Chapter 1055: Facing the Holy Sword Society
Chi Minghong laughed heartily. "I thought they had driven all the poor people out of Snow City, after all, it's the face of the entire district."
"Not at all. Even the most prosperous places have their rats." Zhou Yuanzhu said with an ambiguous tone.
They quickly reached the surface—these passages were not like the interconnected sewer systems of other cities they had encountered. Most of the underground pipes were under government surveillance, with only some shorter abandoned tunnels left unused and not repurposed, becoming these "smuggling routes" for short-distance escapes.
The exit was behind a trash bin behind a residential building. After Zhou Yuanzhu moved the bin aside, she put on an invisibility item before going out.
Xu Huo's invisibility cloak could hide a child for a short time without issue, but the other woman was harder to handle. Chi Minghong's invisibility outfit couldn't fit two people.
The woman, terrified of being abandoned, quickly said, "I can walk out on my own. Someone like me wouldn't raise any suspicion!"
"We don't have suitable clothes for you either." Chi Minghong said. "I don't have any new invisibility items in my item replacement slots, and buying from the bounty platform would take too long."
"Let her stay here." Xu Huo said. "Going up isn't necessarily safe. If discovered by players from the Government Hall, it'll be hard to escape. Rather than abandoning her then, it's better to hide her here for now."
Zhou Yuanzhu returned at that moment, using a silencing item before saying, "Don't waste any more time."
Chi Minghong didn't oppose Xu Huo's suggestion, but the woman looked at her with pleading eyes, begging not to be left behind.
"Forget it. This place isn't safe either." Chi Minghong said. "Leaving someone here is no different from not bringing them along in the first place."
Xu Huo said nothing more. Chi Minghong put the invisibility item on the woman, took out a presence-weakening item for herself, changed into a set of clothes belonging to a player from District 002's government, and then went out.
There weren't many people nearby, but the city-wide surveillance cameras were still working. Chi Minghong put on a gas mask, strode forward, and even waved at two passing players along the way.
The group followed Zhou Yuanzhu through some close calls and slipped into an underground storage room of a residential building.
This underground storage room was shared by all residents of the building and would be activated during special times. It had considerable space and was equipped with basic defensive tools and living supplies. However, before the residents could use it, a group of Holy Sword Society players had already taken it over.
The moment they stepped into the storage room, six players quickly flanked them from both sides, cutting off their retreat. As the door closed, Zhou Yuanzhu, who had been standing with them, silently stepped back two paces and stood beside the Holy Sword Society players.
The storage room fell silent. Neither side spoke.
Xu Huo stood with Chi Minghong at his side, the child tucked under his left arm, and the woman in the invisibility outfit behind them.
The six players blocking the door and Zhou Yuanzhu stood less than five meters away, forming a human wall at the entrance.
Eight more players were scattered ahead, with the B-level player he had encountered twice at the front. His left arm had been severed at the elbow, and he was now sitting on a crate applying medicine to the wound. The severed half-arm was stored in a prop box beside him.
Flanking him on the left and right were two people each. On the right were the middle-aged man and woman they had seen earlier at the Tomorrow Venue. Both were injured but could still stand, suggesting their wounds weren't severe. The raincoat man who had been with them was helping a female player on the left dig weapon fragments embedded in her back.
The three people lying at the back were in worse condition. The smell of blood came from them—two had chest and abdominal injuries, and one was poisoned. All had received emergency treatment, but the poisoned person's condition wasn't optimistic.
"Clang!" The raincoat man dropped the extracted metal shard on the ground, poured medicine on the woman's wound, and said, "The bone is injured. Keep your movements light for the next few days."
His voice broke the silence. Xu Huo put away his invisibility cloak and, just like at the Tomorrow Venue, smiled and raised his chin at him.
The raincoat man, whose bangs had now fallen down, was startled for a moment, then turned away and walked over to the middle-aged man and woman.
Xu Huo had now switched back to the face he used when first arriving in District 002. To the raincoat man, he was naturally another stranger. But the same gesture appearing twice in a short time made it clear to the raincoat man that they had met before.
"Uncle Guan, he was seen entering and leaving the Entertainment Building with Dong Jingxuan." The raincoat man said to the B-level player.
The other nodded to indicate he understood, then raised a hand to Xu Huo. "Please, have a seat."
There were crates of supplies nearby. Under the high alert of both sides, Xu Huo calmly walked over and sat down, smiling. "Looks like you had your eye on me from the start."
The B-level player, whom the raincoat man called Uncle Guan, smiled. "A player who has super-evolved in both mental and spatial abilities—I've traveled across many game districts and haven't met many. And so young at that. It's hard not to pay attention."
Having his cards revealed at first glance, Xu Huo didn't mind and said casually, "Then I suppose I should thank you for going easy on me in the underground development zone of the Government Hall."
Uncle Guan chuckled. "One-on-one, you're no match for me. But capturing you in a non-instance setting wouldn't be easy either. Your ability to super-evolve proves your physical fitness and evolution level are on par with B-level players. The difference might lie in trait evolution and item grades."
"Going through all this trouble to lure me here—surely it's not just to compliment me." Xu Huo patted the child beside him on the shoulder. "If you want this child, don't bother asking."
Uncle Guan shook his head. "We're not interested in District 002's experimental subjects. The purpose of attacking the New Xiangyang Energy Plant was solely to expose the fact of live human experimentation. But by the time we fought tooth and nail to seize the evidence, we found that all the holographic data related to the experiments had already been published on Under Dimension, including the shocking statements from a famous doctor in District 002."
"No need to thank me." Xu Huo raised a hand, skipping the topic.
But the other didn't follow his lead. Instead, he said, "Who made the live human experiments public doesn't matter. What matters is that it's already public. The experimental subjects include not only children from District 002 but also players from other districts. That's enough to get the Game Government's attention—at least on the surface, they'll do something about it."
"But reporting to the Game Government alone won't have much effect. The Game Government turns a blind eye to everything."
The conversation naturally shifted to the Holy Sword Society. Xu Huo paused and asked, "Is it true that there's a large-scale spatial channel device that can directly teleport players into other districts?"
"It's true." Uncle Guan said. "But unlike the items the game provides to players for crossing spatial barriers, these devices are almost all single-use. Once used or destroyed, they can't be repaired or reused."
"So the Holy Sword Society's operation this time can be considered a complete success."
(Chapter End)