Tian Guannan's voice echoed over the meat grinder of a battlefield.
Everyone was shocked, looking at him in disbelief even as they fought off the aberrations.
What did he say?
The head of the North District, a renowned Edgerunner of Dawn City, knew the guy here?
What experiment?!
Even Hong Jiu and Xie Jin temporarily halted their movements, turning back to look at him in shock.
Zhulong tilted his head slightly, his gaze landing on Tian Guannan as he sneered.
“Who are you?” he spoke, his voice dripping with blatant disdain.
Tian Guannan swallowed hard and braced himself. “I'm... one of your own! I know about the deals.”
As he spoke, he blinked furiously, looking as if he were trying to signal a secret code.
However, Zhulong didn't show him any respect whatsoever.
“What kind of trash are you to think you're one of my own?” Zhulong interrupted him, his tone indifferent.
Not only him, but even the surrounding beast-hybrids looked at him with eyes full of contempt.
“Judging by your words, you're just some insignificant nobody.”
Standing with his hands behind his back, his mocking voice echoed coldly across the combat zone:
“Even those with the surname Xu aren't qualified to call themselves 'one of us.'”
“Much less you!”
Tian Guannan's face instantly turned incredibly unsightly. He hadn't expected the other party to show him absolutely no respect.
Zhulong stopped looking at Tian Guannan. His gaze swept casually over everyone present, his lips curling into a mocking arc.
“As for the potion experiments, I'm performing them right now. You're just too blind to understand.”
“Or rather, you don't even know what our true deal is.”
He paused, then looked back at Tian Guannan with a cruel gaze:
“As for the experiments that haven't been conducted yet, the process of slaughtering all of you will do nicely.”
This series of statements was equivalent to exposing the conspiracy entirely!
In the crowd, Wan Qianhong raised her head with great difficulty, her eyes bloodshot.
They were literally bloodshot. After all, she was still bearing that mysterious, strange power on behalf of everyone.
Unwilling to accept the reality, she spoke in a hoarse, shrill voice:
“The potion that turns people into aberrations... was it really made by the Xu family... and you guys?”
“What did you trade?”
Zhulong turned his head to look at her, the corners of his mouth curving upward.
“You're still alive?” he said with a chuckle.
“Your futile persistence is actually starting to amuse me.”
Then, he raised his right hand and clenched his fingers slightly in the air.
Wan Qianhong's body suddenly buckled. She felt as if her heart were being squeezed by something, and the backlash felt even more violent than before.
She felt that if this continued, she would lose her mind immediately, or perhaps even mutate into an aberration...
Just as she was about to give in, a mysterious yellow-masked man suddenly appeared by her side.
Without a word, he stuffed a golden pill into her mouth, finally allowing Wan Qianhong's vital energy to stabilize slightly.
Zhulong: “...”
Zhulong glanced at He Jinfan, his cheek twitching. Saying nothing, he turned his gaze back to the enemies rushing at him once more.
The fist of Aries Hong Jiu clashed with Zhulong's palm once again.
Afterward, he glanced back at Tian Guannan and burst into hearty laughter!
The laughter was filled with naked mockery.
“Hahaha! I've never seen you before, you old geezer,” Hong Jiu said to Tian Guannan.
“I didn't know Dawn City had a professional clown. If I'd known someone like you existed, I would've visited more often. Do you charge for your performances?”
Tian Guannan's face flushed red and white in rapid succession.
He regretted it.
He had voluntarily chosen to enter this place to pledge his loyalty, but he hadn't expected to be so thoroughly humiliated by them at such a critical moment!
The way everything had spiraled out of control was completely beyond his comprehension.
His mind was in a mess. Clenching his fists, the anger from the humiliation was almost unbearable.
As an Edgerunner, he should theoretically be able to escape even if he couldn't win. It was impossible for an Edgerunner to die from ordinary physical damage.
But he knew how bizarre Zhulong was, and he knew the issues with the North District. This was no ordinary place! He couldn't be certain if he could truly escape.
Besides, he had essentially exposed his dirty dealings over the years just now.
Liu Yun was still blocking the exit outside. Now that things had reached this point, even if he did manage to get out, what he would do next was a major problem.
He suddenly decided to go all the way.
“Mr. Zhulong!” Tian Guannan suddenly raised his head, his eyes bloodshot.
A desperate madness filled his voice. “I am willing to truly become 'one of your own'!”
Zhulong looked at him, then smiled in surprise.
He then clapped his hands playfully. His eyes held contempt, but also a hint of satisfaction. “Good!”
He pointed at Tian Guannan and smiled at the despairing crowd. “Perfect. Let everyone see what it looks like to be modified by His power.”
“Before you die, you might as well know what you missed out on.”
“Release your defenses and start feeling it!”
He directed his final sentence at Tian Guannan.
Tian Guannan closed his eyes, clenched his fists, and spread his arms wide.
Then, his entire body suddenly stiffened. His eyes bulged as if he had been electrocuted.
In the distance, “Bai Feifei” stood atop the aberrant corpses, stopping her movements to look over.
Controlling his current Level 49 body, Xu Mo found killing the monsters incredibly simple, barely expending any physical strength.
Thanks to his recent level-up, all his physical aches and pains had vanished. The warm current flowing through him made it feel as if he hadn't just been through a battle at all.
He was only one level away from becoming a Rank 5 Scavenger.
Xu Mo let out a long, satisfied breath, savoring the afterglow of his level-up. Looking at Tian Guannan, who had chosen to “betray” them in the distance, his lips curled into a slight smile.
“Heh, what an ugly sight,” Xu Mo muttered, shaking the blood off his longsword.
From the moment Tian Guannan began undergoing the transformation to become “one of them,” the throbbing sensation in the Heart of the Real World returned.
“Even the most critical head of the North District, an Edgerunner, has been completely compromised...”
In his mind, Bai Feifei's voice sounded suppressed, as if she found this reality impossible to accept.
It was hard to imagine how many clean people were actually left in Dawn City. No wonder the Old-Timer said Dawn City was doomed to fall.
“Haha, this is actually a good thing,” Xu Mo replied with a laugh.
When he first came to the North District, he had found Tian Guannan annoying and had been pondering if he should find an opportunity to kill him.
Now, things were perfect.
“He's even found the perfect reason for me to kill him.”
“What a considerate, wonderful boss!”
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