Chapter 1577: All Tricks
Xu Huo didn't have too detailed an arrangement for the Painting Woman, but he had two hard requirements: first, no one could leave the base, and second, no one could approach the meeting room.
The first was simple—just close the base's main entrances and exits. Unless someone was a player, basically no one could get out, let alone take others out—thank the government for building the R1 base so well.
The second required some finesse.
The Painting Woman found it inconvenient to move around while maintaining a human form, so she used the surveillance system to instruct the staff near the security doors to seal them shut themselves. For the few who didn't cooperate or where there was a lack of cooperative personnel, she simply filled the passages with flying paper to prevent anyone from approaching.
Of course, there were some formidable players who broke through her defenses. For example, some players set fire to the paper, but she wasn't about to let her paper line up to be burned. First, she'd beat them up. If they submitted, fine. If not, she'd grab nearby people as hostages, forcing them to strip naked or lie on the ground while she piled three or four tables on top of them—in short, making it impossible for them to move around casually.
During this time, she repeatedly emphasized, as Xu Huo had instructed, that their goal this time was merely to secure an opportunity for peaceful negotiations. Once the meeting room reached a conclusion, or when the Special Defense Department sent someone to take over, she would release everyone.
The words "Special Defense Department" made some sharp individuals sense something unusual.
Although no one else had shown up yet, mentioning the Special Defense Department couldn't refer to Shangguan Jing and the military personnel who had just joined it. If not them, then it had to be the original Special Defense Department members. Since it was a clash between two sides, most people had little stake in it—after all, negotiations weren't something for errand runners to meddle in.
But those on Xie Song's side, and those who had been promoted because of him, thought differently. If things were settled, turning the tide later would be much harder. Their best bet was to cripple the original Special Defense Department completely now!
It wasn't that they were particularly brave or unafraid of death, or that they weren't scared of players wielding super items. Rather, some believed that since a super item had appeared here, it was likely from the Special Defense Department. Even for the sake of future cooperation, neither side could go too far. So, emboldened, they charged through the flying paper toward the meeting room.
The players eventually converged on the two main corridors, which were very close to the meeting room. A few more steps and they could see what was happening inside. So, strictly following Xu Huo's instructions, the Painting Woman, after a second's thought, went on a killing spree.
When Xu Huo played the surveillance footage, those people had just entered the corridors. In the instant the flying paper obscured the cameras, the Painting Woman had already struck.
When the paper in front of the cameras flew away, the surveillance feed was replaced by a sea of red. It wasn't because blood had splattered on the lens, but because the flying white paper had been dyed red.
The scene was a bit bloody, and it made the old man at the head of the table's heart clench.
"Killing so many players from the base—you'll have to answer for this!"
Xu Huo gave him a strange look, then dialed the Painting Woman's phone.
The Painting Woman answered using a recording, but the virtual voice could already mimic a human voice perfectly, so a very gentle female voice came through the line. "Why are you calling me? I haven't let a single person in."
"I know you're having fun, but talk properly." Xu Huo paused and said.
The voice immediately returned to normal, and then a masked head appeared on the surveillance screen in the main control room, waving at the camera. "Hello there!"
"Didn't I say this time was for friendly negotiations? Why did you attack?" Xu Huo asked.
"They didn't listen," the Painting Woman said, sitting on the console in the main control room, tapping her communicator as her voice flowed naturally. "I warned them five times in advance not to come, but they insisted. The more I warned them, the more excited they got, so I had no choice but to kill them all."
"Why do they all have ears but refuse to listen properly? Look how obedient I am—I haven't killed a single person outside."
When the communicator rang, she idly touched the paper flying around her, her slowly swinging legs revealing her current mindset—killing or not killing didn't matter, and how many she killed didn't matter either.
But these casual words sent chills down the spines of everyone in the meeting room. Earlier, when they investigated Xu Huo's background, they had judged him to be an uncontrollable time bomb. Now, looking at it, Xu Huo was practically normal. Compared to many players who swelled up after gaining power, he could almost be called a flawless good person—he didn't bully the weak, he stood up for justice, helped those in need, followed the law, even bought tickets when riding, was disciplined, never yelled at the Special Defense Department, kept himself clean, didn't mess around with relationships, respected the elderly and cherished the young, and regularly kept in touch with his family...
Although his attitude toward the military was debatable, it was precisely these small matters that revealed a person's character. Looking at the Painting Woman, just from those two sentences, it was clear she was someone who did whatever she pleased. Such people had no internal moral compass; they did whatever they wanted, and laws or morals were useless against them.
When the Painting Woman communicated with Xu Huo, she hadn't turned off the base's broadcast system, so the conversation was made public. This caused a slight reaction. She tilted her head, finding it a bit troublesome. "They keep setting fires. The water from the sprinklers gets my paper wet. How about I kill the arsonists too?"
Everyone inside and outside the meeting room instinctively looked at Xu Huo. On one hand, they felt that the Painting Woman, as the holder of this super item, was probably a morally ambiguous figure—if she said she'd kill, she might really do it, and they worried that Xu Huo might provoke her into causing even worse consequences. On the other hand, they feared Xu Huo might encourage her to join in, since the two of them were now partners.
Xu Huo didn't answer her question. Instead, he said calmly, "You play around in the main control room for a while. We'll leave soon."
The Painting Woman was a bit disappointed and quickly swiped her communicator. "Is that Team Leader Nie coming so soon? I haven't had enough fun yet. I've been making people fold paper frogs and paper rabbits for me, but I'm still far from ten thousand!"
Forcing others to fold paper for her in such a situation was a bizarre move, but not many people cared about that after hearing this: Was it really okay to just blurt out Nie Xuan like that?
However, the Painting Woman herself didn't realize it, and Xu Huo didn't care. He said, "Aren't you bored? Fold a few more yourself."
With that, he cut off the communicator and shut down the surveillance equipment. Then he turned to face the crowd. "You all understand the situation. I hope you'll continue to cooperate as you have been."
Everyone present understood. As he said, he truly didn't care about the internal conflicts within the government. He hadn't even bothered to keep his partner Nie Xuan's identity a secret, casually revealing him in front of the entire base.
At this point, the old man at the head of the table saw the situation clearly. He turned to the military old man. "He's not one of the government's people, and his heart won't be with you."
The military old man remained calm. "Living in the past is why you were abandoned. The nation is full of talented people. We'll soon be stepping off the stage. All we can do now is hold our last posts and resolve the worries for these young people who are out there fighting."
"Beep beep beep!" An alarm suddenly sounded. As the base's various doors opened, the Special Defense Department player team, led by Nie Xuan and Team Leader Lu, formally entered. After taking control of all areas, they quickly surrounded the meeting room.