Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'

Leaving the Frost Plated Republic and entering the outside world may seem like a death wish, but this statement is not entirely accurate.

It's more accurate to say that one is entering another hell from one hell.

Li Aozi's job was as a night patrol security guard at the Jianlin County village town savings bank, and he had heard people say that banks make money, but he had misunderstood two things.

First, banks do make money, but security guards do not. Tellers work five days and have two days off, while security guards only have one day off during the National Day holiday, and a month's salary is only between 2,300 and 2,400 Derby, not much more than an ordinary supermarket cashier.

Moreover, being a security guard in a place like the Frost Plated Border is very risky given the high probability of robberies by the Marauders Legion, crimes committed by Transcendents, and killings by beings like Spirit Monster. And since banks aren't government institutions, they don't have the capacity to hire Transcendents; being able to kick the alarm in an emergency would be all that's expected to do right by the bank manager.

Second, in the Four Nations Era, the real money wasn't made by ordinary financial institutions but by a special armed monopoly organization known as the Global Trade Bank or GTB for short.

Using the bank keys he was in charge of as a security guard, Li Aozi opened the anti-riot equipment locker, took out a fire axe and a bulletproof vest, and was very good at timing, always keeping track of time in his mind.

Next, he took the fire axe in hand, smashed it hard against the counter, and swiftly robbed the cash, roughly counting close to 40,000 Derby. Li Aozi spread the cash notes like a fan and his fingers deftly and quickly counted the money—not because he had mastered the banking business, but because he had learned the skill from playing cards in games before.

"142,300 dollars, not a lot. But it's enough to start that task."

Li Aozi was quite satisfied. He had no intention of robbing the bank vault; on one hand, as a night patrol security guard, he did not have the electronic key to open the vault, and as for the bank's safes—let's just say, without a professional cutter, those are pretty much impenetrable.

By comparison, looting cash from the counter was the easiest.

"After all, Fourth Rule doesn't discriminate when arresting people, they kill the innocent to take credit, so might as well embezzle for a better return."

"Moreover, if I pulled off a big heist, robbing a bank is a serious crime, and there might be Fourth Rule agents chasing after me. The initial Fourth Rule agents are at most level 15, taking them out would provide me a significant amount of experience."

Li Aozi deleted the surveillance videos and bashed Lanny Johns' corpse a few times, destroying the scene, to create the appearance of his having committed murder for money.

Ordinary people inherently fear the law enforcement, but Li Aozi does not. Furthermore, he intended to use this as bait, to fish for a bigger catch.

As a pragmatist, Li Aozi had no psychological burden regarding criminal activities; the calamities players in the cosmic era had caused in universe were not few—this was nothing by comparison.

He quickly changed out of his security guard uniform, and in order to prevent biological tracking by Fourth Rule, he simply set a fire to burn away his biological information. He also removed the SIM card from his personal terminal and threw it into the garbage truck that came to collect trash in the morning, to prevent being tracked.

Li Aozi was a man of action, and in less than ten minutes he was ready to set the fire. He didn't carry any extra belongings and used Lanny's found lighter to light a cigarette, taking a deep drag.

Hu...

The complex aroma of tobacco lingered between his teeth, and Li Aozi's mind settled completely. He was not a habitual smoker, so the calming effect of tobacco might last a long while for him.

Before six o'clock arrived, he tossed the lit half of the cigarette onto the pile of combustibles and walked away.

Boom!

The next moment, flames roared, thick smoke billowed, glass doors shattered and shot everywhere, and as the wailing fire truck drove onto the scene to extinguish the blaze, Li Aozi blended into the crowd of onlookers and left the Jianlin County village town savings bank with ease and skill.

The surrounding residents had already been drawn together by the fire, marveling at the sight of the burning bank, finding some interest in their otherwise dull and repetitive work lives due to the unexpected fire.

Artificial light fell on his shoulders as Li Aozi glanced up at the sky; that cold and dim hemispheric generator still spread its light radiation steadily and slowly.

This was not the real sun.

There was no day turning into night, no dusk nor dawn, no rising moon—only the unchanged day-light illumination of the past decades.

Li Aozi chose not to take any form of transportation. He had a map of Jianlin County in his mind, turned a few corners, and entered a public bathroom. His makeup skills were excellent, and when he stepped out wearing a blue shirt and an old jacket, he had transformed into a middle-aged man with a yellow complexion and a face full of woes.

He took another look at the hemispheric screen barrier generator still emitting a dull yellow light, shook his head:

"People whose sunlight has been taken away dare not look up at the sky."

After applying the makeup, he even tore up and threw his ID card into the garbage truck; he wouldn't need it anymore.

In a previous life, players who chose to be born in the Frost Plating Federation would eventually try to emigrate or go abroad by any means possible. It wasn't conducive to development, and mainly, if they were not female players, they would hardly get any tasks.

Even players who controlled virtual characters to play deeply detested Frost Plating.

But in this era, it's not so easy.

Furthermore, he was now in the status of fleeing with funds, so public transportation was not an option. Fortunately, Jianlin County was not far from the border, with only about a 20 kilometer direct distance. But crossing the national border is no small matter; watch stations, GTB security personnel would all be closely monitoring.

"'Normal people need to find a smuggler to emigrate illegally, but my goal isn't to enter the other three nations, but to get out into the outside world. That's much easier,' Frost Plated said."

Li Aozi was lucky; the Jianlin County he was in wasn't a densely populated stronghold nor an industrial city hub. To put it plainly, the place was a blend of urban and rural areas.

The town's composition was complex, with stateless refugees who had just entered the civilized world, local residents, migrant workers, long-haul trucking teams, both farmers and laborers, and even some people from Radiant Light City.

In such a diverse crowd, it was easy for cliques and factions to form, with people from all walks of life banding together based on their hometowns and occupations, helping and caring for one another. In time, these connections, naturally, gave birth to gang powers.

Gangs in lawless lands are a sort of filler for order, essentially defined as economic crime organizations. The fighting and killing are merely means to an end—the ultimate goal being profit.

So, under the splendid backdrop provided by Frost Plated, human trafficking and smuggling were obviously very lucrative businesses. This front-shop, back-factory model, combined with the peculiar complexities of the county town and the difficulty of enforcing laws, quickly allowed the smuggling business to undergo industrial upgrading, using a fast and efficient sales model to realize industrial empowerment and drive innovation with technology, thus making a remarkable contribution to the positive construction of Frost Plated.

To put it simply, there were just too many advertisements for illegal immigration. Advertisements for smuggling were plastered everywhere, on curbstones, and on telephone poles, albeit advertised more tactfully and euphemistically as 'fast entry and residency problem solving.'

Li Aozi didn't know much about Frost Plated, but… small flyers and cards tossed onto the street told him quite a bit.

Picking up a few flyers from the ground, he unsurprisingly found a smuggler capable of taking people out.

Following the address, he found the person in an alleyway.

"Where do you want to go?"

The smuggler was a young woman, chewing gum, her face full of impatience, with a raspy and unpleasant voice, slightly skewed features, and accompanied by four middle-aged and elderly men, reticent and probably in charge of the smuggling.

Seeing Li Aozi, a man with pale skin similar to the stateless, she immediately looked upon him with disdain.

Sunlight on Azure Star was monopolized by the Four Nations, hence those with a healthy, beautiful wheat-colored skin tone implied that they were well sunbathed, not only basking in natural sunlight but also engaging in less repetitive labor, taking regular vacations, a characteristic of the upper echelons of society.

On the other hand, those with pale skin indicated a severe lack of sunlight exposure, and even if it was innate, it meant their family had stateless members within the last three generations.

Li Aozi's family circumstances were clearly not good, otherwise, his skin wouldn't be as pale—almost indistinguishable from a stateless person.

He didn't mind at all. People of the Four Nations all held some level of this discrimination. He casually threw a stack of banknotes, saying,

"Here's fourteen thousand, more than enough to get to Shelter P-205."

The smuggler flipped through the money, her gaze shifting uncertainly. She glanced at Li Aozi and asked, "A deserter?"

The Shelter was no civilized realm, without sunlight exposure, hardly habitable. Frost Plated, however sophisticated, had energy loans issued by the Global Trade Bank. Even though life was harsh, it was still livable.

A man desperate to flee to the outside world essentially left only a few possibilities—apart from deserters, convicted felons, and smugglers, there were hardly any others. The county town was only so big, and in their line of business with frequent dealings, there were just a few known smugglers ranking by name and face.

The smuggler could almost infer that the man before her, if not a felon, was a deserter, and thus, she bluntly asked.

"You don't need to worry about it."

Li Aozi snorted coldly, deliberately vague in his words, which only made the smuggler more certain of her guess.

"Heh, no need to be nervous. There are lots of men who desert the military every year," the smuggler laughed, counting the cash and somewhat surprised, "This money's really new, huh?"

Li Aozi thought to himself with a smirk—it just came from the bank, of course it's new.

"When can we leave?" Li Aozi put on an anxious expression, pressing urgently, "I'm in a hurry to go. There are people waiting for me outside, and they might not hold out for long..."

"No rush. This batch isn't full yet. We'll leave once we have enough people," the smuggler retorted dismissively.

Opportunities for smuggling weren't plentiful. To make the venture profitable, they'd stuff the shipping containers full of people before setting off.

Waiting for someone on the outside? Who would believe that?

In the conditions of the outside world, without protective gear, a normal person couldn't last three days, to say nothing of picking up one person, which would require seven or eight logistic supports to follow.

Waiting for someone outside? Who did he think he was, warranting such a grand reception?

Seeing the smuggler was deliberately stalling, Li Aozi understood what was happening and quickly darkened his expression, yanking the smuggler's collar, he whispered fiercely,

"Who do you think you're dealing with? I'm from the Rose Army! You dare to waste my time?!"