Players, Please Board the Train

Madame Butterfly did not proceed towards the other rooms. Instead, with a single wave of her hand, two interlocking circular metal gears appeared before her.

Xu Huo had seen this type of gear once before. Compared to the chains, this was a step closer to the core of Madame Butterfly’s mental world.

The two gears meshed and rotated together. With a series of clicking sounds, the endlessly multiplying rooms crumbled and shattered from the distance towards her location. Then, the doors on all four sides of the rooms began to vanish, leaving only one behind.

She stepped forward and pushed the door open. What appeared was not the library corridor, but a new spiral staircase.

”Not bad progress at all.” Madame Butterfly snorted with a light laugh, raising a finger. The number of gears increased exponentially, quickly filling the space where the staircase was. Once all the gears began rotating, driven by the central gear, the darkness and the staircase shattered like fragments. What unfolded before her again was the snow-white expanse of the library corridor and the white staircase standing at its center.

Madame Butterfly elegantly opened the door to the adjacent room. In the next second, she appeared at the bottom of the library. Looking at the few materialized items still placed on the desk, she said indifferently, ”Surrendering so quickly? How boring.”

Xu Huo walked out from a room on the first floor, smiling as he said, ”I was afraid you’d tear my place apart.”

Madame Butterfly glanced at him, only speaking after sitting down beside the table, ”He Pu didn’t choose the wrong person. You have exceptional qualities.”

Xu Huo sat down opposite her. ”I came to Rose Castle by chance, merely happening to meet Mr. He Pu’s criteria.”

”It wasn’t chance.” Madame Butterfly rested her chin on her hand, gazing at him, though her eyes seemed somewhat distant. ”He Pu had a predictive item. It could make judgments based on his needs. He came to District 011 with a purpose: to wait for a suitable heir.””That would be me?” Xu Huo raised an eyebrow. ”Forgive my bluntness, but players capable of seeing through the fake He Pu’s identity shouldn’t be few.”

”But only you were holding his lighter.” Madame Butterfly said, ”That’s fate.”

”Establishing a connection based on a single item?” Xu Huo pondered briefly. ”Does such an item really exist?”

”It does,” Madame Butterfly’s attention returned to him. ”The fact that we are sitting face-to-face right now is proof.”

Xu Huo knew she wouldn’t elaborate much on this topic, so he shifted the conversation. ”What is your relationship with V. Fanxiao?”

”He took care of me for a while.” A smile appeared on Madame Butterfly’s face. ”I was still quite young back then. Following him around setting fires was quite fun.”

”A foster relationship?”

”He did want to be my father. Unfortunately, my real father is still alive.” Madame Butterfly shrugged with a hint of regret. ”I reluctantly called him ’Uncle’. He was a handsome older man before he got sick. It’s a shame the illness ravaged him beyond recognition. I don’t even want to look at his photos.”

Xu Huo’s gaze lingered on her face for a moment. ”Does a player called Madame Butterfly really exist?”

”A notorious Player-Eater.” The fake Madame Butterfly, Bai Kou, said with a beaming smile. ”Just borrowing her reputation to do a bit of mischief.”

Xu Huo also smiled. ”I still don’t know your name.”

”Bai Kou. Fanxiao called me Coco.” Bai Kou said.

Xu Huo mentally processed the name. ”Is it your real name?”

Bai Kou chuckled. ”Of course not. I made up the name to trick him.”

”Coco.” Xu Huo called her name, evaluating it sincerely. ”It’s very lovely.”

Bai Kou stared at him fixedly for a few seconds before getting up and leaving his mental world.

Xu Huo returned to his room, the smile at the corner of his lips not fading.

It was evident Bai Kou held deep feelings for Fanxiao. Her casual, understated narration was merely a cover for her true emotions. After some thought, he walked out to the balcony and spoke towards the neighboring room, ”Feel like listening to some music?”

”You know how to play?” A voice came from the room after a moment.

”No. Let’s stream it online.” Xu Huo answered frankly.

Bai Kou’s response was even more direct. She remotely slid the floor-to-ceiling windows shut from a distance.

Nevertheless, Xu Huo still took out his communicator, selected a few pieces of sleep-aid music, and started playing them.

He left the communicator on the balcony and went back inside to sleep.

The music played uninterrupted all night. It wasn’t until Mr. Dong knocked and entered the next morning that the communicator was retrieved. He informed Xu Huo that Bai Kou had left sometime last night, her whereabouts unknown.

Xu Huo nodded to indicate he understood. First, he drew a tube of blood and stored it properly. After breakfast, he took out the glasses, reversed the playback, and printed out the photographed information related to Dr. Wu.

Previously, Dr. Deng had mentioned that the biological characteristics left by Dr. Wu in each location were different. Hence, some speculated that ”Dr. Wu” was a title rather than a single individual. This information indeed detailed several identities previously used by Dr. Wu. One-third were solitary, with no relatives or friends; their social networks were established only after taking up a position.

Two-thirds of the disguises involved having family. As for how this family came about, it was usually through impersonation, which was difficult to detect. If not for his biological characteristics differing from the impersonated person, it would have been nearly impossible to confirm they weren’t the same individual.

Since he could perfectly deceive family and friends, disguising identical biological characteristics shouldn’t be difficult. That Dr. Wu didn’t do this was probably because he didn’t want to implicate the families of those he impersonated.

The places where Dr. Wu worked were mostly related to pharmacology, either pharmaceutical companies or private laboratories. He rarely disguised himself as other identities. Therefore, based on this, the information speculated that while evading the Game Government, he was still conducting pharmacological research.

Of course, Xu Huo believed his purpose was the deliberate dissemination of the perfect evolution agent. However, he couldn’t be certain the perfect evolution agent was truly free of side effects. Furthermore, evolution agents had grade distinctions. Perhaps later versions of the agent hadn’t been developed yet.

Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but think of the item V. Fanxiao left in District 001. Since Bai Kou said he deliberately settled in District 011 to wait for an heir, could what he left behind be the agent?

Given V. Fanxiao’s capabilities, finding the perfect evolution agent wouldn’t be strange. Moreover, after experiencing evolutionary side effects, he had been conducting pharmacological research. Although no further information about the perfect agent was found in his data, the scarcity of data itself suggested problems from another angle.

He summoned Mr. Dong and asked him directly if he knew about the perfect agent.

”Mr. He Pu once searched for it, but did not find it.” Mr. Dong replied.

Mr. Dong wasn’t lying. Did Fanxiao truly not find it, or did he deceive even Mr. Dong?

After letting him leave, Xu Huo continued reviewing Dr. Wu’s information.

The most crucial piece of information in that two-page encrypted file was that Dr. Wu might have had a daughter, who was already deceased.

This news was already known from Dr. Deng’s mouth.

”Ding ding.” A message came in on the communicator. He tapped to open the projection. It was from Dr. Deng, informing him that he had already found a job providing room and board and had gained access to a laboratory, making it very convenient to conduct agent testing.

Xu Huo glanced at the address. It was precisely the largest pharmaceutical subsidiary under the Rongxin Group.