Chapter 1762: Humble as Dust
The short man didn't let him in directly. Instead, he first closed the door, asked someone deeper in the room, then reopened it and warned, "Don't try anything. There are armed robots everywhere in the room."
Inside was a not-too-large living room, about the size of a typical one-bedroom apartment in Zone 014. In such a cramped space, four armed robots were stationed. Judging by their appearance, they had been modified—one robot's chest and abdomen components were directly exposed, and the wiring and chips used seemed patched together, clearly not the first time it had been remodeled.
Although these robots looked old, they carried plenty of weapons.
The short man pointed to the sofa in the living room. "If you have something to say, tell the teacher through the video."
Xu Huo sat down. A communicator in the corner automatically moved over. Once the camera lit up, a business card appeared on the screen.
"State your business first, then negotiate the price," the person on the other end said.
Xu Huo didn't care whether he could see the person or not. He spoke into the communicator, "I learned about you from an old gentleman. Tomorrow morning, I have a very important call to make. During that time, I don't want anyone to be able to locate me or interrupt me through the Message Collection Terminal."
"This is very risky. You could be traced by the District Government, and I won't be able to ensure your safety afterward."
"Why would the District Government want to trace you?" the short man asked, holding a rag and half-heartedly wiping down a nearby robot, his eyes occasionally darting toward Xu Huo.
"Because tomorrow morning, I'm going to publicly reveal the truth about how the District Government and the Mining Group conspired to cause a mining disaster one hundred and thirty years ago to obtain human bone gems," Xu Huo said calmly.
The room fell silent for a moment. Then the communicator's voice came through, "Do you have evidence?"
"No concrete evidence," Xu Huo said. "So I hope that through tomorrow morning's conversation, I can get the District Government to come forward and confirm my words."
What he said was like a thunderbolt to anyone from Zone 019. The short man's eyes widened, his mouth opening and closing repeatedly, but he couldn't manage to say anything.
After a long moment, the person on the other end of the communicator said, "Did you find Xiaxi Duolaiti's body?"
Xu Huo covered Xiaxi Duolaiti's head with two fingers and showed the photo.
The communicator shut off from the other end. Half a minute later, the bedroom door opened, and a woman wearing a very thick, furry hat maneuvered her wheelchair out. She looked thin and aged, but the eyes on her wrinkled face were as sharp as knives:
"If you can expose the truth about the District Government harming ordinary people, I'll help you unconditionally."
The living room was silent for a few seconds. Xu Huo spoke, "Did you also lose a loved one in the mining disaster?"
"Tiantian in the Ditch"—that was the elder before him—said solemnly, "More than a loved one."
Xu Huo nodded. Before coming, he had specifically confirmed with Old Mr. Yue and learned a bit about this old woman's past. The victims of the mining disaster weren't completely marginalized people in society; some would inevitably form social connections. Among the more special cases were those disabled individuals who huddled together for warmth.
Who the person the old woman called "loved one" was unclear, but after a certain mining disaster, she had repeatedly gone to the District Government to demand compensation. Due to procedural issues, her path to getting the money was extremely rocky. Old Mr. Yue had probably been collecting evidence at the time to verify his guesses about the truth of the mining disaster, so he had tracked some related individuals. This old woman, now very famous in Zone 019's "Storm Factor" community as "Tiantian in the Ditch," was one of them.
"Storm Factor" was equivalent to what Zone 014 called hackers. Due to technological development, the operation of Message Collection Terminals in more advanced zones was vastly different from backward ones, so hackers' actions often triggered uncontrollable chain reactions. These chain reactions were called "storms," and the hackers who caused them called themselves "Storm Factors," a name that had gained widespread recognition.
Seeing that both she and the short man seemed in poor health, and knowing they were quite famous and earned decent money but still lived in such a shabby place, Xu Huo added, "If you get traced or something unexpected happens, you might not be able to stay in Zone 019. The medical facilities in other zones might not match up to here."
The old woman took off her hat. The hat, which looked thick and absurd, was actually only a thin layer, meant to cover her abnormally large head.
Abnormal head evolution—aside from Xenomorphs, Xu Huo had only seen this in one person. But compared to Meng Cun, who had to continuously drain fluid from his brain, the old woman seemed in much better condition.
Rubbing her smooth scalp, she said, "Do you think someone like me wants to live much longer?"
"Tiantian's father and I were both orphans left behind after player deathmatches. I'm lame, he's deaf. When our parents died, we were both over ten years old. The government didn't care about us, and because we were underage, it was hard to find work. After barely scraping through to adulthood, my head started growing rapidly due to taking illegal Evolution Agents. With no money for treatment, Tiantian's father and I begged, stole, and became test subjects for underground laboratories, just barely clinging to life."
"Soon after, the underground lab was shut down. As victims, we received a large sum of money. That money could keep me alive for a while, and we planned to get married."
"Then we found Tiantian. Tiantian was abandoned due to a congenital disease. We couldn't bear to let him die in an orphanage, so we brought him home to raise."
"To earn more money, the mine recruitment offered high wages. Tiantian's father went. My illness could still be delayed, but if Tiantian didn't have cranial surgery before he turned ten, he would suffer from the disease for life. Even though we both knew there's no such thing as a free lunch, he still went. And I let him go."
"And he died just like that!" The old woman clenched her hat tightly, gritting her teeth. "Not even a body to find!"
Her emotions were too intense. Tiantian, the short man, poured her a glass of water, but she refused to drink and continued, "How ridiculous! When I went to look for his body, I happened to see the rescue team accidentally dig up human-bone-shaped gems from underground..."
"Then I understood everything. There are no philanthropists, only money bought with human lives!"
"But I still had to take that money," the old woman said, grief-stricken. "Without the compensation, I couldn't survive, Tiantian couldn't survive. Tiantian's father died for us—he couldn't die in vain. They refused to pay because we didn't have proper paperwork to prove our kinship. So I went to ask Tiantianle for it, went to ask the government for it, pestered them until they got annoyed, until they had no choice but to deal with me. Finally, I got the money—enough to cover Tiantian's surgery."
"At that moment, I thought heaven had given me a sliver of hope. But before I could walk two blocks, my money was stolen. The robber also completely broke both my legs. He said he would make sure I could never again appear before the District Government's gates!"