Life Game In Other World -
Chapter 568: Side by Side (A Big - Asking for Monthly Tickets)
Chapter 568: Chapter 568: Side by Side (A Big Chapter Asking for Monthly Tickets)
The apartment building also had hidden sentinels, lurking in dark corners, monitoring everyone entering the premises.
Watching the room where Jess’s parents lived.
But because the main force of mercenaries had been annihilated by He Ao in the dilapidated building previously, the Mysterious Person likely didn’t have enough subordinates now.
The sentinels tasked with surveilling Jess’s parents’ residence were not many, only positioned at several strategic locations.
They thought they were hiding in the darkness, but in He Ao’s field of vision, they were extremely conspicuous.
He Ao quickly bypassed a few rather noticeable guards and then tucked into a blind spot in the field of vision of a sentinel who was renting a nearby apartment, entering the apartment building where Jess’s parents lived.
This particular apartment building was somewhat old, a property developed by the real estate company under the aegis of Vitland University, offering certain discounts to professors and teachers working on campus who were purchasing homes.
Back then, Jess was young and had saved some money; he and his wife took out a loan to buy this apartment.
Later on, thanks to the ever-increasing income of his father and the royalties from his mother, the couple managed to pay off the mortgage.
Although professors at Vitland University belonged to the higher-income group, their wages weren’t actually high compared to the real high-income groups.
Even after he became a professor, the salary from Vitland University was only 150,000 federal coins, but Jess’s father frequently helped companies with simple projects or served as a consultant for them, receiving consulting fees.
All things considered, after Jess’s father became a professor, his annual income ranged between 350,000 to 450,000 federal coins.
In his youth, the income situation was even worse, about only 100,000 federal coins.
This income was already above that of most Federation residents, but compared to North Vitland’s average price of 20,000 federal coins per square meter for homes, it was still slightly insufficient.
Especially since the price of the apartment they purchased was higher due to its proximity to Vitland University—even after enjoying the teachers’ discount—it was still as high as 34,000 federal coins per square meter.
The apartment of just over 90 square meters that Jess’s parents bought had a tax-inclusive price of around 3.4 million federal coins; additionally, this property required an annual real estate tax of 1.7% of the total value of the home.
Because the property tax is levied based on government valuation, and not on the purchase price, Jess’s parents, having enjoyed the discount, paid a slightly higher property tax than if it were calculated on the purchase price, about 70,000 federal coins.
If Jess’s father hadn’t been continuously successful in his career and his mother hadn’t earned a substantial income from royalties as a bestselling author, the couple might not have been able to afford this house.
Even so, the two only managed to fully pay off the housing loan when Jess was about to enter middle school.
During that period, because they also had to pay for Jess’s expensive private school tuition, the couple hadn’t actually saved much money.
After their lives stabilized, aside from keeping some savings for investment or emergencies, Jess’s parents donated almost all of the rest of their money, using it to help those in difficult situations.
Jess’s charitable habits were formed during that time, influenced by what he saw and heard.
As the numbers on the apartment building’s elevator display quickly changed, memories of Jess’s past flickered through He Ao’s mind like phantoms.
Finally, the elevator stopped on the fifth floor, where Jess’s parents lived.
He Ao stared at the familiar door, took several steps forward, and underwent facial and fingerprint verification.
Accompanied by the sound of mechanical movement, the door opened in response.
A somewhat gentle female voice echoed in He Ao’s ears,
"Welcome home, Jess~"
He Ao paused for a moment, then pushed the door open and entered the room.
Jess’s mother was a bit free-spirited, often indulging in flights of fancy. As for these seemingly whimsical actions, Jess’s father didn’t hinder her but often supported his wife’s creativity.
The two had encountered quite a few barriers because of this.
This recording in the smart lock was a masterstroke by Jess’s mother.
Although most smart locks in the Federation support custom unlock voices, usually these voices are those of some idol stars’ voice packs.
But one day, Jess’s mother, looking at Jess coming home, suddenly wanted to record a voice pack for him herself, saying she wanted Jess to feel the sensation of coming home.
Then Jess’s father immediately expressed his agreement, and the two people, both in their fifties, spent the afternoon recording under their son’s perplexed gaze. They selected the best sound and set it as the smart lock’s unlock voice.
Although after that, Jess felt the voice was too embarrassing and strongly requested his mother to change it, the voice remained.
On the afternoon they recorded this voice, the mother’s voice was as happy as a child’s. Her son was sitting not far ahead, working on the computer, while her husband stood behind her, cheering her on.
The afternoon sunlight was warm, and the golden glow spread evenly on the floor.
He Ao entered the room and slowly closed the door behind him.
He didn’t turn on the lights; in the darkness, his vision was even better than under the light.
The room was simply furnished, with light-colored floors, a light-colored sofa, and the necessary furniture neatly placed around the room.
Jess’s parents weren’t demanding about their lifestyle, so the household setup was very simple.
The most expensive thing in the entire home was the bookshelf piled up along an entire wall in the parents’ study.
In the Federation, paper books are expensive and rare; unless one goes to the large libraries in the city center, it’s difficult for people to see dense paper books in everyday life.
He Ao’s hand rested on the light-colored sofa; some dust had gathered in the gaps of the sofa.
A year had passed since Jess last returned here.
Although a household cleaning robot had been cleaning throughout the year, its cleaning capabilities were always limited, with some nooks and crannies very difficult to be cleaned.
Since suffering from mental issues, Jess had returned here less and less frequently, and each visit he would just sit on the sofa, zoning out, grounding his rationality, hardly noticing any changes in the house.
He Ao withdrew his gaze from the minimally decorated living room and walked towards the study beside it.
He gently pushed open the door of the study, and the sophisticated bookcase that covered an entire wall appeared before him.
The dense mass of books on the bookshelf was the collection of Jess’s father’s lifetime.
In fact, after the mother’s death, Jess had turned the whole study upside down in search of clues to his parents’ deaths.
During the process of cleaning the house with his wife, he had roughly searched the other corners of the room as well, but basically found no clues.
Initially, Jess thought that his father would have placed the book containing the knowledge of the Mysterious in the apartment, but he found nothing.
He didn’t obtain that book, nor any clues to his father’s research.
And apart from the farewell letter his wife Tiny found in the gap of the bedroom wardrobe, the mother had left nothing behind.
It seemed that both of Jess’s parents were unanimously reluctant to leave any relevant materials for Jess, preventing him from investigating the ultimate truth.
After that, Jess gave up searching the apartment and only came to sit occasionally.
But all of the previous assumptions were based on one thing, that Jess didn’t know what his father was ultimately doing, nor did he know what the Mysterious Person was funding his father to do.
He was just aimlessly looking for possible clues, attempting to find the key to solving the problem by exhaustion.
However, some things are difficult to detect without prior knowledge.
He Ao didn’t know whether Jess’s father had left anything at home.
But he knew that Jess’s mother probably knew some inside information and had left some clues.
After Jess’s father died, his mother passed away shortly after.
Theoretically, Jess’s mother had nothing to do with the incident, but she ended up in a state of mental disarray and committed suicide in the study.
The mother’s suicide was never considered suspicious, and she didn’t leave any messages behind.
But her death in itself signified something.
After all, Jess’s father’s death was very likely due to forming a group to oppose the Mysterious Person and thwart the Mysterious Person’s Sacrifice plans, and he fell victim to a trick outside of the Mysterious Person’s scheme.
Against such a backdrop, Jess’s mother ’committed suicide’ shortly after Jess’s father’s death, due to an unknown reason.
If Jess’s mother’s death was not an accident but a ’masterpiece’ by the Mysterious Person.
It meant that the Mysterious Person had followed the clues related to Jess’s father and found Jess’s mother.
Jess’s father very likely hid something from the Mysterious Person, and these things were his bargaining chips in his game against the Mysterious Person.
Being the leader and the head of the Array project, without power or money, the most effective chip Jess’s father could hold was one thing – ’knowledge’.
The urgent knowledge that the Mysterious Person wanted.
From this perspective, it’s possible that Jess’s father had knowledge to stabilize the operation of the Array, but had not yet found a way to replace sacrifices.
To keep the Mysterious Person from using this knowledge to carry out more sacrifices and harm more innocents, he didn’t reveal this knowledge to the Mysterious Person.
Putting himself in Jess’s father’s shoes and considering the situation at that critical time, Jess’s father might have used this knowledge to negotiate with the Mysterious Person, winning some time in his opposition.
But upon realizing that he would never cooperate, the Mysterious Person made a move to kill him outright, not giving him a chance to turn the tables.
Did Jess’s father actually have a chance to turn the tables?
No, he didn’t; Christos was still a mere youth back then, more than a decade ago.
Jess’s father must have sought help from the city government and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but from the final outcome, neither aided him.
So, the only option was to seek help from consortia to counterbalance other consortia.
But which consortium would be willing to help him?
Back then, the Array project he was leading was not like the Gene Potion project Jess later worked on, which already had successful products and a complete production process.
The Array project was only a prototype and needed an unknown sum of money for future investment.
Of course, he could exchange his share of hidden knowledge for the consortium’s help.
But other consortia would not be more merciful than the Mysterious Person; once they acquired that hidden knowledge and completed the entire Array process, they might initiate more insane sacrifices than the Mysterious Person ever did.
They might even promote the legalization of these sacrifices, allowing impoverished individuals who couldn’t survive to sacrifice themselves, then produce Transcendents in batches.
This was something He Ao had already seen in Limen City.
So, consortia were unreliable, a fact that Jess’s father understood as well.
He knew very well that he could not achieve his goal.
He Ao entered the study and stood in its very center.
This was the exact spot where Jess’s mother had committed suicide.
In the last two years before his demise, Jess’s father had been in a terrible state of mind, and it had become difficult for Jess to see his father again.
Even on the phone, his usually gentle father often betrayed a volatile temper, although he quickly suppressed it.
Jess’s father was human after all, and in moments of utmost despair and oppression, when he couldn’t see a way forward, he too felt lost and irritable.
Even Jess could sense that something was off with his father.
And how could a sensitive mother, who spent every day with her husband, fail to notice?
Considering the final letter from Jess’s mother, asking him to stop probing into these matters, she might have detected it long ago or even found a way to uncover her husband’s secrets.
But in those moments of despair and oppression, she chose to stand by her husband.
Even though they knew there was no hope to be seen on the road ahead.
Even though they both could see the fate that ultimately awaited them.
The Mysterious Person’s Array remained incomplete until He Ao destroyed it, and the Mysterious Person never obtained the knowledge he wanted.
Until the end, Jess’s parents never betrayed their resolve.
He Ao stood where his mother had died, looking at the bookshelf stuffed full of books.
From this spot, at this angle, the bookshelf directly in front of him held a family photo of Jess as a child with his parents.
Back then, the father’s smile was happy and gentle, the mother held the young Jess, her gaze playful yet touched with tenderness.
The Mysterious Person was very likely to have approached Jess’s mother since her often uncontrollable emotions after her husband’s death were probably due to the Mysterious Person’s influence.
The Mysterious Person might have tried to extract those secret pieces of knowledge from Jess’s mother’s lips.
He Ao didn’t know how Jess’s mother dealt with the Mysterious Person, but the end result was that she committed suicide in the study.
The Mysterious Person did not get what he wanted, nor did he come after Jess to inquire about that knowledge.
After that, the Mysterious Person vanished as if he had disappeared until Jess found the old professor and began researching the Gene Potion, and then the Mysterious Person once again appeared before Jess.
This time, he did not resort to force; instead, he managed to drive Jess insane, losing his reason and making it easier to control him before gradually having Jess take over the research on the Gene Potion.
This time, he succeeded, and compared to the Array project, the Gene Potion was much more complete.
Of course, the outcome was the same; even if the project was completed, death still awaited Jess.
He Ao’s gaze swept across the bookshelf, unsure whether he could discover any new clues on his return.
But judging from Jess’s memories, Jess’s father was a person who would not give up hope.
Even though he was dead, he firmly believed that there would always be a flame appearing in the night.
He Ao activated his Super Memory and surveyed the study.
Slim, lengthy tendrils, stretching out from the void, spread over the expansive bookshelf, swaying like a curtain of Shadow tendrils within his field of vision.
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