Chapter 1127: Return to Zone 014
Xu Huo spent a full seven days inside Uncle Guan's location item. During this time, his condition did not deteriorate too severely, but his physical and mental state were clearly worse than before. The amount of black fungal filaments he vomited increased each time.
"When is your next instance?" Chi Minghong discussed with Uncle Guan and the others. "Maybe we should stay in a high-risk instance for a while longer. I don't think he can detoxify himself anytime soon. Going out now will only be more dangerous."
To be fair, Uncle Guan and the others were truly reliable. After Xu Huo mentioned that a certain type of fungus could alleviate his toxicity, they went out of their way to find a lot of it and also bought various antidotes from the game to help. But none of it had any obvious effect.
So they couldn't be sure whether Xu Huo's condition would slowly lead to death or self-recovery. If he could heal on his own, maintaining his current state was best. But if not, it would be better to go out sooner and find other detoxification methods.
"Go to some more developed game zones. Maybe we can buy a suitable antidote there," Uncle Guan said to Xu Huo. "Those zones are relatively safer, but traveling by train carries risks."
"I'm not as bad as I look," Xu Huo said. Although some signs were visible on his skin, most of his weakness came from injuries sustained during this period that hadn't healed. Now, with the added poison, his recovery was slower under the strain. After using the Nuwa Stone and nutrient fungi, there was a very slight improvement in his body, though it wasn't obvious.
What he needed now was time.
Earlier, he had challenged two safe zones in Country Y and then taken refuge in the game. After passing through the Four Directions Palace, the Sun Museum City, the Zone 009 merger with the game, and the advanced player attack incident in Zone 011, he was ambushed by Holy Sword Society members and entered the Sea World to complete his player level upgrade. Then he went straight to the first C-grade instance, W37 Base Station. After clearing it, he followed Dr. Zhang's clues to Zone 002, the White Day Zone, and then accidentally entered a high-risk instance... The process seemed long, but it had taken less than three months.
Having been out running around for so long, it was a good time to rest for a while and organize the supplies he had recently obtained.
"Are you sure you don't need our help?" Chi Minghong said bluntly. "If you have trouble, just say so. Don't be embarrassed."
Xu Huo moved his arm. "I've been out too long. I plan to go home and take a look."
Seeing his confidence, the others didn't press further. Chi Minghong and Zhou Yuanzhu exchanged their Under Dimension accounts with him, agreed to stay in touch, and left one after another.
"We'll probably meet again sooner or later," Uncle Guan said with a chuckle.
Xu Huo nodded slightly and took out a return ticket.
His vision blurred, and he appeared in a special room made of metal. Seeing him appear, two staff members who had just entered through the sealed door dropped the items they were carrying and immediately went to press the alarm.
Xu Huo stopped them, glanced briefly at the people passing by outside, vomited a large mouthful of black blood, and said, "Could I borrow a room for a moment?"
With that, he tossed the two out and closed the door.
This was a specially constructed, fully sealed secret room. The door was reinforced with multiple layers. Once closed, no sound passed in or out. Only a monitor hanging diagonally allowed the outside to see inside.
Xu Huo barely had time to look around the room before he uncontrollably vomited another large mouthful of black liquid mixed with fungal filaments. He walked to a chair in the center of the room, sat down, and casually raised his hand to wave at the monitor lens.
The two staff members had triggered the alarm as soon as they left. The efficiency of the Special Defense Department was different now, especially in newly built safe zones. The alarm signal was sent to every player's device via a signal transmitter. Every fifty square meters of safe zone had to have two responsible players. So, as soon as an alarm sounded in one place, at least eight players would arrive within five seconds.
At the same time, the control room would activate lockdown mode, quickly closing the safety doors to ensure the incident and the people involved were contained to the smallest possible area...
On a street just one kilometer from the safe zone, a black RV marked with the Special Defense Department logo was waiting at a traffic light. Inside, Team Leader Wu was talking with Team Leader Chang and Jiang Qiao.
"Although the safe zone built in Ting City this time isn't large in scale, it's more comprehensive than the dozen or so safe zones completed earlier this month. They even considered logistics," Jiang Qiao praised. "Minister Fan found out and specifically sent Team Leader Chang and me to learn from the experience."
Team Leader Wu humbly said a few words. "The concept for this safe zone was proposed by Nie Xuan, but he had to enter an instance and wasn't available, so I handled the arrangements."
"Team Leader Nie is truly talented. He rose to C-grade so quickly, and his ranking isn't low. If he weren't responsible for the Ting City area, I'd really want to recruit him," Team Leader Chang said with a smile.
Team Leader Wu glanced at Dai Wenqian sitting behind him. "Xiao Dai is outstanding. With him, you don't need anyone else. I heard he led a team to take down another newly emerged cult organization?"
"Just small skirmishes," Team Leader Chang waved dismissively. "Now that players and ordinary citizens undergo comprehensive screenings every week, personnel movements are clear. Catching a few players with hidden agendas isn't that difficult."
"On the other hand, the progress of building safe zones hasn't been so smooth. Although cities are constructing safe zones, the ones that can truly withstand player attacks are few and far between."
"And the higher-ups' order is to cover all small and medium-sized cities. Minister Fan has been so stressed lately he's got blisters all over his mouth. The Ting City safe zone model came just in time to solve the urgent problem."
"What does it matter if the area isn't big enough? Just build more."
Team Leader Wu nodded and let out a sigh of relief. "Since the Country Y attack last time, we've been busy for two or three months. Finally, things are on track."
"Yeah," Jiang Qiao said. "After the Black Rain incident, the Special Defense Department had to clean up a huge mess. During that time, I didn't even dare to sleep, afraid of another similar emergency somewhere."
"Now that safe zones are gradually being established and every ordinary citizen has an emergency guide, if something unexpected happens again, at least they won't be left wondering where to hide like last time."
Team Leader Chang also added, "Getting the safe zones sorted out also relieves the players' worries."
That was true. For players to upgrade in peace, they first needed to ensure their families' safety. Where the family was, the roots were.
"We've arrived," Dai Wenqian suddenly spoke up. "Something's not right."
The car turned from the street corner, and Team Leader Wu saw the main entrance of the safe zone. Noticing the warning light on the gate had turned yellow, he said, "Level two incident. It should still be under control, so they didn't notify the outside immediately."
As he finished speaking, his phone rang. Sima Xiao'er's excited yet fearful voice came through: "Team Leader, you'll never guess who ran into our safe zone!"