Chapter 1726: Century-Old Records
Although they hadn't eaten, Xu Huo and the other two took a group photo with the person in charge, and before leaving, each was given a brooch inlaid with a small gem.
After walking out of Hyson Company, the three boarded a flying car heading toward the company where they were "employed."
"Quick, check if there's any important information!" Shen Fei couldn't wait to open the shared terminal. There were over twenty folders, each numbered. Just one glance, and he was somewhat disappointed. "If the number starts with E, it means it's not important. This is the standard numbering system in Zone 019."
Xu Huo split the screen and brought it in front of him, opening the folders one by one to examine them. "Materials that were originally classified with higher-level numbers might not retain their original classification over time. Perhaps some less important files were downgraded and placed in lower-level directories."
He found two video files labeled with the number D and selected them to play.
The content was rather chaotic, capturing the situation just before and after a mine collapse. It seemed they were filming a promotional video when the collapse was accidentally recorded. The filming crew was also caught in the incident, and the camera fell to the ground.
In the tilted footage, the mine began to collapse from one side. A large number of rocks rolled down the slope for a short while before being halted by a sudden sinking of the mountain. Within moments, a third of the mountain had sunk into the ground. Someone could be faintly heard shouting, "The ground is splitting!" But those still outside the mine were mostly running for their lives, with no breath left to scream.
Although the mountain's sinking paused midway, the remaining half seemed hollowed out in the middle. The entire outer shell plunged downward with a heavy thud, but on the surface, it still didn't crack open, only a continuous rumbling vibration filled the air.
The video recorded until the collapse ended. Soon, a large number of rescue personnel arrived. The mine's person in charge also brought the remaining employees to join the rescue efforts. Someone beside the video was speaking:
"They must all be buried under the mountain..."
Xu Huo checked the time on the video and used the address to find the rescue news from that time.
"This accident only killed a little over fifty people?" Shen Fei immediately sensed something was off. "A mine this big—how many people were working inside at the same time? At least a hundred?"
"Did they conceal the actual number?" Zhu Zhongliang wasn't surprised. "That's not unusual."
"Would the mining group really find all the bodies?" Ke Youming expressed doubt. "The ground split open. Some people must have fallen deep into the cracks, and with the mountain on top, this isn't as simple as digging a hole on flat ground. A hundred years ago, Zone 019's technology wasn't up to par either, was it?"
Shen Fei opened the subsequent videos. Judging by the scale of the rescue, it looked like they were genuinely trying to clear out the entire mountain.
But Xu Huo knew this was unlikely. Since there was video evidence, and the news at the time made no mention of whether the underground cracks were newly formed or pre-existing, it meant this issue had been glossed over.
As for that mine, it was still being mined today. After being sealed for two years, a small news report mentioned that geological activity had created new shallow gem deposits in the mountain, and Hyson Corporation had simply opened a shaft right next to it to start digging.
It sounded absurd.
Even more absurd was that all the bodies of those who died in the accident were supposedly found.
Even though Zone 019 had already been evolving for quite some time by then, a one hundred percent recovery rate still seemed ridiculous.
Of course, the most likely scenario was that Hyson Group had falsified the numbers. The fifty-plus people weren't the actual death toll, but the number of bodies finally recovered. Since only that many were found, that's what they reported.
"And afterward, no one raised any objections?" Ke Youming was puzzled. "Their own relatives' remains were never found, yet they allowed Hyson Group to publicly release false information."
"At the memorial ceremony, most of those who showed up probably had recovered bodies. Those people must have known something, but it's been too long. Some of them didn't live to this day. We've tracked down a few, but couldn't get anything out of them." Shen Fei paused and looked at Xu Huo. "These materials might not be very meaningful."
In fact, from the start, the three of them didn't quite understand why Xu Huo would go to such lengths to forge identities and make this trip. Instead of looking for these "fake news" reports, it would have been better to directly find the people involved.
Human memory is flawed, especially over long periods. Many things, even the people themselves, might not remember clearly. And even with short-term memory, as the story is told repeatedly, the narrator might unconsciously add or delete details.
Public news reports are unreliable, and the families of the deceased don't have a complete picture either. Only these first-hand materials could reveal the situation at the time. Even if Hyson Group had deleted important parts, the details could still expose something.
For example, after watching these videos, Xu Huo's overall impression was that Hyson Group, from top to bottom, had been very sincere in the rescue efforts. Some company executives even lost their lives in the process. After the government recognized the deceased as martyrs, the company also paid substantial compensation to their families.
The possibly falsified numbers, the long-existing underground cracks, the mining company's continued operations, the earthquakes that weren't actually that frequent, the excessively high accident rate, the too many people dying in accidents... All this information combined easily led to the suspicion that these mining companies might all be doing the same thing—deliberately causing casualties.
Of course, achieving this goal by destroying the mine was a self-defeating strategy. Under normal circumstances, no one would think it was intentional. But aside from this reason, it was hard to explain everything.
People who followed a particular religious faith might commit extreme acts, but such behavior wasn't widespread. In other words, one or two mining groups might do this because their leadership was mentally unstable, but given the vastness of Zone 019, this couldn't happen on a large scale. Moreover, there was no religion with such extensive coverage at the time.
"No," Ke Youming said at this point. "I don't quite get it. Were those people who died namelessly back then really that important?"
"Even though the numbers might have been falsified, we've been to some of those mines, and there's nothing going on there."
"Could it be the work of cannibal players from that time?" Zhu Zhongliang proposed a possibility. "Maybe for some reason, there were a huge number of cannibal players back then. They obtained food this way, then destroyed the mines to cover up their crimes. The Zone 019 government probably found this too horrifying and thought it might damage the district's image, so they completely deleted this information."
"That's not impossible," Ke Youming said, looking around. "So does that mean the 'Dwelling of the Dead' refers to those killed by cannibal players? That would be even harder to find."
(Chapter End)