Chapter 568: Sudden Disaster From the Sky
Yuan Cun was dead. The man on the bell tower still hadn't shown himself, and his motive for the killing was unclear. Xu Huo could only run forward as fast as possible. Suddenly sensing movement behind him, he turned around and saw a small building opposite the bell tower gradually turning into paper—it looked more like the outer walls of the building were becoming paper, but then the entire structure folded up like paper, turning into a building-high cardboard sheet that crashed to the ground.
Then came the second and third buildings. Connected houses snapped from one end to the other, instantly turning into a stack of paper houses. The furnishings and decorations inside, along with a few scattered people hiding within, all tumbled out.
Xu Huo then saw several paper birds fly out from the bell tower, heading straight for those paper houses.
The paper birds' target was clearly not the insignificant people who had fallen out of the paper houses, because ahead of those paper houses, several figures appeared out of thin air. These people used props to hover in midair, clearly having just teleported in. Seeing the paper birds approaching, they quickly dodged to the side while simultaneously launching an attack on the bell tower!
A massive water bubble descended from the sky, enveloping the entire bell tower. After landing, the bubble continued to expand, gradually containing the surrounding blocks within it. The paper birds circling in the air slowed down due to the water, making it difficult for them to catch up with these newly arrived players. Just then, one of them swept a hand through the water, and the water inside the bubble automatically formed a water blade, slicing the bell tower in half!
The tower collapsed into the water. The bearded man hovered in the middle of the bubble, releasing a small paper fish the size of a palm. The fish instantly expanded in its paper form within the water, reaching twenty meters in length in the blink of an eye. It swished its tail, stirring up undercurrents inside the bubble.
The plump water bubble looked more like an extremely soft and bouncy jelly. The water currents surged inside, causing the bubble's surface to ripple and undulate, and it was slowly growing larger.
It had only been half an hour since the protective wall collapsed. The residents of Clown City hadn't yet calmed down from the shock of disbelief and the panic of the impending mutant attack when they saw such a massive wave in the city center. Although the wave hadn't broken yet, if it did, it would at least wash away several streets of houses.
So when they saw the bubble growing larger and larger, the residents of Clown City began leaving their homes and fleeing toward the pillar bridge.
The city fell into chaos. The government personnel who had been responsible for rescue operations and suppressing the bomber were clearly insufficient. More than half of the army the Grand Archon had brought was buried under the protective wall. The subsequent reinforcements didn't know whether they should first maintain order, urgently reinforce the protective wall, or gather players to find a way to deal with that water sphere.
The players raised by the Grand Archon's office weren't stupid either. Seeing that the situation had spiraled out of control, and that there were clearly high-level players fighting inside that water bubble, they didn't even dare to get close, let alone try to stop them.
Therefore, many players chose to leave Clown City at that moment.
Xu Huo looked from a distance at the giant water bubble. Unless a player could retract it completely, once it burst, it would be no less devastating than a great flood.
It was a pity that Xin Lang and the others had exhausted their efforts for the future of Clown City, never expecting that the city would face such a sudden disaster from the sky. It seemed that before those people could slowly repent and reflect on their infections, the fighting among high-level players would destroy the city.
Since things had come to this, Xu Huo had no room to intervene. He chose a safe spot to descend into the nest, used the "Life Core" to melt the underground fortifications near the protective wall, and then took advantage of the chaos to climb over the wall.
The protective wall had now become a gentle slope of a low hill. Such a huge commotion had long since attracted the attention of the mutants in the Cleanup Zone, and indeed, some mutants were heading toward Clown City. However, the Cleanup Zone's protective measures were well-implemented. Audio devices had been buried underground specifically to control the mutants. After the incident, the devices automatically activated, and any approaching mutants were frightened away by the high-frequency sounds.
While crossing the Cleanup Zone, Xu Huo encountered two groups of mutants fleeing in all directions. He took to the air to avoid the mutant hordes and successfully reached the Mist Forest Zone.
When he descended, he discovered that the female player Er Gou and Si Ming were still trapped in the underground nest. Zhuo Wangsun hadn't left either, though the three of them weren't together.
"Is anyone there... help..." the female player called out weakly. Her face was covered in blue-purple thin lines, deeply poisoned.
Xu Huo happened to see her when he went down. Her face lit up with surprise, and she forced herself to tear apart the fungal threads growing on her clothes, trying to stand up. But the next second, she sat back down, once again surrounded by the fungal threads.
Xu Huo didn't go over to her. Instead, he leaped from the side toward the lower levels.
"Lao Wu...!" a weak shout came from above, but Xu Huo kept jumping down, finally reaching the deepest part of the nest.
Unlike the upper levels, which were covered in various colorful fungi, the rocks and soil down here only had a very fine white fungal thread. It was different from the dense fungal threads at the entrance, more closely resembling the form of a spider web.
He placed the Nuwa Stone on it, and the fungal threads began to grow at a visible rate.
After thinking for a moment, he cut a small opening in his palm and brought it close to the toxic fungi he had brought down. Soon, white fungal threads extended from the wound, stretching out like tentacles to probe and approach the toxic fungi. After a moment, the toxic fungi in the test tube withered.
Once the fungal threads retracted, Xu Huo took out the identification fork and jabbed it at the wound. A projection appeared in the air:
"A healthy male with even body fat and no toxins, with a history of long-term medication, safe for consumption..."
Sure enough, even the King Fungus that had digested the toxic fungi left no residual toxins.
Based on what he knew so far, the King Fungus could reside in the human body and automatically detoxify without requiring any sacrifice from the host. It remained dormant most of the time and would die off naturally after a certain period. There was no need to worry about side effects or the problem of being unable to get rid of it. It could be called a perfect detoxifier.
Could it really be that no one knew about this thing?
After a moment of thought, Xu Huo collected some fungal threads and put them into an antidote. On his way back to the surface, he used collection props to sample different fungi and store them in his luggage compartment. He also flipped through a fungal encyclopedia to identify some fungi with research value, and then he brought Zhuo Wangsun, who had been wandering in circles in the nest, out with him.
"You cleared the instance long ago. Why didn't you leave?" he asked Zhuo Wangsun.
Zhuo Wangsun gave a bitter smile and rolled up his sleeve. "I wanted to leave too, but I got infected with the fungus. This stuff doesn't exist in our game district at all. If I leave, it'll be hard to find a treatment."
"I tried antidotes, thinking that everything has its counterpart. Maybe there's a counteracting fungus nearby."
Xu Huo silently looked at the colorful fungi covering his arm.
Zhuo Wangsun was extremely embarrassed. "I tried several kinds but couldn't find the right one. I can only collect some samples for now."
A classic case of "when you have too many lice, you stop feeling itchy."
Xu Huo didn't say much. He took Zhuo Wangsun along and helped get Si Ming and the female player out.
(Chapter End)