“There are suddenly a lot more police around here. Did something happen?”

The Vault put on a helpless expression, pulled out her student ID, and said, “It’s really me. I’m a student at C University, majoring in chemical engineering. Do you want me to explain the development technology of fluidized bed reactors to you?”

The officer’s eyes lit up at her casual suggestion, thinking it made a lot of sense. Nancy Dawson had been in prison since the age of 16; not only did he not go to college, he hadn’t even finished high school, and probably didn’t even know what a fluidized bed reactor was.

Even if the player doing the impersonation knew, using knowledge far beyond the character’s level to escape pursuit would still count as OOC.

“Then go ahead and explain.”

The Vault and the people around her all burst out laughing. She picked out some relevant points and talked about them, including the pros and cons.

The young officer wasn’t from a related field, so he was completely lost, but some of the technical terms sounded impressive. He handed the ID back to The Vault and said, “It’s fine, you can go.”

The Vault waved her hand. “Thanks, comrade.”

Just as the traffic light turned green, The Vault straightened her drooping sleeves and, with her clothes fluttering, walked across the street.

Once she was out of sight, the officer covered his earpiece and bragged to his colleagues, “Guys, I just discovered a quick and effective way to spot an academic slacker!”

Everyone started discussing it noisily, and in the end, they all admired their colleague’s cleverness.

“That actually makes sense!”

“Nancy Dawson only finished the first year of high school, right? After all these years, he’s probably forgotten everything. Would it work to test him with college entrance exam questions?”

“Can you even take classes in prison? High school’s not guaranteed, better stick to college-level stuff.”

“Come on, most people can tell at a glance. How face-blind are you that you need to rely on knowledge? Are you trying to give slackers a way out?”

Over the comms, Julian Grant chimed in, sounding rather confused: “Who told you guys that Nancy Dawson is an academic slacker?”

Everyone: “…Huh?”

“Isn’t it obvious? He’s been in prison.”

Julian Grant was silent for a long time, then said, “He’s actually very intelligent. He’s already self-studied part of the college curriculum and even has dedicated tutors.”

Wallace Franklin also interjected at this point: “The player portraying Nancy Dawson has extremely strong psychological resilience. Everyone, don’t let your guard down!”

Everyone responded in agreement and went back to their work.

Chapter 49 Driving

Seeing The Vault walk openly out of the encirclement, netizens wore blank expressions, spamming petrified emojis in the comments.

It felt like charging up a big move for ages only to find it’s useless, or spending ten thousand yuan on a lottery only to win a hundred-yuan coupon.

That’s it??

As expected, a true academic slacker doesn’t even realize where they went wrong on a question, and still mocks others for not knowing the answer.

…The frustrating part was, they themselves couldn’t connect the made-up Nancy Dawson after makeup with the down-and-out young man in the photo, which made the scene sting a bit.

“So naive. The player is naive, and so are the NPCs. By the way, isn’t it a bit shameless to steal an NPC’s ID card?”

“This just proves: if you judge a top student with a slacker’s mindset, you’ll get burned. So don’t look down on people.”

“A top student’s drive to learn isn’t affected by their environment!”

“Look at them—even in prison, they’re thinking about studying, while you can’t even focus on a livestream. [pointing fingers]”

“Leaving behind a crocodile tear. Sympathy.”

“Is Harry Forrest really this motivated? [surprised husky]”

“We still don’t know what the genius has secretly learned behind our backs.”

“My mom lied to me. She said if I didn’t study hard, I’d end up like Harry Forrest. [blowing nose] She was overthinking it. Looks like I’m hopeless.”

·

The outskirts of the commercial street were still bustling. There was a top-tier hospital nearby, so naturally, many related restaurants and shops had sprung up around it. A bus stopped at the station, and a noisy crowd got off.

The Vault didn’t go any further, instead finding a spot without surveillance and stopping by the street.

There weren’t many police officers conducting checks inside the commercial district, and their actions didn’t seem to have a clear target, which meant they weren’t the main force—just doing a rough sweep in hopes of getting lucky. After all, with the holiday crowds, relying on random checks inside the commercial area would easily lead to mistakes and was unrealistic.

There were a hundred people on the other side—not too many, not too few. To be efficient, manpower had to be concentrated at the most important hubs.

The police had already confirmed she was still in the commercial district, so there probably weren’t many officers sent to the train station or airport.

If it were The Vault herself, she would have set up checks at every exit out of the city, inspecting citizens leaving town one-way.

So, the further out you went, the higher the chance of running into police. She couldn’t always be lucky enough to run into rookie players who were face-blind and easy to fool.

The Vault leaned against a pillar, her gaze lazily sweeping over the street.

A black car followed the traffic and stopped in a newly vacated spot in front of The Vault. After the taillights went out, a middle-aged man got out from the driver’s seat, and then the back door opened—a woman and two children happily got out.

The middle-aged man held the keys, waiting by the roadside for his family. Once everyone was out, he pressed the door switch and bent down to pick up a child.

The Vault quickly walked over, tripping on the uneven pavement and stumbling forward, about to crash into the middle-aged man.

She let out a startled cry, making the man turn around.

Seeing her about to bump into him, the man’s eyes widened and his face froze, but he reacted quickly. With his child behind him, he couldn’t dodge, so he immediately raised his hands to catch The Vault, and the keys in his hand conveniently fell to the ground.

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” The Vault quickly steadied herself, trying to stand up straight, but in her panic, she stepped on her own hem and almost fell again.

She looked clumsy, tidying her clothes while moving to the side, apologizing nonstop: “I didn’t mean to. I think I tripped on something. Are you okay, sir?”

The man said, “I’m fine. You should be more careful when walking.”

The Vault turned away, picked up the keys from the ground first, her hands hidden under her long sleeves, shaking them to get the cuffs out. She handed the keys back, giving an embarrassed smile: “Your keys—sorry for scaring you.”

The man took them, but before he could look closely, The Vault pulled two small toys from her bag and said, “I was planning to give these little toys to the kids—I won them in a raffle earlier. Let me give them to you as an apology.”

Now the man felt embarrassed and politely declined: “That’s too kind, there’s no need!”

“It’s fine, I was going to give them away anyway. I’m not really into these little toys.” The Vault insisted, handing them over with a bright, harmless smile. She praised, “Your daughters are so cute.”

“Daddy, I want one!”

Seeing they weren’t anything valuable, the man put the keys back in his pocket and accepted the toys.

“Well… thank you, then.”

The Vault said, “It’s nothing. Have a great time.”

She waved to the kids behind, and the two little girls beamed and waved back enthusiastically. The Vault lifted her hem and got ready to leave, overhearing the couple’s faint conversation.

“Do young people like dressing like this nowadays?”

“He looks so handsome in it! If you had that face, I’d let you wear it too.”

The man said aggrievedly, “…Let’s not, okay?”

Not long after the family left, The Vault reappeared, now dressed in a shirt and suit.

She wore a mask, her posture upright and imposing. Even in an oversized shirt, she looked perfectly natural.

She strode up to the black car, covered her mouth to cough twice, glanced at the passersby on both sides, then opened the car door and got in.

·

Netizens felt they’d learned a lot of seemingly useful but actually unusable tricks from The Vault—after all, the law wouldn’t allow it.

“Huh? How did she get the keys?”

“Earlier, the boss bought a bunch of key models while shopping. When she picked up the keys just now, she quietly swapped them.”

“NPCs are there to provide equipment. Learned something new. [mission accomplished]”

“Pickpocketing skills! [eyes light up] You really need a skill to make it in the world. So, which school teaches this?”

“She’s so skilled it’s suspicious. Boss, do you know too much?”

“Human nature is too sinister. [sigh]”

“It’s mainly because this character model is so good-looking. Try it with someone who looks sleazy—would it still work?”

“But I remember the boss said in the last instance that she couldn’t drive. [numb] Is she really going to crash this time?”