Chapter 665: Fortune's Wheel Turns
Does becoming a player mean you can look down on others?
Compared to the risks players have to bear, Nix thought he could sympathize with himself first.
From a certain perspective, players and ordinary people are the same. Players rely on their power to "pity" the weak, but in the eyes of the "weak," they might just be fleeting meteors destined to shatter into pieces.
So-called sympathy has never been on the same level.
Once you start comparing lives, the true meaning of life is destined to be distorted.
Nix's expression didn't change much. He pressed further, "In your country, there's a saying: 'What goes around comes around.' Aren't you worried that doing this will bring trouble to your own country?"
There was no sound in the room.
What answer did he expect? Did Country Y think the black rain incident was Country X causing trouble on their soil?
It was just a matter of give and take.
The Painting Woman walked in from outside and waved at Nix, who was standing at the door, signaling him to move out of the way.
A flash of murderous intent flickered in Nix's eyes, but he didn't strike back. Instead, he got a glare from the Painting Woman.
After she opened the door and went inside, a voice came from behind the door again: "Remember your words: what goes around comes around."
The presence in the room vanished. Nix, humiliated and furious, punched a hole through the wall beside him, then turned and strode out, gritting his teeth and muttering, "Those bastards!"
They were indeed a bunch of bastards. When Xu Huo appeared, he clearly had the physical features of a Country X native. Before the rescue efforts in the safe zones had even fully unfolded, Country Y's top leaders had already held a video conference, demanding sanctions against Country X and even calling for a national war to force Country X to beg for mercy.
The black rain attack was known only to Country Y's highest leaders and a few executives responsible for the plan. Faced with the outrage of others, they looked somewhat dejected.
They had expected retaliation, but not so soon. With internal troubles unresolved, external threats had arrived. The two largest and most well-equipped safe zones—how much manpower and resources had been poured into building them? In less than half a day, they were gone. Many of the people who had moved into the safe zones early were relatives of key government officials. Casualties hadn't been tallied yet, but they were expected to be high.
"Really only two people came?" the highest leader repeated.
"Only two people," the secretary replied, handing over a freshly printed analysis report. "This attack should be a warning. They weren't aiming to kill."
"Bang!" A general beside him slammed the table. "With so many dead, this is just a warning?"
"The other party was able to cross such a long distance in a very short time. They possess excellent space items. Moreover, it's said that while they were in the safe zone, our space items were restricted and unusable. The expert team believes they have the ability to travel between various safe zones."
"Not far from the Orchid Safe Zone is the Jiwei Safe Zone, which borders a mutant base. The intruder didn't choose that location."
The so-called mutant base was actually a group of mutated humans being raised by Country Y. There were quite a few of them. Due to frequent experiments, many had fallen into a berserk state. The mutant poison used in the black rain was extracted from them. If the intruder had destroyed the Jiwei Safe Zone, nearby cities would have soon fallen. The death toll would have been incalculable, far exceeding those crushed or buried by collapsed buildings.
"This is our country's classified information. There's no way the other party could know!" the general refused to believe.
The secretary pulled out another document. "This is information our people retrieved from the Vanguard Forum. The poster did receive an encrypted list of our country's secret sites, with the Jiwei Safe Zone and the mutant base clearly marked."
"The intruder chose the Orchid Safe Zone with a purpose."
"Additionally, the hacker who provided us with this information went offline after posting the list."
Most of the participants in the meeting were furious. To them, this wasn't mercy—it was a threat, a provocation!
The proposal for a declaration of war was brought up again.
Others opposed it, arguing that they couldn't even handle their own problems, let alone go to war. They might end up losing everything.
The meeting room erupted into chaos. Just then, Nix's communication line connected. He asked directly, "Was the black rain incident in Jing City our doing?"
The room fell silent. Both inside and outside the video feed, everyone looked at the highest leader at the head of the table. His expression and silence said it all.
"This is their warning," Nix said after a long pause. "If there's a first time, there will be a second. Even if we have high-level items, we can't defend against it. Safe zones made of metal aren't reliable. We need to think of other measures."
The highest leader assigned this task to him. By "other measures," he meant either buying information in the game or purchasing corresponding items from Artificers.
But it's hard to find a second item of the same kind. The best solution was to find a material that could replace the current metal—items might not be able to destroy all metals.
The hope still lay in the game.
Country Y didn't hold a reflection meeting. After a brief argument, the declaration of war against Country X was temporarily shelved. The more important thing was to plug the loopholes.
However, even if they didn't take it seriously, the people of Country Y were stirred up with resistance. If the safe zones they built could turn into shoddy projects, how could they trust such a government?
Thus, after the rescue work in the two locations was completed, the Country Y government had to rush to deal with domestic protests and riots. In short, times were tough.
No one was happier than the people of Country X. When the foreign players had shown up during the attack on the Special Defense Department headquarters, and especially after the subsequent rescue reports were released, the nation's hatred for Country Y had reached its peak. Out of nowhere, two of Country Y's safe zones collapsed, and the internet was celebrating like it was New Year's.
"Good deeds are rewarded with good, and evil deeds with evil. I love how quickly karma strikes!"
"I heard their safe zones were quite luxurious. All show and no substance, worse than the mud pies my kid makes!"
"Country Y was so happy watching our drama before. Now I'm laughing too!"
...
There were many gloating and joking comments, but they were soon drowned out by analysis reports from civilian experts. One report mentioned that this incident was likely the work of Country X players, and based on information relayed by foreign friends, it gave a very interesting conclusion:
The methods were ruthless but left some leeway—a classic Country X style!
However, the information was too brief and unconfirmed. To protect their own country's players, only a small number of people on the internet hyped up this report. That was until the people of Country Y reacted and started attacking.
The Country Y government also produced photos of Xu Huo entering the safe zone and publicly questioned the Special Defense Department. But the Special Defense Department didn't take the bait. After all, they hadn't admitted to the Country Y people caught during the black rain incident, so how could they claim that the attackers on the safe zone were from Country X? Maybe some people deliberately disguised themselves to stir up tensions between the two countries?
(Chapter End)