"You've done a great deed this time. I'll put in a good word for you when we get back." Nie Xuan said amiably.

Sima Xiao Er nearly jumped for joy.

Nie Xuan stopped outside the restaurant, staring at the black pathogens on the ground. "This is going to take some effort to clean up."

Xu Huo, still wearing his item shoes, stepped out and carefully wrapped them up before tossing them into his luggage compartment. "Better not touch it. This stuff might cost us an antidote fungus to neutralize. But the Special Defense Department could study this pathogen—it's not uncommon for players to use poison or pollutants in the game."

Nie Xuan added, "Team Leader Song may not be great at other things, but he's pretty good at handling this kind of stuff."

The two shared a laugh after speaking. Xu Huo said, "I'll head back to the hotel to wait for someone."

"When are you returning to Ting City?" Nie Xuan checked the time. "I should be done packing up soon and heading back too. I can take you along."

"Tomorrow. I'm meeting a friend for dinner." Xu Huo nodded toward Song, who was walking over. "Team Leader Song, care to join?"

Song's face turned green. He kicked a flowerpot set outside the restaurant and barked at the Special Defense Department members who were looking over, "What are you staring at? Get back to work!"

Xu Huo chuckled. "Don't be so angry. What if that flowerpot is contaminated? Ordinary antidote won't do a thing."

Song instinctively bent down to check, but stopped himself and lifted his head, refusing to engage in the sarcasm. He turned and walked off.

Xu Huo noticed Nie Xuan's gaze lingering on Song's retreating back for a few seconds and remarked, "Things are pretty lively in the Special Defense Department."

Nie Xuan withdrew his gaze. "It's always lively. But as long as they can get the job done, it doesn't matter."

"So you're back. That means the border situation is mostly settled?" Xu Huo asked.

"One thing after another—endless." Nie Xuan didn't look relieved. Days of running around had left him visibly tired. "We're better off in Zone 014 than most places, but that's both good and bad. Things are unstable when there's imbalance inside and out. Still, the antidote fungus you brought back was exactly what we needed to solve an urgent problem. Having something to hold on to helps."

Xu Huo nodded. "Then get to work. We'll talk later."

Nie Xuan still had Sima Xiao Er tag along with Xu Huo. Just as they stepped out of the Taole Club, Xu Huo received a call from Zhou Ning. She had already returned to Yang City, but patrol cars were now sweeping the entire city. Anyone outside had to have their identity verified, with special focus on players from out of town. She warned him to avoid the patrol cars as much as possible on his way back to the hotel.

"Do patrol personnel often clash with players?" Xu Huo had seen plenty of news about this. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

"Nothing we can do about it." Sima Xiao Er knew the inside story. "They've said it countless times—going out at night isn't safe. But some people just can't stay cooped up at home. When something happens, their families storm the Special Defense Department and question the patrol players' competence. They're all ordinary people, so we can't do much to them, and the detention centers can't hold that many."

It was an unavoidable situation. Compared to other countries, this was still manageable.

Xu Huo and Sima Xiao Er took a car back into the city. Sima Xiao Er had credentials, so even though they encountered several checkpoints along the way, they didn't waste much time. But once inside the city, Xu Huo could clearly see more people and vehicles on the streets than a few days ago. Entire families were moving—looked like they'd migrated from somewhere else.

He searched for information online, but unfortunately, all major platforms were now flooded with coverage of the Double Snake incident. By now, "experts" had already laid out the whole story, expressing both admiration and concern over his defiance of the Special Defense Department.

In short, his fake face was all over the internet.

"No wonder those colleagues kept staring at you earlier! It's because of this!" Sima Xiao Er was scrolling through his phone too. He gave a thumbs-up and said excitedly, "I know I'm part of the Special Defense Department, but I have to say, Brother Xu, that was just badass earlier. You're the person I admire most, after Captain Nie!"

Xu Huo removed his fake face. "Ask your colleagues if something's happening in Yang City."

Sima Xiao Er immediately struck up a conversation with a nearby patrol officer. After a moment, he came back with news. "There's suddenly a heavy fog near the area along the national highway, so they're evacuating the locals first. Don't worry, bro—it's still far from Yang City. You hungry? Let's go get hotpot?"

The near-death experience of almost being turned into hotpot didn't bother Sima Xiao Er in the slightest. He planned to invite Zhou Ning and the Painting Woman, who had returned later, to join them. But since many shops in the city were closed today, they had to buy ingredients and cook at the hotel instead.

After a satisfying meal and a night's rest, reports about the heavy fog area near Yang City finally appeared online the next morning.

The official notice from the Special Defense Department stated that a random dungeon might be forming. However, as of now, no one had gone missing. All nearby roads were blocked, and helicopter passage was prohibited.

Random dungeon entrances came in many forms. Some were small and inconspicuous, swallowing only a few people. Others appeared alongside mass disappearances—but that could only be confirmed after people vanished. This heavy fog area behaved differently from typical dungeon patterns.

Related doubts appeared on the Pioneer Forum as well, and in the end, a relevant paper by Tang Guangbo provided the most reasonable explanation.

He theorized that this was a manifestation of Zone 014's real world merging with the game world. Since the Special Defense Department had already made it clear that game partitions would eventually become full-fledged game zones, the heavy fog area could be a precursor to a fixed dungeon's birth.

Of course, it wasn't necessarily the birth of a fixed dungeon. It could just as easily be an environmental change caused by the merger. Such changes would inevitably expand the scope of evolution. From now on, Zone 014's residents had to worry not only about Player-Eaters, Mutant toxins, and local animal mutations in the city, but also large-scale plant and animal mutations. They would need to prepare for attacks from mutated creatures, construct defensive fortifications, stockpile supplies, and strengthen oversight of critical resources like reservoirs and planting bases.

Additionally, Tang Guangbo specifically emphasized mutations involving toxic substances. Beyond naturally venomous creatures, there were also pollutants created by humans in the past—mutated pathogens were even more terrifying than poisonous plants or animals.

In fact, some people had already experienced nature's backlash. Under this post, a player reported that a garbage treatment plant near their home had produced a pathogen that made people's bodies itch. It spread through the air and from person to person. It wasn't fatal for now, but there was no effective treatment yet. Walking down the street, the entire town looked like they'd been hit by a plague, their faces covered in pus-filled sores. It was practically a living hell!

With Zone 014's environment deteriorating, some forum posts advocated for relocating to other game partitions. But the original poster faced attacks, mostly accusations of being cowardly and abandoning their family.

However, that poster replied, claiming they knew a way for ordinary people to transfer partitions. If anyone wanted to know, they could buy the information.

Some people believed and wanted to buy. Others doubted and attacked. Xu Huo didn't finish reading the thread. Instead, he registered a throwaway account and generously posted the method for obtaining non-player train tickets, along with information about the Game Government and Grey Players.