Chapter 1359: Fragile Clone
The fake player also didn't expect that the person he had been fighting for so long would suddenly become so powerful, but he wasn't the only one with a hidden trump card!
A heart-shaped item rolled onto the ground.
However, Xu Huo, standing beside him, didn't even twitch an eyebrow. As the item was knocked away by an invisible force, a semi-transparent defensive barrier enveloped him—the defense range of "Inviolable Domain" was not large to begin with, and the person lying down couldn't possibly be fully covered, especially since Xu Huo hadn't intended to protect him anyway.
The black blade piercing his heart was still twisting with force, not relaxing for a moment even after the item exploded. The fake player's pained groans were drowned out by the explosion's noise, but after the intense light faded, he was still barely clinging to life.
Watching helplessly as the explosion's flames were blocked mere inches away by the invisible barrier, the fake player's face was filled with hatred, but he couldn't speak, only slanting his eyes to curse Xu Huo with his gaze.
Xu Huo watched him breathe his last before calmly pulling out the black blade.
But even so, his anger was far from subsided.
Whether Dr. Duo Er was real or just a clone, in name he was someone the Twin Cities had to protect. And judging by Dai Song's earlier behavior, he and the fake player seemed to know each other, likely companions. Unlike Dai Song, the fake player could actually sacrifice a "Dr. Duo Er" just to lure an Outer Zone player into a trap.
It sounded absurd just thinking about it.
Naturally, the fake player might not necessarily be on the side of the Twin Cities.
Taking over the other's belongings, Xu Huo first checked the Luggage Compartment, but aside from food and water, it was stuffed with several corpses.
Pulling them out, he saw they all had the same face—"Dr. Duo Er"—and each corpse was preserved in a special body bag, with numbers and some notes attached.
Xu Huo flipped one over, and it read: "Inhaled a large amount of white mushroom spores."
This Dr. Duo Er had some fungal mycelium formed around his mouth and nose, growing exceptionally well.
The mutated white mushroom's reproductive ability was indeed strong, but it definitely hadn't reached the point of rapidly growing directly in a living person's mouth and nose. The human body simply couldn't provide it with nutrients. Even if a certain amount of spores were inhaled, there were medications to take, so it absolutely shouldn't be fatal.
But this corpse had no external injuries, nor any signs of poisoning.
Without opening the body bag, he immediately moved to the second corpse. The card read: "Excessive fright."
The person's eyes were still open, though after death, expressions couldn't be preserved, so only an uneasy visage remained. The cause of death being spore inhalation was already strange enough, but now this—excessive fright?
At least the two Dr. Duo Ers he had met before were normal people, not suffering from heart disease.
The third corpse was even stranger, with the note: "Itching · Flying Snake Grass."
The body had extensive scratching marks, but they were only very shallow wounds, like red streaks from mosquito bites, not even breaking the skin. Flying Snake Grass was a mutated plant that could cause skin itching, listed in the Twin Cities' handbook. This grass was only mildly toxic, not even requiring an antidote—a normal person would just itch for a few minutes and be fine.
There were two more corpses behind, with similarly strange notes. It was clear the notes recorded the cause of death, but these causes seemed utterly baffling. Not just an Evolver, but even an un-evolved child couldn't die from such reasons.
His gaze sweeping over the corpses on the ground one by one, Xu Huo took out "World Within the Painting," but unexpectedly found that the person in the painting was opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water, unable to make a sound.
He quickly poured the person out. Dr. Duo Er, who had been fine when he went in, was now black all over, with more breath out than in.
First, he gave him an injection of King Fungus Antidote, then replenished some of his strength. It took a while for the man to recover.
"Thank you..." Dr. Duo Er leaned against the tree trunk, gasping for breath but still remembering to express gratitude.
"Did you take off your protective mask?" Xu Huo frowned.
Dr. Duo Er looked a bit embarrassed. "I felt too stifled inside, couldn't breathe, so I took off the mask..."
Xu Huo checked his protective suit and found a very small wound on the palm, with the damaged area already starting to fester—when the man came out earlier, he thought it was residual contamination from the World Within the Painting, but it turned out to be such a mild toxin.
Right. If it had been Yu Guo's contamination, Dr. Duo Er would have been dead long ago. But the toxin at the wound site, tested with an instrument, was indeed a very mild poison. Such a mild poison could nearly kill him—not just an Evolver, but even an ordinary person who had never taken an Evolution Agent wouldn't be this fragile...
Xu Huo sat down across from him, slowly took a sip of water, and began to understand.
No wonder Dr. Duo Er couldn't be delivered to the Secondary City no matter what. It wasn't just because the road was fraught with danger, but also because of his own factor—he was too fragile. He could die at the drop of a hat, and in this environment where mutated plants were everywhere, if he wanted to, he could die in any way possible.
Like that one who died of excessive fright.
Dr. Duo Er, focused on recovering his strength, only then turned his head to see the corpses beside him. He was startled, then stood up in disbelief, approaching them one by one. From an initial mental collapse to gradually accepting the fact, then to carefully examining and comparing each corpse, he finally reached a conclusion: "They are all my clones."
Xu Huo raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"
"Sure," Dr. Duo Er nodded. "Generally, using items or plastic surgery couldn't achieve this level of similarity. Each of them has identical fingerprints. Although their faces are also roughly the same, the fine wrinkles left by different living habits are different—each one is the same, yet different. These are clones."
"You misunderstand. I mean, how are you sure they are your clones?" Xu Huo looked at him. "Don't you think you might be one too?"
"How could that be..." Dr. Duo Er instinctively retorted, but stopped mid-sentence. After a moment, he said, "No wonder. There's no part about clones in my memory. If I were the original, I should have memories of developing clones. But my current memories allow me to normally judge these as clones, yet I have absolutely no memories regarding these clones."
"It's impossible for someone to create a large number of my clones without my knowledge."
After a brief silence of a few sentences, Dr. Duo Er accepted the situation and said, "It seems reaching the Secondary City is harder than I imagined. So many clones have died."
Xu Huo tossed him a bag of crackers. "Is there any explanation for clones being more fragile than ordinary people?"
(Chapter End)