Chapter 929: Truth or Fiction of the Story
"Such a long artificial river couldn't possibly be entirely controlled by W37," Kuang Wenjun said. "Besides, this river is a certain distance from the base city and has no direct waterway leading into the city. Apart from making entry and exit more difficult, it seems to serve no other purpose."
"Looking at it this way, W37 is clearly isolating itself." Zhu Feiyun paused for a moment, then added, "No wonder W37's reputation isn't great among other base cities."
"Reputation?" Shangguan Xi looked at him. "Did you come from a populated base city?"
Zhu Feiyun hesitated briefly. "You could say there are people there, but it's an abandoned base city. Most of the people gathered there now either escaped or were abandoned by other base cities, along with some who lack the ability to return to their own base cities."
"That kind of place isn't exactly a good one either." Shangguan Xi said meaningfully, "Can the information there be reliable?"
"Whether it's true or false, let's just listen for now." Zhu Feiyun's youthful-looking face carried a hint of gossipy interest. "I heard that the mayor of W37 was originally the wife of a mayor from another base city. Later, when the epidemic broke out, her husband fled with her toward a nearby base city. But that base city had a long-standing grudge against them. Although they were let in, the ruler of that base city wanted to humiliate his old enemy. He publicly raped the mayor's wife... It's said that some of the onlookers also participated. The mayor, of course, had no choice but to swallow this humiliation and even voluntarily handed his wife over."
"It's also said that the mayor's wife's family originally had some influence. She herself couldn't have been completely naive. After maneuvering among the men who toyed with her, she escaped with a few loyal subordinates. She tried to seek refuge with her family, but unexpectedly, her family despised her past and even intended to use her to exchange for power and resources."
"Later, this mayor's wife used her beauty to win over an important figure in her family's base city, incited internal strife, and fled with a large number of citizens. She then went to W37, seduced the old mayor, used the people she brought with her to seize power, and successfully took over."
"She is looked down upon by other base cities, yet at the same time, she is the object of desire for every man here."
After hearing his story, Kuang Wenjun's expression turned unpleasant. "Whenever a woman holds power, men always fantasize about how many people she's slept with."
Zhu Feiyun shook his head, however. "I have no disrespect for this female mayor. On the contrary, I admire her. Turning the tables in a desperate situation—that's not something an ordinary person could do."
"This story sounds a bit fake," Shangguan Xi said. "If she were an ordinary person, would players follow her? Without players, what could she accomplish? If she were a player, the experiences you described would basically be impossible. If something like that really happened, she might as well just escape into the game directly."
"Maybe others threatened her with her husband and family's lives," Zhu Feiyun said. "She might have had children."
"So when she finally escaped, were her children dead, or had she been abused enough to realize her husband had no true feelings for her?" Shangguan Xi raised an eyebrow. "As I said before, if she had the ability to run, she would have run from the start. In the story you told, her family treated her poorly, so they definitely wouldn't have secretly helped her. The people who would help her would have been the ones willing to help her from the very beginning."
"Those who helped her out of sympathy definitely wouldn't exceed three people."
The overall environment of W37 base station was abnormal, so don't expect many normal people there. To kill someone, you wouldn't even need to go to great lengths—just exile them outside the base city. After experiencing unspeakable despair, anyone would submit.
"The details might be fabricated, but the general situation shouldn't be far off," Zhu Feiyun said. "The information I bought did mention that the authority of W37 base city was abnormally transferred into the hands of the female mayor."
"Teacher Ai fled to W18 around the time the epidemic broke out. He had already learned that this female mayor was planning to build an artificial river." Xu Huo interjected lightly.
"Your story is completely unreliable." Pan Qiao had been listening with interest earlier.
"But it might not be entirely false either," Xu Huo added. "If you split the protagonist of the story into two people, the first half's experiences belong to the previous female mayor of W37, while the one who took over power and built the artificial river is the second female mayor."
"Changing the escape due to the epidemic to an outbreak of an alien species tide... that sounds much more realistic."
"That's true." Zhu Feiyun pondered for a moment. "With a longer time span, it's also possible for the female mayor to go from being an ordinary person to a player."
"If that's the case, then anyone in power at W37 base city must deeply despise people from other base cities," Pan Qiao said. "Can the living samples from W11 be transported there?"
"Our mission is only to deliver the living samples. How they're handled afterward is not our concern," Kuang Wenjun said. "At the very least, we need to get the samples into the city."
"We might not be able to cross that river," Teacher Ai said. "The large bridge over the river must be guarded. We could try to go around from another place, but I'm worried we won't have enough energy."
"I'll check the forum to see if I can buy some," Shangguan Xi said.
"No need to take a detour," Xu Huo said. "We'll take the shortest route. If we can only cross the bridge, W37 base city will naturally send people to negotiate."
While they were chatting, the off-road vehicle was already usable. However, the last carriage was gone, leaving only the front and middle sections. Fitting six people and a cage would be a bit cramped.
They also allocated seats based on combat capability. Xu Huo and Kuang Wenjun sat in the front passenger seats, the other three sat in the back, and Shangguan Xi and Pan Qiao were responsible for watching the cage.
The group soon set off. With the map and Teacher Ai as a guide, they avoided some dangerous places along the way. Nevertheless, they still encountered plenty of trouble. First, there were the seemingly ubiquitous alien species. Whether in the woods or wastelands, there was no place where they hadn't built nests. Some areas looked like good roads, but the ground beneath had been hollowed out. These creatures—whether they should be called evolved or degenerated—even knew how to use the terrain's undulations to hide underground cavities.
It was impossible to completely bypass them. Along the way, Xu Huo killed several nests of alien species and found piles of human bones in their lairs—some old, some new. They even picked up a few items inside.
"How frustrating. Not dying at the hands of humans, but getting taken out by a bunch of alien species," Shangguan Xi remarked.
However, they soon encountered a similar problem. A herd of white bulls—whether migrating or startled into a stampede—came charging straight at the vehicle!
This was a true stampede of wild bulls. The evolved herd each had horns that looked like crystals, and their continuous bellows showed their current bad mood...
"Run, run, run!" Shangguan Xi leaned forward and shouted at Teacher Ai, "Step on it!"
(Chapter End)