Chapter 615: The Special Defense Department Makes Its Move
Zheng Liang, carefree as ever, gave a thumbs-up. "If you can't solve the problem, solve the person who created it. Li Chun, you're a beast!"
Even the slowest among them could now tell that Li Chun was more than just a distant relative of Xu Huo. Their gazes shifted to him.
Xu Huo was comparing a map with the video uploaded by the drone. He didn't react much to the Painting Woman's words, not even lifting his head as he said, "Wouldn't that be too much trouble? With all those regulations, are you going to kill them one by one?"
The Painting Woman immediately shook her head. "No, I want to play games."
"Just working odd jobs won't run into that many problems," Xu Huo said. "If you really do, you can handle it the same way you handled that group at the hotel."
The Painting Woman wasn't very interested in the dense text. Hearing this, she was delighted and said cheerfully, "Then I'll go out and work. When I earn money, I'll give you an allowance too."
With that, she waved goodbye to Gu Yu and the others and left happily.
Gu Yu looked worried. "Won't she get taken advantage of out there?"
"With the way she was ready to take down a government agency just by opening her mouth, she'll be fine." Zheng Liang called out to her, "Sister Gu Yu, wasn't there a small river here before?"
The people in the room continued with their preparations.
Meanwhile, in a special prison at the Special Defense Department headquarters, Abel was lying on his bed, chewing gum out of boredom, staring at the sky outside the window.
Winter nights came early, and the light in the room quickly dimmed. Without the lights on, the shadows gradually grew larger.
After a few more minutes, the darkness in the corner began to solidify. A figure slowly rose from the shadows, as if lifting a curtain. Once it took shape, the face and hands gradually materialized from the darkness, forming a foreigner with distinct facial features.
The entire process took nearly three minutes. When the person finally stood in the room, Abel sat up and complained, "Why are you so late? Nie Xuan is inhuman—he threw me in here without even letting me brush my teeth, so I've had to chew gum."
The black-clad man in the corner glanced at the walls with his blue eyes and said in a foreign language, "There are very few people here."
Abel shrugged. "Did you think the Special Defense Department was full of slackers? Nie Xuan was about to let me go when he received the information you deliberately leaked. There's no way he'd let me go to a crowded place. It's already good enough that he brought me along to Jing City."
"This new prison only has about a dozen people. The Special Defense Department has all gone on standby, and even the guards rarely come by. You miscalculated."
The Special Defense Department had several newly built prisons near its headquarters specifically for holding players. While players were hard to detain, those without tickets were another matter. Some players who committed crimes had to stay in prison until their three-month term ended and they were automatically teleported into a random instance.
Prison No. 1 had the most players, but Abel was in Prison No. 5, which had barely anyone.
"They say Prison No. 1 holds nearly a hundred players." He handed a piece of paper to the black-clad man. "Inside is a strand of a player's hair. Coincidentally, when I came in, he was being transferred to Prison No. 1. I went to some trouble to find it in his room."
The black-clad man's expression softened. "The nation will not forget your contributions."
Abel twirled the cross in his hand. "Forgetting is fine, as long as you don't use my family's lives to make me do things."
"This is what you should do." The black-clad man raised a hand, and the lock on Abel's cell door automatically opened. "For the next ten minutes, all the locks in this prison cannot be closed. You have completed the task I gave you, so you deserve freedom."
"However, your disloyalty to the nation must also be punished."
As he finished speaking, a bright red bear suddenly appeared in the room and lunged at Abel with a silent roar.
Abel tried to dodge, but the bear suddenly grew to fill the entire room. With nowhere to go, he could only run for the door, but the black-clad man blocked his path first. "You have faith. You should know that only by finding inner peace can you return to the embrace of God."
Abel slammed to a halt in front of him, and then the bear stuck to his back. When it touched him, it shrank back to its original size, leaving a wound the size of a human head on his body!
The sizzling sound mixed with the smell of burnt flesh echoed in the room. Abel fell to his knees, drenched in cold sweat, as the black-clad man and the bear prop disappeared. Looking at his back, the flesh was almost completely burned away, with bone exposed.
After downing several bottles of self-healing agent, Abel sat on the floor, catching his breath, before gritting his teeth and smashing the cross in his hand. He let out a laugh and only left, leaning against the wall, when he heard chaos outside.
Just as he left the cell, Nie Xuan received the news. He contacted the Special Defense Department members stationed at the other four prisons through an encrypted channel. "Follow the previous deployment. Focus on Prison No. 1. Whether someone enters or there's a situation inside, kill everyone on sight. No survivors."
"Yes, Team Leader Nie!"
"Ruthless, aren't you? I think you've been wanting to deal with that batch of players in Prison No. 1 for a long time. You couldn't act because of orders from above, so you used this opportunity." Team Leader Lu, sitting behind him, sighed. "I'm old. I don't have the courage and decisiveness of you young people."
Nie Xuan remained expressionless. "Team Leader Lu, isn't it bold of you to cooperate with me? Others can't see it, but the future power will definitely be in the hands of players. After the power transition, there will be a purge. The fewer dangerous players there are, the fewer people will be affected in the future."
Team Leader Lu, with the tolerance characteristic of an older woman, said patiently, "Even if you don't act, they'll be teleported into random instances in less than three months. The key targets have already been specially handled and won't pose a threat to District 014."
But Nie Xuan cut her off decisively. "Their very existence is a threat."
Did high-risk random instances have a 100% mortality rate? Not necessarily.
Even if they did, after being forcibly detained and delayed from entering the random instance, these people would harbor a deep hatred for the Special Defense Department. Random instances also had players from other districts. As long as there was even a slight possibility, it had to be eliminated!
"I admire you. You're resolute and decisive without lacking finesse." Team Leader Lu smiled. "That's why I strongly recommended you as the new team leader."
Nie Xuan stood up. "The first battle has begun. I'm going to the scene to command."
Team Leader Lu nodded. "I'll hold down the fort here. Message me if anything comes up."
* * *
Xu Huo didn't expect the chaos to start so quickly. First, a large-scale explosion occurred in the residential buildings near the Special Defense Department headquarters that had been cleared. Then, drones captured footage of a massive fire and continuous gunfire in the special prison. Soon after, the Special Defense Department's deployed personnel moved swiftly, rescuing people while simultaneously surrounding several player gathering spots, conducting arrests with practiced efficiency.
The Special Defense Department acted fast, and inevitably, a few unlucky ones didn't escape. The arrest process wasn't pretty, and once it was posted online, it immediately caused an uproar!
(Chapter End)