Chapter 150 Discordant Story

Chapter 150: Chapter 150 Discordant Story"Really?" Xu Huo was quite surprised.

"Of course it’s true. I have a friend whose brother lives around here. He’s seen tourists enter this place and then never come out. Sometimes you can hear screams at night, yet there’s no sight of big bags of trash being thrown out. Where do you think these people have gone?" The Gourmet interjected a bit of excitement as he chewed on the chunks of meat in his set meal.

Xu Huo looked at his plate, and the Gourmet quickly said, "This is made with vegetarian ingredients."

"I see Brick Fairy Tale Tourist Town is big and bustling, a shame that such a large area is occupied by the Alien," Xu Huo changed the subject.

"What’s there to regret?" The Gourmet waved his hand. "Even if the Different Kind Zone were to be cleared, it couldn’t be inhabited by people, all are places where pollution had leaked previously, we can only raise Aliens there."

Just then, new customers entered the restaurant. The Gourmet, more diligent than the waiters, picked up a tray and went over, only to be shooed away with a wave from the customers. Unconcerned, he simply found another spot to sit down.

Ignoring the two burly men outside exchanging glances and gesturing for him to leave, Xu Huo called a waiter over to ask about staying at the inn. The waiter smiled and led him into the back hall to register.

"What is he doing? Didn’t he hear what the local guy just said, and he still dares to stay here?" Buzz Cut said in disbelief.

"He’s asking for trouble, and it’s none of our business," the brow-pierced burly man said, "Let’s go to the next place."

The young man hesitated, but, unable to refuse, found himself led away by the two men.

Xu Huo had followed the waiter into the back hall, but of course, he hadn’t intended to actually stay at the inn. Although the Gourmet was full of tall tales, the two discount coupons given by the old lady on the tour bus were certainly not for any good places. On the other hand, the business card given by the long-faced guide seemed more credible.

After telling the waiter he no longer wished to stay, he left the restaurant through another door.

Walking in the opposite direction from Buzz Cut and his companions, Xu Huo entered a flower shop and paused before the unusual dark purple Alien flowers adorned with dazzling patterns.

"Sir, you have quite the eye. This Golden Purple Flower just arrived this morning; it’s cultivated using purified water from the Corrosive Sea. Not only are the colors beautiful and the blooming period long, but it can also freshen up the air at home," the female clerk explained.

"The Corrosive Sea is a polluted area, isn’t it? Won’t flowers grown using its water be harmful to the body?" Xu Huo asked.

"Of course, they won’t be," the female clerk said with a smile. "The original seawater has to go through pollution treatment before it can be used."

"Sir, you’re here for tourism, right? Take some of these flowers back with you; your girlfriend or family members will certainly love them."

Just as Xu Huo was about to pay for the flowers, the female clerk added, "There’s also a beautiful story about this Golden Purple Flower."

Inviting him to take a seat, she began the story after serving tea.

"The story takes place twenty years ago, before the pollution leak. A beautiful woman, newly married, moved from outside the area to Brick Tale Town, planning to settle down here."

"But unexpectedly, just a month after their arrival, the woman’s husband suddenly disappeared."

"The woman spent a long time searching for her husband, until one day, a person covered in fish scales approached her and revealed his identity to her."

"So this fish-scale man turned out to be the woman’s husband, who was captured by a mysterious organization on an outing and slowly mutated into a monster-like figure with a drastically changed palate, developing a taste for human blood,"

"Seeing her once-beloved husband become a monstrous figure that any woman would find repulsive, this beautiful woman accepted everything about him, hiding him in the basement and taking on the responsibility of providing for the family by herself,"

"Even though the husband developed a taste for human blood, he locked himself up with iron chains for the sake of the woman, and when the woman feared that he would become despondent alone, she let him plant flowers, but how can one grow flowers in a basement? In this way, they encouraged each other and held on for two years until the pollution leak incident erupted,"

"Most parts of Brick Tale Town had already been contaminated, so when the first mutant appeared, suddenly many people turned into Aliens, not recognizing their own friends and relatives but seeing them only as food to satiate their hunger,"

The female shop assistant took a sip of tea to calm her nerves and then turned the topic back to the woman, "Unable to bear the thought of her husband dying alone, they fled together, but while on the run, the husband exposed himself to save the woman from an Alien attack and was driven out of the safety zone by others,"

"Unable to bear fully degenerating into a monster before the woman he loved, he jumped into the sea with the flowers he had grown for her, committing suicide. Heartbroken, the woman followed suit,"

"Unexpectedly, half a month after their deaths, the seaside was filled with deep purple flowers that gradually took on colorful stripes,"

"Touched by their love, the people of Brick Tale Town erected a monument to them in the city,"

As she spoke, the shop assistant took out a tourist route map, pointing at a certain square, "Right here, True Love Plaza,"

After noting down the location, Xu Huo asked, "I’ve heard quite a few people mention the pollution incident, but what kind of pollution was it that could affect such a large city?"

The shop assistant shook her head, "I was only a few years old then, how would I know about these things? If you’re interested, you can ask some of the older folks,"

Xu Huo paid for the flowers and on a whim bought a tourist guide at a nearby shop, finding the Memorial Museum,

There was a lot of information about Brick Tale Town before its reduction in size, but the pollution leak twenty years ago was mentioned only in passing,

"It was only said that at the time, a gene experiment company was using live people for experiments, creating a pollutant that could devolve humans, which wreaked havoc on most of Brick Tale Town. Then the company was shut down by the government, and the contaminated city was quarantined. Aside from establishing Different Kind observation tracks and breeding areas like the Corrosive Sea, the government also set up scientific research institutions in the contamination zone, dedicated to the development of a genetic antidote,"

Interestingly, all the government agencies for Brick Fairy Tale Tourist Town were built in the contaminated area, and those serving the current government aren’t the original military forces of Fairy Tale City but mercenaries from outside,

Moving his gaze away from the city literature, Xu Huo looked not far to the right where two people stood, saying with a smile, "What a coincidence."

It was the female gamer and the big man who had left earlier,

The female gamer approached, "You’re looking at the city literature too? Did you find out anything?"

Xu Huo looked alert, "Are you trying to fish for information from me?"

But this time, the female gamer actually laughed, "We’re all here for the mission, exchanging information saves time,"

"Then you go first," Xu Huo folded his arms and said, "I’ve got critical information in hand, I want to see if your lead is worth sharing,"

"Alright," the female gamer said candidly, lowering her voice, "There are no children in the tourist town, strange, isn’t it? Brick Fairy Tale Town used to be the ’children’s paradise,’ but I haven’t seen a single child so far, nor have any of the tourists brought children along,"