Chapter 1753: Enbo and Ember
Finding these people wasn’t difficult; the city government had relevant records. Since it was confirmed that the “Ember Maiden” was “Xiaxi Duolaiti,” the gender and age of the victims in Ember Town no longer mattered—everyone needed to be investigated.
There were quite a few family members of the victims, but the district government had already conducted a thorough investigation into Xiaxi Duolaiti’s disappearance case. At that time, no family members of the victims had been taken away or completely disappeared. Therefore, this person had to have some connection to the victims while not arousing suspicion on the surface.
At the same time, they needed to have enough “operational time,” such as gathering information on the movements of the district government and the Duolaiti family members, finding or creating a suitable hiding place that couldn’t be detected by props or detection instruments, and completely avoiding the sight of players…
Apart from underground, Xu Huo couldn’t think of a better place.
The mining area wasn’t worth mentioning. Whether carving tunnels inside mountains or digging holes underground, achieving sufficient depth and concealment would require an extremely long time. If someone or a group of people disappeared for extended periods, it would inevitably attract attention. Moreover, it was hard to avoid others’ eyes within the mines. The best place was actually within the city.
Since it was within the urban area and the preparation time wasn’t clear, this person was likely a loner who didn’t attract attention. It was difficult for larger families to avoid contact with the outside world. Even if family members didn’t actively reach out to others, someone would come looking for them, making accidental exposure highly probable.
Being a loner who didn’t attract attention and successfully evading government player investigations in subsequent disappearance cases was almost certainly due to being deliberately overlooked by others. To be honest, such people were rare, especially during those years when amber was valuable. The people of Ember Town were all working hard—for a town of this size and population, excluding the elderly with limited mobility and the children running wild, there weren’t many left.
“Enbo,” Xu Huo said the name.
Enbo’s life story also had a noticeable fluctuation. He hadn’t given up hope despite his physical disability, so why would he suddenly abandon himself after gaining fame and fortune?
Enbo grew up eating meals from various families and never formed deep connections with anyone. Many of the names on the list were from the area where he once lived, and many families had fed him. Perhaps that was when he learned the truth about the mining disaster, or maybe someone he cared about died in it—there could be many reasons, and outsiders might never fully understand them today. However, this might have been what led to his connection with the blind old lady.
The place where Enbo was most active during his life was his own home. To hide people away from props and detection instruments, this underground cave would need to be at least a hundred meters deep.
The place where Enbo once lived had now been turned into a square, bustling with people during the day. Players could only investigate using props or detection instruments. Someone had once donated money to renovate the square and dug underground, but they stopped after exceeding a hundred meters.
In fact, once it exceeded fifty meters, the difficulty was already beyond what an ordinary person could handle. At that time, Enbo’s financial situation didn’t allow him to purchase professional robots, nor did he have props to support such an endeavor. So, the connection between “Enbo” and “Ember” was probably just an unreliable rumor. There were plenty of people and events more closely related to “Enbo” and the “Ember Maiden” than this. Whether players or fans, no one would dig three feet into the ground at every spot, especially since they had no compelling reason to do so.
Xu Huo now had that reason, but it wasn’t easy to act on it.
“Do we need to go to the next place?” After leaving the small courtyard, the guide said to them, “The remaining few people all say pretty much the same thing. I’ve heard it hundreds of times. How about we go see the places Master Solan once visited?”
Xu Huo had no objections, and the other two exchanged glances before nodding.
The car started up again. Ember City was now well-developed and scenic. Xu Huo asked the guide to slow down, and they stopped along the way to enjoy some food and buy local specialties.
The other two companions were broke, and the guide was stingy, so Xu Huo paid for the meals. To express his gratitude, the guide specifically recommended some affordable shops for buying specialties.
“Amber Square is quite famous,” Xu Huo said.
“It’s not far from here!” The guide directly ignored the opinions of the other two and turned the car in that direction.
“Amber Square was where Enbo used to live,” the tall man said.
“Not just Enbo, a lot of people used to live in Amber Square,” the guide glanced at him. “You’re not thinking of digging up the square, are you? I’d advise you to forget it. The square cost a lot to build, and there are many robots guarding it. Forget about you—even players couldn’t just dig it up and take a look.”
“Besides, digging would be useless. When they renovated the square, they already dug it up. People from the big cities dug much more thoroughly than you, using all kinds of detection instruments, props, and advanced players. If there was nothing, there’s nothing.”
After saying this, the guide paused and quickly added, “But don’t get discouraged! If you can’t find it here, maybe it’s somewhere else. Don’t give up—you’ll find it someday!”
Ignoring the guide’s little scheme, the group silently arrived at Amber Square. It was a bustling place, with all kinds of luxury goods available, including some rare amber for sale.
Since they were here, Xu Huo bought a few small, exquisite pieces of amber.
“Sir, you have excellent taste. Natural pink amber is rare these days. Many people buy it as a collectible, neither reselling nor displaying it. Such quality is very hard to find,” the saleswoman said with a beaming smile as she promoted the items.
“Is it genuine?” Xu Huo turned to ask the guide beside him.
“There’s a detection instrument in the mall. Let’s test it, test it,” the guide said, proactively going to request the instrument. A small instrument was brought over and scanned the amber, confirming it was genuine. Xu Huo paid promptly.
“This piece of amber is really beautiful.” Suddenly, a very attractive woman approached, reaching out to take the amber from Xu Huo’s hand. But just as her fingertips were about to touch it, the hand holding the amber shifted to the side, dodging her.
Seeing his reaction, the woman leaned bonelessly against the counter, tossing her long hair, her eyes seductive as she gazed at Xu Huo. She extended her hand toward him and said, “Shouldn’t beautiful things go to beautiful women? Handsome, won’t you give me the amber?”
Not just the people around, but even the saleswoman felt her legs go weak at the sound of that voice, her face flushing as she stared at this enchanting woman, as if completely captivated by her charm.
This was exactly the effect the woman wanted. Unfortunately, her primary target wasn’t enchanted. Instead, he looked at her calmly and slowly tucked the pink amber into his pocket.
The atmosphere was a bit awkward, but the woman was very pragmatic. If her trait didn’t work, it meant either the other party had a good defense prop or was strong-willed and not easily tempted—either way, he wasn’t someone to mess with. So she turned to leave.
However, Xu Huo reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder.