Life Game In Other World
Chapter 555: The Person Who Cannot Be Remembered (Big - for Monthly Pass)

Chapter 555: Chapter 555: The Person Who Cannot Be Remembered (Big Chapter for Monthly Pass)

"Hmm?"

Heish looked at He Ao somewhat perplexedly. "Haven’t you seen him many times before?"

"But I can’t remember his face,"

He Ao shook his head.

At this moment, he finally understood why both Jess and Thorne unanimously referred to that character as ’Mysterious Person.’ For someone whose face couldn’t be remembered, indeed, the only fitting description was mysterious.

The most potent ability of the Mysterious Person was not just making people forget his face, but also that before Heish inquired about his appearance, He Ao was completely unaware that he had no memory of the Mysterious Person’s face.

He had recalled the scenes of Jess interacting with the Mysterious Person many times in his mind, but he never noticed anything off about the Mysterious Person’s appearance.

Considering the fact that Thorne chose to trust the Mysterious Person baselessly, it suggested that the Mysterious Person might possess some power to deeply alter people’s thinking and memories.

And He Ao did not know whether the Mysterious Person’s abilities were limited to just that.

If he could blur his own features and characteristics, could he also appear in front of Jess with another identity?

Perhaps in places unnoticeable in the memory, ’Jess’ might have encountered the Mysterious Person a long time ago, even interacting with him closely.

But now, when He Ao tried to recall the memories in his mind, he couldn’t discern anything unusual.

This could mean that the Mysterious Person hadn’t interacted with Jess using a different identity, or, like before, until somebody unintentionally pointed it out, He Ao on his own could not detect the problem with this segment of memory.

Considering this, Thorne’s realization that he shouldn’t have trusted the Mysterious Person so easily might also have been sparked by a question from He Ao.

Someone immersed in fog cannot see the landscape within the fog.

However, now that He Ao lacked the Mysterious Person’s appearance and other specific information, it was somewhat unrealistic to ask Heish to help investigate the Mysterious Person.

As He Ao continued walking, he spoke in a calm voice, "Then let’s not investigate this person for now. Help me with something else."

He raised his bracelet and sent a file stored on his personal cloud drive to Heish, "Can you help me investigate who has been bulk purchasing these materials in the black market recently, and where those materials have ended up?"

"Fox-tail Grass, Purple Night Orchid, Ghost-face Flower..."

Heish opened the file, glanced at the list of materials, and then looked up at He Ao. "Are these all wild herbs?"

"Yes,"

He Ao nodded slightly. "These herbs all have slight toxicity or hallucinogenic properties and are restricted materials. They are hard to obtain on the open market, but they should be available in the underground black market."

The herbs He Ao listed were necessary in the process of making Gene Potion but accounted for only a small portion of the actual raw materials.

The Mysterious Person could easily supply the other synthetic chemicals and herbs needed in the manufacturing process of Gene Potion.

The Welme conglomerate itself was the Federation’s second-largest medical consortium, possessing numerous pharmaceutical patents and factories, as well as many herb gardens specifically for cultivating medicinal herbs, so they were not short on raw materials.

Among all the materials needed for Gene Potion, only these few herbs had not yet been cultivated artificially by the Federation and needed to be harvested in the wilderness.

At the same time, because of their toxicity and hallucinogenic effects, these herbs were under strict regulation by the Federal Central and various major cities. Importing these drugs from the wilderness through official channels would require a complicated process. Even the Mysterious Person wouldn’t be able to quickly procure a large amount of these herbs in a short time.

Of course, through connections with the Welme Medical Consortium, it was still possible to rapidly obtain a large number of import permits.

However, doing so would expose the fact that the Welme Medical Consortium was in urgent need of these materials. Whether viewed from the perspective of the medical industry or from the standpoint of Vitland city, the Welme Medical Consortium was just one among many large consortia.

Bulking importing these special pharmaceuticals would invariably attract suspicion and investigation from other consortia and competitors. Therefore, for the sake of keeping the Gene Potion project secret, unless absolutely necessary, the Welme Medical Consortium would not use its own power to assist in importing drugs.

In that case, if the official mechanisms were challenging to navigate, the Mysterious Person would have to think of ways to smuggle the drugs from the wilderness through the black market using less legitimate means.

After the previous siege and significant consumption of Gene Potion, the Mysterious Person was likely working at full capacity to produce new Gene Potions now.

Therefore, tracking the flow of these drugs in the black market presents a strong possibility of finding another gene potion laboratory established by the mysterious person.

"I know a few major smugglers who would smuggle these medicinal materials,"

Heish closed the document interface, "I’ll try to help you investigate, but I can’t guarantee success in obtaining the information you want."

"That’s alright, just looking into it for me is enough,"

He Ao nodded. At this moment, he looked up to see the warehouse door in front of him. Turning back to Heish, he asked, "How much is the fee for this commission?"

From what Heish had just said, investigating these medicinal materials didn’t seem like an easy task, and it would involve tapping into her own resources.

Although after last night’s side-by-side battle, he and Heish had established a certain kind of combat-based mutual trust, this trust was still built upon a commission-based interest.

In strict terms, the two of them were just partners with a comparatively good relationship. For such a difficult commission, it was still necessary to settle the accounts clearly.

"We’ll talk about it once the investigation results come in,"

Heish thought for a moment, looking down, "I’m not sure if I can complete your commission. If we’re lucky and my informant already knows this information, then the cost will be much lower. If we’re unlucky and have to deal with those old folks, then things will get troublesome."

"Thank you for your trouble."

He Ao had arrived at the warehouse door, placing his hand on it and slowly pushing it open.

"No trouble at all, it’s what we intermediaries do,"

Heish smiled as she watched the warehouse door slowly open, "So you’re really going to let Thorne go?"

"We’re not kidnappers," He Ao shrugged his shoulders, stepping into the warehouse, "We just extended a normal invitation to Mr. Thorne to visit, and now that he wishes to go home, we can’t stop him, can we? We have to abide by the law."

Heish watched He Ao’s figure slowly disappear into the darkness, momentarily stunned.

This guy couldn’t really be a law-abiding citizen, could he?

Despite being tougher and more ruthless than anyone else when it comes down to action.

But then again, He Ao did specifically instruct her last night to ’invite’ Thorne, not to kidnap him.

And she did indeed politely extend an invitation, which Thorne cooperated with and accepted.

As for the heavy machine guns that happened to be surrounding Thorne at the time, they were just for delivery and coincidentally there.

Without realizing it, Heish felt like she was getting somewhat drawn into He Ao’s way of thinking.

She shook her head and followed He Ao into the warehouse.

It wasn’t her who captured the man. She was just carrying out He Ao’s commission from yesterday, and how to deal with it was He Ao’s business.

······

Inside the warehouse, He Ao once again communicated with Thorne, selling him the modified G-04 laser cannon for nine hundred and thirty million and also selling the four off-road vehicles for thirty million.

Adding some firearms to the deal, the total came to nine hundred and seventy million.

He Ao confirmed with Thorne repeatedly that there was no coercion involved, and then they signed an electronic contract.

The prices He Ao offered were quite reasonable. He only made a fifty percent profit on the off-road vehicles, and while he earned more on the laser cannon, it was a modified product which differed greatly from the original G-04 laser cannon; charging a reasonable fee for the modifications was normal.

The two conducted their transaction via a payment-first-goods-later method, with Thorne transferring the payment to He Ao in cryptocurrency first, before He Ao handed over the items.

During this process, He Ao provided Thorne with a new wristband for the transaction, and closely monitored Thorne’s actions.

It was obvious that Thorne was pained to part with the payment.

Even for him, after so many years of business, it wasn’t easy to come up with nearly ten million federal coins in cash quickly. It took him half an hour and reaching out to friends in the bank to gather the sum.

As he transferred the funds to He Ao, flames seemed to spurt from his eyes.

He Ao, on the other hand, suggested that he drink more hot water to be careful of "getting fired up."

Of course, He Ao was a man of his word. As soon as Thorne’s transfer came through, He Ao immediately had Heish bring over the laser cannon and the off-road vehicle, and he released Thorne’s men.

As for He Ao turning around and making several times the money, Heish didn’t really have any feelings about it.

The reason He Ao could sell the goods to Thorne at such a high markup was that he had done a lot of preparation beforehand. In any other scenario, Thorne definitely wouldn’t have taken the bait.

Moreover, He Ao’s skills in modifying laser cannons were indeed superb, and his craftsmanship was worth quite a bit of money.

So this was actually money earned through skill.

And just as Thorne had finished making the payment, still somewhat groggy, he was taken away by the people arranged by He Ao and placed with his men.

An intense stench of garbage hit them all at once, and both Thorne and his men reflexively covered their noses.

Seeing this scene, Heish instinctively glanced at He Ao, whose expression remained calm, not bothering to cover up at all.

"Jess, you said you would escort us out," Thorne said, standing beside the laser cannon, calling out to He Ao.

The laser cannon had been brought by He Ao, so it was now directly at the warehouse entrance, while the off-road vehicle needed to be brought over by Heish from another location, which would take some time.

During this wait, Thorne’s gaze constantly rested on He Ao.

He Ao, for his part, didn’t care and walked over directly, "When a friend is leaving, it’s natural to see them off."

Watching He Ao approach, Thorne instinctively took a step back, then steadied himself, pretending like nothing had happened.

And just as the off-road vehicles arrived one after another, Heish’s wristband vibrated. She then glanced at the message quickly and waved towards He Ao.

"What’s up?"

He Ao, seeing her gesture, asked with some curiosity.

"An anonymous person has put a bounty on your whereabouts in the underground black market," Heish said quickly, "The person who finds you can get up to a million in reward, and if someone kills you, they can get directly fifteen million."

"Hm, did my price go up again?"

He Ao said with a smile, nodding.

"You need to be careful," Heish said softly. "Such a high bounty is enough to drive all the gangs in the West District crazy."

Fifteen million was a sum for which most in the Federation would risk their lives.

Even for an intermediary like Thorne, ranked second in Vitland, it would be difficult to gather ten million, let alone fifteen million.

This amount of money could allow any gang’s newcomer to leapfrog in status and live a life of high society in an instant.

Money tempts the heart.

"I understand," He Ao said, nodding lightly.

"Are you going to escort Thorne out? Will you come back after you leave?"

Heish, glancing at Thorne who had started to board the vehicle in the distance, asked quietly.

"Not for the time being, I need to verify something," He Ao said slowly, "If you discover anything, just send me a message."

Last night, He Ao and Heish had already saved each other’s contact information.

"Okay," Heish nodded,

"Be careful. Thorne is no pushover. He’s likely got a few tricks up his sleeve for self-preservation or attack, but I didn’t find anything on him.

"Besides, Thorne’s request for your escort is not well-intentioned. Be careful. I’m waiting for you to pay me the commission fee; don’t let me have worked in vain."

"Don’t worry."

He Ao smiled, said goodbye to Heish, and turned to join Thorne’s group.

Most of the seats in the convoy had been taken, leaving only the front passenger seat of the leading vehicle empty.

He Ao walked over to the off-road vehicle, opened the door to the passenger seat.

Glancing around, he saw the modified laser cannon mounted on the roof of the second vehicle in the convoy, right behind He Ao’s vehicle.

And Thorne was sitting in that vehicle.

Then He Ao withdrew his gaze and looked at the driver in front of him driving the off-road vehicle.

The driver had a white ring-shaped mark on his hand, which was the mark left by wearing a wristband for a long time.

All of Thorne’s men had politely ’surrendered’ their communication devices that could connect to the outside world to Heish under her ’invitation.’

Heish didn’t covet their devices; she had placed them in a box on the rear seats of the first off-road vehicle.

The Zarote Area was crisscrossed, hiding various secret paths, like a labyrinth.

Relying solely on He Ao and Thorne’s men, they definitely wouldn’t be able to find the way out, so Heish arranged for a youth riding a motorcycle to lead the way in front.

The youth rode very quickly, and the convoy drivers pressed the gas pedal, turning this way and that, barely managing to keep up with his tail.

As a result, they quickly left the core area of the Zhalote District and approached the edge of the Zhalote District.

After traveling further, the motorcycling youth stopped, waved goodbye to He Ao, and then vanished into the piles of rubbish.

By this time, the entire convoy could see the normal yet dilapidated streets outside; a little further ahead lay the West District.

He Ao looked back at the vehicle Thorne was in, which was moving very slowly, seemingly wary of potential attacks from the surroundings.

Thorne still didn’t trust He Ao, fearing Heish and He Ao might set another trap here.

Meanwhile, He Ao spotted several children crouching on the crumbling buildings, looking down curiously, who were quickly taken away by their parents.

As the off-road vehicle slowly progressed, finally, the entire convoy entered the West District, leaving Zhalote District behind.

He Ao placed his hand on the door handle, manipulated the mechanical lock, and gently pushed the door to find it locked.

This type of off-road vehicle wouldn’t automatically lock the doors mechanically while in motion.

He Ao’s gaze turned to the rearview mirror. Behind this vehicle, the laser cannon mounted on the roof of the off-road vehicle slowly moved its barrel, aiming at this vehicle.

He Ao glanced at the wristband on his hand, which read 5:29 PM.

The last light of the sunset scattered on the old road.

The timing was just right.