Chapter 2130: Public Clues
The Enforcement Team and the Tian Clan were arguing, and while the security personnel of the tech company searched inside the building, Xu Huo had already reached the edge of the city. Surveillance at the city's edge was sparser than within, but that didn't mean he had escaped the city's monitoring. He was still being watched as he moved, though the government side hadn't taken any measures against him.
The Tian Clan member who had been attacked wasn't dead and should have been sent to the hospital by now. Although Xu Huo had deliberately concealed his actions when striking, he might not have avoided all the viewpoints on the street. If the attack was confirmed, the city government's Enforcement Team would likely react quickly.
Bringing Fang Jing out, he said, "I've had a conflict with the Tian Clan. I might be wanted. I can't take you to the city hall anymore—you'll have to go on your own."
Fang Jing nodded. "Then you should leave quickly. Once the Enforcement Team arrives, it'll be hard to get away."
Given the Tian Clan's influence, combined with the unstable situation inside the city government, finding an ordinary person wouldn't be difficult. They probably couldn't wait until the next morning to go to the city hall, so Xu Huo suggested he go immediately. Even if the city hall was empty at night, it would be safe enough. And if someone could forcibly take him away from inside the city hall, that would undoubtedly be questioning the authority of District 008's government.
"Could there be Tian Clan people inside the city hall?" Fang Jing hesitated. "I'm not afraid of death, but I'm afraid of dying without any value."
"Don't worry. As long as you enter the city hall, you won't disappear for no reason," Xu Huo said. "Even if you do disappear, your companions will gather at the city hall tomorrow morning."
Hearing this, Fang Jing steadied himself a bit and immediately headed for the teleportation portal, thanking him before leaving.
After watching him leave, Xu Huo waited a few more minutes. Sure enough, he soon saw his own photo appear in the newly added section of the wanted list on the Message Collection Terminal. Before that, all the monitoring instruments around him had been slightly adjusted—he was probably being targeted. Armed robots had already appeared within his perception range.
Without lingering further, he turned and left the city. After evading the pursuing armed robots and surveillance devices, he changed his prop coat and used an instrument to simulate a new face.
Using instruments to record and analyze the identity information of outside players was standard practice in most game districts. The difference lay in the capabilities of the instruments. In the districts Xu Huo had visited before, most claimed to have real-time monitoring and analysis, but in reality, they fell far short of their boasts. District 008's strength was on a completely different level, so he had purchased advanced disguise instruments and props on the train in advance. Whether they would work remained to be tested.
After disguising himself as someone he had encountered in the city, he re-entered the station city.
Walking on the street for less than half a minute, the feeling of being swarmed by instruments returned, but this time no armed robots came. A flying surveillance instrument hovered ahead of him—this was one of the measures triggered by a risk alert on identity information. From now on, he would face triple the monitoring density. Wherever he went in the city, surveillance would first capture his trail, and a flying monitor would follow him closely.
As long as they couldn't confirm his identity, it was fine.
Xu Huo found a place to stay and used the Message Collection Terminal in the room to browse the latest news in the city.
True to the reputation of a technologically advanced district, the news of the Secretary's son's improper dealings with government officials had spread across the network, becoming a hot topic on every channel. The media tracking the case was updating the progress in real time—such as the autopsy results of the two victims, the Secretary's late-night visit to the Enforcement Bureau, and the investigation into the Tian Clan. Even if container props were used, finding some clues was still easy, especially since the incident occurred in a hotel under the Tian Clan's banner.
Brother Luo and the others couldn't take the blame because the dead official had been followed by a small media outlet hoping to dig up some scraps. Instead, they caught the process of players sending people to his room, essentially confirming that the Tian Clan had facilitated the transaction.
As for why the Tian Clan used the Secretary's son to bribe the official, the process could be speculated freely, but the outcome wouldn't change. Neither the Tian Clan nor the city government could keep it secret. If they didn't offer a plausible explanation in the end, both sides would become a joke.
Due to the chain reaction from the hotel incident, people were still gathered outside the city hall late at night. This also meant that the news of someone reporting the Tian Clan with evidence appeared on the Message Collection Terminal immediately, and that photo was no longer a secret.
Xu Huo had processed the photo in advance, hiding the Painting Woman and leaving only the freezer and the corpse. However, the photo didn't directly prove the location was the Tian Clan's property, but the manufacturer's name on the freezer was quite conspicuous. Combined with the resurfacing of Fang Jing's family's disappearance case, these half-concealed pieces of information drew more attention than the hotel fall incident. Power-for-sex deals rarely touched most people's lives, but in any district, the number of disappearance cases remained high—even in a district like 008.
As long as it was impossible to completely prevent outsiders from entering, no district could achieve absolute safety. Whether it was outside players or local players using outsider identities to commit crimes, it was easy to escape after the deed.
Of course, in a district like 008, criminal methods had to be much more covert. Most people disappeared silently. Those who went missing due to evolution, initial trials, and regular instances accounted for a certain proportion, but how large that proportion was, it was hard to say.
When something that had been brushed aside suddenly revealed another side, it could no longer be swept under the rug.
Xu Huo paid special attention to news about the starship. Someone posted that on the starship jointly owned by the city government, Rabbit Ear Amusement Park, and Haiyun Technology, they often saw bloodstains that hadn't been completely cleaned, especially after Haiyun Technology used the starship. Whether this information was true remained to be verified, but more people were revealing the starship's movements—such as where it had recently been sent for repairs, or further back, when a hull breach caused the environmental simulation system to fail, exposing a corner of the starship near a certain city...
In addition, there were many other ambiguous revelations. In any era or space, people were the same—they were happy to deduce the truth they expected from the smallest clues. Some even combined the starship with the Tian Clan's industries and recent movements along a timeline, creating a very complete trajectory and publishing it, demanding that the city government investigate the Tian Clan's non-public businesses.
Xu Huo found his next destination among them.