After choosing the initial reward, the text in front of him slowly dissipated, transforming into a white mark that landed in the lower-left corner of Gu Ji's field of vision. At the same time, a new prompt sound chimed in:
[New Objective: Survive for 20 minutes!]
And then...
That's it?
No task description, no rewards or penalties, not even a mission guide, just a brief message of four or five characters.
It seems this really is an open-world game with a high degree of freedom, where a lot of information requires the player to explore on their own.
This results in the outcome: Gu Ji has no idea about the impending crisis.
There is too little information to perform effective analysis.
"Found it!"
While Gu Ji was contemplating these things, two Black men finally retrieved a DSLR camera from the bag and handed it to a woman who appeared to be their supervisor.
It was a Leica Q2, with a hefty price tag.
The female supervisor played with it for a few seconds, then cunningly looked over, "Sir, in Ethiopia, bringing a professional camera into the country requires preregistration and a three thousand Birr tax payment."
Ethiopia?
Africa?
"Ding ding ding~ Attention passengers on flight TK6778 to Abuja, boarding begins now; please bring your carry-on items and boarding pass to gate 6 for boarding. Have a pleasant journey, thank you! Ding ding ding..."
It's the airport broadcast!
The timely announcement outside, combined with the ticket in his pocket, finally brought Gu Ji the first piece of definitive information.
This is the Old Capital International Airport in Ethiopia, and they are airport security personnel.
"Sir! Did you hear me clearly? Please pay the camera tax!"
The Black female supervisor repeated her message slowly, shaking the Leica deliberately, as if to say: If you don't pay, don't think about taking it away!
This game's AI is really well done, with rich character expressions and non-stiff dialogues.
Of course, even crossing dimensions happened, so having a few high-intelligence NPCs isn't surprising.
Gu Ji stared at the camera for a while, thinking it might be one of the plot tasks, and began speaking in the English he learned in college, word by word:
"Firstly, this is not airport customs. In other words, I've already passed through customs successfully, and they found no issue with me; secondly, tax collection is the duty of tax officials, what right do you security personnel have to collect taxes? I need to contact your airport's duty manager, otherwise, no talks!"
From their greedy expressions, he could tell there was something fishy here. In reality, incidents involving airport personnel unlawfully fining travelers in certain countries are not uncommon news reports.
But showing off his eloquence wasn't Gu Ji's main purpose—it's just a game NPC.
His real goal was to escalate the matter to draw the attention of the airport's duty manager, thus gaining the upper hand at the first sign of crisis.
The female supervisor seemed surprised by this tourist's firm attitude and meticulous logic, as well as his deep understanding of airport operations.
Speechless for a moment, she gave a look to the bald Black man sitting behind the desk, who knowingly put away his phone and slowly got up from his chair.
Gu Ji's eyelids twitched.
He saw it on the bald man's waist, a gun!!
The five-pointed star on the black grip identified it as a Makarov pistol, commonly abbreviated as PM pistol, well-known, but Gu Ji had learned more about it in his weaponry class: 9mm caliber, holds 8 rounds, simple structure, low cost, stable performance, small size, even imitated by Xia Kingdom as the Type 59 pistol.
The PM was once a required weapon for Russian police and military but was retired due to its weaker stopping power, though it's still widely used in third-world countries by police and civilian markets.
So, this bald uncle is an airport policeman.
Is this a game-arranged event to give me a gun?
Just as Gu Ji was worried about how to acquire a decent weapon for self-defense.
Bang—!
Da da da da da!
"Ah!!"
"Help!"
Outside the door, sudden explosions like fireworks erupted, accompanied by the shrill screams of people and the sound of glass shattering, turning the airport hall chaotic.
All of the security personnel, including the bald policeman, were stunned, without exception.
Gu Ji was the first to react.
One, two, three...
He heard at least one shotgun and three or four automatic rifles firing simultaneously!!
The number of assailants exceeded four, and all were armed with standard firearms, judged by police danger level: 3, which is the highest danger level, calling for weapon control as a response.
But right now, not to mention firearms, he didn't even have a knife!
The gunfire quickly approached the vicinity of the office, and the airport, lacking effective security, stood no chance against a gang of insurgents wielding automatic rifles; stepping out now would be tantamount to becoming a live target.
"Find cover, quickly!"
Gu Ji shouted, quickly glanced around, and locked on to the wardrobe inside the room as the best hiding spot, despite its worn-out, paper-thin metal shell. "No time, just have to gamble!"
Taking a breath, he silenced and turned off his phone, quickly opened the door, and slipped inside.
Thankfully, the character's physique was relatively balanced, and the wardrobe's vertical space was tall enough to barely fit him.
Inside the wardrobe, the smell of sweat and cheap cigarettes assaulted his nostrils as he parted the shirts. Through the horizontal ventilation slits on the door, he could peer inside the room.
None of the Blacks heeded his warning, remaining petrified on the spot with eyes wide, breaths quick, as their bodies trembled uncontrollably with the gunfire, shivering with fear.
The female supervisor was even more terrified, collapsing against the table edge as if she was going to sink into it.
Such behavior, though foolish, is the most common phenomenon of people encountering crises, known as the freeze response.
When the brain receives a large volume of highly intense stimuli in a short time, it needs time to process this information before proceeding to the next step of thinking about how to protect itself.
Like how deer freeze in headlights, or rabbits feign death with all fours up when startled—this is an instinct etched in biological genes. Only those with special training like military, police, or firefighters can react quickly.
The bald policeman swallowed hard, pulling out the PM pistol from his waist with sweat streaming down his head. "Quick... back up..."
Before he could finish, one of the Black security guards, unable to withstand the pressure, fled in a panic.
Gu Ji wanted to stop him, knowing that stepping out now meant certain death.
But it was too late.
Within seconds.
Accompanied by heavy breathing, a figure retreated hesitantly from outside the door into the room.
Black work pants, black shirt jacket, close-cropped curls over his scalp—it was the back of that security guy.
"Mo... Mori, why are you..."
Before the other security guard could finish his sentence, he had fully retreated into the security room, sweat as big as soybeans on his forehead trembling with his fear-stricken body, swaying.
He stiffly twisted his head, locking eyes with the other.
Da da!
The gunfire erupted outside, and Mori's skull was instantly blasted open, erupting in a spray of blood.
Blood mixed with red and white matter splattered onto his companion's face.
"Ah! Ah—!"
The female supervisor froze for half a second before letting out a scream, but in the next moment, a cold gun barrel swiftly inserted, without any pause, da da da da...