Chapter 1712: One Hundred Ways to Find Ember
To avoid missing anything, Xu Huo recorded all the people of similar age who lived in Dingding Flower Town during Suo Lan's stay there.
Of course, none of these people were named "Ember."
When the painting "Ember Maiden" was first revealed, the entire 019 District had been scoured. Whether it was people or places named "Ember," at that time, the name was still rare. According to data published on the Message Collection Terminal, in the month Master Suo Lan announced the painting's title, there were twenty people named Ember in 019 District, along with two small towns also called Ember. However, subsequent investigations confirmed that neither the twenty individuals nor the towns had any connection to the painting.
After that, the number of people named "Ember" increased. Some admired Suo Lan so much that, regardless of gender, they specifically changed their names to Ember. Since 019 District had no laws prohibiting this, the numbers grew. Some places also jumped on the "Ember" bandwagon to boost tourism. Now, over a decade later, even newborns named Ember have grown to be over ten years old. Places called "Ember" have spread far and wide, some even accompanied by bizarre rumors.
The later "Embers" held little investigative value, but some wealthy and idle individuals still visited these places and met these people. Whether they found any clues remains unclear.
However, since Suo Lan publicly mentioned the "Ember Maiden," this topic couldn't be too simple, so it wouldn't be easy to find. At the very least, the name "Ember" might just be a pseudonym.
Additionally, there were no historical anecdotes or legends related to "Ember" in 019 District's past. The three characters of "Ember" carried no special meaning—unlike words implying "blessing" or "beauty"—it was just an ordinary name.
Thus, the "Ember" Suo Lan mentioned seemed to be one she personally identified. Given that she called "Ember Maiden" a painting, no one had yet linked "Ember Maiden" to anything else.
Suo Lan was a renowned painter with a childhood habit of drawing on stones. Some speculated whether she had painted not on paper or canvas but on a massive scale, placed in specific locations, such as Dingding Flower Town.
019 District had advanced instruments, and the government quickly released aerial survey results. Unfortunately, no "giant painting" was found anywhere.
Beyond that, some conducted three-dimensional analyses of places she had lived, even analyzing the fruit forests she had planted from different angles.
However, these efforts weren't widely accepted, nor did they attract much attention. Since Suo Lan had said "Ember Maiden" was her life's greatest achievement, it certainly wouldn't be something cobbled together from rocks and trees. It must be a painting that would captivate anyone who saw it.
Compared to the reserved nature of 019 District locals, outside players were far more brutal. They had ransacked the homes of Suo Lan's descendants, kidnapped them, and even secretly dug up Suo Lan's grave, believing she might have left clues on her own remains. This wasn't officially confirmed, but the fact that Suo Lan's descendants exhumed her body a year after burial and moved it elsewhere seemed to support this.
Now, the public still visited and paid respects at Suo Lan's original grave, but her remains likely weren't there anymore. To prevent further grave robbing, the area was surrounded by surveillance instruments and combat robots on standby.
There were other angles for finding the painting, but ultimately, none yielded results.
On the Under Dimension, there were no correct strategies. Some people sold seemingly plausible instance guides, but they were all fake. No one who followed them ever cleared the instance.
If "Ember Maiden" truly was a painting, and the instance still existed, it meant that since its inception, no one had ever cleared it.
This was an instance with zero clearances.
However, this assumption rested on "Ember Maiden" being a painting. Perhaps someone had cleared it but simply hadn't sold the strategy.
In the dead of night, players were still active outside.
Things that were hard to do during the day, like breaking into houses and searching, were now easier under the cover of darkness. Some came well-prepared and weren't discovered, while others were unlucky and were quickly spotted by robots, fleeing with their faces covered.
Perhaps because life in 019 District was too good, locals were very tolerant of such "burglaries" when no major losses or casualties occurred, and they didn't ostracize outside players.
This was already somewhat abnormal.
Many people didn't rely on the tourist traffic brought by Master Suo Lan to make money. Over a decade, not only locals but also outside players would seek out anyone possibly connected to "Ember Maiden," some using "intense" methods that caused trouble. Yet on the Message Collection Terminal, few people expressed anger or complaints, as if everyone had a compassionate and magnanimous heart.
However, aside from some beneficiaries, the majority who were repeatedly harassed probably wished someone would find "Ember Maiden" and finally put an end to this.
Xu Huo pulled the curtains and went back to sleep.
The next morning, when the alarm set in the room went off, he opened his eyes. The people across the hall and next door were already out, knocking on his door to call him for breakfast.
The robot-managed guesthouse didn't have ready-made meals, but robots could be sent to buy food. Since they were about to leave anyway, they could grab a bite at a nearby shop on the way.
After a quick wash, Xu Huo went out to meet the other two. They had breakfast at a small shop nearby and then took a car into the mountains.
There were many fruit forests in the area, and tour groups sometimes took visitors inside, so there were regular cars available, also free.
Now, each of them had a map, with many overlapping locations. They decided to proceed by distance.
The nearest spot had already been turned into a fruit forest. Although tourists weren't prohibited from entering, they couldn't damage the trees or grass. Robots monitored the area. The curly-haired woman merely crouched down to brush aside some grass and immediately triggered a warning.
"This is the downside of a technologically advanced district," said the scarred player. "Every move a player makes is watched."
Not only watched but also capable of subduing them.
"So what? They can't watch every inch of land," the curly-haired woman said dismissively, stepping toward the marked location where Master Suo Lan had once taken a scene.
For the convenience of visitors, places like "Master Suo Lan's Long-Stay Spots" had signs. This marked spot in the fruit forest was just a deliberately left dirt pit, with an explanation that Suo Lan had dug it with companions for a shooting game.
"They even mark a place like this?" The curly-haired woman's expression was hard to describe.
(Chapter End)