Tongzhou City, Biancheng District—after humanity encountered the Great Disaster and vanished, this place ushered in its liveliest night in nearly four years.
The city's "night" life had revived in an extremely strange form.
From above Biancheng District, purple flames flickered momentarily, briefly illuminating everything around them before being swallowed by the darkness without a trace.
The flashes of flame occasionally triggered a chain reaction, such as shattering windowpanes, collapsing building facades, and long-overdue car collisions.
The dark urban area was like a giant piece of sandpaper, and the matchstick named Chen Bugu constantly moved through it, rubbing and colliding to produce tiny purple sparks, faint yet exceptionally eye-catching.
As the sky began to lighten, Chen Bugu sat at the entrance of a convenience store by the roadside, twisted open a bottle of Nongfu brand bottled water, poured it into his hand, and washed his face.
Having been awake all night, he had traversed the streets and alleys of Biancheng District, guided by his radar, using wooden arrows to Ignite flames, continuously searching for traces of "Demon Seed" clones in the darkness.
Most of the "Demon Seed" clones were Black Iron Grade, and Chen Bugu could generally snipe them from a distance.
Occasionally, he would encounter tough Silver Grade opponents, and he would turn and leave.
You naturally pick the soft persimmons to squeeze...
His goal was not to clear out all the "Demon Seed" clones in this city; since they all provided 0.01 Space Element affinity, he wouldn't waste time fighting Silver Grade clones to the death.
Perhaps the sheer number of clones consumed their energy, as these Demon Seeds had very little intelligence; staying put seemed to be their top priority, and in comparison, counterattacking seemed to be merely an instinctual response.
Therefore, these "Demon Seed" clones were almost the best targets for arrows.
After a night, Chen Bugu's record was impressive, having killed a total of 218 clones, and his Space Element affinity had reached 2.18.
In this southwestern corner of Biancheng District, the density of red dots had significantly decreased.
Chen Bugu chose to abandon the few remaining areas with red dots.
Many "Demon Seed" clones were hidden in more concealed locations, such as office cubicles, storage rooms under stairwells, and elevator shafts in underground parking lots.
Searching for these "Demon Seed" traces was quite laborious, not only wasting a lot of time but also yielding low efficiency.
After learning his lesson, Chen Bugu directly gave up on those guys and instead focused on clearing the easily found clones.
This city was so vast that the "Demon Seed" clones could never be completely cleared out.
From this perspective, unless there were special means, the opening of the teleportation gate would be almost impossible to prevent.
After washing his face, Chen Bugu ate some food, resting while observing the distribution of "Demon Seeds" in the surrounding area, preparing to continue clearing them later.
He expanded his search radius to five kilometers, and at one point, he noticed that a red dot at the edge of the range seemed to have mysteriously disappeared.
Chen Bugu stared intently at that corner on the radar, carefully observing the change in the number of red dots.
As expected, another red dot extinguished.
He saw it clearly; it was not an illusion.
Someone else was hunting the "Demon Seed" clones...
Was it a combat branch under Bai Ting?
According to Lai Yinghuan, since Bai Ting had confirmed that the teleportation gate would open in Copper State, his directly subordinate combat branch would inevitably come here.
Even if they couldn't prevent the teleportation gate from opening, they would prepare in advance, seize the timing and geographical advantage, and deliver a decisive blow to the enemy the moment the teleportation gate opened.
Chen Bugu observed for a while longer and found that the speed at which red dots disappeared in the opponent's location was accelerating, and there were instances of multiple red dots disappearing simultaneously, indicating that the opponent was operating as a team.
Unable to determine the purpose of their "Demon Seed" clone hunting, and unsure if they would collect the shiny silver crystals, Chen Bugu thought it over carefully and, for safety's sake, decided to try his best to put distance between himself and the other party first.
The other party must also have radar-like instruments, and Chen Bugu didn't want his actions to attract their attention so quickly.
He had to collect more of the worm-shaped "Demon Seed" wool.
Therefore, Chen Bugu changed direction and quickly left Biancheng District.
As Chen Bugu left Biancheng District, Lai Yinghuan hid in a residential building over ten stories high.
He lay on the balcony, trying his best to conceal his aura, staring intently at the few people moving quickly in the community downstairs.
Those people wore uniform tactical goggles and tactical vests, which were Blue Grade standardized equipment developed internally by "Nameless," almost exclusively issued to core combat branch members.
Undoubtedly, this group of people belonged directly to Bai Ting's combat branch.
At this moment, they were continuously clearing out the "Demon Seed" clones in the community.
Lai Yinghuan was somewhat relieved; the floor he was on was the cleanest-smelling building nearby, so there were definitely no "Demon Seeds" present. Therefore, as long as he concealed his aura and made no sound, he should not be discovered by this group of people.
Last night, Lai Yinghuan had planned to leave the city overnight, but since his radar had been taken by Chen Bugu, and the entire city had a strong "Demon Seed" aura, he couldn't find the safest route.
The most direct route out of the city was occupied by several powerful "Demon Seed" clones, whose scent was so strong that Lai Yinghuan got a headache just smelling it, so he could only find another path.
After circling around all night, he finally found a safe route out of the city, but before he could leave, Lai Yinghuan smelled a large group of human Awakeneds.
He immediately guessed that people from the combat branch had entered the city. Helpless, he could only retreat all the way, finally following the invisible guidance of his 【Danger Sense】 and hiding in the residential building where he currently was.
Seeing the people downstairs quickly leave after hunting the "Demon Seed" clones, Lai Yinghuan finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Being accustomed to caution, Lai Yinghuan remained motionless for ten minutes after the other party left.
Only when the "human" scent in the air had completely vanished did he stand up, pat his pant legs, and then mutter while looking towards the city.
"Chen Bugu, oh Chen Bugu, you'll have to pray for yourself."
Lai Yinghuan stood up, quickly went downstairs, identified his initial direction, and intended to seize the opportunity to leave Copper State.
However, the moment Lai Yinghuan walked out of the community gate, his expression suddenly changed drastically.
The smell in the air had changed!
Originally, every space had its own scent structure, just as the scent of the ocean would not appear on land, the scent of a forest would not appear in a wasteland, and the scent of snow-capped mountains would not appear in a desert...
But now the smell had changed; everything was chaotic and disordered, with almost no discernible pattern.
To Lai Yinghuan's sense of smell, the air was almost mixed with the scents of various spaces; although these scents were not obvious when smelled individually, their simultaneous appearance was too incongruous, like a pile of sauce bottles overturned at once, making it almost impossible not to notice.
Lai Yinghuan hurriedly looked back at the clear sky.
In the faint light of dawn, the sky, like a shattered mirror, revealed its first crack.