241: Chapter 242 Returning to Familiar Places

The convoy quickly reached the provincial capital, but it did not drive into the city center as Lin Ye had expected.

The scenery outside the car window slowly transitioned from bustling streets lined with high-rise buildings to an increasingly sparse suburban landscape, with various low-rise factories and large tracts of vacant land on both sides of the road.

After driving for nearly another half hour, the road became smooth and wide, and rows of green trees appeared on both sides. Their trunks were thick and their branches lush; one could tell at a glance that they had been planted for many years.

They hardly encountered any other vehicles on the road, and it was excessively quiet, with only the engine sounds of their three cars echoing on the empty road.

If he hadn't confirmed that these people were sent by Provincial Governor Zhao, he would have suspected that he had encountered human traffickers.

However, thinking about it carefully, setting the player base in the suburbs seemed quite reasonable.

After all, they were all a bunch of unstable elements; if they were arranged in a densely populated downtown area, things might go wrong.

However, when Lin Ye inadvertently saw some familiar scenery outside through the car window, his brows furrowed unconsciously.

"This road... it seems a bit familiar."

And as they got closer to the destination, that sense of familiarity became increasingly clear.

It wasn't until he saw the large complex of buildings not far away that Lin Ye finally understood where that inexplicable sense of familiarity came from.

"Good heavens, it's actually this place?"

Because the place before his eyes was none other than the villa complex where he had once worked as a haunted house sleeper to earn some extra money.

Since when did this place become a player base?

Just as Lin Ye was dumbfounded, the vehicles slowly came to a stop.

Immediately after, before Lin Ye could even open the door, a middle-aged man wearing a dark gray suit walked up to greet them.

Lin Ye remembered him; his surname was Qin, and he was the secretary to Provincial Governor Zhao, whom he had met once before in the village.

Secretary Qin reached out and opened the car door, with a polite smile on his face: "Mr. Lin, you've had a difficult journey."

Lin Ye got out of the car and shook hands with Secretary Qin: "Hello, Secretary Qin."

After saying that, he scanned his surroundings.

Unlike before, the security level of this villa complex had clearly been raised by more than one Rank.

A guard could be seen every few dozen meters, standing straight with a holster at their waist.

"Are you setting up a military exclusion zone here?" Lin Ye asked half-jokingly.

Secretary Qin smiled: "The security level here has indeed been raised significantly, but it is mainly to ensure that you are not disturbed by the outside world, and it will not interfere with Mr. Lin's daily life."

As he spoke, he turned to the side and made a gesture of invitation: "We have already prepared a residence for Mr. Lin, please follow me."

Secretary Qin took Lin Ye and his family onto a shuttle bus and slowly drove into the villa complex.

"Hmm?"

As soon as they entered the villa complex, Lin Ye sensed that something was wrong.

It was too quiet.

When he had lived here before, although many residents had moved out because of the haunted house, there were still at least some people living there.

But now it was completely empty; the entire residential area was as quiet as a dead city, and not even the sound of birds could be heard, making it appear exceptionally desolate.

Seemingly noticing that Lin Ye's expression was a bit off, Secretary Qin explained in a timely manner: "This villa complex has now been officially requisitioned by the government and is being used exclusively as a player base.

It has been divided into four zones: A, B, C, and D. Mr. Lin, your family has been arranged to stay in Building 01 of Zone A."

Lin Ye nodded and then asked in a low voice: "Secretary Qin, may I ask why you established this place as a player base?"

There are so many villa complexes in the provincial capital, why was this one chosen?

Lin Ye didn't think it was just a coincidence; there must be some reason he didn't know about.

Secretary Qin hesitated upon hearing this.

"What? Is it inconvenient to say?"

Lin Ye frowned.

"No, with Mr. Lin's clearance, you are qualified to know the truth."

Thinking of Lin Ye's S-Rank clearance, Secretary Qin no longer concealed it.

"This villa complex was originally just ordinary residential housing, but later an accident occurred, which attracted the government's attention."

"What kind of accident?"

"It's like this: previously, two owners had a dispute with the property management here, and in a moment of despair, they both hanged themselves in their own villa."

"Ever since this incident, other owners moved out one after another, so the government took it over and converted it into a player base."

"Hanged themselves?" Lin Ye raised an eyebrow.

He had already roughly guessed who the owners Secretary Qin was talking about; it was most likely the couple who had originally bought that haunted villa.

However, hadn't they moved out because they weren't comfortable living there? Why did they suddenly run back to the villa to hang themselves?

Could it really be as Secretary Qin said, that because of a minor dispute with the property management company, they just used their own lives to short this residential area?

Good heavens, were they that hardcore?

Lin Ye instinctively felt that there was a problem here, and a big one at that.

If it were ordinary people doing this, it would be one thing, but those who could afford to buy a place here had some wealth; they wouldn't choose suicide just because of one villa.

Therefore, Secretary Qin must have still concealed some key information.

Thinking of this, Lin Ye's tone could not help but turn cold: "Secretary Qin, playing games like this is pointless. I hope you can be honest with me."

"If you don't explain things clearly, I have the right to choose to leave."

He could accept the organization's arrangements, but that didn't mean he could tolerate deception.

"This..." Seeing Lin Ye's attitude was so firm, Secretary Qin knew he couldn't fool him any longer. He sighed and recounted the details one by one.

It turned out that shortly after the couple died, the anomaly that had originally been limited to that one villa actually began to spread to other villas.

At first, it was just the few households around that villa who felt that their houses were cooler than elsewhere. Later, more and more residents reported having nightmares every night, and the entire residential area began to have that indescribable, oppressive feeling.

Some people invited Daoist priests to perform rituals, but it was useless; things remained the same.

Now the residents of the villa complex were completely terrified and packed up to run away overnight.

In just a few days, the entire villa complex became deserted.

You have to know that those who could live here all had some background.

Then the anomaly here was reported to the higher-ups, who sent people to investigate, but in the end, they couldn't find anything, so they could only temporarily seal off the place.

Until the appearance of the martial domain game.

Some people guessed that the anomaly here might be related to that suddenly appeared martial domain game.

"Later, the higher-ups sent a player to investigate and accidentally discovered that the Internal Qi that players Cultivate actually has a certain suppressive effect on the anomalous energy here."

Secretary Qin continued to explain.

"So someone proposed an idea: why not convert this kind of anomalous place into a player base?

In this way, even if something really happens here in the future, with players around, it can be discovered and handled in time, so it won't cause too much impact."