Chapter 1630: Chapter 1630: Life and Death Exchanged
But these things definitely won’t fall into the hands of ordinary people.
Firstly, take the Game Government Base as an example, using Zone 011 personnel. Although they also recruit core and extra staff from players, most of the people in the Orbital Supply Department come from other zones. Judging from their usual behavior patterns and speech, they aren’t people who have fought their way out of the game.
In other words, the Game Government must cultivate or recruit specific zones or player families to serve as administrative personnel. The more the game core and core-related industries are involved, the more this should be the case.
Even though the Game Government Base hasn’t been established in all zones, with so many wormhole points and zones accumulated, it’s already quite large, and the Game Government must ensure the top-down diligence of these people. There must be special methods to allow these people to evolve and escape the burdens of instances.
Xu Huo first heard about the Temporary Pass in the Skinning Artisan’s instance, which is a destination-free ticket that allows free boarding at any time and place, enabling one to enter the nearest ticket and board the train once acquired.
Although Zone 011’s Orbital Supply Department hasn’t disclosed relevant information, even if they don’t have the authority, the upper-level Game Government must have the authority. Just like the experimental personnel previously encountered in Zone 017, the game must provide special channels for some people, allowing them to walk freely within the game.
Given this, these resources must also be part of special privileges. Perhaps some people from wormhole points or zones in the game don’t need to go through initial review trains and instances; they only need to gradually become management personnel following the game’s requirements.
Players can set foot in any zone with tickets; spacecraft is also a channel, and Super Players are even more formidable. Under such circumstances, the Game Government can achieve very efficient technological lockdown, which inevitably leads to speculation that the wormhole point, where the Game Government’s core resides, might not have released tickets. Without tickets, their position in space is ethereal; even driving a spacecraft might not find them.
This is the true barrier, not just relying solely on players’ strength for protection.
Besides grassroots staff, the Game Government will certainly cultivate Rank-A Players and Super Players; what kind of training will those players holding the back door to the Dimensional Rift undergo?
In this train of thought, Xu Huo couldn’t help but correlate it with Dr. Wu. The power of the Game Government is unpredictable, and perhaps when the day comes to face players directly, a simple authorization could seal a player’s personal panel, returning them to being ordinary people with only physical strength...
Perhaps only reversing time can change players’ disadvantaged predicament.
Checking the bounty platform briefly, there was no news. Xu Huo stretched his body and said, "Don’t know if communication is impossible or if people are dead. Still need to rely on oneself to clear the level. I’m going inside to sleep for a bit, do as you please."
The sky gradually brightened. Because of breaking promises last night, both Scarred Glasses and Young Master Mo insisted on not resting today.
Xu Huo entered the phone booth indifferently.
This time, he didn’t return to the platform but directly entered the black corridor.
As the surrounding scenery switched, he seemed to be standing in his memory again, returning once more to that rainy night.
The first scene appearing before him was still Xu Zhi getting off the car, the bullet flying towards him.
This was false.
Whether it’s a memory recall or the memory itself, this wasn’t the true cause of Xu Zhi’s death, but standing nearby, he still couldn’t help but rush forward to save him.
Yet when he touched Xu Zhi, the bullet passed through his head.
The person fell in his embrace once more.
Kneeling on the ground, Xu Huo felt the body temperature of the person he was holding gradually vanishing, turning into void.
The rain also gradually dissipated, and he returned to the corridor, with darkness descending again.
Without much delay, he stood up and continued walking forward; similar flashes of memory fragments swept by again, and Xu Zhi stood before him once more.
This time, the distance between them was slightly closer.
Unfortunately, the outcome didn’t change.
The third time, the result remained the same.
Fourth, fifth, sixth... each time was the same.
Perhaps it was either his inner hope or the effects brought by mental influence, but each retry brought him a bit closer to Xu Zhi. Eventually, when the bullet passed through his head, Xu Zhi was rescued.
His memory might have turned false due to Doctor Zhang’s existence, but the fact that Xu Zhi lost his life because of him was true. Xu Huo often recalled the night Xu Zhi died, and he clearly knew the unchangeable truth, so he never thought of bringing Xu Zhi back, nor entertained thoughts such as dying in his place. The consequences of a wrongdoing cannot simply be concealed by regret—this was the pain he deserved to bear.
The moment the bullet passed through his temple, immense comfort washed over Xu Huo. He indulged in death, watching Xu Zhi frantically seek help while holding his "corpse," watching cars follow behind them, watching fellow racers send him to the hospital, watching the doctor declare him dead on the spot, watching Xu Zhi refuse to recognize his death, taking him to a friend’s private hospital for personal examination, performing DNA identification to confirm identity, preserving his corpse in the cold storage, then locking himself in a room madly researching various seemingly true and false rumors trying to resurrect the dead.
As an observer, Xu Huo calmly witnessed all of this.
Xu Zhi is a steadfast atheist; he believed everything could be explained by science, continuously learning diligently since he first recognized words. Compared to Xu Huo’s squandering of his talents, he was a perfect genius. Even in death, Xu Huo never considered sightings of ghost or spirit, but the atheist Xu Zhi did.
He clearly knew these were illusions, but he wondered if life-and-death swapped between them, Xu Zhi might truly take these actions.
Xu Huo didn’t want to pursue this answer, or perhaps the answer already resided within his heart.
Once Xu Zhi had the capability to handle family matters, many times, he stepped in to clean up the mess. But that day, before anything had happened, Xu Zhi shouldn’t have appeared on the mountain road. Perhaps he already knew of Doctor Zhang’s existence, maybe he simply wanted to save his irresponsible brother from the hands of bad guys, preventing him from heading down the wrong path like the other children in the Seventeenth Hospital, maybe Xu Huo managed to live that day because of his appearance...
No matter what Xue Lang said, Xu Huo believed Doctor Zhang wouldn’t abandon him, so he thought the turning point lay in the sudden appearance of Xu Zhi.
Maybe he exchanged his life for his own, but to this day, he still believes Doctor Zhang is not someone who would be moved by brotherly affection.