The Finite Glove.”
****
Ke Yiyi felt that something about the name seemed off, but since it was Li Qiwei’s own choice, it must be the best name.
“Ugh! It’s truly strange! Look, which of my weapon forms isn’t longer than your blade? Yet they’re all so much easier to wield than yours.”
Li Qiwei leaned towards Gan Lan, observing her disassemble a ‘Calculus-15’ 7.62mm pistol. The difference from her own ‘Calculus-17’ pistol lay in its smaller size, making it resemble a toy. The trade-off, of course, was reduced magazine capacity and the inability to fire fully automatically. Li Qiwei had always believed that firearms unable to fire fully automatically couldn’t leverage their inherent advantages—against monstrous melee players, the lack of suppressing fire from an automatic weapon would quickly lead to being overwhelmed in close quarters.
Ke Yiyi observed the three pistols, musing that their choices in firearms were closely tied to their respective departments. As a member of the police force’s detective division, whether for law enforcement operations or security detail, her weapon selection naturally leaned towards the offensive ‘Rational Number’ series. Li Qiwei, a non-combatant belonging to the archives system, didn’t need to engage enemies directly as Ke Yiyi did. For her, the self-defense oriented ‘Calculus’ series was the optimal choice, especially the Calculus-17 automatic pistol, which could suppress enemies with its high rate of fire, allowing for a swift retreat from combat. Gan Lan, being part of the training system, primarily dealt with students, who were not dangerous adversaries. Carrying such a compact pistol for self-defense was entirely sufficient.
Having already left the police force, Ke Yiyi’s police-issued pistol had been returned. The pistol she now carried was her personal weapon. She specifically noted that the other two women’s pistols were also personal firearms—though she felt their past professions didn’t necessitate carrying guns, possessing a valid ‘firearms license’ made weapon ownership perfectly legal.
Days had passed since they arrived at the Robin Club, yet no orders had been issued from above, nor even a single relevant regulation. Ke Yiyi typically held herself to the daily standards of the police force, while Li Qiwei and Gan Lan lived by the standards of archival and training personnel, respectively. Incredibly, three individuals from the same department were simultaneously adhering to standards from three distinct systems.
In addition, several new arrivals had reported in over the past few days: Yoshida Rin, a junior coach from the same training system as Gan Lan, and Liana, from the intelligence system. They seemed closer to Harshi, perhaps because the three of them were of a similar generation, having all experienced the pre-war Academy of Sciences era. Speaking of which, the only ones yet to arrive were Lan Xifang and Enfinietta.
Lan Xifang was sent from above to replace Fletcher. In other words, as soon as she arrived, Fletcher’s status would immediately drop from the Robin Club’s current interim administrator to an ordinary member. Ke Yiyi had initially assumed Fletcher would be promoted to official head once all personnel were in place, but it turned out he was indeed only a temporary administrator. She surmised this was because Fletcher had previously participated in ‘unauthorized military actions.’ Although his loyalty to Vega remained unwavering, his past act of ‘questioning orders’ made him someone who couldn’t be fully trusted. Therefore, it was logical that the higher-ups hadn’t promoted him and instead sent someone to replace him.
As for Enfinietta, among all current members of the Robin Club, her previous position was the highest: Minister of the Second Technical Department of the ‘Technical Council.’ She had joined the Vega Academy of Sciences since birth, and in less than fifteen years, her technical achievements were so numerous that her name alone would fill an entire page. Beyond ‘genius,’ Ke Yiyi couldn’t find another word to describe such a person; she felt like they existed in completely different worlds. If placed in the pre-war Academy of Sciences era, Enfinietta would have already qualified for the ‘Seven Bridges Institute’ in Yingzhou. Unfortunately, with Vega’s defeat, the Seven Bridges Institute had fallen into the hands of Xuanji Star.
Due to her position, Enfinietta would likely be the last to arrive, as she needed to clear a significant amount of pending work before she could leave. What exactly was the Robin Club for? What were the higher-ups thinking? Ke Yiyi had no idea. They had assigned such a valuable scientist to a new department with an undefined scope of work, and it was hard to imagine that this department’s tasks would involve scientific research in any way!
Having completed her weapon maintenance for the day, Ke Yiyi decided to head towards the front bar, hoping not to encounter Kincaid. That man… was extremely troublesome. The moment Kincaid came to Ke Yiyi’s mind, that man’s devilish smile would invariably appear. The feeling was utterly dreadful, like consuming something foul-tasting and being unable to spit it out. No wonder Harshi had told her to ignore him earlier.
‘But he’s going to be a colleague, after all. To simply ignore him would be…’
‘It’s better to avoid him as much as possible!’
It was Ke Yiyi’s first time encountering someone who could render even the police force utterly helpless.