Life Dungeon Game

Later, I had some writer's block.

Chapter 732 Whispers Under the Night (Mega Chapter, Requesting Monthly Tickets)

He Ao looked at the opened gate. Perhaps because it was deformed, the gate was not fully open, only a small part of it was open.

Three men dressed in fur coats were peering through the door, looking at He Ao and his companion with surprise, bewilderment, and a hint of fear.

While they were sizing up He Ao, He Ao was also sizing them up.

All three people have distinct features of Newland citizens.

In contrast to their simple fur clothing, all three were carrying weapons resembling Gauss rifles, something clearly beyond the technological capabilities of the main world.

Features of modern people, attire of primitive people, and weapons of future people.

This somewhat bizarre and magical combination, placed here, seems to have a surprising sense of rationality.

Moreover, the man in the lead also exuded an unstable aura of a superhuman.

"Hello, may I ask which city you are from?"

The leading man looked at Heo and Fiya and asked them respectfully in Tia.

Fiya looked up at He Ao.

"Before we came in, we were in the city of Newland."

He replied slowly, then glanced behind the man. Behind the half-open, deformed gate, one or two figures were vaguely peeking out.

He then glanced down at the monster's corpse on the ground and asked, "Can you tell us what happened here?"

"This might be a bit complicated to explain,"

Upon hearing He Ao's reply with the word 'Newland City-State', the man's tightly furrowed expression visibly relaxed. He hesitated for a moment, then peeked around the dark corridor. "Come in with me and let's talk."

As he spoke, he and the two people behind him made way for He Ao and the other to enter through the gate.

He Ao and Fiya exchanged a glance.

Then He Ao went first, followed by Fiya, and the two of them entered the gate cautiously, one after the other.

After entering the gate, the first thing that caught their eyes was a rather spacious hall.

Many ceiling lights were suspended from the ceiling of the hall. Although nearly half of these lights were off, the remaining lights still provided sufficient illumination for the hall.

At the front of the hall, near the gate, were rows of metal chairs that seemed to be for resting. At this moment, a man wearing a denim jacket with an injured arm was sitting on the metal chair closest to the gate, and another person who looked like a nurse was treating his wound.

The only open area in the lobby is covered by these metal chairs.

Behind these metal chairs are small rooms separated by various metal partitions.

Pairs of eyes peeked out from behind the metal sheet, watching the two people enter the gate with caution, curiosity, and a touch of fear and awe.

click -

The leading man pulled a ring on the gate, and the sound of the gate slowly closing came from behind him.

He glanced at the pull ring; next to it was a small screen displaying the view outside the door.

It seems that these people were hiding behind the door the whole time, watching the scene outside.

The fear, vigilance, and awe in their eyes, as well as the respectful attitude of the leading man, were probably due to...

I just saw He Ao's output on the screen.

"Are there this many people here?"

The first to break the silence was Fia, who looked at the pairs of eyes in the hall and asked, "Did you all come in today?"

"today?"

The man at the head of the group stood not far from He Ao and shook his head. "The first people to come in have been here for almost a year."

"what?"

Even Fia, who had maintained her composure throughout, was slightly taken aback.

He Ao merely glanced at the face of the leading man and asked softly, "Your name is Kalin?"

"you know me?"

The man in the lead was taken aback.

“I’ve seen your file,” He Ao replied calmly. “The earliest missing persons in Newland City-State disappeared on Vinland Island a year ago. They were informants for the research institute.”

"Research Institute..."

Hearing He Ao's words, Kalin was stunned for a moment, then sighed softly. His original vigilance and fear were greatly relieved by He Ao's words. "You are from the research institute. Such distant memories. Living here for so long, I feel like I have almost forgotten these things."

Fiya turned her head to look at He Ao with a blank expression, blinking her eyes.

Even though Newland City-State is Moonlight's territory, how come she, the person in charge of Moonlight, acts like an outsider, knowing nothing about it?

He Ao glanced at her and whispered a reminder, "Missing person case."

Fia instantly realized what West was doing, then paused, somewhat stunned. "Weren't all those disappearances the work of West?"

"Most of them were probably done by West, but West mainly targets superhumans. He wouldn't personally capture ordinary people; he mostly delegated the task to his subordinates. And these ordinary people are the main group of missing persons."

He Ao shook his head. "The research institute alone has investigated hundreds of disappearances in Newland. The vast majority of them are ordinary people. These ordinary people may not all have been 'captured' by West's men. There may be real 'missing persons' mixed in among them."

The research institute is not an official organization of Newland City-State, so it cannot obtain detailed information on missing persons cases. Therefore, the missing persons cases that it can investigate are only the tip of the iceberg.

However, detailed information about all the disappearances was probably covered up by West, who was in charge of the city-state of Newland at the time.

“You mean,” Fia realized, looking at Heo, “the ‘door’ was opened a long time ago?”

"The approach to space might be a gradual process, wouldn't it?"

He Ao nodded slightly.

He initially only guessed that this was possible, and couldn't be sure.

Only by seeing these people staying here can we be completely certain that some of the 'missing persons' passed through the 'door' and arrived at the underground palace.

The approach between the two worlds is not something that happens overnight, but rather a gradual process. In the process of getting closer, some 'doors' will naturally open, but the number and quality of these 'doors' may be far less than the current state of full opening.

The earliest 'door' may have been opened a year ago.

The person behind the scenes putting West in the spotlight was indeed a brilliant move; it not only helped them stir up trouble but also shielded them from criticism.

Without West arresting people everywhere, that

Those who were among the first to disappear through the 'door' will become particularly conspicuous.

However, every advantage has its disadvantage. If West hadn't stolen the research institute's house, Heo wouldn't have been attracted there.

Of course, West had no other choice when he got to that point.

The people behind the scenes who pushed West into the spotlight may not have been doing it just to have a scapegoat.

"If you're talking about how we got here,"

Kalin, standing to the side, cautiously interjected, "Almost all of us opened a door, went inside, and then somehow ended up here."

"Can you tell us about what happened here?"

He looked at Kalin.

"certainly,"

Kalin nodded slightly, then led Heo and Fia to the front row of seats and asked softly, "Where would you like to start?"

"How about we start with this 'settlement'?"

He Ao glanced at the densely packed, seemingly aged metal partitions in the hall. "Did you renovate this place like this?"

"Strictly speaking, no,"

Kalin shook his head and glanced at the metal partitions. "These partitions, including the chair we're sitting in now, were there when we first discovered this place. We're just making use of them."

“So,” Heo looked at the metal partitions, “people lived here before you?”

"Yes,"

Kalin nodded. "That's what we were thinking too."

“Then,” Fia asked in a low voice, “when you found this place, did you meet any people who lived here?”

Although she knew it was unlikely, she still asked the question.

"No,"

Kalin shook his head bluntly. "When we found this place, it was covered in dust. There were rotten remnants of food scattered on the ground, and messy bedding of some unknown material on the bed boards. There were traces of human life everywhere, but no 'people' were left behind, and we didn't find any bone fragments."

"Those who used to live here seem to have left in a hurry for some reason and never came back."

Is it because there isn't enough food?

Fia then asked.

"I don't know what the situation was like back then,"

Karin pondered, "But I think they must have had enough food back then, at least not to the point where everyone had to leave."

"why?"

Fiya looked at him with a puzzled expression.

This question made Kalin think for a moment, then he slowly stood up. "Come with me."

The two followed his figure through the 'corridor' between the metal partitions.

At this moment, He Ao also saw what the interior of those partitioned 'rooms' looked like. A simple metal bed, which seemed to be converted from a table, filled most of the space in the partition, and on the bed were some quilts made of fibers of unknown material.

Most of these cubicles are not covered.

A group of somewhat thin people stood by the bed, carefully observing He Ao and Fiya.

He Ao's gaze swept across the faces of these people, finally settling on...

His gaze lingered on a couple who appeared much more robust, then he looked away.

Approximately how many people are there here?

he asked casually.