Chapter 1977: The War That Decides Fate
The Rebel Army quickly withdrew, and as promised, they let the remaining therapists live. The East District players arrived at the scene shortly after. After examining the two therapists, they discovered they had been injected with truth serum. They immediately contacted the hospital to have them picked up. Within half an hour, ten people, including Xu Huo, were lying in hospital beds.
More than a dozen psychotherapists had been captured at once. Even if the Agor Corporation was not short on personnel, they could not ignore this. They sent them to the hospital mainly out of concern for potential side effects. As for the truth serum, they would wait for the effects to wear off.
At this point, it became very difficult for Xu Huo to maintain his disguise. Replacing an existing psychotherapist was also unrealistic—without sufficient preparation, he would easily be exposed, making it a wasted effort. So, after hypnotically suggesting to several therapists in the same ward, he followed them out of the ward, blended in with the patients, and left the hospital.
Encountering the Rebel Army was unexpected, but even more surprising was what the Rebel Army wanted to learn from the therapists. Although therapists were the ones who had the most contact with players aside from the surgeons, if the Rebel Army hadn’t been able to get specific names from the East District players, how could they be sure the therapists would know?
Wouldn’t it be easier to kidnap a high-ranking Agor official instead?
Kidnapping therapists and then letting them go—wasn’t that telling the East District players that they already knew the “white blood” was a bait?
Of course, this could also be seen as a strategic move, meant to inform the Agor Corporation that the Rebel Army had seen through their bait, forcing the company to take the next step.
If nothing unexpected happened, after the trading company and the medical base incidents, the East District players would have prepared new bait. This bait would certainly be used to trap Rebel Army players. However, after the therapist kidnapping, the East District players would also have to prepare two plans: one, continue setting up bait; two, protect Zheng Yuci.
Even if Zheng Yuci was not the real surgeon, his status within the Agor Corporation would not be low.
Thinking back to the beehive he had revealed during their previous encounter, this person was undoubtedly connected to Dr. Zhang.
Just connected—he was not the real Dr. Zhang.
Although Xu Huo had had a premonition since the beginning of the instance, confirming it still filled him with anger. Chang Bei had given him a false bait, and he might have to be used as a blade again.
But he could set that aside for now. If Zheng Yuci was indeed related to Dr. Zhang, then the matter of performing craniotomies on players to remove parts of their brains required more thought.
Regardless of whether the surgery was real or fake, the severe side effects alone were not what Dr. Zhang was aiming for. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have gone to different districts to select suitable children for training from a young age. From the perspectives of innate conditions and personality formation, adults were not good experimental subjects.
Since Zheng Yuci was connected to Dr. Zhang and was targeted by Chang Bei, his goal was definitely not to perfect the surgery and reach new medical heights. And that conspicuously high success rate… In the end, this all came back to the “white blood.”
Xu Huo had taken many medications as a child. Perhaps Zheng Yuci was using these East District players as test subjects for drugs?
If the drugs were real, and only Zheng Yuci knew how to test, use, and manufacture them, then both the drugs and the person could be targets.
For the Rebel Army, if they wanted to gain higher combat power in a short time to win this tug-of-war with the East District, capturing Zheng Yuci would indeed be better than simply seizing the drugs.
On the other hand, they could also kill Zheng Yuci to cut off the Agor Corporation’s ability to continue modifying players, thereby undermining the company’s foundation. This would force the company to stop its birth control plan, or else the number of players would not be enough to ensure the company’s safety.
As long as the Rebel Army could get their hands on him, whether they kept him alive or killed him, the outcome would be positive for them.
But there was a problem: the Rebel Army couldn’t be sure whether Zheng Yuci would flee, or where he would go. If Zheng Yuci ran to another district and hid for a year or two, this whole act couldn’t continue—capturing therapists to force out the surgeon seemed more like it was pushing the Agor Corporation to protect Zheng Yuci.
If Zheng Yuci didn’t flee, and Agor was forced to increase its protection of him, it might lead to his whereabouts being leaked. But again, they couldn’t be sure Zheng Yuci wouldn’t run. So this link involved the East District players. Using this method, more East District players could be drawn to Zheng Yuci’s side.
However, the East District players’ goal was merely to hunt and kill more Rebel Army players. Using this method to muddy the waters might not be as effective as a sudden assassination. It felt like they were forcing a general offensive with the lives of Rebel Army players. Whether this battle could decide the fate of Jade Spring City and the Agor Corporation was uncertain, but it would certainly decide the fate of the Rebel Army.
With these thoughts flashing through his mind, Xu Huo changed course and went to the place where the Rebel Army member he had been following earlier was lying in ambush.
The person hadn’t left yet, and more Rebel Army members had gathered around him. Their target seemed to be a pharmaceutical laboratory.
After a moment’s hesitation, Xu Huo changed his face and approached them.
Several people were scattered inside a restaurant. The player who had left Sister Yan was eating while observing the laboratory’s movements. When he suddenly turned around and saw Xu Huo sitting across from him, he gripped his bowl tightly and almost stood up.
“Don’t be nervous,” Xu Huo said, signaling him to calm down. At the same time, his gaze swept over the restaurant owner, the waitstaff, and the two other diners. “I mean no harm.”
“Who are you?” the Rebel Army player asked.
“If I tell you, you won’t know me anyway,” Xu Huo glanced at him and continued, “I came here to inform you of something. Zheng Yuci is an A-class player, and he is also a Mental Super Evolver.”
With that, he got up and left. After the initial shock, one of the waitstaff among the Rebel Army members immediately went into the kitchen.
Half an hour later, these people still hadn’t withdrawn. Xu Huo patiently waited.
To his surprise, during the wait, Qiao Qiao actually managed to contact him.
He had also contacted Old Zhou and Lin Cao. All three were safe. Qiao Qiao and several other Outer Zone players who had been captured at the trading company were indeed taken to the medical base. However, later, due to the Rebel Army’s invasion, the player holding the container item was killed, and he took the opportunity to escape. Additionally, when he fled, he accidentally saw the surgical tools prepared by the base personnel—a specialized ultra-miniature semi-automatic instrument used for intracranial surgery. This meant that the East District’s capture of Outer Zone players was indeed for surgical experiments.
After hearing this, Xu Huo didn’t say much. He simply told them to come and meet up. (End of chapter)