Chapter 613: Painting Woman's Identity Exposed
"He came to Jing City by plane?" Inside the meeting room, Team Leader Wu stared in shock at the secretary. "Has the information been confirmed?"
The secretary said helplessly, "I confirmed it five times. It really is his own ID. This message was actually reported when Xu Huo bought the ticket, but everyone thought it couldn't be him, until just now when Captain Nie asked..."
It was also because the headquarters had activated the highest level of combat readiness, and everyone was too busy to think straight.
"Why didn't the feedback from Ting City mention..." Team Leader Wu cut himself off mid-sentence. "Well, it's not hard for him to avoid the eyes and ears of a few players."
But no one could have imagined he would directly take a plane. They had considered him using props, private sponsorship, or even hijacking a plane to fly himself over. "We never expected him to be so... law-abiding."
Team Leader Wu couldn't come up with a better word.
"According to airport surveillance, he should have changed his appearance after arriving in Jing City."
"Wait a moment," Minister Fan stopped the surveillance video. "Does the woman following him have detailed information?"
It couldn't be missing. The secretary transmitted the data. "This lady is named Li Chun. Her surname is unclear. According to the Xu family, she was born with a disability, cannot speak, and isn't very sharp mentally. They claim she is a distant relative."
"But based on our screening, her earliest appearance in surveillance footage was in the first month after the large-scale evolution began. The first time she appeared was with Xu Huo, roughly around the time of the Skinner Instance."
"Is she a player?" Jiang Qiao asked.
"It's possible." The secretary continued, "During the two months Xu Huo was away, she went to the Xu family home. From the surrounding surveillance footage, she also disappears for a few days each month and reappears a few days later."
"So she's most likely a player." Minister Fan pondered for a moment. "Xu Huo even went out of his way to buy her a ticket. This person must be extraordinary."
"Her profession and traits are still unclear," the secretary said. "She is close to Yu Qingqing, but Yu Qingqing herself doesn't seem to know she's a player."
"Is there anything else?" Team Leader Chang asked. "If this woman named Li Chun is a player, she couldn't have left no trace in the past few months."
The secretary was also troubled. Since no surveillance footage captured Li Chun using props or traits, there was no way to investigate. Instead, they often saw her shopping at malls. Online, there were traces of her spending money on games everywhere, and she even browsed some less reputable websites. She seemed as ordinary as a non-player.
Jiang Qiao looked at some records and stared at the beautiful woman in the video for a few seconds. "Do you think she's not very sharp mentally?"
"That's what the Xu family says," the secretary replied.
However, actual investigation showed that Li Chun was no different from a normal person except for her inability to speak. This was confirmed by shop owners who, tempted by her beauty, gave her discounts and stuffed her with things but ended up not gaining any advantage.
"I have some interesting information." Nie Xuan, sitting in the second row, handed the secretary a USB drive and asked him to play the first segment.
The video footage that opened showed the exterior wall of a hotel.
"This hotel was one of the gathering places for the Twin Serpents organization a few days ago. It was burned to the ground that night. When the Special Defense Department arrived, all they found were piles of charred corpses."
Nie Xuan spoke. "The hotel's exterior windows were specially treated by Twin Serpents. When closed, it's impossible to see inside through any device."
He paused the video and pointed to a window on the side of the hotel. From the video, only a thin slit could be seen. Although the window was open, the inside was invisible.
As the video continued, the surveillance shifted direction. When it stopped, Nie Xuan marked a small reflection in the upper right corner.
"Is that a mirror?" Team Leader Wu asked.
"No, it's sticker glass, so the image restored by technology is very blurry." Nie Xuan opened the second video. It was very short, even in slow motion, and only showed a few white objects flying past.
"What is that? A knife?" Jiang Qiao asked doubtfully.
Nie Xuan clicked on the third video. "Watch this, and you'll understand."
The third video showed papers flying wildly in the air, attacking people indiscriminately as if controlled by someone. Wherever they passed, large slash marks were left, as if those weren't paper, but blades!
"Isn't this the video from the Hai City incident? Those papers were controlled by the Painting Woman through a super prop." Team Leader Lu said.
Nie Xuan smiled and played both videos simultaneously. "Don't the two scenes look alike?"
The people in the meeting room couldn't help but pause. Minister Fan looked at him sharply. "Are you saying this Li Chun is the Painting Woman?"
"Impossible!" Team Leader Wu asserted. "The Painting Woman was killed by an Outer Zone super player, and even the super prop was snatched. She couldn't have survived!"
Nie Xuan stood by the conference table. "The ashes from the cremation site can prove that a large number of papers that shouldn't have been there appeared at the gathering place. From the captured staff, it was learned that the hotel employees had stored a batch of paper in the warehouse just before their vacation."
"Furthermore, I compared the confessions of the Twin Serpents members. The gathering used player corpses, and most of the members' identities matched, so large-scale armed conflict is basically ruled out. From the information collected from the sticker glass reflection, from the start of the gathering to the time the fire broke out, it was less than twenty minutes. All the cannibal player corpses were piled there. Combined with this video, even if there are players who can control objects or paper, such a scene couldn't be caused by low-level players and low-level props. So this Li Chun following Xu Huo is likely the Painting Woman who obtained the super prop back then."
The room fell silent for a moment before Team Leader Wu spoke. "You are meticulous in your work. You wouldn't say it without seventy or eighty percent certainty... Minister, what do you think?"
Minister Fan's hand resting on the table involuntarily clenched into a fist. "Are there any players from that gathering who survived and entered an instance? Have their identities been confirmed?"
"Three have been locked down. It won't be hard to find them if they appear alive," Nie Xuan said.
"We must find them and make sure they keep their mouths shut!" Minister Fan said in a deep voice. "We cannot afford to lose another Painting Woman, nor another super prop!"
"Classify the Painting Woman's identity as an S-level secret. Everyone present today must sign a non-disclosure agreement. If anyone leaks it, not only the person here, but every family member will bear joint liability!"
Everyone responded seriously. After a moment, Team Leader Lu asked, "Does Xu Huo know the inside story?"
Everyone present knew the answer in their hearts. If Xu Huo didn't know, would he dare to set up this "Ten-Day Deadline" scheme?
Even if he was strong, he couldn't face so many players alone. But with the Painting Woman, the situation was completely different!
"That was a brilliant move," Minister Fan said with both admiration and respect.
Using just two people to pull the wool over everyone's eyes, deceive the Outer Zone players, and give Zone 014 a chance to breathe—this fully showed that Xu Huo not only had boldness but also deep sympathy for his compatriots, because he had to bear enormous risks when he did that.
Since he hadn't turned his back on Zone 014 before, it was unlikely he would target the country or the Special Defense Department now.
"Get in touch with him. What's there that can't be discussed?" Minister Fan, shedding his earlier gloom, said with a beaming smile.
So Xu Huo, who was studying the route with Gu Yu and Brother Liang, received a call from Nie Xuan.
(Chapter End)