Chapter 1261: Poverty Makes People Hesitant
Jiang Zifeng seemed to have just said it casually without pressing the matter, and casually added, "We're leaving Card City tomorrow. What a shame... When are you leaving?"
"I'm leaving tomorrow too," Xu Huo said.
"It's rare to meet a friend who clicks so well, pity our time together is too short. But since we're so fated, we might meet again." Jiang Zifeng finished speaking to himself, then slapped Xu Huo's shoulder with bold enthusiasm. "How about we don't sleep tonight!"
Of course, not resting was impossible. One of the reasons Xu Huo stayed in Card City was to rest. In instances, he often couldn't sleep properly for days, and the first thing after leaving an instance was to recharge.
Ye Bingxin had other things to do, so she left the airship midway. Xu Huo and Jiang Zifeng returned to Yongxing Hotel. After getting off the airship, the latter was taken away by hotel staff—rushing off to his next engagement—while Xu Huo went back to his room alone.
As he went upstairs, the elevator jolted slightly, and he could faintly hear sounds of fighting through the gaps. At the same time, the elevator's AI announced that someone would board on the next floor.
The commotion of the fight was indeed coming from upstairs. Because the floors of Yongxing Hotel used special metal, the spatial sensing range was limited and unclear. Xu Huo only knew that two groups of people were fighting upstairs, about seven or eight in total, but he couldn't accurately discern their minute movements.
However, when the elevator went up, it clearly didn't open normally. Just as it reached the floor, the elevator doors suddenly burst open. As two figures flashed inside, the doors slammed shut with a "bang"—to make an elevator door made of super-silent special-grade metal close with such force, it was definitely a prop.
After the elevator doors closed, the few people who were a few steps behind failed to catch up.
"They wouldn't dare damage the elevator," said a woman with a high ponytail that reached down to her waist, gasping as she spoke to her companion beside her. "This elevator costs no less than a million white notes to replace."
Breaking things in Yongxing Hotel meant paying compensation, and they wouldn't reason with you. If you had money, they'd deduct it first; if you didn't, they'd put it on your tab. Yongxing Hotel had a partnership with the game, so any future income would first go to repay the hotel—there was no such thing as owing money and not paying. The power of white notes was undeniable in quickly and decisively stopping a gradually escalating fight.
The high-ponytail woman had flesh wounds on her arm, negligible, but her companion was more seriously injured. His right abdomen had been stabbed through, and a miniature medical robot was moving around the wound, stitching it up.
"Every single one of them strikes ruthlessly!" the high-ponytail woman said, worried about her companion and deeply hating their pursuers. "Their hearts, livers, spleens, lungs, and kidneys are probably all black. No wonder they could do something like that!"
Her companion gestured with his eyes toward Xu Huo, who had been standing silently to the side.
The high-ponytail woman turned around and gave him a smile. "Young man, sorry to bother you. We'll just pick a random floor and get off."
Xu Huo very gentlemanly asked which floor they wanted to go to.
"Five more floors up," the high-ponytail woman said.
Xu Huo selected the thirteenth floor, but then canceled it at the twelfth. Under their tense and puzzled gazes, he said, "Someone is waiting for you outside. If you want to leave the hotel, you'd better find another way."
The elevator was definitely not an option to exit. And poverty makes people hesitant; the two didn't dare to simply destroy the elevator, finding themselves in a dilemma.
"How about going straight to the top floor?" Xu Huo suggested. "Non-guests can't enter the top floor. It should be safe there."
"Are you a guest on the top floor?" The high-ponytail woman was a bit surprised, her eyes involuntarily sweeping over Xu Huo's plain clothes and ordinary appearance. But she quickly realized this was rude and said with a hint of caution, "Would it bother you? If they come up, it might cause you unnecessary losses."
Ordinary passengers couldn't take the elevator directly to the top floor, but that didn't mean players couldn't use other methods to enter. However, this was Zone 001. In the peaceful and prosperous environment, Yongxing Hotel's security would be more diligent, at least not allowing people to freely enter and exit through the exterior walls.
Of course, even if those people insisted on entering the top floor, it wouldn't matter. The top floor used plenty of high-quality items; breaking just one would be enough to put them in debt for a year or two.
At Xu Huo's invitation, the high-ponytail woman and her companion exchanged a glance, thinking this was a viable option, and finally followed him to the top floor.
Without Xu Huo asking, once they entered the room, the high-ponytail woman briefly explained the situation.
They were also guests of Yongxing Hotel. They had originally hidden here after offending someone, but their pursuers were relentless and had tracked them down to the hotel—leaving would be like walking into a trap, so they could only rely on the hotel to restrict the other party.
"Why not just leave directly?" Xu Huo asked. "You're going through so much trouble to stay. Is there a special reason?"
The two exchanged a look, and then the high-ponytail woman said, "Actually, it's not something we can't talk about. We stole an encrypted file from that group. It contains data on their human experiments using living people and a list of clients for their trade. But this file has a time limit. It will automatically self-destruct after a certain period or if it leaves this district. We want to make the file public, which is why we've been stalling until now."
"We also thought about handing it over to the district government, but before we stole the file, we found out that these people have connections with certain members of the district government, so we don't dare to just hand it over to them either."
"Are you two the only ones?" Xu Huo felt there was a lot of exaggeration in her story. "Who's decrypting the file?"
"I can," the injured man said. "I used to work in information encryption. As long as I have enough time, decrypting the file isn't a problem."
"Actually, this whole thing was a spur-of-the-moment decision. We didn't think it through that much. But being chased so miserably, we'd feel unwilling to accept it if we didn't make some noise," the high-ponytail woman tried to stir Xu Huo's sympathy. "How many people in Zone 001 have gone missing for no reason? Some are outsiders, some are locals. The district government always says it's related to attacks by outside players, but at least a third of the missing population is linked to this kind of black industry. Adults, children, even pregnant women haven't been spared. When we stole the file, we also found a batch of ordinary people injected with special control agents, but unfortunately, we didn't have time to set them free..."
Xu Huo listened calmly without reacting. Only when she finished and paused did he say, "Then you'd better hurry up. If their business has reached the district government, they'll definitely find other ways to catch you. There's always a way you can't avoid."
The high-ponytail woman opened her mouth as if to say something more, but at that moment, her communicator vibrated. She said apologetically, "I need to take a call."
She turned her back to take the call and even used a silencing prop.
From her body language alone, Xu Huo could tell she was explaining something to the person on the other end, but the conversation seemed unpleasant. During this time, the man busy decrypting the file glanced at her distractedly.