Chapter 39 The Truth Comes to Light
The garden on the first floor of the underground city.
“Pah!”
Zhu Yu and Charmander fell heavily onto the soft grass, their bodies aching.
Before she could even catch her breath, she heard two muffled thuds beside her - Xu Jing and the woman with the red leaf umbrella also fell near her.
The players in the garden stopped and looked at the three people and the dragon who appeared out of nowhere in surprise, whispering to each other.
Zhu Yu ignored the puzzled looks and raised her hand to take the little fire dragon that she was pressing under her back into the summoning space. She brushed off the grass debris on its body, then immediately opened the bracelet and quickly edited several different messages, sending them to Yunze and several other friends.
When she stood up, she found that the woman with the red leaf umbrella had crawled up from the ground and was staring at her coldly, with an unfriendly light flashing in her eyes.
The next second, the woman stretched out her hand as if to activate a skill.
However, as she moved, only a slight ripple appeared in the air, and there was no other movement.
The woman was stunned for a moment, and tried again, but still to no avail. Her expression suddenly changed, revealing a look of surprise and doubt.
Zhu Yu saw this scene, pinched his brows, and advised:
"Don't waste your energy. This is a dungeon. It's just a thought for me to suppress your ability."
Hearing this, the woman's pupils shrank slightly, and her expression became even uglier, but she stopped moving.
Just then, a burst of hurried footsteps came from a distance.
Upon receiving the news, the vice president of the Sunflower Union ran over breathlessly with several members.
As soon as they saw President Xu Jing on the grass, their eyes froze instantly and they became extremely excited.
"President! Are you okay? I'm Wen Luo, do you still remember me?"
Wen Luo stepped forward quickly, his voice trembling with emotion.
The vice president and several other union members also gathered around and tried to talk to Xu Jing, telling her how they had worked hard to find her after she disappeared.
Xu Jing stood there with empty eyes, as if she hadn't heard anything.
Only when Wen Luo's voice mentioned her name, would a trace of fluctuation and struggle occasionally flash across her eyes, but that fluctuation quickly disappeared, and eventually she returned to indifference without even a word of response.
This scene made the people of the Sunflower Union sad and anxious, and they were at a loss for a moment.
Zhu Yu glanced at the increasing number of players watching, then turned to the Sunflower crowd and said:
"Don't hang around here, let's go back to the City Lord's Mansion first."
As she spoke, she grabbed the arm of the woman with the Red Leaf Umbrella, and ignoring her struggle, she pinned her down and walked towards the City Lord's Mansion.
Xu Jing, with the help of Wen Luo and other members, slowly caught up.
*
After returning to the City Lord's Mansion, Zhu Yu first took the woman with the Red Leaf Umbrella to an empty office next to the conference room, set the highest-authority electronic lock with his bracelet, and at the same time instructed the robot outside the door to strengthen monitoring.
Before leaving, looking at the other party's sinister eyes, Zhu Yu didn't care. He just left a warning: "You'd better behave yourself." Then he opened the door next door and entered the meeting room.
In the conference room, members of the Sunflower Union still gathered around Xu Jing.
They all looked anxious, with worry in their eyes.
Zhu Yu frowned and looked at Xu Jing who was sitting motionless on the chair, and slowly spoke:
"When I found her, besides that woman, there was a man beside her. That man's skill was hypnosis. Judging from President Xu's current reaction, it should be the sequelae of long-term hypnosis, and his mental consciousness is in a suppressed state."
Hearing this, everyone in Sunflower looked even more worried, and some even clenched their fists and cursed under their breath while gnashing their teeth.
Seeing this, Zhu Yu slowed down his tone and consoled:
"But don't worry, I've already sent a message to Luo Xi, he——"
Before he could finish his words, the door of the conference room was pushed open.
Luo Xi, wearing a white coat, walked in quickly.
He glanced at everyone in the room and then set his eyes on Xu Jing.
He confirmed to Zhu Yu:
"Is she the special patient you mentioned?"
Zhu Yu nodded, and then asked:
“Can this condition be cured?”
Luo Xi gently placed his hand on Xu Jing's forehead, closed his eyes and felt for a moment, then said:
"Yes. She is no longer under the influence of the mind controller. She only needs to be placed in the intensive care unit on the fifth floor for a few days. She should be able to regain consciousness gradually."
Hearing this, the members of the Sunflower Union immediately breathed a sigh of relief and showed some joy on their faces.
However, Luo Xi added slowly: "However, I have to remind you that the medical expenses in the intensive care unit are not low. This 'expense'..."
The vice president immediately stood up and patted his chest to assure:
"Money is not a problem! As long as we can cure President Xu, we are willing to pay for everything!"
After that, he took out a small box and handed it to Zhu Yu: "City Lord Zhu, President Xu was able to be rescued thanks to you. Please don't refuse this time. Please accept this thank you gift."
Zhu Yu no longer refused, took the box and nodded slightly:
"Okay, take her to treatment."
The vice president and other members nodded, supported Xu Jing, and hurriedly left the meeting room to go to the fifth-floor medical center to register for treatment.
Most people had left the meeting room. Zhu Yu saw Luo Xi sitting quietly aside, seemingly with no intention of leaving.
She walked over with her arms folded and said half-jokingly:
"What? You're not going back to the hospital? That's considered absenteeism. Be careful or I'll deduct your salary."
Luo Xi ignored Zhu Yu's teasing, glanced at her clothes that were torn by the monster, and asked calmly:
"You seem to have just been through a battle, do you need treatment?"
Zhu Yu looked down at his own miserable appearance and curled his lips:
"These look scary, but I didn't suffer any substantial injuries."
Although she said so, she couldn't help but curse when she saw her good clothes being ruined like this, and said in a bad tone:
"I didn't expect things to turn out like this... It's really annoying. The illusions of those two people were weird and difficult to deal with. The people from Red Leaf Umbrella are really cunning."
She briefly recounted what had happened and glanced at Luo Xi inadvertently, only to find that something seemed wrong with his expression.
Zhu Yu asked, "What's wrong? Is there something wrong?"
Luo Xi looked at her, his tone slightly deep:
"You just said... you brought that woman back to the dungeon as well?"
"Yes," Zhu Yu nodded and looked at him puzzledly, "She is in the office next door. Why, do you want to go and see her?"
Luo Xi was silent for a moment, his eyes dim and unclear, as if he was making some decision.
Finally, he sighed, "Okay."
Zhu Yu pushed open the door. The woman in the office looked up at her, her eyes turned slightly, and then her gaze fell on Luo Xi who was following behind Zhu Yu.
The next moment, she curled her lips and suddenly chuckled:
"Long time no see, President."
Zhu Yu paused, frowning:
"President? What president?"
She turned her head and looked at Luo Xi, following the woman's gaze.
Zhu Yu's eyes widened slightly, his tone full of doubt: "Is she talking about you?"
Luo Xi did not answer directly, but lowered his eyes slightly with an unfathomable expression.
Seeing this, the woman laughed even more wantonly: "Didn't expect it, City Lord? The most reliable hospital director in your underground city is actually the president we Red Leaf Umbrella have been looking for. Tsk tsk, you people..."
“Bang!”
Zhu Yu quickly shut the door behind the woman's remaining words.
She rubbed her swollen temples. Too many things and accidents happened today, and she needed to sort out her thoughts.
"Luo Xi, I need an explanation."
Luo Xi sighed and motioned her to go to the conference room: "Sit down first, I'll talk slowly."
Zhu Yu and Luo Xi sat back in the conference room.
Luo Xi leaned back in his chair and said:
"I know this is hard to explain, but let me assure you that I am not controlled by them and I am mentally normal now."
"Of course I know you're not controlled, otherwise you wouldn't be sitting here now." Zhu Yu said, "But this doesn't explain why she called you 'President'. Also, it seems that you already knew their true identities. What exactly are you, Red Leaf Umbrella, planning?"
"Indeed, I already knew their identities. But the situation is not exactly as you think." Luo Xi paused, looked directly at Zhu Yu and said, "I am not hiding it from you on purpose, but there are too many things involved. The two people you met before are twin siblings. The sister is Ming Wei and the brother is Ming Yu. They are the two vice presidents of the Red Leaf Umbrella Union."
Zhu Yu thought carefully about the faces of the two people and found that they were indeed somewhat similar.
She narrowed her eyes, her tone a little puzzled: "So, what does this have to do with you being the president of Red Leaf Umbrella?"
Luo Xi did not answer her question directly, but changed the subject and brought up another topic: "After meeting Adrian, you should know that although some players' abilities are powerful, they are often accompanied by serious sequelae. Ming Wei and Ming Yu are no exception. Their mental power is greatly depleted. At the beginning of the dungeon, they happened to discover that my abilities could cure their sequelae, and have been pestering me since then."
Zhu Yu raised his eyebrows, vaguely realizing that things were not simple:
"So, they came here for your special abilities in the first place?"
Luo Xi nodded: "At the beginning, they disguised themselves very well and took the initiative to ask to join the Red Leaf Umbrella Union that I had just founded. I observed them for a while and didn't find anything unusual, so I absorbed them. Unexpectedly, I was inviting a wolf into the house."
Luo Xi's eyes flashed with a hint of coldness. "With their powerful abilities, they quickly defeated a group of competitors and were promoted to the position of vice president. But I didn't think much about it until I found that the state of the union members began to become strange, their minds were often dazed, and their eyes were dull. Then I realized that something was wrong."
Zhu Yu: "It was too late then, right?"
"That's right," Luo Xi said, "When I wanted to find out more, they had already secretly controlled most of the union members through mental control. I, the so-called president, had actually been sidelined and became a puppet with an empty title."
Zhu Yu had a complicated expression: "Then why didn't they do anything to you? Wouldn't it be more convenient to just kick you out and become the president themselves?"
"The position of the president cannot be changed easily, especially since the Red Leaf Umbrella was already quite large at that time, and the procedures for changing the president were very troublesome. And they needed my help to treat the sequelae, so they couldn't just kill me. But if I dared to resist, the lives of the union members controlled by them would be threatened at any time. This was their most fatal restraint on me."
Zhu Yu: "So you didn't participate in those extreme things, such as snatching resources and oppressing other players?"
"Of course not." Luo Xi shook his head. "Since then, they no longer let me appear in front of the players, and all those bad things were done by them in my name."
Zhu Yu's scalp tingled after hearing this, and he couldn't help but ask:
"What happened next? How did you escape?"
"During a treatment, I used my supernatural power to temporarily damage their spiritual sea, and took the opportunity to escape." Luo Xi said calmly, "After that, I wandered around as a lone traveler. Occasionally, I took on some missions from large guilds. In this way, under the noses of the presidents and vice presidents of those large guilds, the people of Red Leaf Umbrella would not dare to act rashly."
"Then why didn't I see anyone with the Red Leaf Umbrella chasing after you after you settled in the underground city?" Zhu Yu asked.
"The environment in the dungeon is special, and your employees are all robots, so they can't send their own people in. This allows me to take a breather and not be disturbed by them for the time being." Luo Xi sighed softly, "Coming here is the most peaceful time I've ever had."
After listening to all of Luo Xi's explanations and combining them with his previous experiences with him, Zhu Yu weighed the pros and cons in his mind and felt that his statement had a certain degree of credibility.
And in this way, many of her previous doubts were gradually explained.
For example, the Red Leaf Umbrella Guild's recent restrained actions were obviously due to the escape of the president, Luo Xi, which forced the vice presidents to allocate their limited mental energy more carefully.
The reason why President Xu Jing was hypnotized and controlled by them might be because she herself is a psychic.
Although she is only A-level, by controlling Xu Jing and letting her influence other players, the consumption of mental energy can undoubtedly be greatly reduced.
Finally, Zhu Yu recalled the accident he encountered in Oasis City today.
Since she had been stationed in the underground city for a long time, Mingwei and Mingyu did not dare to act rashly, so they designed to lure her out of the city and tried to ambush her.
If the plan succeeds, once they control her as the lord of the dungeon, both Luo Xi, the sidelined president, and the control of the dungeon will most likely fall into the hands of Hongye Umbrella.
Zhu Yu was silent for a moment, then asked with a complicated look:
"Now that your identity has been exposed, what are you going to do next?"
Seeing that the suspicion in Zhu Yu's eyes gradually disappeared, Luo Xi relaxed a little:
"Don't worry, I want to get rid of them completely more than you do. If you have any plans later, I will fully cooperate with you."
Zhu Yu nodded slightly, his expression slightly relieved: "I do have some plans, but before that, I need to deal with some other things."
Luo Xi nodded in understanding, did not ask any further questions, and stood up to say goodbye:
"Then I won't bother you for now. Feel free to contact me if you need anything."
After seeing Luo Xi off, Zhu Yu returned to the table, summoned the little fire dragon, and took out the small box given to her by the vice-president of the Sunflower Union.
She gently opened the lid of the box and her eyes fell on the flame heart stone that was emitting a burning breath.
Last time she just took a quick glance and didn't look at it carefully.
At this moment, facing the little fire dragon, this flame heart stone seemed to have life, like a burning heart, pulsating with a "thump" and "thump" sound, emitting a heart-pounding vitality and powerful energy.
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