Life Game In Other World
Chapter 671: Bloodstained Coins and Bread (Long - for Monthly Tickets)

Chapter 671: Chapter 671: Bloodstained Coins and Bread (Long Chapter for Monthly Tickets)

He Ao’s hand rested on the door handle, ready to get out of the car when suddenly he felt a pang and looked up into the rearview mirror.

In the back seat, Jia Xi had somehow sat up, her adorable eyes wide as she stared at He Ao.

It appeared she hadn’t slept well.

He Ao gazed at the little girl in the rearview mirror and smiled, "Wanna come down with Grandpa?"

"Mm-hmm!"

Jia Xi vigorously nodded her head, then reached out to open the rear car door.

He Ao also picked up his cracked cane and stepped out of the car.

He was now following up on the source of the homeless information provided by ’Blood Wolf’.

Since places like city halls and social security groups, which typically record such information, would not likely have such detailed information on the homeless, it was highly probable that Blood Wolf’s information came from an investigation.

Furthermore, because Blood Wolf’s information contained specific activities of the homeless, names and photographs, the investigation should not have been conducted online, as accurate information is hard to come by on the internet.

Therefore, the method the Evolution Acolytes likely used was the oldest and most effective form of investigation: offline personal inquiries.

Usually, face-to-face interactions yield more accurate information and make it easier to collect photographs of the homeless.

However, this also leaves behind a massive trail of activity, since a person asking various questions tends to leave an impression.

That’s why He Ao asked Eve to find one of the larger homeless congregations in Saint Joen City and hurried over.

He didn’t head to South City’s Seventh Street mentioned in Blood Wolf’s provided exemplar intelligence; the information might have been prepared in advance, so South City’s Seventh Street could very likely contain misleading traps for counter-surveillance.

At the moment, the homeless gathering He Ao was at was located at the southern part of West City, near the western city wall.

As He Ao stepped on the poorly maintained, cracked pavement, Jia Xi also closed the car door and stood by his side, "Grandpa, what are we going to do next?"

"Let’s find out who has been collecting personal information about these homeless folks."

He Ao glanced at the homeless people around him, his gaze passing over a vagrant who was crazily devouring a loaf of bread and settling on an elder huddled at the edge of the street.

The elder was skinny, with messy hair, a scruffy beard, and his face partially covered in grime; he sat leaning against the wall by the street, his eyes blankly staring at the sky, as if he were daydreaming or waiting for something.

Many people around had bread and water in their hands, while many others had gotten nothing, and this elder was one of those with nothing.

He Ao didn’t approach him directly but opened the map to check the vicinity and located a small supermarket nearby.

He first took his granddaughter to the supermarket and bought a large loaf of bread and water, then returned to the street where the homeless gathered.

Their arrival attracted some glances, but not too many.

However, some people kept watching them from a distance, their gazes fixed on the two of them.

He Ao paid no attention to these onlookers, quickly walking towards the elder he had spotted earlier, stopping beside him, and crouching down to ask, "Old buddy, could I ask you something?"

His voice seemed to awaken the daydreaming elder from a reverie.

The elder blinked his eyes a few times, unsteadily lowered his head, and looked towards He Ao.

Seeing the bread and water in He Ao’s hand, he spoke in a hoarse and slow voice, "Old brother, I don’t have anything to tell you, nor can I do any work. My body is old, I’m close to death, and I won’t fetch a good price."

Clearly, he was highly guarded, which is quite normal among the homeless; those who are too trusting don’t tend to survive for long.

He Ao looked at Jia Xi.

Jia Xi took the bread and water from He Ao’s hand and offered them to the elder, "Old grandpa, we just bought these at the supermarket nearby."

The elder lowered his head to glance at Jia Xi’s adorable face, his eyes slightly hesitant.

He Ao continued, "We’ll just ask some simple questions. Do you know of anyone who’s collected information on the homeless?"

The elderly man looked at the bread in Jia Xi’s hand, swallowed, hesitated a moment, and then slowly took the bread and water from her hand. His voice was hoarse as he responded,

"What secrets do we homeless have left? There are too many people collecting information to count. We’ve even sold our social security cards, bank cards, and passports."

Social security cards and passports are one key piece of identification the Federation uses to verify bank accounts. Some gangs would buy the ’set’ from the homeless, then use their bank cards for money laundering or other criminal activities.

"Has anyone taken your photo?"

He Ao asked in a low voice.

The information provided by ’Blood Wolf’ included an important component: ’photographs’ of the relevant individuals.

Having these photos could help those tasked with the job quickly locate their target, and were basically considered key information.

"Photos?"

The old man bit into the bread, chewed, and looked at He Ao with a puzzled glance, "The Labor Department Job Placement Office people would take photos of us and register our contact information, saying they’d contact us if there was suitable work,"

He glanced at his own wrist, where the screen of his old wristlet was cracked, and his wrist was covered in filth, "That’s what they said the year before last, and last year too. I’m nearly dead now and still, no suitable job."

In Saint Joen City, all water resources come at a charge. In areas with poor municipal services, even the water in public restrooms needs to be paid for before use, making it difficult for those living on the streets to keep themselves clean.

"Job placement office? They come out to the streets to register you?"

He Ao continued, with information from Blood Wolf that detailed specific addresses where the homeless were active.

"They’re not that kind-hearted,"

the elderly man said, biting into the bread, "We have to walk several streets to find their office before they’ll register us. They won’t let us stay there long for fear we’ll dirty their seats and floors."

"Did they ask for your address?"

He Ao continued.

"Big brother,"

the elderly man laughed, bread crumbs stuck to his lips and beard. He looked around and said, "Does it look like we have an ’address’? We can’t afford to buy houses, pay rent, or even sleep on streets guarded by Consortium security."

So they hadn’t asked for an address.

He Ao’s thoughts raced.

That meant the job placement office people had collected photos and phone numbers, but didn’t necessarily know where these homeless people were specifically active.

"Has anyone else come here to take photographs or gather your personal information?

He Ao asked again.

"Only the job placement office takes photos,"

the elderly man pondered as he chewed his bread, "There are many who want our information, like those recruiting laborers or the labor intermediaries. They all have my information, but now that I’m old, they don’t want it anymore."

"Hmm,"

He Ao nodded thoughtfully, glancing around.

From this information, it seemed the Evolution Acolytes had numerous channels to gather information about the homeless—such as from the job placement office or labor intermediaries, even from underground traders who dealt in bank cards.

But judging from these fragmented information sources alone, it appeared none of them individually could form the detailed data provided by ’Blood Wolf.’

However, they could find ways to bring multiple sources together, creating a complete dataset.

But actually, each source of information was incomplete; for example, the job placement office that collects photos required the homeless to register themselves, meaning many wouldn’t be registered.

Similarly, labor intermediaries primarily collected information for temporary employment arrangements, focusing on young and able-bodied individuals. The information of children and the elderly would likely be overlooked.

So, these disparate pieces of information, when gathered together, form a ’comprehensive information’ that probably won’t be too extensive.

Of course, it’s also possible that the Evolution Acolytes don’t need that much information on vagrants, capturing one batch before figuring out how to capture the next.

He Ao fell into a brief contemplation.

If these really were the channels through which the Evolution Acolytes collected information, then perhaps he could further probe into the transaction channels between the Evolution Acolytes and these information sources.

But he vaguely felt something was off.

The sources of this information were too chaotic; collecting it would require contact with too many forces, which would increase the risk of the Evolution Acolytes’ exposure.

And if they were purchasing information from a highly connected information broker, intentionally buying information on vagrants would expose a particular interest. Moreover, such brokers might not have been untouched by the Pollution Cleaning Department, which also increases the exposure risk for the Evolution Acolytes.

The Evolution Acolytes might not care about exposure now, but before, especially when Night Hawk was still present, they were very keen on hiding themselves.

From He Ao’s perspective, to keep things as confidential as possible and eliminate intermediaries, personally collecting information would be a good method.

Moreover, personally collected information would also be more detailed and controllable, which could increase the success rate of capturing vagrants.

However, the premise of using this method is that the person collecting the information must be well-hidden, enough to deceive onlookers and not be detected.

From the information He Ao currently had access to, if they were indeed using investigation tactics themselves, then there must be an extremely effective ’camouflage’ covering them, preventing He Ao from directly obtaining their information.

He Ao had the nagging feeling that he might have missed something.

"Old brother, if you have no business here, you’d better leave quickly,"

While He Ao was pondering, the Elderly who was eating bread put down the bread and looked at He Ao, whispering, "Someone neatly dressed like you... in this place could easily..."

"Old man, can’t even a free loaf of bread shut you up?"

As he spoke, a sharp young voice came from not too far away.

He Ao looked up and saw two young men in simple vests with various patterns tattooed on their bodies and disheveled hair coming towards him, clearly gang members.

They glanced at He Ao, and the young man on the left pulled out a rusty steel rod from his waist, slapping it against his palm,

"Old man, have you greeted us when you entered our territory? Have you paid the toll?"

"Isn’t this supposed to be a public area?"

Jia Xi glanced at the two men and asked with a slightly childish voice.

"Yo, this little doll has quite the temper,"

The young man on the right also took out a steel rod, looked at Jia Xi, "Doll, if your grandfather doesn’t pay enough toll today, you won’t be leaving."

"Thank you, old buddy."

He Ao glanced at the two men, thanked the man sitting on the ground, then stood up, took his granddaughter by the hand, turned around, and prepared to head back to the off-road vehicle.

"Old Geezer!"

The young man on the left, seeing He Ao turning away, realized that he was being ignored.

He lifted the steel rod, grasped it with both hands, and swung it towards the back of He Ao’s head.

If this strike hit, a normal elderly person would either die or be gravely injured.

At the same time, the other young man on the right reached out to grab Jia Xi.

"Be careful!"

The Elderly sitting on the ground, originally eating bread, glanced at the bread in his hand, then abruptly moved his body and lifted his leg, attempting to trip the young man on the left. However, due to his extreme frailty, he barely moved before the young man effortlessly leaped over him.

The young man didn’t even look at the Elderly, instead raising the steel rod high, his face twisted excitedly as he brought it down toward the back of He Ao’s head.

Everything happened so fast that the elderly man sitting on the ground opened his mouth wide, staring at the steel rod. He wanted to reach out to He Ao but was completely powerless, only managing to stretch his hand towards Jia Xi at his side.

Kang—

The sound of metal clashing against metal rang out instantly.

To the homeless old man’s amazement, the cracked cane appeared suddenly under the steel rod as if it had teleported, its curved handle hooking onto the rod before forcefully pulling it forward.

The young man holding the steel rod was yanked forward by the sudden burst of strength and was flung through the air, his head striking the base of a lamp post ahead, blood pouring out, lifeless.

Meanwhile, Jia Xi let go of He Ao’s hand, stepped back, turned around, and her small frame just so happened to crash into another young man who was lunging at her.

Her slight shoulders collided with the chest and abdomen of the young man moving forward with inertia, followed by the crisp sound of breaking bones. The young man was sent flying, smashing into a wall, coughing out a mouthful of blood, and passed out.

The old man holding water and bread, his leg still outstretched in mid-air, stared dumbfounded at the scene.

Even the cry of ’be careful’ that he had uttered was still echoing in the air, and the fight was already over.

Jia Xi, looking at the old man’s dazed eyes, straightened her little dress, showed a cute smile to the old man, and then returned to hold He Ao’s hand.

A few paces behind them, some children who had stealthily aimed slingshots this way quietly put them away again.

"Well done,"

He Ao casually stroked Jia Xi’s head, giving praise for her counterattack.

At the same time, Jia Xi reached out to tug at his sleeve, her gaze directed behind them.

He Ao turned around, following his granddaughter’s gaze.

From where they stood, they had a clearer view of the entire street.

The recent fight had jolted most of the derelicts out of their confusion.

Among them were many children.

He Ao had actually noticed that some children seemed ready to help them with slingshots, suggesting that the two young men were not well-liked in this area.

But as the two young men were dealt with, the children snapped out of their intense emotions. Some shrank back against the perimeter walls, some leaned against tents, their eyes following the place where He Ao and Jia Xi had stood, to the old man sitting in the corner.

Looking at the bread in the old man’s hand.

"Grandpa,"

Jia Xi looked up at He Ao.

"Go ahead,"

He Ao smiled at her, vaguely realizing what his granddaughter was about to do.

Jia Xi nodded, then ran to the SUV, opened the rear door, and dug out a rusty biscuit tin from under the back seat cushion.

It was a biscuit tin he had brought back from Green Olive Street.

Then she, along with He Ao, ran back to the bakery where they had bought the bread, took out the blood-stained coins, and exchanged all the coins for large loaves of bread.

Afterward, she carried these loaves back, tore each big loaf into several smaller portions, and distributed them in turn to the children on both sides of the street.

Some of the children received the bread with blank expressions, some said thank you under the guidance of a nearby father, mother, or elder, some remained silent, and some tried to refuse.

But in the end, Jia Xi managed to share the bread among every child as best as she could.

When Jia Xi returned to He Ao’s side, He Ao reached out and gently wrapped his arm around his granddaughter’s shoulder.

At that moment, he too realized what important detail he had overlooked until now.