It seems that identifying the hostile side is the key to clearing the stage.

Once the hostile side is confirmed, you can even reverse-engineer previous objectives: find the hostile faction and you get hostile faction missions—pollute their water, kill their members, seize their positions... the route to victory becomes straightforward and unmistakable.

“Let’s leave here first.” Zhuo Wangsun added, “Being harassed nonstop is a headache.”

Xu Huo could sense Kang Yongjie and the other man keeping a certain distance from them, but they did not go far. Those two clearly had no intention of finding their own path; most likely they were waiting to see what happened here.

“They seem to be carrying a lot of food and water,” he said after a moment. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Zhuo Wangsun glanced at him in surprise. “I don’t think it’s worth clashing with them head-on. Stone Forest is full of forks. We can lose them if we pick up the pace.”

Even if they could be tracked, if the three of them sped up, Kang Yongjie and his companion might not manage to cross the Stone Forest.

But Xu Huo had already made up his mind. He pointed ahead to indicate he would scout, then accelerated away.

After widening the gap, Xu Huo used the special item “Universal Lubricant” he had gotten from Jiang Feng to remove any lingering item effects on himself, then used the “Counting Squares” item carried by the group to lay traps on the path.

Kang Yongjie almost discovered this the moment Xu Huo was wiping off his item effects, but the mark on Zhuo Wangsun remained. Zhuo still had some sense: an item could at most mark two people, so not knowing whether Jin Dong and Xu Huo were traveling with Zhuo, he didn’t immediately rush back. Instead, he waited until Zhuo had been circling through the Stone Forest for about twenty minutes before following.

With Xu Huo’s current five-senses perception, finding the right route wasn’t difficult, but to lure Kang Yongjie in he deliberately circled through the pillars with Zhuo Wangsun, and purposely buried two stones on the fork covered by the “Counting Squares” before looping ahead.

Kang Yongjie and Hao Mei soon caught up. Faced with two routes, they picked the one without buried stones first. Just as they were about to enter, Hao Mei hesitated. “Old Wu can dispel item effects, so why didn’t he remove the mark on Zhuo Wangsun? He must be deliberately drawing us over.”

“Test it.” Kang Yongjie nodded, producing a Toy Gun and sweeping it across the ground. The toy bullets that landed exploded like firecrackers after a few seconds, sending up dust, and indeed showed nothing wrong.

“Some traits and items can’t be detected that way.” Hao Mei looked at the other fork. “There’s something buried down there.”

Kang Yongjie was cautious and didn’t move forward right away. He fired the Toy Gun again, turning up a few small stones.

“Using stones to imitate bombs?” He holstered the Toy Gun and strode into the path. But the next second a numbered grid appeared under his feet, and soon his legs wouldn’t move.

Hao Mei, a few steps behind, backed away at the sight. She hadn’t gotten far when someone grabbed her shoulder, a hand clamping over the back of her head!

“Don’t kill me! I’m useful to you…”

Snap.

Before she could finish, her head twisted on her neck.

Pushing aside Hao Mei’s corpse, Xu Huo didn’t even give Kang Yongjie a chance to draw a weapon. He drove a sword through his heart. After the man fell, Xu Huo signaled Jin Dong to take his backpack.

When the pack was opened most of it contained rations.

“Hers is the same.” Zhuo Wangsun picked up Hao Mei’s bag and lifted the canteen tied beneath it. “They killed a lot of people. Food and water are plentiful.”

To carry more weapons, Clown City had only supplied each warrior with limited rations and water. Most people didn’t want to bring extra supplies, thinking they could scavenge in the cleanup area. These two had nearly filled a pack, which showed they were unwilling to waste time looking for food and instead resorted to killing to grab supplies.

After collecting the “Counting Squares,” Xu Huo put some food into his own pack and told Zhuo Wangsun and Jin Dong, “There should be a water source in this area on the map. I don’t know if it’s completely dried up. Let’s go check.”

They were reasonably lucky: at the position marked on the map they found a puddle. This had once been part of a lake that had since vanished due to terrain changes, leaving only water pooled at the bases of the stone pillars.

“Should we contaminate this pond?” Zhuo Wangsun asked. “There appears to be a small spring underneath, otherwise the water would have dried up.”

So this might be one of the few remaining sources of fresh water. It would be a shame to ruin it.

“Anything from the cleanup area must not be consumed.” Jin Dong typed into the communicator, “Or you’ll lose your voice.”

Xu Huo crouched by the water and watched for a while, then looked up at Zhuo Wangsun. “Can you test the water components?”

“I can only give a rough risk assessment,” Zhuo Wangsun replied, pulling out a thermometer-like device and inserting it into the water. The indicator quickly turned brown. He sighed, “The water has been polluted.”

“It was probably the people who went before us.” Xu Huo sprinkled a bit of the powder distributed by Clown City into the water, and confirmed there were no system notifications before standing up. “Let’s move on.”

The three of them continued weaving through the Stone Forest. As time passed, the clean water in their canteens diminished faster. After hiking for several hours it was fully dark, yet the temperature had not dropped; if anything it was getting hotter.

“This is abnormal. We’re all in the same spot—why is it so hot here?” Zhuo Wangsun, who could not even keep his protective suit on, kept tugging at his collar.

“Are they trying to force everyone to strip off their protective gear?” Jin Dong’s communicator lightbar was especially bright in the darkness. “Could toxins in the air penetrate through the skin?”

“Most likely.” Zhuo Wangsun couldn’t help cursing. “What the hell ‘retake our homeland’ means if the air itself is poisonous? What use is seizing a home if even the air is dangerous?”

Although Xu Huo had an Oxygen Supply device, sweat beaded across his forehead. He leaned against a pillar to rest. “If the air in the cleanup area is compromised, Clown City wouldn’t be safe either.”

Clown City had only built a very high Protective Wall and had no other comprehensive defenses.

“This isn’t right,” Zhuo Wangsun slumped to the ground. “Air circulates; it must get into Clown City too. Even if they don’t care about the warriors, they wouldn’t risk the whole city population. Besides, I haven’t seen large purifiers installed in Clown City’s public areas... Maybe we guessed wrong? Maybe it’s just the jungle soil and vegetation—if we stay farther away it won’t matter?”

Xu Huo couldn’t say. When Yi Mao and Wan Xiao were affected, he and Liang Song didn’t show much change. Maybe only those two happened to come into contact with a special gas. Maybe players are less susceptible due to their constitution. But if that’s the case, who were the people mutilating warriors in the jungle after killing them?