Life Game In Other World
Chapter 577: The One Who Blinded Eyes (Two-in-One Mega - for Monthly Votes)

Chapter 577: Chapter 577: The One Who Blinded Eyes (Two-in-One Mega Chapter for Monthly Votes)

The off-road vehicle sped forward, the cool night breeze brushing He Ao’s cheeks.

The storage chip containing negative information about Ned flipped between his fingers like a lithe serpent moving between the gaps.

While another storage chip was wedged between his fingers.

His gaze fell ahead, where Heish had called for two vehicles, and Dasanc was sitting in the one in front.

At the moment, He Ao was sitting on the roof of the rear vehicle, his eyes sweeping across the surrounding decrepit buildings in the moonlight.

Zhalote District, in the West District near North Vitland District, was one of the earliest parts of West District.

To get from Plante District to Zhalote District, one must traverse vertically through the chaotic West District. Sitting on the roof allowed He Ao a better vantage point to anticipate any dangers lurking in the crowd or nearby buildings.

The traffic laws of the Federation were generally similar, but there were many details that differed between cities.

For instance, Dawn City does not allow passengers to extend their limbs out of the vehicle, nor to sit on the roof, violations that would result in a fine.

Vitland City, however, did not have such meticulous regulations, allowing passengers to ride however they pleased, even standing inverted on the hood of the car.

However, in such cases, if an accident were to occur, the insurance company might refuse coverage.

In Vitland, He Ao’s act of sitting on the vehicle’s roof was legal.

As his eyes swept the area, He Ao was also reviewing the day’s events.

The Mysterious Person had sent Ved to kill Dasanc and Heish; Ved luring He Ao into the trap was his own initiative.

This meant that the Mysterious Person’s original plan did not involve directly attacking He Ao. This could be deduced from when He Ao was in the mental institution, the Mysterious Person had contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation instead of sending someone with an incomplete C-level Gene Potion to deal with He Ao.

Even with the existence of the C-level Gene Potions, the Mysterious Person likely still had concerns, either a lack of manpower or other arrangements.

Considering the Mysterious Person’s previous actions, he was quite conservative; for the alley assassination of the D-level Jess, he sent a team of mercenaries and even a C-level agent.

In the pursuit of He Ao, dozens of D-level Gene Potions were used, along with three C-level potions, and from Ved’s words, it could be inferred that the Mysterious Person had also sent C-level agents to support those mercenaries, but they arrived too late and missed He Ao.

If it hadn’t been for He Ao taking control of the situation in that abandoned building, catching the mercenaries off-guard and swiftly concluding the fight, he might not have had the chance to rally more forces.

Otherwise, He Ao might not have been able to leave that deserted building.

After those two assassination attempts, the Mysterious Person became extremely cautious about attacking He Ao, especially after He Ao killed Arent in the mental institution and took the wooden box, he most likely became even more cautious.

Hence, He Ao estimated that as long as he didn’t step into an area where the Mysterious Person might have set up a trap, like going home, the Mysterious Person probably wouldn’t actively mobilize forces to kill him in the short term.

Ved, a C-level, coming alone on an assassination mission without any subordinates, would not have dared to lure He Ao over if he had even one subordinate with him.

He Ao had a premonition that the trusted subordinates of the Mysterious Person, those mid-tier forces, were mostly killed by him.

In such a situation, the actions of the Mysterious Person would be even more cautious, as gathering a group of elite forces willing to fight to the death is not an easy task.

And if He Ao’s guess was correct, it opened up a lot of room for maneuvering.

Although He Ao judged that the Mysterious Person would not send someone to actively attack him on home turf, being cautious is never a fault, and moreover, the Mysterious Person’s targets weren’t limited to him—Dasanc was also on the list.

Even if incapable of taking down He Ao, finding a sniper to eliminate Dasanc would be feasible.

A slender and shapely arm extended out of the passenger’s side window, and Heish poked her head out from the side, her hand holding onto the door as she leapt onto the roof with a flip.

She looked up at the surroundings, "Isn’t it cold here?"

"It’s alright."

He Ao pulled at the leather coat he was wearing.

This coat was something he had just purchased by the roadside. He didn’t feel cold, but his clothes were torn and no longer presentable after the previous battles.

"I’ve synchronized the chat history. Did you rush over after seeing the location Ved sent from my wristband?"

Heish sat next to He Ao and whispered.

"No," He Ao shook his head, "As soon as I saw your message assuring there were no issues, I started heading this way. Even if Ved hadn’t sent me the location, as long as you held out long enough, I could have found my way here."

"Ah?"

Heish was taken aback, looking up at He Ao in surprise, "You mean, me—I mean, how did you know I was in danger?"

"Hmm?" He Ao glanced at her, puzzled, "You made it so obvious when you were flagging it; you also said there were absolutely no problems in the West District when we left Welme Medical Building."

Heish: ...

"That was an accident," Heish argued, "This time, when I got the information you wanted, there were no issues. It was only during the handover with Dasanc that a problem arose."

"Is it possible," He Ao pondered, "that Ved had been following you all along, and he only made his move when you were handing over the information to Dasanc?"

Heish: ...

This guy’s damn sharp tongue.

But she knew He Ao was joking, and they both were clear that it was highly unlikely for Ved to have followed her to Dasanc.

She had started from Zhalote District, took several detours, and had a keen sense of anti-surveillance. It was highly unlikely that Ved could catch her trail. Instead, it would be much easier for Ved to follow Dasanc and then find her, capturing both in one fell swoop.

The scene fell quiet for a moment.

The silent night breeze brushed against the woman’s fair cheeks, "Anyway, thank you for today."

"No need to thank me, just waive my commission fee."

He Ao said with a laugh.

Heish turned her head to look at He Ao, smacking her lips, "Alright, no more jokes. If there’s anything you need me to do, just say it."

"Okay."

He Ao nodded lightly.

The night breeze caressed both their faces. In this quiet wind, it was as if a gentle woman whispered a soft ’thank you’.

At that moment, Heish seemed to notice something, "Wait here for me."

She jumped out of the vehicle and ran into a nearby convenience store.

After a minute, she ran back out, holding two bottles of sparkling water, sprinting to catch up with the SUV and hopping onto the roof.

"Try this,"

She handed one bottle of sparkling water to He Ao, "I noticed you seemed to enjoy this kind of sparkling water at the dinner."

"Thank you."

He Ao took the sparkling water, opened the cap, and took a sip. The expanding gas burst in his throat in an instant, and he smiled, looking at Heish, "Not bad."

"You should trust my taste."

Heish sat down, opened her own bottle of sparkling water, and looked around, "Sometimes you’re so professional it makes me forget that you’re a professor."

The spot He Ao chose had the best view.

"People always change,"

He Ao smiled and took another sip of sparkling water, looking at the buildings around, "As a child, I was pretty well-behaved. My grades weren’t too bad or too good, and I never dared to do anything outrageous. Back then, I really aspired to sit on top of a car roof; it felt so cool."

"I thought you would have been that kid who had exceptional grades and was the envy of everyone at school,"

Heish said with a laugh.

"Everyone has different talents. Those with a natural aptitude for research don’t necessarily get great grades,"

He Ao looked ahead at the road shimmering with dim yellow lights. The streets of West District hadn’t been maintained in a long time, and they were full of pits and bumps, making for a very bumpy ride, "My parents rarely scolded me over my grades."

Jess’s father hardly ever demanded that Jess should be number one; he only asked Jess ’not to fall behind’.

Almost every time, Jess just managed to get into prestigious schools, maintaining a mid-range performance, and then he barely made it into Vitland University.

"That must be nice."

Heish curled her legs up, hugging her knees, and looked up at the bright moon in the sky.

Below the moonlight, at the edge of the city, lay Zhalote District where the Scavengers lived.

He Ao’s gaze also followed to the end of the buildings, "You have a bank card, a social security account, you’re not a Scavenger, right?"

"Hmm,"

Heish fell silent for a moment, took a sip of water, and moonlight shone on her eyes, twinkling with a faint glow. Then she spoke slowly,

"I originally lived in Plante District. My father was a factory worker nearby, and my mother was a domestic cleaner. We rented an old apartment close to the Industrial District, sharing a three-bedroom apartment with two other tenants.

"When I was in school, I did very well and often received A’s. Whenever I showed my report card to my mother, she would be very happy. She always believed that I could go to university, move to a better place, and even afford to rent an apartment on my own someday."

After saying these things, she paused, silently took a sip of water.

He Ao quietly sat beside her, observing the surroundings.

In the brief pause that followed, Heish spoke again,

"I always thought this would be my future life as a child, but everything changed during my tenth year.

"My mother was diagnosed with malignant tumors, and the treatment required a huge sum of money, even the cheapest special medication was beyond what our family could afford.

"My mother had a temporary work contract with the cleaning company, which meant that the cleaning company didn’t have to buy her health insurance, and we had to bear all of my mother’s medical expenses, our savings soon ran out.

"After being diagnosed with the tumor, my mother’s health got worse, and she soon couldn’t work, bedridden.

"To earn the money for my mother’s special medication, and to sustain our family’s living, my father worked overtime like crazy, sometimes working night shifts for a week or two straight. At that time, I didn’t realize anything, only noticing that the bread at home was getting harder to swallow, and that my father was coming home later and later."

"It was like this, life was hard, but it seemed we could get by, but one day, my father’s factory called my mother, my father had passed away. He accidentally got caught in a machine while working a night shift and left behind nothing but some shredded clothes.

"The factory said that my father hadn’t purchased accidental insurance, there was no compensation, but out of humanitarian spirit, they gave us five thousand federal coins.

"They packed up some of my father’s personal belongings and handed them over to us. The day we collected his belongings, my mother got up from her bed, dressed for a long time, and took me to that factory. It was my first time there, I just remember it being very big, very luxurious,

"The employee who showed us in mentioned that the landscaping trees at the entrance of the factory each cost five thousand federal coins.

"Later I found out that the factory was one of the largest ones under the Welme Consortium.

"After my father’s death, my mother’s health deteriorated rapidly, she talked less and less, and one morning when I called her to get up, she never woke up again.

"The tenants we rented with helped me call the funeral home’s car, which took my mother away. The funeral home’s rent, labor fees, car fees, cremation coffin, service fees, all put together cost over six thousand federal coins.

"But at that time I only had the five thousand federal coins given by the factory, I had already spent five hundred federal coins on my mother’s medication, leaving less than four thousand five hundred federal coins. My parents’ credit cards had long since been maxed out buying medication, and I couldn’t borrow any money.

"The funeral home workers felt pity for me, they raised funds to cover a lot of the costs for me, and in the end, I only paid three thousand eight hundred federal coins. I couldn’t afford a grave, nor could I afford an urn, so the funeral home workers found me a small wooden box for my mother’s ashes.

"Not long after I returned home, the apartment management company came to collect the overdue rent, a total of six hundred federal coins. I couldn’t afford next month’s rent and was driven out of the apartment.

"That year, I was ten years old, holding my mother’s ash box, sleeping on the street side. At first, I was in the Plante District, but later, during the district cleanup, I and the other homeless people around me were chased out by the district management staff, and my mother’s ash box was stolen by the adults in that chaos.

"I only managed to retrieve a small handful of ashes, which I have kept ever since. Later, I sealed them in synthetic amber."

At this point, Heish paused, "Sorry, my story is too long."

But He Ao simply said, "I’m listening."

Heish paused for a moment, turned her head to glance at He Ao, and in the moonlight, seeing his bloodstained gentle face, for some reason, she felt her tension ease slightly.

She turned her head back, continuing to look around, "Afterward, I drifted from place to place, constantly being chased away by district or apartment managers, until I ended up in the West District. No one drove us away here, but there were gunshots everywhere, and people died every day.

"I formed a group with some other wandering children. We helped each other, stealing food from gang-run restaurants, picking up trash on the streets, selling it to cleaning companies or mechanical modification shops. I gradually became the leader of the kids.

"Unfortunately, this didn’t last long. The local gangs started to take notice of us. One of the kids got caught stealing food from a gang-controlled restaurant, had his legs broken. I led the others to make trouble at the restaurant as revenge, but it was a trap. To cover for the others’ escape, I was caught by the gang leader."

The SUV passed under a streetlamp, its dim light reflected in Heish’s shimmering pupils, "That leader said he liked my eyes, and then he gouged them out, broke my arms and legs, and after that, I passed out.

"When I woke up, I found myself in an unfamiliar street, with nothing around. I couldn’t see anything, just felt extremely weak. I thought I was going to die soon."

"Did you meet the Scavenger?"

He Ao asked.

"Yes,"

Heish nodded gently, "I met a Priest from the Scavengers who was out buying medicine. He was a C-level Transcendent with the ’Talent Sequence 71: Pharmacologist’. I called him Grandpa.

"Grandpa took me back to Zhalote District, treated my body, but because my eyes were found too late, they couldn’t be restored. He gave me a simple mechanical prosthetic eye, restoring partial vision for me.

"Grandpa had no offspring, so the two of us depended on each other. That time was the happiest period of my life. Grandpa taught me many things, from astronomy to pharmacology and math. Every time he went out, he would bring back delicious food and fun things for me, and interesting books, too."

A faint smile emerged on Heish’s cheeks. Since she started telling her story, it was the first time He Ao saw a smile on her face,

"Grandpa had strong influence among the Scavengers; he often left Zhalote District under the guise of buying medicine, making contacts with other consortiums, members of the municipal council, and mayoral candidates, trying to fight for the Scavengers’ rights. His ultimate goal in life was to let Scavengers live like normal Federation citizens.

"He worked frantically all his life for this cause, but achieved nothing. No one was willing to help him, and even though new consortiums were willing to meet with him, they just wanted a share of the Cleaning Companies Alliance’s profits. Once they got what they wanted, they immediately cut ties with Grandpa.

"Grandpa was always unhappy when he returned, but he tried his best to avoid showing it to me.

"But all that ended when I was seventeen. Grandpa was assassinated by the cleaning company on one of his trips to buy medicine. They could no longer tolerate him. Although he managed to return to Zhalote alive, his body was seriously injured.

"He provided me with the best mechanical eye at the time, bought me many beautiful clothes, and through old acquaintances, found me a good job in Saint Lote District. He wanted me to leave."

Heish’s eyes flickered as she smiled, "In fact, I knew from the beginning why my grandfather adopted me. I had a grudge against the Welme Consortium. Although I was a street orphan, I was registered at birth and have a social security account—I am a citizen with an identity in the Federation.

"The scavengers have worked hard for many years, but still haven’t entered Vitland society or found their own allies. Therefore, my grandfather pinned his hopes on me, hoping I could realize the dream of him and the previous generations of scavengers.

"But the old man, he hesitated in the end. He didn’t want to place this burden on me, especially after he was assassinated. He started to fear that I would repeat his fate."

"But you convinced him later?"

He Ao spoke quietly.

"Mhm,"

Heish nodded, "After my grandfather died, I became the Priest of the scavengers and inherited his Talent Sequences. During my gradual promotion, I began to use my normal citizen status in the Federation to build my own force in the West District, eventually reaching the position I am in now."

She turned her head toward He Ao with an apologetic smile, "Sorry for telling such a long story."

"So what happened to that gang leader who blinded your eye later?"

He Ao asked with a smile.

"He did a lot of bad things. I blinded him too, broke his arms and legs, but I didn’t dump him on the street. Instead, I left him in his own hideout and walked away right in front of him."

Heish smiled, "When I checked the next day, he was already dead, his body full of wounds, stab and gunshot wounds alike. His underlings claimed they didn’t know what happened last night, but their hands were stained with blood."

"It seems he was truly despised."

He Ao nodded slightly.

His question had relieved the somewhat awkward atmosphere for a moment.

The flowing wind brushed through Heish’s burgundy short hair as she turned to He Ao, "So what about you, you, who are clearly a professor..."

"Do you remember that C-level who caught up with us at the Welme Medical Building that day? Do you think there was something wrong with his abilities?"

Instead of answering directly, He Ao asked slowly.

"His strength was weaker than that of a normal C-level, and he didn’t have very good control," Heish recalled quietly, "It seemed like he had advanced in rank by relying on some external force, and his state at the time of death was also peculiar."

"Gene Potion,"

He Ao reached for the pendant in front of his chest as the entrance to Zhalote District appeared ahead. He looked to Heish, "Do you have a gun I could borrow?"

"Huh?"

Heish was startled, then quickly fished out a powerful handgun from her jacket and handed it to He Ao.

"Thank you."

He Ao put down his bubble water, took the handgun, and continued, "Please tell the car in front to turn the steering wheel hard to the left."

"Okay."

Heish immediately picked up a walkie-talkie and repeated He Ao’s words into it.

Meanwhile, He Ao raised the handgun, turned around, and aimed at the old building behind him.

The off-road vehicle up ahead made a hard left to the edge of the street.

Bang—

The searing bullet cut through the cool night air, grazing the off-road vehicle’s frame and hitting the road surface ahead.

If the off-road vehicle hadn’t turned left, that bullet would’ve hit Dasanc right in the back of the head as he sat in the back.

At the same time, He Ao pulled the trigger.

Bang—

With the roar of a gunshot, a sniper lying at the edge of a distant building suddenly stiffened and fell backward, his cheeks covered in blood.

He Ao turned back to Heish, who was looking at him, dumbfounded, as if nothing had happened. He handed the gun back to her and softly continued,

"The person behind the scenes, in the name of researching something that could enhance the power of Transcendents, my father was murdered. My mother was murdered. My wife was murdered. And now, he wants to kill me, it’s that simple."

Heish closed her small mouth slowly, as people from the off-road car in front were panicking and rushing out. She looked at He Ao, at this man whose gentle and refined appearance concealed a terrifying madness, "So, what are you planning to do."

"My thoughts are the same as yours," He Ao said with a smile, "Let those who blind others be blinded in turn."

He slowly released his grip on the pendant. The chip containing negative information about Ned and the flow of Gene Potion raw materials lay silently in his palm.