Life Game In Other World
Chapter 297: The Engine Room (Please Favorite, Subscribe, and Vote for Monthly Tickets)

Chapter 297: Chapter 297: The Engine Room (Please Favorite, Subscribe, and Vote for Monthly Tickets)

He Ao hid the emaciated man’s corpse in a landscape flowerbed near the perimeter wall.

Buildings in the Industrial District would have some of these landscape flowerbeds, using green plants to neutralize the dull, grey-white color of the factory buildings.

However, these flowerbeds naturally wouldn’t bear delicate flowers but were planted with hardy, low-growing evergreen shrubs that were easy to keep alive.

Bright red blood seeped into the soil beneath the roots, vanishing into the night.

He Ao adjusted his coat and slowly walked towards the narrow pathway surrounded by an iron thorn barricade.

"What’s that?"

Just then, the brows of two black-clothed men guarding the pathway furrowed as they peered into the darkness.

The two men only hesitated for a moment before charging out.

Shortly after they left, He Ao’s figure appeared by the pathway.

It wasn’t He Ao who had lured the two black-clothed men away, but a pebble to which He Ao had attached the ’lure’ ability.

In the brief time the guards were distracted, He Ao calmly and composedly walked through the pathway to the factory building’s side door.

The door was ajar at the moment, but He Ao did not rush to push it open.

He pulled out a stack of bills and a pebble he had picked up on the way from his pocket and tied a one federal coin note around the stone. He then reached through the gap of the slightly open door, imbued the bill with the ’lure’ effect, and threw it forcefully inside.

"What’s that?"

A surprised shout came from behind the door.

"Money, it looks like money!"

Suddenly, a commotion erupted behind the door, "My money, don’t you guys snatch it."

The allure of an object with ’lure’ becomes stronger if it is inherently tempting to the targeted individual.

And who doesn’t like money?

Taking advantage of the turmoil behind the door, He Ao pushed open the door and entered the building.

Beyond the building was a long, narrow corridor where several black-clothed gang members guarding the door were caught up fighting at the end of the corridor.

He Ao didn’t walk through the tightly blocked corridor, but turned right, his hand pressing on a silver-gray steel door to his immediate right, marked with a silver plate: [Mechanical Room].

Although the Wilderness Wanderers living above rarely descended to the lowest three levels, there were always some with more active minds who thought of escaping, like using the ventilation ducts, disguising themselves as management personnel, or even knocking out the guards.

Although most of these escapees were eventually captured, beaten half to death, their accounts of what they saw on the bottom three levels still spread among the Wilderness Wanderers.

In conversation with the teenager, He Ao also heard the boy relay some rumors.

But these rumors were often exaggerated; they became further embellished by retellers, leading to distortions.

For instance, there was a rumor about an Elderly who recently escaped, managing to get several streets away before being captured.

The rumor portrayed him as decimating the Wilderness Hunters, charging bravely seven times into and out of danger, and finally being captured due to sheer exhaustion from not having had good meals for a long time.

Even when captured, he risked his life to inform other Wilderness Wanderers, nearly fooled into coming, about the sordid affairs of the factory. Despite being discovered by the Wilderness Hunters, he supposedly fought three hundred rounds with a Grade D Mechanically Modified Person before finally being overpowered and taken back.

The protagonist of the story was described as righteous and extremely brave.

But the more He Ao listened, the more he felt like that was the Elderly who had told Linda the truth about the factory.

He had indeed escaped from the factory, but he didn’t get far before he was caught by Hank, who nearly beat him to death and then locked him up. Revealing the truth to Linda wasn’t out of willful risk--it was because Linda had asked him.

When they attempted to flee, Linda had intended to take him along, but their movements had already been detected by the astute Hank, and in the end, they were both captured and brought back.

The overall direction of the rumor was not wrong; it was just the details that had been slightly embellished.

In the mouth of the young man, most of the rumors were these ’slightly embellished’ accounts. After comparing and repeatedly verifying different rumors, He Ao ascertained a few pieces of information that seemed more authentic.

For instance, the core server room of the entire factory building was located behind the iron door to the right after entering the small door.

He Ao twisted the doorknob, and as he anticipated, the server room door was locked.

He stepped back half a step and glanced at the silver door.

It was a very basic metal door, not even a security door.

So he simply took out a silver short sword with one hand and grabbed the doorknob with the other, sliding the silver blade into the crack of the door, then downwards, before forcefully snapping the latch.

From the resistance He Ao felt, the door didn’t even seem to be bolted from the inside; it was just pulled shut with only the latch as resistance.

And at that moment, those men in black were still scrambling over that single coin.

He Ao gently pushed forward, and the iron door moved slightly open.

There were no other locks.

But he didn’t just walk in. Instead, he took out a small camera, connected one end to his bracelet, inserted it through the crack in the door, and illuminated the scene inside the server room.

There was no one inside the server room; such factory server rooms are typically overseen by intelligent maintenance robots set up by maintenance companies.

Aside from Wilderness Wanderers, Wilderness Hunters, and gang members whose heads are filled with thoughts of fighting, clerical workers were a minority, and there were hardly any technicians who knew how to maintain a server room.

Therefore, it was highly likely that maintenance of such server rooms was outsourced to specialized companies, with maintenance personnel checking in occasionally and maintenance robots supervising the rest of the time, with remote control available if needed.

A host of servers were running quietly in the server room, a cylindrical maintenance robot was moving between the racks, and directly opposite the door, there was a surveillance camera monitoring the entrance.

Typically, such cameras would be connected to the factory’s security room and the server room’s maintenance company.

The server room maintenance company couldn’t possibly be watching the surveillance all the time—it would only access the feed when necessary. So what needed to be dealt with were the security personnel in the security room.

The location of the security room was also included in the information provided by the young man, and it was more precise than that of the server room, with more corroborating evidence.

After all, a server room located near an exit was likely seen in a fleeting glimpse during escape, whereas the security room was a key objective that had to be thoroughly understood.

He Ao turned his head, looking toward the end of the corridor, where those men were still fighting over the one federal coin wrapped around a stone.

There were no surveillance cameras in the corridor. In fact, most areas of the entire factory lacked surveillance.

Enterprises founded by gangs all had this problem—most of what they did probably shouldn’t leave evidence behind, and being caught on camera would make them feel as uncomfortable as walking naked on the streets.

He Ao walked to the end of the corridor and stood behind the fighting men.