# Chapter 161: The Lost Item
Sun Jirou and Tao Chengxin looked somewhat distressed. The former asked, "How did you finally escape? Why did the Government Hall and LT Biopharmaceutical Company let Fairy Tale City go?"
"It wasn't that they wanted to let us go at all—it was the sacrifice made by the players who finally escaped from Fairy Tale City!" the old man said with some agitation. "They traded their lives for the last refuge. But those LT bastards didn't dare to break into Fairy Tale City, so they tampered with the drinking water instead. Aside from those children who escaped back then, for twenty years, a full twenty years, not a single child has been born in Fairy Tale City!"
"They wanted to use this method to wear down the players and people of Fairy Tale City. The young people now don't know and don't believe the truth of those days, immersed as they are in the false prosperity of a tourist city... They never stop to think—those algae shells and conch shells they buy and sell all grew out of living people... How is that any different from cannibalism?"
"The people of Fairy Tale City have all gotten used to it," Sun Jirou said. "Especially the Mutant Sightseeing Line—they treat their former kind like animals for entertainment and never tire of it."
"I saw it when I came in too," Tao Chengxin said, finding it unbelievable. "Among those who turned into mutants, there might be their own relatives and friends, but everyone here seems not to care."
"This is Fairy Tale City. Perhaps everyone is happy living in a fairy tale," Xu Huo said flatly, then turned to ask, "That couple commemorated at True Love Square—were they also players?"
"Yes..." The old man wept again. "Back then, they fought desperately to protect the people of Fairy Tale City, only to be driven out to fend for themselves. Surrounded by mutants, they had no choice but to jump into the sea and take their own lives..."
Xu Huo and the other two had all heard the story of True Love Square. It was the most widely circulated tale in Fairy Tale City. No one shied away from the part about the male protagonist being driven out of the safe zone, nor did they think it was wrong. They just romanticized the ending a bit, turning a desperate suicide into a lovers' sacrifice.
"Players mutating, and with the mutant tide nearly destroying the entire city—driving the players out is actually understandable." Sun Jirou paused, then said, "But this approach is a bit ungrateful."
"Yeah, Fairy Tale City is so big. Even if they set aside a separate place for them, it would have been possible. Why force them to die?" Tao Chengxin also said.
"They were just trying to survive too," the woman in the white dress said at this point. "An ordinary person turning into a mutant can kill eight people in half a minute. A player would be even worse."
"The ones who deserve to die are the people from LT!" The old man's expression was furious. He said to Xu Huo and the others, "It's a pity I can't kill them. You're players too—you can definitely do it. I have purchased props and weapons. If you're willing to help, even if you kill just one person from LT, I'll give you everything I have!"
"Alright." The woman in the white dress patted his chest to soothe him, and after just a couple of pats, the old man closed his eyes.
"I added something to help him sleep to his tea," she said. "His health isn't good. He can't get too excited."
"If there's anything you want to know, you can ask me too. He's told me all those things."
"Are there still living players in Fairy Tale City now?" Xu Huo asked.
"I'm not sure about that either." The woman in the white dress shook her head. "After all, I'm not a player."
Xu Huo raised an eyebrow slightly. "In these twenty years, none of the young people in Fairy Tale City evolved into players?"
"You heard just now—everyone currently alive in Fairy Tale City has drunk water laced with that potion. Most of those who reacted to the potion turned into mutants." She looked at him. "Even in your world, not everyone can evolve, can they?"
After a moment of silence, she said softly, "Fairy Tale City has no players of its own anymore. What can they do about the players who come here to kill wantonly?"
"When Grandpa Bai passes away, who will still remember the hatred of the past?"
Xu Huo narrowed his eyes slightly, scrutinizing the woman sitting across from him as she covered the old man with a blanket. He asked again, "Have you ever lost anything?"
"I've lost a lot of things. You know, tourist cities have a lot of transient population, and there's no shortage of petty thieves," the woman in the white dress said.
"Anything like teeth?" Sun Jirou glanced at the old man beside her. "Like false teeth or props shaped like teeth."
The woman in the white dress looked at them with surprise. "You players are looking for some really strange things."
Sun Jirou was also troubled. The three tasks given by this instance were too strange. They seemed connected, but at the same time, not really. To be honest, if the woman in the white dress hadn't appeared on her own, they probably wouldn't have been able to complete even the first task.
Like the story they needed to hear, this teeth business was also completely baffling.
What teeth?
Human teeth or something else?
"We don't know what we're looking for either. Why don't you choose something you think is most important?" Xu Huo said.
The woman in the white dress frowned and thought for a moment. "I've heard Grandpa Bai say that a prop left with him by a player was lost."
"But it wasn't stolen. His memory went wrong, and he took it out as a decoration and lost it."
"How are we supposed to find that?" Tao Chengxin and Sun Jirou exchanged glances.
"What kind of prop was it?" Xu Huo asked.
"I don't know exactly what it does." The woman in the white dress turned to a drawer and pulled out a yellowed piece of drawing paper. "This is what Grandpa Bai drew when he was lucid."
Xu Huo took it and looked. On the paper was something like a jade token with simple patterns on it—nothing distinctive.
"Is this a tooth?" Tao Chengxin said. "Could 'teeth' refer to something made from teeth?"
Sun Jirou shook her head and was about to say something when Xu Huo suddenly stood up and took his leave from the woman in the white dress. "If we find it, we'll bring it back."
The woman in the white dress looked somewhat bewildered. She just waved her hand and said, "I've been looking for this thing for a long time too. It's fine if you don't find it. Grandpa Bai has already forgotten about it anyway."
Xu Huo nodded without saying much more. Walking into the yard, he lit a cigarette and glanced at the half-full cat food bowl in the corner of the flower bed before leaving.
Sun Jirou and Tao Chengxin followed behind him. The former said, "The game hasn't given any prompts about the instance progress. Are these two people we found the right ones?"
"An old man who tells the correct story, and a woman who tells the correct story—should be right," Tao Chengxin said. "The things they said match the direction we speculated, and they weren't lying."
"Is your trait based on the truth or falsehood of the facts themselves, or on what the speaker themselves believes to be true or false?" Xu Huo turned back to ask.
Tao Chengxin was stunned for a moment, then couldn't help frowning. "Are you doubting that my trait could be wrong?"
"Do you really understand how to use your trait?" Xu Huo said seriously.