Chapter 1733: Target Lock
The two were quite familiar with each other, but they didn't dwell on this topic for long. Before long, Mr. Wei stood up to take his leave, and the Instructor escorted him to the door. When he returned to the office, a believer came in from the side door and said with some pity, "He's here again."
The Instructor handed the money to him for processing. "Deposit it into the public account."
As the believer handled the transaction, he couldn't help but say, "What's the point of this? The person has been dead for over a hundred years, and he's still buying little snacks... Besides, this money can't even be used on the dead."
The Instructor shot him a warning look. "Keep your mouth shut."
The believer reluctantly finished the task and stormed out of the office.
The Instructor shook his head helplessly and bent back over his desk to finish his work.
But not long after, the office door opened again. The Instructor went out and found the believer, who was still angrily weeding the grounds. He sighed and said, "I've told you countless times, but you still can't remember."
Hearing his voice, the believer didn't turn around but said indignantly, "Aren't all the people in the church our brothers and sisters? Why do we have to deceive them? Every year, the large sums of money donated by the faithful are actually used to train players. No one cares about those who have passed away. I secretly went to check last time, and it hasn't been cleaned in a long time. Mr. Wei still wants to buy food to honor them... If he knew that all his persistence over the years has never actually been put into practice, I wonder how heartbroken he would be!"
"This isn't deceiving them; it's giving them a spiritual anchor," the "Instructor" said. "If you told him the truth, he would only suffer more."
"I don't understand. This is just a very small matter. Why not just do it properly?" the believer said. "Why use this method, deceiving both the living and the dead!"
The young believer was clearly beginning to doubt his faith. At that moment, the "Instructor" said, "Do you know who those who have passed away are?"
"I know," the believer turned to look at him. "Teacher, you told me before. They are people who died in the mines and had no family or friends. We have always been the ones to honor them. But it's been so long now. Since the church doesn't really care about them, why not just stop bothering with them altogether?"
"This is the spiritual cornerstone of the Seventeen Faces," the "Instructor" said. "We are inseparable from Hiers. Besides, it's only been a hundred years. The memories haven't faded yet. How could those people be completely erased?"
The believer couldn't accept this reasoning. "Are the things those people from Hiers said also false? Isn't Hiers what it is today because of the sacrifices of these people?"
The "Instructor" didn't answer this question. The believer persisted for a while before finally saying in frustration, "I understand. It's because among those people from over a hundred years ago, some are still alive, and some have already died..."
He didn't get an answer, but Mr. Wei, who was still lingering in the preaching hall, murmured a vague piece of information, "...There was no need for them to die at all. Their sacrifice was meaningless."
This old man, over a hundred years old, had tears in his eyes, but under the guidance of Xu Huo, who was disguised as the "Instructor," he didn't reveal any more valuable information.
However, by cross-referencing both sides, Xu Huo could be certain of one thing: the Hiers Group had privately prepared a cemetery for those nameless accident victims over a hundred years ago and had been honoring them ever since. Those in the know, perhaps out of guilt, had supported the growth of the "Seventeen Faces" in the years that followed and selectively informed some members of the church—like the Instructor—about the memorials.
People like Mr. Wei, who knew the truth about the mining disaster, were definitely a minority. And since Mr. Wei said the victims' "sacrifice" was meaningless, it meant that the higher-ups of the Hiers Group had deliberately caused the mining disaster to achieve some goal, only to later realize it was a futile effort. Out of deep guilt, they secretly buried and honored the victims. But as the young believer said, there weren't many who knew the truth over a hundred years ago, and even fewer are still alive today. Moreover, a century of time can dilute any emotion. It's only natural that those whose remains were collected by the Hiers Group have gradually been neglected and forgotten.
The nameless ones who died in the mining disaster are most likely the people referred to in the "Dwelling of the Departed." The "dwelling" is also easy to understand—it's almost certainly the cemetery privately established by the Hiers Group. As long as he found that cemetery instance, he would be close to his goal.
But that wasn't Xu Huo's objective. What he wanted to know was why the mining companies in District 019, over a hundred years ago, seemed to have reached some kind of unspoken agreement, frequently causing accidents, only to suddenly stop as if the whole thing had never happened. No matter how fast technology advanced, it couldn't achieve such a miraculous result, especially since it was already known that the Hiers Group had deliberately caused the accidents.
Without a doubt, Mr. Wei knew the inside story, but he wouldn't reveal more in front of the "Instructor." So Xu Huo knocked him unconscious, carried him outside, and had Zhao Yiming take him to a nearby hospital.
"Don't let anyone send him home. Take him to the hospital," Xu Huo specifically instructed.
Zhao Yiming checked Mr. Wei's body and found that there was nothing wrong with him at all. Even if they sent him to the hospital, once he woke up, the hospital would definitely let him go home.
The three exchanged glances, and Meng Xiaoman took out a very small syringe and injected it into the gap between Mr. Wei's fingernails.
On the other side, Xu Huo returned to the believer and, in the tone of the "Instructor," relented. He told him that if he felt the Hiers Group and the church hadn't done enough, he could do what he could on his own, but he was not allowed to tell anyone else.
The believer nodded, specifically checked his private savings, and then left.
He went to a dessert shop, bought the newly released sweet that Mr. Wei had mentioned, and then headed toward the Hiers Group headquarters.
Xu Huo followed behind him, and Jiao Hongyuan, who hadn't left with Zhao Yiming and the others, also came along.
The Hiers Group headquarters wasn't like ordinary residential areas where one could come and go freely. Various jamming devices and detection instruments were layered three layers inside and three layers out, sealing off the entire headquarters area. Not only was it impossible to sneak in, but even using a space teleportation item to open a door wouldn't necessarily work. Even if one did get in, they would be detected immediately. So Xu Huo couldn't go in himself.
Although his spiritual power could cover some areas, the detection instruments could sense his presence. The countermeasures built into the instruments would activate as soon as they detected him. The leading mining group in District 019 wouldn't use inferior spiritual interference instruments, so there was no need to take that risk.
Jiao Hongyuan tried to place some small items on the believer, but they were all detected when the believer went through security. This was a common occurrence for people in District 019. After the items were confiscated, the believer went through several more checks before finally getting inside.
"This is a bit tricky. Is the 'Dwelling of the Departed' in there?" Jiao Hongyuan, who wasn't fully up to speed on the process, couldn't help but ask.
Xu Huo watched as a chain-like line of power extended from his own body, arcing through the air like a parabola before quickly falling and landing on the young believer. As the believer moved, the line successfully entered the interior of the Hiers Group headquarters. (End of Chapter)