CHAPTER 1566: CHAPTER 1566: INTERNAL CHANGES IN THE SPECIAL DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

"Do you think this is true?" Xu Huo didn’t answer the question seriously, instead he turned his head and asked this question.

The little boy’s face showed a unique contradiction. He raised his hand to pat Xu Huo’s arm, "Actually, it doesn’t matter if you’re not that great, in my heart, you’re still the greatest."

"You’re very understanding." Xu Huo smiled.

Tongtong said proudly, "No way, who told you to be my brother? Let’s go, I’m so hungry, I want to eat two bowls today!"

While eating, Xu Huo learned about the recent changes in Country X from Ms. Yu.

Because the number of players in the Special Defense Department continues to grow, the government has regained control of the country. Incidents of player violence have significantly decreased, especially in some important cities, and the safety of ordinary residents has been greatly improved. Moreover, during this period, many players from other countries who were lurking domestically were caught, which was very satisfying.

Restricting the number of instances for advanced players doesn’t have much to do with ordinary people, but since it’s national policy, with so many countries agreeing at Zone 014, it must be good for Zone 014.

"It’s just that there seem to be a lot of unfamiliar faces in the Special Defense Department." Ms. Yu noticed more about what was happening around her, "I used to recognize a few players who were active near the community, but recently they’ve all been switched out. The newcomers are quite unfriendly. The old gentleman on the 7th floor next door used to often give some food to the people guarding from the Special Defense Department, but now these people not only refuse, they nearly hurt him. The old man’s son is also a player, and they almost clashed."

"Not sure how the matter was eventually handled, but that family moved away, and no one knows where they went..."

"Did you get into conflict with the people from the Special Defense Department?" Father Xu knew a bit more, "There are some players who seem particularly against our family."

Xu Huo paused his eating for a moment, "Has anyone made things difficult for you?"

"Not really," Father Xu chose a relatively mild way to phrase it, "But their eyes weren’t friendly, to be honest."

"The situation in Zone 014 won’t improve in the short term," Various forces have entered the Special Defense Department, and veterans like Jiang Qiao and Director Lü seem to be marginalized. Xu Huo pondered briefly and said, "If you really feel unsafe, you can consider moving to other districts. I have places in other districts, and the environment is quite good."

Father Xu and Ms. Yu were both taken aback, and after exchanging glances, the former asked, "Is it that serious?"

"Not yet, but the situation is expected to deteriorate." Xu Huo smiled, "But you don’t have to worry too much, these are internal government affairs, they don’t concern ordinary people much. Even if I’m not at home, no one will come looking for you."

The child’s focus was different, and Tongtong looked up, "Are other districts fun?"

"Tongtong." Ms. Yu frowned, "Eat properly."

After Tongtong buried his head back into eating, she said to Xu Huo, "We don’t understand anything, we’ll just listen to you, but over on Qingqing’s side..."

Xu Huo had already seen Yu Qingqing’s bombardment of messages. She had a good relationship with the Special Defense Department, especially with Chief Wu, who had helped her clean up some messes. She was very sensitive to changes among the personnel within the Special Defense Department. Her messages already mentioned possible issues in the Special Defense Department and told him to go home less often.

Information from others like Yuan Yao, Zhou Ning, and Liu Jia had already been cut off a month ago, probably because they entered the game and haven’t returned yet.

Contact with Gu Yu from the Chun Yu Association and President Tan Yang from the First Player Association was just regular concern, along with mentions of the restrictions on advanced players running instances—the official players are subject to restrictions, so other Player Organizations would naturally be even more restricted; first of all, government channels wouldn’t sell instance攻略s at low prices to them.

It’s quite normal for the overall upgrade speed in Zone 014 to slow down, because of the Super Props incident, the entire district was forced to prematurely enter a universal player era. Without collapsing during the transition, it was destined to produce a large number of advanced players, but that doesn’t mean the overall strength of Zone 014 has caught up, at least from the perspective of environmental evolution, it’s still far from it. In some way, the number and quality of players would affect how soon a district fully integrates with the game, which should be the important reason countries are restricting advanced players’攻略 of instances.

"She’s fine, she’s also not in Zone 014 temporarily." Xu Huo understood Ms. Yu’s worries; not to mention, the Yu Family still had quite a few people, so a complete separation wasn’t possible, "I’m just suggesting, there’s no need to move, you don’t need to worry too much, things haven’t reached a point where you have to choose between two options."

After the meal, a call from Director Lü was received, she entrusted Jiang Qiao to send her daughter to Jing City for treatment.

"I can’t return to Jing City for now, so I can only ask you to take care of them." Director Lü said, "I heard from Chief Wu that you inquired about Nie Xuan’s situation. He’s not in danger and will return to the Special Defense Department soon."

Xu Huo responded with "Okay" and hung up the phone, returned to his room, and released Meng Cun.

After coming out, the other party almost couldn’t stand, and his condition was much worse than when he was previously kept in the basement. His face and lips were pale, looking as if he would faint any moment.

Xu Huo supported him, let him sit down, and first injected him with a potion to increase physical strength.

"Can you still hold on?" As the potion gradually pushed into Meng Cun’s arm, his complexion slowly regained some color. He looked around the room filled with personal style and said, "Is this your home?"

"My old home. Your residence is not here." Xu Huo removed the syringe.

Meng Cun looked out of the window, "The weather is really nice, lots of people."

"This place is much luckier than Zone 017." Xu Huo said.

A flash of pain passed through Meng Cun’s eyes, "How’s Zone 017 now?"

"It hasn’t ended this quickly, you’ll see the news in the new district when the time comes." Xu Huo asked him to rest in the room and arranged for Li Chun, who had been waiting by the side to relay information, to take care of him.

Li Chun had already seen Tongtong and hesitantly wrote, "But I want to go out and play."

She clearly agreed to come out for fun, but she spent most of the time sticking near the clothes.

"Alright, you can play with Tongtong for a while, but don’t let anyone else into this room." Xu Huo said while patting the stack of white paper next to him.

Li Chun immediately put on a smile and promised to complete the task he entrusted, then quickly opened the door and went out.

"Sister Li Chun!" The sound of Tongtong’s happy voice came from outside.

Xu Huo switched to another room to deal with the props from "Theft Addiction."

This trip to Zone 017 brought him more information, whether about the Wise Variant or Lady Palace’s ticket possibly having information about Dr. Wu, or the battle methods of the Guile Sound Knights members. Other props obtained from some players were not particularly outstanding, so organizing them could allow for profitable sale.

Surprisingly, "Theft Addiction" actually managed to steal some props. He had used stolen props twice, but not often, and when he did take them out specifically, they generally didn’t steal exceptionally good ones, as if good props were harder to steal. However, this time it unexpectedly stole a Rank A Prop and a Rank B Prop.