# Chapter 150: A Story Full of Incongruity
"Really?" Xu Huo was quite surprised.
"Of course it's true. A friend of mine has a brother who lives nearby. He saw some tourists go in here and never come out again. Sometimes he'd hear screams coming from here in the middle of the night, and yet no large bags of trash were ever thrown out. Where do you think those people went?" The food guest said with a hint of excitement as he chewed on a piece of meat from his set meal.
Xu Huo looked at his plate, and the food guest quickly added, "This is made from vegetarian ingredients."
"I see the tourist city is large and prosperous, but it's a pity such a huge area is occupied by xenomorphs." Xu Huo changed the subject.
"What's there to pity?" The food guest waved his hand dismissively. "Even if the xenomorph zone were cleared out, people couldn't live there. Those were all places where contamination leaked before. They can only raise xenomorphs."
Just then, new customers entered the shop. The food guest was even more diligent than the waitstaff, carrying his tray over to them, but he was waved away. The food guest didn't mind and simply found another place to sit.
Ignoring the two burly men outside the shop who were making faces and gesturing for him to come out, Xu Huo called over a waiter to ask about checking into the inn. The waiter smiled and led him into the back hall to register.
"What's he doing? Didn't he hear what that local just said? He still dares to stay here?" The buzz-cut young man said incredulously.
"If he wants to die, that's his business." The eyebrow-pierced burly man said. "Let's go to the next place."
The young man's face showed hesitation, but helpless under the coercion of the two men, he had no choice but to follow them.
Xu Huo, who had followed the waiter into the back hall, of course wasn't really going to stay at the inn. Although the food guest was full of nonsense, the two discount coupons given by the old lady on the tourist bus were definitely not good places to go. On the contrary, the business card given by the long-faced tour guide seemed somewhat credible.
He told the waiter he didn't want to stay at the inn anymore and left through another door of the restaurant.
Walking in the opposite direction from the buzz-cut trio, Xu Huo entered a flower shop and stopped in front of a xenomorph flower that was purplish-black with colorful patterns on it.
"Sir, you have excellent taste. This is Gold Dust Purple that arrived just this morning. It's cultivated using purified water from the Corrosion Sea. The color is beautiful, the blooming period is long, and it can freshen the air when placed at home." The female shop assistant introduced.
"The Corrosion Sea is also a contaminated area, isn't it? Flowers grown with that seawater won't harm the body?" Xu Huo asked.
"Of course not." The female shop assistant laughed. "The raw seawater has to undergo contamination treatment before it can be used."
"Sir, you're a tourist, right? Take some of these flowers back. Your girlfriend or family will surely love them."
Xu Huo was about to pay for the flowers when the female shop assistant added, "There's also a beautiful story about this Gold Dust Purple."
With that, she invited him to sit down, served tea, and began to narrate.
"The story happened twenty years ago, before the contamination leak. A beautiful woman who had just gotten married moved from an outer zone to Block Fairy Tale City, planning to settle down here."
"But unexpectedly, only a month after they arrived, the woman's husband suddenly disappeared."
"For a long time, the woman searched for her husband, until one day, a man covered in fish scales voluntarily appeared before her and revealed his identity."
"It turned out that this fish-scale man was the woman's husband. He had been captured by a mysterious organization during an outing and used as a test subject. He slowly mutated into a monster-like appearance, and his tastes changed drastically—he developed a liking for the taste of human blood."
"A former lover becoming so repulsive—no woman could accept that. But this beautiful woman embraced everything about her husband. She hid him in the basement and took on all the responsibility of supporting the family."
"Although the husband had developed a taste for human blood, for the woman's sake, he chained himself up with iron chains. The woman, afraid he would give up on himself when alone, asked him to grow flowers for her. But how could flowers be grown in a basement? The two encouraged each other like this, persisting for two years, until the contamination leak incident erupted."
"It turned out that most of Block Fairy Tale City had already been contaminated long before. So when the first mutated person appeared, many people turned into xenomorphs all at once. They no longer recognized their relatives and friends, only seeing them as food to satisfy their hunger."
At this point, the female shop assistant took a sip of tea to calm herself, then turned the topic back to the woman. "The woman couldn't bear to let her husband die alone, so the two fled together. But on the run, the husband exposed his identity while saving his wife from being surrounded by xenomorphs, and was driven out of the safe zone by others."
"The husband couldn't bear to completely degenerate into a monster in front of his beloved woman, so he hugged the flowers he had grown for her and jumped into the sea to commit suicide. The woman was heartbroken and followed him in death."
"Unexpectedly, half a month after they died, the seaside was covered in deep purple flowers, which gradually grew colorful patterns."
"The people of Block Fairy Tale City were moved by their love and even erected a monument for them in the city."
The female shop assistant then took out a tourist route map and pointed to a certain square on it. "Right here, True Love Square."
Xu Huo noted this location and then asked, "I've heard many people talk about the contamination incident. What kind of contamination leak could affect such a large city?"
The female shop assistant shook her head. "I was only a few years old back then. How would I know about these things? If you're interested, sir, you could ask some older people."
Xu Huo paid for the flowers and then bought a travel guide from a small shop nearby, finding the Memorial Museum.
There were many records about Block Fairy Tale City before its area shrank, but when it came to the contamination leak twenty years ago, it was only briefly mentioned.
It only said that a genetic experiment company at the time used living humans for experiments, researching a contamination source that could cause human degeneration. After wreaking havoc on most of Block Fairy Tale City, this genetic company was shut down by the government. The contaminated city was also sealed off. Besides establishing xenomorph sightseeing routes and breeding areas like the Corrosion Sea, the government also set up scientific research institutions in the contaminated zone, dedicated to developing a genetic antidote.
Interestingly, all the government institutions of Block Fairy Tale Tourist City were built in the contaminated zone. The forces serving the current government were not the original military forces of Block Fairy Tale City, but foreign mercenaries.
Looking away from the city documents, Xu Huo turned his gaze to the two people not far to his right and said with a smile, "What a coincidence."
Those two were precisely the female player and the big man who had left earlier.
The female player walked up to him. "You're looking at city documents too? Found anything?"
Xu Huo looked alert. "You're trying to fish for information from me?"
The female player laughed this time. "We're both here for the mission. Swapping information saves time."
"Then you go first." Xu Huo crossed his arms. "I have something important in my hands. I need to see if your clue is worth exchanging."
"Fine." The female player was very straightforward. Lowering her voice, she said, "There are no children in the tourist city. Strange, isn't it? Block Fairy Tale City was once 'a child's paradise,' but so far I haven't seen a single child. None of the foreign tourists have brought children either."