Chapter 97: Be careful; he’s very lecherous.
This piece of news was both unexpected and anticipated.
“Self-immolation…” Noah sat on the cabinet, swinging her legs. “Isn’t this also a cult? Otherwise, why would they choose to burn themselves to death in public?”
Indeed, An Wujiu thought, with such a sudden incident, there were hardly any other possibilities.
But in just these two days, the frequency of occurrences involving cults and religions had been uncomfortably high.
And this was in the real world.
“Have you noticed?” Zhong Yirou said, frowning slightly, “There seem to be more and more events related to religion happening around us. Not just in the game, but in the real world as well.”
Yang Erci seemed to have anticipated this. She wasn’t particularly surprised by such news.
“Just from the name alone, ‘Holy Altar’ carries a strong religious connotation.”
Shen Ti sat on the carpet, legs crossed, one hand propping up his chin while the other drew something on the carpet.
An Wujiu spoke, “I’ve always been curious, what is the government’s stance on Holy Altar? So many people have died in the game already, hasn’t the government intervened?”
Yang Erci’s face grew solemn, “When we first entered Holy Altar, no one expected it would lead to death. Even the government probably thought it was just a simple virtual reality game. But later, when the first person was eliminated, players began to panic en masse.”
She had experienced that chaos herself.
“Everyone wanted to escape, not wait to die in the game. Although the federal government now has little real power and can’t compete with those multinational corporations, they still sent troops to protect players who wanted to escape and urged others to leave the game, promising to protect them.”
An Wujiu had already anticipated the outcome.
Shen Ti looked up at Yang Erci, her gaze dimmed.
“Because the Holy Altar development team is anonymous and not under any major corporation, their mercenaries presumably wouldn’t harm players, so the players who escaped thought that with the army’s protection, they could successfully break free from Holy Altar’s control.”
“But it wasn’t like that.” She looked up at An Wujiu, who was standing straight, “The army watched them die, every single one.”
Noah hadn’t experienced that escape attempt and curiously asked, “How did they die?”
Yang Erci explained simply, “After entering Holy Altar, the game pods automatically installed a Holy Altar neural interface for each of us. Besides basic virtual reality experiences and various sensory functions, there was also a self-destruct device.”
Everyone understood instantly.
Zhong Yirou felt uncomfortable all over. She didn’t empathize with the players present but rather with the soldiers who thought they could save them. They must have felt utterly desperate at that moment.
“So after that, the government didn’t dare intervene anymore.”
Yang Erci shook her head, “I heard from someone I know that the government is still investigating. They formed a secret task force, with several researchers responsible for uncovering the organization behind Holy Altar. But whether this is true and who these researchers are, I don’t know.”
Although An Wujiu had already considered Yang Erci a teammate, he always felt she was hiding something.
Someone like her, leaving her position as a research expert at Sha Wen Corporation to enter Holy Altar for combat, was very unreasonable. She neither needed money nor social status, and the two main reasons for entering Holy Altar didn’t apply to her.
So there was only a third possibility—she was seeking something in Holy Altar, perhaps a person or the truth.
Until just now, An Wujiu couldn’t fathom her purpose; he only knew she had extensive connections.
What Yang Erci described—the massacre of players trying to escape Holy Altar—wasn’t something an ordinary player could know, at least not witness firsthand.
After all, non-offending players would have returned to the game pods and entered the next round of the game by then.
So she could only have heard it from someone present. This wasn’t a routine operation, not something any random bystander could witness, so the informant must have been someone from the government forces, possibly a high-ranking officer.
Yang Erci’s identity was extraordinary. An Wujiu understood why she wouldn’t reveal everything, as in Holy Altar, superficial friendships could be dangerous.
But just now, when she mentioned the secret task force, An Wujiu finally understood.
Yang Erci likely entered Holy Altar because of this task force. She was either a member of the secret task force or diving deep into the game to uncover the truth about the organization behind Holy Altar.
Or she was searching for someone, possibly a member of the task force.
An Wujiu’s speculation was almost instinctive, and when he reached his conclusion, he felt a chill, not for Yang Erci but for himself.
He belatedly realized how deeply he was calculating, which frightened him.
He really was close to merging.
After learning that the Holy Altar was completely beyond government control, everyone felt a sense of sadness. The only lifeline they had hoped for seemed to have perished, and after today’s news, even that lifeline itself seemed precarious.
Yang Erci didn’t delve further into the topic, and An Wujiu didn’t plan to expose it or ask more questions.
He knew that when Yang Erci truly trusted them, she would speak up on her own.
There was a knock on the door. Yang Erci checked the face through the electronic butler and told everyone, “It’s Wu You.”
Noah seemed to like opening doors, jumping off the cabinet first and running to open it.
Zhong Yirou called after her, “You can let the butler system open the door.”
“Yo,” Shen Ti, who hadn’t said a word, propped his hands behind him, still sitting cross-legged on the floor, and said provocatively, “You know the functions of someone else’s butler system so well.”
Zhong Yirou almost couldn’t resist knocking him on the head and saying, “Stop being so snarky.”
Shen Ti immediately lunged at An Wujiu, standing properly behind him, hugging his leg, “Wujiu, she’s bullying me.”
An Wujiu pretended to be unmoved, “Then bully her back.”
Shen Ti sighed, “Even my wife doesn’t help me. Oh, how bitter.”
An Wujiu reacted as if poked, stepping back and saying, “What nonsense are you talking about? Don’t call me that.”
Wu You had just stepped into the door and heard Shen Ti’s words. He wanted to take back his foot.
What kind of fate constantly puts him at Shen Ti’s mercy?
Yang Erci got up from the sofa and greeted Wu You. Knowing they were going to the black market, she called on him, who was relatively familiar with it.
An Wujiu remembered Gabriel’s matter and greeted Zhong Yirou, giving her Gabriel’s contact information.
Zhong Yirou was a straightforward person. As soon as she heard the other party was a wealthy upstart, she nodded eagerly like pounding garlic and accepted the contact information.
“But there’s one thing to be careful about,” An Wujiu remembered and added, “He’s very lecherous.”
Yang Erci, who had been talking to Wu You, looked over at them, but Zhong Yirou didn’t notice and instead asked An Wujiu, “Did he hit on you?”
“No.” An Wujiu felt exasperated by her train of thought. “He’s a straight guy.”
Zhong Yirou immediately let out a long “oh.” “No wonder Shen Ti didn’t mind and let you go so many times.”
Sitting on the floor, Shen Ti politely retorted, “I don’t mind, but someone else does. Be more mindful, Rou Rou.”
Zhong Yirou almost felt like throwing up at him.
At that moment, An Wujiu realized that, despite her always pretending to be flirtatious, she was actually very insensitive, even clueless, about matters of affection.
What a stark contrast!
Wu You came over to An Wujiu and said, “Let’s log in first and see if we can find what you need on the black market network.”
An Wujiu agreed.
Wu You logged in with his main computer, using a virtual IP, entered his account and password, and accessed a heavily encrypted network, which he referred to as the “black market.”
But when the site opened, An Wujiu realized it wasn’t like a typical shopping or second-hand trading site. They didn’t list items but rather resembled a social network, a community.
Wu You clicked on someone he followed and browsed through their latest post.
Yang Erci, observing from the side, noticed that the person had only posted a picture of a bag of chips without any text.
But when Wu You clicked in, he found that comments were disabled.
“No good,” Wu You looked at An Wujiu and said, “It’s already sold.”
“Is this the citizen chip?” Yang Erci asked.
“Yes,” Wu You explained to her, “Chips is the same word as ‘chip’ in English, so many sellers use it as code.”
In addition to citizen chips, organs, prosthetics, untested illegal gene drugs, and illegal weapons, including live humans, could all be traded here. Clearly, everything sold on this site was illegal and infringed on the interests of those big corporations, so all the sellers here were extremely cautious.
The site did not provide a way to privately chat with sellers to avoid government tracking. Therefore, sellers could only post, and buyers could leave their contact information in the comments, which only the poster could see, and then the seller would either mail the item or meet in person.
“Is it hard to buy chips?” An Wujiu asked.
“Yes, control is getting tighter and tighter now.”
The only source for the transaction was cut off, leaving Wu You somewhat disappointed. He had traded with this seller before, but because he was about to enter the Holy Altar at that time, the transaction failed, and he didn’t have the seller’s contact information.
“Usually, sellers like this wouldn’t have just one, but we might not be able to contact him,” Wu You said.
“Why?” Shen Ti stood up, stretching, “If he’s posted before, shouldn’t we be able to trace his IP?”
“People here use virtual IPs,” Wu You smirked, “No one would be so stupid as to use their real IP. Besides, the site has multiple layers of protection. Even the virtual IPs are fake. The average person can’t trace them unless they’re a very skilled hacker.”
Shen Ti cleared his throat, “Believe it or not, I do have a bit of hacking skill.”
Wu You gave him a skeptical look, “You’re full of it.”
An Wujiu almost laughed. He turned to Shen Ti and asked, “Really?”
Shen Ti shrugged, “I’ll give it a try.”
With that, he borrowed Yang Erci’s studio and Wu You’s computer and started writing code.
Wu You initially thought he was bragging and just wanted to see him fail, but unexpectedly, Shen Ti wasn’t lying this time.
It didn’t take long before Wu You’s computer began displaying all possible virtual IPs, automatically filtering through them.
“Seriously, how do you know this stuff?” Wu You frowned.
“I learned it,” Shen Ti said, cracking his knuckles, “In the game before last, one of the players was a hacker.”
Yang Erci asked, “Teammate?”
Shen Ti shook his head and said, “Opponent.”
Wu You didn’t believe it, “You’re lying!”
“Believe what you want.”
Shen Ti’s smug expression made Wu You even more annoyed.
In about two or three minutes, the program Shen Ti wrote identified two possible IP addresses, and these two IPs were located in the same city.
After the success, Shen Ti checked the time, then grabbed An Wujiu’s hand and shook it twice.
“Shall we go find them?”
________________
Author’s Note:
Wu You: Show off; you just have to show off.
poor wu you…