Wow! The item-dropping rate is really high!

```

At first, many players thought this was a feature of the game, and besides, it's a game... it would never really let players suffer a huge loss.

Whatever was lost here would be compensated for elsewhere.

The last one who thought this way was named Kuang Xin, but sadly, the game wasn't always so merciful.

After persisting for a period of time, these players felt it would have been better to have died right on the operating table in the beginning.

After achieving the "impressive" feat of going hungry for three days with nine missed meals in "Urban Survival Battle", most players chose to restart.

Only a very small minority of players continued clinging to their "faith" — they believed that the game wouldn't let them down, that their perseverance had to be meaningful.

Otherwise, would not all the suffering of the past few days have been in vain?

This was failure...

And success wasn't much better off.

The city's surgical technology was extremely immature; even when the surgery was successful, one had to face the rejection effect of the body towards additional organs, which meant that even those players who succeeded in the surgery had to rely on a concoction called "Stabilizing Repair Fluid" to stabilize their condition.

And to get this substance, which could only be produced officially by the city, one had to accept their control and act according to their instructions.

The city itself didn't seem to intentionally establish its own intelligence organization or a large-scale guard force, etc. They appeared not to care about being in control of everyone, but rather for the sake of the surgery itself.

But, in this state of affairs, the entire city... belonged to them.

For players yearning for freedom and who acted without restraint, what a frustrating place this was?

If you can't freely jump onto rooftops and tear down walls, where's the realism in this game?

Not to mention that the surgeries weren't one-off...

Grey Iron City's surgeries had many steps, with each surgery representing a new barrier.

Each surgery reiterated all the aforementioned risks.

Any player who underwent surgery and had to accept the city's control to some extent because of the "Stabilizing Repair Fluid" got recorded in the city officials' books.

As soon as either time or physical condition met the criteria for the next surgery, one would be immediately pushed onto the operating table again.

If successful, of course, one would ascend once more, but failure meant going all the way down, or like those unlucky players, being forced to restart "Urban Survival Battle".

After some time, players naturally discovered certain patterns—

If one improved themselves in between two surgeries, ensuring their constitution was strong enough and had enough traits and specialties, especially those that had targeted effects on the surgery, it could greatly increase the success rate of the surgery.

This was the only direction the players could keep "winning".

But the failure rate was still not small, at least for the players, it was hard to accept.

Distorted policies naturally bred a rebellious crowd.

Even if they couldn't resist, they could still flee and hide.

Like this group of "rats" hiding underground, they were the "Black residents" that the city was out to capture everywhere.

So, to put it another way: those who want to avoid the eyes of the city are the "Black residents". Continue reading stories on My Virtual Library Empire

Among the "Black residents" there were rarely any formidable individuals, or at least not among those players who refused to comply with the city's distorted rules.

But they believed it shouldn't be this way.

At least Yafei always believed so.

The deformed city must eventually undergo a thorough purification; changing the city's distorted rules might just be the inherent "main mission" that all players born in this city carry.

Those who comply with the city are dogs; those who resist the city are rats.

This is a battle between dogs and rats.

The dog camp has the city itself as their big daddy, but what about their rat camp?

Can they rely solely on their newly-spawned players? How long would it take to overturn this rotten place?

There must be a big daddy to lead the charge.

Yafei had always been looking for this big daddy, and now...

He was searching for someone powerful who didn't seem to have gained that power purely through surgical transformation and who also needed to evade the city's watchful eyes — a "Black resident".

Could this be the opportunity to overthrow the city?

Excited by this thought, Yafei stood up, "Where did you encounter them? Take me to see!"

Whether it was them or not, making contact couldn't hurt.

```

Even if it wasn't their own "big daddy," weren't these players, who were reluctant to undergo surgery transformations, eager to cozy up to the NPC powerhouse that also didn't take the surgical transformation route?

It just goes to show that lackeys will always be lackeys, with no strategic vision.

"Let's go!"

Yafei, clad in a belly-revealing lackey outfit, lightly jumped off the wooden crate she had been sitting on and led the way to the entrance of the cave, "Hurry up, don't wait for them to run off."

"Coming, coming!" Ma Wenbo snapped to attention, finally catching on.

...

"Huff~"

"Inhale~"

"Huff~"

"Inhale~"

Three figures stood in place, taking long breaths in.

Seeing that he had far surpassed the others with a 99-point proficiency, Kuang Xin was full of pride.

"Don't you know what a brutish body is?"

"Gurgle~"

The rubble rolled down from a slope that was even steeper.

The ground began to tremble slightly.

Gu Lan, who was coincidentally in a state of meditation, connecting with the world through her will during her calm breathing, sensed a smoky, fiery scent.

Confused, she opened her eyes and looked towards the gentle slope that stretched upward... There, the black-grey soil seemed to have solidified for thousands of years, making everyone forget the fact that it was actually an active volcano.

"Could it be about to erupt?"

"Is it that much of a coincidence?" Kuang Xin opened his eyes upon hearing her and retorted disdainfully, "Just because we arrived, the volcano erupts? Are we children of the volcano or something?"

Dai Lian narrowed his eyes and also stopped his breathing rhythm, "But this commotion... it looks big."

Around the rugged corner of the slope, out of sight of Dai Lian and the others, a strand of red flame was suddenly spewed out from a hole in the earth by an upward gust of air.

This strand of red flame, unlike the other ashes that were spewed out and dispersed by the wind, seemed to have its own intelligence, drawing agile arcs in the air one after another and eventually burrowing back into the ground below.

Slivers of fiery red streaks flowed between chunks of grey-black boulders, much like the meridian network in the human body forms an ecosystem, transforming ordinary stones with no sign of life into a freely moving "entity."

With a muffled groan originating from who knows where, the giant stone figure stood in confusion for a moment before its "head," constructed like a human torso, turned towards the direction of the city and then took a large step forward.

A gasp was held by Kuang Xin and the others as the giant stone figure emerged from the rugged spot.

Kuang Xin was somewhat dumbfounded, "What in the world is this?"

Dai Lian was stupefied, "How the hell would I know?"

Gu Lan analyzed rationally, "Maybe it's a local specialty monster?"

Similar in fiery red color, compared to the creature just now referred to by the locals as a fire spirit beast—a standing lion only about twice the height of a human—the giant stone figure, still in the distance, already presented a visually stunning impact.

Watching the giant stone figure start to step out as if locking onto a direction, the three widened their eyes.

"Wait... does it look like it's heading straight for us? Did we breathe in its fragrance?"

"No kidding! It's about to step on your face and you're still wondering?"

"What do we do?"

"What do we do? Draw the sword and fight it!"

...

"Boss! There they are!" Wang Wenbo pointed excitedly at the three figures standing still in the distance.

Turning his head, he saw his boss already crouching behind a rock.

"Boss?"

"Boss?"

Yafei glared at the two sharply, frustrated as if regretting their incompetence, pointing towards a "big red dot" that had just begun to move in the distance.

"A lava behemoth! Are we just presenting ourselves to it? Wait and see what they plan to do first," she said.

Wang Wenyan squinted at the scene for a while, then scratched his cheek in confusion, "It looks like they're planning to charge?"