99: Chapter 99 Shattered Glimmer

In a remote, muddy alley entrance, there was a deathly silence.

By the time Governor Jia Mei, the leader of the Rebel Army, arrived with his men, it was already too late.

The large pool of blood on the ground had already dried, turning into a glaring dark brown.

The pregnant woman lay beside a puddle of sewage, her eyes wide open, her pupils long since dilated.

A few flies crawled across her pale face.

Her hands, covered in grime and scars, clutched her sunken abdomen tightly even in death.

Governor Jia Mei stood before the corpse, his entire body stiff.

He didn't make a sound.

He just gritted his back teeth so hard his gums bled, his fists clenched until his knuckles turned white, not even noticing as his nails pierced his palms.

A flurry of messy footsteps came from the other end of the alley.

Liver Emperor and Flash arrived as well.

As soon as Flash turned into the alley, he saw this tragic and inhumane scene.

Although he killed Greenskins without blinking in the game, in reality, he was just a college student living in an era of peace.

This bottomless, cruel slaughter of an unarmed pregnant woman instantly shattered his mental defenses.

"Fuck..."

Flash's eyes reddened instantly. He spun around, walked to the base of the wall at the side of the alley, and squatted down, covering his face tightly, his shoulders twitching slightly.

Liver Emperor's expression was equally dark, looking as if it were about to drip with gloom.

He took a deep breath, suppressed the righteous fury in his heart, and strode over to Governor Jia Mei's side.

From the pocket of his tactical vest, he pulled out a piece of rag covered in rough lines and shoved it forcefully into Governor Jia Mei's clenched fist.

"This is the firepower layout map for Shahe Town's central trading district."

Liver Emperor reached out and heavily patted Governor Jia Mei's trembling shoulder, his voice as cold as ice:

"The machine gun bunkers, the ammunition depots—they're all marked on there."

After saying that, Liver Emperor didn't waste another word.

He turned and pulled Flash up from the ground: "Let's go! Call the others!"

The two players strode away, their departing figures radiating an uncontrollable killing intent.

Governor Jia Mei lowered his head, looking at the rough piece of cloth in his hand.

He glanced again at the woman who had died a tragic death on the ground, and the words that the outsider named Ming Shen had said to him suddenly echoed in his mind: You need a platform, a slogan.

"Who needs some high-and-mighty slogan..."

Tears finally burst from Governor Jia Mei's eyes, streaming down his cheeks mixed with grime.

He gave a tragic laugh, his voice as hoarse as if it had been ground by sandpaper:

"For people like us with worthless lives, isn't what we want the simplest of things?"

"Food! Water! To be human!"

"Food! Water! To be human!"

"Food! Water! To be human!"

Governor Jia Mei suddenly raised his head, the grief and indignation in his eyes completely transforming into a prairie fire of rage. He spun around and roared at his subordinates behind him:

"Go! Bring out all the weapons we traded for! Distribute them to the brothers!"

"No more waiting! We hit them today!"

"No more waiting!"

"BEEP—!!!"

Minutes later, a sharp, piercing scrap-metal whistle suddenly blasted over the entire South City Slums and the Red-Light District!

This was the highest command for an emergency assembly when the People's Armed Forces faced a life-or-death crisis!

Countless ragged, gaunt civilians and gang members crawled out from dark shacks, sewers, and dilapidated factories.

Like a gathering tide of black ants, they quickly converged on the block where Governor Jia Mei was located.

In just half an hour, thousands of people had finished assembling.

Governor Jia Mei had the wooden crates smashed open, distributing the automatic rifles, tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition, and RPG launchers traded from the players.

Those who didn't get guns held rusted iron pipes, machetes, and sharpened rebars.

Governor Jia Mei stood on an abandoned oil drum, looking down at his bloodshot-eyed compatriots.

He didn't give a long speech, nor did he spout empty nonsense about the Emperor.

He raised the loaded automatic rifle in his hand and roared with all his might:

"Brothers!"

"What's the difference between living like pigs and dogs and being dead?!"

"Food! Water! To be human!"

"Kill those vampires! First, follow me to chop off the heads of those Sand Snake Gang bastards!"

"Kill!!!"

Thousands of people roared in unison.

The rage suppressed for countless years was completely ignited at this moment.

Holding their brand-new weapons, the Rebel Army was like a torrent, quickly disappearing into the complex streets and splitting into several routes to charge directly toward the Sand Snake Gang's territory in the southeast of Shahe Town.

Before long, the dense bang-bang-bang of gunfire and the explosions of RPG rockets echoed one after another in the air over Shahe Town.

Flames soared into the sky!

The battle instantly reached a fever pitch.

Many small gangs that were usually oppressed, upon hearing that the People's Armed Forces were leading the uprising and had heavy firepower, rose up one after another to join the riot.

Of course, there were also some outlaws taking advantage of the chaos to start seizing territory and supplies in other blocks.

The entire Shahe Town fell into a state of total chaos and war.

...

However, in stark contrast to the battlefield outside filled with gunfire and slaughter, was the high tower in the center of Shahe Town.

This was where the Merchant Nobles and the overseer lived.

Although the sounds of guns and cannons from outside could be heard faintly, the soundproofing inside the tower was excellent.

In the hall at this moment, an extremely extravagant grand banquet was being held.

Expensive crystal chandeliers hung from the hall's dome, and the long tables were filled with synthetic delicacies and pure alcohol scavenged from across the wasteland.

Almost all the various outsider specialties that had only appeared on the market in the last few days had flowed here.

The air was filled with a purple smoke from burning mutated Spirit Leaves, which had a strong hallucinogenic effect.

The nobles' eyes were glazed over as they held wine glasses, admiring famous Earth paintings copied by player artists hanging on the walls.

A few pot-bellied nobles were even embracing wasteland girls dressed in Earth-style lace clothes and black stockings, indulging in debauchery in the corners of the hall.

These clothes, with their strong modern Earth style, were clearly products made by players from scraps to swindle money.

And at the door of a private box in the tower's banquet hall.

A thin man with a pale face and a long white beard stood quietly.

He looked coldly at the nobles before him, obsessed with carnal desires and hallucinations, a satisfied smile appearing on his pale face.

"The messier, the better. Despair and depravity are the best nutrients."

The white-bearded man took a deep breath of the hallucinogenic smoke-filled air, then quietly withdrew, slamming the heavy box door shut and completely sealing off the nobles' connection to the outside world.

...

On the outskirts of Shahe Town, at the players' temporary camp.

This was originally an abandoned site, but because of the riots in the city, many solo players who were trading or doing missions in town had gathered here for safety.

Liver Emperor strode into the camp and announced the news of the uprising to everyone.

"The Scourge Legion's heavy armored main force is already on the way!"

Liver Emperor checked the firearms in his hands and said loudly to the crowd,

"Once the main force arrives, we'll coordinate from inside and out to take down this town!"

Flash's eyes were still red.

He punched a piece of scrap metal, gritting his teeth:

"Those nobles' lapdogs really aren't human! Old Liver, how about we don't wait for the main force? We've got dozens of people here right now; let's just sneak over and wipe out that noble nest in the tower first!"

Liver Emperor, however, shook his head calmly. "Let's see how things go first. I keep feeling like something isn't right."

"Think about it."

Liver Emperor pointed toward the city, where flames were soaring.

"Such a large-scale armed rebellion is happening below. Logically, those nobles and mercenaries up there should have reacted by sending troops to suppress it immediately or by opening fire with the heavy machine guns on the walls, right?"

"But listen to the noise now. Aside from the Sand Snake Gang fighting street battles with the Rebel Army, the tower hasn't made a peep!"

Flash calmed down and thought about it. "That's true. Why hasn't there been any sign of the Defense Force? Could those nobles have chickened out, or do they have some trick up their sleeve?"

"No matter how many tricks they have, they still have to send people out to maintain order first. This feels too abnormal."

Liver Emperor's brow furrowed, and a Flash of inspiration suddenly crossed his mind. "Wait! Could it be related to that mysterious distress signal everyone received a few days ago?!"

"If I'm not mistaken, it's definitely related to that signal!"

A crisp voice came from the container door.

Everyone turned to look.

They saw ikun True Fan striding in with exactly twenty fully armed players, carrying high-quality weapons.

"We've locked onto the final source of that distress signal."

ikun's expression was serious as he got straight to the point.

"It's right under the tallest three-story stone building in the North City Trading District! Our legion is taking this job!"

Liver Emperor looked curious:

"Not bad! So you guys were prepared all along! But Shahe Town is so big, how did you accurately track the signal source?"

ikun reached out to pull up the tactical goggles on his Defense Force standard helmet, a smug sneer curling his lips.

"It's actually quite simple."

ikun explained,

"Do you remember that customized electric moped that kid Mudslide lost? We found the location by bribing locals for intel and cross-referencing multiple pieces of information."

"After that moped was confiscated, the last place it was parked was in the basement of that three-story stone building."

ikun's tone became cold and grim,

"Furthermore, through our secret investigations over the past two days, we found that almost all clues regarding the disappearance of the city's lower-class population eventually converge on that area!"

"Unexpected, isn't it? Beneath the core of Shahe Town's busiest and most prosperous trading market... actually lies the town's largest human trafficking den!"

After hearing this, Liver Emperor couldn't help but give a thumbs up:

"You guys are something else! Solving a case using an electric scooter—only you could come up with a move like that."

"Enough talk." ikun pulled down his goggles and chambered a round into his rifle with a click.

"While the whole town's attention is drawn by the Rebel Army and the nobles and Defense Force are playing dead, we need to dig out the secrets under that stone building before dark!"

The twenty elite players in heavy armor did a final check of their ammunition and communication equipment.

Without hesitation, they turned and walked out of the temporary camp, moving toward the center of the North City Trading District like a group of ghosts.