Chapter 2241: Temporary Enforcement Officer
On the surface, the instance Xu Huo needed to clear had no direct connection to the "One-Third Game." As long as he avoided triggering the game's conditions, he could complete his own clearance tasks without entering another game.
This wasn't too difficult for him. His ability to perform mental interference and hypnosis played a significant role; otherwise, identifying wanted criminals would be a major challenge in a place where disguises and modifications were common, and the Message Collection Terminal was flooded with fabricated false information.
However, the wanted list should be continuously updated; otherwise, the people in the city would have been killed off long ago. Many surveillance systems in the area were damaged, so how did the local government ensure the list was refreshed in time?
If merely "witnessing" an illegal act determined whether someone became a criminal, ordinary citizens in this city would be the most likely to become criminals. How could they still live here peacefully?
Even the official websites on the Message Collection Terminal weren't necessarily safe, and the published wanted lists couldn't be guaranteed to be entirely accurate—unless one obtained the real list from relevant personnel.
But that wasn't foolproof either. The player organization managing this city was holed up in the city center. They were also players, and it wouldn't be surprising if they tried to screw over newcomers.
Better to go out tomorrow and find other players to talk to.
Letting the father and daughter go, Xu Huo rested on the second floor for the night. He didn't go out until the next morning when people started moving around on the streets.
The few players who had tried to take advantage of him last night also emerged one after another. They were extremely cautious, not daring to approach Xu Huo, and quickly left.
"Want to try some local specialties?" the owner of a breakfast shop enthusiastically came over to promote his goods as Xu Huo sat down.
"Where are these vegetables picked from? Does anyone grow them?" Xu Huo pointed to the toxic greens he had eaten the night before.
"They're all cultivated. There's no good land or water around here, so we can't grow much else," the owner said. "Don't let their ugly appearance fool you—eating them gives you a floating, dreamlike feeling, like having a beautiful dream. A lot of people here love them."
Xu Huo raised an eyebrow. "Floating and dreamlike? Aren't you afraid of falling out of a window at night?"
The owner laughed heartily. "We lock all the doors and windows tight at night. How could that happen!"
Xu Huo ordered some "ordinary" breakfast and asked the owner where he could report criminals.
"That might be a bit difficult," the owner said. "The city hall is far from here. There used to be an enforcement point two streets away, but the city hall hasn't sent anyone there in a long time. Now it's been taken over by outside players."
"If you want to report someone, you can first go to the enforcement point to check the procedures, then head to the city center."
"But don't say I didn't warn you—you can't wander around the city carelessly. Be careful not to end up in the wrong place."
The owner stopped there. Xu Huo gave him a tip and headed to the enforcement point after eating.
The enforcement building was quite large, occupied by a considerable number of players, with some standing guard outside. He was stopped at the entrance.
"This place is taken," the guard warned him.
"I know. I'm not here to take over," Xu Huo said. "This used to be an enforcement agency. I want to find out the procedure for reporting criminals. Or you could just tell me."
"Reporting criminals?" The two players were experienced and immediately knew what he was up to. One of them sneered, "I'd advise you to forget it. Even if you bring solid evidence and the person to the city center, the city hall might not bother to enter the criminal's information. Don't waste your time."
"Have the local players in the city hall been killed off?" Xu Huo asked with feigned surprise.
The speaker choked, then said, "How could that be... If you want to try, go ahead. Let's see if you can pull it off."
With that, he tossed Xu Huo a booklet outlining the procedures. Whether it was enforcement personnel or ordinary citizens, as long as they filmed the criminal's actions or the person voluntarily confessed, they could register at the enforcement agency—but this was the procedure when the agency was still operational. Someone had crossed out "enforcement agency" at the bottom of the booklet and replaced it with "city hall," along with the detailed address.
Xu Huo was probably not the first person to try using legal channels to increase the number of criminals. Judging by the booklet casually thrown out by the outer zone player, many had attempted this before.
He searched for related registrations on the Message Collection Terminal, and the results were all over the place. Players' experiences varied widely—some went to the city hall for seven or eight days straight only to find it closed for business, others brought ample evidence only to have it arbitrarily rejected by staff, and the most absurd cases involved laws that were enforced on odd-numbered days but not even-numbered days, making certain acts not criminal...
Although the local player organization was lackadaisical in their work, judging from these chaotic complaints, their strength shouldn't be underestimated. They likely had a certain deterrent effect on clearance players. Additionally, forcing locals to "commit crimes" would probably get them eliminated quickly. If someone later tried to use evidence to make up for it, they might end up becoming wanted criminals themselves.
And with false information flying everywhere, many people didn't even know whether they were wanted or not.
In that case, the main target group for clearance players was still other players.
Xu Huo didn't plan to actually screen a thousand people for now. Under the pretext of maintaining public order, he sent an email to the city hall applying to become a law enforcement officer for the block. He offered to provide a certain number of flight recorders and an armed robot free of charge to ensure the safety of the area under his management. The only things he needed were official certification from the city hall and a port to access the internal information network.
The city hall probably had no one working there. It wasn't until nearly evening that they replied, granting him the status of a temporary law enforcement officer. The condition was that he donate several flight recorders to the city hall, and all the machines' terminals had to be connected to Buliucheng's main terminal to ensure the city hall could monitor the recorded information in real time.
As for the internal information network, he would receive a temporary account with limited browsing permissions. However, the city hall's information network could verify his identity documents, ensuring his authenticity.
By the time Xu Huo received the reply, he had already contacted several players and planned to occupy a nearby enforcement point to start working.
First, of course, it would be the one in his unlocked area.
"Didn't you come by this morning? What, did you fail?" The same two players were still at the door.
Xu Huo opened his communicator and displayed his work ID. "I'm here on behalf of the city hall to reclaim this enforcement building. Unrelated personnel, please leave."
The two players exchanged glances. Before they could react, Xu Huo swiped his work ID on the machine at the entrance. The machine, still operational, immediately responded:
"Confirming identity of Temporary Enforcement Officer, Number 239."
Then Xu Huo looked at the two at the door.
"You actually managed to get an enforcement officer work ID?" A group of eight players came down from upstairs, clearly unwilling to give up the enforcement building so easily. The bald man at the front said, "How about lending me that work ID to play around with?"