Chapter 595: Xu Huo's Fame
Behind them, Huang Junjie and the others had already dragged the bodies from the roof into the carriage. Abel said, "I knew those people had bad intentions. And they froze the bodies in the freezer—it's freezing me to death!"
Guan Zuhong and Xiao Zhang, who had also been separated out, looked equally terrified. The former said, "We were careful enough, but we still fell for it. Where were they planning to send us? What about the others?"
With a few "swish swish swish" sounds, a window opened at the front of the carriage. Xu Huo, with his back to them, said, "Twin Serpents has two gathering spots in Yang City: Huimei Health Center and Taole Club. This car was heading to the health center. The other five people should have been sent to Taole Club."
Huang Junjie immediately frowned upon hearing Taole Club. "How is this connected to Taole Club? Most of its members are powerful and influential—even the Special Defense Department has people there..."
Before he could finish, he realized, "Is the kidnapping connected to the Special Defense Department?"
"Whether it's connected or not is unclear for now, but at least someone in the Yang City Special Defense Department knows about it," Xu Huo said.
The remaining three exchanged glances. Abel asked, "What do they want with capturing players?"
"What else would players want from capturing other players?" Xiao Zhang said darkly. "Either for items or for food. Given how much trouble they went through to trick people in, it's probably the latter."
For a moment, everyone in the car looked grim. Guan Zuhong said, "Could Brother Liang have been captured by them?"
"Besides the ten living people, the twenty players who died at the resort were divided into three batches and sent to different locations," Xu Huo added. "At least one location is outside Yang City."
Everyone present understood what that meant, especially Huang Junjie. He was all too familiar with the compromises and power struggles between various factions. The Twin Serpents organization was so large and operated across cities, which strongly suggested official backing. Not that the government was supporting them, but rather that there might be rotten apples within.
Among those who had become players were people of high status. If they had become cannibal players during classification and successfully hidden their identities, it was entirely possible for them to develop an organization like Twin Serpents in a short time. Moreover, the Special Defense Department's role in this matter seemed very ambiguous.
First, there must have been missing players—someone like Brother Liang must have noticed something was wrong. But why had the Special Defense Department's multiple investigations found nothing?
If Special Defense Department members weren't involved, then someone must have leaked information.
If that were the case, mishandling it could trigger internal chaos.
"Going through all this trouble to get living players—Taole Club might have some important figures showing up," Xu Huo said as he had already turned the car around.
Huang Junjie looked at him in shock. "You're going to make a move on them? Do you know how many players they've gathered under them?"
Leaving aside whether they could win, hadn't he considered that once he acted, he would face endless retaliation?
Xu Huo glanced at him through the rearview mirror. "Tan Yang was also captured. I suspect the commotion before we left the resort was caused by him."
Huang Junjie's face darkened heavily.
"Buzz buzz!" An unknown number sent a video call to Painting Woman's phone. Xu Huo answered, and Painting Woman's face appeared on the screen.
The phone was mounted on a stand. She typed rapidly on it: "These people are so bad, they wanted to eat me!"
In the video, behind her was a pile of bodies, most wearing black robes, with a few in gray robes. They were covered in blood, with multiple sharp instrument cuts on their bodies. The bodies had clearly been moved together deliberately, and some clear liquid could be seen flowing on them and the ground.
"Preparation work is thorough." The murder tools had been put away; all that remained was to destroy the evidence. Xu Huo praised her, then asked, "Did anyone escape?"
Painting Woman's eyes flickered.
Xu Huo understood. "They saw you act?"
Painting Woman put on a pitiful expression.
Xu Huo tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. Back in Hai City, Painting Woman had impersonated him to become the player who obtained the super item. Her paper-using trait had been mistaken for the super item's effect. That incident had ended with him, disguised as an outer zone advanced player, "killing" her and taking the super item.
Although Painting Woman had changed her face, an outer zone advanced player wouldn't be bored enough to fake their death and go disrupt Twin Serpents' gathering. If someone saw Painting Woman using paper, they would recognize it as the effect of that super item from before, and realize that the super item had never left Zone 014, hadn't been taken by an advanced player, but was in the hands of an E-level or D-level player.
However, handling this wasn't difficult.
"How many escaped?" he asked again.
Painting Woman raised a finger to indicate "one."
"Remember the face?"
Painting Woman nodded and typed, "I'll recognize them if I see them."
"I'm heading to Taole Club in Yang City now. Dispose of the bodies and come over," Xu Huo said before ending the call.
"In that pile of bodies, I saw several with red numbers on their backs," Abel said. "Looks like they really were having a barbecue party together."
Huang Junjie shot him a cold look. Abel didn't care and cheerfully patted his shoulder. "We really have fate. I used to crack instances with Xu Huo, and today we're going to destroy a cannibal player stronghold together. Is this arranged by the Jade Emperor?"
Huang Junjie didn't look pleased. "I don't know what you're talking about."
He glanced forward, his gaze lingering on Xu Huo's fake face.
Abel patted Xu Huo's seat. "We're all old acquaintances. Don't pretend. I know you're Xu Huo."
Xu Huo didn't react, but Guan Zuhong and Xiao Zhang behind him were shocked. "You're Xu Huo!"
Xiao Zhang had met Xu Huo once a few days ago with Brother Liang. He said, "You're Xu Huo! Brother Liang and I thought you were just a relatively strong player. If we'd known it was you, Brother Liang definitely wouldn't have disappeared!"
Xu Huo had gained fame in Jing City for destroying some dens that imprisoned evolvers. Although his identity had been handled by the Special Defense Department, his name had still spread. He was now a rather mysterious figure in the player community.
"Brother Xu," Xiao Zhang said seriously, "players in our circle really admire you. Brother Liang's whereabouts are unknown now. We should be looking for him, but since you're going to Taole Club to deal with the Twin Serpents organization, we may not be many, but we want to contribute to this!"
He took out his phone. "Don't worry, they're all trustworthy and hate cannibal players to the bone. Even if it's one-for-one, they won't back down!"
"Aren't you going to look for Brother Liang?" Huang Junjie asked with a strange expression.
"Even Brother Liang would support us if he knew," Xiao Zhang said through gritted teeth. "He'd definitely tell us to kill those cannibal bastards first!"
(Chapter End)