Chapter 1935: The Storm is Coming
The newcomer was excluded.
When Xu Huo walked out, he glanced at the armed aircraft almost directly above his head, his expression dark as he boarded public transportation.
The vehicle quickly arrived near the rental house. After getting off, he bought some food and, as he did every time he went out, looked at the shadow wall before turning to go upstairs.
The mute girl he had saved hadn't left. The moment he reached the door, she ran out from the neighboring woman's room.
"You haven't left yet?" Xu Huo asked her. "Can't find a place to go?"
The mute girl hesitated, then nodded, taking a step closer to him.
"A young girl with nowhere to go and no family—it's not easy to survive in the West District," the neighbor said from her doorway. "Best case, she might be sold into prostitution. Worst case, she could be dismantled and sold for parts. Be kind and let her stay a few days. At least you'll have someone to warm your bed."
The neighbor woman didn't ask for money this time. She shut the door after speaking.
Perhaps because the Enforcement Department's commotion yesterday had been too loud, no one had visited Xu Huo's rental house last night. He opened the door and walked in, then turned back to look at the mute girl still standing at the entrance. "Come in."
The mute girl hurried inside and closed the door, but pressed herself against it without moving. Her eyes followed him around the room for several turns before she hesitantly walked to the center and slowly began to undress.
Xu Huo was taking out the food. Seeing this, he paused and gestured for her to put her clothes back on. "Have you eaten?"
The mute girl nodded, pointing next door to indicate the neighbor had fed her, and that she had slept at the neighbor's place last night.
Xu Huo tore off a piece of bread and pushed the remaining biscuits and other items forward. "Take whatever you want."
The mute girl hesitated at first, but when she saw he wasn't paying her any attention, she cautiously moved closer to the table and took a small bag of biscuits.
After eating, Xu Huo planned to catch up on sleep, so he said to her, "I can let you stay a few days. If it's convenient, you can help clean the house."
Hearing this, the mute girl showed a hint of joy and gestured that she could cook and go buy groceries.
"Do you dare to go out during the day?" Xu Huo asked. Only after receiving an affirmative answer did he give her some money, telling her to go with the neighbor woman and also buy a pot and some bowls.
Back in his room, Xu Huo lay on the bed looking at the identity card the game had sent him.
His identity was well-concealed, but there was no way to counter the Enforcement Department using this method to restrain players. Besides the aircraft following him, after he returned, the number of aircraft patrolling this area had noticeably increased, their purpose being to limit his movements.
However, the events of the past two days revealed one piece of information: something major was likely to happen in the West District soon.
Outer zone players could only interfere to a limited extent. Unless they could use a month or two to infiltrate the West District's upper echelons or the East District, stirring up trouble through provocation was the only better way to cause chaos.
Therefore, this conflict between the Enforcement Department and the West District, which could erupt at any moment, likely had the Rebel Army fanning the flames.
Only locals truly understood the West District's operational model and knew how to cause trouble and how much trouble to cause.
This most likely involved a struggle between the Rebel Army and the East District, with the West District as the battlefield.
Could it be related to the "White Blood"?
Whether East District people, Enforcement Officers, Rebel Army members, or black market forces, in Xu Huo's observations over the past two days, they had all contributed scattered pieces of information. Only the words "White Blood" had never appeared.
Considering the clearance mission specified "Contest," at least one side between the East District and the Rebel Army knew about this thing. If no one mentioned it, could it be because the Rebel Army's core wasn't located in this area?
"Chirp!" A barely noticeable bird call sounded from a nearby street. The Rebel Army member who had followed the mute girl to the rental house area the night before and hadn't left heard it and walked out from the building where he was hiding. From a trash can mixed with various greasy and dirty items, he retrieved a soiled note. He took the note back to his hideout, cleaned it, and then heated it over a fire, revealing the handwriting.
It was an address.
Xu Huo knew this place. The nightclub owner, in order to deal with the Harmony Wine Tavern people, had contacted an intermediary to connect with the manager of the Frozen Processing Factory to purchase a batch of weapons. The final meeting location was the address written on the note.
Coincidentally, they had arranged to meet at another shop owned by Knife Boss, the same one the nightclub owner had bribed.
Now the nightclub owner's rival was gone. The Harmony Wine Tavern's boss had been killed by the Enforcement Department yesterday, and the remaining people and territory would soon be carved up. Naturally, there was no need to continue the weapon transaction. However, the nightclub owner couldn't find the Harmony Wine Tavern's channels and wanted to gain more from this carve-up, so he still planned to obtain a batch of weapons through the Frozen Processing Factory.
Most factories in the West District were controlled by East District people. The factory managers were the East District's mouthpieces. On the surface, they might be West District locals, but in reality, East District people were mixed in, making them hard to distinguish.
As for why the nightclub owner could so accurately find East District people to cooperate with, it was because the intermediary he knew was extremely well-informed and had a vast network. The method of passing information was also very simple: through virtual games.
Xu Huo had carefully observed this intermediary. He would log into the game at set times to meet with other game players and also act as an intermediary to buy and sell items, delivering them by mail. As for the person sending the mail, it was his highly trusted apprentice.
There should be Rebel Army members within the intermediary's operation, or the information relay station he ran. Otherwise, the nightclub owner's meeting address wouldn't have reached different Rebel Army members so quickly.
Was the Rebel Army planning to sabotage this transaction negotiation?
The meeting location was quite far from where Xu Huo currently lived. So after resting for half a day and eating a meal the mute girl had prepared, he began asking about her family.
The mute girl quickly told him that her parents had been killed and she had almost been sold. When Xu Huo offered to arrange a proper burial for her parents, she knelt on the ground excitedly, kowtowing repeatedly.
She still remembered where the scar-faced man lived.
So after lunch, the two headed to that place.
The scar-faced man's residence was not far from the Frozen Processing Factory. Passing through the streets, they would also pass by Knife Boss's shop. Because the aircraft were relatively close, Xu Huo could only roughly sense the internal structures of these two places.
Knife Boss's shop had nothing particularly special. The strange thing was the Frozen Processing Factory.
The Frozen Processing Factory dealt in toys and daily necessities. They used West District workers but didn't allow any single worker to stay inside the factory for more than five hours. Therefore, six shifts of workers rotated daily. When Xu Huo arrived nearby, they should have been changing shifts. However, judging from the movements of space rays, the people in the underground first-floor room of the factory hadn't been replaced.
Space perception was somewhat limited by building structures, and being underground made it even harder. Xu Huo could determine that there were people inside, but he wasn't sure who they were. The workers coming out for shift changes mostly had blank expressions and didn't discuss anything inside the factory, making it impossible to gather information.
Perhaps people living nearby would know something.
At that moment, the mute girl tugged at his sleeve. The scar-faced man's house ahead had already been occupied, and two fierce-looking men were staring at them.
(Chapter End)