Chapter 2284: Files for Life
The female player's expression visibly changed, and she quickly said, "I can only enter and leave Buliucheng, but that doesn't mean I won't die if I encounter temporal-spatial power. Anyone who touches the Water Cube in the city center is finished!"
"Is that so?" Xu Huo looked down at her. "Not a single honest word comes out of your mouth. Let's test it."
"I'll talk! I'll talk!" the female player shouted loudly.
After that, she became more cooperative, patiently answering Xu Huo's questions. Besides the previous few, she also added some supplementary details.
From this information, it could be inferred that the female player couldn't freely enter and leave Buliucheng as she claimed. She only took the risk to come every so often, but each time she stayed for a short period—basically a few days before leaving. At the same time, she had to be careful not to violate the rules of the One-Third Game, and more importantly, she had to avoid approaching the city center, because the Water Cubes almost always emerged from there—something she had witnessed multiple times.
Additionally, from her words, it was clear that although she could still leave Buliucheng, not every player who came hoping to scavenge leftovers could leave smoothly.
"Does your trait have something to do with luck?" Xu Huo asked.
The female player's expression flickered with momentary discomfort, then she resigned herself. "It's my trait."
Traits couldn't be taken away anyway.
Xu Huo smiled and used the same tactic again. "I wonder if your trait is enough to avoid the Water Cube in the city center..."
The female player's face changed drastically. "Do you have no shame?!"
"But judging by how you couldn't even avoid me with a special prop, I doubt your trait is that great." Xu Huo followed up immediately. "Counting on you to explore the city center is probably hopeless."
"You're from this district. You should know something about Buliucheng's past. Hasn't anyone from other cities come to take over? They must have made some effort, right?"
The female player snorted coldly and said, "Of course they have. Whether it was to take over Buliucheng or to use the game's temporal-spatial power for Super Evolution, people came every year. Unfortunately, most of those who arrived with grand ambitions died here, without anyone even knowing what happened before their deaths."
"So, people need to know their limits."
"Do you think you're someone who knows your limits?" Zhu Xiaojin suddenly mocked.
The female player shut her mouth, carefully hiding her hatred as she glanced at Xu Huo.
Xu Huo didn't plan to kill her for now. Instead, he, along with Old Cai and Zhu Xiaojin, brought her back to the Location Item.
With this delay, almost a day had passed. When he returned to check the Communicator, he found not only applications regarding the wanted criminals but also a message from "Ding Dong Bleeding."
Their previous conversation had ended on bad terms. Xu Huo knew they certainly knew more than they had revealed, but he wasn't sure how many people were on the city government's side. Killing just a few wouldn't help and might even block the wanted criminal application channel. He thought the other side would at least take some time before coming back to cooperate, even if they didn't give up entirely. He hadn't expected them to come so quickly.
The city government players had shown their sincerity. They could provide a sufficient number of wanted criminals and were willing to use some of their companions as collateral, as long as Xu Huo could take them into the city center.
Xu Huo didn't have to get involved in destroying the game carrier, the Water Cube. After all, this was Buliucheng's internal affair. The remaining city government players were determined to succeed in one final effort—even if they failed in the end, they had no complaints, because they had done their best. If everyone died, what happened to Buliucheng afterward was none of their concern.
"Playing the emotional card, huh." Xu Huo half-believed it, but he didn't reply immediately. The city center might not only contain chaotic temporal-spatial power but could also be a direct passage into the One-Third Game. Going in voluntarily wouldn't be much different from entering the game on purpose.
Putting down the Communicator, he turned back to talk to the female player.
With her life in his hands, the female player responded to every question.
When it came to the district government's attitude toward Buliucheng, the female player said bluntly, "If there was a bottomless pit behind your house, would you insist on finding out what's inside? Over time, even normal people would stop caring. Even if they tinkered with it on a whim, they'd give up if they couldn't get results."
"Not necessarily." Xu Huo took a water glass from the Painting Woman. "Getting to the bottom of things is human instinct."
"There aren't that many bored people around here," the female player said irritably.
"The district government should have kept files on the One-Third Game, right?" Xu Huo said.
"There must be files, but what exactly they contain is anyone's guess." The female player said, "As far as I know, no one has ever left with memories related to the game."
"This district isn't weak. Haven't they found a way to restore memories?" Xu Huo was quite surprised. "I thought that as long as the brain isn't removed, relevant memories must be preserved in some corner of memory."
Unless time had truly reversed for that person.
Of course, it was possible that the One-Third Game involved Curved Time, but the effect of Curved Time was essentially close to time reversal. Losing short-term memory might go unnoticed, but if decades of memories disappeared, then that person should no longer exist. So he leaned toward the idea that players' memories were erased through other means.
Moreover, "Curved Time" was still a poorly understood concept. Although Dr. Wu spoke with certainty, judging by how he was still running around in the game, it remained a hyperdimensional power he couldn't successfully grasp. What it really looked like—who knew?
"Then I wouldn't know." The female player wasn't very interested in this.
"You can know." Xu Huo smiled as he looked at her. "You must have quite a few relatives and friends living here."
"What do you mean?" The female player frowned at him. "You're not thinking of sending me to steal files from the district government, are you?"
"The method is up to you. As long as you can get files with substantial content." Xu Huo said, "You can consider it a deal. This file in exchange for your life."
The female player squinted, starting to think about the feasibility. "What kind of files count as substantial? If the city government's files don't have any records either, wouldn't I have wasted my efforts?"
"That's your problem. You can bet on your luck." Xu Huo put down his glass and said to the Painting Woman beside him, "Keep an eye on her. Don't let her leave this room."
The Painting Woman gave a thumbs-up, indicating she had it covered.
Seeing that he was about to leave, the female player quickly said, "Deal! But I need some time! The district government's confidential files aren't easy to get!"
"Give them to me tomorrow." Xu Huo checked the time. "Before ten o'clock tomorrow morning. Twelve hours should be enough."
"Hey, be reasonable! How can twelve hours be enough? That's the district government, not your backyard..."
Her response was the sound of the door closing.