Life Game In Other World
Chapter 664: Witnessing (Long - for Monthly Tickets)

Chapter 664: Chapter 664: Witnessing (Long Chapter for Monthly Tickets)

"It seems your situation is not good,"

He Ao glanced at the man in the room. He didn’t answer the man’s question but instead directly commented.

From this man, he felt a certain oppressive force tainted with madness and distortion, which surely belonged to the leader of the Scorpion Gang.

He propped himself with a cane and step by step entered the room.

Behind him, Jia Xi followed closely.

The room was expansive; apart from some decorative partitions and load-bearing walls, the space was almost entirely open.

The man in front of him had turned this top-floor level into his ’residence’ by completely opening it up.

Near the door to this residence, there was a smart liquor cabinet filled with various prestigious bottles and a few leather sofas gathered around it.

"Today, the handover ceremony of Saint Joen Central Park took place in front of the ceremonial stage in the park,"

Between the liquor cabinet and the sofas, a transparent television hung by ultra-thin wires was replaying a news program that had been broadcast earlier in the day,

"Mayor Kroter took part in the ceremony and delivered a speech. He stated that the sale of Central Park brought in a significant sum for Saint Joen City, which will greatly alleviate the city’s debt burden. The excess funds will be used for welfare food distribution to provide sustenance for the many still suffering from hunger.

"The Central Park project is the last in a series of government asset sales initiated by Mayor Kroter since taking office, marking the end of a three-year government streamlining plan.

"Professor Vickward from Nord Business School spoke highly of the Saint Joen City government’s downsizing and return to market operation. He believes this will significantly reduce the city government’s expenditures and markedly boost its revenue through active corporate taxation.

"He claimed that this will effectively alleviate the current dire debt situation of Saint Joen City and greatly enhance the city government’s credibility in the Federation financial market.

"Currently, Saint Joen City has accumulated debts of several hundred billion federal coins in the Federation financial market, exceeding the city’s total economy and amounting to many times the annual tax revenue of the entire city.

"The financial markets have long regarded the Saint Joen City government as being on the verge of bankruptcy, and the sale of government assets may effectively ease the current predicament.

"The other party in this transaction, the Kajet Grain Industry Group who purchased Central Park, also sent board members to participate in the ceremony.

"The visiting board member also made a speech, emphasizing the importance of Saint Joen City to the entire group, and stated they would do their utmost to help Saint Joen City through the crisis..."

"Life’s circumstances are full of ups and downs,"

The man in front of the liquor cabinet took out a decanter and poured the red wine into it, answering the words He Ao had said upon entering. Then he glanced at the transparent television and casually laughed, saying,

"When Central Park was first built here in Saint Joen, it cost two hundred million federal coins, and now if put on the market, it could easily fetch three to four hundred million. But today, the Kajet Group bought the park for just one hundred and seventy million federal coins. This amount of money thrown into the city government’s debts wouldn’t even cause a splash."

He paused the television with his hand, took two wine glasses from the liquor cabinet, one hand holding a glass and the other the decanter, and looked at He Ao, "Sit down for a drink?"

With that, he walked towards the sofas.

"Do you have any drinks?"

He Ao, with a calm expression, walked toward the sofa with his granddaughter, casually continuing the conversation.

"There’s milk."

The man set down the decanter and glasses on the table in front of the sofa and slowly raised his hands.

At the end of the dim lighting, a robot came, holding a carton of milk, stopping behind the man.

As the robot arrived, He Ao and his companion had also reached the front of the sofa.

"Thank you,"

The man took the milk and, with his fingers at the edge, neatly tore off a corner with gentle force. He then sat on the sofa, smiling as he placed the opened milk on the table and pushed it towards Jia Xi’s direction, "Minors are not allowed to drink alcohol, so you’ll just have to make do with a sip of milk for now, kiddo."

He Ao glanced at the carton of milk.

It was fresh milk produced by the Kajet Group, distinct from the ’milk’ usually sold in the market that was made by diluting synthetic milk powder, and it was expensive.

"It seems that you don’t quite approve of Mayor Kroter’s actions?"

He Ao sat down on the sofa composedly, and Jia Xi sat down next to him as well.

"No, I quite like him,"

The man shook his head with a smile,

"He has made my life much better than before. Over these eight years of his administration, I’ve lived rather well,

"He has done a lot of ’increasing revenue and reducing expenditures’ things. For example, he increased government revenue by taxing basic consumer goods,"

He lifted the decanter, poured a glass of wine for himself, and then filled He Ao’s glass as well, "But who buys the most basic consumer goods? No matter how big a rich man’s behind is, can he use two dozen rolls of toilet paper when he poops?

"So, most of these taxes ultimately end up falling on the poor. For those who can barely get by, it’s just a bit harder, but for those who were already struggling to survive, it’s the last stone that breaks the bridge.

"In the end, they only have me to turn to, and once they do, they have to pay me protection money and provide me with value."

At this, the man sneered, "So I quite like him."

He Ao looked up at the man.

Cito, who had lived in Saint Joen City for decades, was very clear about what kind of person the current Mayor was.

In fact, at the same time as he imposed a tax on basic consumer goods, Kroter also did another thing: in the name of encouraging economic development, he implemented a tax preference policy for the big consortiums in Saint Joen City.

Of course, few people noticed this because almost no media publicized this tax preference.

If it were not for Cito’s own considerable ability to search for information, after realizing that something was off about Kroter taxing basic consumer goods, he specifically went to look through the website of the Saint Joen City government and uncovered this tax preference.

"The gentleman seems to be someone with a strong sense of justice,"

The man smiled, looking at He Ao, "So why did you come here today, really?"

"I believe you already have the answer in your heart."

He Ao regarded him with composure.

"The Pollution Cleaning Department is busy dealing with their internal chaos, while the Federal Bureau of Investigation of Saint Joen City is no more than a clay idol,"

The man raised his goblet, took a sip of the red wine, "You’re here for the Evolution Acolytes? But those guys are all bad seeds just like me, not someone with a sense of justice like you, sir."

As he said this, his speech hesitated slightly, "It seems I’ve been ’betrayed’."

"Let’s talk about the Evolution Acolytes."

He Ao’s cane tapped on the ground, his cheeks focused on the man, "You should be very willing to share their information with me."

The situation in front of him was actually quite simple. While investigating the Night Hawk case, YiXiya had uncovered information on two disappearances: one on Saint Joen Ninth Street and the other in the Green Olive Street district.

Saint Joen Ninth Street was an ambush laid by Vite, already confirmed to be a trap.

But isn’t the Green Olive Street district a "trap" as well?

It’s just that the Saint Joen Ninth Street was manipulated personally by the one behind the scenes, whereas the Green Olive Street district was a case of using someone else’s hand to do the dirty work.

And the ’knife’ that the behind-the-scenes manipulator used was the Scorpion Gang leader in front of He Ao at the moment.

In fact, He Ao had thought of this possibility before coming to this district.

After all, the disappearance cases in the Green Olive Street district were too conspicuous, obviously abnormal to an excessive extent.

From the deliberate mistakes Vite revealed, it was clear that the manipulator had the capability to selectively expose disappearance cases to guide investigators towards where he needed them to go.

Moreover, there was actually a point of doubt in the entire process of He Ao’s arrival.

That was that the entire Scorpion Gang had not made any preparations for his potential arrival, and they were caught completely off guard by him.

Up to now, YiXiya had already been attacked by two waves of C-level assailants, and under neither of these attacks did YiXiya suffer any harm.

By this point, the mastermind behind the scenes would easily deduce that something was off with YiXiya’s strength.

Therefore, when the mastermind attacked YiXiya in the afternoon, he also deployed armed unmanned drones for backup.

These drones with image transmission systems could not only launch attacks but also serve as ’Sentinels’.

The mastermind just wanted to use this drone to see whether YiXiya’s abilities had suddenly become stronger during the attack, or if she had found some assistance.

Of course, during the afternoon’s fight, He Ao deliberately avoided the drone’s camera and was not exposed to its field of vision.

But through this drone’s attack, the mastermind could at least confirm that YiXiya was still D-level, and hadn’t acquired superpowers that would enable her to easily counter C-level assailants.

The most likely explanation for YiXiya’s ability to counter-kill was that she had found a strong C-level ’companion’ by her side.

Even though the mastermind may still be unaware of He Ao, he should be able to deduce He Ao’s existence.

And with that deduction, realizing that YiXiya had a powerful companion, if the Scorpion Gang was under the mastermind’s control, to avoid loss of strength, the mastermind would definitely order the Scorpion Gang to strengthen their defenses.

This is also one of the reasons why He Ao chose to spend some time teaching Jia Xi Fist Technique at the entrance of the district; he was taking this time to observe the Scorpion Gang’s vigilance and waiting for an opportunity to act.

And the final result was that the Scorpion Gang seemed to have initiated no vigilance whatsoever.

At that time, He Ao realized that the Scorpion Gang had not received ’notification’.

His arrival here to find the Scorpion Gang was actually also part of the mastermind’s ’plan’.

However, this didn’t affect He Ao’s actions, because regardless of whether the Scorpion Gang was part of the manipulator’s power or just a borrowed ’knife’, one undeniable point was that the Scorpion Gang leader most likely had a deep relationship with the mastermind and knew a lot of relevant information.

He Ao came here actually to seek information; whether this info came from the mastermind’s subordinates or from the mastermind’s ’enemy’ didn’t make much of a difference.

Moreover, He Ao had also helped Jia Xi gain a lot of combat experience in the process.

However, now that the Scorpion Gang leader turned out not to be a subordinate of the mastermind and had even been played by him, the difficulty for He Ao to obtain information would likely be reduced.

Since he has already resorted to using the ploy of using another’s hand to eliminate someone, the relationship between the mastermind and the Scorpion Gang leader is probably not good.

The Scorpion Gang leader naturally tends to ’share’ information with He Ao to combat the common enemy.

"Where should I start?"

The Scorpion Gang leader pondered for a moment, he had no intention of hiding anything, after all, the mastermind’s scheme to use others to kill had been very successful, it was just that the dead were all his men.

He laughed and said,

"Let’s start from when this organization first approached me.

"Over ten years ago, when my turf wasn’t as big as it is now, a person with the account name ’Shadow Cutter’ found me. His opening line was simple, just ’Do you crave power?’

"At that time, I didn’t believe in this nagging fellow, but then he gave me a few tasks, all of them simple assassination missions,"

The Scorpion Gang leader took another sip of his red wine, seemingly lost in a brief memory, "After I killed enough people, he told me about the existence of the Polluted Monsters, and at the same time, he claimed that the Polluted Monsters were not just monsters—their power could be used by humans, and that would be the next step in human evolution."

"Is this where the name ’Evolution Acolytes’ comes from?"

He Ao asked in a low voice.

Evolution Acolytes, literally meaning followers of evolution.

"Yes,"

The Scorpion Gang leader nodded, a twisted smile unnaturally appearing on his face, "Later, under his guidance, I gradually found the Polluted Monsters and began to carefully breed these monsters.

"However, the first one I raised was soon discovered by the Pollution Cleaning Department, and I nearly got caught in the process.

"Afterward, I got smart and raised them in hiding, and as the breeding continued, my understanding of these monsters became deeper and deeper..."

He paused here, like a person briefly awakening from a drunken dream, looked at He Ao, and continued,

"I must’ve been the first person ’Shadow Cutter’ ’developed’ in Saint Joen City, but unfortunately, I never joined their organization. Unlike their pursuit of so-called ’purification,’ I purely enjoyed the extreme pleasure of gaining power."

"So, you later had conflicts with that ’Shadow Cutter’?"

He Ao asked calmly, "Over resource competition?"

The mastermind brought He Ao, ’YiXiya’s assistant,’ here, also inevitably with the thought of using He Ao’s hand to weaken the power of the Scorpion Gang.

"Old man, you have a keen ’sense of smell,’"

The Scorpion Gang leader laughed, "After all, the resources of this city are limited, and I dominate the best spot. In this district, people die every moment, and no one ever cares how they die, whether they become food for the monsters.

"If we’re talking about feeding Polluted Monsters, there are few places more suitable than this area, even the Pollution Cleaning Department doesn’t probe too deeply here.

"Those bad seeds of the Evolution Acolytes also like this place very much, and they try by all means to snatch this area from my hands."

His tone was calm, with a hint of pride, like a herder content with owning the best ’farming ground.’

He Ao looked up at him, then glanced at the silent hallway outside the door,

"Those who died, actually, someone does care."

People hiding on the twentieth floor very clearly know that those who are brought into the middle room of the thirty-fifth floor never come back out.

They actually know what’s happening in this building, they just can’t do anything about it.

They can only ’watch’.

Witnessing it all.