Actually, Jiang Baimian had enough time to stop Xiao Chong when he darted into the side alley, especially since she didn't have to look after anyone else at the moment and had reacted the quickest.

She could have called out to Xiao Chong, saying that they should run together. With the help of the military exoskeleton device and the modified jeep, they would definitely be much faster than him fleeing alone.

But at that moment, Jiang Baimian hesitated.

From Xiao Chong's reaction, she guessed that Du Heng, following the trail, had already arrived nearby. If the "Old Task Force" continued to stay with Xiao Chong and failed to evade this mysterious antiquarian scholar, then the two sides would inevitably meet. The "Old Task Force" would be in a dilemma, unsure which side to favor.

Neither side was someone the "Old Task Force" could currently face directly, and both had a certain degree of friendship with them, having given them considerable favors.

Thinking of such a scenario, the dilemma of not knowing whether to side left or right, the need to make a choice and offend one side, with no guarantee of a peaceful resolution afterward, and the impulsive Shang Jianyao, Jiang Baimian had a moment of selfishness. She didn't speak, and just watched Xiao Chong rush into the alley at an extremely fast speed and disappear there.

"Ah, people are always greedy, still thinking about being able to play both sides in the future... Maybe because Xiao Chong appears to be a child, the guilt in Jiang Baimian's heart was continuous and hard to interrupt."

The only thing she could comfort herself with was that Xiao Chong's condition was clearly inhuman, and the speed at which he ran at full strength was no less than a military exoskeleton device operating at its limit.

Therefore, it was the same whether the "Old Task Force" was with him or not.

"Teacher Du Heng..." Shang Jianyao hurriedly looked around.

Although he didn't see the figure of that antiquarian scholar, he still expressed a beautiful wish:

"I hope Xiao Chong can run away..."

Clearly, in this matter, he favored his good friend Xiao Chong more than his teacher Du Heng.

But if Xiao Chong was truly the "King of the Heartless," the potential harm to the surrounding area was extremely great. Being supervised by Du Heng might be the best choice... Long Yuehong looked around, still deeply shocked by the state of everyone maintaining their respective postures, as if time had stopped or there was a large-scale "Heartless Disease" infection.

He suspected that if Xiao Chong wanted to, he could really bring about another "Heartless Disease" outbreak.

From the perspective of saving all of humanity, Xiao Chong should indeed be supervised.

Of course, based on the fact that Xiao Chong hadn't done any damage yet, it was necessary to make that supervision more humane and more humanitarian. Anyway, Xiao Chong's needs were very low: a room, electricity and water, games, and food. Without disturbing him, taking care of his "pet" would be enough.

"Are we still going to counterattack that Awakened from the 'Mind Corridor' level?" Bai Chen withdrew her gaze from the side alley and asked quickly.

She believed that whether they counterattacked or not, they shouldn't stay here for long!

"Without Xiao Chong following us, I don't think it's necessary..." Long Yuehong immediately stated his idea.

Not necessary meant that it was too dangerous, with not much certainty.

Although the "Old Task Force" had once dealt with Dimarco, an Awakened from the "Mind Corridor" level, and although, according to Xiao Chong, the "freeze" effect on him would remain for a period of time, it would only become weaker and weaker, this was a different time and a different situation. Based on the strength the other party had shown, Long Yuehong didn't think that he and the others could launch a counterattack and take down the opponent very smoothly.

Just the "forced sleep" alone was something the "Old Task Force" couldn't resist, because as time passed, the urge to urinate would definitely become more and more serious, and might break through the "bottom line" of adults' brains, re-enacting the state of wetting their pants as children but being unable to wake up.

Jiang Baimian interrupted Long Yuehong's words:

"Don't talk about necessary or unnecessary yet, we don't even know where the target is!"

These words were spoken for Shang Jianyao's benefit, to prevent him from being stubborn.

When packing his schoolbag earlier, Xiao Chong had said that he didn't know where the Awakened from the "Mind Corridor" level was hiding. He had only applied an indiscriminate, wide-ranging influence to exclude the members of the "Old Task Force," successfully preventing the other party's subsequent attacks.

If Xiao Chong was following them, he would sense the surrounding area and see who recovered from the "freeze" state first.

That was most likely the target.

Now, without Xiao Chong, the target was likely outside the range of Shang Jianyao and Jiang Baimian's senses.

Shang Jianyao responded quickly to Jiang Baimian's words:

"We can ask them."

He pointed to the distance with the hand that wasn't holding Giuseppe.

There were the ordinary attackers responsible for providing fire coverage.

Then, Shang Jianyao raised his left wrist:

"I can still use it to sense."

Jiang Baimian's thoughts raced, and she said decisively:

"No matter what, let's drive the car over there first!

"If we can find out where the target is hiding, and if we have a chance, we'll try it, to avoid being harmed by failing to kill the snake. If not, we'll quickly transfer to the Green Olive District and get out of the target's control range."

As she spoke, she ran toward the overturned sapphire blue jeep on the roadside.

Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong used only two leaps to get ahead of Jiang Baimian and land next to the jeep.

They put down Giuseppe and Bai Chen respectively, relying on their military exoskeleton devices, and cooperated with Jiang Baimian to forcefully flip the jeep, which had been fitted with thick steel plates, back over.

Without the need for any more verbal communication, the group got into the car one after another.

Bai Chen stepped on the gas pedal, and the jeep, weaving between the "frozen" pedestrians, raced toward the attackers in the distance.

In such a scene, it wasn't really suitable to drive, because it was likely to cause a traffic jam—the drivers would also be "frozen," causing the vehicles to stop one after another.

But fortunately, the previous two explosions had successfully prompted many vehicles to urgently leave this area. As a result, the "Old Task Force"'s sapphire blue jeep sped along a relatively empty road to the side of the attackers.

--Bai Chen didn't dare to speed up, fearing that she would suddenly fall asleep and have a serious car accident.

At this time, the attackers, some carrying rocket launchers, some wielding sniper rifles, were surrounding a silver-white multi-purpose vehicle. Some were kneeling, some were standing, and some were lying prone, all motionless.

Shang Jianyao lowered the car window and shouted loudly:

"Where is the one behind you?"

The attackers remained motionless, and no one answered.

"Where is the one behind you?" Shang Jianyao asked again.

Finally, one of the attackers moved his neck and turned his head slightly.

He opened his mouth slightly and whispered in extreme fear:

"Don't mess around."

So they aren't "frozen," but have accepted some order and are single-mindedly carrying it out... Seeing this scene, Jiang Baimian knew that it would be impossible to get anything out of these people in the short term.

Even if Shang Jianyao used "Reasoning Clown" and "Sentimental Me," the priority under that order shouldn't be high enough.

Without hesitation, Jiang Baimian immediately said:

"Go to the Green Olive District."

Bai Chen turned the steering wheel, allowing the vehicle to turn into another street.

During this process, she lowered the car window, pulled out "Icemoss" with one hand, and pulled the trigger on the attackers who were gradually exposed to her sight.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Blood flowers appeared on the bodies of the "frozen" attackers one after another, and they quietly "walked" toward death.

Bai Chen never had any womanly compassion in this regard.

She believed that without these subordinates who could cause harm in the real world, the Awakened from the "Mind Corridor" level would have fewer tricks to play and would cause less harm.

What Jiang Baimian was most worried about now was that the Awakened from the "Mind Corridor" level would abandon group control, create opportunities, and influence the members of the "Old Task Force" one by one, causing them to die in the "Real Dream" without the help of "Reasoning Clown."

Therefore, getting out of the other party's range of influence as soon as possible was the best policy.

"Pay attention to each other, don't let the other person fall asleep!" Jiang Baimian instructed her team members and "Garibaldi" while observing the surrounding situation.

…………

North Shore Wastelands, within that small town ruin.

Genava, Han Wanghuo, and Zeng Duo thought for a long time but couldn't figure out how to find out the situation of Jiang Baimian and the others and how to provide help when they were so far apart.

"I plan to return to First City to investigate what exactly happened." Finally, Genava made a decision. "You can stay here and continue to mislead First City."

Han Wanghuo was silent for a moment and said:

"I'll go with you."

After speaking, he turned his head and looked at Zeng Duo:

"I'm sorry."

"I'm going too." Zeng Duo smiled self-deprecatingly. "Without their help, I wouldn't be able to save everyone in the town at all."

Genava was an intelligent robot, so he naturally wouldn't pretend to be polite at this time:

"Okay, together."

…………

Red Wolf District, 19 Rosta Street, "Order Hand" headquarters.

Wall and the others, who had been summoned due to the sudden tense situation, heard the sound of explosions in the distance.

"Could it really have started?" They looked at each other, and a security officer entered the room and reported the situation:

"A gunfight broke out in the area near Sicaro Temple. Both sides used rocket launchers and grenade launchers...

"Witnesses at the scene heard nursery rhyme-like singing, and then all of them were too preoccupied with needing to urinate and didn't notice the subsequent developments..."

This... The descriptions of nursery rhymes and the urge to urinate made Wall immediately think of certain details in a certain case.

He straightened up in shock and anger and blurted out:

"That team is back again?"

How dare they?