Inside the council chamber of District 001's District Government, the council, led by Valen, and several candidates for the council election sat silently around the table.
At least half the seats were empty. The empty seats belonged to the Chief Executive of the District Government and two-thirds of the former council members.
Those who had not come had once been the core members of the entire District Government. Now, however, they were all gone. They and their families, along with the families of the sub-district's officials present, had vanished on the same day—the day the relic zone was sealed off. More than a month had passed, and no credible information had come back.
The Holy Sword Society was undoubtedly involved in their disappearance, but District 001 was no weakling. The Holy Sword Society alone couldn't have abducted so many government officials at once. An operation this swift and flawless could only have been carried out by an even more powerful enemy lurking in the shadows.
A trace-back device kept in an official's home had happened to record the intruders' movements. Though they had concealed their identities, their habits suggested that they were most likely from a major power in some other sub-district. The people of District 001 couldn't determine which one. Even at B-level, there were dozens of Wormhole Points, and countless Player Families with strength and resources among them.
There was simply no way to investigate.
But their goal was clear: to replace District 001's original government officials with their own people and turn the district into a supply zone.
District 001 had been part of the game for a long time, so its people understood the methods used by major powers from certain high-level Wormhole Points.
Generally, high-level Wormhole Points wouldn't target a newly emerged sub-district or one