You're sending max-level players to be cannon fodder?

Zhong Xun stood up, holding the little girl.

He released his spiritual tentacles to sense it; it was a B-level "miasma".

This is definitely not the miasma caused by non-human pollutants; rather, it is a miasma transformed from human beings among the many pollutants it has devoured.

To eliminate miasma, we must eliminate the sources of pollution.

The light in the rightmost room on the third floor suddenly went out.

The source of pollution is in the self-built house.

Zhong Xun couldn't leave Xiao Ya outside, so he tightened his arms, walked to the door, and gently pushed it open.

squeak-

The house was quiet. Through the dim moonlight, one could see the general layout of the living room on the first floor. It was very ordinary. On the television directly opposite the sofa hung a "deity" with wide-open eyes, and there was a large amount of incense ash on the table next to it.

"The source of the pollution is on the third floor," "Hidden" said leisurely. "But I advise you to calm down first. If the child in your arms is touched by the source of pollution again, he will surely die."

The door behind him slammed shut.

This was as if a button had been pressed; a loud slamming of a door echoed from upstairs, followed by hurried footsteps and a man's sharp curses: "How dare you run away! Did you think you could get away with it by going back to your parents' house?"

"Your family now belongs to your brother, and he hasn't paid back the money he borrowed from me yet!"

"Without my approval, who would dare take you in! You damn bitch! I'll break your legs!"

"Oh wow." "Hidden" exclaimed, "He's an abusive man."

In this short time, Zhong Xun had already used sound to locate the source and went up to the small granary on the second floor from the kitchen.

The disheveled man, dressed in tattered flip-flops, with a sinister and fierce look in his eyes, came down into the living room, sized up the room, and then sneered, "So, you still dare to hide!"

"When I find you, I'll soak you in a jar just like that good-for-nothing!"

Even without the "hide" warning, Zhong Xun knew he needed to change locations as soon as possible. Although the source of the pollution was a few minutes later, it was still clearly identifiable.

The sound of footsteps, "thump thump thump," kept echoing behind me.

Each room on the second floor contains a smaller room inside, unlike a maze, but it's convenient for gaining more time.

"Give up on this little girl," said "Hidden." "With your abilities, you'll definitely be able to get out."

Zhong Xun paused slightly as he sensed the "hidden" entity roaming within his spiritual sea.

Yes, there was a rotten black ball bobbing back and forth there.

The door behind him was suddenly pulled open, and Zhong Xun slipped into the last room. He quickly stepped forward, opened the window, held the little girl in one arm, took a deep breath and pushed off, then used his other hand to climb onto the third-floor windowsill. He swayed twice in the air, then pulled back up and climbed up smoothly.

"Fine, here it is! You bitch!" the man cursed, tilting his head back.

Zhong Xun lowered his eyes and saw a dark and fierce face. The hair was long and sparse, messy and greasy because it was not tidied up, and the yellow teeth were disgusting.

The man didn't climb up; instead, he suddenly retreated and chose the stairs.

Zhong Xun glanced at the little girl in his arms, and was about to jump into the storeroom when he suddenly stopped.

  

He shifted his gaze to the right and saw the scratches on the wooden support beams, worn smooth by time.

It looks like it was scratched by a fingernail.

Inside this house, someone once held their child, crying and begging for mercy as fists rained down on them. When they couldn't take it anymore, they crawled and jumped out, but the momentary peace was just an illusion. She grabbed onto the beam as if it were her last lifeline, her cries suppressed with pain. The next second, a man rushed in and grabbed her by the hair.

Footsteps soon sounded outside the door, pausing slightly as they passed a certain room. This half-second of strangeness was almost negligible, but Zhong Xun keenly noticed it.

He changed his mind and, following the edge of the outer wall about a hand's width wide, took a few steps to the next room.

Aren't you afraid? "Hidden" thought to itself. It had observed humans for a long time and found that most of them were ordinary people, preoccupied with family and work. Their hearts would race at the slightest thing, and if they encountered someone timid, they would tremble with fear at the first sign of trouble.

Having the courage to face danger and actually being able to muster the courage when danger comes are two completely different concepts.

But Zhong Xun was too calm; "Hidden" felt that he didn't even twitch an eyebrow, as if...

got used to.

The room next door was pitch black.

Zhong Xun didn't close the window. He heard the man frantically searching nearby, smashing some things.

"Um..." "Hidden" spoke up, "Shouldn't you be careful?"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a cold glint flashed in the darkness, and something lunged fiercely at him.

"Go, tentacles!" "Hidden" shouted, waving the flag and churning it into black water!

But unexpectedly, Zhong Xun simply dodged to the side with lightning speed, then freed one hand to grasp that thin, bony wrist.

The moonlight finally streamed in.

Standing before Zhong Xun was a woman wielding a knife. Her eyes were filled with murderous intent forced out by desperation. She was disheveled and looked like a ghost.

Zhong Xun snatched the knife from her hand with a sudden burst of strength.

"Watch the baby for me." Zhong Xun placed the little girl in her arms.

The woman was completely bewildered by what she saw.

She instinctively caught the little girl's warm body, and for a moment the fierceness and despair on her face vanished. Strangely, she turned her head and stared at the little girl without blinking.

Becoming a pollutant will repeat the events before death. The woman's soul was like a sheet of Xuan paper soaked through in black water, long since sunk to the bottom. But at this moment, she felt her long-frozen body suddenly warm. The door to memory opened, and after the white light, there was her daughter's lovely smiling face.

It overlaps with the little girl at this moment.

The little girl suddenly groaned twice, clearly feeling unwell.

The woman was at a loss at first, then made soft, hoarse, and practiced "oh oh" sounds.

The little girl felt safe and stopped moving.

"Hidden" was dumbfounded: "You really dare! If she were the source of the pollution, this girl would be dead for sure!"

"She won't become a source of pollution." Zhong Xun paused, something flashed in his eyes, and then he looked towards the corner.

There seems to be a jar that's about a meter tall there.

As he passed by, Zhong Xun stopped in his tracks.

"Stay inside and behave yourself! I'll film a video right now and show it to your mom. I don't believe she won't come back!"

"Dad, I have a fever, and I feel so awful..."

"What's wrong with you? You worthless piece of trash, get inside!"

The man was so drunk that he even covered the jar's opening.

She had the strength to open it, but she was too thin and weak. Her vision kept going black, and she felt cold and nauseous. The feeling of being enveloped in the jar actually gave her a sense of security. At least she wouldn't be beaten anymore, and she would be fine when her mother came back.

As expected, the woman rushed back after seeing the video, only to be brutally beaten by the man on the first floor. She lay there for a long time before she had the strength to stand up, swaying as she climbed the stairs while holding onto the railing, calling out her daughter's name.

Receiving no response for a long time, a piece of ice suddenly pierced the center of the woman's confused and dull mind.

It seemed capable of cutting her body in two.

She remembered that video.

No...

Will not!

The door was shoved open with a stagger, and within seconds, the room fell into dead silence.

Just as the man was about to close his eyes, the woman's shrill scream rang in his ears.

"Are you trying to die?!"

In her moment of utter despair, the usually oppressed and trampled weakling suddenly unleashed all her potential. With remarkable clarity, she retrieved a kitchen knife from the nearby storeroom, the blade reflecting her inhuman eyes, which burned with murderous intent.

Without hesitation or fear, she stood behind the door.

The moment the man pushed open the door, each slash was precise, and blood spurted out along with the man's screams. But the woman did not feel any relief. On the contrary, she felt empty inside, as if she were a shell filled with straw.

She remembered when she was harvesting wheat, she placed her daughter in a golden field, and her daughter stretched out briefly and comfortably, then said to her very seriously, "Mom, when I grow up..."

In a child's mind, once they grow up, they'll find a way.

But she never grew up.

In a daze, the woman heard the wind blowing from the other side of the wheat field. She saw her feet turn into sticks, and she herself became a scarecrow standing guard, gazing at the future that would never float again in the blue sky and white clouds.

The man lay in a pool of blood, and the woman, looking at him, stabbed him again in the carotid artery.

Then, very calmly, she slit her throat.

She didn't know the man had been contaminated before he died.

When consciousness fades into delusion, the subconscious, guarding the daughter, remains, influenced and polluted.

The man paused at the door of the room because the fear of being killed made him instinctively afraid.

Upon seeing the jar, "Hidden" guessed what was happening, and after a long pause, cursed, "Worse than a beast!"

Zhong Xun opened the door, his voice gentle: "Do you know what? I love this kind of pollutant the most."