Players, Please Board the Train

Several people emerged from the forest one after another. Zhuo Wangsun retreated to Xu Huo’s side, lowering his voice, ”It looks like they haven’t completely degenerated.”

Xu Huo glanced at him, but the player in front spoke up, ”You’d better not let your sympathy run wild and get mixed up with Mutants. Even if he can still talk now, there’s no telling when he might change. If innocent people get hurt, you’ll be the one to blame!”

”Do you people have any humanity left?!” Zhuo Wangsun roared angrily. ”Even if infected, it doesn’t mean they’ll definitely become Mutants! Killing anyone you see like this, aren’t you afraid of making a mistake?!”

”Better to kill by mistake than to let one go!” the player was unyielding. ”How many people have died in Clown City because of Mutants? If I spare you, are the people you might kill if you mutate someday just supposed to die?”

Zhuo Wangsun laughed in anger. ”By your logic, then you people are the ones who deserve to die!”

The group that had come out had restrained the two injured individuals. One of them called out to Xu Huo’s side, ”Brother, these kills can be exchanged for piles of White Bills. Why be so stubborn? How about we team up, kill those Mutants behind you, and cut you in on a share?”

Zhuo Wangsun stared at them in shock, but Xu Huo stopped him. ”They’re not talking to you. They’re talking to me.”

”Haven’t you noticed? Apart from Craftsman Tu and the two injured people in front, you and the others are also being treated as Mutants by them.”

”How is that possible?!” Zhuo Wangsun said. ”I’m not injured or infected. They say I’m a Mutant? I think they’re the Mutants!”

”Exactly.” Xu Huo reached out and tapped the back of the head of the player in front of him. The metal clasp turned to dust, and the Holographic Glasses fell into his hand.”Don’t move,” he warned the player who tried to resist, then tossed the glasses to Zhuo Wangsun. ”Take a look at this.”

When the glasses were on the player, Zhuo Wangsun hadn’t even been aware of their existence. Now holding them, he looked at the player just two meters away and exclaimed in astonishment, ”Now he’s not a Mutant anymore! What’s going on? What’s happening exactly?!”

Xu Huo signaled him to calm down, then addressed the group opposite, also wearing Protective Suits and Holographic Glasses. ”I trust you won’t mind a two-minute delay?”

That group stared at Xu Huo without speaking. Xu Huo called Craftsman Tu and the others over from behind and handed him the glasses. ”See if this is a product from Clown City.”

Craftsman Tu examined them. ”The model is new, just the coloring is different. The frames of Clown City’s Holographic Glasses are all painted red and black. These are blue and black.”

”What red and black, blue and black?” The player captured by Xu Huo also turned to look at Craftsman Tu and the others now. Seeing they were all wearing red-and-black glasses, and most of them showed no external injuries or signs of infection, his brow furrowed. ”Clown City’s Holographic Glasses have always been blue and black. Did you forge these glasses?”

”My Holographic Glasses are an older model from a few years ago, and they looked like this when I got them!” Craftsman Tu was equally puzzled. ”Clown City reveres the color red. How could they paint the frames blue?!”

”It’s obvious,” someone from Craftsman Tu’s side speculated with malice. ”These infected Mutants must have used a special method to remove the Warriors’ glasses to survive, then used Protective Suits to block secondary infection. That’s how they kept their sanity to move around outside. They might have even formed an organization, deliberately using colors to distinguish friend from foe. I think they want to kill all the Warriors in Clown City, maybe even harbor ill will toward the entire city! After all, not everyone is willing to complete the cleanup tasks!”

The people opposite were confused but understood the words. A middle-aged woman stepped forward two paces. ”You’re saying we are the Mutants?”

”Aren’t you?” Craftsman Tu retorted.

The middle-aged woman smiled. ”I knew some people would go to any lengths to survive, but now they’re even making up stories like this.”

She then looked at Xu Huo. ”Brother, you were fooled by their story, right? Seeing you’re not infected yet, it’s best to stay away from them. Not having glasses doesn’t matter. Just let my companion go, and I can hand over the White Bills right now!”

”Bullshit!” The young man Xiao Tian, who had been slashed alongside Craftsman Tu, rushed out and pressed the gun barrel against the player’s temple, shouting, ”Believe it or not, I’ll kill him right now!”

The middle-aged woman’s expression changed. The people behind her raised their guns. Just as both sides were at a tense standoff, about to start fighting, Xu Huo kicked Xiao Tian over, pressing his sword against his throat. ”Are we listening to you, or are we listening to me?”

Xiao Tian was furious but didn’t dare speak. He swallowed hard and, under Craftsman Tu’s hint, said, ”Listening to you.”

Only then did Xu Huo withdraw his sword. He turned to look at the opposite side and asked directly, ”Did you come from the east side of the canyon or the west side?”

The captured player, humiliated and angry, said, ”Sister Shan, stop wasting words with him. Just kill them all!”

”Wen Ping!” the middle-aged woman, Sister Shan, shouted to cut him off, then answered Xu Huo’s question. ”The east side of the canyon.”

”How is that possible?!” Craftsman Tu blurted out. ”Crossing the canyon is the second-stage cleanup area. That’s a forbidden zone! How could you come from there?!”

”What are you talking about? That side is Clown City,” Sister Shan said.

Craftsman Tu swayed unsteadily, almost falling. Someone beside him supported him. Trembling, he pointed toward the opposite side of the canyon. ”The east side you mentioned... is over there, right?”

”Old man, are you messing with us?” Sister Shan’s face darkened.

”Something’s wrong, something’s really wrong,” Zhuo Wangsun kept waving his hands, looking at Xu Huo. ”Just now, when he hadn’t taken off the glasses, I saw him as a thermal image. That means he was a Mutant, right? But after he took off the glasses, I saw him as completely normal, just like you!”

Xu Huo had already understood what was happening when he saw Sister Shan’s group. He unfolded the new version of the Clown City map and tapped the location marked as Clown City. ”Craftsman Tu isn’t messing with you. They all come from here.”

The player named Wen Ping was still strung up by the kite string. Even without the sword at his neck, he didn’t dare move. He just stared at the map and exclaimed, ”Impossible! The place you’re pointing to was occupied by Mutants years ago! The city was destroyed, everyone died. It’s in the deepest part of the entire cleanup area!”

Xu Huo smiled. ”I’m not a player from Clown City. But I did indeed set out from this location, passed through a Gobi Area, a Jungle Area, a high-temperature region, and arrived at this canyon. And the opposite side of the canyon, on the map I have, is also marked as belonging to the heart of the cleanup area.”

Zhuo Wangsun caught on. ”You mean... there are actually two Clown Cities?”

”Isn’t it obvious?” Xu Huo said. ”The original territory of Clown City was vast. For such a large area to be invaded by Mutants, and for the Clown City government to only send some insignificant people to complete cleanup tasks is inherently unreasonable. The most direct evidence is the Holographic Glasses.”