Did becoming a player mean you could be superior?

Compared to the risks players had to bear, Xu Huo thought Nix might as well feel sorry for himself first.

From a certain perspective, players and ordinary people were the same. Players relied on their power to "pity" the weak, but perhaps in the eyes of the "weak," they were nothing more than fleeting shooting stars whose only end was to shatter into pieces.

So-called sympathy was never built on equal ground.

Once you started comparing lives, the true meaning of life was destined to be twisted.

Nix's expression didn't change much. He pressed further, "There's a saying in your country: 'You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.' Aren't you worried about causing trouble for your own country by doing this?"

The room fell silent.

What answer did he expect? Was the Black Rain Incident caused by Country Y in their own country? Or was it because Nation X was stirring up trouble on their soil?

It was just give-and-take.

The Painting Woman walked in from outside and waved at Nix, who was standing in the doorway, signaling him to move out of the way.

Murderous intent flickered in Nix's eyes, but he didn't strike. Instead, he earned a glare from the Painting Woman.

After she opened the door and went inside, someone from behind the door said again, "Remember your words. Give and take."

The presence inside the room disappeared. Nix, humiliated and furious, punched a hole in the wall beside him, then turned and strode away, grinding his teeth as he muttered, "Those goddamn bastards!"

They truly were a pack of bastards, because when Xu Huo showed himself, he clearly had the physical features of someone from Nation X. Before the safe zone rescue operations had even fully begun, the top leaders of Country Y were already holding conference calls, clamoring for Nation X to be brought to its knees begging for mercy.

The Black Rain attack was known only to the highest leadership of Country Y and the few executors responsible for the plan. Faced with the indignation of others, they appeared somewhat dejected.

They had anticipated retaliation sooner or later, but they hadn't expected it to come so fast. Before internal troubles could be resolved, external threats had arrived. The two largest and most complete safe zones—how much manpower and resources had gone into building them? They were gone in less than half a day. And many of those who had managed to move into the safe zones early were family members of important government officials. Casualties hadn't been tallied yet, but they were expected to be high.

"Really only two people?" the supreme leader repeated.

"Only two people," the secretary said as he handed over a freshly prepared analysis report. "This attack should be a warning. The other party wasn't aiming to kill."

"Bang!" A general beside him slammed the table. "So many people dead, and it's just a warning?"

"The other party was able to cross such a long distance in a very short time. They possess excellent spatial items. Moreover, according to reports, while they were in the safe zone, our spatial items were restricted and unusable. Therefore, the Expert Team analyzed that they have the ability to travel between various safe zones."

"Not far from the Orchid Safe Zone is the Geeville Safe Zone, which borders the Mutant base. The other party did not choose that location."

The so-called Mutant base was actually a group of Mutant transformation individuals being raised by Country Y. There were quite a few of them. Due to frequent experimentation, many had fallen into a frenzy. The Mutant toxin used in the Black Rain was extracted from them. If the intruder had destroyed the Geeville Safe Zone, the nearby cities would have quickly fallen, and the death toll would have been incalculable—far more than just being crushed or buried under collapsed buildings.

"This is classified information. The other party couldn't possibly know!" the general refused to believe.

The secretary produced another document. "This is intelligence our people obtained from the Pioneer Forum. The poster did indeed receive an encrypted list of secret locations. Among them, the Geeville Safe Zone and the Mutant base were clearly marked."

"The intruder chose the Orchid Safe Zone with a purpose."

"Furthermore, the hacker who provided us with this information went off-grid after sending this list."

Most of the participants in the meeting were furious. To them, this wasn't restraint—it was a threat, a provocation!

The proposal to declare war was brought up again.

Some opposed it, arguing that they couldn't even handle their own domestic affairs, let alone go to war. They might end up losing everything.

The meeting room erupted into chaos. Just then, Nix's communication line came through. He asked directly, "Was the Black Rain Incident our doing?"

The meeting room fell silent. Both inside and outside the video feed, everyone looked toward the supreme leader at the head of the table. His expression and silence said it all.

"This is the other party's warning," Nix finally said. "If there's a first time, there will be a second. Even if we have advanced items, we can't guard against it everywhere. Metal-built safe zones aren't reliable. We need to think of other measures."

The supreme leader entrusted this task to him. As for "other measures," it essentially meant buying information in the game or purchasing corresponding items from Artificers.

But it was hard to find a second item of the same type. So the best solution was to find a material that could replace the current metal—items couldn't necessarily destroy all metals.

The hope still lay in the game.

Country Y didn't hold a self-reflection meeting. After a brief argument, the declaration of war was shelved for the time being. What mattered more was plugging the leaks.

However, even if they didn't take it seriously, the citizens of Country Y were stirred up with resistance. If the safe zones they built could turn into shoddy construction projects, how could they trust such a government?

Thus, after the rescue operations in the two locations were completed, the Country Y government was busy dealing with domestic protests and riots. In short, their days were not easy.

The happiest ones were the citizens of Nation X. When the foreign players had shown up to attack the Special Defense Department headquarters before, and especially after the subsequent rescue reports came out, the nationwide hatred for Country Y had reached its peak. Suddenly, when two of Country Y's safe zones collapsed, the internet erupted with joy, as if it were New Year's.

"Good begets good, evil begets evil. I love how fast this instant karma works!"

"I heard their safe zones were quite luxurious. All show on the outside, not even as good as the mud pies my kid makes!"

"Earlier, Country Y was having a blast watching our misfortune. Now I'm laughing my ass off too!"

...

There were many gloating and mocking comments, but they were quickly overshadowed by analysis reports from civilian experts. Because some of them suggested that this incident might have been done by players from Nation X. However, with too little time and no confirmed information—also to protect their own country's players—only a small number of people on the internet were hyping this report. That was until the citizens of Country Y caught on and started attacking.

The Country Y government also produced a photo taken when Xu Huo entered the safe zone and publicly interrogated the Special Defense Department. However, the SDF didn't bite. After all, the Country Y operatives caught during the Black Rain Incident had never been acknowledged by them. So how could they say that the attackers of the safe zones were from Nation X? Maybe someone was deliberately pretending to stir up conflict between the two countries?