The client's silhouette had completely vanished beyond the horizon.
Su Jin was jostled back and forth like a wooden puppet in the roaring crowd, his blood running ice-cold.
The moment the teleportation vertigo faded and he spotted the client through the sea of bodies, his instincts had screamed that something was wrong.
He had shoved and violently forced his way through the mob, but he still hadn't managed to get within speaking distance.
They called the client 'Young Master.' His status was undeniably elite. With thousands of peasants seeing him off... he was definitely deploying on a long-term campaign.
Wait... now that the VIP is gone, what the hell do I do?
A hollow void of panic swallowed Su Jin’s mind.
His second deployment, and the Company had instantly handed him a logistical nightmare.
Just as he forced his breathing to steady, a passing peasant shoved him hard, making him stumble. A ruthless glare flashed in his eyes.
These unwashed mud-crawlers. The rich kid is rolling out in a luxury convoy, what the fuck are they celebrating for?
If this mob hadn't blocked the street, he would have already initiated contact and secured a position as an honored guest.
Su Jin reached out and snatched the shoulder of a man beside him. The peasant immediately whipped around with a deadly glare. "What do you want?"
"My mistake, brother. Thought you were someone else."
He released the man, pivoted, and grabbed a scrawny, cowardly-looking peasant who looked too impoverished to fight back. Su Jin snarled, "I'm asking you a question. Who was the guy that just flew away?"
Panic seized the frail man's face. "Who doesn't know him? That's Young Master Shen Yufeng of the Zhenguo Estate... Do you have business with him?"
"Do you know where he deployed?"
"To Jiuzhao City... Brother, what exactly do you want?"
"How far is Jiuzhao City? What are his orders?"
"It's over a thousand miles north! He's going to take command of the garrison, everyone knows this... Brother, if you have a problem, just spit it out!"
"Get lost!"
Su Jin shoved the man aside, violently pushing his way out of the suffocating crowd with a face like thunder.
Over a thousand miles... This is a fatal operational error.
If the extraction timer wasn't so generous, he would just find a quiet alley and slit his own throat right now.
Thank God he brought the RV. Even if the local infrastructure was nonexistent, he could still make the drive in a few weeks.
The mission was still salvageable. If he reached the client, he would still have over a hundred days to establish a defensive perimeter.
The VIP had extracted on a flying biological asset. There was zero chance of intercepting him mid-route. He had to head straight to the destination.
Priority one: Secure local intelligence and map the parameters of this world.
The dense street crowds were finally thinning out. Su Jin scanned the local attire, then silently slipped into an abandoned alleyway.
After confirming the perimeter was secure, he tapped the spot on his finger where the ring rested and focused his mind.
The inventory of his sub-space storage bloomed into his consciousness.
Alongside his forged identification documents, the Company had fronted him several heavy silver ingots.
With a thought, Su Jin materialized a silver ingot and his tactical knife. He shaved off a few small chips and pocketed them in his jacket.
As he pulled his hand out, he froze, rooted to the spot as a critical flaw dawned on him.
A holographic shimmer washed over him. His coarse burlap robe glitched, briefly revealing his high-tech tactical suit before cloaking him in burlap again.
The Heavenly Evolution Cloak was neurologically linked, which seemed impressive on paper, but it was just projecting a cheap optical illusion.
The second someone bumped into him, they would feel the ballistic plating beneath the hologram. Procuring genuine local garments was a tactical necessity.
Furthermore, the poverty rate in this city was staggering. If silver was the fiat currency, wearing an intricate spatial ring in the open was asking to be targeted.
After a moment of grim calculation, Su Jin slid the ring off his finger and shoved it deep into his trousers.
Back in his apartment, his paranoia had driven him to replace his entire wardrobe with anti-theft tactical underwear, prepping for exactly this kind of apocalyptic worst-case scenario.
Hidden pockets. Heavy-duty zippers. The investment was finally paying off.
The ultimate Doomsday Survival Kit.
After a final gear check, Su Jin stepped out of the shadows and began strolling down the dust-choked avenue.
Foot traffic was still heavy, with dozens of street hawkers aggressively pitching their wares.
He filtered the ambient noise, logging snippets of civilian conversation to map the local dialect, before finally halting outside a textile shop.
He stepped inside. A clerk swept his gaze over Su Jin’s short hair and holographic peasant rags, immediately adopting an icy, dismissive posture.
"What do you want?"
"Procure me four sets of garments. Two high-end, two standard civilian grade... I don't have time to fit them. Use your eyes. If the quality is acceptable, you keep the change. Understand?" Su Jin pinched a silver chip and casually flicked it.
"Ah! Yes, sir! Please wait a moment, honored guest!"
The clerk’s eyes lit up with predatory greed, his customer service protocols instantly activating.
He orbited Su Jin twice, rapidly assessing his measurements, before pulling four distinct outfits from the racks.
One set: a dark brocade robe lined with cloud motifs, matching black satin boots, and a carved, high-brimmed coronet.
One set: a woven blue-and-white jacket. The final two sets: coarse, ash-gray linen tunics complete with cloth shoes, headwraps, and sashes.
"Honored guest, is this to your satisfaction?" the clerk groveled. "Shall I wrap these now, or have them couriered to your estate?"
"Acceptable. Keep the change." Su Jin tossed the silver onto the counter. "Point me to a fitting room. Then go mind the register and don't bother me."
"Right away, sir!" The clerk bowed, eagerly escorting Su Jin to a back chamber.
After reverse-engineering the archaic layers in the cramped room, Su Jin successfully equipped the standard civilian loadout.
He cinched the sash tight around his waist and wrapped the cloth around his head. A flawless local integration.
Finally, he shoved the remaining garments, boots, and coronet straight into his crotch storage.
His paranoia placated, Su Jin smoothed his robes and marched back onto the street.
As an upper-middle-class corporate earner on Earth, his purchasing power in this medieval economy was absolutely dominating.
He should have smuggled in a crate of cheap Earth trinkets; liquidating them for local capital would have been a joke.
My trans-dimensional operational experience is still lacking. Note to self for the next drop.
Su Jin stood calmly on the thoroughfare, running continuous threat assessments on his environment.
The solar output and ambient humidity indicated a summer climate. Gravity was a 1:1 match with Earth.
Heavy infantry units in plated armor were actively patrolling the sector.
In the distance, towering battlements segmented the skyline. A city within a city... The imperial palace?
As his eyes scanned the horizon, Su Jin squinted. His gaze locked onto a massive, blurred silhouette suspended high in the clouds.
A mountain... was that a mountain? A mountain suspended in the stratosphere?
This was a high-fantasy hazard zone. The biological transport the VIP had extracted on was massive.
According to standard aerodynamic physics, a creature of that mass shouldn't be able to achieve liftoff.
To defy gravity like that, barring literal magic, meant the beast’s raw biomechanical output was terrifying.
Any civilization capable of domesticating apex predators in a medieval setting had to possess equally monstrous infantry capabilities.
He needed to capture a local asset for interrogation. Extracting actionable intel was paramount.
Su Jin stroked his chin, calculating his approach...
It wouldn't be difficult. The avenue was lined with taverns. The street food was biologically standard—steamed buns and carbohydrate-heavy rations.
They were all mammals with identical caloric needs. Snagging a civilian for a drink tonight was the optimal play.
He had packed high-proof industrial liquor from Earth. Intoxicating a target and breaking their operational security would take minutes.
He would run a reconnaissance sweep of the streets first to map the cultural baseline.
....
Nightfall. Outside the Yunlai Tavern.
Su Jin held his position in the shadows across the street, maintaining a stakeout.
After twelve hours of covert observation, he had mapped the local economic index. Now, he just needed a live Q&A session to crack the world's underlying mechanics.
This specific tavern was priced for the middle class. Based on his data collection, the peasant caste couldn't afford to dine here, and the illiteracy rate was catastrophic.
Therefore, the patrons here possessed disposable income and basic education. Targeting a bourgeois civilian was the most efficient way to gather intel.
After an extended stakeout, a tragically average man—average face, average clothes, average aura—approached the tavern alone.
His body language lacked the urgency of a scheduled meeting. He was a solo diner. The perfect target.
Su Jin locked onto his mark and charged forward. At the last second, he feigned a trip, diving toward the dirt.
"Whoa there!"
With a violent, calculated yank, the man stepping into the tavern suddenly felt a freezing draft hit his lower half.
A pair of pale buttocks flashed in the moonlight, instantly sparking an uproar of gasps and shouts from the street.
Su Jin stroked his chin, deep in thought...