Chapter 1946: East District Players
To verify his conjecture, Xu Huo went to the address given by the snack shop owner and found the person he mentioned, Qiao Ruxin. Qiao Ruxin was a disguised player who should have been wearing an item that could alter his physical information. On the surface, he appeared to be a relatively strong member of a black-market faction. He held some influence within this organization. In the past few days, as the West District became unstable, he and his men had been moving between different streets, fighting for territory with others, resulting in bloody conflicts.
After being "gloriously wounded," Qiao Ruxin gained a brief period of rest. He used this time to contact the Rebel Army.
The Rebel Army had a division of labor. His task seemed to be raising funds and weapons for them. The recent chaos allowed him to fish in troubled waters and acquire a batch of weapons. Although these weapons were obsolete in the East District, they were still valuable to the Rebel Army. Because of this, the Rebel Army member who contacted him came more frequently, and during their conversations, they revealed a bit of information.
From this information, it could be deduced that the Rebel Army was planning a major operation in the East District. They needed not only weapons but also to contact supporters in the East District and the Rebel Army members who had already infiltrated the area.
"Many of our supporters have lost contact in the past few days. Wouldn't it be too risky to act according to the original plan?" Qiao Ruxin said to the person contacting him. "Otherwise, let's wait a bit longer."
"I can't decide on this either," the contact person replied, also feeling uneasy. "The Strategist has already issued our orders. Our task is to lie low."
A defensive barrier separated the West District from the East District. Only if the Rebel Army members in the East District successfully launched an uprising and destroyed the barrier could the West District Rebel Army members enter the East District.
However, most of the West District Rebel Army were ordinary people. Even if they entered the East District, there was very little they could do.
"Then let's trust the Strategist," Qiao Ruxin said, hesitating for a moment before asking, "Have they entered the East District?"
The contact person shook his head. "The whereabouts of the Leader and the Strategist are confidential. No one knows except those protecting them."
Qiao Ruxin nodded. "There's a lot going on in the streets lately. You should leave first."
The contact person stood up. "Rest well and recover. Everything will be handled by the Leader and the Strategist. We will succeed."
Their eyes met, and they both encouraged each other.
After the contact person left Qiao Ruxin's place, he disguised himself as a thief and slipped into a nearby residential building. He didn't live far away, still within the range of Xu Huo's spiritual realm. After returning home, he changed his disguise again, entered the neighboring house through an underground passage, and then left the house as the owner of that neighboring house.
His disguise skills were excellent. He was completely different from before.
However, this was useless to someone who had already targeted him. As soon as they came out, they were spotted by a young man with a full-face tattoo at the end of the street. The tattooed man was a player, and tracking an ordinary person was a piece of cake for him.
About ten minutes later, the tattooed man caught the person who had met with the contact. This person was also an ordinary person. As soon as he saw the tattooed man, he tried to run, but the result was obvious.
The tattooed man used a potion on the two of them, interrogating them for information about the Rebel Army Leader, Pigeon. Unfortunately, their descriptions of Pigeon were vastly different, with huge discrepancies in age, body type, appearance, and habits.
This was clearly a deliberate attempt to conceal his identity. Moreover, this method was much more cunning than never showing his face at all. Pigeon might disguise himself as several, a dozen, or even dozens of different identities to appear before different people. This way, even within the Rebel Army, it would be difficult to identify him, and everyone would believe that the person they met was the real Pigeon.
"You two are completely useless," the tattooed man said with a dark expression as he snapped both their necks and casually threw the bodies into a nearby sewer.
Immediately after killing them, he went to the stronghold they had mentioned to try his luck.
The stronghold was a bit far away, so Xu Huo didn't follow him. Instead, he stayed near Qiao Ruxin.
This disguised injured person lay in the room for a while before logging into the game.
The game cut off the possibility of detection. Xu Huo lurked in a nearby residential building for a while before taking the time to check out the stronghold location the tattooed man had interrogated. Unexpectedly, he arrived just in time to run into the tattooed man, who was injured and fleeing.
Blood was flowing from his ear canal. He had fallen for some kind of trick. By the time he ran out, his consciousness was already a bit fuzzy. After barely managing to run for a while, he was cornered by two players who had caught up to him. The tattooed man probably wanted to use a space teleportation item, but the item didn't activate when he took it out. After only a few exchanges with his pursuers, he was completely taken down.
One of them used an instrument to examine the tattooed man, removed his disguise item, and scanned his face into the instrument, confirming his player ID. "He's not from the Rebel Army."
"He's so stupid, he must be an Outer Zone player," the other person said, taking out a bracelet and snapping it onto the tattooed man's right wrist. With a "click," the loose bracelet locked together, and four long needles protruding from inside the bracelet pierced the tattooed man's skin from two sides.
The tattooed man had already been unconscious, but he still twitched when the needles entered, before calming down again.
"Detected member is poisoned and unconscious. Please administer the antidote within thirty hours, or irreversible damage to the body will occur," the detection instrument placed to the side emitted a mechanical voice.
"Alright." The player who had taken out the bracelet stored the tattooed man in a container item, briefly cleaned up the traces they had left, and then returned to the previous stronghold.
These two people were not Rebel Army members.
Both the Rebel Army and the East District were infiltrating each other. It seemed that the intelligence network of the West District Rebel Army was not as tight as they themselves imagined.
Compared to the Rebel Army, the East District players were much bolder. After returning to their stronghold, they simply opened a watch-like instrument in the room and took out a plant seed the size of a thumb. The moment this thing was taken out, it immediately sprouted in the player's hand. When the green shoot emerged, both of their expressions changed.
Xu Huo had no choice but to use "Harmonious Atmosphere" immediately, cutting off their ability to use items. He flashed into the room, dealt with one of them first, and knocked the other unconscious.
As he approached, the plant seed that had fallen to the ground began to grow wildly, reaching the length of an arm in the blink of an eye.
Some mutant plants could sense spiritual power and undergo changes under its influence. In the game, Mental Super Evolvers were, after all, a minority. Most people preferred to use interference items for defense. Mutant plants only had a warning function, which wasn't very useful, so few people used them.
However, after Xu Huo received the belongings of the killed player, he discovered that they had many more such mutant plants. Not only were they well-prepared, but they even had detailed usage records.
The East District players seemed to be especially wary of Mental Super Evolvers.
(End of Chapter)