Many Defenders players had seen Miss Yuan Qiu before.

Mainly because her father, Yuan Yihong, was a burly, rough old man with a strong underworld aura that left a deep impression.

To be honest, the reason these people used the Blood Poison Corpse Water without much suspicion, besides believing the Defenders’ Alliance wouldn’t harm its own, was primarily because—

Zhou Yuling led by example and was the first to use the Blood Poison Corpse Water as a demonstration.

Right after, Yuan Qiu also publicly used the Blood Poison Corpse Water.

In their eyes, this young lady was extremely precious.

If even the young lady used the Blood Poison Corpse Water, then it must be safe.

But the result…

At this moment, many eyes turned toward Yuan Qiu, suspicion flashing in their gaze.

Could it be that the Left Alliance had gone mad, daring to scheme against Yuan Yihong’s treasured daughter?

Just as they thought this, Yuan Qiu faced so many stares without any sign of nervousness.

She was the shortest girl in the room, but suddenly raised her voice and took the initiative to speak to everyone:

“Since all the big brothers and big sisters here know me, let me be honest with you—”

“Before coming here, I already knew our mission.”

The moment she said this, the whole room erupted!

Voices of discussion rose again and again.

The handsome young man who had been proactive earlier suddenly went silent, seemingly pondering something.

Yuan Qiu took advantage of this and raised her hand. Perhaps feeling too short to command attention, she raised her right hand high to signal everyone to quiet down.

The chatter ceased, and everyone’s eyes turned back to her.

Yuan Qiu continued, “What the handsome big brother over there just said is indeed true.”

“Dark-type players who enter the irradiated soil will mutate and even lose their sanity.”

“But the big brother only focused on the ‘losing sanity’ part.”

“In fact, those mutated players who lose sanity actually become stronger!”

As soon as she said this, a voice immediately rebutted, “But what use is it to become stronger if you lose your sanity?”

Of course, some other players began to speculate in their hearts.

What Yuan Qiu said next confirmed their suspicions—

“Everyone, please pay attention. I just specifically emphasized—only ‘dark-type players’ become stronger after mutating from radiation but lose sanity.”

She deliberately stressed the four words “dark-type players.”

“And we are Defenders who are neither light nor dark!”

“To be honest, the reason I’m here is because my father has inside information—”

“The irradiated soil here has been specially studied by our Defenders’ Alliance researchers who spent time researching it.”

“The radiation power in that soil is indeed very strong. Against items, radiation can damage the structure of various materials, causing many items to fail.”

“Against living organisms, radiation can directly damage DNA molecules, causing cell death and mutations, leading to death, cancer, or uncontrollable mutations.”

“However, before our operation, Defenders’ Alliance researchers made a major discovery—”

“When non-dark-type organisms are in a special poisoned state, the effects of mutation are weakened, and there is a higher probability of retaining sanity.”

“If you can retain sanity while becoming stronger through mutation… this is beneficial and harmless to us Defenders!”

After Yuan Qiu finished, the other Defenders players looked hesitant, brows furrowed, clearly not convinced.

Before they could argue further, the white-robed woman holding a vial of Blood Poison Corpse Water raised her voice again:

“The young lady is correct.”

“This vial of Blood Poison Corpse Water in my hand has been modified by our alliance researchers.”

“I’m not afraid to tell you all— the Blood Poison Corpse Water you were injected with has been contaminated by radiation sources.”

“Although diluted, the radiation amount in each vial is low.”

“But since you inject the Blood Poison Corpse Water directly into your bloodstream, it won’t take long before your body starts to deteriorate…”

As soon as she said this, another round of noisy discussions broke out.

However, the white-robed woman forcefully suppressed them again.

She raised her arms and loudly said, “Everyone, rest assured!”

“The nuclear-contaminated Blood Poison Corpse Water injected into you is only to cooperate with the mission, not to harm you!”

“Just like the young lady said—after our professional researchers’ study, this improved version of Blood Poison Corpse Water greatly reduces the chance of players losing sanity after mutating.”

“Although there is still a certain mortality and dementia rate, the greater probability is that we will become stronger!”

“The alliance chose you not because you are expendable frontline members.”

“But because you all came from the very bottom, surviving through mountains of corpses and rivers of blood.”

“You have even experienced the excruciating tattoo and bone purification…”

“So this trivial radiation is nothing!”

“The alliance chose you because it believes that with your experiences and personalities, you can accept the risks of becoming stronger.”

“And the reason for not choosing players outside the alliance is, first, the need for a non-dark-type constitution to make the improved Blood Poison Corpse Water more effective.”

“Second, injecting the Blood Poison Corpse Water to explore the irradiated soil, though risky, has the potential to cultivate strong players.”

“So the alliance also hopes that the benefits don’t go to outsiders.”

Benefits not going to outsiders?

That’s more like waste water not flowing to outsiders!

Jiang Ye was very relieved he had been cautious and did not actually inject that nuclear sewage-like Blood Poison Corpse Water.

But the situation now was clearly not good.

These Defenders players probably couldn’t beat the white-robed woman, Yuan Qiu, and the old woman beside Yuan Qiu.

Yes, Jiang Ye had already realized—

This young lady was probably part of Lin Ling’s group from the start!

On the surface, she was also part of this operation.

But in reality, she was definitely a “plant” the scam group arranged among the deceived crowd!

Whenever the deceived group lacks opinions, they can be easily led by the “plant”!

Jiang Ye even suspected that the handsome young man who seemed to know a lot and was at odds with the white-robed woman might also be a plant?

Professional scam groups would arrange both “bad cop” and “good cop” plants.

The “good cop” plant disguises as opposing the scam group to gain the deceived crowd’s trust more easily.

As Jiang Ye was thinking this, the old woman beside Yuan Qiu, hunched and odd in appearance, suddenly straightened up.

Her eyes were clear, not matching her age and appearance.

Her voice was dry and hoarse, yet carried an aura of authority as she said solemnly to everyone:

“I might as well stand up and tell you all—”

“I am a strong person transformed by nuclear radiation. I did not lose my sanity but became stronger.”

“Of course, my appearance became like an ugly old witch…”

“But that’s just appearance, easily changed.”

Saying this, the old woman suddenly took out a mask and put it on.

Then her whole body transformed; in the blink of an eye, she changed from a hunched, wrinkled, ugly old witch into a slender, graceful beauty with fair, glowing skin!

For a moment, the Defenders players present stared wide-eyed.

That old woman—no, now a graceful beauty—

Her voice changed too, clear and cold like snow as she said to everyone:

“This was my appearance before radiation, preserved with a mimic mask.”

“Since you have all experienced tattoo and bone purification, you should know better than me—appearance is just an external thing.”

“Surviving in this Doomsday Apartment, the most important thing is always strength! Without strength, everything else is empty talk.”

Saying this, the expressionless and somewhat cold beauty suddenly removed the mimic mask, returning to the ugly old woman’s appearance.

She remained expressionless but carried a disdainful aura of a strong person.

Surrounded by this aura, she said firmly:

“I really like how I look now.”

“I don’t regret everything I gave up to become stronger.”

After saying this, she looked at Yuan Qiu.

Yuan Qiu also became unusually serious at this moment.

She suddenly flipped out a box of Skin Sand and directly smeared it on her own face.

After publicly demonstrating the process of making a mimic mask of her own face, she put the mimic mask away, then exhaled deeply and said to the old woman, “I won’t regret it either!”

After speaking, she turned directly to the white-robed woman and loudly said, “Yuling sister, don’t waste time. Why not talk about the benefits of finding that hidden formation plate?”

The white-robed woman smiled faintly and straightforwardly said:

“Everyone here, whoever finds the hidden formation plate will receive three Raven Feathers and a chance to select either one Level 7 glyph-pattern item or three Level 6 glyph-pattern items from the alliance warehouse!”

“Additionally, if anyone’s body mutates during exploration and their strength greatly increases, they may have a chance to improve their status within the Defenders’ Alliance.”

“If anyone suffers malignant mutations during exploration, the alliance will arrange professional researchers to treat them!”

“Besides the benefits of finding the hidden formation plate, every Defender participating in this operation will receive one Raven Feather as a reward.”

“Furthermore, this irradiated soil itself is an undeveloped treasure land.”

“According to dark-type experts, this undeveloped treasure land likely contains hidden opportunities!”

“Whether you can unearth those opportunities depends on your own luck.”

While the white-robed woman was saying this, Yuan Qiu heard only about the benefits of finding the formation plate and immediately handed all her items to the old woman.

Then she resolutely began digging the soil.

The moist, loose soil looked very easy to dig.

The young girl Yuan Qiu easily dug a large pit.

However, the iron shovel in her hand quickly twisted and deformed under the radiation.

Others were shocked by her decisiveness.

The white-robed woman then took out a sealed silver storage box and said to everyone:

“Since various items brought into the irradiated soil will inevitably be damaged by radiation, I specially prepared this storage box. Everyone can store their items here to prevent damage.”

After saying this, the old woman immediately put all her own and Yuan Qiu’s recently handed items into the storage box.

Then she followed Yuan Qiu into the large pit.

The other Defenders hesitated for a moment.

But to their surprise—

The handsome young man who had angrily confronted Zhou Yuling earlier now also proactively stored his items and began digging!

And he dug faster than Yuan Qiu!

His manner showed as if he feared missing out on some opportunity in the irradiated soil if he was late!

With this handsome man taking the lead, others were stunned!

After all, they were not stupid and strongly suspected that Yuan Qiu was in cahoots with Zhou Yuling from the start.

But now, seeing the determined handsome man silently start digging, they naturally began to think—

Maybe there really is some opportunity in that soil?

Even if not, maybe this is their chance to grow stronger…

Plus, at this moment, they really had no choice.

This was when the effect of the “plants” showed.

Many people without opinions would follow the leader instinctively.

Right then, three or five more Defenders started digging.

Jiang Ye watched closely, strongly suspecting that among these three or five Defenders, there was probably one or two plants!

This operation was likely divided into two teams.

One batch was the plants who already knew what they were going to do here.

The other batch was like Zhang Minghan, who knew nothing beforehand and was tricked into coming.

According to Jiang Ye’s analysis, the white-robed woman’s words were probably half true and half false.

The Blood Poison Corpse Water might really reduce the chance of losing sanity after mutation.

But to put it plainly, these people were no different from guinea pigs.

Exploring irradiated soil proactively could help find the formation plate to break the Ghost Valley Soul Shepherd Formation.

On the other hand, these people could become experimental subjects for researchers afterward!

However, Yuan Qiu, as Yuan Yihong’s daughter, actually dared to explore the irradiated soil proactively…

Jiang Ye suspected her father must have prepared some special treasure for her.

A Formation Master could use special materials brought from forbidden zones to make formation plates that function in irradiated soil.

So Yuan Yihong should also be able to use those special materials to make radiation-proof life-saving items for his daughter.

Moreover, the old woman beside Yuan Qiu had experienced radiation.

This indicated that the Defenders’ Alliance must have done preliminary exploration of the irradiated soil before and had some experience and gains.

As Jiang Ye pondered this, several more Defenders began digging.

At the same time, a voice suddenly appeared among the hesitant Defenders:

“If you ask me, let’s stop hesitating! Didn’t Zhou Yuling just say? The Blood Poison Corpse Water we injected already contains nuclear radiation!”

“Even if we refuse to explore now, we will slowly mutate later!”

“And we have no choice now! Being proactive might also get us the alliance’s benefits! If lucky, maybe we can become stronger like that old woman and improve our status! Maybe even get some opportunity!”

“We all entered the Defenders’ Alliance after bone purification. It hasn’t been easy.”

“Since we had the determination to undergo bone purification, what’s there to hesitate about now?”

When Jiang Ye heard this, he knew this guy was another plant.

Unfortunately, under the influence of this guy’s persuasion and the preceding Defenders’ actions…

The remaining hesitant Defenders finally stopped hesitating.

Some silently stored their items and began digging;

Some cursed but also chose to dig.

Soon, many pits appeared on the soft, moist, charred ground.

Only two or three players remained standing.

Jiang Ye’s Zhang Minghan clone was one of those few.

A bit awkward…

The white-robed woman’s gaze landed directly on him, and she said sternly:

“Even if you take the mask back now, it still needs to be placed in this storage box. You cannot bring the mask into the irradiated soil.”

“So, it’s better to wait until after exploring the irradiated soil to retrieve the mask.”

“What do you think?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep