Chapter 2246: Legal and Justified
Changing faces didn't matter. Escaping District 5 didn't matter. As long as someone had seen them and an official wanted notice had been issued, any player who encountered them wouldn't hesitate to kill.
The Enforcement Building was mostly destroyed, so it was no longer livable. Xu Huo temporarily moved his office to the street next door, using a location item he had obtained on the train that could simulate an environment. This location item was smaller in scale than the "Snowflake Grand Hotel," and the street connected to the adjacent roadway and a few already-demolished houses, which was just enough to set up.
After entering the location item, Zhu Xiaojin finally shared the news he had gathered from other players.
"A player said he came from the city center. He was lucky—after entering the city, he was randomly dropped right in the center. But most players don't dare approach the city center recklessly."
"Wasn't there that incident before where a player brought a captured wanted criminal to the city center to register? Those stories are hard to verify. There's a barrier around the city center that allows communication between inside and outside, but it has a simulation function. The street scenes seen from outside are all fake. No one knows what happens to players once they go in."
"What about those player organization members who specifically clean things up inside the city?" Xu Huo frowned slightly. "Those are people operating under the city government's banner."
There were also some enforcement points in other areas that were still functioning normally.
"It's hard to tell if they're really local players or outsiders pretending to be," Zhu Xiaojin said, also confused today. "There should be plenty of self-governing players like us."
"Did our application to the city government get approved?" Tang Yu asked.
"It passed." Not just the wanted criminal certifications from earlier, but also the public security management regulations submitted last night had been approved. The city government's reply stated that it would be posted on the internal network for public notice, but they couldn't provide any other assistance.
"I don't get it. Does the city government have people or not? Are they managing things or not?" Cheng Zhongzhi was very puzzled.
"Maybe the city government personnel also entered the One-Third Game and are trapped?" Tang Yu guessed, then asked Zhu Xiaojin, "That player who came from the city center—didn't he encounter anyone who came out of the blockade barrier?"
"People go in, but no one comes out," Zhu Xiaojin said. "That's why there are so many people on the message collection terminal egging other players to go to the city center."
"It seems the city government doesn't want to manage the city—they just can't," Cheng Zhongzhi looked at Xu Huo. "Didn't they ask you for the flight recorder and armed robots? That clearly shows the city government still has people, and they can communicate with the outside world and reply to work emails."
"If they were really in trouble, they could just ask for help."
"Ask who for help? Players? Who trusts us?" Zhu Xiaojin shrugged. "Besides, can the city government be trusted?"
The biggest problem right now was that everywhere was full of false information, with no reliable standard to reference, making it hard for them to act.
"If the city government is the real culprit behind the One-Third Game, can we trust the emails they reply with?" Tang Yu couldn't help worrying. "I'm starting to think someone hacked into the city government system just to mess with us."
Xu Huo's temporary enforcement officer work pass had passed the machine verification at the enforcement point, proving his work pass was genuine. Even if someone inside the city government had forged it, since it passed the system check, it was real and should be recognized by the local government.
Xu Huo printed out the public security management regulations and said, "Post these on the billboards tomorrow. Put them high up, so the nearby areas can see them."
Zhu Xiaojin and the others looked it over and found it was similar to the legal codes of other districts, just stricter. Many districts didn't bother with petty theft or robbery, let alone issuing a formal wanted notice. But the regulations Xu Huo had produced even covered vandalism and improper handling of toxic ingredients—any violation would result in arrest, followed by confirmation with the city government through the enforcement point to see if it warranted a wanted notice. Generally, it did, because Buliucheng had very harsh laws to manage a city almost entirely composed of criminals.
"Honestly, I can't bring myself to list someone as a wanted criminal and kill them just for vandalism or stealing a few things," Zhu Xiaojin said.
"Do you really think the people here are innocent?" Cheng Zhongzhi countered. "I've seen them deliberately trick players into the One-Third Game more than once. Don't players die when they enter the game? They're harming people too."
Zhu Xiaojin had nothing to say. It was true. There were even many who, relying on the fact that players couldn't casually attack them, provoked others without restraint.
"Let's stick to the facts," Xu Huo said. "Tomorrow, spread out. If you encounter anyone, collect evidence and bring them all back for processing."
"Are we supposed to judge whether every single person has broken the law?" Cheng Zhongzhi felt this was somewhat beneath them.
"Our main targets are still players," Xu Huo explained. "With our manpower, we can't monitor that many ordinary people. Besides, it's too troublesome. Targeting other players is much clearer. Just focus on whoever we run into. Whether we catch them or not is another matter."
Additionally, besides clearing the game, they had to avoid the One-Third Game. Legally managing the city wasn't just about advancing the clearance progress—it was also about recruiting more players. If the path of entering the city government couldn't be pursued, they would need to expand the unlocked area as much as possible, which required more people.
"Now we have a legal channel to certify wanted criminals. If other players want to clear the game, they'll at least have to come to us for cooperation," Zhu Xiaojin said. "Unless they also bribe the city government to get a temporary enforcement officer identity."
Before dark, Xu Huo and the others posted the management regulations on the billboards near the enforcement point. They also moved a large billboard to the front of the Enforcement Building, posting the wanted notices for those who had destroyed the building, along with a reward for the recovery of city government property—armed robots—and a call for clues about the destruction of the flight recorder.
The repairman they had requested yesterday had now become a renovation crew. Additionally, Xu Huo publicly disclosed the three ways to trigger the One-Third Game and invited more players to add to the list.
This disclosure faced some opposition. To put it bluntly, many players entered instances without knowing the situation and violated the instance's implicit rules. Newcomers stepping into traps, entering the One-Third Game, or killing people—all of it increased the number of "wanted criminals." Now that they had a channel to certify identities, if there were fewer wanted criminals, how would they clear the game?