Chapter 961: Bird Tower and the Pact
During the fight, Xu Huo's spiritual realm had already silently covered the Bird Tower. The vertical pupil descended from the top floor. On the sixth floor, there were two people. Although they hadn't come up, they were likely preparing to receive the woman. Further down on the third floor, there were four people, including Xiong Qing and Teacher Ai.
The two had clearly been severely beaten. Xiong Qing was covered in injuries and lying on the ground. Teacher Ai was slightly less injured, but that red-clothed player had forced him to his knees and was inserting a thin, long needle like an ox hair into the back of his head. As the needle advanced, Teacher Ai's expression visibly shifted from resistance and pain to numbness. In just a few seconds, he obediently knelt on the ground.
"Two cripples sure are troublesome," the red-clothed player said, slapping Teacher Ai across the face before stepping aside.
His companion was a man with a gloomy expression, who frowned impatiently at the remark. "Get down to business. Don't waste time."
"W37 is about to descend into chaos anyway. There's plenty of time," the red-clothed player said with a laugh. "I didn't expect to catch a show like this when I came here. Saves us the trouble of doing it ourselves."
The gloomy man seemed annoyed by the chatter and gestured with his chin toward Teacher Ai. "This guy most likely knows how to use the Bird Tower. Check his background. He might even be from the Base City."
The red-clothed player took out a handheld device and casually jabbed the needle at the connection point into Teacher Ai's body. The device screen immediately displayed genetic analysis data. Half a minute later, the interface showed that Teacher Ai's genetic data existed in the database, and a side panel on the screen popped up with an ID card.
"Damn, we've caught a big fish. This guy is Luo Changren!"
The gloomy man's expression turned serious. He stepped forward to verify the information and then felt Teacher Ai's face. "I thought he was killed long ago. Never expected he'd gotten plastic surgery, changed his identity, and fled to the W37 Base City."
"The SE virus was brought back by this old bastard," the red-clothed player said, puzzled. "The Bird Tower was originally built to deploy the antidote vaccine. What's he doing here? Could he still have the SE virus? Wasn't all the virus sample destroyed back then?"
The gloomy man gave him a rather speechless look. "If it had all been destroyed, where did the original sample in your hands come from? Back when 01 Base City was under siege, the original sample probably fell into the hands of different base cities. The current chaos in W37 is proof of that."
The red-clothed player rubbed his chin. "Makes sense. Since Luo Changren managed to escape, it's plausible he still has the original SE virus sample. Anyway, he's done our job for us. Let's just kill him and report back. These past few days in W37 have been suffocating. Every day I have to listen to that old woman prattle on about swearing by time, swearing by time, and watching a bunch of players swarm around her like worker bees makes me sick. The base government and the Enforcement Team all act so righteous on the surface, but it turns out these people love crawling up that old woman's skirt!"
The gloomy man seemed accustomed to his "simple-mindedness" and automatically ignored the latter half of his rant. "The SE virus doesn't need the Bird Tower to spread. The Bird Tower's function is to cover at least one base city with the antidote vaccine. Now that the Bird Towers in other base cities have been mostly dismantled, Luo Changren coming here means he has the antidote vaccine for SE."
"Wake him up and find out where the antidote vaccine is."
With that, he stepped back. The red-clothed player cracked his knuckles, walked over to Teacher Ai—Luo Changren—and gently flicked the steel needle at the back of his head. Luo Changren's eyes cleared slightly, but he wasn't fully awake, like someone just roused from sleep.
The red-clothed player didn't directly ask about the antidote vaccine. Instead, he first questioned him several times about his identity.
The first three times, Luo Changren insisted his surname was Ai, that he came from the W19 Base, and that his former profession was an engineer. Only on the fifth attempt did he painfully utter the name Luo Changren.
The red-clothed player was quite pleased with his technique and grinned as he continued, "How did you escape from 01 Base City back then?"
"Gao Zhen... let me go..."
"Gao Zhen?" The red-clothed player had no memory of that name and pressed further, "Who is Gao Zhen?"
"The mayor of W37 Base City."
The red-clothed player sneered disdainfully. "What's your relationship with her?"
"No relationship..." Luo Changren said haltingly. "I promised her... I would bring the SE gene virus vaccine back to W37..."
"So you do have the antidote vaccine for the SE virus?"
This time, Luo Changren didn't answer. After waiting two seconds, the red-clothed player asked again, "Did you sleep with that old woman... Gao Zhen?"
The gloomy man frowned, but the red-clothed player just grinned at him before turning back to Luo Changren. "Is Gao Zhen any good in bed?"
Luo Changren's expression twisted. "I don't know..."
"Figures. After all, Gao Zhen is the mayor of a base city. She can't just drag every man into bed," the red-clothed player joked without any bottom line, mocking the female mayor. "If she were twenty years younger, I'd definitely pay her a visit and learn a thing or two!"
He laughed to himself for a while, then turned to see the gloomy man staring at him expressionlessly. He suppressed his smile. "Working with you is no fun."
"Stop asking useless questions," the gloomy man said. "Since neither of them went to find the female mayor, nor are they carrying the vaccine, they likely have other helpers. Find out who and when they're meeting."
The red-clothed player nodded and questioned accordingly, but whenever the vaccine was mentioned, Luo Changren fell silent and grew intensely resistant. After two more questions, he began sweating profusely and convulsing.
The red-clothed player had to pull the needle out a bit. "His mental defenses are strong. Probably won't get anything out of him."
The gloomy man nodded. "Then ask him directly. For the sake of his companion's life, I believe he'll loosen up."
"Makes sense." The red-clothed player smiled, pulled the needle out completely, and slapped Luo Changren hard twice to wake him up before spitting on him. "A scumbag like you still has the nerve to live? I've seen more people in my life than you've killed!"
Luo Changren's eyes opened slightly but quickly calmed down. "Just do it."
"Killing you like this would be too easy," the red-clothed player said, grabbing him by the collar. "I'm curious. Since Gao Zhen let you go because of the vaccine, why don't you go find her now that you have it? Instead, you're sneaking around to the Bird Tower."
Luo Changren showed no emotion. "I won't say anything. Kill me. I've caused so many deaths. I should have died long ago to atone for my sins."
"Wanting to die isn't that easy!" The red-clothed player threw him back to the ground and said to the gloomy man, "You give it a try."
The gloomy man paced over to Luo Changren, crouched down, and looked at him. "You have the vaccine, don't you? Since you think your own life doesn't matter, at least consider your companion's life."
"Hand over the vaccine, and I'll let him go."
(Chapter End)