Life Game In Other World
Chapter 527: The Secret Base of the ’Boss’ (Long - for Monthly Passes)

Chapter 527: Chapter 527: The Secret Base of the ’Boss’ (Long Chapter for Monthly Passes)

The roar of the steam whistle, accompanied by the rustling of tree branches, faded away as He Ao lifted his head to glance at the sunlight overhead.

After confirming that the ’boss’ was the last king, things actually became a lot simpler.

The boss hadn’t carried the central processor of the tower with him, which meant he must have a place akin to a ’secret base’ to store this important item.

Before meeting the boss, He Ao had already speculated the location of the boss’s ’secret base’.

The first key clue came from Jin Ya.

Jin Ya was the only child of the last king of Rodan, Ruonati, to have survived.

Out of Ruonati’s many children, only Jin Ya was kept by his side and supported all the way to C-level, indicating that he placed great importance on her, whether out of kinship or as a means to create a useful ’tool’.

Of course, there was another possibility: Jin Ya was one of Ruonati’s anchors for self-recognition, using familial ties to strengthen his sense of self.

If Ruonati’s self-recognition was that disordered, perhaps it was also due to Jin Ya being killed by He Ao, and her death might be one of the reasons Ruonati felt compelled to kill ’Hao Yi’.

Regardless of which theory, Jin Ya was likely quite important to Ruonati.

Therefore, before Jin Ya was capable of standing on her own, Ruonati would probably have kept her close by, in a ’safe’ place.

So, where would considered safe for this last king?

The answer was simple: it was the very land upon which He Ao currently stood, Eren City.

He Ao had now nearly confirmed that Jin Ya had become a C-level about two years ago.

And in the three years between the fall of the Kingdom five years ago and her ascension to C-level two years prior, there was clear intelligence showing her appearing outside the opposition’s dwellings, spying on the factions that had overthrown the Kingdom.

This indicated that she was likely in Eren City all along, or if not residing there permanently, Eren City was at least a fixed base for her.

Keep in mind, Moonlight was also a key driver in overthrowing the royal family, and even though Jin Ya was already a Transcendent by then, it would have been dangerous for her to move around Eren City without self-protection.

Unless there was someone in Eren City who could ’protect’ her.

Considering the power of the Rodan Restoration Organization as well, Eren City was most likely Ruonati’s stronghold.

As the last king, Ruonati had ample time and resources to build a secret base for himself.

Of course, Ruonati was a cautious man, and he did not trust his subordinates.

From the reaction of his C-level subordinate Krod, it seemed that since the time Ruonati started using the identity of ’Prince Ronnie’, his subordinates were essentially kept in the dark about this ’Prince Ronnie’.

Contrasting with ’Prince Ronnie’s’ enigma, however, was the ’King’s’ high exposure.

As king, all his actions would definitely draw attention and couldn’t be completely concealed.

Through the Kingdom’s fall five years ago, he not only completed the ritual but also gave his original identity an end.

This way, a ’clean and clear’ ’Prince Ronnie’ could stand at the center of the stage.

From this perspective, investigating Ruonati’s actions after the kingdom’s fall, as well as the Rodan Kingdom Restoration Organization, seems futile because Ruonati would have taken care of all matters after changing identities, leaving no trails.

Therefore, He Ao changed his approach and started investigating from the ’last king’.

After all, before He Ao appeared, Ruonati had not realized someone would guess his true identity, and he hadn’t managed information about his former king identity as well as he could have.

The place where He Ao was now located was Rodan National Park to the north of Eren City.

This was a picturesque forest and mountain area, covering a larger area than the entire urban district of Eren City, with most parts undeveloped. The road He Ao had taken from the airport to the city had passed through the edge of this park.

Theoretically, establishing such a large natural park so close to the capital wouldn’t make sense, as it could limit urban development.

But this park wasn’t established recently, it dated back to the Era of Kingdoms when Ruonati was king, and it wasn’t called a national park then, but the Royal Garden.

This entire blooming garden was the private property of the royal family.

After the fall of the Kingdom, it was converted into a national park, leased to private entities, and the lessee turned out to be a member of the Rodan Restoration Organization.

That is to say, the park was still indirectly under Ruonati’s control; though it was nominally a park, it effectively still belonged to Ruonati.

A multitude of man-made landscapes were constructed within the park.

Under the pretext of creating these landscapes, Ruonati mobilized a significant amount of manpower and resources.

The entire construction process was almost entirely isolated from the outside world, and nearly all construction workers were directly brought in from overseas, non-native speakers, leaving no one the wiser about what was actually built in the park.

When He Ao inquired about the King’s secret base, Krod’s first reaction was to think of this park.

The park was so vast that even if everyone knew there might be something amiss with it, it was exceedingly difficult to locate the actual issue.

Ruonati knew that his actions as king couldn’t be hidden, so he audaciously merged truth and deception, confusing onlookers with a mix of reality and pretense.

Logically, Ruonati shouldn’t have placed his secret base at such an obvious location.

But when the false is true, the true is also false.

Since Ruonati’s close heart C-level subordinates didn’t even know of this secret base’s existence, it was likely a purely unmanned location guarded by only a handful of ’dead soldiers,’ also able to evade various detections.

Constructing such a base would be incredibly costly.

With the limited national power of Rodan, and Ruonati wanting to accumulate funds to create his own Transcendent organization, even if he had stripped Rodan bare, he wouldn’t have had enough money.

He only had one opportunity for such a massive expenditure.

And his only time spending vast resources on construction was for this park.

Most of the money for this park must have gone into that secret base.

However, what He Ao could think of, Moonlight could actually think of too.

But there was actually an information gap.

In this world, He Ao was the only one who knew that Ruonati had taken away the central processor from the Relic Tower, and Ruonati did not carry that thing on his person.

Since he did not carry it on his person, it must be hidden somewhere.

Therefore, Ruonati had a pressing need to construct a secret base to hide such an important item.

Moonlight, unaware of this secret of Ruonati, would at most feel that this tyrant was up to some new scheme to embezzle funds; even if a secret palace of sorts was indeed built, it wouldn’t have anything to do with Moonlight.

The dissolute and brutal nature of the Rodan King suited the interests of both Moonlight and the Tia Empire; hence, they would not bother themselves with it.

Moreover, according to the records, during that period, Ruonati conceded a lot of benefits to Moonlight, making Moonlight feel everything was under control.

From this perspective, although the park was riddled with suspicions, it was very possible that no one had seriously investigated it, and with the demise of the Era of Kingdoms, it was even less likely that anyone would investigate the place.

Furthermore, by extrapolating from this situation, Ruonati’s counter-surveillance measures would not be many; even if there were any, they were probably neglected over the long period of peace.

Therefore, He Ao directly found a way to locate the person who had been in charge of the park’s construction, Count Tren, the imperial court official from the Era of Kingdoms.

This elderly count, who was Ruonati’s great uncle, was extremely loyal to the royal house, yet he had his own moral integrity and was unwilling to engage in dirty work; he also often aided refugees, and thus was dispatched by Ruonati to work on the park.

Yesterday, He Ao spent a little time searching for clues in the black market, eventually finding where the old gentleman lived.

Fortunately, the old count was still alive, hiding out in a corner of Eren city, running a barbecue restaurant, but he was unwilling to say anything.

However, He Ao’s Super Memory was unstoppable, and he quickly obtained some key information from the old man.

When the park was being constructed, all the accounting passed through the old count’s hands; overall, the accounts were in order, but in the southwestern part of the park, the expenditures on the records didn’t quite match the actual cash flow.

The accounts seemed fine, but the actual cash flow showed unusual fluctuations, missing a lot of data.

Moreover, this area was entirely staffed by foreign laborers, and it had the highest rate of ’accidental deaths’ among the workers.

The old count thought this could be yet another of Ruonati’s embezzlement schemes, but being powerless, he could do nothing and could only improve the food and security measures for these laborers, to lower their mortality rate.

Out of loyalty to the royal house, he never mentioned this incident to anyone.

Because he had a good reputation, he was not purged after the end of the Era of Kingdoms and was able to live out his later years in peace.

Based on the memory of the old count concerning areas with a higher number of deaths, He Ao identified some likely locations of the secret base.

The clues He Ao obtained ended there. He also tried to follow the trail to the clues of the Rodan Kingdom Restoration Organization, but Ruonati had left nothing behind, and the original documents had been lost in the destruction of the Kingdom five years ago.

In fact, considering Ruonati’s modus operandi, it was a miracle that an ordinary person like the old count, who had directly accessed his core secrets, had managed to survive.

Without the old earl’s information, He Ao estimated that it would take some time to search for the original scattered construction documents of the park and the incidental records left during its construction.

Standing atop the hillside, he briefly activated Super Memory. His gaze swept across the surroundings, instantly imprinting every detail of the scene into his mind.

The next second, Velora appeared behind him, and He Ao stepped onto Velora, heading to the next location.

Now that he had a rough area to work with, it would just take some diligent searching to find it. Something that cost so much money couldn’t possibly have left no trace; no matter how well hidden, it could always be found.

Meanwhile, He Ao’s real body was at the top floor of the Moonlight headquarters, standing right beside the corpse of Rhodes.

Next to him, a middle-aged man wearing glasses, with a gentle demeanor and gloved hands, draped in a white coat, looked as though he had just stepped out of a laboratory. This moment, he was squatting on the ground, hand pressed on Rhodes’s corpse.

Threads of faint electricity spread from his fingertips, swiftly enveloping Rhodes’s entire body.

This was the director of the Research Institute, Li Cheng.

"The body’s structure is no longer human. Before his death, he underwent some kind of special modification, or rather, a transformation of sorts. It’s strange; he might look human, but he can’t really be considered one anymore."

He lifted his head to look at He Ao, "What do you think caused this, He Ao?"

After pondering for a moment, He Ao said softly, "Bizarre."

"Yes, that’s what I think too."

Li Cheng slowly stood up, "His body has been invaded by some bizarre force, causing a mutation. Although he retains a human form, he’s actually just a monster in human shape. Judging from the structure within, his power must have been greatly enhanced, likely reaching C-level.

"There are only two wounds on his body, one on his lower leg and one on his chest. The chest wound is fatal. The leg wound suggests that he was in a fierce battle; his enemy couldn’t finish him off directly and had to wound his limbs first, followed by a fatal attack.

"This proves that his opponent was on par with him in strength and that this person was skilled and ruthless, taking the chance to deal a deadly blow with a refined sword injury."

He walked to the edge of the rooftop and lifted the plastic cover to glimpse at the concealed giant snake’s corpse. His finger touched the snake’s scales, and the sparkling electricity once again surged from his hands, rapidly encompassing the entire body of the snake,

"There are many slender sword wounds on this giant snake, but the most severe damage was caused by some kind of vibration. This vibrational force destroyed most of the structures inside its body, resulting in serious injuries to the snake. It seems to be a powerful ability.

"Moreover, although the snake seems powerful, it was actually confined to the rooftop. Its body was tightly coiled around the building, with parts of its torso even embedded in the building, which proves it was consistently restrained by something. It’s unclear whether it was a Transcendent item or some kind of strategy."

"The internal structure of the giant snake’s body has similarities to that of Rhodes; they are likely on the same side."

Li Cheng pried open one of the wounds on the giant snake, "This wound is very thin. The swordsman used an extremely slender and sharp sword, something our technology cannot produce. This must be a Transcendent item. And judging from the identical sword wounds, the person who killed Rhodes and this giant snake is the same,

"This person might not be as strong as Rhodes and the giant snake, but he knows how to use the environment and his own advantages to his benefit, making him a formidable opponent."

"By the way," Li Cheng turned his head, looking at He Ao, "how are you feeling now?"

His tone was gentle, and he wore a smile, giving off a very amiable and approachable aura.

He did not seem like the leader of the world’s foremost Transcendent organization or the pinnacle of overt combat strength in the main world; instead, he appeared to be a genuine researcher wholly engrossed in his studies.