[In the Age of Machines, intelligent programs have taken over everything. The one thing they can't replace is the secret agent. The dirtiest jobs can only be done by people.]
Secret agent Sui Yi was tired of living on the edge and spent all her time figuring out how to change careers.
You only get points by taking missions, and you can only buy out your contract with points.
She had no choice but to take them.
Mission after mission, as if she were scraping together her own ransom.
Until she received a new assignment: continue her education.
Only then did she realize that all her hard-earned savings weren't for her freedom. They were for tuition.
She smiled at classmates with their own agendas and casually tossed away the listening device they'd planted on her.
During the test, she slowed her steps, looking like a rookie with stiff limbs.
When her opponent launched a surprise attack, the secret agent Sui Yi would have swiftly drawn the knife beside her.
But that would reveal how capable she was.
So she reached for the nearest watermelon rind and slammed it onto her opponent's head.
Classmate: That works?
Teacher: It could work.
A few days later, her move was added to A Thousand Things New Soldiers Should Never Do.
In the darkness, a strange eye was always watching her.
It didn't look at her like she was alive, but like she was someone who would die sooner or later, yet was still wasting her efforts.
Buy out her contract?
She would never get anywhere near that amount.
Until one day, the eye saw her pick up the listening device.
Amid the crackle of static, her voice came through:
"If all of you disappeared, I wouldn't have to buy out my contract, would I?"
Bonus:
Test 1: What should you do when someone doubts your identity?
Sui Yi: I'll tell them they're so clever!
Test 2: What should you do when someone threatens or bribes you?
Sui Yi: Then I'll have to switch sides immediately.
Reader's Guide: 1. The future technology is fictional, so please don't compare it to reality.
2. A high-IQ heroine in an unconventional battle of wits, turning a terrible hand into a royal flush.
3. A secret agent heroine who plays dumb while hiding her true abilities X a male lead who betrays others beneath his gentle exterior. The story is plot-focused, and the male lead appears relatively late.
4. Constant twists and turns, with lots of foreshadowing.
[Future espionage / factional infighting / dark comedy / playing dumb while hiding one's true abilities]
Theme: Break free from constraints and never surrender to fate
