Chapter 146: Dong Xin's Discovery

Hearing Dong Xin's explanation, the astute Guo Yunhai and Zhuge Tuoxue quickly understood what she meant.

"Are you saying that in order to protect us geeks, you deliberately placed our character data into the custom map you created?" Zhuge Tuoxue asked. "But why would you do that? Even if you are an undercover agent, there's no need to go that far.

No matter what, the way we geeks entered the game wasn't entirely orthodox. If it really came down to accountability, we would be the ones bearing the responsibility, and it had nothing to do with you at all.

Besides, reporting us to the company would only make them trust you more and facilitate your undercover work, wouldn't it?"

Dong Xin nodded. "What you're saying is completely true! Anyone could figure that out. In fact, at the very beginning, I did report the information of one or two people to the company's upper management. But the outcome was quite different from what I had expected.

Initially, I thought that once I submitted the list of these individuals to the company, they would form a specialized investigation team—not to target those who entered the company using unconventional means, but to hunt down the vulnerabilities in the game and patch them to prevent such occurrences in the future.

At the same time, the company should have issued warnings or reprimands to the people on that list, or perhaps turned the matter over to cyber police to handle.

Since the game hadn't launched yet, was only in the development phase, and wasn't generating revenue, and since these geeks hadn't introduced anything game-breaking, matters like this usually end with just a verbal warning and nothing more.

Yet, reality turned out completely different from what I imagined.

When I reported the information, the company not only failed to set up a dedicated investigation team to look into it and patch the holes, but instead brushed it off dismissively, telling me to just let them know if I found anything similar in the future.

When I offered to take charge of vulnerability patching, the upper management stated that it wasn't necessary for the time being.

Meanwhile, they neither sent anyone to track down those geeks nor notified the cyber police, as if the whole issue had simply been swept under the rug."

Chen Hao scratched his head. "Is there anything strange about that? According to what you said, it didn't cause any negative impact, and Illusion Corporation didn't suffer any losses. Isn't a lenient handling like that the most normal thing?

After all, Illusion Corporation is massive. Aside from gaming, they have many other industrial sectors, and situations like this happen countless times in other industries. If every single incident required making a huge fuss, it would be endlessly exhausting."

"True!" Dong Xin agreed, nodding. "You are completely right. After my initial bewilderment, I quickly realized the reason you mentioned and thought I was just making a mountain out of a molehill. But a subsequent incident made me sense that something wasn't quite right."

"What incident?" Chen Hao asked curiously.

"Those very geeks I had reported to the company disappeared without a trace," Dong Xin replied, looking back at the three of them.

"Ah?" The three of them froze in astonishment.

"You suspect their disappearance is connected to Illusion Corporation?" Chen Hao asked gravely.

Dong Xin shook her head. "I couldn't be certain. In fact, back then, I didn't suspect the company at all. Although I am an undercover agent planted in Illusion Corporation by the military, my assigned mission wasn't related to these things. I simply never imagined Illusion Corporation would do anything to a couple of geeks just because they slipped into the game without authorization.

At the time, I didn't take the matter too much to heart, until two days later when I received news that yet another geek from the list I had submitted had also vanished.

Only then did I sense something unusual; the time interval between the disappearances of these two people was far too short. It was essentially back-to-back.

If two completely unrelated people went missing simultaneously, it might not have meant much, but the fact that both of them were geeks I had caught trespassing into the game forced me to pay attention and raise my suspicions.

However, after considering the situation from multiple angles, I decided not to report this development upward, keeping it buried in my heart instead while secretly having people look into it.

Yet, the investigation did not progress smoothly. The people I hired to help found out after a period of inquiry that this was, on the surface, nothing more than a completely ordinary missing persons case."

"What do you mean by that? Could you give us the details?" Zhuge Tuoxue asked, clearly concerned. Because she was a geek just like those missing people, perhaps that shared identity made her care deeply about the fate of her peers.

Dong Xin paused to collect her thoughts, seemingly recalling the specific details. "Missing persons cases of this nature usually only come to light after family members report the disappearance to the local police station in the person's hometown.

However, both of these missing individuals were orphans with no family whatsoever. The reason their absence was noticed in the first place was that their respective employers realized they hadn't shown up for work for several days, and phone calls went unanswered before their phones were simply powered off. Only then did their company managers report the matter to the local police station.

Upon investigation, the police discovered that prior to vanishing, both individuals had apparently booked a tour package through a certain travel agency to visit another city. Once the trip ended and they returned to their home city, neither of them was ever seen again. From that point on, the two were officially classified as missing."

"And then?" Chen Hao knew the matter couldn't have ended that simply, or Dong Xin wouldn't have been so tense.

"And then came the police search and investigation, the results of which I don't even need to tell you—naturally, they turned up nothing. But what's worth mentioning is that the two individuals didn't actually know each other. Coincidentally, however, they both happened to book the exact same travel agency and the exact same tour itinerary at the same time.

What made it even more suspicious was that before going on this trip, neither of them had requested time off from their companies, nor had they asked for any leave. It was as if both of them had acted entirely on their own accord, skipping work behind everyone's backs to go play.

Yet, through inquiries made with their respective supervisors and colleagues, both individuals had always been extremely disciplined at work. Such an occurrence—running off without a word or asking for leave—was simply impossible for either of them."

"That really is strange!" Chen Hao nodded. "So what happened next? Were these two never found?"

Dong Xin sighed. "Not only were they never found, but even their bodies were missing. Ordinarily, after being missing for so many days, the possibilities of them being lost or kidnapped can essentially be ruled out. Since the two had no relatives and were merely ordinary employees of an electronic technology company, the possibility of anyone demanding a ransom did not exist.

With the country's public security being as robust as it is, there couldn't possibly be any human traffickers or underground organ harvesters at work. It was practically certain that the two were dead. But regardless of the cause of death, their bodies couldn't possibly remain undiscovered for so many days. No one would believe there was some elusive serial killer operating in this world that the police couldn't catch.

The most crucial point was that their pre-disappearance behavior of going on a trip was far too abnormal. Although the police knew there had to be a special reason behind their vanishing, they were starved of any leads or clues, and the case remained completely deadlocked.

According to my friend, the police had retraced the entire travel route taken by the two and questioned everyone in that tour group, leaving no one out from the bus driver and tour guide to the other tourists.

Everyone stated that there had been nothing unusual at the time. The only slightly strange thing was that after boarding the bus, those two never conversed with outsiders, and if anyone tried to strike up a conversation, they were indifferent and unresponsive.

What gave the most food for thought, however, was the tour guide's remark. The guide in charge of the group was a veteran who had seen countless diverse tourists over the course of a year.

Yet he said he had a deeply profound impression of those two tourists, because no matter what kind of personality people usually have when traveling—unless they are feeling unwell and resting with their eyes closed—most will gaze out the bus window to take in the scenery along the way, or stay glued to their phones and tablets. Very few people act like the two of them, sitting entirely silent, doing nothing at all, with their eyes fixed blankly straight ahead in a daze.

Furthermore, no other tourists would arrive at the destination without showing the slightest trace of curiosity or excitement. They merely followed like automatons behind the tour guide and the crowd, going through the motions mechanically like a pair of zombies.

That was the impression those two left on the tour guide."

"What do you make of this, Chen Hao?" After finishing, Guo Yunhai glanced at Dong Xin and asked Chen Hao.

Chen Hao shook his head. "I didn't study criminal investigation, so I'm not very familiar with these things. I can't draw a conclusion purely based on your description."

Then, after a brief pause in thought, Chen Hao added, "Do you think the disappearance of these two people is linked to Illusion Corporation?"

Dong Xin nodded, then shook her head. "To be honest, I wasn't sure what to think at the time. On one hand, I felt that a company as massive as Illusion Corporation had no reason to take such ruthless action against two geeks. Just because someone breached the game using unconventional methods, they would make them vanish? That seemed entirely unnecessary.

Besides, Illusion Corporation is a corporate giant. If... and I mean *if* the disappearance of those two really was orchestrated by people sent by Illusion Corporation, how massive of an impact would such a malicious scandal have if exposed?

However, if it wasn't Illusion Corporation, I honestly couldn't think of anyone else who would hold a grudge against two geeks and make them disappear. They hadn't offended anyone, nor had they used geek technology to blackmail or extort anyone.

So I was very hesitant at the time, and since the police investigation yielded no results, I eventually stopped paying attention to it. That was until I accidentally overheard another group of people chatting while having a meal..."