Chapter 569: Rescuing Clown City
The female player opened her mouth to curse the moment she saw Xu Huo, but she swallowed her words back when she noticed the four bright objects he was carrying in his hand.
Xu Huo looked at her with a half-smile, and the female player quickly put on a flattering expression. "Fifth Brother, could you give me a hand?"
Zhuo Wangsun used a prop to remove the fungal threads from her body, finally managing to get her onto clean ground. Compared to the female player, Siming looked utterly despairing. He said weakly, "Even if we escape, we're all severely poisoned. We'll only die by the time we reach the next station."
Zhuo Wangsun had stayed behind to find a mutually antagonistic fungus, while the female player and Siming hadn't left because they hadn't cleared the instance. Without clearance, there was no return ticket. Even if they used a ticket to go to the next instance, they might become someone else's food when passing through the station. Rather than being eaten alive, it was better to die here.
"Is Xin Hui dead?" Zhuo Wangsun asked Xu Huo.
Xin Hui's motives were suspicious. Since Xu Huo had returned alone, Xin Hui was most likely done for.
Xu Huo nodded but didn't elaborate. He only said, "Advanced players have arrived in Clown City, which is why the instance ended early."
The three of them—Zhuo Wangsun, the female player, and Siming—looked shocked and tense. "Advanced players entered the Cleanup Zone?"
"Not exactly," Xu Huo said. "But we definitely can't go forward. We have to turn back."
"Going back isn't hard, but if there are advanced players in a chaotic battle, we have no choice but to leave first." Zhuo Wangsun couldn't help but look at Xu Huo. "Can you sell me one of the antidotes you gave to Jin Dong earlier?"
The female player also looked at him hopefully. "We're all infected with the fungus. You're the only one who's fine. You must have a way, right?"
"I do have some antidotes..." Xu Huo pretended to hesitate. "But they might not be effective."
"I'll buy one for 200,000 white notes," Zhuo Wangsun said generously. "If you have more, I'll take two more."
"200,000 isn't enough," Xu Huo shook his head.
"Add another 50,000!" Zhuo Wangsun immediately said. "Brother Fifth, just name your price. As long as I can afford it, I won't haggle!"
Xu Huo was straightforward. He handed over an antidote infused with King Fungus threads, completing the transaction on the spot.
"Wait," the female player called out to Zhuo Wangsun, implying something. "Are you sure this antidote really works?"
Zhuo Wangsun took the antidote before saying, "Brother Fifth has saved me more than once before. If he wanted to harm me, he wouldn't need to use a potion."
Wouldn't killing him directly be simpler?
"That's not what I meant..." The female player gave an awkward smile. When she saw the scars on Zhuo Wangsun's arm fading, she gritted her teeth and said, "I can trade with a prop."
Siming beside her directly took out his best prop. "A reconnaissance robot bird. It can walk and fly, perfect for scouting traps. It even saved my life in the last instance."
"An E-grade prop," Xu Huo said, not very impressed.
"And 30,000 white notes, all yours," Siming added.
The female player hesitated for a long time before also offering an E-grade prop and 10,000 white notes.
"I can give you the potion, but you have to help me with something," Xu Huo said. "Before coming to the Fog Forest, I saved two children in that abandoned city. I need to send them into Clown City later."
The three of them looked at him in surprise. Zhuo Wangsun said, "Even if you send them into Clown City, they won't survive."
"The situation is different now. You'll understand once we get out. It's not just the Cleanup Zone—the entire Clown City is about to fall," Xu Huo said. "This potion can last for a while. You won't have to worry about infection when we leave."
The four of them quickly exited the underground nest. From the Fog Forest, they couldn't see much yet, but once they climbed to higher ground, the lights from the Sunset Clown City side came into view.
"So there really is another Clown City," Zhuo Wangsun remarked.
"Is that a water ball?" The female player pointed hesitantly at the shimmering object covering the city.
Before anyone else could speak, the massive water ball suddenly sank a section, as if the city had collapsed under the weight, and the water ball subsequently burst.
"How many people must have died from that?" Siming frowned. "Those advanced players really don't care about ordinary people's lives!"
The Paper Servant player and the few players who had chased after him clearly knew each other. The two sides had likely been in pursuit for a while. Arriving at Clown City was just a coincidence, unrelated to the city itself.
They probably wouldn't stay long in Clown City. Xu Huo wasn't sure if the Nuwa Stone and King Fungus he had taken from Xin Lang had caught the Paper Servant player's attention, so he needed to finish his business here quickly and leave.
Without further delay, the four of them sped toward the Sunset Clown City.
The commotion on the Sunrise Clown City side was significant. Not only had it scared off the alien species, but even the warriors stranded in the Cleanup Zone felt uneasy and began moving westward.
The news that the Cleanup Zone mission was a scam had already spread among the warriors. Especially after the protective wall of Sunrise Clown City collapsed, the game's division into red and blue factions was confirmed. One by one, the warriors took off their glasses, avoiding the alien species while also retrieving their injured teammates who had been forced to leave the group.
Xu Huo and his group soon caught up with the main force approaching the abandoned city. Chef Tu and the others, along with Sister Shan whom they had met before, were still alive.
Seeing Xu Huo and Zhuo Wangsun, Chef Tu and his group, who had been enthusiastically explaining the situation in Clown City moments earlier, immediately fell silent. Compared to Sister Shan and her group, who had accidentally killed their comrades, their actions were far more heinous. They had been hiding the truth from everyone along the way, and now that someone who knew their secrets had appeared, they wished they could disappear on the spot.
Xu Huo ignored them. He sent Zhuo Wangsun to pick up Fish Ball and Ice Cream, while he himself went to the underground fissure in the city center to distribute water mixed with fungal threads to the white-haired people.
Zhuo Wangsun and the others had already verified that regardless of the type of fungus—whether infected with one or multiple kinds—the potion infused with fungal threads was enough to alleviate the infection symptoms. So the water mixed with King Fungus threads was sufficient for these ordinary people.
In just a few minutes, the infection marks on these people began to fade. If what Xin Lang said was true—that King Fungus could survive inside the human body for a while—then these people wouldn't be reinfected for some time.
These people, who had been hiding underground for years, hadn't fully recovered their voices yet. So when the symptoms on their heads disappeared, they alternated between crying and laughing, letting out hoarse, grating cheers.
On the ground, Sister Shan and her group threw down ropes, pulling people up one by one.
These warriors, originally from Clown City and once filled with fervor to reclaim their homeland, embraced and wept bitterly—for the years of suffering and torment, and for the relief of surviving the disaster.
Zhuo Wangsun also brought the two children over. Xu Huo gave them antidotes and sent them back to their parents.
"Are these two groups going to fight to the death?" Zhuo Wangsun subtly pointed at Chef Tu and his group, who were cowering in a corner with dejected expressions.
(End of chapter)