Chapter 2333: Kill According to the List
It wasn't a big deal, really. It was just that the Painting Woman happened to be shopping without restraint when a few young teachers saw her. After the game started, ordinary people's lives had been greatly impacted, and many still hadn't recovered. So when they saw the Painting Woman, they wanted to teach her a lesson and make her bleed some cash.
"We brought money too..." One of them bravely said to Liu Jia, "We thought if Li Chun couldn't afford it, we could chip in. We didn't plan to make her pay for everything..."
But before she finished speaking, her voice weakened again, because this restaurant was clearly not something they could afford.
"The one treating today isn't me. Let me ask for you." Liu Jia smiled and returned to Xu Huo's side, letting Yuan Yao handle it.
"These young folks sure are ruthless, bringing dozens of mouths to feed." Yuan Yao looked pained but still generously said, "They're just kids. How much can they eat? Let them all stay. I said I was treating, after all."
Liu Jia naturally had no objections. She went over to convey his intention, and then their dining spot was moved from the private room to a large hall.
The aroma of food quickly spread. The children didn't understand much and, supervised by a few teachers, happily ate their meals.
The Painting Woman joined them for a while to enjoy the excitement, but after noticing their forced smiles, she returned to the private room.
"Some people are really strange. What they say and what they think are completely different. Since that's the case, why even bother speaking?" She wasn't one to dwell on melancholy, so after one comment, she dove into her own lunch.
After the meal, Xu Huo asked about the recent situation in Ting City. Sima Xiao'er didn't hide anything and directly told him that compared to other cities, Ting City was doing very well. At least living here meant rarely being disturbed by players. In other cities, players often clashed, and fights would spiral out of control. The ones who suffered were ordinary people. Demolishing houses and repairing them was the best-case scenario; casualties were also common. In such cases, if the Special Defense Department couldn't catch the perpetrators, they could only settle with fines.
"We've all gotten used to it." Sima Xiao'er said.
This wasn't hard to understand. If the Special Defense Department made concessions to ordinary players, it would inevitably affect the general public. Ting City was like this, and the situation in other cities might be worse than Xu Huo had estimated.
"Isn't there an internal wanted list?" Xu Huo asked.
The game could have wanted criminals, and districts could certainly have them too.
"Very few people are actually listed as wanted criminals." Sima Xiao'er hinted somewhat cryptically, after all, they couldn't completely burn bridges with a large number of players. "Besides, even if they're wanted, it's hard to catch them."
"Don't think about whether you can catch them now. There will always be a time to catch them in the future." Xu Huo said calmly. "The longer people live, the more they fear settling accounts later. Show some backbone."
"My backbone doesn't count for much." Sima Xiao'er scratched his hair and said, "I even suggested locking up all the murderous players in prison, but if it can't be done, it's just empty talk. Besides, if we show our cards, we're afraid of offending people to death, making future management even harder."
"Leave other cities aside for now," Xu Huo said. "Go back and have Team Leader Wu compile a wanted list—people who can be killed on sight."
Sima Xiao'er's excitement was palpable. "Brother Xu, are you going to handle it?"
Xu Huo glanced at the Painting Woman beside him. "We'll give it a try."
Sima Xiao'er immediately contacted Team Leader Wu. By the time lunch was over, an urgent list was ready. Besides the wanted individuals' identity information, it also included their criminal records—all heinous criminals with irrefutable evidence that the Special Defense Department had no intention of rehabilitating.
As for whether they were still in Ting City or had changed their appearances, Team Leader Wu and the others didn't know. They'd just have to rely on luck.
Xu Huo thought the same way. So after the meal, he had the Painting Woman review all the file information and then search for these people throughout the entire city.
Even in this age of advanced networks, paper was still indispensable in various parts of the city. After the Painting Woman took control of Ting City, the Special Defense Department had cunningly supplemented paper in many places in different forms—such as specially printed cards, promotional images, public service codes, etc.—mainly to facilitate her control... See, wasn't the opportunity right there?
Within half an hour of tea drinking, the Painting Woman had already locked onto nearly twenty people.
When Sima Xiao'er first saw this, he couldn't believe it. "They killed so many people and still dare to stay in Ting City? Don't they get tired of changing faces every day?"
"Probably they enjoy the thrill of it." Gu Yu said. "Right under the Special Defense Department's nose, and they can never be caught no matter what."
"Damn it!" Sima Xiao'er gritted his teeth.
Once the Painting Woman had located thirty people, Xu Huo took the addresses she had recorded. "I'll make a trip. Be back soon."
With that, he vanished from the restaurant.
"Mr. Xu... really acts swiftly." A member of the player organization couldn't help commenting, also curious whether he could actually finish dealing with all thirty people.
In fact, handling these people was far simpler than anticipated. Most of them were D-level and C-level players, with barely any C-levels. They frequented instances and were skilled at disguise. As long as they didn't reveal their true faces in public, the Special Defense Department had a hard time finding them. But when they were relaxed, it was a different story. As long as they dared to show their faces, the Painting Woman could pinpoint them every time.
Dealing with these people took less than twenty minutes. Only two were exceptionally lucky, entering an instance at a critical moment and avoiding Xu Huo.
After returning to the restaurant, the Painting Woman compiled another new list.
He handled these people in the same way, collecting the bodies with a container item and handing them over to the Special Defense Department for disposal.
After finishing the list provided by the Special Defense Department, Xu Huo said, "From now on, Ting City can have a public wanted list."
Team Leader Wu's laughter on the communicator was almost uncontrollable. "Make it public, definitely make it public! The list of those already dealt with will also be published on the Special Defense Department's official website!"
Sima Xiao'er and the others left quickly, as they had to handle the aftermath. Gu Yu, however, felt that Xu Huo didn't need to go to this trouble to help the Special Defense Department. Publicly opposing so many players wasn't a good thing.
"From now on, more and more public wanted lists will appear." Xu Huo said. "Consider it a deterrent. It's been two years since the game started, and people are still fighting over a small patch of land in their own backyard—that's a bit pathetic."
"I agree with that." Gu Yu nodded. "There are plenty of people who can't tell what's important. What I'm worried about now is the game fusion. I want to move my family to the outer zone and come back once things stabilize."
"I can stay and fight alongside District 014, but my family doesn't have to."
She pulled out a document. "This is the district I've been looking at."
"A B-level district?" Xu Huo glanced at it. "Are you planning to settle there long-term?"