"She is not a real person," Xu Huo said. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

It seemed to be an unexpected answer. Xin Lang fell silent.

"You haven't answered my question from earlier," Xu Huo continued. "If destroying the Protective Wall is impossible, you still have a fallback plan, right?"

"It's not needed now," Xin Lang said, avoiding a direct answer. She looked up and suddenly asked, "There are still quite a few people alive in the lockdown zone, right? Once the Protective Wall breaks, they'll be no different from the people in the city."

"By then, everyone will be infected. Each person will do their utmost to destroy the lockdown zone to secure a way out for themselves," Xu Huo said. "That way, the reality show will also cease to exist."

"Is that so?" Xin Lang's voice turned cold. "But I think even if everyone is infected, the people living in the upper layers will only try to drive even more people into the lockdown zone. New selection criteria will be born then."

"There will always be some people with a conscience," Xu Huo said. The atmosphere in Clown City was very good. Just looking at the performances in the Arena showed that those young people weren't just in it for the rewards. After all, those with exceptional skill and great daring are a minority; a significant portion were driven more by a surge of passion.

This was different from the Building Block Fairytale City Station back then. The people of Clown City despised Mutants. Although the cleanup mission was just a scam, their hatred for Mutants was real, and they were willing to sacrifice for their families and homeland.

"The biggest problem with this city is that there are too few players."

Clown City was very similar to Zone 014, which had just become a Game Partition. The number of players was small, and the government still relied on soldiers and weapons to maintain order. This presented a major issue.

If you encounter a government with a conscience and stability, ordinary people can live and work in peace.

But if the government is incompetent, or even worse, like Clown City, which profits from countless lives, ordinary people find it hard to resist even if they know the truth.

For the current Clown City, players have instead become the weapon that can break the deadlock. Only when more ordinary people, more infected people, become players is there a possibility to change this sick city.

"There will be more and more in the future," Xin Lang said, clearly aware of this point, her tone very certain.

At that moment, a tremor came from above. The ground not far from them suddenly cracked open. After the mud and rocks collapsed, over a dozen powerful beams of light shot in from outside. The clamor of voices was deafening, and fully armed Warriors kept jumping down from above.

Xu Huo hid behind a rock and whispered to Xin Lang, "Almost there."

Even if the internal metal structure was dissolved, the Protective Wall wouldn't collapse immediately. By the time it did collapse, the General Administration Office wouldn't have the spare capacity to hunt them down.

But Xin Lang had no intention of leaving. She fired a shot towards the ceiling, attracting the Warriors who had come down to capture people, and then ran towards another passage.

Xu Huo didn't stop her. After those chasing her were lured into the Underground Nest, he retracted his hand, glanced in the direction Xin Lang had left, and then walked off in a different direction.

Meanwhile, Xin Lang led the numerous Warriors into the Underground Nest. Using her advantage of knowing the terrain well, she shook them off. Just as she was looking for a way out, a player silently closed in on her. Using an item, he immobilized her in place, then brutally dragged her to the surface using a hunting hook for large beasts, which he drove through her shoulder.

A large contingent of the Clown City military had already surrounded the area below the Protective Wall. They were digging holes everywhere on the ground to find people, completely disregarding whether the spreading fungal spores would infect more people.

The facial restoration mask Xu Huo had applied to her had somehow lost its effect. When Xin Lang looked up under the lights, she had regained her original appearance. Seeing her face, the General Administration Chief finally appeared on a military vehicle, his expression vicious. "Where can you run to? Trying to find help outside the Protective Wall? How presumptuous!"

With a cold laugh from him, a squad of Warriors dragged over a dozen corpses and threw them on the ground.

Xin Hui, 179, the two people from the rescue vehicle, and over ten other young faces. Their faces were covered in blood, their eyelids half-open, the light long gone from their eyes.

Xin Lang struggled to get up, but the player holding her broke her right kneecap from a distance. She fell forward onto her knees, but her eyes remained fixed dead ahead.

"Even a dog knows to bark at the person who feeds it. I raised you, and this is how you repay me?" The General Administration Chief looked down at her from his high position, his gaze icy. "Ungrateful wretch!"

Compared to his agitation, Xin Lang, having recovered from the shock of seeing the corpses, appeared very calm. "You kept me alive just to say these few words?"

Her expression, one of complete disdain for speaking with him, enraged the General Administration Chief. "Strip her clothes!" he roared angrily.

The player standing beside Xin Lang used a small knife to slash open her upper garment. However, as the fabric split, the player's expression changed drastically, and he immediately retreated far away.

The Xin Lang now was no longer the beauty who could captivate men. The exposed skin was covered in pustule-like growths. Some areas were densely covered in fine, long filaments. The whole person looked like a moldy orange. Forget a single patch of good skin, even her original figure was barely discernible.

"Heh!" She gave a light cough, and the air she exhaled was filled with tiny white floating particles.

"You replaced my father and took control of all of Clown City, yet your final method for dealing with a woman is still so vulgar," Xin Lang said with a light laugh. "My body is infected with nearly a hundred types of fungi. When I was escaping earlier, I already scattered my blood throughout the city. There's no need to cross the Protective Wall; Clown City will soon become just like the cleanup area."

"Clown City has enjoyed twenty years of good days bought with other people's lives. Let the next twenty years be spent atoning for that sin."

The soldiers in the front row raised their guns, but the General Administration Chief didn't give the order to fire. His face was ugly. After a moment, he said, "You haven't left Clown City for nearly twenty years. The infection must have happened earlier. It hasn't manifested for twenty years. Tell me the method to cure the infection, and I'll let you die painlessly!"

Xin Lang laughed again, more floating particles drifting from her mouth. "No method. Just wait for death!"

The General Administration Chief snatched a gun from a soldier beside him and shot through her other shoulder. But unexpectedly, what flowed from the wound wasn't blood, but a black-green liquid emitting a strange odor. The substance splattered on the ground and rapidly grew into a type of black filamentous fungus!

Shocked and furious, yet not daring to actually kill her, the Chief said, "What about those who escaped? Do you want them to die too?!"

"We lived precisely for this moment," Xin Lang said, her eyes vacant as she fell backward. From the ruptures all over her body, white floating particles gushed forth. Like scattered dandelion seeds, caught by the wind, they rapidly drifted forward.

The soldiers positioned directly in front of the Protective Wall, even wearing Protective Suits, couldn't help but retreat. Because those white floating particles would take root on any object they touched, stone being no exception.