Chapter 1822: "High-Intelligence" Xenomorphs
"It's been quite a while since you left your player identity. Does the Polar Safe Zone still exist?" Xu Huo broke the heavy atmosphere.
"The Polar Safe Zone is still there." Gao Dawei took over the conversation with a complex expression. "Ao Quanhui does interact with other safe zones, though others might not necessarily respond to us... but the Polar Safe Zone still exists, and it's become the largest safe zone in this area."
"Although I was entrusted to find someone, I don't have a suitable token of trust on me. I'm worried that the pharmacology doctor might avoid meeting me. How about Mr. Chang accompanying me on this trip?" Xu Huo spoke politely, but it was clear he wasn't giving Chang Shoujie any room to refuse.
Chang Shoujie naturally understood this, so after a few seconds of deliberation, he nodded and added, "I hope his research has made progress."
"I'll go with you," Gao Dawei immediately said.
"Is there any place in Zone 010 that isn't dangerous? With your strength, how far can you go?" Chang Shoujie frowned and stopped him. "Only when you become an advanced player will you have the qualifications to walk around Zone 010. Right now, even if you follow us, you'll only be dead weight. I'm old and in this condition, and I'm counting on you to visit my grave in the future. Are you going to die with me?"
Gao Dawei was pained by his words and didn't know how to respond for a moment.
Xu Huo, however, smiled. "Mr. Chang, rest assured. I'll take you out and do my best to ensure your safety. Even if we ultimately don't find the person, I'll send you back."
Chang Shoujie was somewhat surprised. "You still want to keep this safe zone?"
He had come in aggressively, killing two B-level players and nearly all the C-level players in one go. Wasn't that out of hatred for cannibal players?
Aside from the players, every living person here, without exception, was no longer normal—especially the people of Zone 010. To other districts, cannibal players might be a stain they were eager to erase, but here, they were merely more despicable and cruel counterparts.
"Someone will come to take over this place soon." Xu Huo was referring to the Small City players.
"I see." Chang Shoujie seemed quite emotional.
While waiting, Xu Huo released Fan Yunhong to eat and drink. Seeing they had changed locations again, Fan was somewhat startled but quickly adapted and went about his business.
Xu Huo was very interested in the past events of Zone 010, so he asked Chang Shoujie to talk about it—at least about the situation of the outer zone players, since they were old adversaries.
Chang Shoujie cooperated, starting from the great changes in Zone 010.
Before the district transformation occurred, Zone 010 had already been evolving for quite some time. With the emergence of a large number of B-level players, the district began to merge with the game.
This was actually very fortunate, because Zone 010 had encountered no accidents during its steady evolutionary development. Even the initial turmoil caused by evolution was quickly quelled under the efforts of various countries, causing no major losses and certainly not hindering the overall evolution. It could be said that the entire district was fully prepared in every aspect for complete integration with the game.
But the subtlety of luck lies in its duality—good and bad do not develop according to human will. Just as the game began to merge, a flood of new instances emerged, and outer zone players swarmed in. This had a tremendous impact on Zone 010, because a batch of cannibal players arrived at the same time, directly causing the collapse of several small countries' governments. In the end, it took the large-scale lethal weapons and players of other nations to bring things to a close.
Players were not easy to deal with, but they weren't impossible to handle. If they lacked items capable of blocking super-powerful lethal weapons and couldn't escape using tickets, killing a player wasn't that difficult. To eliminate that batch of cannibal players, the major countries of Zone 010 deployed super-weapons, nearly leveling those small countries to the ground.
The matter was resolved, but it was like unlocking the first link in a chain of tragedy. Whether because of those cannibal players or other reasons, a massive number of xenomorphs surged out from the destroyed small countries and quickly reached neighboring nations.
Unlike those small countries where people had either died or fled, the nearby populations had no chance to evacuate in advance. Yet no one dared to make the decision to bury both the people and the xenomorph swarms together. Thus, Zone 010 paid an enormous price, using players, thermal weapons, and chemical weapons in a relentless effort, before finally ending this first large-scale disaster.
Maximally preventing the spread of the xenomorph swarms did not mean they had achieved complete victory, because at this point, the natural climate began to change. As the weather grew hotter and drier, water became a strategic resource openly contested by every country. But before they could even start fighting, large numbers of rivers and lakes were contaminated—especially water sources near areas where xenomorph swarms had once appeared.
The discovery of water contamination came when a massive number of Zone 010 residents showed signs of poisoning and symptoms of degeneration.
There were simply too many people poisoned at once. Even if the government and military worked overtime to produce and purchase antidotes, it was futile, because this was xenomorph venom. It could only be cured if the poisoning was not severe. Once obvious degeneration symptoms or loss of rationality appeared, it was basically irreversible—degeneration was irreversible, and this applied to players as well.
There might have been drugs that could delay degeneration, but for Zone 010 at that time, there was no time left. Under those circumstances, the nations could only watch as large numbers of people died from poisoning, while struggling to lead the few who were not poisoned to escape the predation of those who had degenerated into xenomorphs and lost their humanity.
The situation was dire, but for Zone 010 at this point, it had not yet reached an irreparable state. The countries still within safe boundaries united to seal off the contaminated waters, sparing no expense to eliminate their compatriots who had turned into xenomorphs.
Thermal weapons were effective. Killing the xenomorphs also turned the land into scorched earth, but this bought Zone 010 some breathing room.
As mentioned earlier, the climate in Zone 010 had been deteriorating. After the second xenomorph containment war, a large number of plants and animals died. The entire district began to suffer from water and food shortages. However, because there were still a considerable number of players, survival was barely possible.
But this respite did not last long. An abnormally evolved animal entered the view of Zone 010's inhabitants. It evolved from a large feline species—full of stamina, fast, and possessing explosive strength. The surviving countries wanted to train this animal as a weapon or extract some effective genes from it for player evolution. For various reasons, some nations specifically went to capture this mutant animal.
The problem lay with the captors. Some players were injured during the capture process. After returning to the safe zone, they gradually degenerated. Once they lost their "human" rationality, they became another kind of "high-intelligence" xenomorph. (End of chapter)