Chapter 1742: Like a True Tourist
The short-haired woman and the bald strong man asked him for the reason as they searched.
"A person's actions and choices are often related to their position," Xu Huo said. "If Master Solan truly chose silence after learning the truth, there must be some reason that prompted her to make that choice. If she could really be indifferent to what happened in the past, she wouldn't have published 'Ember Maiden' before her death."
Not fully siding with her father and friends meant that she had, to some extent, leaned toward the perpetrators. Leaning toward the perpetrators—the mere possibility of an economic collapse in Zone 019 wasn't enough of a reason. After all, it hadn't actually happened, and no one could say for sure whether such severe consequences would have occurred. Only what was right in front of you had a powerful impact. Therefore, the clues were more likely to be found among the perpetrators.
Finding those among these people who had undergone major upheavals was the first step. If no suitable target was found after screening, they would have to change direction.
The short-haired woman and the other person thought it made sense and seriously searched within the scope he had defined. But even though they had narrowed down the number of people and the time frame, it was still difficult to lock onto a target because the number was truly not small, and some were very hard to investigate. For example, the family situations of some high-level members of Everyday Joy were difficult to find on the Message Collection Terminal. If it were the present, spending some time tracking them could slowly figure things out, but they were investigating things from a hundred years ago. If there was no information online, it would be very hard to get anything out of other people.
"Let's just go straight after the people from Everyday Joy," the bald strong man said. "Their internal staff must have caught some wind of it. By the time Master Solan was twenty, the heat of the mine disaster had already died down, and there weren't many people seeking revenge. If some malicious incident happened, people around them should remember it."
Xu Huo had no objections. The three agreed on their targets and started searching according to the priority levels they had set.
"Let's get some sleep before going out," the short-haired woman yawned. "Haven't slept well in days."
The three ordered some food, then each found a spot in the room to sleep.
They slept until the afternoon. After waking up and washing their faces, Xu Huo opened a bottle of ice water, walked to the window, and kept an eye on the street activity. He sat by the window for a while before calling the other two to get up.
Neither of them had slept well. Generally, when entering an instance, no one dared to sleep too deeply.
Seeing that Xu Huo had rested well, the short-haired woman couldn't help but say, "You really aren't worried at all. Aren't you afraid we might make a move on you?"
Xu Huo tilted his head back to finish his water, casually put the bottle on the ground, and said with a smile, "I think you can be trusted."
The short-haired woman rolled her eyes, quickly stuffed the remaining food into her mouth, rubbed her face, and prepared to start work.
This time, the three would act separately. Their targets were different, and their directions were different. After leaving the hotel, they each took a car and went their separate ways.
Xu Huo clearly noticed that the patrol robots near him had increased. He didn't pay much attention to it, instead slowing down his pace and strolling around the residential area of the two technicians.
As long as you had money, there were plenty of good food and fun things nearby. Xu Huo took a sightseeing car and circled the scenic street twice, then followed a group of tourists to experience some local snacks. Because he was generous with his spending, he picked up quite a few freebies along the way. By the time he got off the sightseeing car, he looked like a true tourist, covered from head to toe in iconic items from different places and shops, such as cartoon hats, animal-shaped glasses, food-shaped necklaces, various patterned stickers on his arms, quick-change jackets and pants... He looked very relaxed.
He grabbed a free drink from a passing automatic beverage cart and strolled leisurely down the street.
Before long, several groups of players had their eyes on him.
Xu Huo pretended not to notice. He stopped when he passed by a flower and bird shop and lingered inside for quite a while.
After listening for free to the clerk's explanation of the unique plants and birds exclusive to Zone 019, he heard the clerk ask, "Sir, wouldn't you like to buy two plants to take back? For example, Air Purifying Grass can be used wherever you go. Not only does it freshen the air, it can even purify toxins, and it also serves as an indicator of air pollution levels. Very practical."
Xu Huo wasn't interested in the special plants, but he did take a liking to a type of miniature bird in the shop.
These birds had ever-changing feather colors and were very easy to tame. Therefore, Zone 019 sometimes used them for performances. They were only the size of a finger joint, looking about the same as an ordinary bee.
"Sir, you have excellent taste! Our shop has just trained a batch of Finger Birds. They can form different pictures based on commands, including two of Master Solan's works. Whether you want to appreciate them yourself or use them for performances, they're excellent," the clerk said with a beaming smile. "However, the number of successfully trained Finger Birds is quite large, so the price is also relatively high. But our shop can give you a small space prop for free, enough for you to put the birds inside. You just need to let them out regularly to drink water and eat."
Xu Huo asked the price, haggled a bit, and finally bought ten thousand Finger Birds for two hundred thousand.
The capacity of the free space prop was just enough to hold these birds. The clerk took him to a special training space to demonstrate how to release and retrieve the birds. It was very simple—just a button whistle. The trained flock would act according to the whistle's sound.
"What whistle should I use if I want to do a good deed and release them?" Xu Huo asked.
"The commands learned by Finger Birds are not lifelong. The longer the time, the lower their obedience. If you want to release them, sir, you just need to press all the buttons at the same time. The whistle will emit a unique sound that impacts the Finger Birds' brains, causing temporary deafness. Once their hearing recovers, they will forget the previous commands, making it very difficult to gather them again."
The clerk then added proactively, "But please don't release them in the city center. It might cause unnecessary trouble."
Xu Huo reached out and grabbed one, gently touching its head with his finger. "Such a small bird can cause what kind of trouble? It doesn't even have any aggression."
Ten thousand sounded like a lot, but they were so tiny that even if they gathered together, they wouldn't take up much space.
"This is a government regulation. After all, birds aren't as obedient as robots. It wouldn't be good if they scared a child." The clerk chatted while packing some freebies for him.
When Xu Huo walked out the door, he was carrying another fairly large bag.
Different consumption levels had different packaging for freebies. Once you stayed here long enough, you understood. So when he came out, a few more players had joined the tail.
Within Xu Huo's field of vision, someone was saying, "That pretty boy is way too rich!"