Chapter 2507: Chapter 2507: The People Living Underground
Xu Huo glanced at the man. "The person the Mi Family was looking for earlier was you?"
The buzz-cut man chuckled. "Once you spell it out, it’s no fun anymore. I’m heading off."
Xu Huo didn’t stop him. After the man left, he contacted the Girl in the painting and Bubble Bean separately.
The Girl in the painting hadn’t replied yet, but Bubble Bean had a bit of a lead.
Turns out when the Wan Family incident happened, there were actually a few eyewitnesses—Players who just happened to be nearby. Some were from this district, some from the Outer Zone. Leaving the Outer Zone Players aside for now, the fact that the local Players didn’t react at the time was really strange.
"Word is the Players who went there weren’t just the ones who entered the Wan Family’s place." Bubble Bean took a sip of water and continued, "There were a few Players keeping lookout outside, specifically to watch those people. No one knows if they used a Prop or some other device, but those few Players who noticed something was wrong with the Wan Family lost their minds on the spot. By the time they came back to themselves, the Wan Family had already been slaughtered."
"These guys don’t even know how they got hit."
"Those eyewitnesses have already been taken away by the military. This incident is pretty nasty in terms of impact. I’m guessing it won’t be long before it blows up on the Collection of Information Terminal."
Bubble Bean let out a mocking laugh as he spoke. "Once the news that the Wan Family was attacked gets out, public opinion’s probably going to flip overnight. That Valen showing up will instantly turn into ’giving up his future for old friendships’—a peerless good guy."
The longer it dragged on, the less safe it was for the Wan Family, because no matter which side was behind this, once the election results came out, they’d basically have no use for them anymore.
Just as Xu Huo was about to make a trip to the Mi Family, the Girl in the painting came back. She excitedly told Xu Huo that someone knew what had happened to the Wan Family.
He hadn’t expected her little trip out to net something like this. Xu Huo pressed her for details.
The Girl in the painting was vague. The gist was that she’d found a Player underground—someone who’d been hiding under the Wan Family’s place for who knows how long. The moment the two met, they started fighting. The Girl in the painting didn’t say a word, and the frightened Player freaked out. He was convinced she was a killer sent by the kidnappers, went all out to fight her to the death, just to end things quickly.
"Is he dead?" Xu Huo asked.
"Nope. I beat him up and tied him up." The Girl in the painting said it as if it were obvious. "If I beat him to death, how’s he supposed to talk?"
The three of them were heading over to see that Player when Bubble Bean asked the question that came from his soul: "Why were you in the sewers in the first place?"
Normally, no sane person would go wandering into the sewers. Especially in a partition like District 001—the sewers here were carefully built. They’d never leave Players a loophole. Most sewer routes were impassable for people, and to make maintenance easier there were alarm systems. Plus, many of the pipes were isolated from each other, to keep things from going sideways and letting someone take out the whole system in one go...
So why had She gone underground?
"None of your damn business!" The Girl in the painting was annoyed by the question and glared at him viciously.
Bubble Bean choked, turned his head away. "Honestly, I’m not too keen on crawling through sewers."
Unexpectedly, the Girl in the painting took them to a small park quite a distance from where the Wan Family lived, and crawled in through a drainage pipe at the park.
The pipes on the park side were larger but separate from the city’s main system. After they went deeper underground, though, an opening appeared in the side of the pipe. You could tell it was dug out by hand—pretty rough, but big enough for one person to get through.
This pipe ran very deep underground, straight from the park to the space under the Wan Family’s place. For whatever reason, the closer they got to the Wan Family, the wider the pipe became, and it visibly got more "luxurious." The dirt-and-stone walls had patterns carved into them, and in some places there were even fresh flowers stuck in. Of course, some of them had already withered. Judging from the mud vases holding the flowers, this pipe had been here for quite a while, and whoever dug it had been living here for some time.
"Is he insane?" Bubble Bean couldn’t figure it out. What kind of Player would do something like this?
Judging by the distance, they were about under the Wan Family’s residence when the pipe widened out into a small room—a one-bedroom unit, with a bed and a fridge, and even a fake window.
Looking at the person slumped asleep on the chair, Xu Huo and Bubble Bean’s expressions were hard to describe.
"See? Anywhere people live, there’s room to exploit the system." Bubble Bean said, injecting Muscle Relaxant into the person’s hands and feet as he spoke. "Look at this place. Up above the Wan Family’s house they’ve practically dug three feet into the ground, using every detection Prop and device they’ve got. Who would’ve thought there’s a rat living right under their feet?"
"Hey, wake up!"
After finishing the injection, Bubble Bean patted the man’s face.
The Player had been roughed up pretty badly by the Girl in the painting—his body was covered in wounds, and his face was so Bi Qinglian you could barely make out his features. He was missing two front teeth when he opened his mouth. He opened his eyes, saw Xu Huo and Bubble Bean, and immediately sobered up. He struggled, couldn’t move, and snapped, "If you’ve got the guts, kill me!"
Bubble Bean blocked Xu Huo and jumped in first. "I’ve had a question burning in me. Let me ask first."
He didn’t wait for a response before adding, "With your skill at tunneling through sewers, you wouldn’t have trouble finding a job in another zone. Why the hell are you living underground?"
The Bi Qinglian man stubbornly rolled his eyes up at him. "What’s it to you?"
Bubble Bean gave a dry chuckle. "Don’t want to talk? Then let’s use a little medicine. Super-strong Truth Serum. One shot and you’ll even remember nursing at your mom’s breast..."
"Don’t mess around! I’m allergic to Truth Serum, it really could kill me!" Bi Qinglian shouted in a panic.
Bubble Bean held him down. "Relax. Mine has no side effects."
"If you’ve got questions, just ask! If you don’t ask and jab me with drugs, how do you know I won’t cooperate!" Bi Qinglian demanded furiously. "Do I look like someone who can keep his mouth shut?"
The three of them were speechless for a moment. But considering even the Girl in the painting had gotten something out of him, this guy clearly had both low intelligence and not-so-tough bones as his Characteristics.
"Then answer the question just now first," Bubble Bean said.
"Cut it out," Xu Huo interrupted him, pushing him aside. He stood in front of Bi Qinglian and asked, "What happened to the Wan Family?"
Bi Qinglian sized them up. "Who are you people, and why are you tracking the Wan Family’s whereabouts?"
"Am I asking you, or are you asking me?" Xu Huo pulled a Dagger out of thin air and lightly sliced the man’s wrist. "How about we play timed Q&A? If you manage to tell me what I want to know before you bleed out, I’ll spare your life. How’s that sound?"
Seeing the blood start to flow, Bi Qinglian panicked and yelled, "I’ll talk! I’ll talk!"
"I installed a micro-monitor in the Wan Family’s place. The monitor happened to capture footage of the Wan Family being taken away! If you want to see it, go grab it over there—it’s behind that Shitou that can interfere with device signals."
Bubble Bean rummaged around by the fake window, then took out a storage unit. He slotted it into a dedicated reader, and its contents were immediately projected into the air.
The first thing they saw was a young girl in pajamas walking toward the camera.
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