This world would never lack people with brains.
Even in a dangerous and chaotic environment, such people could still keenly smell a business opportunity.
The fat man was one such person. Of course, he was not actually called Fatty. According to him, his name was Eugene, and he was an information merchant who made a living selling intelligence.
However, unlike an organized intelligence network like Black Rabbit, the fat man worked alone.
Along the way, he had mingled among various teams. If one were talking about all kinds of gossip and minor information, there was probably no one clearer than him.
But if he wanted to sell his information for a good price, he still had to find a suitable buyer.
And Wen Yuzhi and the others were the most suitable buyers in the fat man’s eyes.
“Why?”
At this moment, Wen Yuzhi and the others were sitting on a picnic blanket. This picnic blanket had also been brought back by Xi Heyan just now.
Strictly speaking, this safe zone was an open space beside the flower bed. There was nothing on it at all. If one wanted to rest, they could only lie on the ground or sit against the flower bed.
At a time like this, Wen Yuzhi was not that particular either. If he was tired, he would sit on the ground.
It was Xi Heyan who looked at the young man’s dirtied clothes in silence, then when he had gone to bring all the desserts back just now, he had also brought along a picnic blanket.
Looking across the entire safe zone, their corner could now be called the most comfortable and leisurely place.
While everyone else was fighting until blood flowed over supplies, they were sitting on a picnic blanket and enjoying delicious little cakes.
Hearing Wen Yuzhi’s question, the fat man swallowed the biscuit in his mouth. “I observed everyone here. Only you people are different.”
“Different how?” Wen Yuzhi felt that they did not seem to have shown anything particularly special.
But the fat man said, “Your goal is different.”
He had paid attention to all the teams present. Most people’s goal was to survive.
Of course, it was not that there was anything wrong with wanting to survive. But clearly, after those game rules appeared, they had forgotten that they were trapped here.
They followed the game’s requirements, obediently killed stray beasts, obtained supplies, and instinctively guarded against everyone. Even after entering the safe zone, they easily stepped right into the pit the game side had set for them.
They clearly had not realized that their actual identity was not players.
On the contrary, they were a group of victims trapped here.
Where in the world was there any logic in victims not thinking of a way to escape quickly, but instead obediently cooperating with the other side’s game?
The moment the game rules were announced, the fat man instantly saw through the essence of this so-called Hide-and-Seek game.
—They could not win.
When the power to formulate the rules of the game was in the hands of the other side, this game was destined to be unfair.
Unfortunately, many people had still failed to realize this.
Looking at the chaotic battle formed over there because of the fight for supplies, the fat man sighed.
“I know you’re also trying to find a way out. I can tell. Your team is very strong.”
A combination of a rich young master with a group of bodyguards would be eye-catching anywhere.
But the fat man had noticed that among all the teams, only Wen Yuzhi and the others had the cleanest clothes and the most relaxed, leisurely posture.
This kind of relaxation could not be faked. After coming here, everyone’s expressions were more or less tense, yet Wen Yuzhi and the others were in the mood to sit here and eat cake.
This showed that they were very strong. Strong enough that they did not need to be frightened and anxious like the other teams.
After seeing Xi Heyan alone knock down so many teams and bring the things back, the fat man became even more certain of this point.
More importantly, the atmosphere in Wen Yuzhi’s team was very harmonious. There was no contradiction or discord. Sometimes, this team even gave the fat man the feeling of a group of adults bringing a child along.
Especially when he saw that group of bodyguards protecting the young man in the middle, that feeling became even stronger.
All of the above were precisely the reasons the fat man chose Wen Yuzhi and the others.
“You’re not interested in supplies. With your strength, you also didn’t need to come to this safe zone, but you still came. I’m guessing you came to gather information, right?”
Wen Yuzhi did not deny it. Xi Heyan asked, “Then tell us what you know.”
Food. Weapons.
The supplies Wen Yuzhi and the others had found along the way were all placed in front of the fat man.
“Straightforward!” The smile on the fat man’s face immediately became much more sincere.
“You should have discovered chips in those stray beasts’ brains too, right?”
Xi Heyan nodded.
The fat man said, “This is a positioning and monitoring chip.”
“The other side can use this kind of chip to monitor these stray beasts’ data at any time.”
This was also why the moment they killed a stray beast here, the other side immediately knew and sent a supply pack over.
“Being able to make objects appear out of thin air—I’ll temporarily treat this ability as a special ability that crosses through space. The black holes that appeared earlier should also be a similar ability. But no matter what, this kind of ability can’t be used too far away from the target.”
If the distance was too far, the amount of...
“Wait.”
Wen Yuzhi suddenly interrupted the fat man.
The fat man froze.
He only saw Wen Yuzhi blink at him, then say, “All right. What were you saying?”
This? That?
The fat man was clearly a little unable to make sense of it.
Wen Yuzhi did not explain to him either. Just now, he had released his mental energy, forming something like a barrier that enclosed all of them. This inspiration had come from the safe zone.
Inside this circle, the contents of their conversation would not be heard by the outside world.
Wen Yuzhi did not know that their every move was being livestreamed. He had only done this out of caution.
The safe zone was currently a mixed crowd of all kinds. To be safe, it was better to be a little more careful.
After finishing this, Wen Yuzhi picked up another small cake again. As he ate, he said to the fat man, “You can continue.”
“........”
The fat man... The fat man stalled for a while before remembering what he had just been about to say.
“...So I think the people who created this game should be somewhere not far from us.”
The fat man even suspected that they might be inside here.
Here, they could monitor the stray beasts’ situation at any time, and they could also grasp the movements of survivors like them.
Moreover, the fat man felt that the people who had created this game were quite perverted.
And perverts often liked to admire the process of their crimes from somewhere close to the scene.
“Do you have any information? About their location.”
Wen Yuzhi could tell that the fat man had laid so much groundwork precisely for this moment.
The fat man opened his light-brain. Although the light-brain had no signal, he had already downloaded a map of this area in advance.
A miniature holographic model appeared before their eyes. Displayed on it were the streets where they were currently located.
“As far as I understand, when the incident happened, the stores on these streets were all operating normally. They couldn’t possibly stay in those places. The slightest abnormality would easily be discovered. But this building.”
The fat man tapped a building near Central Square.
“This building was recently acquired by a pharmaceutical company. Even more coincidentally, this pharmaceutical company once submitted an application to the port. They had a cargo ship carrying pharmaceutical raw materials that needed to dock at the port, and they requested the port’s approval.”
At the same time the fat man said this, the Alliance outside also noticed this pharmaceutical company.
They had investigated all the merchants and corporate entities inside, and discovered that only this pharmaceutical company was extremely suspicious. It was a newly established company.
And the cargo ship they had applied to have enter the port was also very suspicious. It was larger than an ordinary cargo ship, and its weight had nearly reached overload.
A newly opened company—did they need to purchase that many raw materials?
“Who was responsible for the approval back then?”
Raymond An questioned with a dark face.
However, the reply he received was that the specialist team responsible for the approval had already gone on vacation.
This further confirmed how suspicious this company was.
Raymond An immediately ordered, “Find them and bring them back at once!”
Although he said this, Raymond An, already aware of the other side’s methods, also knew in his heart that the team of specialists responsible for approving that cargo ship had probably long since been dealt with cleanly.
Inside the safe zone.
Wen Yuzhi and the others had already decided to go take a look at that building.
Just as they stood up, the glowing energy shield over the safe zone disappeared.
This truly caught all the survivors off guard.
They looked at the sky, where that layer of light shield had suddenly vanished, and were a little stunned for a moment.
Only after hearing the roars of stray beasts did the survivors realize that the safe zone originally had a time limit. Once the time was up, the energy shield protecting them would disappear.
“...Fuck! That’s way too much of a trap!”
“I knew no game operator had a conscience! But I didn’t expect the real-life ones to be even less human!”
“Stop dawdling and run! A huge group of stray beasts has gathered outside!”
With that sentence about stray beasts outside, the surrounding survivors abruptly came back to themselves as if waking from a dream.
They stopped fighting as well. One by one, they grabbed the supplies at hand and hurriedly ran.
“We should hurry and leave too.”
Wen Yuzhi and the others did not have much to bring, so they could directly travel light.
“Hey...! Since I can provide information, take me with you when you leave!”
The fat man hurriedly shouted anxiously from the side.
Seeing Wen Yuzhi nod, one Saint Clan royal guard stretched out a hand, grabbed the fat man by the back of his collar, then lifted him up and carried him away over his shoulder.
That posture was like carrying a sack of sand.
At first, the fat man still struggled a couple of times. But when he saw the stray beasts chasing up from behind, he instantly became obedient and did not dare move anymore.
He even kept cheering on the Saint Clan member carrying him, acting as part of the atmosphere team.
Wen Yuzhi and the others had to head toward Central Square.
There were not many survivors going this way.
Putting aside the fact that Central Square was the place where the stray beasts had first appeared and had the most stray beasts, the most important thing was that there were no supplies over there, only corpses all over the ground.
On top of that, the terrain was open, making it difficult to hide if one encountered stray beasts. Combining all these factors, survivors were more willing to stay on streets with abundant supplies and relatively fewer stray beasts.
These survivors were different from Wen Yuzhi and the others. In their subconscious, they were still only thinking that it would be enough to endure these three days.
There were still very few who, like Wen Yuzhi and the others, were willing to take risks.
And among this minority, that merfolk princess seemed to be included.
“Yo! Little cutie, we meet again!”
