Chapter 2772: Better Clues
"Gu Huifeng has also disappeared?" Nong Zheng became even more frightened upon hearing this. He stammered, "This has nothing to do with me. I'm suffering too, hiding everywhere now, not even daring to go home!"
"There's no one watching your house," Xu Huo said. "I've been there."
Nong Zheng was stunned for a moment before saying, "You have no idea what those people are capable of. They can erase anyone's traces openly and legitimately. Even Gu Huifeng has disappeared. If they want to deal with me, they have ten thousand ways!"
"Then why don't you run away?" Xu Huo asked.
"Do you think I don't want to escape?" Nong Zheng shouted excitedly. "I'm afraid that once I show any sign of wanting to flee, it will bring death upon me!"
"Exactly. Do you have a better way out now?" Xu Huo said. "Tell me what you know. If it's useful to me, I can consider sending you to another country or another district afterward."
"Really?" Nong Zheng was overjoyed. "You mean it?!"
"Sending one person away is very simple for me," Xu Huo assured him. He walked over to the coffee table and poured two cups of tea. "Sit down and talk."
With the guarantee, Nong Zheng's emotions calmed down considerably. He got up, took the teacup, and drank it dry in one gulp. Then he poured himself two more cups in succession. After drinking his fill, he plopped down onto the sofa and let out a satisfied sigh. "I haven't had a proper rest in days. This feels great."
"Hurry up and talk," Xin Qin urged.
"What do you want to know?" Nong Zheng said. "Actually, I don't know much either. I have no idea what happened at NS Biotech. I only realized something was wrong after the company disappeared. Afterwards, I asked around the neighborhood, but there was no trace at all. No one knows exactly when they vanished, and all the surveillance devices nearby were broken."
"Actually, up to this point, it's still quite ordinary. Any player could do it if they wanted."
"What's abnormal is what happened next. The Enforcement Department's investigation was very perfunctory. They didn't even bring anyone in for questioning. They just asked the nearby residents a few simple questions and called it done."
"A big company suddenly disappearing like that, and no one investigates? That speaks volumes. Even if the Enforcement Department didn't know, someone in the know must have tipped them off."
"I had a few acquaintances at the company. I didn't dare contact their families, but I saw from the Message Collection Terminal that two families had held funerals one after another. The reason given was that they were involved in a player attack incident. The government paid compensation according to regulations."
"That wasn't compensation. That was blood money."
He looked at Xin Qin as he finished speaking. "I advise you to stop looking too. Gu Huifeng is most likely dead already. If the problem weren't particularly serious, the government wouldn't cover up such a large-scale disappearance."
"Do you know who those people are?" Xin Qin gritted her teeth. "Why did they take Gu Huifeng? What does this have to do with him?"
Nong Zheng's eyes flickered, and he couldn't help but look at Xu Huo.
Xu Huo glanced at him. "Your value depends on the information you provide."
Nong Zheng took a deep breath. "I suspect NS Biotech was targeted by someone."
"Back when I convinced Gu Huifeng to invest in NS Biotech, one of the selling points was curing genetic diseases. Actually, NS Biotech had already made some progress at the time, but they couldn't get investment anywhere. A friend of mine who worked there found me and hoped I could help."
"Honestly, investments in biotech companies are very hard to secure because they can become a bottomless pit. People without substantial assets wouldn't touch them. I happened to see an interview with Gu Huifeng where he said he hoped the district could eliminate genetic diseases in the future. I knew he wasn't just talking nonsense."
"I'm pretty good at reading people. Sure enough, after meeting him twice, he agreed."
"He invested a lot of money in NS Biotech. Although the company didn't develop the medicine he wanted, they did share some results with him, so he didn't lose everything."
"For a while, I was too embarrassed to see him. But half a month ago, he invited me to dinner. During the meal, he mentioned that Xin Qin's illness might be curable. He was so happy he drank a lot. The next day, I asked around with friends and found out the company had made a major breakthrough. He just needed to raise another sum of money for the final experiment."
"Within two days, his bones sold for a sky-high price. I was very envious at the time, and happy for him too. But then, within a few days, the company simply disappeared!"
"I've been in this business for a long time. I often see this kind of thing. Big fish eating small fish isn't unusual, but to achieve this level of untraceability, it has to be a high-ranking government official pulling the strings."
He paused, then lowered his voice again. "Actually, I saw the same thing ten years ago."
"Back then, I was a celebrity agent, doing the same kind of work—finding investments and jobs. The company I worked for had more than twenty moderately famous female celebrities, plus a few player celebrities. Of course, they weren't very strong and had already found connections to withdraw from the game early."
"That year, during the company's anniversary, we suddenly received a big order. Someone said a rich man was having a birthday and wanted to hire the company's female celebrities to perform. He specifically requested the player celebrities too. It wasn't anything special—just singing, dancing, and being part of a mood-setting group."
"In the company, not just small agents like me, even the male celebrities wanted to go. But the boss said the client only wanted female celebrities. Agents and assistants couldn't bring too many either, because the client had his own people to help."
"Who wouldn't want such an easy, well-paying job? Except for one who accidentally broke her leg and couldn't go, every single named female celebrity went."
"But they went and never came back. The agents and assistants who went with them all disappeared without a trace. Even the boss went missing, with no explanation."
"A few days later, the boss finally came back. He didn't say anything, just paid compensation to the families of those people."
"Not long after, the boss left District 022. I heard he went to join relatives. The company was transferred to someone else."
"To this day, no one knows what really happened to those people. No one investigated either."
"To pull something off so cleanly, with someone sweeping up the traces, even a rich man alone couldn't do it." Nong Zheng sighed. "So what can people like us do?"
"I don't care about others," Xin Qin said, her lips bitten bloody. "I just want to find Gu Huifeng. Even if he's dead, I need to find him. The people who harmed him must pay the price!"
Nong Zheng opened his mouth as if to advise her, but in the end, he closed it again.
Only players could handle things like this, but it was too easy for players to change their identities and hide their traces. So the only way was through the government.
"Do you know this person?" Xu Huo pulled up the information on the Archon of Earth Star City.
"Our Grand Archon here? Who doesn't know him..." Nong Zheng's tone changed midway. "You're saying it's him?!"
"It... it shouldn't be, right? What would he gain from this? It's not like collecting taxes..."
"The faces of the players accompanying him are constantly changing. It's hard for me to quickly identify who actually did the deed," Xu Huo said, staring at him. "Do you have any better clues?"