Chapter 2807: Xu Huo's Unreasonable Ways
"A city with a population of tens of millions can only be fully covered by large-scale instruments, or top-tier A-grade defense items or super items." Zhou Juanjuan thought of more. "If a large-scale attack occurs, without considerable defense, the consequences would be unimaginable."
"Zone 022 seemed impressive before, but now they're out of tricks?" Levi said with some sarcasm. "Looks like they were just putting on a brave face."
Even if Zone 022 was wealthy enough to equip every major city with large protective instruments, it wouldn't be difficult for advanced players to destroy such instruments. As long as they could find where the instruments were placed, sometimes they didn't even need to face the sturdy barriers the instruments deployed—they could simply buy a suitable jamming device and easily achieve their goal.
Although there were robots and emergency protective kits within the city, they weren't enough to cover the entire population.
And with the stalemate dragging on, some clearance players stranded in the Capital Mansion had also started to act. Conflicts had broken out in many places, mainly targeting important government institutions, since the items stored there were far more valuable than ordinary valuables.
"Where are we going?" Levi asked Xu Huo.
Casually dealing with a few players who were randomly killing people to vent their frustrations, Xu Huo said, "To the Prison Punishment City."
Levi and Zhou Juanjuan exchanged a glance, thinking he had some big plan, but didn't ask further and simply followed silently behind.
It wasn't that they were eager to join the chaos, but they hadn't cleared the instance yet, so they couldn't leave. And with the Capital Mansion in this state, no matter where they hid, they might get drawn into player wars. They had no intention of interfering in Zone 022's affairs, so avoiding it was best.
There was a Prison Punishment City within the Capital Mansion. It was easy to imagine that players who had planned and premeditated an attack on the Capital Mansion wouldn't let such a place go. Since it was indiscriminate killing that didn't consider ordinary people, releasing the outer zone players imprisoned here, or local zone players who already held grudges against Zone 022, would be a win-win situation.
So when Xu Huo and the others arrived and found the main gate of Prison Punishment City heavily damaged, they weren't surprised. Players were constantly entering and exiting the area, occasionally clashing with each other.
Avoiding the worst-hit areas of the fighting, Xu Huo found a severely injured Prison Punishment City player and asked her about the whereabouts of Rachel Ryan.
She was badly injured, so under mental control, she easily revealed Rachel Ryan's detention location—with the district under attack, no one had thought to move her. Of course, it was also possible they thought keeping her isolated in Prison Punishment City was safer.
And indeed, that was the case. According to this person, Xu Huo and the others went down to the third underground level, used a work pass to open the blast door, and saw Rachel Ryan along with about a dozen other prisoners hiding safely in a duty room. Also present were two players who had been on duty there.
These prisoners were all from Zone 022, probably from families with a bit of influence. They were only doing symbolic time to learn a lesson, and would likely be allowed to go home after reflecting. It wasn't surprising that Rachel Ryan was among them.
The moment she saw Xu Huo, Rachel Ryan shrank her head back, using her small stature to hide behind the others, hoping not to be noticed.
"Stop hiding," Xu Huo said, lifting her into the air. "I came all this way specifically to find you."
"What do you want from me?" Rachel Ryan said angrily. "You took my things and ruined me like this—isn't that enough?"
"I just want to ask you a few things." Xu Huo slammed the blast door shut behind him, then casually tossed her onto a chair. Sitting down across from her, he continued, "Zone 022 is doing business with Stellar Pharmaceuticals. You should know something about that."
Rachel Ryan laughed upon hearing this. "You want to know? Fine, then kill them for me!"
She pointed back at the people still hiding in the duty room. "Every single one of them mocked me. They all deserve to die!"
The group hiding in the duty room glared at her angrily, but they also knew that the two players with them were no match for Xu Huo and his companions. Besides, communications in Prison Punishment City had long been cut off, which was why they had been hiding here and refusing to leave.
"I can tell you what you want to know!" another prisoner said. "I definitely know more than she does! She's a dwarf, not valued in her family, emotionally unstable—who would tell her any secrets?"
With someone taking the lead, the others naturally scrambled to speak up. One even claimed that their family had a project directly connected to Stellar Pharmaceuticals and had visited their factory for study tours.
Xu Huo singled that person out and obtained a detailed address for a Stellar Pharmaceuticals factory, located in a district under a B-level wormhole point. According to the information he checked, this district had decent technological development, so having a Stellar Pharmaceuticals factory wasn't unusual. But generally, factories that were out in the open like this rarely handled highly confidential information—they were usually just regular factories.
"Isn't there more information?" Xu Huo pressed.
"If not, I can take you to my home," the young man said. "My father definitely knows. He's friends with people at Stellar Pharmaceuticals. For my safety, he'll definitely talk!"
It seemed there was nothing more to gain. These people were eagerly "snitching," but the truly useful information was sparse.
At that moment, Rachel Ryan let out a triumphant laugh, looking at Xu Huo sideways with an expression that said, "You'll have to come begging to me."
Xu Huo smiled too. He took an interrogation potion from his luggage compartment.
Rachel Ryan immediately performed a face change and a slide to her knees. "How can you be like this? If you want to ask, just ask—why threaten people!"
"Are you going to talk or not?" Xu Huo opened the box.
Rachel Ryan was furious, but still smoothly gave him a district name. "Go look here. You'll definitely find a surprise."
"Nothing more specific?" Xu Huo raised an eyebrow.
"Since it's a secret, how could anyone lay out all the details in a conversation? I overheard this myself," Rachel Ryan said. "They asked the district government to deliver the trade items to a certain station in this district, saying someone would come to pick them up. That's different from where they usually trade, so there must be some other secret."
B11-003. What a coincidence—another B11 wormhole point. The "Bookworm" had previously proposed a trade condition involving an ore from the exit of this wormhole point.
Seeing that he seemed to accept this, Rachel Ryan thought for a moment and added, "If you can take me to find my father, I can tell you something you'll definitely be interested in."
Xu Huo looked at her. "You know that the moment you said that, you lost the upper hand, right?"
"I know," Rachel Ryan said nonchalantly. "Worth a try. Maybe you'll be reasonable for once."
Xu Huo gave a faint smile. "Unfortunately, that's not happening."
Rachel Ryan glared at him resentfully before finally speaking. "Don't all players want the Perfect Potion? I know where to find some."