Life Dungeon Game

Reed handed the tablet computer to the officer in front of him; the computer was displaying pages of documents that appeared to be reports.

"That guy went back to town?"

The officer glanced through the documents, then his face showed shock. "If he returns safely, then our special operations team..."

"Our men may have been completely wiped out."

Reid calmly said, "Theoretically, once he runs away, it's unlikely he'll come back. He has no vested interests with us. His return can only prove one thing: either he's back to retrieve something he didn't take, or he's back for 'revenge'."

"The records show he has a daughter, but this time he came back alone..." The officer pondered for a moment, "Could it be that his daughter was taken by our..."

people···"

"That's a possibility."

Reed pondered for a moment, "If that's the case, then we're in a situation where we're locked in a life-or-death struggle with him. He must have obtained some kind of extraordinary item in the wilderness, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to take down our special forces team."

"Of course, it's also possible that his daughter didn't die, and he just came back to 'eliminate' us."

"He probably doesn't know about our relationship with the group yet. Given our current strength, it's possible that he could defeat us if he were to be strengthened."

"Then what do we do?"

The officer was clearly flustered. He suppressed his emotions and asked as calmly as possible.

“Don’t panic,” Reed glanced at his expression and laughed. “No matter how powerful he is, he’s just a person. He can’t escape my grasp.”

He took the tablet back from the officer. "After reading these reports, what do you think we should do?"

“The report says several spies spotted him; he went to Newkel Street,” the officer said, head bowed, attempting to analyze the situation. “We should strike first and take men there to catch him…”

The officer mouthed a "bang," then added, "But Newkel Street is the busiest area in Leicester City. How are we going to find him? If we make too much of a fuss, it'll easily attract the attention of the FBI."

“Actually, finding him isn’t difficult,” Reed smiled. “He has ‘old acquaintances’ on Newkel Street.”

He opened his tablet, pulled up a photo, and saw a man in a suit, smoking a cigar, with slightly graying hair, and a somewhat arrogant smile.

"Romerk, the chairman of the Limen City Construction Guild, was born into a gang. He used to be a henchman for the Shalang Gang. Later, he went into construction on his own and spent decades becoming the biggest construction boss in Limen City."

"He is very good at controlling costs and avoiding responsibility. He will use inferior materials if he can, and avoid making certain structures if he can. Even if it is necessary, he will find a way to make it 'optional'."

Similarly, if he can avoid being responsible to his employees, he will never be responsible to them.

"He registered and controlled a large number of small professional employer companies through cross-shareholding and nominee shareholding, and then signed his construction workers under these professional employer companies, which then 'dispatched' the employees to work on his project sites."

"In this way, the employee's responsibility for hiring shifts from his main project company to these professional employer companies, which are the direct employers of the employee."

"Then he kept the assets of these professional employer companies very low, so that if an employee had an accident and he had to pay compensation, he could directly declare the professional employer company bankrupt and liquidate it to avoid debt liability."

"And the remaining employees will be hired by their other professional employers."

"Because of this guy's terrible character and his shoddy workmanship, it's common for his employees to get into trouble, and he saves a lot of compensation money by doing this."

"And most of those employees didn't have high levels of education, initially..."

They all believed they were employed by his main company, only realizing after the incident that they had been "dispatched" to work.

At this point, Reed chuckled, "And our Mr. 'Pet' had a father who worked for Mr. Romack and was seriously injured in the line of duty, but he didn't receive much compensation, and his father died not long afterward."

"You mean Pete will go to Romerk?" The officer understood the logic.

"If he wants revenge on us, he's no longer bound by rules and could very well eliminate his old enemies. But if we can guess that easily, wouldn't his target be too obvious?"

“Yes,” Reed sat back down in his chair, looking at the bright sunshine outside the window.

"But the most dangerous place is actually the safest place, isn't it? We could easily guess that he was going to find his enemy, so we would think that he wouldn't expose himself so easily, and wouldn't go to such an obvious place. But he went there instead, which was unexpected."

"Then I'll take my men there right away."

The officer straightened up abruptly.

"Not urgent."

Reed waved to stop him.

"Ok?"

The officer looked puzzled.

Don't you think a lot of people have seen him?

Swiss asked softly, his tone calm.

"Oh? Indeed."

Upon hearing this, the officer seemed to recall something as well. "All the spies we sent to follow him lost track of him before. Even the shadowy figures were eliminated by him. Although the situation of our spies in the dark and him in the light had an impact, it is still a bit too unreasonable that so many people saw his whereabouts this time."

“What if…” Reed placed his hand on the table, “What if he deliberately let us see this?”

"Um!?"

The officer was startled.

“Think about it, what if he deliberately exposed himself to us?”

Reed didn't turn to look at the officer beside him, still gazing at the bright sunlight outside the window. He seemed to be talking to the officer, but also seemed to be talking to himself.

"The fact that he was able to take down our special forces team proves that he is very strong now. In order to deal with such a powerful person, I have to send out most of my forces. He should also have an assessment of our strength."

“But if we send our main forces to Newkel Street to surround and kill him, then the research institute…”

Reed turned to the officer beside him. "And who will be responsible for the defense?"

The officer was startled. "You mean this is a diversionary tactic? His goal is to lure our main force away and then attack the research institute?"

“Yes,” Reed smiled, “to judge a person’s behavior, you must look at his ultimate goal. He didn’t come back just to take revenge on Romörk. The real focus is on us. We are a far greater threat to him than Romörk.”

“As long as we are here, he will not be able to eat well or sleep well. He is very smart and can distinguish between what is important and what is not.”

"So what should we do now?" The officer felt a little confused. "Send everyone back to the research institute? That seems like the safest option."

. "

“This is the safest approach,” Reed seemed to fall into deep thought again, “but passively taking hits will only make us more passive, and… I feel like something’s not quite right…”

officer:???

What do you mean, "moreover"?

Seeing the officer's bewildered expression, Reed smiled gently and slowly voiced his concern, "What if we anticipate that his 'luring the tiger away from the mountain' strategy is also within his own calculations?"

officer:

Are you guys building a skyscraper in your heads? How come there are layer upon layer?

"If my current thinking is all within his plan, then our actions of shrinking our forces and returning to defend the research institute will also be within his plan."

Reed pondered for a moment.

"But what good does he get out of doing this?" the officer couldn't help but ask. "As long as we return to the research institute, we will be invincible. He can't possibly defeat us inside the institute."

"Yes, what's in it for him?"

Reed continued to ponder, seemingly also at a loss. He opened the tablet again with his free hand and accessed Pete's personal information once more.

Suddenly, an idea flashed in his mind.

"He is a father..."

He pondered for a moment, then looked up at the officer. "Remember our earlier guess? His daughter might have died in the wilderness, but she might still be alive..."

He suddenly became excited, stood up like a child who had won a chess game, pointed at Pete's information on the tablet, and spoke with an upturned tone.

"If his daughter were still alive, and you were a good father, what would be the first thing you should do when you are about to do something dangerous?"

"Find a safe place to protect my daughter?"

The officer pondered.

"Where would you put your daughter? Where would be a safe place?"

Reid asked further.

"The wilderness?" the officer said tentatively, then immediately shook his head. "The wilderness is too chaotic. If I were to do something dangerous, my life or death would be uncertain. Leaving my daughter there would likely mean certain death."

"Yes, then you'll have to take your daughter back to the city."

Reed laughed and said, "So where will you put your daughter?"

“The FBI? No, if I take them to the FBI, they will have to explain my identity, and then I won’t be able to do what I’m about to do.”

The officer pondered, "Besides, since Pete has concealed his identity for so long, there must be something he can't reveal. The FBI isn't a good place for him, at least not while he was alive."

Thinking about this, he seemed a little slow to react. "Where would he leave his daughter? Just anywhere? Is there anywhere safer than anywhere else?"

“Yes,” Reed smiled and opened the map app.

“Pet is a bold and meticulous man. He exposed himself to us alone in order to mislead us and make us believe that his daughter was ‘dead.’”

"Only then can he continue with the rest of his operations. His daughter is his only weakness, so he will definitely try to protect her in the safest possible place, for example,"

He pointed to one of the addresses marked on the map software and said, "Home."

"But he"

"Not everything around our house is ours..."

The officer paused mid-sentence, then said slowly,

"We set up sentry posts near his home to see if he had returned. If he has returned, then these sentry posts are meaningless. If we really withdraw our forces as planned, most of these sentry posts will be redeployed."

"If he succeeds in misleading us into thinking his daughter is dead, he won't pay much attention to his family, and it would be easy for him to bypass the remaining checkpoints."

"Then as long as his activity area is not near his home, we will not think that anyone is at his house. And after the last time we went into his house and were arrested by the police, we will not easily break into his house."

"So his house may seem dangerous, but it is actually very safe."

"The most dangerous place is actually the safest place."

“Not bad,” Reed praised approvingly, and continued.

"If we shrink our power according to his plan, how can we defend against him? You think we are invincible, but we are not. The research institute also needs to 'do business'. As long as he keeps causing trouble, our 'business' cannot be carried out. We will have to send people to stop him. As long as the timeline is extended, he will eat us up bit by bit, like ants eating an elephant."

"This person's mind is somewhat terrifying."

The officer couldn't help but sigh.

"Yes, if he were truly all alone, it would be very difficult for us to deal with him. Unfortunately, he has a daughter."