[ Zhong Lele ]'s tunnels played a crucial role in the battle two days ago. Unfortunately, after Ed arrived in Fir City, the enemy's respawn point rendered the tunnels useless by 80%. In addition, with the city gates being recaptured, the number of people using the tunnels quickly dwindled.
But [ Zhong Lele ] was not discouraged. After consulting with several players with relevant expertise, she learned that because it was far from the river, the tunnel could exist for a long time even after the spring thaw, as long as it was properly maintained.
This gave her a new idea: she planned to preserve the tunnel's structure and then transform it into a memorial facility, commemorating, of course, the players' feat of liberating Fir City.
Just as she was pondering how to reinforce this thing, [ Clear Soup Master ]'s message appeared on her game panel as a red dot.
"A hidden quest? It was in his hands all along..."
The moment she saw the message, she blurted out instinctively, "This is quite rare!" Moreover, the previous in-game quest progress notification only mentioned that someone had unlocked a hidden side quest, but it didn't mention the player's specific name.
Now that they've encountered difficulties, they've thought of themselves.
However, [ Zhong Lele ] didn't think [ Clear Soup Master ] did anything wrong. Every player has both public and private interests. To be fair, if she had unlocked this hidden side quest, she would have chosen to explore it herself first.
Moreover, as a story-driven video creator, [ Zhong Lele ] is quite interested in hidden side quests.
On the way to the cathedral, [ Zhong Lele ] saw another acquaintance.
She went up to greet him and found that it was indeed [ the Great Wei Boxing Champion ]:
"Are we going to the archives room below the cathedral?"
[ The Great Wei Boxing Champion ] turned his head in surprise:
It seems you received an invitation too.
"Let's go, let's go. I'm quite interested in the hidden side quests."
The two arrived at the bottom of the cathedral, where [ Clear Soup Master ] presented them with the problem:
"The hidden side quest requires us to uncover the true purpose of the Stained Ones, meaning their goal is not simply to Resurrection Tree God. While reviewing the documents here, I discovered many files with obvious signs of alteration."
As he spoke, he opened a bound book, showing the two of them the blackened blocks of color on it.
[ Zhong Lele ] held the paper up to the light source, and [ Clear Soup Master ] shook his head:
"I've tried it, and it seems to be using the same ink or even darker ink. In any case, it's not visible against a light source, and what gets covered up are often some details or keywords, which has caused me a lot of trouble in my investigation."
During [ Clear Soup Master's ] introduction, [ Zhong Lele ] and [ Great Wei Boxing Champion ] began to flip through the files in front of them, using their existing knowledge to deduce the smeared content.
A few hours later, [ The Great Wei Boxing Champion ] was the first to discover the problem.
He spread a list out in front of [ Clear Soup Master ] and asked:
How many of these people do you recognize?
[ Clear Soup Master ] took it and immediately spotted the name " Enzo ".
He scanned the names around him again and quickly confirmed one thing:
"I know a lot of them; this seems to be the list of Treant Hunter?"
[ The Great Wei Boxing Champion ] shook his head and said:
"I initially thought so too, but look at the length of the list. Does Antiya Lisi really have that many Treant Hunter under his command?"
[ Clear Soup Master ] estimated that the quantities of the two were indeed vastly different, but he did not realize this immediately and made a misjudgment simply because of a few familiar names.
"Then what is this list for?"
He asked in confusion, and [ the Great Wei Boxing Champion ] replied in a serious tone:
"It's a list of experimental subjects who died."
"Dead?"
"That's right, the Treant Hunter are Antiya Lisi's private army, so in the reports the Holy City might review, these people must be dead."
"But there aren't that many Treant Hunter at all."
That's the problem.
[ Zhong Lele ] suddenly interrupted:
"This suggests that, besides the Treant Hunter, the people on the list must have gone somewhere else."
[ Clear Soup Master ] retorted:
"That doesn't make sense. Their cruel experiments can't succeed every time; someone has to die."
Where is the body?
This time, it was [ Great Wei Boxing Champion ] who raised the objection. He looked at the two of them seriously and asked:
"When we captured all the towns in the Aduolin Province, we found a place beneath the church where failed experiments were disposed of."
"Have you forgotten those monsters made up of half-dead, mangled limbs?"
The two did not reply. They had seen those things before, but the scene was indeed too horrific, even more disgusting than the final form of the protagonist in "Inside." It was the kind of thing that would be censored instantly if posted online.
"You've also thought of that place, haven't you? That place used to dispose of failed experiments."
Both nodded, and [ Great Wei Boxing Champion ] continued:
"But does the Fir City Cathedral even exist?"
Over the past few days, [ Clear Soup Master ] has thoroughly explored the structure of the Fir City Cathedral and is quite familiar with every tunnel and secret room.
But no such room or cabin has actually appeared.
He shook his head and said:
"So... they didn't become Treant Hunter, and they didn't die, so the children whose names correspond to those names have all disappeared?"
[ The Great Wei Boxing Champion ] nodded:
"This might be the direction of our investigation. Finding the whereabouts of the other children might lead us to the true purpose of those Stained Ones the Tree Worship Church."
[ Zhong Lele ] thought for a moment and then said:
"I have an idea too. If these children aren't dead, and there's no trace of them in Fir City, then it means they were sent out of Fir City."
There was a moment of silence in the underground archive room, then the three spoke in unison:
"Entry and exit records!"
Seeing the gleam in his friends' eyes, [ Clear Soup Master ] realized something:
"If this is a covert operation, will they delete their entry and exit records?"
[ Zhong Lele ] said:
"There is indeed a certain probability that they will be deleted, but there is another possibility: that they have done a thorough disguise and can enter and leave the city in a normal manner. Hiding in normal records is obviously a more sophisticated disguise than deletion."
[ Clear Soup Master ] felt he had learned a lot from the two of them. Listening to his companions' brainstorming, he thought for a moment and said:
"I've already looked through most of the documents here, but I haven't figured anything out. You guys keep looking here while I go check the entry records."
Watching [ Clear Soup Master ]'s hurried departure, [ Great Wei Boxing Champion ] quickly called out:
"Prioritize checking the records at the South Gate, before the Blood Corpse martial law is declared. If there are no results, then interrogate the Holy Crusaders at the city gate!"