Chapter 1541: The Value of a Single Person
There were many ways for players to escape Zone 017, and none of them required transferring to the Capital Safe Zone.
And if that player was such an important figure, not only would the underground base personnel who had just fled have arranged for his departure, but government player organizations or other official personnel would have come first to plan his whereabouts. They wouldn't have left him in the AS9 Safe Zone, forcing a young girl to risk her life to rescue him.
The young girl was telling the truth, but she hadn't told the whole story.
"His situation is different from others... you'll understand when you see him. I'm not lying."
Xu Huo decided to trust her words for now. After loading this group back into the "Staff Dormitory," he followed the young girl to the address she provided.
The place she mentioned was a sanatorium on the outskirts of the city. When the city fell into chaos, this place had also been affected. However, since most of the people staying here were elderly and lacked the strength to run away, and the main building of the sanatorium hadn't been completely destroyed, they chose to hide here.
According to the young girl's description, Xu Huo found the person she wanted to save in the basement—a man with an abnormally swollen head.
The man lay on a hospital bed, with different sensing instruments and IV needles connected to both sides of his head. The bed was surrounded by monitoring equipment and several specially made glass containers. The difference was that the IV tubes weren't delivering medicine to him but were instead set to regularly extract fluid from his head.
"Meng Cun!" The young girl quickly walked to the bedside, her eyes slightly red as she asked, "Are you feeling okay?"
The man's body and limbs looked no different from a normal person's. From the moment Xu Huo saw him, his hands had been constantly tapping on a holographic projection keyboard in the air. Only when he heard the young girl's voice did he look up, his bloodshot eyes glancing at her. "Jin Zi, it's you."
The young girl nodded. "I've come to take you away."
But the young man named Meng Cun shook his head. "I'm not leaving. This is the most critical moment for decryption. If I go now, all my efforts will be wasted."
Xu Huo looked at the projection terminal instruments in the hospital room. They were still three-dimensional projections, but they weren't considered particularly high-tech in the game districts.
Nowadays, most districts would introduce terminal instruments developed by the game. On the basis of supporting three-dimensional projection, they could even reach the level of simulating real objects. However, the cost was high, and for daily needs, only the most basic projection was required. Therefore, many districts only used them in special places after introduction.
Terminal instruments essentially replaced the role of computers, but their size and form had changed significantly. Some terminal instruments were worn like watches or badges, while others were made into everyday small decorations. Slightly more advanced ones, like those in the Zone 011 Game Government Base, were manufactured as metal carriers with engraved circuits, their size determined by the load they carried.
It was said that in higher wormhole points, super terminals directly controlled by the human brain's neural network had already been developed. The upper limit of the human brain was their upper limit.
However, this was merely a rumor on various player platforms. If such a height were truly reached, it would inevitably be controlled only by a select few, at least not made public to players.
The one Meng Cun was using was already a very old product. He wore glasses visible only to the operator, so others couldn't see his interface.
"Your life is what matters most." Jin Zi grabbed his arm. "Come with me first!"
But Meng Cun didn't appreciate it. He pushed her hand away and said, "I don't have long to live. I need to decrypt the chip before the next instance. Don't worry about me. Go on your own."
"I won't give up on you!" Jin Zi emphasized. "You're just sick. You can definitely be cured. Only when you're cured will there be a future. Zone 017 has only one you. You are the hope and the future. Do you want to watch Zone 017 disappear forever?"
Meng Cun remained unmoved. "I am not the hope of Zone 017, nor am I your hope. Don't place your future on me. All I can do is decrypt the chip before I die. That is my greatest use."
Perhaps due to the abnormal evolution of his brain, Meng Cun's expression and tone lacked normal human emotions. It wasn't deliberate suppression or concealment, but rather his true thoughts—his highly developed brain might have told him so.
Seeing that she couldn't persuade him, Jin Zi considered smashing the instruments. But then she heard him say, "Destroying the terminal instruments will only bring losses to Zone 017. Don't act rashly on impulse."
The flat, straightforward words carried no emotion, merely asking her to consider the consequences.
Clearly, Jin Zi believed his life was more important. She stepped back from the bedside and looked at Xu Huo, who was standing to the side.
However, Meng Cun raised his head again at this moment and said to Xu Huo, an outsider, "You won't be able to get the benefits Jin Zi has promised you. Because so far, at least a third of the players who haven't left Zone 017 have died at the hands of outer zone players, especially those holding government resources."
"I don't have much of value on me either."
"I have a head deformity, not super evolution. If the fluid produced in my brain isn't continuously drained, my head will keep growing, and I won't live longer than three days."
"Perhaps you think my brain has some research value, but that would only be while I'm alive."
"And you don't seem like a fan of live specimen research."
"Assisting Jin Zi will bring you no benefits."
"I was clear about that before I came," Xu Huo said, sitting down across from him. "Now I'm even more interested in you."
"You're decrypting chips. You should know that among the xenomorph populations, the rare large-headed xenomorphs are called 'Wisdom Xenomorphs.' Your current appearance might become a breakthrough point for them."
Meng Cun was unimpressed. "An increase in brain capacity doesn't represent an increase in wisdom. 'Wisdom Xenomorphs' just happened to grow a big head while showing intelligence different from other xenomorphs. There's no necessary connection between the two."
Xu Huo didn't show him the video from Under Dimension. Instead, he said, "The chip appearing in the body of a large-headed xenomorph is no coincidence."
He spread his five fingers, revealing three identical chips. "All dug out from large-headed xenomorphs."
Meng Cun held firm to his own thoughts. "That only proves the intelligence of the people conducting this experiment is insufficient."
"This has nothing to do with intelligence or cost," Xu Huo said calmly. "Maybe they just wanted to do some research on the side while running their breeding farm."
Meng Cun's tapping fingers finally stopped.
The reason he was willing to give up his chance to escape and stay here to decrypt the chip was simply that he believed the chip contained extremely important data. In reality, it was the same mindset as the people who placed the chips in the xenomorphs. If the "Wisdom Xenomorphs" weren't important, then the chip was no longer important either, and naturally, there was no value in studying it.
Conversely, if the chip was truly important, then it meant Meng Cun might also possess some kind of practical value.