Chapter 1330: The Value of Zone 023 People
Things went much more smoothly after that. Standing in the sandy ground under the scorching sun wasn't suitable for conversation, so Xu Huo and the other two followed Mr. Chi and his group back to the small city, eventually reaching their underground dwelling.
It wasn't much of a dwelling—just some dug-out caves. Xu Huo had noticed these earlier. There weren't many people here; counting Xiao Lai and the two players who returned later, there were only sixteen in total.
"We don't have much to offer you," Mr. Chi said, inviting Xu Huo and the others to sit on small stools. The masked man poured them each half a glass of water.
"The water was still from us," Qiu Ming muttered under his breath.
"I wonder what you three think of a hundred thousand white notes," Mr. Chi suddenly asked an unrelated question.
A hundred thousand white notes wasn't a huge sum for players.
"And five hundred thousand?" Mr. Chi continued.
Five hundred thousand. Qiu Ming and Cao Qinglin's movements paused slightly. Adding a bit more, they could buy a decent item.
Mr. Chi's gaze remained fixed on Xu Huo as he pressed on: "What about a million?"
Xu Huo nudged the cup in front of him. "Is that the price for a Zone 023 player's head, or for information?"
Mr. Chi smiled. "There are fourteen ordinary people in this underground passage. A single person's whereabouts is worth a hundred thousand white notes. Bringing a corpse gets you five hundred thousand. A live person is worth five hundred thousand to a million. If it's a player, the price is even higher."
The breathing rhythms of everyone present shifted. Qiu Ming and Cao Qinglin were shocked at how valuable Zone 023 people were, while Mr. Chi's side was stirred by other emotions.
"Rare. No news of this has leaked out from under the dimension," Xu Huo said after a moment.
"With such cheap prices, who among those who've been here would want outsiders to share the spoils? Besides, the native population of Zone 023 is already very scarce," Mr. Chi said calmly. "I've seen players who came here once, and when they ran out of money, they returned to scour the area for living people."
"And you still dare to tell us?" Qiu Ming asked. "Aren't you afraid we'll have bad intentions?"
Mr. Chi's expression didn't change. "Mental Super Evolvers are strong, but there are many of us. Even if we can't kill you, we can force you to leave."
He didn't include Qiu Ming and Cao Qinglin in that calculation. One-on-one, they could at most take out two of them.
Qiu Ming clicked his tongue, while Cao Qinglin showed no reaction.
He spoke flatly, and the others remained calm, but it was easy to imagine that if this bounty was real, the actual situation was far more brutal than words could describe.
"There were once players who found ordinary Evolvers and didn't trouble them. But often, after they left, others would come looking soon after. My compatriots died or were captured. So in my view, no stranger can be trusted. Proposing a gamble was just based on practical considerations."
"Once you leave, we'll move to another place to live."
Xu Huo didn't waste time on this issue and cut straight to the core. "Is the gene of Zone 023 people special?"
Otherwise, there was no reason why even the whereabouts of an ordinary Evolved person could fetch a hundred thousand high price.
If it were just about wiping out a race, there would be no need to take them alive.
"Genes are just an excuse those people use to slaughter Zone 023 people," Mr. Chi sneered. "If our genes were really that good, Zone 023 wouldn't be in its current state!"
"Maybe it's not about player evolution direction," Cao Qinglin spoke up. "I've been to a district before where the local government would find excuses to conduct human experiments just to obtain a specific genetic trait. The reasons were so absurd you couldn't imagine them. The most ridiculous and horrifying one was the 'beauty mole gene'—just because a famous actress in that district had a beauty spot on her face... In the end, all the experimental subjects were killed, and the public explanation was a plague."
"The people of Zone 023 aren't particularly good-looking," Qiu Ming observed, looking around at the group. "You're either covering your faces or have scars on them. Is that natural?"
All the adults here were like that. Only three children had clean faces. How could it be natural? He asked deliberately.
The Zone 023 people reacted even more strongly to this topic. Two women immediately lowered their heads to wipe away tears.
At that moment, Mr. Chi removed his headscarf, revealing his covered forehead. Because it had been hidden for so long, the skin there was much lighter than the rest of his face, making the string of black numbers branded on it even clearer.
919835.
Then the masked man and the other two players took off their masks and face coverings. Their number brands were on their cheeks, very conspicuous.
"Twenty years ago, this number was already on my face," Mr. Chi said, touching his forehead. "Almost everyone in Zone 023 has been branded with such numbers. Some chose to remove them, others, like me, kept them. This string of numbers constantly reminds me how many of my compatriots have suffered this humiliation."
Mr. Chi wasn't that old. His number had six digits, which showed how many Zone 023 people had become experimental subjects back then.
"That's inhuman!" Qiu Ming's attitude had clearly shifted. He pressed further: "Didn't you get revenge on those bastards?"
"It's hard for us to enter the safe zones established by the outer district government. Even if we do, we're no match for high-level players. We can only hide in abandoned cities," Mr. Chi said, putting his headscarf back on. "The district government of our Zone 023 was built by outer district players. They've long since replaced us as the masters of this district."
This meant they didn't even have a channel to communicate with the Game Government, let alone obtain items, potions, or advanced instruments through the district government. Without government backing, Zone 023 players could only fight for their lives in the games themselves. Things like centralized instance guides, public instance information, fast clearance and leveling—none of that was available to them. The stronger the district government became, the weaker they grew.
"Why not leave this district?" Qiu Ming asked again. "You could go to other districts to level up and then come back."
"This is the bottom line," Mr. Chi said. "No matter what, we can't hand over our homeland entirely to outsiders."
It wasn't hard to understand. It was easy for players to leave, but if too many left or stayed away too long, their resolve would soften. Taking one step back made it easier to take a second. Going outside to level up was fine, but when would they be strong enough? And when they were strong enough, could they get even stronger before acting?
Moreover, once players scattered across the game, it was hard to regroup. If their hearts scattered, some might slowly forget the land that had been taken from them.
Staying was hard, but staying was necessary to take root and grow.
"I deeply admire your conviction," Xu Huo said after a moment of silence. "You've kept your end of the contract, and I won't make trouble."
(Chapter End)