Upon seeing them, Du Heng anxiously shouted, "Get in the car! This town has gone mad! A group of townspeople with festering sores are swarming in from all directions. They don't look normal at all."

He tossed a helmet to Mo Bai and said, "The townspeople are constantly oozing pus. This pus is contagious; just a little bit will cause skin ulceration. And it evaporates quickly, turning into gas and spreading through the air. It's terrifying!"

"When did they appear?" Mo Bai asked while putting on her helmet.

"About half an hour ago. They all rushed towards the amusement park like a swarm. There might be something here attracting them. Let's go!" Du Heng said.

Half an hour ago... wasn't that when the rose in her heart was plucked?

Mo Bai opened the public chat channel on her helmet and said, "We might not be able to shake them off."

"Let's try first!" Du Heng said.

The group rode their motorcycles through the crowd. The mentally unstable townspeople ignored everyone else and rushed straight towards Mo Bai.

Their purpose wasn't to attack, but to make contact and get close. They were trying to transfer their contamination to Mo Bai.

Two men lunged at Mo Bai's motorcycle, desperately shoving their hands into the wheels just to slow it down.

Mo Bai twisted the throttle to maximum, ruthlessly crushing several crazed townspeople, and she deftly dodged the two men who were charging straight at the front of the vehicle.

This group was more annoying than the zombies in Resident Evil movies!

Zombies need to scratch or burn people to spread the virus, but the contaminated townspeople only wanted to splatter pus from their festering sores on Mo Bai. They even wished that she would run them over with her motorcycle.

After several dodges, Mo Bai fell to the back of the group.

"Mo Bai!" Sheng Yan shouted in the public chat.

"I'll cover the rear," Mo Bai reassured her teammates.

She tried to use Environmental Rejection to shield herself from the contamination, but as soon as she activated her internal energy, her blood boiled instantly, as if about to break free of her body's constraints.

The Ultra-Star monster's contamination and Mo Bai's energy formed a delicate balance with her heart. Any slight change would disrupt this balance and cause the entire system to collapse.

She couldn't use her abilities.

If the townspeople successfully spread the disease to her, her physical strength and mental power would decline. It would disrupt her internal balance and set her heart free.

Mo Bai had guessed correctly. The townspeople's riot stemmed from that unsealed heart.

Gao Siyun couldn't sit still after sensing the heart's location, so the monster lurking in the shadows finally made its move.

The townspeople didn't just come from behind. They rushed towards Mo Bai from all directions of the town, and she was quickly surrounded.

She used her motorcycle to drift, spinning beautifully in the air, and formed a harmless circle that the mortal townspeople couldn't break through.

But this wasn't a long-term solution. Mo Bai could only spin three or four times at most, not indefinitely.

But the townspeople already surrounded her with sheer numbers, sealing off the area around Mo Bai so tightly that not even water could pass through.

The motorcycle finally stopped under the onslaught of people. An elderly woman with a face covered in festering sores clung to Mo Bai's leg, crying, "A voice in my head is telling me that you have medicine. Please, please give me some! I'm in so much pain, I can't take it anymore!"

Thousands of people reached out to Mo Bai.

"Please give me medicine!"

"Kill me if you don't have medicine. I'm in worse pain than death."

"I'm already 70 years old. It doesn't matter if I die, but my granddaughter is only 12. Please give her the medicine, or I'll take all the pain for her."

The wails pierced Mo Bai's mind. Their voices, though not mentally polluting, had a more intense impact on her than the forensic doctor's notes.

Mo Bai was trapped by this group and was caught in a dilemma.

"I don't have medicine..."

Before Mo Bai could finish speaking, a clear, cold voice came from above: "I'll give you medicine."

Countless snow-like leaves fluttered down and covered the people.

Qiu Xuerong couldn't cure these people, but she could put the townspeople to sleep.

Once asleep, neither pollution nor disease would progress.

Mo Bai gazed at the sky. A pure white tree soared into the clouds, and countless snow-like leaves fluttered down like snowflakes. In just a few minutes, the entire town was covered in pure white leaves, returning to tranquility.

"You can go now. No one will stop you from moving forward," Qiu Xuerong's voice came from high above.

No one could tell how tall she became, but she was tall enough to cover the entire town.

Du Heng shouted at Qiu Xuerong, "Sister Xue, you could have just put these people to sleep. Why use such a powerful move? Captain... Xing Shuo once said that your current rank is already suppressed. The more you use your abilities, the higher your rank will become. Once you become an Advanced-9 Rank player, you will completely transcend the human realm."

"An Advanced Observation Group player reaching Ultimate Rank will transcend humanity?" Mo Bai exclaimed in surprise.

Du Heng said, "I don't know the specifics. It was Xing Shuo who said it. He said that the initial setting of the Observation Group is that of a growing item destined to be used. Even if they aren't turned into cards, they will eventually lose their human form."

Mo Bai suddenly remembered Mo Xiangyou saying that the Observation Group's leveling speed was alarmingly fast, which was completely different from the Combat Group's.

She also remembered the white-feathered chickens she'd seen at the farm in her past life. They grew rapidly, and with modern breeding methods, they were ready for market in a very short time, ending up on the tables of the general public as food.

The growth rate of the Observation Group seemed similar to that of the white-feathered chickens.

Was the Observation Group, so rare in the game, never considered human from the start?

But she still wanted to become an Ultimate player and change the world.

Was there really a path forward for her?

Xiao Qi said in Mo Bai's mind, "What nonsense is Du Heng talking about? Player, don't listen to him. Even if this is true, such a big secret can't be known by everyone!"

Xiao Qi's words reminded Mo Bai.

If everyone knew what Xing Shuo said, then the core beliefs of the Mending Heaven Organization would waver.

The Mending Heaven Combat Group was united by the beliefs of "taking pride in protecting the Observation Group" and "being a person who upholds justice." If they knew that Observation Group players were destined to become nonhuman upon reaching Advance-9, no matter how hard everyone protected them, the Mending Heaven Organization would instantly collapse.

Du Heng was a naive person. He couldn't even accept the methods Xing Shuo used to maintain the organization, so how could he bear such a truth?

Mo Bai said, "Du Heng, do you know what you're saying?"

"I'm saying... Huh? What am I saying? I have absolutely no memory of this before, so why is this memory suddenly appearing in my head?" Du Heng said, clutching his head.

"It must be that Xing Shuo used some kind of item to seal your memory, only allowing you to regain it at a specific time," Mo Bai said. "Think carefully. What else did he say?"

Du Heng's head was throbbing, and unfamiliar memories flashed through his mind.

Before setting off, he went to Xing Shuo's office to persuade the captain again to send someone to protect and help Mo Bai.

The office door opened, and a young man with a refined appearance stood before the desk. He was in a white shirt and wore gold-rimmed glasses. Above his desk hung a transparent wind chime, tinkling softly even without wind.

"Captain, I wanted to talk to you about Mo Bai," Du Heng rushed into the office.

"Du Heng," Xing Shuo's voice was gentle, yet it carried an unyielding force. Du Heng swallowed his words as soon as he spoke.

Xing Shuo stood by the window, looked down at the world below, and said to Du Heng, "Qiu Xuerong isn't very enthusiastic about clearing the Instance, so just leave her be."

"Don't worry about that. With my strength, plus Mo Bai's strategy, we can clear the instance. Captain, Mo Bai, she…" Du Heng met Xing Shuo's eyes. Even though the captain's gaze was so calm, he inexplicably didn't dare to continue and quietly waited for Xing Shuo's instructions.

"If Qiu Xuerong chooses to help Mo Bai with all her abilities in clearing the instance, tell her in front of Mo Bai that once an Observation Group player reaches Advance-9, they will become nonhuman beings. An item is destined to be an item, and its path is laid out from birth.

The Observation Group has no future."

Xing Shuo said.

"What? The future of the Observation Group will…"

Before Du Heng finished speaking, Xing Shuo raised his hand and covered his eyes.

"You don't need to remember it now. You'll remember it later," Xing Shuo said. "Pass this information on to Mo Bai, and she will see through the truth of the world."

Du Heng left Xing Shuo's office like a lost soul, and only came to his senses when he returned to his room.

"What was I supposed to do again? Why does it feel like I forgot something?" Du Heng said while scratching his head. "Oh dear, the instance is about to start. I'll think about it when I get back."

..

Du Heng told Mo Bai what he just remembered.

The truth of the world? This was probably a secret that even an Advanced player couldn't say out loud, and could only be guessed at.

Xing Shuo could only convey the information to Mo Bai in this manner.

Wind Whisperer. The strongest prophet in the entire Infinite World, who could see far more of the future than other prophets, was by his side.

Perhaps Xing Shuo already knew what she would encounter in Disease Town and chose a specific time to tell her.

Mo Bai had a vague guess in her mind, but she didn't dare to think about it in detail.

She was afraid that if she thought about it too much, she wouldn't be able to face the truth.

She walked towards Qiu Xuerong, placed her palm on the tree trunk, and said, "Du Heng is right. You don't need to cover the entire town. You just need to let them sleep for now and not hinder our progress."

Qiu Xuerong's voice came from the tree trunk: "I became a tree. This was the ending destined for me, and it was only a matter of sooner or later. Your heart is too soft. These townspeople will only hold you back and prevent you from moving forward. You've already contracted a little of the disease. If the pollution worsens, you won't be able to hold on.

I can't bear to hear these miserable cries from the human world, so let us just bury everything under a heavy snowfall.

After the snow seals off the town, I'll be able to sense every corner. Apart from the Smiling Circus on the east side of town and its Domain guardian, only one Domain remains underground in the Mayor's Office Building in the center of town.

The Organ Trading Market should be there along with the Ultra-Star monster's true form.

I'm still a player, and players need to clear instances and deal with instance monsters. That's my mission.

The town's residents are the Ultra-Star monster's energy reserves, so I need to cut off its escape route.

Go ahead and do it."

"Sister Xue, you're so cool!" Du Heng exclaimed.

Mo Bai said, "There are two other people. They have no fighting ability, but they'll be in danger if they come with me, and they might be attacked if they stay somewhere else. Please take care of them, Sister Xue."

Sheng Yan was rapidly relaying Mo Bai's words to Liu Congyi. He didn't even notice what he was writing. He was just an emotionless writing machine.

Liu Congyi patted Sheng Yan's shoulder and said, "Stop writing. The two people Mo Bai mentioned seem to be us."

"Huh? What two people?" Sheng Yan looked at the conversation he had written down and belatedly realized who Mo Bai was talking about.

"I'm not powerless. I still have one last move. My Soul Explosion can be used as a trump card…"

Before Sheng Yan could finish speaking, several huge snow-like leaves fell, covering Sheng Yan and Liu Congyi. The two had no ability to resist and fell asleep peacefully.

"Thank you for taking care of them!" After Mo Bai finished speaking, she got on her motorcycle and sped off with Du Heng toward the Organ Trading Market.

A towering tree was left behind pondering Mo Bai's words.

"She thanked me for taking care of her teammates, but didn't thank me for protecting her," Qiu Xuerong said. "She really understands me."

Qiu Xuerong and Mo Bai had known each other for only a few hours, and even though they went through an instance together, their relationship wasn't at the level of sharing life and death.

Qiu Xuerong's intervention at this moment was simply out of pride as a player and as a human.

Even if she was destined to be born as an item, she wanted to fight to the end with a human heart.

If she was too afraid of the final outcome to fight, then what was the point of living?

Qiu Xuerong already accepted long ago that she would become a tree, and she was waiting for that future.

She hoped to walk her final journey with a human heart, and she hoped that using her full strength at the final moment wouldn't be a waste.

She was willing to assist Mo Bai in her final battle.

No matter what choice Mo Bai ultimately made, whether she won or lost, Qiu Xuerong decided to believe in Mo Bai.

Mo Bai was the last stop on her path as a player. This was the destination she chose.

High in the sky, Qiu Xuerong recalled Mo Bai imprisoning her heart, standing strong, and calmly and rationally analyzing the current situation.

"I chose a good destination," she said softly.

The snow fell heavily, leaving the entire town shrouded in an endless expanse of white.