The team members on night watch quickly spotted Song Xia wearing a coat, but because Jiang Min had spoken up, no one chased him away.
The next morning, everyone prepared to set off again.
Cen Yu and He Yuxing were staying in a room on the second floor of the hotel. Cen Yu woke up because something kept knocking on their door.
He opened his eyes and woke up to find He Yuxing already opening the door. He was about to stop her and warn her to be careful outside when that head popped in—
Cen Yu: "..."
The head bounced right onto Cen Yu's body, looking quite energetic.
Cen Yu propped himself up and pressed the other's head down. "She just got back?"
He Yuxing walked out, and the monkeys downstairs shouted at him, telling them to keep an eye on that head, because he almost accidentally hurt it this morning.
He Yuxing first made an apologetic gesture downwards, then leaned against the doorframe and said to Cen Yu, "It seems so." He walked back, squatted down, and looked at the head that Cen Yu was holding down. "Where did you go?"
Cen Yu noticed some blood at the corner of Tou's mouth and guessed that the other person had probably gone hunting at night.
Immediately afterwards, under Cen Yu's gaze, the head let out an exaggerated burp—
Cen Yu looked up for a while, but still couldn't figure out where the sound was coming from or where the food he had eaten had gone.
“A mysterious head,” he commented, then handed the head to He Yuxing, picked up the cloak spread on the ground, dusted it off, and put it on.
When He Yuxing grabbed that head, it surprisingly didn't struggle.
She stared wide-eyed, looking He Yuxing up and down at the wings on his back, seemingly finding it a bit unbelievable.
“Birdman,” she said.
"..." He Yuxing decided not to bother with a head. He put his head on the table next to him and then wrapped the cloak around his body as well.
Time spent in the mutation zone wasn't very meaningful. When Cen Yu and his companion came downstairs with the head, they saw the team members standing together, dividing up canned food.
The monkey tossed two cans to Cen Yu, then glanced hesitantly at the head. "Does she want it?" the monkey asked.
“Probably not,” Cen Yu said. “She looks like she went hunting last night.”
The monkey muttered a few words, still finding the head very strange.
“According to the route, we’ll be going to the Oasis Cinema next,” the monkey told them. “That’s the fastest route.”
“But to be honest, I’m a little reluctant to go there,” the monkey sighed.
In the original work, Cen Yu had never been to this area, but he had heard that there was a place called Oasis Cinema in a mutation zone very close to the digital zone.
Because the area is large, sparsely populated, and located on the outskirts of the mutated zone, hunters often go there.
Over time, it became an offline trading center and temporary sanctuary for hunters.
Of course, this happened before the mutation zone expanded. Seemingly sensing the question in Cen Yu's eyes, the monkey quickly explained—
“There are a lot of people there,” he told Cen Yu. “If adventurers don’t leave in time, they might also turn into monsters in the mutated zone.”
"The monsters in the mutated zone always linger in the places where they lived in the past."
But Oasis Cinema is a shortcut; once you pass by Oasis Cinema, you're less than three days away from the Digital Zone.
No one in the team objected; everyone was fed up with this mutated zone and just wanted to complete the mission as soon as possible and reach the digital zone—although they were gradually realizing that the mission itself was malicious.
...
The people in the group hadn't gone far when they spotted Song Xia following them.
He hesitated for a moment, seemingly aware that his actions were extremely dangerous in the mutated zone, so he kept a distance and followed from afar.
Cen Yu and He Yuxing walked at the back of the group. The head was tucked into the hood by Cen Yu and was fast asleep.
"It's the same person from yesterday," He Yuxing whispered.
He glanced back at Song Xia, who was dozens of meters away, following them from a distance. "Didn't Jiang Min chase him away?"
Is he really that kind of person?
Cen Yu glanced at He Yuxing. Even though the other party was asking seriously, for some reason, he felt that the question sounded sarcastic.
"Don't you know that talking badly about people behind their backs can be heard?" Jiang Min said as he walked to the back of the group. He glanced at He Yuxing, then leaned closer to Cen Yu. "Going to the Oasis was also that guy's idea."
At first, Cen Yu didn't understand who he was talking about, but he quickly realized from the hint in the other person's eyes that Jiang Min was talking about—the monster disguised as a team member.
"Be careful," Jiang Min said.
This morning, while the other party was away, Monkey whispered to Jiang Min whether there was something wrong with that team member. As a veteran team member, he knew that Jiang Min's ability was to see through the monster's disguise.
Jiang Min quickly gave an affirmative answer.
The monkey cursed under his breath, but outwardly remained unchanged.
He had already discussed Song Xia's situation with his teammates that morning. Some members of the team knew the younger brother and said that he did indeed have an older brother, but not many people knew about it—so Song Xia's identity should be legitimate.
“That team disappeared very strangely,” a member said. “I heard that people saw them at the motel, and they were also seen at the Oasis Cinema.”
"It's possible that they accidentally entered an unknown instance of the mutation zone."
The mutated zone contains countless dungeons. Unlike the well-known or marked dungeons in the wilderness, the spawns in the mutated zone are too random. No one has the ability to mark them, so it's not uncommon for the entire army to be wiped out.
"He's probably going to the Oasis Cinema."
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