Chapter 520: Layered City
At this point, Xu Huo stopped asking further questions, and the other three also remained silent. As a benefit for joining the team, Yi Mao gave each of them a miniature bomb and a medical kit containing antidotes and self-healing agents.
During the preparation time, Yi Mao recruited two more players into the team. Once the members were ready, they boarded a vehicle and headed toward the protective wall.
Leaving the venue, Xu Huo finally got a look at Clown City. Unlike Block Fairy Tale City Station, with its superficial prosperity and overly enthusiastic vibrancy, Clown City seemed ordinary—as ordinary as Ting City. As the vehicle drove out, pedestrians on the streets even held up Clown City flags to see them off.
The biggest difference lay in the architecture. The city had a somewhat futuristic look. Looking up, one could see crisscrossing circular tracks in the air and round public areas stacked layer upon layer. Overall, it resembled a lotus pond with blooms scattered at varying heights, with some buildings spanning the entire height of the city serving as central pillars.
In other words, Clown City was layered.
The venue Xu Huo and the others had come out of was on the third layer. Passing through the circular tracks, they could see the lower layers from the side.
The public areas and some residential zones of the upper and lower layers were usually staggered, with only about a dozen or so pillars connecting them. Climbing tracks ran up and down, weaving through every layer of the city.
"The buildings here are so tall," the female player remarked. "Many are over fifty stories. That building at the city center is the tallest—three hundred stories. Back home, I wouldn't even dare to imagine such a thing."
"But the design is very reasonable," Zhuo Wangsun said. "Building the city this way alleviates overcrowding from too many people. Staggering the heights disperses the crowd, maximizes green space, improves the road tracks, and enhances living comfort."
Si Ming, however, looked worried. "Clown City's technology far surpasses my hometown. If they can't even kill the xenomorphs under these conditions, I'm worried about the situation outside the wall."
"Don't be a coward, brother!" said one of the two male players who had joined last. "With such generous rewards, how can we not take risks? We're going to capture a xenomorph alive! One million white notes—split among us, each person gets at least over a hundred thousand."
Zhuo Wangsun looked at Yi Mao in surprise. The latter nodded and said, "That's right, just as Kang Yongjie said. If we capture a xenomorph alive, I'll represent the team. The honor goes to me, and you take the money. As for my people, don't worry—they're all hired by me, and I'll handle their pay."
"Boss Yi is generous!" Kang Yongjie gave a thumbs up.
The female player sitting beside him smiled and introduced herself, "My name is Hao Mei. What should I call you?"
Zhuo Wangsun and the other two gave their nicknames again, while Xu Huo made up one—"Lao Wu."
On Yi Mao's side, the two players were named Yue Weiping and Liang Song, the latter being a D-level player. Aside from them, the most noticeable presence was the doctor named Wan Xiao.
He not only looked down on Xu Huo and his group but also spoke to the two players on his own side with a sharp tongue.
However, Yi Mao tolerated him, and the other companions said nothing. Kang Yongjie seemed displeased, but Hao Mei persuaded him to hold back.
This was a relatively technologically advanced instance location, so ordinary people could also access evolution agents and items. However, since they didn't have game panels, they carried their items on their persons.
Xu Huo glanced at these people and could tell that the items they carried were of low grade. This was clearly abnormal.
Of course, even the cleanup mission in Clown City itself was full of inconsistencies. The fact that not many players or high-level players appeared in the venue wasn't the main issue.
Through their conversations, he roughly understood Yi Mao's background. He lived on the third layer of Clown City, and his family ran a martial arts training institution. They were well-off. He had hired people to accompany him on the cleanup mission, mainly to earn merit and move up a layer.
Without local network devices, Xu Huo couldn't immediately look up Clown City's social structure. But from everyone's talk, he gathered that Clown City wasn't a strictly stratified place. Whether living on the upper or lower layers, residents could enjoy relatively generous benefits. The city followed a philosophy of "more ability, more contribution." Those with capability contributed to the city; those without could claim welfare. If one had a thick enough skin, they could go their whole life without working.
"How wonderful," the female player said enviously. "If it were me, I'd definitely stay home forever."
Wan Xiao gave her a cold glance. "There are hardly any people like that in Clown City. Even those who can't create social value can gain social recognition by having more children."
"The higher the layer, the better the social welfare," Zhuo Wangsun said, clearly having some basic understanding of Clown City. He added, "And social status also changes. Generally, the higher one's social status, the better the evolution agents they can obtain."
"So it's about resource allocation," Si Ming remarked. "I didn't expect even non-players to take such frequent risks for evolution agents."
"People should always strive for higher pursuits," Yi Mao said with a smile. "Besides, this is also about better protecting Clown City."
His companions didn't seem to care, but to the players, these overly grand and hollow words sounded awkward. It was unclear whether he was genuinely noble or just self-aggrandizing.
The atmosphere remained cold until they reached the protective wall.
Clown City had many ultra-tall buildings, and the protective wall was terrifyingly high, standing there almost like a mountain range. Each layer had driving tracks connecting to the wall. Through specially designed gates on the wall, they could pass through to the cleanup zone outside.
Every warrior entering would go through an electronic verification checkpoint, linking themselves to a holographic glasses device. This not only facilitated task completion and recognition but also recorded each warrior's combat situation.
"This thing is probably used to confirm whether someone is dead or not, right?" the female player whispered, tapping the device on her head.
"Move forward!" a staff member urged them sternly.
The people from the venue were split into three different entrances. After the holographic glasses were locked on, the formed teams could go collect cleanup maps—the cleanup zone was large, and each team was responsible for a different area.
Xu Huo's team had many members, so their cleanup range was correspondingly larger. Most other teams had seven or eight people, and some had just two or three. However, teams with too few people were basically not given maps. These individuals clearly weren't there for the cleanup mission; they could freely choose to go anywhere.
"Really sloppy," Kang Yongjie said with a pout.
Xu Huo also finished reviewing the map transmitted to his glasses. Apart from basic terrain markers and a few danger zone warnings, there was nothing detailed—not even the areas where xenomorphs frequently appeared.
"Why isn't it written what supplies we need to find?" the female player asked.
Everyone was very sharp—writing one chapter and guessing so much.
(Chapter End)