Chapter 781: The Painter Jiang Jiang
(To be revised later) There were three options available for merging, and he selected the "Survival Chance" and the newly acquired C-grade item "Aim Assist," because combining these two could exchange for a special item.
After selecting them, the exchanged item quickly appeared in the item slot:
[Ant Nest Marker: A small body contains great power. As insects that have brought endless trouble to dam maintenance workers throughout history, after several evolutions, they developed the ability to bore holes in various materials. With the repeated upgrades of construction materials, ants finally achieved a qualitative leap, gaining a new ability to easily identify weak points in any whole structure.]
[Artificers drew inspiration from these tiny insects, and thus the Ant Nest Marker was successfully born. Using it, you can mark a relatively weak area within a confined space, and no matter whether that location changes or is disguised, the mark will never disappear. However, whether you can successfully escape from this marked point depends on the player's own ability.]
This item was quite cost-effective. Although "Survival Chance" could specifically determine the numerical value of escape, testing it one by one was too troublesome. "Ant Nest Marker" was much simpler and more intuitive, and no matter how the position changed, the mark would not disappear. The numerical value was not that important, because if you were trapped in a place with no way out, the high or low value didn't mean much—there was only this one path anyway.
Closing the game panel, Xu Huo logged into the network platform to check messages.
One of the two hired detectives had replied. The boy among the two children who had emigrated abroad, along with his parents, had died—swept away by a tsunami five years ago, their bodies never found, officially declared dead.
After transferring the remaining payment, Xu Huo cleaned up his online traces and left the immigration office.
An empty house was more noticeable, as there were many wandering players looking for places to stay.
After leaving the immigration office, he found a hotel in a relatively safe area.
Unexpectedly, while checking in, he ran into Ye Yingdong again, who was resting in the lobby with his sister and a few other players.
Xu Huo nodded in acknowledgment from a distance and overheard from the conversations around him that this hotel was owned by a player organization. A third of the security guards had been replaced with players, so many politicians and wealthy individuals were willing to pay high prices to stay here. However, some rooms were still reserved specifically for players.
Having not rested properly for several days, Xu Huo took a shower first before having the hotel deliver food to his room.
A bottle of wine was also included on the meal cart.
"I didn't order wine."
"This is a complimentary gift from the hotel," the waiter said with a polite smile. "It's a special wine infused with a self-healing agent. The taste and effects are quite good. Every player staying at the hotel can enjoy it for free."
Xu Huo wasn't very interested and told him to leave the items and go.
He ate by the window, looking down at the street view below. The security near the hotel was surprisingly good, but it wasn't so pleasant farther away. In the distance, several plumes of thick smoke were rising into the sky, and the sounds of police sirens and warning alarms never stopped.
He also browsed the trending topics online. A large portion condemned the players who had come to District 009 but instead of entering instances, were looting and killing. Netizens called these people "Drifter Players."
"Drifter" originally referred to disaster victims displaced from their homes, a term without emotional color, but when applied to players, it was a blunt satire—meaning these players were essentially no different from "drifters." Although they were players, they had no fixed residence and no ability, so they could only wander around, bullying ordinary people for some benefits. Legitimate players were all out fighting in instances—this was the perfect time to find items right after instances had just opened.
This was just the first wave. The second wave was about to come out, and they would focus on grabbing items. Perhaps this time, many high-level items with pictures and evidence would flood in.
"I wonder if super items will appear..." Xu Huo paused slightly in his movements. If a high-level item appeared in District 009, the scene would definitely be more brutal than what had happened in District 014.
"Knock, knock, knock!" Someone knocked on the door.
*
Xu Huo opened the door wearing only a pair of shorts. Outside stood a beautiful young woman. Her gaze swept over him and quickly shifted away, her face slightly flushed as she looked at the room number beside the door. "Sorry, I got the wrong room."
At that moment, the door across the hall opened, and a man in a white suit walked out. "Jiang Jiang, you got the wrong place again."
The young woman chuckled softly, apologized to Xu Huo again, and then walked toward the opposite room. As she closed the door, she gave him a smile.
Ignoring the man's wary and slightly warning look, Xu Huo lingered at the doorway for two seconds.
The air in the corridor carried the woman's fragrance—subtle when face to face, but it crept into the nose after she had passed.
Looking at the door across the hall, Xu Huo showed a faint smile after three seconds, then closed the door and went to sleep.
Soon, he learned the identity of the people staying opposite.
That young man in the white suit was the youngest son of the wealthy Zhou family, a national tycoon. His name was Zhou Zhiyang. The Zhou family was hosting a banquet at the hotel tonight to entertain several high-ranking members of player organizations, and they had invited all hotel guests to attend.
The young woman who had gone to find Zhou Zhiyang was named Jiang Jiang, a well-known painter and the object of Zhou Zhiyang's pursuit.
According to the hotel staff, Jiang Jiang had come to see Zhou Zhiyang to discuss selling her paintings. Her agent had been caught in a player fight midway and died accidentally, so she had to handle this business herself.
Jiang Jiang was only in her early twenties. She had become famous when she was about fifteen, making her debut with watercolor paintings. Initially, her works were not well received, as most of them were not realistic landscapes but rather strange or whimsical scenes. It wasn't until an agent with a keen eye discovered the special value of her paintings.
This agent had once been a painter himself. After becoming a player, he suffered from high mental stress. After accidentally killing his girlfriend in a fit of loss of control, he was about to commit suicide when he stumbled upon Jiang Jiang's works. He claimed to have seen "the color of hope" in her paintings. Although he couldn't clearly explain what "the color of hope" was, through his efforts, Jiang Jiang's paintings found a market among players. Many players reported that when they couldn't bear the high pressure, looking at her paintings would calm them down.
When players became the mainstream of society, everything would serve them. Thus, wealthy tycoons spent fortunes buying Jiang Jiang's paintings to win over players. The Zhou family was one of them. Some players even became obsessed with her paintings and voluntarily provided her with protection—essentially a relay of bodyguards, because players had to enter instances. It was said that they had even made a schedule online.