Chapter 93: The Blueprint Behind the Wall Cloth
Gu Yu's face was filled with intense confidence. She believed no player would refuse such a good deal.
After all, the Mutual Aid Society didn't require much responsibility from its members—just helping each other find ticket items or going into instances together. It wasn't like being an official player, where you had to carry out government orders, even if it meant entering extremely dangerous instances.
Not having to pay a heavy price while still surviving—where else could you find such a good deal?
"If you're talking about a bunch of newbie players huddling together for warmth, then no thanks." Xu Huo turned and headed upstairs.
Gu Yu was stunned for a moment, then quickly chased after him. "Why? Your evolution rate is only 10%. Most of the Mutual Aid Society's members are above that number—they're all stronger than you. At least when you need help, someone will step up."
Xu Huo just smiled. "You only have one life, but instances are full of dangers. How many times do you think those Mutual Aid Society members you mentioned can actually help?"
"If every new member needs old members to support them, your core members won't be enough to fill the graves in those instances."
"Of course, we can't have someone escort every instance run, but for things like ticket items, the Mutual Aid Society can still provide channels. Even just offering a trading platform is a convenience." Gu Yu retorted.
"Then besides you, who else leads this Mutual Aid Society?" Xu Huo asked.
Gu Yu gritted her teeth and said, "There's also a D-level player, a good friend of mine."
"So, one of you provides the money, the other provides the effort. You want to use the slogan of mutual benefit to pull in a large number of players and control resources, right?" Xu Huo directly called out her intention.
"Don't make it sound so ugly." Gu Yu said with a dark expression. "Shouldn't players unite?"
"This game of Dimensional Rifts has become a disaster for all humanity. Besides the black and white players, cannibal players and cannibal evolvers keep appearing endlessly. If we don't band together in the early stages, things will only get harder later."
"Your words are both right and wrong." Xu Huo stopped on the stairs, two steps higher, and turned to look back at her. "It's true that players will face harder times ahead, but if you think you can single-handedly turn the tide for all humanity, honestly, you can't."
Gu Yu raised her face defiantly. "You're looking down on women."
"This has nothing to do with gender. No single person could do it."
"You think becoming a player makes you strong? Setting everything else aside, you can't even manage something as simple as providing a trading platform. One D-level player—two or three E-level players would be enough to deal with him."
"Moreover, do you know how many cannibal players have died at the hands of the government? They died under the guns and cannons of the so-called ordinary people you mentioned."
"So what?" Gu Yu said angrily, lowering her voice. "Just because it's hard, we shouldn't do it? Just because I'm weak, the things I want to do are laughable? Players aren't strong enough, but there are even more ordinary people—are they just supposed to wait for death?"
Xu Huo laughed in surprise. "That's not what I meant."
Gu Yu took two quick steps and brushed past him. "Forget it. Talking to someone as complacent as you is a waste of breath!"
She entered the room first and asked without turning back, "Is this the room you were talking about?"
"Yes—" Before Xu Huo could finish his sentence, he saw her pull out a gun and fire three shots at the wall.
The gun looked similar to an ordinary firearm, but when fired, it made little noise—closer to a paintball gun—and the bullets it shot also carried color.
Three cyan bullets turned into liquid upon hitting the wall, instantly melting a large hole through the wall cloth covering the black metal, revealing the dark metal beneath.
"That didn't work either?" Gu Yu frowned, then turned a colored dial under the gun grip to the white segment and fired once at the wall.
The white bullet dissolved like the cyan one, but the difference was that this white liquid melted a shallow depression into the black metal wall. The mixed black liquid that dripped down quickly dried on the floor, condensing into a long metal strip.
Gu Yu went over to test it, trying to break it but failing. She said smugly to Xu Huo, "This gun was bought through the Mutual Aid Society's channels."
"Impressive." Xu Huo gave a perfunctory reply, then walked over and lifted the edge of the wall cloth to look.
"Huh? There are drawings on this." Gu Yu glanced over.
"It's a blueprint." When Xu Huo had inspected the room earlier, he'd only lifted the corners of the wall cloth. He hadn't expected there to be something hidden in the middle.
He had Gu Yu move the things against the wall aside, then peeled off the entire wall cloth, revealing the complete blueprint.
"What are all these circles and lines supposed to be?" Gu Yu couldn't make sense of it.
"It's a circuit diagram, slightly different from the ones we commonly use." Xu Huo pointed at three spots. "Each of these three places has an underground cage, with a power switch nearby."
This diagram covered the entire wiring layout of Decibel Town. Every inch of ground beneath the town was filled with electrical wires, including the woods surrounding the town and even the outermost perimeter wall.
"Strange." His gaze lingered on the edge of the blueprint.
Gu Yu, who was trying to locate the power switches, stopped. "What's strange?"
"There are too many power switches in the perimeter wall." It wasn't unusual for the main gate to be powered, but having a power switch every twenty meters along the wall was very conspicuous.
"Maybe they're for mechanical assembly," Gu Yu said. "Otherwise, how would you install a wall that's seventy or eighty meters long?"
"But no matter how many switches there are, it's useless. There's no electricity anywhere in town, except those clocks are still ringing."
"If the switches for the underground cages work, we could just turn them off directly—no need to tear down the buildings."
"Can't turn them off." Xu Huo said. "Those are automatic switches. They close when the clocks chime and reopen when they stop. Since the clocks in town all work, the switches for the underground cages should be functioning normally too. Even if you force them closed, they'll open again when the time comes."
Gu Yu opened her mouth to say something, then heard him continue: "Destroying them is even worse. These wires are connected to the east and west gates. This instance's objective is to leave the town, and those two gates are currently the only apparent way out. If we accidentally burn out the gate mechanisms, it would be a loss that outweighs any gain."
"Besides, the switches are most likely underground. In a town this big, where would you even find the entrance?"
"All that excitement for nothing." Gu Yu finally managed to squeeze out a sentence, then slowly started moving the room's contents to other rooms. She planned to tear down all the wall cloths and check them.
Since they'd have to move things anyway, Xu Huo helped too, carrying out the toys, bedding, and the notes on the floor that Gu Yu hadn't noticed.
Soon, most of the room's contents were moved out. The two worked together to tear down the wall cloth, but this time they didn't find anything useful.
"It's about time." Xu Huo said. "We need to get out."
When they returned to the main street, the bus was already accelerating toward them. Lin Pei and the other two were on the bus as well—they had already explored the last area of the town.
Lin Pei said, "The xenomorph we found earlier is the same one that attacked us in the town mayor's office building. It seems there should only be three xenomorphs in the town so far."