Chapter 1662: What Else Could It Be
For some players, money was no longer a scarce commodity. There were many ways to obtain wealth, and there was no need to rely on similar organizations or cults. At this point, what they needed was greater power and more connections—like the Twin Serpents organization from before. On the surface, it was a cult, but in reality, it relied on the core members' network of relationships. Through these connections, they could obtain information in advance and evade the Special Defense Department's surveillance.
Hua Baoren's cult clearly hadn't reached that level yet. Most of its current activities involved internal company members, or players who had been absorbed into the company's internal ranks. But if the numbers grew any larger, everyone would soon realize that ordinary currency wasn't all that useful in today's society.
By then, the model Hua Baoren had described would collapse on its own. In the best case, everyone would go their separate ways; in the worst case, cult members would be assimilated and completely degenerate into predators.
"Nothing can be completely without risk, but rest assured, every member's identity has been personally reviewed by me—there's absolutely no problem," Hua Baoren said. "After joining Wushan Cult, we will also conduct regular reviews of members' behavior. If there's an issue, they'll be expelled immediately to avoid causing trouble for others."
The middle-aged man's words were quite convincing, or at least for the cannibal players at this stage, there was no better way out.
"Are you sure you can verify the identities of all members?" That voice rang out again. "Can you guarantee that the person standing right in front of you has nothing to do with the missing persons cases?"
This time, not just Hua Baoren, but even the others in the venue found it strange. Someone turned around to look for the source of the voice, "Who's talking? Step out and show yourself!"
"Ridiculous! Forcing the missing persons case onto us—are you just trying to pick a fight?"
The crowd's eyes searched everywhere, but before they could find the target, the person spoke again, "It seems Chairman Hua doesn't know much about the people he hires. Why don't you ask Secretary Fang beside you?"
Secretary Fang, a young man with a scholarly face who had been standing behind Hua Baoren as background, felt his expression change when the topic shifted to him. He was about to explain when he suddenly felt a pain in his neck. He quickly reached out to touch it, only to pull off a syringe.
"Muscle relaxant..." Before he could finish, Secretary Fang collapsed to the ground. His eyes were still open, but his hands and feet had lost all strength, and his tongue felt thick.
This was a muscle relaxant Xu Huo had obtained from the Special Defense Department. Its effect was mediocre—better muscle relaxants in the game would leave a person unable to move their limbs but still able to speak.
But that didn't matter. As long as the person couldn't escape, it was fine.
The venue fell into chaos. Some immediately tried to run for the door, but the door had already been sealed shut. No matter how clumsily they wielded their props, they couldn't open it. In their panic, people kept shouting into the air, "What do you want?" "Who are you?" and similar words.
It was then that Xu Huo revealed himself before the crowd. He walked over to Secretary Fang, picked up the tablet that had fallen to the ground, and activated the projector in one corner of the venue, displaying the chat records from Secretary Fang's private account.
He had used encrypted communication methods. "Encrypted" only meant omitting the subject and object of sentences, focusing on locations and quantities.
"Do these look familiar?" Xu Huo asked Hua Baoren.
Hua Baoren, worthy of someone who had weathered many storms, quickly calmed down. He realized that Xu Huo's words might not be baseless. He carefully examined some of the numbers in the content, then said, "Some of them ring a bell. This should be the number of people selected each time."
"After I became a cannibal player, I spent a lot of money on gathering intelligence. Even when we killed, we only chose from those who had already committed crimes. When we needed more, we picked from the existing list. The numbers varied each time... but the frequency and quantity here far exceed the company's daily needs."
He glared at Secretary Fang, "How dare you do such heinous things behind my back!"
Secretary Fang's eyes kept twitching, as if he was desperately trying to deny it.
Hua Baoren wasn't the type to believe everything he heard. He turned back to Xu Huo, "Who exactly are you? You're not from the Special Defense Department, are you? Or are you trying to pin all the missing persons cases in Nanshi on me?"
"You're overthinking it." Xu Huo dumped out the few people from the "Staff Dormitory." Besides Manager Liu from the slaughterhouse, there was also the driver responsible for transportation and a worker from the processing plant.
These people had already had their hands and feet broken, but they could still talk. As soon as they came out, they eagerly identified Secretary Fang and rattled off several strongholds established under his orders, as well as how he had used company resources to purchase props and lend them to cannibal players as a means of recruitment.
Hua Baoren's face darkened as he listened. After a moment, he laughed in anger, walked over, and kicked Secretary Fang, "Well done! I never thought I'd hired such a capable secretary! If you're this talented, why are you still a secretary!"
Xu Huo's gaze swept over them, "Before coming here, I originally planned to solve a problem for the Special Defense Department, to keep them from panicking and accidentally letting some important figure slip away..."
Hua Baoren's eyes widened, "You plan to kill us all!"
Many people's legs went weak with fear. They hurriedly declared that they had never killed anyone, and even if they had eaten some of the missing people, they had been completely deceived—they never wanted to live this kind of life, and so on.
Xu Huo raised his hand to signal them to quiet down, then said to Hua Baoren, "You want to carve out a place for people who accidentally became cannibal players. There's nothing wrong with that in itself. But as I said before, neither you nor the Special Defense Department has an effective way to truly restrain all cannibal players. Whether it's legalizing their identity or forming an organization, it would only harm the entire district."
"So forget about negotiating with the Special Defense Department. Disband Wushan Cult, and stop holding those eye-sore rituals."
Hua Baoren naturally understood the problems cannibal players faced. After hearing this, he felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over his burning passion. He couldn't help but say, "So once you become a cannibal player, you can only live like a rat in the gutter?"
"What else could it be? Should we give you an award for your 'kindness'?" Xu Huo raised an eyebrow. "You should be grateful that the ordinary players are the ones in control of Zone 014 right now. If it were cannibal players in charge, do you think your chances of being a hunter or a prey would be higher?"
No matter what stance the country took on cannibal players, this group could never be publicly acknowledged. Once "cannibalism" was permitted, the normal structure of human society wouldn't be far from collapse.
(Chapter End)