Chapter 1659: The Investigation
The woman was speaking incoherently, but the female player understood her. In simple terms, after being captured, she was lucky enough to be rescued by a passing player.
Members of the Special Defense Department all had communication devices among themselves. If it had been one of their own, they would have issued a warning immediately. Since they hadn’t, it likely wasn’t an internal member.
“You’re lucky. How’s the child?” the female player asked, stepping forward to check.
“I don’t know what happened. It felt like a gust of wind blew by, and suddenly the child was much better…” The woman, amidst her panic and terror, hadn’t forgotten her child.
The female player examined the child and found that his breathing had indeed returned to normal, and his forehead wasn’t very hot anymore. She said, “I’ll inform my colleagues and take you to the hospital first.”
“Thank you, thank you…” The woman tried to kneel and kowtow to her.
“If you want to thank someone, thank the nameless hero who saved you,” the female player said. At the very least, when she and her companion had arrived nearby, they hadn’t sensed anyone around—this wasn’t the first time such a thing had happened.
In the end, the Special Defense Department players returned empty-handed. Even though they had immediately secured the nearby streets, they still couldn’t find the escaped cannibal player. They even reviewed the surveillance footage frame by frame. The other party had destroyed the lighting on several streets before vanishing directly into the darkness, leaving no trace at all, as if they had suddenly slipped into the game.
However, the Special Defense Department players knew that the other party definitely hadn’t escaped into the game, because similar instances had already occurred three times in recent days. Even if they only entered the station without entering an instance, there wouldn’t be enough return tickets to waste like that.
At this point, the Special Defense Department had to admit that their strength was far inferior to this group of cannibal players.
“Who was that player who saved the person?” someone asked.
“Not sure. They didn’t contact us either.”
“What a shame. If we had run into them, maybe we could have asked how to see through the cannibal players’ disguises.”
Because of this brief chase, South City was destined for another sleepless night. In addition to the streetlights, the Special Defense Department had turned on large floodlights across the entire city, striving to make the whole city as bright as daytime. Special Defense Department players and the police launched a joint operation, checking street by street. Even if they couldn’t catch the person, they absolutely couldn’t allow them a second chance to strike.
But unexpectedly, the escaped cannibal player was actually hiding near Camphor Laurel District. After taking off his protective suit and removing his traits, he became an ordinary migrant worker, living in a rented one-bedroom apartment, and openly accepted the Special Defense Department’s door-to-door inspection.
The Special Defense Department hadn’t yet popularized physical fitness detectors, so under normal circumstances, they could only temporarily judge whether an ordinary person might be a player based on whether they were wearing items.
Of course, after becoming a player, the physical changes brought about by evolution could be noticed with careful observation. Experienced players could even estimate a person’s approximate evolution rate from this, but these changes could be disguised, especially when facing inexperienced, poorly equipped novice players.
This seemingly honest and simple middle-aged man cautiously answered the Special Defense Department’s questions and then worriedly asked if there had been another murder.
The Special Defense Department personnel offered him a few token words of reassurance and left.
As soon as the door closed, the man, who had seemed timid a second ago, immediately switched expressions, becoming ferocious and arrogant, with barely contained rage.
He touched his mouth and licked his lips, as if trying to savor the taste of blood from between his teeth. But for the sake of disguise, he had already thoroughly rinsed his mouth with mouthwash, so of course, he couldn’t taste anything now.
The anger from the failed hunt came and went quickly. He took two pieces of fresh meat sealed in bags from his luggage compartment and, while eating, sat down at the computer and logged into a relatively obscure chat software.
As soon as the software opened, many messages popped up. This was a group, and the people inside were likely cannibal players like him. The flood of messages wasn’t due to any deep bond between them, but rather to urge the middle-aged man to hand over the “item” to them.
To avoid being traced, they used “sex dolls” as a code name for the item. From the chat content, this item was lent to them by someone for them to use in turns. Each person could hold it for three days, then pass it to the next person according to a number.
Today was the last day the middle-aged man held the item. He chewed continuously as he asked about the person who lent it out.
“Is there anything better to borrow and use? I’ve been sick of those guys for a long time, sniffing around everywhere like dogs.”
Someone echoed him, also saying they wanted to cause some trouble for the Special Defense Department.
Another person warned him not to stir things up too much, otherwise, if reinforcements came for the Special Defense Department, life would be hard for all of them. Things were fine as they were.
“Coward,” the middle-aged man cursed at the screen, then privately messaged one person in the group, “You definitely know whose item it is.”
“You almost blew your cover,” the other person said.
“Just bad luck running into them,” the middle-aged man dismissed it. “Someone just came knocking. No problem.”
The other person took a while to reply. “You’re very bold.”
The middle-aged man grinned. “I can be even bolder. Want to meet in person?”
This was a request to join their group.
“Perfect timing. A friend of mine is preparing a big show recently and needs people. If you want to earn some extra cash, you can give it a try,” the other person replied quickly. “Tomorrow morning, at the Fresh Pork Bun Shop on Dajie Street.”
The middle-aged man was so excited he couldn’t sleep all night. Early the next morning, he packed up and left. Before leaving, he even smiled and greeted the landlord downstairs, then rode his old bicycle out of the district.
Dajie Street wasn’t far from here. The Fresh Pork Bun Shop had good business, with many customers. The middle-aged man walked in, ordered a steamer of plain buns, sat down to eat slowly, then went to borrow the restroom. Only after the breakfast rush was over did the boss meet him in the back kitchen.
Strangely, the boss wasn’t a cannibal player, but an ordinary person.
“I’m just the middleman for contact,” he said, handing the middle-aged man a business card. “This person will tell you what to do.”
The middle-aged man looked down. “Dafeng Slaughterhouse, Manager Liu.”
Dafeng Slaughterhouse.
Xu Huo arrived here first. He released his spiritual realm and swept through it, finding several frozen corpses at the back of the cold storage. Probably because business was bad, only two people were working here now—both players. One was guarding the door, and the other was checking accounts inside.
Manager Liu was on the phone. “…There are quite a few people who want to join. I’ll pick some useful ones. A batch of fresh goods will be sent over soon.”
“They’ve been busy all night. Now is when they’re most relaxed.”
(Chapter End)