Chapter 59: Personality

"Huh? Aren't you Stack Qibing?" Li Cheng stared in surprise, his hand still outstretched. "Alright, Red Riding Hood."

"I'm not Red Riding Hood either!"

Yuan Zhixia slapped her own forehead and sighed. "We're all foxes a thousand years old—why pretend to be from Liaozhai? I'm Jingzhe Xiazhi."

"Understood." Li Cheng nodded.

"... You're not surprised?" Yuan Zhixia raised an eyebrow slightly. "Or did you recognize me already? When?"

"Around the lake, when I was dragging you by the back of your collar."

Li Cheng said: "You altered your face, hairstyle, attire, sprayed heavy deodorant, and wore fingerprint gloves."

"But some things don't change in a short time."

"Like the distribution of pores on your nape, hair root patterns, weight, bone structure, and the unique scent of sweat mixed with body wash."

"If one or two matched, I couldn't be sure—but with so many matching, your identity is locked."

"... Alright, didn't expect to leak info this way."

Yuan Zhixia adjusted her thin-framed glasses, arms crossed. "According to Special Affairs Bureau protocol, new agents wishing to conceal their real-world identity must undergo comprehensive disguise."

"Including, but not limited to: laser-altering fingerprints, shaving all body hair, replacing it with synthetic wigs, etc."

"I was sent on this mission suddenly—no time for full disguise. Didn't expect you'd spot it."

"By the way, how did you guess my identity?"

Li Cheng scratched his head. "My dao robe, gun, bullets, even the ironing board and iron—all bought from shops on Killlou Street via the e-commerce system. No traceable identity info. I did full disguise too."

"Palmar prints."

Yuan Zhixia lifted her palm, pointing to its ridges. "When you extracted Ishikawa Kenichi from the Fujita residence in San Dingmu, Water Purification City, your gloves were torn—full of Kong Dong."

"I had a pinhole HD camera embedded in my button. After the script ended, I uploaded the footage to a computer, used AI to zoom and clarify it—and through the holes in your gloves, I saw your palmar prints."

"Palmar prints are acquired, shaped by physical and chemical changes, and can be altered. But such changes take years or months—even the fastest takes at least eight days to become significant."

"Meanwhile, on the lake, you revealed those bone blades extending from below your wrists—identical to the ones used by Da Zai Zhi, the mercenary who saved me and Ye Jiaying."

"Da Zai Zhi appeared in Yin City, so I used a supercomputer to compare the pinhole camera's palmar print against all human palmar prints captured in Yin City's subway, malls, and residential areas over the past few months."

"After eliminating tens of thousands of near-matches, I narrowed it down to a few hundred. You happened to be in that range."

Using a supercomputer, comparing millions of palmar prints—just to identify one person. Should I praise Yuan Zhixia's persistence or call her bored out of her mind?

"The Special Affairs Bureau really has resources."

Li Cheng spread his hands. "So they sent you?"

If so, Yuan Zhixia must've been recruited into the Bureau after the Mo Cai Zhu incident, becoming a player.

"No."

Yuan Zhixia's lips curled slightly as she tilted her head. "You've saved me multiple times—during the Ni Mo Yin Zhu incident, during the Death Curse's Grudge mission."

"One of my life principles: repay kindness, avenge grudges. Since you, as a player, don't want to reveal your identity to the Bureau, I won't tell them."

Ni Mo Yin Zhu? Is that what the Bureau calls Mo Cai Zhu?

Li Cheng asked, puzzled: "So you came here on your own? Don't you fear I might be from the Laughing Troupe or the Demon Scientists' Alliance—someone who'll kidnap and sell you?"

"Pfft," Yuan Zhixia rolled her eyes. "First, I'm a player too—I can run if I lose."

"Second, the Bureau has a highly sophisticated personality profiling program, written by psychologists, anthropologists, criminologists, and other specialists."

"Input your high school and college exams, homework, essays, music apps, social media posts, favorite emojis, frequently visited websites—and it generates a personality profile."

"Your profile classifies you as Chaotic Good: outwardly normal, willing to pretend to be normal."

"But inwardly, you act by your own will, follow your own moral code and logic, value rational thought, protect the weak, believe in fairness and justice but not fully in the law, hold a generally pessimistic view of humanity, yet secretly harbor a hope for universal harmony."

"Hmm."

Li Cheng rubbed his chin. "Sounds a bit like a Little Red Book MBTI quiz."

"It's professional personality profiling, not some MBTI nonsense!"

Yuan Zhixia's eye twitched. "Anyway—you're a good person. So I deleted every trace that could lead back to you in the real world."

"Uh, thanks?"

"No need." Yuan Zhixia paused. "As a friend—er, I mean, classmate."

"I suggest you register with the Bureau. It'll make things easier. If you run into trouble, they'll help within their capacity."

"Not yet," Li Cheng shook his head.

With her Level 2 rank, Yuan Zhixia possessed two premium items—proof the Bureau valued her.

But that didn't mean the Bureau would expend huge resources to help Li Cheng with the Worm Lord's divine corruption just because of her.

"Still..."

Li Cheng thought for a moment. "Can you use legal means to transfer cash into some ordinary person's account?"

"Who? Yourself?"

"No—a friend."

Li Cheng recalled the bank account number from Zhao Shu's salary card during his pastry shop job and gave it to Yuan Zhixia. "Transfer a million. I'll pay you in game currency."

Large, unexplained fund transfers usually trigger bank alerts—but with Yuan Zhixia's computer skills and Bureau status, this was no issue.

"One hundred game coins equal about 1.25 million on the black market. The money will be legally transferred to this account within two days."

Yuan Zhixia memorized the account number without writing anything down. "Anything else?"

Li Cheng hesitated. "... What about Yang Ling?"

(End of Chapter)