Life Game In Other World
Chapter 1134: Attacker in the Wilderness (Vote for Monthly Ticket)

Chapter 1134: Chapter 1134: Attacker in the Wilderness (Vote for Monthly Ticket)

"Lokte, is he really serious?"

Within the spacious office, Hel’s brows were tightly furrowed as he looked toward He Ao, "He actually sent us a notice just like that, asking us to release people? Even in a normal case, the Mayor’s Mansion can’t directly order us to do so, can they?"

"He never thought we would release them in the first place, it’s just for show,"

He Ao casually placed the documents in his hand on the desk, then looked at Hel, "How are those two doing now?"

"As per your request, they have been placed in the detention rooms, which are among the most secure areas of our security defenses,"

Hel picked up a tablet, showing the surveillance footage to He Ao.

The screen was split in two, separately displaying the scenes inside two detention rooms; Weiken and Lambert, who had been put in white jail uniforms without pockets, sat idly on the pristine and empty beds, seemingly in a daze.

"Aren’t we going to interrogate them?"

Hel asked with a hint of confusion as he passed over the tablet screen.

The other high-level officials from the two financial groups had already started ’inquiring,’ yet these two with the highest status were merely brought to the detention rooms and left without further action.

"No need,"

He Ao shook his head, "Just let them stay like this for now; I’ll go to see them later."

"Understood."

Although Hel didn’t quite grasp what He Ao intended to do, he still nodded slightly.

As he spoke, he prepared to turn and leave.

At this moment, He Ao suddenly remembered something and quickly asked, "Right, wasn’t Borek previously in charge of an investigation in the wilderness? I’m going to see Weiken later; have him wait for me at the detention rooms."

"Sure,"

Hel nodded lightly, and then hesitated for a moment before asking quietly, "Is there something?"

He Ao looked up at him with a smile. These two had hardly known each other before, nor had they communicated much. Yet after this incident, their relationship seemed to have improved quite a bit.

A common danger and goal were rapidly closing the distance between this temporary small group.

Seeing He Ao’s smile, Hel realized he might have asked something a bit ’too much.’

He glanced at He Ao, looking slightly restrained and somewhat emotional.

If it were Queke sitting in this office, he would never dare to ask an extra question.

But now, this Mr. Suote was many times more powerful and dangerous than Queke, yet he could stand so close with ease, naturally asking these slightly ’offensive’ questions.

Watching Hel’s rapidly changing expression, He Ao laughed and casually said, "Haven’t the two financial groups’ caravans been often attacked by the Wilderness Wanderers recently? Borek seemed to have been involved in the related investigation; I’ll ask him about it."

Technically, issues in the wilderness are under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

He Ao had just flipped through the information on the cases of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and found that Queke had indeed sent people to investigate this case, but after starting the investigation with a few people, it seemed that for some reason it was abandoned.

It looked as though there had been some sort of ’communication’ with the two financial groups, and then the investigation was dropped.

And Borek was one of the initial investigators.

"Alright, I’ll get in touch with him right away."

Upon hearing what He Ao said, Hel immediately responded and then quickly turned and left the office.

He Ao slowly rose to his feet, casting a glance at the city behind that had already fallen into the night.

He draped the black jacket over his body and casually placed the two wristbands that were on the desk aside, meanwhile, he walked out of the office and raised the wristband to open an electronic report.

The two wristbands on the desk belonged to Weiken and Lambert.

Although after it was confirmed that they had been captured, the top echelons of the two major consortia quickly locked the access, including Weiken and Lambert, of all high-rank officials in Minte City, Eve still managed to collect and copy a lot of internal data from the two consortia in Minte City within a very short time of gaining access.

According to Federation laws, the Federal Bureau of Investigation can directly require the two consortia to provide this information, and they must not conceal it.

But going through normal procedures, the Federal Bureau of Investigation can hardly get this data.

And the report He Ao was now looking at was Eve’s compiled summary of this data.

Indeed, within it, there were ’joint investigative data’ regarding the attacked caravans, and, to be strict, these investigations were very meticulous, and the data was detailed, even figuring out which Wilderness Wanderer Camps outside Minte City might be related to the attackers.

However, these investigations only contained ’investigations’ on the attacked caravans and the attackers.

In these reports, the two major consortia were almost perfect victims, their caravans subjected to organized groups of Wilderness Wanderers, posing an extreme challenge to their ’security’ and ’profits’.

Therefore, they had to consider ’striking hard’, dealing heavy blows to the Wilderness Wanderers around Minte City.

This fits the stereotype of city residents towards Wilderness Wanderers: dangerous, barbaric, violent.

But He Ao was once a ’Leader of Wilderness Wanderers,’ and from the perspective of Wilderness Wanderers, they generally do not wish to provoke major consortia.

After all, for the major consortia that can deploy Mechas, fighter jets, and even Sky Behemoths, a small group of Wilderness Wanderers is nothing but a target for beyond-visual-range bombardments.

Moreover, among different Wilderness Wanderer camps and families, there are different operational regions and related regional and interest conflicts, making it hard for them to unite.

The equipment they can hold is also limited by various Federation restrictions, far inferior to regular armed forces.

Except for a small number of Wilderness Wanderer families that live by plundering and run after killing, no one would risk the fate of their entire family and camp to provoke the major consortia.

And those families that live by plundering typically strike once and move locations, rather than repeatedly attacking caravans in one area.

Looking at the investigations from the two major consortia, the Wilderness Wanderers attacking the caravans even appeared to have an organized scale, beyond what ordinary security forces could withstand, otherwise, there would be no need to resort to using Mercenary Corps.

That raises an interesting question.

These Wilderness Wanderers, banding together and risking being surrounded and killed by Mercenary Corps, what are they aiming to gain by attacking the two consortia?

And why not change locations, specifically targeting caravans near Minte City?

According to the investigations by the two consortia, there were even many Wilderness Wanderer Camps on the wilderness near Minte City that were connected to these ’attackers’, providing intelligence for the attackers.

Those barbaric Wilderness Wanderer families who live by plundering and roam everywhere are unlikely to get such a degree of ’support’.

This suggests that these ’attackers’ who attack the caravans may well be the Wilderness Wanderers originally from around Minte City.

Behind every anamoly, there is a high probability of some unknown ’reasons’.

The ’investigations’ from the two consortia deliberately avoided that deeper reason, just discussing the superficial issues.

This implies that they might be well aware of that ’deeper reason’, which is also why they do not want the Federal Bureau of Investigation to get involved.

Regrettably, the data Eve copied did not contain information regarding that deep reason.

This might be because Eve was focused on copying data related to the Cult that was more confidential, and there was no time to copy many additional redundant data, which thus got omitted.

Or it could be because that ’deeper reason’, like ’Packaged Meat’, is not supposed to appear in the overt data bank, but something that is ’implicitly’ accepted by everyone.

Lost in thought, He Ao had already taken the elevator, passed through the corridor, and arrived at the detention area.

In front of this area’s gate, there used to be a display light, but it is under maintenance now, resulting in insufficient lighting with the light casting crisscrossing shadows.

Red-haired Borek is already standing in this area, positioning himself in the bright light behind the shadows, making himself as conspicuous as possible. He looks at He Ao, "Mr. Suote, you were looking for me?"

Following a field mission with He Ao, his attitude has become noticeably better.

"I have some questions for Weiken,"

He Ao puts down his bracelet, turns to Borek with a smile and says, "Let’s go together."

"Is it about the Wilderness Wanderers attacking the mercantile convoys?"

Borek looks at He Ao, understanding the reason He Ao had sought him out from Hel, thereby sparing He Ao the need to explain again.

Walking in step with He Ao, after a brief hesitation, Borek speaks in a soft voice, "Mr. Suote, I believe this so-called ’mercantile convoy attack’ is actually a form of ’retaliation’ from the Wilderness Wanderers."

"Hmm?"

He Ao glances at him, "Why do you say that?"

"Based on our previous investigations,"

Borek has obviously prepared some words before meeting He Ao and speaks quickly,

"The ’attackers’, despite showing strong combat capabilities, did not massacre the convoys. Instead, they tried to minimize casualties among normal, non-combat personnel,

"At the same time, they only attack the convoys of the two major financial groups. There have never been similar ’attack reports’ involving other groups’ convoys or ordinary travelers.

"There have even been rumors of certain convoys encountering similar ’attacker’ groups in the wilderness and surviving an exotic beast encounter with the help of these ’attackers’.

"In the majority of ’attack cases’, these attackers tend to only loot the goods, but upon encountering certain ’special merchant squads’ of the two major financial groups, they would lose their reason, not even wanting the cargo, and proceed to pursue and kill the ’merchant squad’."

"Special merchant squads?"

He Ao looks at Borek, his gaze neither questioning nor probing but seemingly just asking a question following Borek’s statement.

"I don’t know what kind of merchant squads they are, but they must be key."

Borek doesn’t catch this fleeting expression, just shakes his head, "The two major financial groups refused to provide us with more information, and not long after, the investigation team was disbanded."

"Do you think these ’special merchant squads’ are the reason for the ’attackers’ targeting the financial groups’ convoys?"

He Ao stops in front of a solitary confinement room, asking casually.

"At least one of the reasons."

Borek nods, looking at He Ao with a glint of anticipation as he continues.

He Ao glances at him, nods slightly, and pushes open the door of the solitary confinement room.

The Elderly sitting inside the solitary confinement room lowers his head, seemingly indifferent to the door opening and closing.

He sits on the bed, as if Wandering Spirit.

"Weiken, I have a question,"

He Ao looks at Weiken, without any pleasantries, and says directly, "What exactly did you do to the Wilderness Wanderers outside Minte City?"

Hearing his question, Weiken still keeps his head low, as if deaf, saying nothing, doing nothing.

"Alright, let’s go."

He Ao says casually to Borek, then turns and heads towards the door.

"Aren’t we going to keep asking?"

Borek, following behind He Ao and not even having entered the room, is slightly stunned.

"No need."

He Ao says calmly.

At that moment, the previously ’silent’ Weiken finally lifts his head, blankly watching He Ao’s retreating figure.

He wants to say something, but He Ao doesn’t give him the chance to speak, closing the door directly.

The desolate solitary confinement room once again plunges into a void of silence.

"This,"

Standing beside him, Borek looks at He Ao somewhat perplexedly, "Do you know what the situation is with those ’attackers’?"

"Maybe,"

He Ao shakes his head, glancing at Borek, and says with hinting meaning, "Perhaps there are no attackers at all, and all the Wilderness Wanderers near Minte City are ’attackers’."

The question he just asked already sparks an idea in Weiken’s mind.

Stripping away some disordered factory names, there is a simple sentence.

’A large "employment" of Wilderness Wanderers as workers has significantly reduced labor costs.’

And this sentence alone is enough to explain everything.

After all, the two major financial groups were not the first He Ao had seen ’employing’ Wilderness Wanderers.

’Kyle Manufacturing Company’ in Dawn City once deceptively captured Wilderness Wanderers to work for them.

These ’Wilderness Wanderer workers,’ who don’t even have social security numbers and are not protected by Federation and Minte City law, probably don’t have much of a ’good deal’ to speak of.

They might not even survive from one winter to the next.

Clearly, compared to ’Kyle Manufacturing’ in Dawn City, the two major financial groups in Minte City have made some decisive ’breakthroughs’ in inhuman practices.

As a result, groups of Wilderness Wanderers around the entire Minte City have even gathered to selectively retaliate against the two major financial groups.

This might also be the reason why the Federal Bureau of Investigation was stopped as soon as it got involved in the investigation.

A step further and they might indeed uncover something substantial.

And considering the increasing number of ’attackers’ and their expanding range,

It seems that following the Wilderness Wanderers starting to attack the convoys, the two major financial groups not only didn’t stop, but escalated their actions even more.

They are not afraid of these attackers at all.

So, was the ’Mercenary Corps clearing mission’ truly for ’protecting the convoys’?

To ’exterminate’ Wilderness Wanderers around Minte City under the guise of searching for ’attackers.’

Then a large number of ’Wilderness Wanderers’ will ’flow into’ Minte City.

It doesn’t matter if they are accomplices to the ’attackers’; what matters is how many ’Wilderness Wanderer workers’ that can reduce costs are needed in the factories of the two financial groups.