Chapter 2078: Clues About Dr. Wu
The woman didn't seem insane, just stubbornly asking the same question over and over.
The elderly man busy with handiwork quickly came over to pull her away, apologizing to Xu Huo and the Painting Woman, "This is my daughter, her mind isn't quite right. Please don't hold it against her..."
Before he could finish, the Painting Woman suddenly reached out and took the photo from the woman's hand, saying to her, "I've memorized his face. If I see him, I'll tell him to come home."
Then she handed the photo back.
The old man was a normal person in this game world, so he was highly wary of this sudden kindness. But the woman clung to it like a lifeline, nodding while tears streamed down her face, unable to speak.
Even after Xu Huo and the Painting Woman had walked a long distance, they could still hear her sobbing.
"Why is she crying so pitifully?" the Painting Woman asked, puzzled. "Didn't I tell her that if I see the person, I'll definitely pass on the message?"
"Probably because no one else pays her any attention," Xu Huo said without further explanation. He found a place to stay nearby, settled in, and then went to look for where Dr. Wu had once lived.
He had bought this information from Under Dimension. It wasn't highly classified. The player who posted the news told him that more than one player had already confirmed it—Dr. Wu had indeed lived here at some point.
Since players had already come, the place where Dr. Wu stayed had likely been thoroughly ransacked. Even if the Perfect Potion was really there, it probably wouldn't be left for later arrivals. But there were so many true and false rumors about Dr. Wu that he decided to try his luck.
The destination was still a laboratory. Because players had evacuated, it was almost abandoned. Not only were potions and experimental equipment gone, even the doors used to seal the contaminated lab had been dismantled and taken away. But there were no contaminants inside either. The first impression upon entering was emptiness.
Indeed empty—not even a piece of paper was left. If it weren't for the name "Wu Yong" carved into the stone wall of the small meeting room's list of outstanding contributors, he wouldn't have found anything related to Dr. Wu at all.
And whether this "Wu Yong" was actually connected to Dr. Wu was still uncertain.
The laboratory wasn't very large, spanning both ground and underground levels. Xu Huo walked through each room and finished in less than ten minutes.
After spotting the manufacturer's name on the edge of a metal plate left behind from a cut floor, he decided to look for the source factory.
Turning back, he saw the Painting Woman crouching in a corner under an umbrella, staring at something. He walked over. "What is it?"
"A flower is blooming here," she said, pointing at a small flower in the grass.
That wasn't strange. The floorboards had been pried up, the soil underneath turned over—it was normal for seeds to sprout.
The Painting Woman flipped up the hem of her skirt, revealing the stitching on the inner edge. "It's the same as the flower on my skirt."
Xu Huo glanced at it. "It does look similar. Maybe this flower is also a symbol of some religion."
The Painting Woman used her communicator to take a selfie with the flower, then suddenly asked him, "Could I become a deity of a religion?"
"That might be a bit difficult," Xu Huo said.
"Why?" the Painting Woman protested. "A chicken can do it, and it can't even type!"
Xu Huo walked out as he spoke. "What makes faith sustainable is controllability. A symbol, a bizarre story, a chicken, or a flower—all of these can work. Believers can shape ordinary things into any imagined existence. But a living person can't. First, because living people are hard to control, and second, because their abilities are very limited. It's hard for followers to blame objects, plants, or animals that can't communicate with them normally, but it's easy to blame a living person. Such religions usually don't last long."
"What about dead people?" the Painting Woman pressed. "I know many religions worship the dead. If I die, could I become a god?"
Xu Huo turned back to look at her. "What difference would it make from now?"
The Painting Woman thought for a moment, then answered, "Then maybe flyers with my face on them would be everywhere. Lots of people would give me houses and land. Then I'd have lots of houses and land!"
Xu Huo was slightly surprised. "You're improving fast."
Last time she wanted money, she was still thinking about earning it through work. Now she had quickly evolved into a predator mindset—an astonishing learning ability.
"A lot of people here do that," the Painting Woman said, pulling up some gossip she found on the Message Collection Terminal. For example, a certain religion in this district used a family recipe to cure a patient, and the converted patient willingly donated all their property to support the religion's deity. Another famous religion had a very high entry threshold, requiring an expensive initiation fee, and if you didn't have cash, fixed assets would do.
"But I don't know anyone else here," she fretted over her dream.
"You can try first," Xu Huo said.
The Painting Woman thought that made sense, so she held out her hand. "Give me some money, start-up capital. When people really start giving me houses, I'll split half with you."
"A little money definitely won't be enough." Xu Huo simply took a handbag and filled it with White Notes, handing it to her. "Take all of this."
The Painting Woman nodded solemnly, took the bag with one hand, and added, "I'll look up the basic procedures for founding a religion."
Xu Huo helped her put away the umbrella that was resting on her shoulder, then hailed a car to head to "Sea Flower Manufacturing." From the old factory, he found an old photo. Standing next to the factory owner was Dr. "Wu Yong," a middle-aged man, slightly overweight. The face was a bit blurry due to the photo's age, but he could still see that the man was smiling.
So that's how it was.
So the players who had come here could confirm from the empty lab that Dr. Wu had been in this district. Xu Huo had seen this middle-aged man's appearance before—he had spotted this person in the "collected" materials from Dr. Deng.
Dr. Wu traveled tirelessly through the game. He couldn't leave no trace at all. Even if he changed his appearance multiple times, once an identity he used was confirmed, there would be both official and unofficial records. But unofficial records were often unreliable. Dr. Deng's copy was something he brought out from Stellar Corporation, a simplified collector's item he bought at a high price out of respect.
"Are there many people who know this Dr. Wu?" Xu Huo asked the old man who had led him in.
"Many," the old man said emotionally, wiping dust off the photo. "Dr. Wu was a very good man, very smart. He knew medicine and machinery. Many of our factory's machines were ordered with his help. He was closest to the boss, but the boss passed away last year. If you want to ask about Dr. Wu, you can talk to Engineer He instead."
The old man gave Xu Huo an address and took a thousand White Notes from his hand. "Greedy, greedy. I'm truly ashamed."
Xu Huo found Engineer He without trouble. Like the old man, this elderly engineer had a very deep admiration for Dr. Wu. In his description, Dr. Wu, aside from not being particularly handsome, was perfect in intelligence, emotional intelligence, and character. He not only helped the machinery factory but also benefited many people in the city. During his time in Cockscomb City, he had twice resolved plagues caused by environmental mutation for free, though at his own request, it was never made public.
Engineer He, fully absorbed, put on his glasses and rummaged through a cabinet. "I used to keep a diary back then. I can't remember many things clearly, but they're all written down..."
He stopped mid-sentence, staring at the empty space behind him, muttering, "Why did he leave without saying anything..."
Then he looked at the Painting Woman standing nearby. "Why didn't you leave with him?"
(Chapter End)