Chapter 1046: Today's Me Is Not Yesterday's Me
If the number of laboratories was limited and they were all built beneath natural fortresses like the Dong family's, Xu Huo would find it as difficult as ascending to heaven to get in. But if there were such locations within city buildings, it would be much easier.
Of course, such places weren't necessarily where the children trained by Dr. Zhang were taken, but taking a gamble was fine.
"All water usage records for companies and residences in the city should be available at the Water Supply Bureau. Moreover, it's not easy to build an independent water supply system within the city, so whether it's a company or another location, water consumption should match its actual usage." Xu Huo said. "Even if records from a few years ago are gone, the approximate water usage of a company should be similar to that of a company of the same scale. If there's a significant difference, it means the building has hidden water consumption areas."
"Wouldn't it be very troublesome to find them without records?" Chi Minghong said. "These companies openly list their business operations, but behind the scenes, it's not necessarily the same. Companies of the same scale and with the same project construction might not have the same water consumption. Comparing them would take a lot of time."
"We can narrow down the targets as much as possible." Xu Huo said. "There shouldn't be many families capable of privately building living human laboratories. Focus on them and government institutions. Screening these targets won't be difficult."
Of course, it was impossible to lock onto a single target at once, but as long as the number wasn't too large, searching them one by one wouldn't be hard.
Chi Minghong, who was sprinting, suddenly stopped and pointed ahead.
They were still on the edge of Snow City, taking remote, sparsely populated paths. Although there were few people, they had already stopped three or four times on this stretch. Now, a patrol vehicle was passing by ahead.
There should be B-level or A-level players on the vehicle. Even though Xu Huo and the other had used silencing items, they were still discovered. This time, they weren't greeted by items but by real guns and artillery!
A high-destructive laser cannon blasted apart the wall corner in front of them. As the two retreated, a hail of bullets came at them. With a poison gas bomb exploding on the ground, Xu Huo and Chi Minghong were forced to split in two directions.
"Surround this area!" The player driving the vehicle shouted loudly. "Let me take two outer zone players' heads back to report for duty!"
There was more than one vehicle. The players on the vehicles spread out, coordinating with robots to block the main passages.
This area was residential. During the lockdown, the windows of residential buildings were sealed with special metal, and there were alarm systems inside. Abandoning the main roads and cutting through the buildings would risk being attacked from both front and back, making it difficult to escape easily.
The only feasible way was to open a gap in the encirclement.
"Boom!" On the other side, Chi Minghong had already tried to force her way through, but judging by the sound, she had been driven back.
Xu Huo glanced at the nearby residential building, quickly locked onto an empty room, put on the invisibility cloak, found a nearby alarm, used "Life Core" to destroy the internal wiring, and quickly slipped into the residential building before the players arrived.
"The alarm system in Building J2 has been damaged." The patrol players in District 002 quickly confirmed that the building's wiring had a problem and reported the inspection results to the player in the vehicle. "All the metal wiring inside the conduits has turned to powder. Looks like a player with an item capable of destroying metal objects."
"But there are no anomalies in the alarms of other buildings. The person should have entered J2."
"Then find the person." The player giving orders in the vehicle said. "Send in a squad. Twenty minutes to resolve it."
The patrol team was organized in groups of ten. The squad chosen laughed and joked. "Ten people and twenty minutes? Captain, are you underestimating us?"
"Don't underestimate outer zone players. Catching them is the real skill." The captain said.
The ten-person squad geared up, all saying they would finish the mission quickly.
However, after they shut down the elevator and searched three floors from bottom to top, someone suggested splitting up.
"Let's see who's lucky enough to catch the person first." The suggesting player said. "Want to bet a special item?"
The others agreed, because in their eyes, this siege was almost a foregone conclusion. Judging by the speed and posture of those two when dodging the attacks, they couldn't be B-level players. Dealing with a C-level player would be a piece of cake, right?
The group got excited and even raised the stakes.
But despite the talk, they didn't completely split up and act alone. Instead, they paired up into two-person teams, dividing the search area by the elevator. They didn't interfere with each other but coordinated their speed.
Xu Huo watched for a while, then went upstairs first.
This was a residential building. There were very few empty rooms. He used mental interference to slow down the coordination speed of some of them. After a few cycles, the pace of the ten people was no longer uniform. Some impatient ones, after encountering situations where "the homeowner was dead asleep and couldn't open the door for inspection," sped up first and stopped following the rule of knocking before entering.
When some went ahead, others lagged behind. The five teams soon evolved into a state where two teams were on the upper floor and three on the lower floor, checking within two levels.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!" The team at the corner knocked heavily on a door again. When there was still no answer, the two cooperated, used an item to open the door, and rushed in. After quickly checking the living room, they kicked open the door to the master bedroom. Just as their guns and items were aimed at the bed, the person sleeping there "woke up" and screamed in terror.
One of the players used an item to suppress their voice and signaled the other to check the adjacent room.
"What are you doing? That's my son's room. He's only eight!" The homeowner tried to stand up and stop them, but then a gunshot rang out from that side, clearly the sound of government-issued firearms.
Both the homeowner and the player were startled. They rushed over, only to see that player lying on the ground with blood on his back.
The other quickly rushed over to pull his companion up, but before he could even ask a question, a short sword pierced his heart. He spat out blood, staring incredulously at his "companion." However, his "companion" pushed him away, picked up the fallen gun, and said, "Sorry, our beliefs are different."
"You..." The stabbed player wanted to ask something, but only blood came out. After watching the other take his communicator, he barely managed to say, "You... the hell... have what... belief... getting paid to risk your life..."
Before he could finish, his face hit the ground. He breathed weakly, seemingly on the verge of death.
"Today's me is not yesterday's me." The "companion" knocked out the homeowner and turned to leave.
Hearing his footsteps leave the room, the extremely weak person on the ground pulled out another communicator and quickly said:
"Squad attention, Xu Lin has defected!"
"Repeat, Xu Lin has defected!"
"Kill him on sight immediately!"
(Chapter End)