Fantasy Game: Infinite City

Chapter 554 Route 85 (3)

"Liz, keep an eye on this guy. Adenauer and I will investigate this rest area separately."

"Do you suspect there's something wrong with this cashier?"

"Not sure, but better to be careful."

"Okay, I'll check the surveillance here."

Frank and Liz had no similar experience, so they still sought a scientific explanation for their current haunted situation. Adenauer, however, had experienced this situation several times, both in dungeons within the Infinite City and outside. He'd dealt with similar situations before. However, he found it somewhat strange. Generally speaking, dungeons within the Infinite City were primarily focused on a single element. For example, technological dungeons rarely featured hauntings, and vice versa. While there were dungeons with a mix of elements, they were often explained. However, the Johor Bahru dungeon wasn't one of them.

While the Johor Bahru dungeon was vast, encompassing the size of two or three states, the Infinite City had a much larger player base, and nearly every explorable location had been visited. However, nearly everyone confirmed that the dungeon was set in a technological setting, so it wasn't supposed to be haunted. When Adenauer first discovered the ghost wall, he assumed it was the result of some cognitive interference device. This had happened quite a bit before, so after using his sensory abilities to survey the surroundings, he used the contractor's equipment to scan the area. To his surprise, there was indeed no cognitive interference device present. Adenauer's experience was indeed a ghost wall.

The Infinite City's system quest panel remained unchanged, indicating this wasn't the location of any special quests. It could also be that I hadn't found the key node to trigger the quest. Anyway, the main task at hand was to head to Johor Bahru City, but this wasn't really a serious quest. After all, there were no main quests in Johor Bahru City, mostly side quests and special quests. Based on past experience, seemingly unrelated quests were often actually related, so since I was already here, I might as well figure out what was going on.

Unlike regular games, NPCs in Infinite City dungeons aren't the primary means for players to discover quests or advance the story. In some dungeons, while NPCs offer a wealth of information, they offer little in the way of constructive story advancement. While uninformed players might assume these conversational NPCs are somehow relevant to the quests, otherwise they wouldn't have been given so many lines of dialogue, Adenauer knew full well that these so-called NPCs were actually real people, separated from reality by some unknown method. Since they were real people, they naturally possessed their own memories and emotions. However, this method allowed them to be killed by players and then revived after resetting the dungeon, leaving them without memories. It's like there are billions of people in this world, but only a handful are actually helpful.

However, the cashier's direction was a bit too obvious. As the only living person besides Frank and Liz, he was the only person he could talk to if he wanted to get any information. He probably knew some relevant information. Usually, a conversation or action with such an important NPC would immediately trigger the dungeon's progress. So Adenauer didn't rush to talk to him, but instead planned to survey the entire rest area first. Frank had also offered to help, so he decided to start with the supermarket in the rest area.

This supermarket, approximately 300 square meters, though filled with numerous shelves, was a standard rectangular shape. The shelves and the merchandise on them were essentially made of standard materials, unable to block Adenauer's ability to see through everything. Therefore, for him, the entire place was essentially unobstructed. Investigation was quite convenient, as there were no secret spaces. Aside from the employee restroom near the cash register and the warehouse at the rear of the supermarket, there wasn't anything special. After inspecting the restroom, it was normal, appeared regularly cleaned, and was quite spotless. The toilet tank was also empty; aside from the normal toilet parts, there was nothing hidden. The restroom wasn't large, and there were no hidden compartments.

Opening the door to the warehouse, Adenauer took a look around. There were only a few boxes of merchandise for restocking. The merchandise inside was normal, nothing special. The garage door, used for unloading, was currently closed. There was a lever on the wall next to it for opening the door. The round handle at the end was a bit worn, and the connection between the first section and the gear looked freshly oiled. Adenauer tried pulling the lever, and the garage door opened smoothly, making a slight grinding sound, but otherwise normal.

Exiting the supermarket from the garage door, one could see the back of the store, the northern end of the rest area. There was a lane for trucks to bypass the area, sandwiched between the rest area wall and the warehouse door. The lane was wide, suggesting the truck passing through was at least a medium-sized six-wheeled truck, as evidenced by the remaining tire tracks. The echoes picked up by the contractor's equipment confirmed Adenauer's suspicions.

Following the driveway around the back of the supermarket, the entrance to the rest area offered a general overview. To the right was the supermarket, and in front of it was the gas station, then Highway 85. To the left was the laundromat. The lights from inside clearly revealed Frank, who was investigating the area. To the left and front of the laundromat, facing the first row of gas stations, was a public restroom, unisex. Upon entering, there were four clean sinks, clear of standing water, suggesting that not many people had been using the rest area recently. There were entrances on both sides, but they were connected, leading to the main restroom area. It was surprisingly clean, with five stalls on each side and three in the front, for a total of thirteen toilet stalls. They smelled of mothballs, and the floors inside were spotless. Adenauer inspected each stall, finding nothing unusual. Only one or two had loose sliding door locks, but that was par for the course for a public restroom.

However, there was only one compartment that was a little different. Its door was locked from the outside. There was a piece of paper on the door with the words "Damaged, Do Not Use" written on it. Adenauer naturally didn't care about this. He used the crowbar he had picked up from the warehouse before to pry open the door of the compartment and see what was inside.

Everything looked normal inside, and there seemed to be no problem with the toilet. Adenauer pressed the flush button, and the toilet worked normally, and was not broken at all. However, apart from that, Adenauer did not find any problems. He used X-ray vision to scan the water pipes connected to the toilet, and there were no cracks or blockages.

"That's a bit suspicious."

While the sealed cubicle of a toilet, though intact, was somewhat odd, Adenauer didn't find anything useful. The contractor's equipment hadn't picked up any clues in the cubicle. They only discovered a notice a few weeks ago, probably the one Adenauer saw, posted on the cubicle door by a portly old man. This suggested nothing unusual had happened in the cubicle.

Leaving the public restroom, Adenauer spotted two large trash cans near the road on the left. They were standard trapezoidal metal bins with double doors, but they weren't the usual blue-green or green, but brown. This wasn't surprising, as trash cans came in all colors. Opening the bins, Adenauer peered inside. There wasn't much trash. The right bin contained absolutely no trash at all, while the left contained only a black trash bag. Using his X-ray vision, he could confirm that it contained only some food packaging, empty lunch boxes, some disposable tableware, and some used napkins for wiping oil—all normal items.

"The trash cans are this clean too? Maybe it's just my stereotype?"

The two trash cans were immaculately clean, looking like new. However, the marks on the lids and the badly worn wheels at the bottoms confirmed they had been used for at least a year. Someone must have cleaned them regularly, not just with a water pistol and detergent, but someone crawled inside to scrub them, because Adenauer found no traces of rust inside or in the corners. This was odd, considering the rest stop, while close to Highway 85, was also quite secluded. Unless the clerk or owner was a complete mysophobe, there was no need to keep even the trash cans so clean.

"Maybe some body parts were thrown in there?"

Without violating common sense, these two possibilities first appeared in Adenauer's mind. Using the contractor's equipment, Adenauer carefully scanned the two trash cans and found no blood residue in them. No blood had penetrated into the metal of the trash cans, so it was proved that no one had used special reagents to clean the blood stains, but that they were just cleaned frequently.

Between the gas station and the public toilet is a parking lot with 30 parking spaces. There is only the old-fashioned motorcycle in it now. Through the echo, it can be confirmed that the motorcycle belongs to the young cashier in the supermarket. The motorcycle has replaced the wheels, the tires are fully inflated, and the exhaust pipe has some minor modifications, but other than that, there is no problem.

Finding nothing, Adenauer returned to the laundromat and saw Frank staring at a running washing machine.

"What did you find?"

"The laundry room looked normal. Apart from the washing machine, all other doors were open. There was nothing inside, but it was very clean. There was no rust at all, as if someone cleaned it regularly."

“There’s not even any rust in the holes in the drum?”

"Yes, I'm also surprised. These washing machines look old. I've never seen them cleaned so cleanly. Even my own new washing machine, which I bought less than a week ago, has never been cleaned like this."

"This washing machine is still running. Is there anyone else here besides the four of us?"

"That's not necessarily true. The item being washed is a pair of pants, the standard work uniform pants for the rest area. When we were in the supermarket, we saw a cashier wearing a work uniform and jeans. Based on their body shapes, we can roughly infer that the work pants in the washing machine are his. They must have been stained with oil or something, so they are being washed here. Also, this washing machine doesn't have a record of coin insertion, but it does have a record of employee cards, so the cashier must have used this washing machine."

Using the contractor's equipment to retrieve the information records inside the laundry room, and combined with the clues of the echo, Adenauer saw that an hour ago, the cashier entered the self-service laundry room, threw the trousers that were currently inside in, and used the employee card to start the washing machine, which proved Frank's guess.

By now, Adenauer and Frank had inspected the entire rest area and found everything normal. The ghost wall didn't seem to be related to the rest area. But Adenauer still felt like he had missed something.

"You go find Liz first, I'll take a look."

"Row."

Watching Frank walk out of the laundromat and into the supermarket, Adenauer followed suit. Glancing around, he stumbled upon a signboard some distance from the gas station, the one pierced by the antler. Adenauer walked over and pulled out the broken antler. Analysis by the contractor's equipment revealed it had been hanging there for at least a week. Strangely, not only was there no rancid odor, but it hadn't become damp either. The humidity on Highway 85 near the rest area was quite high, yet this antler was remarkably dry. This puzzled Adenauer.

"Ok?"

The emergence of another situation made Adenauer more suspicious. Although the signboard was some distance away from the rest area, it was only about ten meters away. The gas station was almost spotless, but the signboard was not well hidden. It was covered with dust and mud. If it were not for the light tube inside the signboard, the words written on it would not even be visible. A rest area that even cleaned the trash cans would allow the first signboard seen near the rest area to be so dirty, which obviously aroused suspicion.

Adenauer was just about to survey the sign, both sides, and below when he heard the roar of a large truck's engine. Turning his head, he saw, with his powerful vision, a long-distance truck approaching slowly on Highway 85, about a hundred meters from the rest area. He could see three people in the cockpit, all dressed like truck drivers, seemingly in their thirties or forties. The passenger seat driver clutched his stomach, a pained expression on his face. The driver, biting a straw, drove with one hand and held a plastic cold drink cup with the other. The person in the back seat, speaking to the two men, pointed in the direction of the rest area.

Throwing the antlers in his hand to the ground, Adenauer immediately returned to the rest area. As the truck drove into the rest area, Adenauer also entered the supermarket.

"Did you find anything?"

"No, everything is normal, but there's a truck outside."

"This is a rest area after all, isn't it...?!"

Frank glanced outside. The truck's front end was facing the supermarket entrance. It didn't seem to need refueling, so it didn't pull sideways into the gas station. When the truck stopped and the headlights turned off, Frank froze, his expression suddenly becoming serious. Adenauer and Liz naturally noticed this.

"what happened?"

"Do you remember that truck we found that exploded?"

"Remember, what happened?"

"Its license plate was blown to the side of the road."

Frank pointed to the truck's license plate.

"That's the one hanging there now, R14MNV."

Frank was the only person who had picked up the license plate at that time, so he remembered it very clearly. When the same license plate appeared in front of him again, Frank was inevitably shocked. After hearing his answer, Liz immediately turned her head and looked at the location of the license plate.

Adenauer didn't look at the truck's license plate, but instead observed the actions of the three people inside. The guy who had been seen holding his stomach rushed to the public restroom as soon as the car stopped, while the passenger seat driver walked to the supermarket. The driver stayed in the car, playing with his phone.

"Ding dong."

A truck worker who came into the supermarket to buy something was startled when he looked up to see three people staring at him.

"Why are you staring at me?"

"...I was just blinded by your car lights."

"Oh, that's right. Sorry everyone."

The truck driver did not stay near the three people. He turned and walked into the shelves and began to pick out things to buy. He looked a little tired and did not care about the condition of the three people.