Chapter 1630: Life-Death Swap
But these things definitely wouldn't flow to ordinary people.
First, the Game Government Base. Taking the personnel of Zone 011 as an example, although they also absorb core members and contract staff from among the players, most of the people in the Orbital Supply Department come from other districts. Moreover, judging from their usual behavior patterns and speech, they haven't fought their way out of the games.
In other words, the Game Government must separately cultivate or absorb some districts or player families to serve as administrative personnel. The more an industry is related to the core of the game, the more this should be the case.
Although the Game Government Base hasn't been established in every district, with so many wormhole points and districts, the accumulated scale is already enormous. To ensure that these people are dutiful from the bottom up, the Game Government must have special methods to allow them to evolve while escaping the troubles of instances.
Xu Huo first heard about temporary passes in the Skinner's instance. That was a destinationless ticket that allowed free boarding. As long as you got it in hand, you could enter the nearest ticket and board the train at any time and any place.
Although the Orbital Supply Department of Zone 011 didn't reveal relevant information, even if they lacked the authority, the higher-level Game Government would certainly have it. Including the experimental personnel he encountered in Zone 017, the game must open special channels for certain people, allowing them to move freely within the game.
Since that's the case, these resources would definitely become part of special treatment. Perhaps there are people in some wormhole points or districts within the game who don't need to go through the initial trial train and instances at all. They only need to gradually become management personnel according to the game's requirements.
Players can set foot in any district with tickets. Space starships are also a channel, and super players are even more formidable. Under these circumstances, the Game Government can still achieve highly efficient technological blockade. This inevitably makes one speculate that perhaps the wormhole point where the Game Government's core is located hasn't released any tickets at all. Since there are no tickets, their position in space is ethereal. Even piloting a space starship might not necessarily find it.
This is the true barrier, not simply relying on player strength for protection.
Besides the grassroots personnel, the Game Government would certainly cultivate A-level players and super players. What kind of state would these players, who hold the backdoor to dimensional cracks, be cultivated into?
With his thoughts turning here, Xu Huo had to connect this to Dr. Wu. The Game Government's power is incalculable. Perhaps there really will be a day when they face players directly. An authorization letter could seal off a player's personal panel, turning them back into ordinary people with only physical strength...
Perhaps only turning back time could change the players' disadvantaged situation.
Taking a moment to check the bounty platform, there was no news. Xu Huo stretched his body and said, "I don't know if it's because communication is impossible or the person is dead. To clear the instance, I still have to rely on myself. I'm going in to sleep for a while. Do as you please."
The sky was gradually brightening. Because they hadn't kept their promise last night, Scarface Glasses and Young Master Mo both declared they wouldn't rest today.
Xu Huo nonchalantly entered the phone booth.
This time, he didn't return to the platform but directly entered the black corridor.
As the surrounding scenes shifted, he seemed to once again stand within his own memories, returning to that rainy night.
The first image to appear before him was still Xu Zhi getting out of the car, with bullets flying toward him.
This was fake.
Whether it was a memory replay or the memory itself, this wasn't the true cause of Xu Zhi's death. But standing nearby, he still couldn't help lunging forward to save him.
However, the moment he touched Xu Zhi, a bullet pierced through his head.
The person fell into his arms once again.
Kneeling on the ground, Xu Huo felt the warmth of the person he held constantly draining away, gradually turning into nothingness.
The rain also gradually disappeared. He returned to the corridor, and darkness descended once more.
Without wasting much time, he stood up and continued forward. After another flash of the same memory fragment passed by, Xu Zhi once again stood before him.
This time, the distance between them was a little closer.
Unfortunately, the outcome didn't change.
The third time around, the result was still the same.
The fourth, fifth, sixth time... every time was identical.
But whether it was due to the expectations deep within his heart or the consequences of mental influence, each repetition brought him a little closer to Xu Zhi. Eventually, the bullet passed through his head, and Xu Zhi was saved.
His memories might have been falsified by Dr. Zhang's existence, but the fact that Xu Zhi died because of him was real. Xu Huo often thought back to the night of Xu Zhi's death and clearly knew that the truth couldn't be changed. So he had never thought about saving Xu Zhi, nor had he ever entertained ideas like dying in his place. The consequences of a wrong action couldn't be masked by mere regret. This was the pain he was meant to bear.
The moment the bullet pierced his temple, an immense sense of relief washed over Xu Huo. He indulged in death, watching Xu Zhi hold his "corpse" and frantically call for help, watching the cars that followed stop all around, watching the racing companions rush him to the hospital, watching the doctor pronounce him dead on the spot, watching Xu Zhi refuse to accept his death, take him to a friend's private hospital for a personal examination, and after having to acknowledge that the person before him had stopped breathing, conduct a DNA test to confirm his identity, then preserve his body in a cold storage, and subsequently lock himself in his room, frantically researching various seemingly real and fake rumors in an attempt to bring the dead back to life.
As an observer, Xu Huo calmly watched all of this.
Xu Zhi was a staunch atheist. He believed everything could be explained by science, so from the moment he learned to read, he had been tirelessly studying. Compared to Xu Huo, who recklessly wasted his own talent, he was a perfect genius. Even after Xu Huo's death, Xu Huo had never thought about ghosts or gods, but the atheist Xu Zhi had gone and done so.
He clearly knew these were illusions, but he couldn't help wondering: if the two of them had swapped life and death, would Xu Zhi really have done these things?
Xu Huo didn't want to seek this answer, or rather, the answer had long been in his heart.
After Xu Zhi had the ability to handle family affairs, he was the one who cleaned up many messes. But that day, nothing had happened yet, and Xu Zhi shouldn't have appeared on the mountain road. Perhaps he already knew about Dr. Zhang's existence. Perhaps he just wanted to save his unworthy younger brother from the hands of bad people, to prevent him from going astray like the other children in the Seventeenth Hospital. Perhaps the reason Xu Huo survived that day was precisely because of his appearance...
No matter what Xue Lang said, Xu Huo believed that Dr. Zhang wouldn't have given up on him. So he thought the turning point lay in the sudden appearance of Xu Zhi.
Perhaps he had traded his life for Xu Huo's. But even now, he still believed that Dr. Zhang was not the kind of person who would be moved by brotherly affection.