Life Game In Other World
Chapter 457: No Return on Arrival? Counter Scheme? (Big 6000- - for monthly tickets)

Chapter 457: Chapter 457: No Return on Arrival? Counter Scheme? (Big 6000-Chapter for monthly tickets)

Faint soul threads stretched out in midair, leading straight down beneath the floor.

He Ao immediately left the hospital ward and burst into the corridor, descending the stairs to the same position on the floor below.

Indeed, in this ward, there were long ethereal threads of soul that fell from the ceiling and disappeared into the floor.

He Ao continued to the next level down.

The soul threads on this floor no longer spread downwards but drifted into the corridor instead.

Following the direction of the soul threads, He Ao found an old fire hydrant box at the corner of the curved corridor.

It was into this fire hydrant box that the drifting soul disappeared.

He Ao opened the fire hydrant box, which appeared to contain normal firefighting hoses.

The threads of the soul disappeared into the wall behind the fire hydrant box.

He Ao closed the fire hydrant box and turned to enter the ward behind it, but there were no soul threads spreading out in this room.

The object was inside the wall.

He Ao stepped back, reopened the fire hydrant box, moved aside the hoses, and used Super Memory to thoroughly examine the entire structure inside the fire hydrant box.

By now, his actions had drawn the attention of nurses and patients in the corridor—waiting any longer, and they might become suspicious.

He Ao’s gaze finally rested on a small patch of differently colored ’metal sheet’ hidden behind the hoses. He gently pressed on the sheet, and an interface for entering a password popped up.

He instantly immersed his Divine Sense into it, unraveling the internal structure of the lock, and then, with a short sword in hand and under the cover of the hydrant box door and the removed hose, he inserted the blade into the gap at the edge of the lock and cut through the lock cylinder.

The unconstrained electronic lock sprung open naturally, revealing a silver metal device inside.

The upper half of the device was embedded in the wall, leaving only the lower half, which seemed to be a metal base, visible.

However, looking at the structure of the device, it seemed that grasping the metal base should allow one to pull the entire device out.

He Ao reached out and grabbed the metal base.

But the moment he made contact with the metal base, endless chaotic murmurs exploded in his mind.

It was as if countless different types, different shapes of life were howling madly in his mind, pulling at his soul, trying to bore into it, wanting to twist his soul into an unnameable, distorted monster.

So perhaps this was why the ’lock’ that ’protected’ this device was so simply made—the device didn’t need the protection of a lock; it could protect itself to some extent.

Despite the intensity of the murmurs, He Ao’s movements remained steady; he held onto the base of the device and slowly pulled it out from the wall.

The shape of the entire device was quite unique; the lower section was a cubic silver metal base, while the upper was a tall and sharp cone seemingly made of glass or crystal.

At the moment, the soul, which had been drawn into a fine thread, was entering from the tip of this transparent cone and then gradually filling the interior of the clear cone.

"Hey, doctor over there... What are you..."

A person who seemed to be a head nurse approached He Ao, calling out while drawing closer, "You can’t just mess with this box... Excuse me, sir, please move aside... Eh? Where did he go?"

She stopped in front of the fire hydrant box door, looking somewhat puzzled around her.

She clearly remembered seeing a doctor standing here just now. Was she seeing things?

She looked at the fire hydrant box beside her. The door of the box was closed, as if nothing had happened.

Opening the fire hydrant box, everything inside was restored as if nothing had been taken.

Has the overtime lately been causing hallucinations?

The head nurse shook her head.

If nothing was missing, there was no need to fuss. She closed the door of the fire hydrant box and turned into the corridor.

Meanwhile, in a corner at the end of the hallway, He Ao was gazing at a transparent marble the size of a fingertip, swirling with faint purple mist in his hand.

This marble was what he had taken from the device. Removing the transparent cone, one could see the marble embedded in the metal base.

After removing the marble, the entire device lost its ability to attract souls.

For ease of transport, He Ao only took the marble, leaving the rest of the device stuffed back in its place. His movements were so fast that the approaching nurse didn’t even notice.

Turning the semi-transparent marble in his hand, He Ao could sense its faint attraction to his soul just by holding it.

However, as long as He Ao did not touch the marble, this force of attraction became extremely weak.

The transparent marble was likely the core of the entire device, or rather, the device was some kind of ’amplification mechanism’ designed to enhance the marble’s soul-attracting ability, allowing it to attract souls on a large scale.

After losing the marble, the device became ineffective.

But even the amplification must have been limited, as it’s improbable that this small device covered the entire hospital building.

He Ao pocketed the marble and began to rapidly ’inspect’ the fire hydrant boxes throughout the hospital.

His actions were swift and expert, usually completed before anyone noticed.

Ultimately, after a night of searching, he found five transparent marbles, each with swirling purple mist inside them.

This reminded He Ao of the Puppet Crystal Ball after absorbingsouls.

Of course, these weren’t likely all the transparent marbles in the hospital; some must be hidden in more clandestine places.

However, when He Ao was searching for the marbles, he discovered that they were probably arranged in some kind of specific array, with each marble amplifying the attractive force to the others.

As He Ao removed marble after marble, this amplifying effect grew weaker and weaker until, by the time he removed the fifth one, the effect had been mostly diminished, suggesting that the entire ’Array’ boosting their power had been compromised.

He Ao didn’t know where these marbles came from, but such transcendent items capable of absorbing and storing souls wouldn’t be easy to come by, and it was unlikely the hospital could set up a new soul-absorbing array any time soon.

After collecting enough transparent marbles, He Ao went down to the underground parking lot to search carefully.

He even found his way into the nearby sewers, but still found no trace of any other space beneath the parking lot.

Beneath Stars Supreme Hospital, there really didn’t seem to be any other ’facilities.’

However, during his exploration of the sewer, He Ao unexpectedly found that the variety of creatures living in Limen City’s sewer was quite extensive, including some mutated exotic beasts, which had formed a complete underground ecosystem.

He Ao took note of this information. He didn’t know if this was normal, but that was okay, he could just ask Roger directly.

Roger had dug through the sewers of Dawn City to build his laboratory back then.

Having settled everything and returned Kors the access card, He Ao left the Stars Supreme Hospital.

He put the five transparent marbles into his pocket.

Not only did these marbles possess an attraction to souls, but they also whispered distorted, chaotic murmurs, which constantly tried to corrode He Ao.

However, it was all within He Ao’s tolerable range.

These marbles were likely to be strongly connected to the Fountain of Youth, or some existence related to it.

Used at the right moment, they might produce unexpected effects.

——

After leaving the hospital, He Ao didn’t go home but went straight to the city gate of Limen City.

By the time he arrived at the city gate, it was morning.

The people ’watching’ the gate were still there, just replaced by another group.

He Ao, activating Stealth, blended into the incoming crowd and then, with his head lowered, moved deeper into the city amidst the throng of people.

Meanwhile, at the entrance of a distant café, a skinny man eating fruit suddenly slapped the drowsy, tattooed, chubby man beside him, "Look at that, in the crowd, isn’t that the guy we’re supposed to be keeping an eye on?"

"Who?"

The chubby man woke up with a start, sitting upright and scanning his surroundings.

"That one, that one," the skinny man hastily pointed in a direction, "He went that way."

The chubby man quickly looked in the direction the skinny man was pointing, but could only see vague crowds of people, without a trace of the target they were looking for.

"There’s no one there, could you have been mistaken?"

The chubby man rubbed his eyes and looked again but indeed saw no sign of their target.

"Disappeared?"

The skinny man scrutinized the crowd carefully, a hint of doubt in his eyes, yet he quickly shook his head with conviction, "Impossible, I could never mistake him, that was definitely the target! I have to report this!"

——

"Take a look at these."

Reid passed a tablet displaying pages that seemed to be reports to the military officer in front of him.

"That guy returned to the city?"

The military officer skimmed the documents, then looked up in shock, "If he came back unharmed, then our special combat team..."

"Our people may have been completely wiped out."

Reid spoke calmly, "In theory, if he had run, he wouldn’t likely come back. He has no ties of interest with us, and his coming back can only mean one thing: he either came back for something he left behind, or he’s come back for ’revenge.’"

"The records show he has a daughter, but he came back alone this time..." the officer pondered for a moment, "Could our people have..."

"That’s a possibility."

Reid thought for a while, "If that’s the case, we’re in a fight to the death with him. He must have acquired some transcendent item in the wilderness; otherwise, he couldn’t have defeated our special combat squad.

"Of course, it’s also possible his daughter isn’t dead, and he’s just back to ’eliminate’ us.

"He probably doesn’t know our connection with the conglomerate. Given the strength we’ve shown, it’s possible for him to defeat us if he gets enhanced."

"What do we do then?"

The officer was visibly rattled, suppressing his emotions as he asked as calmly as he could.

"Don’t panic," Reid glanced at his expression and smiled, "No matter how powerful he is, he’s just one person, after all. He can’t escape the palm of my hand."

He took back the tablet from the officer, "Having seen these reports, what do you think we should do?"

"Several scouts have spotted him; he went to Nuclear Street," said the officer, head lowered, trying to make an analysis, "We should strike first now, take a team and get him before..."

The officer mimed a ’bang’ with his mouth, then continued, "But Nuclear Street is Limen City’s busiest district. How are we going to find him? Starting too grandly would easily draw the attention of the Federation Bureau of Investigation."

"Actually, finding him isn’t difficult," Reid smiled, "He has ’old friends’ on Nuclear Street."

He opened his tablet computer, scrolled and pulled up a photo. In the photo was a man wearing formal attire, with a cigar in his mouth, slightly gray hair, sporting a somewhat wild smile,

"Romock, Chairman of the Construction Guild of Limen City, he started in gangs, used to be a hitman for the Shalang Gang, and later entered the construction business on his own. Over the course of a few decades, he became the biggest construction boss in Limen City.

"He is extremely adept at controlling costs and evading responsibility. He would use inferior materials whenever possible and would cut corners wherever he could. Even for structures that must be built, he would ’find a way’ to treat them as if they could be skipped.

"Similarly, he would never take responsibility for his employees unless absolutely necessary.

"Through cross-holding and proxy ownership, he registered and controlled a multitude of small-scale professional employer organizations, then contracted his construction workers under these organizations, which in turn would ’dispatch’ the employees to work on his project sites.

"This way, the liability for employee employment shifted from his primary project company to these professional employer organizations, which became the direct employers of the workers.

"Then he’d keep the assets of these professional employer organizations very low. So, if an accident occurred and compensation was unavoidable, he could simply bankrupt the professional employer organization to dodge the financial liability.

"And the remaining workers would then be hired by another one of his professional employer companies.

"Because of this guy’s poor character and his shoddy work practices, accidents among his employees happened frequently, and he saved a good deal of money on compensation because of these tactics.

"Most of those employees, with no high level of education, initially believed they were hired by his main company. Only after incidents occurred did they realize they had been ’dispatched’ to work."

At this point, Reid chuckled, "And our Mr. ’Pete,’ his father used to work under Mr. Romock and suffered a serious injury on the job, but he received very little compensation, and his father passed away not long after that."

"Are you suggesting that Pete will look for Romock?" the officer clarified the logic,

"If he wants to take revenge on us, no longer restrained by any rules in his heart, it’s indeed highly possible that he will directly take out his former enemies. But wouldn’t such an obvious target be too easy for us to guess?"

"Yes," Reid sat back in his chair, looking at the bright sunshine outside the window,

"But the most dangerous place can be the safest, can’t it? We can easily guess he would seek out his enemies, so we might think he wouldn’t expose himself so readily at such an obvious place. If he goes there, it will be beyond our expectations."

"Then I’ll take people there right away."

The officer stood up briskly.

"No rush."

Reid waved his hand to stop him.

"Hmm?"

The officer looked puzzled.

"Don’t you think that too many people have seen him?"

Reid asked in a calm tone.

"Ah? Indeed."

As Reid mentioned it, the officer seemed to remember something, "The spies we had following him have all lost track of him, even the Shadow was dealt with by him. Although it was affected by the fact that our spies were hidden and he was in the open, it’s still somewhat unreasonable for so many people to have seen his whereabouts."

"What if..." Reid’s hand rested on the desk, "What if he intended for us to see him?"

"Huh!?"

The officer was startled.

"Think about it, if he deliberately exposed himself to us,"

Reid didn’t turn to look at the officer next to him, still gazing at the bright sunshine outside the window. He seemed to be talking to the officer but also seemed to be talking to himself,

"He was able to take down our special forces team, which means his strength must be considerable now. To deal with such a formidable him, I would have to dispatch most of my forces. He probably has a judgment of our strength as well.

"And if we send our main forces to Nuclear Street to ambush him, then the Research Institute,"

Reid turned his head to the officer, "Who will defend it?"

The officer was alarmed, "Are you saying he’s using a stratagem of ’luring the tiger away from the mountain’? Is his goal to draw our main forces away and then attack the Research Institute?"

"Exactly," Reid smiled, "To judge a person’s actions, one must consider their ultimate goal. He didn’t come back just to get revenge on Romock; the real focus is still on us. He poses a much greater threat to us than Romock ever could.

"As long as we exist, he can’t eat well or sleep peacefully. He’s clever, a person who can distinguish priorities."

"So, what should we do now?" The officer felt a bit confused, "Call everyone back and defend the Research Institute? That seems safer."

"It’s the safest move," Reid seemed to fall into thought again, "but being passively defensive will only make us more passive. Moreover... I always feel something’s not quite right..."

Officer: ???

What’s with the ’moreover’?

Seeing the officer’s confused expression, Reid smiled gently and spoke his concern in a soft voice, "What if he anticipated that we would deduce his ’luring the tiger away from the mountain’ strategy?"

Officer: ?

Are you building skyscrapers in your minds? What’s with all these layers?

"If my current thinking is all within his plan, then our action of pulling back to defend the Research Institute would also be within his scheme," Reid mused.

"But what good does that do him?" the officer couldn’t help asking, "As long as we’re defending the Research Institute, we’re invincible. He couldn’t possibly defeat us there."

"Yes, what’s in it for him?"

Reid continued to muse, seemingly also caught in a deadlock. His empty hand once again opened the tablet computer, and once more, he brought up Pete’s personal information.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck his mind.

"He is a father..."

He murmured softly for a moment, then looked up at the officer, "Remember our earlier speculation? His daughter might have died in the wilderness, but it’s also possible that she’s still alive..."

His excitement surged as he stood up, like a child who had won a game of chess, pointing at the information about Pete on the tablet, his voice rising,

"If his daughter is still alive, if you were a good father, what would you do first when about to undertake a dangerous task?"

"Find a safe place to protect my daughter?"

The officer pondered.

"Where would you leave your daughter? What place would be safe?"

Reid pressed further.

"The wilderness?" The officer tentatively ventured, then immediately shook his head, "The wilderness is too chaotic. If I were facing uncertain dangers, leaving my daughter there would likely lead to her death."

"That’s right, so you would have to bring your daughter back to the city."

Reid smiled, "Then where would you place your daughter?"

"The Federal Bureau of Investigation? No, if I took her to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, I’d inevitably have to explain my identity, and then I certainly wouldn’t be able to do what I needed to afterward."

The officer thought aloud, "And since Pete has hidden his identity for so long, there must be something he can’t reveal. The Federal Bureau of Investigation isn’t a good place, at least not while he’s alive."

At this, the officer seemed a bit slow to catch up, "Then where would he leave his daughter? Just find a random place to stash her? Is there a place that’s safer than others?"

"There is," Reid smiled slightly, opening a map application,

"Pete is a man who’s bold yet careful. He exposed himself to us alone, with the intention of misleading us to believe his daughter had ’died’,

"So he could continue with his latter operations. His daughter is his only weak point, so he would certainly find a way to protect her in the safest possible location, for instance,"

He pointed at a marked address on the map software and said, "Home."

"But isn’t our..."

The officer began to say but stopped midway with a start, slowly saying,

"We’ve arranged sentries near his home mainly to watch if he would return. If he’s already come back, those sentries would be pointless. If we really follow the original plan to pull back our forces, most of them would also be withdrawn.

"If he succeeds in misleading us, making us believe his daughter is dead, we wouldn’t pay much attention to his house. For him, getting past those remaining sentries would be easy.

"Then, as long as his activities aren’t near his house, we wouldn’t suspect that there’s someone inside. Besides, since there’s the previous incident of entering his house and being caught by the police, we wouldn’t easily breach his doors again.

"So his house seems dangerous, but it’s actually very safe.

"The most dangerous place, is, in fact, the safest."

"Well done," Reid praised, then continued,

"And if we contract our forces according to his plan, how do we stop him? You think we’re invincible, but we’re not, because the Research Institute still needs to ’do business’. As long as he keeps causing trouble, we can’t conduct our ’business’ and will have to send people to stop him. The more time goes by, the more he’ll be able to erode at us, like an ant eating an elephant bite by bite."

"This man’s tactics are somewhat frightening."

The officer couldn’t help but exclaim.

"Indeed. If he were truly alone, we would have a hard time dealing with him. Unfortunately for him, he has a daughter,"

Reid smiled, "When a person has family, has concerns, they have weaknesses. His best choice would actually be to take his daughter to another city, to flee far away, but he’s still set on dealing with us all at once.

"Perhaps he can’t let go of his house and the good times in Limen City, but greed never ends well."

The officer knew his task had arrived, and he straightened up, "Sir, what should we do?"

"Turn his trick against him," Reid spoke deliberately, "Shrink our forces, withdraw all the guards watching Pete’s house, and then set up a bunch of hidden sentries in a larger perimeter around his home. His daughter is just an ordinary person and won’t have great concealment capabilities.

"As soon as his daughter appears nearby, you go there immediately with the Strengthening Potion."

"Yes! I will take care of it right away."

The officer promptly responded.

"Since he dares to return," Reid smiled, looking at the brilliance outside the window gradually obscured by dark clouds, "let him stay forever."

Ding-a-ling-a-ling—

At this moment, the phone on the table suddenly began to ring.

Reid pressed the speakerphone button, and a gentle female voice came from the phone,

"Director, you have a call waiting to be connected."

"Who is it?"

"Professor Kors."