Life Game In Other World
Chapter 684: We Are Not Alone (Extra Large - Seeking Monthly Votes)

Chapter 684: Chapter 684: We Are Not Alone (Extra Large Chapter Seeking Monthly Votes)

"Does it hurt?"

Sienzi raised the automatic suturing device in his hand.

"No, it doesn’t hurt."

He Ao slowly shook his head, and then he glanced outside through the crack of the door.

Jia Xi was sitting on the chair, eating ice cream and watching television, without peeking this way.

"I don’t have much anaesthetic left, and its effect isn’t that great. If there’s a problem, you must tell me,"

Sienzi looked at He Ao’s calm expression and continued forward with the automatic suturing device in his control.

Throughout the process, He Ao maintained the same expression, not even frowning once,

until the suturing was finished, and He Ao’s slightly tensed muscles somewhat relaxed.

"Impressive,"

Sienzi gave He Ao a thumbs-up and packed away the automatic suturing device. "Old guy, are you sure you’ve never been a mercenary or an assassin before? But the mercenaries and assassins I’ve met have got weaker willpower than you."

He put the automatic suturing device aside and picked up the wound medicine from the table. "A guy like you, put into any Mercenary Corps, could quickly become the vanguard of the entire group."

"Are you suggesting a career path for my old age?"

He Ao looked at him with a smile.

"The competition among Mercenary Corps is fierce these days,"

Sienzi meticulously applied the wound medicine, "Youngsters who can’t find jobs are everywhere on the streets. Although the Kajet Consortium has driven down the price of mercenaries, at least it’s enough for a meal. Dying in the wilderness is better than starving to death on the streets."

As he spoke, his voice gradually lowered.

It wasn’t until he had finished applying all the medicine that he looked at the fierce wound on He Ao’s waist and remarked,

"Old guy, with your age, such an injury is very hard to recover from in a short period of time. For many elderly, such wounds and complications are enough to take their lives. Even though you are in better shape, you must be very careful,"

He continued to speak while wrapping He Ao’s waist with a bandage. "Theoretically, I should advise you not to move around for the next two or three months, and you should even be hospitalized for some time."

He wrapped the bandage around several times, "But I guess you won’t listen to me anyway. After applying the medicine, you’d better rest for a while when you’re back home, and don’t move too much, or the wound could easily reopen."

"Mm, I’ll be careful."

He Ao nodded and gently pressed on the bandage on his shoulder.

Sienzi passed him his coat, which was still intact and clean, and He Ao picked up the cane that was leaning on the side and walked towards the outside of the house.

At this moment, they were in the back room of Sienzi’s clinic.

Upon realizing the severity of He Ao’s injury, Sienzi had brought him here.

"What are you planning to do next?"

After stepping out of the back room, He Ao looked up at him.

"As you suggested,"

Sienzi glanced outside the window, "ask in person."

"Good luck."

He Ao gave a glance around and lifted his cane in a salute.

"Old guy,"

Sienzi watched him, softly speaking, "Heal well."

"I’ll try my best."

He Ao nodded.

Then he walked toward Jia Xi, who had finished her ice cream.

"Grandpa, where are we going next?"

Jia Xi looked up at her grandfather.

"We’re going home first."

He Ao reached out and ruffled her little head.

"Okay~!"

Jia Xi nodded excitedly, then she looked up at Sienzi, "Bye Uncle!"

"Bye Jia Xi!"

Sienzi also smiled and bid her farewell.

He walked to the door, watching as He Ao and Jia Xi left the clinic, got into the off-road vehicle parked outside, and eventually disappeared into the deep night.

He lifted his head and looked up at the bright moon in the sky.

Then he lowered his head and looked at his bracelet.

A row of text was projected,

Christos... Nolanka Group... Mutual Assistance Association of Absent Workers...

Each line of text was a name, a person’s name, or the name of an organization.

This is the information he had collected, which the media had captured ever since "K" appeared, the name that seemed to be changing the world.

——

The SUV drove along the quiet streets.

Jia Xi sat on the back seat, her small head leaning against the edge of the window, her chest rising and falling slightly.

He Ao withdrew his gaze from the rearview mirror.

Jia Xi had fallen asleep.

The little girl was too tired, she hadn’t slept while waiting for He Ao, and she didn’t sleep well last night either.

And the age she was in right now was when she needed a lot of sleep.

The vehicle slowly entered a smooth section of the road, and He Ao released the steering wheel, allowing Eve to drive while he himself opened his wristband to look at the file he had just received.

It was a key piece of data from the central host of the Evolution Acolytes headquarters, organized by Eve.

The key information in this file was much more than the information obtained from the branch of the Evolution Acolytes.

Although it seemed that there was still a part of the most secret information or knowledge not recorded in these files, the remaining information resolved many of He Ao’s doubts.

First, there were records about Night Hawk.

These documents explicitly mentioned that it was Night Hawk who had been taught by the Evolution Acolytes to cultivate Polluted Monsters.

However, Night Hawk didn’t kidnap and kill as they had imagined; instead, he just kept the Polluted Monsters hungry and continuously analyzed and researched them.

Therefore, the Evolution Acolytes had to kidnap some couriers and food delivery workers themselves, create some disappearance cases, and then blame it on Night Hawk.

The official documents of the Evolution Acolytes did not provide detailed information regarding these events, but Eve found many work plan documents relating to the kidnapping of ordinary people and the framing of Night Hawk on the employees’ computers.

It has to be said that the procedural work of the Evolution Acolytes was done very well, with kidnapping and framing both requiring planning and senior management approval.

Through these planning documents, Eve also traced back to find staff within the Evolution Acolytes who were in contact with the Pollution Cleaning Department.

The incident of Night Hawk breeding Polluted Monsters was reported to the headquarters of the Pollution Cleaning Department by this person.

But from other documents, this person had also ’accidentally died’ after Night Hawk’s death.

There were no records left on how he contacted the Pollution Cleaning Department or the nature of his ’accidental death’.

However, these files also recorded another piece of information related to Night Hawk.

In the month that Night Hawk went missing, it was the Pollution Cleaning Department that first found traces of Night Hawk through their keen sense of pollution and launched an attack before the Pollution Cleaning Department did.

Although all the core information about the incident seemed to have been ’destroyed,’ He Ao still found some indirect information about these actions through Eve.

For instance, the data on the personnel involved in the operation and the messages left on the internal forum of the Evolution Acolytes, etc.

In these pieces of information, a small part revealed the ’location’ where the operation participants went to besiege Night Hawk.

Then, using these fragmented pieces of information, He Ao roughly assembled five places where Night Hawk had appeared.

He immediately had Eve display the five locations on the map.

These five locations were scattered across the four districts of Saint Joen City, far apart from each other and not forming any particular pattern.

He Ao gazed at the towering buildings surrounding these locations, deep in thought.

Afterward, he closed the map and continued to look at the following documents.

The last thing related to Night Hawk by the Evolution Acolytes was their suspicion that Night Hawk’s body was hidden in the city’s sewer system, the most concealed place, so they had been sending people to search inside, but they had yet to find it.

Besides the information related to Night Hawk, these documents contained another very crucial file.

The Fusion Cultivation Method for Polluted Monsters.

This method only went up to C-level, and did not break through the C-level limit, but it basically outlined the fusion methods for Polluted Monsters.

Most importantly were the ’paintings’.

Those paintings that He Ao had seen at both the headquarters and branch of the Evolution Acolytes, left behind by the painters known as ’Listeners’.

These paintings were ranked into three levels by the people of the Evolution Acolytes.

The lowest were the wall hangings He Ao saw hanging on the walls in the corridor of the first floor of the charity foundation at the branch of the Evolution Acolytes.

Those wall hangings could calm down general Polluted Monsters and screen out individuals ’suitable’ for fusing with Polluted Monsters.

Those who were attracted by these paintings had the potential to fuse with Polluted Monsters and were thus used by the Evolution Acolytes to screen for ’newcomers’.

That’s why He Ao could see those wall hangings on the first floor of the Evolution Acolytes branch.

The paintings of medium level were mainly used for the fusion with Polluted Monsters.

These paintings could no longer be directly gazed upon by ordinary people and low-level Transcendents; C-level or lower Transcendents looking at these paintings without preparation would directly affect their psyche, causing them to mutate into Polluted Monsters or have their souls severed on the spot.

They could also attract almost all Polluted Monsters’ gaze, quieting them down.

The individuals wanting to fuse with Polluted Monsters needed to use a certain ritual in combination with these paintings.

The ritual was simple – a circular pattern was drawn on the ground with human blood, and then a slender crescent pattern within the circle.

The concave side of the crescent faced the direction where the painting was placed, with the Polluted Monster and the person who intended to fuse with it, one at the bottom of the crescent and the other at the top.

Once everything was prepared, they controlled both the Polluted Monster and the human to look forward at the painting simultaneously.

The two life forms affected by the painting would come together and fuse at the center of the crescent.

Although the physical body did not experience pain during the fusion process, the psyche would undergo intense tearing and madness; those who didn’t pull through would lose their sanity and fully turn into monsters.

Having made it through, they could maintain a human form to some extent and retain basic rationality, but were filled with an insatiable craving and hunger for human flesh and souls.

This hunger could not be satisfied by feeding; the more they fed, the hungrier they became.

If they could not endure the hunger, they would completely turn into monsters.

However, these mid-level paintings could only dominate the fusion of humans and monsters with Transcendents below C-level and ordinary people.

After reaching C-level, the highest grade of paintings was required.

But this so-called ’highest grade’ could only fuse polluted monsters below the limit of C-level.

As for the method to break through the C-level limit, it was not mentioned in this document.

It seemed this file was intended for the likes of the Scorpion Gang Boss—an ’outer C-level’ figure.

After all, the Scorpion Gang Boss had reached the limit of C-level and could go no further.

Whereas, Shadow Cutter had broken through the C-level limit.

Therefore, the Evolution Acolytes actually had a method for breaking through the C-level limit.

He Ao could roughly guess what the core of this method was.

The painting concealed within the office ceiling of Shadow Cutter, full of twisted lines.

Judging by the degree of pollution demonstrated by that painting, it had likely surpassed what the Evolution Acolytes had defined as ’highest grade,’ belonging to the secrets hidden by the Evolution Acolytes.

That was why it was concealed within the ceiling.

The very core of the Evolution Acolytes’ existence was the method of fusion with polluted monsters, and at the heart of this fusion method were the bizarre paintings drawn by the ’Listener.’

They used these paintings in place of the ritual process of contacting Higher Beings, allowing them to borrow the power of a certain Higher Being to assist in their fusion without any faith.

Of course, if that Higher Being still had consciousness, this method of ’stealing power’ would easily invite punishment from the Higher Being.

Yet the Evolution Acolytes had been doing this for many years and were still doing well.

This meant that the Higher Being was perhaps unable to mete out punishment anymore.

These paintings were most likely related to Winding Hill and after He Ao ’entered’ Winding Hill, he did not feel any ’living’ consciousness.

The War God, even though dead for so many years, still had remnants of will ready to return from death at any moment.

Even the shadows that emerged from the thought sea in the last Copy World seemed to have died many years ago, yet still had the power to arrange measures for resurrection.

But, almost nothing remained in Winding Hill.

And in the final scene that ejected He Ao, he vaguely saw purple blood and flickering lightning.

This seemed to be the ’aftermath’ left by some ancient battle.

He Ao had not seen the lightning clearly, he had only heard the deafening thunder, but the power of those thunderbolts felt vaguely familiar.

He retracted his thoughts and continued to comb through the remaining documents.

Soon, he found the ’source’ of these paintings.

Hidden Face Man, the true Leader of the Evolution Acolytes, the person who single-handedly established the Evolution Acolytes.

All these ’paintings,’ including the method of fusion with polluted monsters, were brought forth by Hidden Face Man.

He had spent over a decade to create this vast organization that spanned over a dozen cities.

And He Ao discovered another interesting fact,

Wherever there was a Pollution Cleaning Department, there was surely the Evolution Acolytes, and of course, there would necessarily be polluted monsters in that city.

In the documents of the Evolution Acolytes, some ’secrets’ about the Pollution Cleaning Department were also recorded.

For example, the ’scent-masking spray’ sold by the Pollution Cleaning Department to conceal the scent of pollution was actually made from a concoction of concentrated essence of polluted monster flesh with some medicinal herbs.

Its core effectiveness was not to help users ’conceal their scent,’ but to make polluted monsters think the people who sprayed the mist were ’fellow monsters,’ thus preventing attacks.

But this was ineffective for the Evolution Acolytes, who possessed both the ’scent’ of polluted monsters and rationality; such ’concealment’ could not deceive them.

Therefore, they could clearly identify those hidden among the crowd who had been tainted by pollution but had used the scent-masking spray—like Cito’s son and daughter-in-law.

Beyond this information, these documents also detailed the specific locations and personnel data of various branches of the Evolution Acolytes, as well as the crimes they had committed over the years.

He Ao looked up, gazing at the faint light spreading across the sky’s limit.

The surrounding streets took on a familiar form; they had returned to Northwest City.

Here, the high-rise factories belonging to the Kajet Consortium were significantly fewer compared to other areas of Saint Joen City.

This was because an abundance of small grain businesses and ordinary factories existed here.

Although they had been cornered by the Kajet Consortium, they still struggled to survive due to the lingering small business support policies of the Snava city government.

Before Snava came into power, when the Kajet Consortium had not yet fully controlled Saint Joen City.

This was also one of the crucial strongholds for resisting the Kajet Consortium.

Cito chose to settle here because he disliked the Kajet Consortium.

----

The dim light of early morning scattered across the chaotic streets.

Some slightly tidier-dressed vagrants began to tidy their clothes and pulled wrinkled cash out of their pockets to buy food from nearby convenience stores.

The middle-aged man wearing glasses walked onto the street, looked around, and approached a middle-aged vagrant who was nibbling on cold bread and water.

"Buddy, why are you all up so early?"

He sat on the ground with the wanderer, handing over a cigarette and asked with some confusion.

"Found some work,"

The wanderer looked up at him, his gaze pausing for a moment, then he took the cigarette and tucked it into his pocket, continuing, "A factory is short on labor, three days of work, twenty federal coins per day. For this kind of job, you gotta eat in the morning, otherwise, you won’t have the energy come noon."

"That low?"

The middle-aged man was taken aback, "Isn’t the minimum hourly wage in Saint Joen City seven federal coins?"

"Seven federal coins?"

The wanderer glanced at him, "Brother, how long has it been since you worked? That was seven or eight years ago. The water in the tap water factory has been recycled who knows how many times. That law was abolished a long time ago, there’s no minimum wage now, and even if there were, it’s useless,"

He looked at the traffic passing by on the road, "If we don’t ask for less money than machines, who would want to hire us?"

The middle-aged man opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.

He lit a cigarette, put it to his lips, then slowly took it away again, "It seems like the price of bread has risen again recently."

"It’s up by fifty cents. I heard it’s because the price of synthetic flour has gone up,"

The wanderer took a bite of his bread, "If it were before, I would have cursed those bastards to death, from the grain consortium to the convenience store boss. But after my wife died, I calmed down a lot."

"Your wife was..."

The middle-aged man looked at her, puzzled.

"An old illness relapsed, we had no money to treat it, she died."

The wanderer took a sip of water, staring at the bread in his hand, "People have to die, just like they have to live."

The middle-aged man brought the cigarette to his lips, then slowly away again. He wanted to say something but couldn’t bring himself to speak.

"Thank you."

But before he could speak, the wanderer suddenly said to him softly.

"Hm?"

The middle-aged man looked up in confusion.

"I recognize you,"

The wanderer took another bite of his bread, "You used to be the Minister of Health, the one who fixed up the small hospitals. My wife’s illness was discovered at the small hospital you fixed up, and she was treated there at the beginning. If it weren’t for you, she would have died much earlier. Thank you."

The middle-aged man’s hand trembled violently, and the cigarette between his fingers kept dropping ash. Lifting his shaking hand, he brought the cigarette to his lips.

He opened his mouth, but it was as if a hand was pressing down on his chest, in the end, he squeezed out through the gap of his lips, slowly,

"I’m sorry."

"You saved her, I’m the one who should be thanking you,"

The wanderer stuffed the rest of the bread into his mouth, "You’ve done all you could. We all know that you’ve reached your limit."

After a brief silence, the middle-aged man brought the cigarette butt to his lips and slowly took a puff.

Eventually, as if he had made a major decision, he spoke softly, "I’m planning to run for mayor."

"Cement factory Group A!"

Just then, a big man passed by the street and shouted loudly.

"Here, here, here!"

A group of wanderers immediately raised their hands and stood up.

"Here!"

The wanderer next to the middle-aged man also raised his hand and stood up.

The middle-aged man glanced at the wanderer’s retreating figure, not interrupting his work, and instead slowly stood up.

Just then, the wanderer up front turned his head, looked at the middle-aged man, and gave a thumbs-up, "Buddy, I’ll vote for you."

The middle-aged man’s gaze stalled for a moment, a wisp of smoke drifting across his face, he nodded gently, smiled, and said, "Alright."

The wanderer nodded too then ran towards the big man calling the names.

The middle-aged man raised his hand to his ear, touched the wireless earpiece in his ear, and made a call.

"Sienzi? Was that email you sent real? Are you really planning..."

The call had just connected, and before the man could speak, the other side immediately fired off rapid questions.

"Yes, I’m ready,"

Sienzi said softly.

"If I remember correctly, you’re forty-five this year."

The voice on the other end suddenly said.

"Yes, I know, Snava committed suicide at forty-five. We will complete the path he didn’t finish,"

Sienzi slowly turned his head, looked at the sunlight in the sky, and the people walking on the sunlit road. The names seemed to reappear before his eyes,

"At least, we are not alone."