Sunlight once again shone into the cleanup area. When Xu Huo emerged from the fungal nest, he had already changed his face and swapped out the equipment on his body.

Xin Hui had removed her mask. To accumulate her kill count, she hadn't damaged her glasses. Instead, she looked at him and said, "The higher someone ranks on the leaderboard, the more obstacles they face. Since you're traveling with me, changing your face makes no difference."

Xu Huo indicated it didn't matter. "It's a live broadcast. There should be surveillance cameras in the cleanup area, right?"

Xin Hui nodded. "Above our heads, spread throughout the entire cleanup area. The holographic glasses also have surveillance and audio monitoring functions. However, there are too many people in the cleanup area; unimportant footage gets filtered out directly."

The holographic glasses weren't made very precisely; Xu Huo had known this for a while. "Clown City is truly brazen and unafraid."

The warriors who enter aren't particularly strong. So what if they learn the truth about the cleanup area? It might even be broadcast as a special feature.

With a map in hand, the two of them didn't need to take detours. They headed straight for Sunrise Clown City. Along the way, Xu Huo assisted Xin Hui in killing some Mutants to maintain her kill count.

"This live-action game has several ways to win. One is the victory or defeat between the Clown Cities. The second is individual kills. Whether it's Mutants, enemy warriors, or companions judged as Mutants, they all count. Victory by quantity."

"Then there's team combat. Warriors are grouped before entering. The number one team is selected based on group survival count and kill count. However, team combat usually ends with the entire group being wiped out."

"There are also various other awards. The prerequisite is to complete the pre-assigned cleanup task without getting infected and return alive to a Clown City—either side's city counts."

But the mortality rate for cleanup tasks is too high. It's rare for many people to compete for rankings simultaneously—even though most aren't aware they're in this kind of competition. Those falling behind get no attention, while those ranking high face interception. This involves audience betting.

"It's no different from gambling," Xu Huo said.

Where there's betting, there will be people interfering with the final outcome.

He kicked away the Mutant corpse by his feet, jumped down from the tree, and glanced at her. "You're being targeted."

Xin Hui tugged at the corner of her mouth. "Expected. If not me, it would be someone else. Ahead is the miasma zone. You need to be careful yourself."

Xu Huo's protective suit was of a grade sufficient to resist the miasma. Only after entering did he discover that the miasma forest was filled with many mutated snakes and insects. Moreover, they wouldn't actively avoid people; instead, they would chase after their scent.

Xu Huo used potions twice, but the effect was minimal. Afterwards, Xin Hui took a box from her backpack, retrieved a very small green mushroom from it, and handed it to him. "Apply this to your shoes. The spores of this type of fungi prefer to parasitize snakes, insects, rats, and ants. Snakes and insects detest it."

Xu Huo did as instructed, applying some to his shoes. Within a few short minutes, a layer of fine, light fuzz grew on the shoe surface. The nearby snakes and insects indeed avoided it like the plague.

"What a shame," he sighed. "The fungi in the underground nest are practically a treasure trove. To think it was just sealed off like that."

"A simple fungal infection nearly destroyed half of Clown City. Would those people dare?" Xin Hui said mockingly.

"Aren't there people from other game partitions coming to collect samples?" Xu Huo asked.

"There probably were in the past," Xin Hui replied. "Not anymore."

Xu Huo raised an eyebrow. With a casual swing of his sword, he sliced a Mutant that had pounced from the distance in half. Then, from the corpse, he picked out a tracker. "It seems we need to move faster." 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Xin Hui pressed her lips together, no longer wasting time hunting Mutants. Instead, she followed the safe route on the map to traverse the miasma zone as quickly as possible.

However, even at their fastest speed, it was still evening by the time they got out. Across a stretch of flat Gobi desert, Xu Huo saw the Protective Wall of Clown City.

But clearly, they weren't the only ones who had crossed the miasma zone. Xu Huo sensed at least three other people appearing simultaneously in the vicinity. He frowned, about to say something, when a bullet shot over, hitting him squarely in the temple!

"Mobile Metal" blocked the bullet instantly, but Xu Huo was still thrown sideways by the inertia. Before he could make a sound, Xin Hui, who was lying beside him, suddenly scrambled to her feet and took off running.

Besides her, several others hidden in the woods also rushed out simultaneously. With another gunshot, one of them was shot and fell. The others ran for their lives. Apart from Xin Hui, the rest were Blue Faction members. Someone even shouted for help, begging the players on the Protective Wall to lower the elevator.

However, before they could get close to the Protective Wall, bullets rained down from the sky, quickly killing the person calling for help. The others, of course, didn't escape the gunfire either. Xin Hui and another tall, burly man dodged bullets while running towards the elevator. Their speeds were comparable, and their distance to the Protective Wall was similar—until the burly man was shot through the thigh!

Xin Hui became the first to reach the elevator. She dashed inside in one breath, and then the elevator began to ascend.

After she left, two more elevators were lowered. The burly man, dragging his leg, crawled into one and successfully ascended. Then, others tentatively emerged from the bushes.

This time, the gunman hidden in the woods didn't fire, because Xu Huo had already taken advantage of the earlier commotion to find him!

Swinging his sword to block two bullets, he circled around to the front of the man, directly swept him off his feet with a kick, stepped on his wrist to prevent him from grabbing his gun, and pierced his shoulder with his sword. "Do you know Xin Hui?"

The gunman was a man in his early thirties. With a pained expression, he launched a leaping kick at Xu Huo. However, even a well-trained ordinary person has limited strength. Xu Huo merely raised his foot to block. Not only did the man fail to break free, but he also broke his own lower leg from the impact!

"Cooperating with her to eliminate other competitors... there must be a reason you absolutely must win, right?" Xu Huo increased the pressure with his foot, trying to force the truth out. Unexpectedly, the man was exceptionally tough. He reached back and shoved a pre-prepared poisonous mushroom into his mouth. By the time Xu Huo pried his jaw open, the man's lips were already changing color.

His brow furrowed deeply. Xu Huo lifted the man, forcing him to vomit out the mushroom, then injected him with two doses of antidote.

Affected by the toxin, the man convulsed, paying no attention to the person standing beside him, clearly seeking death.

Xu Huo stood there for a few seconds, then turned to leave. Unexpectedly, at that moment, the game popped up a prompt:

[Player Passerby has triggered an additional task—The Fate of a Spore. It is recommended the player undertake this task while ensuring completion of the clearance task. Upon completion, additional rewards can be obtained, along with a dungeon rating no lower than A-grade Excellent.]

Having taken a step away, he turned back, picked up the man from the ground, and said, "No matter. I'll take you into Clown City. Naturally, someone will investigate the shady dealings between you and Xin Hui."

Only then did the man react, looking at him with fury. "What do you want?"

"What were you planning to do using the fungal nest?" Xu Huo went straight for the vital point.