Chapter 1716: Malice
A person's upbringing affects their entire life. Suo Lan might not have many memories of her father's death, but the attitude of her mother during her growth, and the fact that most of the friends she played with had experienced the same pain, absolutely could not have failed to impact her psychology.
Although District 019 did everything it could in the aftermath of the mining accidents, and as time passed, it seemed these wounds had healed, the people of District 019 generally lived long lives. There must have been things that neither compensation nor time could smooth over.
As Suo Lan grew up, the frequency of mining accidents rapidly decreased. By the time machines replaced the vast majority of people, there were almost no more accidents due to mining. For ordinary people, these negative things might have been buried deep in memory over time. However, Suo Lan was a very precocious person. Her excessive emphasis on positive emotions actually felt somewhat incongruous.
Of course, past mining accidents weren't necessarily related to the "Ember Maiden," but this was currently a relatively important breakthrough.
Another breakthrough was Suo Lan's sudden choice of oil painting as her main focus, as well as her departure from Dingding Flower Town along with several companions around the same period.
Classmates who studied together for several years during school might gradually lose contact after parting ways, but Suo Lan and Lai Guang and the others had grown up together since childhood, accompanying each other for nearly twenty years. Moreover, the group vaguely seemed to take Suo Lan as their leader. How could they have completely lost contact after separating?
Furthermore, after Suo Lan later became famous, she almost never mentioned these friends of hers—this also didn't match Suo Lan's personality, at least it contradicted the emotional richness she displayed in her paintings.
After resting for one night, early the next morning, the curly-haired woman who had left last night came back with the scarred player, along with a female player with a buzz cut.
"This is a friend who joined us last night, nickname 'Disease Dispelling,'" the curly-haired woman said, helping to introduce both sides. She added, "Today we plan to search the mines again."
Xu Huo glanced at them. "No gains last night?"
The curly-haired woman waved her hand. "Not a single bit. I almost wanted to leave, but 'Dispelling' said she has a small-scale map."
"Not a single truthful word comes out of the mouths of Dingding Flower Town people," the buzz-cut female player said, not hiding her disgust for the locals. "Even the places Suo Lan walked past, they want to talk about them. Typical attention-seeking. They lack concern, and the young people who lived in Dingding Flower Town lack topics and money. None of them are any good."
Unlike tourists, players who had been searching for useful information for a long time without success easily developed antipathy toward the people of District 019, whose lives seemed to contain nothing but joy.
"How can you ensure the authenticity of the map in your hand?" Xu Huo asked.
"Naturally, I used some methods," the buzz-cut female player said with a grin. "This big a district, a missing person or two won't be discovered that quickly."
The expressions of those present didn't change as they formulated a plan based on her map.
The buzz-cut female player had already narrowed it down again and again, but there were still ten places that Master Suo Lan frequently visited and where reliable little stories had been left. These were the places they were going to investigate today.
Without delay, the group ate breakfast and then left the town straight into the nearby mountains.
Not long after they left, another aircraft arrived in the town, sending down a large number of tourists, a third of whom were players. They were dressed differently, but as soon as they separated from the tour group, they dispersed into Dingding Flower Town.
Within less than ten minutes, faint flashes of light appeared in different parts of the town. If someone passed nearby, they might glance over, but it was just a quickly disappearing light. No unusual sounds came from the town.
In less than half an hour, this kind of light flickered intermittently again. Players emerged one after another from secluded corners of the town. They all walked onto the main street, using themselves as a medium for transmitting information. After a brief stop, they went elsewhere.
Most people were unaware of them, thinking they had also come to find the "Ember Maiden." Only a few elderly people occasionally gave them a second glance, but that was all.
"A lot of people came down this time," said the long-haired male player who had been trying to recruit other players at the bar two days ago. He hadn't left the town either. He didn't often try to get close to the townspeople, preferring to knock around on buildings. However, he had also covered most of the town in the past two days and was now moving outward, planning to do one final check before leaving.
But just as he sensed several players appearing nearby simultaneously, a faint light suddenly shone into his eyes.
The long-haired man instinctively covered his eyes and used an item to escape, but as he leaped into the air, he vanished along with the passing light...
Xu Huo looked back toward the town.
He and the curly-haired woman and the other two had already entered the mountains, a considerable distance from Dingding Flower Town. Yet he felt a vibration of spatial power coming from near the town's entrance. That power rippled outward, just reaching the limit of his perception.
Was someone fighting in the town?
The mountains were completely silent all around. No alarms sounded, and no combat machinery came to support.
"I think we're still doing useless work," the curly-haired woman said, giving up easily again. "Although searching the mine tunnels was my suggestion, I don't have much hope now. Maybe we should just forget it?"
"Dingding Flower Town is the most likely place," the buzz-cut female player said. "You should know the importance of childhood to a person. Suo Lan basically had no parents. The fact that she grew up with a sound personality is largely thanks to Dingding Flower Town."
"But even so, she never came back to Dingding Flower Town," the curly-haired woman said.
"She's busy as hell. She probably thinks about painting even when she's sleeping. It's normal that she doesn't have time to come back," the buzz-cut female player said. "Besides, almost everyone she was close to is dead. Just some neighbors with no deep connection—coming back wouldn't mean much."
"Are we really going to search these mountains for ten days?" the curly-haired woman deliberately looked around. "There are noticeably fewer players coming into the mountains today."
Obviously, more people believed Suo Lan wouldn't have placed the "Ember Maiden" here.
The scarred player agreed with her this time. "Everyone knows the importance of Dingding Flower Town. Since Master Suo Lan threw out this puzzle, she certainly wouldn't let people find it so easily. And if she used some bizarre, tricky method to hide it, then this instance wouldn't exist."
In other words, following the painting must have a clear clue, not just randomly buried in some mountain.
The buzz-cut female player ignored them, continuing to operate her mechanical armadillo without stopping.
At this moment, Xu Huo withdrew his gaze and asked, "Then do you have any other clues?"
(Chapter End)