Infinite Terror: Infinite Reversal

Chapter 156 Secret Talk
It's very difficult to retain all the newcomers. Among this batch of newcomers, only Zhang Heng and Liu Xi have outstanding qualities.

Although the former is funny and unreliable, he is indeed an assassin... His mental fortitude and other qualities are extraordinary. With the protection of Zhan Lan and Long Taobing, he should be able to survive until the Main God Space.

According to Zhan Lan, the latter's mental strength is also stronger than that of ordinary people... perhaps it has something to do with his good brain.

In Mu Xiang's prediction, more Great Old Ones would inevitably be pulled into the real world, and the intervention of the Supreme God and the descent of the Great Old Ones would cause the real world to be eroded more and more deeply, at an increasingly faster pace. Besides Mu Xiang and Zheng Zha, everyone else was also in danger.

However, thanks to Mu Xiang and Zheng Zha's planning and arrangements, as well as the efforts of Long Taobing and Zhan Lan, no matter how you look at it, the Zhongzhou team suffered the least damage... From the moment the main god intentionally allowed them to be corrupted until now, most of them should have only experienced minimal changes in their mental state.

In other words, the supreme deity doesn't need to kill them; everyone else is in danger, but it depends on what they are facing.

Therefore, Mu Xiang's plan was for him and Zheng Zha to deal with the Old Ones, while the rest of the group would band together to deal with the attacks from the Infected and even ordinary monsters. In this way, everyone would face a level of corruption that was within their tolerance.

The path that the Supreme God left for the Central Continent Team was probably the same... Otherwise, it would be to let the rest of them die.

However, the term "others" refers to the official members of the Central Continent Team. As for the newcomers, apart from Zhang Heng, even Liu Xi, who escaped from Hobbs Town, is not included.

There's no other reason than that the newcomers are too fragile. If they harbor suspicion or fear, they can easily be dragged into madness and distortion during the final outbreak of erosion... And at that time, the Central Continent Team will not have the luxury of managing them. Even Long Taobing cannot abandon the veterans on the front lines to manage the newcomers!
From a purely profit-driven perspective, abandoning all the newcomers except Zhang Heng would actually be the right choice.

Mu Xiang watched Zhan Lan leave, glanced at Zhang Heng who was still performing crosstalk with Zheng Zha, and silently walked to the window.

If they truly succeed in understanding the principles of civilization and completing the mission to redeem the plane, everyone will receive an A-level reward. Combined with the existing B-level side quest reward for everyone, the Central Continent team's evaluation score with the Main God will definitely be higher than that of the Celestial Team and the Demon Team! Even if the next match is a team battle against either the Celestial Team or the Demon Team, Mu Xiang won't be surprised…

[The next show will definitely be Zhang Jie's... Sigh, maybe he can help us through this, but he himself is also a problem.]

Mu Xiang silently pondered how to make the most of the rewards from this match… Otherwise, having high rewards and advanced exchange options wouldn't be enough to handle the increasingly difficult horror games. He and Zheng Zha might be fine, but the others could be wiped out at any moment. In that case, the Central Continent Team's development might collapse entirely.

[Let's stick to soldier versus soldier, general versus general... As for the five newcomers, let them survive based on their own abilities. Even if they die while carrying out a B-rank side quest, it will still detract significantly from the Central Continent Team's score.]

Mu Xiang sighed as he thought about this. Although it was going with the flow, lowering the evaluation by relying on the death of a newcomer was still a bad move.

Leaving aside the fact that Long Taobing and Zhan Lan were extremely busy, Mu Xiang was explaining the operational details to Zero and the other combat personnel. The content was actually very simple: everyone should perform their duties and prepare for the inevitable attacks that would follow.

What really needs to be emphasized are two things: the retreat and relocation route, and... when a new player shows signs of abnormality, to be decisively killed.

After Zheng Zha brought Mu Xiang and the others back to the hotel, the Zhongzhou team dealt with all the mutated newcomers, including Gao Hongliang... What surprised them was that killing the physically mutated newcomers did not deduct reward points. Perhaps because their minds were completely twisted and their bodies were no longer human, similar to becoming zombies, they were no longer recognized as reincarnation team members by the main god.

As for Lu Renjia from "Ju-on," perhaps it was because he was only possessed by Kayako that Zheng Zha's reward points were deducted? Of course, the others weren't as professional as Mu Xiang and Chu Xuan in speculating about these things, so they didn't delve into it further.

After arranging these matters, Mu Xiang and Zheng Zha went out to patrol. Although they wouldn't interfere with the infected people throughout the city or even the world, they still needed to monitor them in real time.

Once outside, Mu Xiang and Zheng Zha saw many infected individuals whose bodies no longer resembled those of humans… It might only be a matter of one night before they were completely twisted into monsters. This kind of nightmarish scene was playing out on the streets of New York, and even across the country and the world. Zheng Zha slapped away a middle-aged man carrying a novel and dragging himself along on three legs, and sighed to Mu Xiang, “This world has truly reached its end.”

Mu Xiang frowned slightly but said nothing...

[This shouldn't be happening. If this is infinitely diverse, there should be principles of civilization... At this point, these principles haven't manifested, and the main god hasn't issued any tasks... Don't tell me in the end that this is just a matter between this plane!]

[Could it be because something is missing as a trigger? The manifestation of the principles of civilization that Chu Hao encountered seems to be the result of deliberate triggering by the invaders...]

"Perhaps it's not over yet..." Mu Xiang muttered to himself, then looked at Zheng Zha, "Tell me, what secret do you want to tell me?"

Zheng Zha was taken aback, then couldn't help but smile wryly: "I knew I couldn't hide it from you... Was I too hasty?"

"You seem too calculating," Mu Xiang said seriously. "Before, with Chu Xuan and I planning things out, you just followed instructions and made decisions offline... But ever since I came back and the Zhongzhou team returned to normal, you've been trying to push me to make plans and arrangements, including this inspection... Tell me, is it Zhang Jie?"

Zheng Zha stopped smiling bitterly, nodded silently, and then his eyes became blank. He reached out and pushed up the bridge of his nose, then glanced at Mu Xiang: "You and Chu Xuan must have discovered Zhang Jie's problem a long time ago... Before, when you were playing riddles, I could understand but didn't, but this time, when you weren't here, I realized a lot of problems while simulating you."

“I suspect you have some information I don’t know. Let’s start with the most valuable information,” Mu Xiang said calmly, adjusting his glasses.

Zheng Zha nodded: "Now that you're all back, or rather, your existence has been restored, and our memories have all returned to normal... Back then, the four of you successfully entered Hobbes Town, and according to you, Hobbes Town also presented us as an illusion. But from our perspective, we just suddenly woke up on the highway."

“We drove our car in too, so you don’t have a car? That makes sense,” Mu Xiang said.

Zheng Zha continued, "But we didn't wake up together... we woke up one after another. To be precise, some were behind and some were in front, as if we were thrown down one after another."

Mu Xiang pushed up his glasses: "No problem. I noticed something was wrong back then... You all fell into a coma one after another, so I guess you were replaced at that time."

“But this order seems to be based on strength…” Zheng Zha pushed up his nose. “As a newcomer, Zhang Heng was at the very back; he was the first to be left behind. Then it was Long Taobing, Lingdian, Zhao Yingkong, Bawang… Bawang exchanged more items than Zhao Yingkong and had better physical attributes, so it’s understandable that he was considered stronger than Zhao Yingkong.”

Hearing this, Mu Xiang knew what Zheng Zha was going to say...

“And Zhang Jie, who usually considers himself the secondary firepower provider, is actually at the very front… In other words, in this assessment, Zhang Jie is even better than me!” Zheng Zha took a deep breath. “I can analyze many of his problems, but this is something I completely cannot understand… Just who is he?”

“A seasoned veteran who’s just holding back his secrets couldn’t possibly be ranked ahead of me…” Zheng Zha stared at Mu Xiang. “You should understand what this means. Is he… a fourth-tier expert?”

A heads-up: Zheng Zha's understanding of Zhang Jie differs from the original story, so their subsequent confrontation will be completely different...

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(End of this chapter)