Chapter 1958: Give Them a Forced Choice
"You're also an outer zone person?" Xu Huo didn't move.
"Sort of, but I've been living here for a few years." The woman gestured for him to follow her. "Following me definitely won't put you at a disadvantage."
Xu Huo smiled, changed his original plan, and followed her.
The woman took him to a game hall. Compared to the West District, this game hall was very upscale. Not only did it have rooms, but each gaming device was already logged into a relatively high-level account, allowing exploration of most areas of the game.
Afraid he might not understand, the woman explained as they entered, "In virtual reality games, a player account isn't necessarily better the higher the level. Different character choices also have uniqueness in the final selectable characters. Use this character to search for 'the third man-made cave entering Firestone Valley'—there will definitely be something you want there."
Half-convinced, Xu Huo paid a hefty login fee, used a defense item before entering the game, and found the man-made cave as the woman described. Only then did he discover it was an underground activity venue dug out by game players, equivalent to a privately opened map—not officially entered into the game map, only passed down by word of mouth among players.
Once inside, the first thing he saw were bounty posters plastered on the cave walls. The top few were for the boss of Agor Corporation, the mayor of Jade Spring City, the leader of the Rebel Army, Pigeon, and a player employed by Agor Corporation.
"Coming to someone else's territory and even killing their mayor—no wonder Jade Spring City won't reveal any information to outer zone players. That's way too arrogant." A female character with a short, capable haircut standing behind Xu Huo laughed as she spoke. Though her words were like that, her tone was full of teasing.
These were bounties for real people in reality, not simply killing a game character.
"Who posted these bounties?" Xu Huo saw a few more below for Agor Corporation's pharmaceutical research and psychological counseling personnel. They definitely weren't issued by Agor or the city government.
"Anyone can use this place, so of course the Rebel Army can too." Another muscular character walked over. "I've been here almost a month now. The East District, the Rebel Army, and outer zone players all have bounties here. Anyway, it's just taking a shot—what if it works out?"
Not finding any information related to "White Blood," Xu Huo turned to strike up a conversation with the muscular character. "In a virtual game bounty, does anyone take it seriously?"
Without a reliable intermediary, how would the bounty be collected?
"I've looked into that," the short-haired woman said. "There's a player who set up a transfer station outside. As long as someone submits the bounty content and reward there, the bounty poster appears here. After completing the task, you take the token to settle it. The reputation is pretty good—it's been running for several years. Probably a high-level player stranded here."
"Hello, everyone. My name is Qiao Qiao." She smiled at Xu Huo and the muscular man. "Let's get to know each other."
"Just call me Old Zhou." The muscular man nodded.
"Third Brother." Xu Huo used a casual fake name, but the other two didn't mind and continued chatting about the bounty posters.
The East District players and the Rebel Army posting bounties here was really just taking a shot—if an outer zone player actually killed the targets, that would be a good thing for them. Other player bounties were aimed at sabotaging clearance, simply put, they might have no hope of clearing the instance but still wanted to leave, so they spent money to find help. If someone disrupted a certain part of the clearance process, causing the instance to change or disappear, then those who failed to clear wouldn't be trapped here forever.
Of course, most of it was team recruitment and information exchange. Information could be sold multiple times.
"I'm planning to buy information about the Rebel Army. Is the information outdated?" The three walked deeper into the cave as Xu Huo spoke.
"I've bought information before, and it's okay. The info is real, but in this East District environment, it might be outdated in half an hour or an hour." Old Zhou said, "So it's best to only buy information from within the last half day."
"But to be honest, it's hard to buy any truly important information."
Old Zhou gave the two a rundown of the East District situation. In a nutshell, Agor Corporation had achieved complete control over the entire East District from top to bottom.
Here, not only were the land, air, water, and houses owned by Agor Corporation, but important institutions like the government, hospitals, and media also listened to the company. Coupled with the convenient control of the Message Collection Terminal, anything Agor Corporation didn't want the public to see had almost no chance of appearing before ordinary people. As for those hyped-up news stories—how fierce the Rebel Army was, how greedy the West District people were—the truth and falsehood were all manufactured by Agor Corporation itself. The Rebel Army might not actually be that fierce, but the company wanted to send a signal to everyone—that they hadn't fully controlled Jade Spring City.
Whether they were diverting internal conflicts or leaving themselves an escape route, in short, the cracks now appearing in the East District were all left by Agor Corporation itself. They controlled the channels of information flow, releasing whatever news they wanted, while also knowing where the information was flowing and to whom.
"I thought the Rebel Army was very powerful." Xu Huo was somewhat surprised. "So it's just that the East District hasn't bothered to settle the score with them yet?"
"That's not quite right either." Old Zhou said, "There are still players in the Rebel Army. Players are hard to catch—they always pop up every so often. I guess Agor Corporation is annoyed by it too."
"If it were me, I'd just kill all the Rebel Army in one go, then have my own people pose as the Rebel Army, specifically waiting for those with rebellious tendencies to come and join. When I feel like it, I clean them up in a wave. Cut them off as soon as they show their heads, and if something troublesome comes up, I can make them take the blame." Qiao Qiao said.
"That's pretty vicious, little girl." A middle-aged man passing by said, "But the Rebel Army isn't stupid. I've heard that no one has figured out Pigeon's true identity yet. How can they wipe them out completely?"
Qiao Qiao was unbothered. "That's exactly why it's easy to handle. Just find someone to impersonate them. Have someone pretend to be Pigeon and kill a few people. That way, the Rebel Army's reputation is ruined, and you can publicly kill a fake Pigeon, throwing the Rebel Army into chaos."
The middle-aged man smiled and didn't continue arguing.
Qiao Qiao's idea sounded satisfying, but it was based on inconvenient information exchange. Now that players could communicate so easily, impersonation could be easily exposed, unless they only wanted to perform for ordinary people who had almost no voice or participation.
"Aren't the Rebel Army people stupid? If one dies, won't the rest run away?" Someone else said, "If one Pigeon dies, maybe dozens of Pigeons will pop up tomorrow!"
The people around laughed. At that moment, Xu Huo spoke up, "Actually, it's not hard to completely hunt down the Rebel Army. Just give them a forced choice."
(Chapter End)