“He flew to Capital City by plane?” Inside the meeting room, Team Leader Wu stared at the secretary in shock. “Has the information been confirmed?”

The secretary said helplessly, “I’ve confirmed it five times. It really is his ID. This piece of news was actually reported when Xu Huo bought the ticket, but everyone thought that person couldn’t be him. Not until Captain Nie asked just now...”

It was also because headquarters had activated the highest-level combat readiness plan, and everyone was too busy to think straight.

“Why didn’t Ting City’s feedback say...” Team Leader Wu stopped mid-sentence and cut himself off. “Well, it’s not hard for him to avoid the eyes and ears of a few players.”

But no one could have imagined he would directly take a plane. They had considered him using items, private sponsorship, or simply hijacking a plane to fly over himself. “We completely didn’t expect him to be so... law-abiding.”

Team Leader Wu couldn’t come up with a better word.

“According to the airport surveillance footage, he should have changed his appearance after arriving in Capital City.”

“Wait a moment,” Minister Fan paused the surveillance video. “Do you have detailed information on the woman following him?”

Of course they did. The secretary uploaded the data. “This woman’s name is Lichun. Her surname is unclear. According to the Xu family, she was born disabled—can’t speak, and isn’t very sharp mentally. To outsiders, they claim Lichun is a distant relative.”

“But based on our screening, the earliest time she appeared in surveillance footage was the first month after large-scale evolution began. The first time she showed up was with Xu Huo, roughly around the time of the Skinner dungeon.”

“Is she a player?” Jiang Qiao asked.

“It’s possible.” The secretary continued, “During the two months Xu Huo was away, she went to the Xu Residence. From the surrounding surveillance footage, she also disappears for a few days each month, then reappears a few days later.”

“That means she’s most likely a player.” Minister Fan pondered for a moment. “Xu Huo even went out of his way to buy her a train ticket. This person is definitely not simple.”

“We still don’t know her profession or characteristics,” the secretary said. “She’s close with Yu Qingqing, but Yu Qingqing herself doesn’t seem to know she’s a player.”

“Is there anything else?” Team Leader Chang asked. “If this woman named Lichun is a player, she couldn’t have left no trace in the past few months.”

The secretary was also troubled. Since no surveillance footage captured Lichun using any items or characteristics, there was simply no way to investigate. However, they often saw her going shopping at the mall, and online there were traces everywhere of her spending money on games. She had even browsed some less-than-reputable websites. She was so ordinary, she didn’t seem like a player at all.

Jiang Qiao looked over some records and stared at the beautiful woman in the video for a few seconds. “You think she’s not sharp mentally?” 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

“That’s what the Xu family claims,” the secretary said.

But according to actual investigation, aside from not being able to speak, Lichun was no different from a normal person. This could be confirmed by the shop owners who, charmed by her beauty, eagerly gave her discounts and shoved things at her, only to find they hadn’t actually gained any advantage.

“I have some interesting material.” Nie Xuan, sitting in the second row, handed the secretary a USB drive and asked him to play the first clip.

The video that opened showed the exterior wall of a hotel.

“This hotel was one of the gathering places for the Double Snake organization a few days ago. It was burned to the ground that night. By the time the Special Defense Department arrived, all they got was a pile of charred corpses.”

Nie Xuan spoke. “The hotel’s outer windows had been specially treated by the Double Snake members. With them closed, it’s impossible to see inside through any device.”

He paused the video and pointed at a window on the side of the hotel. From the footage, only a thin slit was visible. Even though it was clear the window was open, the inside couldn’t be seen.

When the video continued, the surveillance shifted direction. After stopping, Nie Xuan marked a point of reflection in the upper right corner.

“Is that a mirror?” Team Leader Wu asked.

“No, it’s sticker glass, so the image recovered by technology is very blurry.” Nie Xuan opened the second video. It was very short, even a slow-motion version, and only showed a few white objects flying past.

“What’s that? A knife?” Jiang Qiao asked in confusion.

Nie Xuan clicked on the third video. “Watch this and you’ll understand.”

The third video showed paper flying wildly through the air, attacking people indiscriminately as if controlled by someone. Wherever it passed, it left large swaths of slash marks, as if those weren’t paper, but blades!

“Isn’t that the video from the Harbor City incident? Those pieces of paper were controlled by the Painting Woman using a Super Item,” Team Leader Lü said.

Nie Xuan smiled and played both videos simultaneously. “Don’t the two scenes look similar?”

Everyone in the meeting room couldn’t help but pause. Minister Fan’s eyes sharpened as he looked at him. “Are you saying that this Lichun is the Painting Woman?”

“Impossible!” Team Leader Wu asserted firmly. “The Painting Woman was killed by a super player from another zone, and even the Super Item was snatched. There’s no way she survived!”

Nie Xuan stood by the meeting table. “The ashes from the cremation site can prove it. A large amount of paper that shouldn’t have been there appeared at the gathering location. According to the captured staff members, a batch of stored paper was kept in the warehouse before the hotel employees went on leave.”

“Furthermore, I cross-referenced the testimonies of the Double Snake members. The gathering used player corpses, and the identities of most members match up, so large-scale armed conflict is basically ruled out. Based on the information collected from the sticker glass reflection, from the start of the gathering to the time the fire broke out was less than twenty minutes. All the Player-Eaters’ corpses were piled there. Add this video to that, even if there were another player who could control objects or paper, such a scene couldn’t have been caused by low-level players and low-level items. So this Lichun following Xu Huo might very well be the Painting Woman who obtained the Super Item back then.”

The room fell silent for a moment before Team Leader Wu spoke. “You’re meticulous in your work. You wouldn’t say anything without seventy to eighty percent certainty... Minister, what do you think?”

Minister Fan’s hand, resting on the table, involuntarily clenched into a fist. “Are there any survivors from that gathering who entered the dungeon? Have their identities been confirmed?”

“Three have been locked in. As long as they show up alive, they won’t be hard to find,” Nie Xuan said.

“We must find them and make sure they keep their mouths shut!” Minister Fan said in a low, grave voice. “We can’t afford to lose another Painting Woman or another Super Item!”

“Classify the Painting Woman’s identity as an S-level secret. Everyone here today must sign a non-disclosure agreement. If anyone leaks it, not only the person here, but every one of their family members will bear joint responsibility!”

Everyone straightened up in response. After a moment, Team Leader Lü asked, “Does Xu Huo know the inside story?”

Everyone in the room knew the answer in their hearts. If Xu Huo didn’t know, would he dare to set up this “Ten-Day Deadline” scheme?

Even if he were that strong, he couldn’t face so many players alone. But with the Painting Woman, the situation was completely different!

“He played that hand beautifully.” Minister Fan sighed with both admiration and respect.

With the strength of two people to fool everyone, trick the players from other zones, and buy Zone 014 a chance to breathe—this fully showed that Xu Huo not only had boldness but also felt deep sympathy for his fellow countrymen, because he had to take enormous risks doing what he did back then.

He hadn’t turned his back on Zone 014 before, so now it was unlikely he would target the nation or the Special Defense Department.

“Get in touch with him. There’s nothing that can’t be negotiated!” Minister Fan said, his face beaming, sweeping away the earlier gloom.

And so, Xu Huo, who was studying the route with Gu Yu and Brother Liang, received a call from Nie Xuan.