Lucy's expression shifted from surprise to confusion, and then to resignation, as she said to the vendor,

"Wait here for a moment."

After speaking, she turned and went into the back room. A few minutes later, she came out holding a bundle of red flags printed with a 3D printer.

These were originally intended for the player of the month, but unexpectedly, they were going to a street vendor.

On the red flag were five large yellow characters:

"Outstanding Partner"

"[In recognition of your hard work and dedication, our company is awarding this for one week only]"

A flowing red flag, along with a gratitude of 500 Euro gold.

To prevent retaliation, it didn't specify why the flag was awarded or who it was from, and it was even time-limited.

"This is your reward, please keep it safe. The flag can be hung at your store entrance for one month, after which someone will retrieve it."

"This...?"

The vendor could understand being given money, but what was the deal with the flag?

And why retrieve it after a month?

After some hesitation, the vendor still accepted the red flag and the reward.

But upon returning to his stall, he couldn't find a suitable place for the red flag, so he just found a spot outside the stall and hung it there with a piece of wire.

After using a translation package to read the large Chinese characters on the flag, Louis, who clearly had no significant interests with that company, felt a sense of honor and confidence rise within him.

Standing before the red flag, his back, once bent by life's burdens, straightened just a little.

...

Kanbar connected the data cable to the network gateway he found. These network installations were ubiquitous throughout the city; nearly every store had one, a necessity for accessing the city network.

But it was also through these external network gateways that hackers often uploaded the Puppet Virus, stealing the store's bank accounts.

As Kanbar uploaded his consciousness into the network, he immediately sensed something was amiss.

Data streams from all directions smashed into him chaotically; the turbulence of 0's and 1's could trigger alarms upon contact, with the activated ICE immediately locking onto the intruder.

Though Kanbar believed he wouldn't easily fall to their ICE, it was better to be cautious.

He split his data form into seven or eight parts, dispersing in all directions, and then regrouped into a human form at a distance.

This was a common trick for escaping ICE lockdown. Back in the day, Spider Murphy used it to split and reassemble Ote's data out of Oracle.

However, Kanbar's trick didn't work here because, unlike the city network, this private network and its infrastructure belonged to someone.

From the moment he entered, there was no escape.

Kanbar's data form froze in mid-air, flickering like a network with latency, and then disappeared.

"Warning, you have entered a special high-risk instance. Capture or defeat the intruding hacker; instance reward is 500 GP points, 1500 Euro gold."

Upon entering Phoenix Club to role-play Batman's parents, the teammates were stunned, not understanding why.

Sword Saint: "Special instance? What's going on? I didn't hear from the Wildmen that this instance had special conditions?"

Parents Exchange Coupon: "It might be a probability issue; the chance is so low that no one has encountered it."

Masked Rider: "Unlikely, considering their previous instance records numbered at least 8,000 to 10,000. It doesn't make sense for us to be the first hit; I think it might be new version content that wasn't written in the patch notes. Anyway, it's not the first time."

Sword Saint nodded, watching the bustling virtual NPCs in the street.

"Makes sense, but an intruding hacker—what's that about, like Pandora and them? I heard they bunkered in Cyberspace. Is it possible?"

T800 Arnold pointing dumbly above the four: "What's that up there?"

It was then that the other three looked up. Four black and red code spheres floated above their heads.

"Damn, isn't that going to hatch a digital egg?"

Sword Saint, his mind inexplicably leaping to Digimon, felt it looked more and more similar.

He jumped up to grab the code sphere, though he caught nothing.

But the code sphere followed his hand, enveloping his whole body into a large cocoon.

Next to him, Masked Rider exclaimed, "Damn, it really is a digital egg, and a fourth-gen one too!"

Parents Exchange Coupon circled the red cocoon. "Is it possible that this is actually a trap left by the intruding hacker, that Sword Saint is bleeding inside and is actually crying for help?"

He finished speaking, and only then did Arnold, late to realize, shout in surprise,

"He's been eaten!"

"..."

"..."

Excuse the only player so far with an initial intelligence below 3, just 2.

Envy the strength of 7? Intelligence was traded for it.

In the one or two seconds the three remained stunned, the red code enclosing Sword Saint scattered and disappeared. The reappearing Sword Saint now had white hair, a white robe, and a staff, fully transformed. If it weren't for the name Great Britain Sword Saint over his head, Masked Rider and Parents Exchange Coupon would have opened fire already.

Sword Saint raised his long staff high and shouted excitedly,

"Ho ho ho, the Great Magician Merlin is born!"

As he completed his transformation, the voice of the hacker mentor Lucy also came from the sky,

"This is the special super-dream equipment distributed to you, which will grant varying degrees of data based on individual capabilities, to aid in defeating hostile hackers and disrupting server data cores."

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