Chapter 555: Triggering an Extra Mission
Sunlight once again shone into the Cleanup Zone. By the time Xu Huo emerged from the fungal nest, he had already changed his face and swapped out his equipment.
Xin Hui had taken off her mask. To accumulate her kill count, she hadn't damaged her glasses and looked at him, saying, "The higher you are on the leaderboard, the more obstacles you face. You're on the same path as me—changing your face or not makes no difference."
Xu Huo said it didn't matter. "Live broadcast. There should be surveillance cameras in the Cleanup Zone, right?"
Xin Hui nodded. "Overhead, all over the Cleanup Zone. The holographic glasses also have surveillance and listening functions, but with so many people in the zone, unimportant footage gets filtered out directly."
The holographic glasses weren't made with much precision, and Xu Huo had known this all along. "Clown City is really acting without fear."
The warriors who entered weren't very strong. Even if they learned the truth about the Cleanup Zone, what could they do? They might even be turned into a special feature for the broadcast.
Map in hand, the two didn't need to take detours and headed straight for Chaoyang Clown City. Along the way, Xu Huo helped Xin Hui kill some Xenomorphs to maintain their kill count.
"There are several ways to win this real-person game," she explained. "One is the win-loss record between Clown Cities. The second is individual hunting—whether it's Xenomorphs, enemy warriors, or companions judged to be Xenomorphs, it all counts. Victory is determined by quantity."
"Then there's team combat. Warriors are divided into groups before entering. The first place is selected based on the group's survival count and kill count. But team combat usually ends with everyone wiped out."
"There are also various other awards, but the prerequisite is to complete the pre-assigned Cleanup Mission without being infected and return alive to a Clown City—either side's Clown City counts."
But the mortality rate for Cleanup Missions was too high. It was rare for many people to compete for rankings simultaneously—though most people didn't even know such a competitive relationship existed. Those lagging behind went unnoticed, while those at the top faced interception, all tied to the audience's betting.
"It's no different from gambling," Xu Huo said.
Where there was betting, someone would interfere with the final outcome.
He kicked aside the Xenomorph corpse at his feet, jumped down from the tree, and glanced at her. "You've been targeted."
Xin Hui twitched the corner of her mouth. "Expected. If not me, then someone else. Ahead is the miasma zone. Be careful yourself."
Xu Huo's protective suit was high enough level to resist the miasma, but once he entered, he discovered that the miasma forest was filled with many mutated snakes and insects. They didn't actively avoid people; instead, they followed the scent and closed in.
Xu Huo used two doses of medicine, but the effect was minimal. Then Xin Hui took a box from her backpack, pulled out a small green mushroom, and handed it to him. "Apply this to your shoes. The spores of this fungus prefer to parasitize snakes, insects, rats, and ants—these creatures hate it."
Xu Huo did as instructed, smearing some on his shoes. Within minutes, a thin layer of fine fuzz grew on the shoe surface, and the nearby snakes and insects indeed fled in panic.
"What a pity," he remarked. "The fungi in the underground nest are like a treasure trove, and they just sealed it off."
"A simple fungal infection nearly destroyed half of Clown City. Would those people dare to risk it?" Xin Hui said mockingly.
"Aren't there people from other game zones coming to collect samples?" Xu Huo asked.
"There probably were before," Xin Hui replied. "Not anymore."
Xu Huo raised an eyebrow, casually swung his sword to cut a Xenomorph that lunged from a distance in half, then picked a locator out of the corpse. "Looks like we need to speed up."
Xin Hui pressed her lips together and stopped wasting time hunting Xenomorphs. Instead, she followed the safe route on the map to cross the miasma zone as quickly as possible.
But even at top speed, they only made it out by evening. Across a flat stretch of Gobi, Xu Huo could see the protective wall of Clown City.
However, they weren't the only ones to cross the miasma zone. Xu Huo sensed at least three other people appearing nearby at the same time. He frowned, about to say something, when a bullet shot straight toward him and hit him right in the temple!
"Moving Metal" blocked the bullet instantly, but Xu Huo still instinctively lunged sideways. Before he could speak, Xin Hui, who had been lying right next to him, suddenly scrambled up and bolted.
Besides her, several others hidden in the woods also dashed out at the same time. With a gunshot, one of them was hit and fell. The rest ran for their lives. Apart from Xin Hui, the others were all Blue Team members. Someone even shouted for help, asking the players on the protective wall to lower the lift.
But before they could get close to the wall, bullets rained down from above, quickly killing those who had called for help. The others naturally didn't escape the gunfire either. Xin Hui and a tall, burly man dodged bullets as they ran toward the lift. Their speed was about the same, and their distance to the wall was similar—until the burly man's thigh was shot through!
Xin Hui became the first to reach the lift. She rushed inside in one breath, and the lift began to rise.
After she left, two more lifts were lowered. The burly man dragged his leg inside and successfully ascended. Then someone else cautiously emerged from the bushes.
This time, the gunman hidden in the woods didn't fire, because Xu Huo had already found him during the earlier gap!
Swinging his sword to block two bullets, he circled around to the front of the man, kicked him over, stepped on his wrist to stop him from grabbing his gun, and pierced his shoulder with a single thrust. "Do you know Xin Hui?"
The gunman was a man in his early thirties. His face twisted in pain as he tried to flip Xu Huo off, but even a well-trained ordinary person had limited strength. Xu Huo simply raised his foot to block, and the man not only failed to escape but also broke his own shin!
"Working with her to take out the other competitors—there must be a reason you absolutely have to win, right?" Xu Huo pressed down with his foot, trying to force the truth out. But the man was surprisingly tough. He reached into his mouth and stuffed in a pre-prepared poisonous mushroom. By the time Xu Huo pried his mouth open, the man's lips were already changing color.
His brow furrowing, Xu Huo grabbed the man and forced him to spit out the mushroom, then injected him with two doses of antidote.
The man convulsed from the toxin's effects, completely indifferent to the person standing beside him, clearly seeking death.
Standing there for a few seconds, Xu Huo turned to leave, but then the game suddenly popped up a notification:
[Player Passerby A has triggered an extra mission—The Fate of a Spore. It is recommended that the player undertake this mission on the basis of ensuring completion of the clearance mission. Upon completion, you will receive additional rewards and a dungeon rating no lower than A-level excellence.]
He had taken only one step but turned back to lift the man off the ground. "No problem. I'll take you into Clown City. Naturally, someone will come to investigate the shady dealings between you and Xin Hui."
The man finally reacted, glaring at him with anger. "What do you want?"
"What are you trying to do with the fungal nest?" Xu Huo cut straight to the point.
(Chapter End)