At the same time, people outside the game world saw everything clearly. All the examiners investigating the virus couldn't help but be drawn to the battle between the two. Even Valen suddenly stood up from his chair, eyes wide as he stared at the screen. "How can these two be this strong? Their in-game body data is exactly the same, but the results of their attacks don't look like normal player stats at all. Their attributes are almost overflowing, aren't they?" The examiners exclaimed in shock, staring at the incredible fight so hard that they almost forgot about tracking the virus. Just then, Roxen walked in. He had been moving quickly, but when he saw the screen, he slowed down and stopped beside Valen, his eyes fixed on the battle the entire time. On another side of the game world."Luke, what are you doing?" Shirley looked at Luke with confusion. His eyes were closed, and his hands hovered in the air, tapping nonstop like he was playing the piano. He looked very strange. "Shh!" Luke signaled for silence. All of them were ranked steadily within the top 20. Tristan and Ryan had even pushed into the top ten. So, they found a safe place to rest and planned to look for Thora after recovering. "Oh, how did I forget this?" Luke suddenly slapped his forehead and spoke excitedly. "What is it?" Tristan and Ryan asked at the same time. Luke was usually quiet, so seeing him this excited instantly caught everyone's attention. Luke rubbed his chin and said plainly, "Every program has logs. They record everything that happens inside, like backups. Since the virus invaded the game, it must have left logs behind. If we find those logs, we can locate where the virus is hiding."He frowned deeply after a pause. "But the problem is, no one knows where the logs are stored." The technical terms left the other three completely lost. "I don't really get it, but it sounds super impressive," Shirley said seriously and nodded. "Yeah." Tristan and Ryan quickly agreed. In their minds, this was the clear difference between tech experts and normal people. Luke sighed helplessly. "Forget it. Let's keep doing our missions. Without finding the log location, we can't track the virus anyway." Just as they were about to move, a layer of black fog suddenly spread from the edge of the city and slowly rolled toward the city center. The fog was not moving very fast, but any NPC it touched dropped dead on the spot. When they woke again, they had already turned into Infected monsters.The four of them changed expressions instantly. "What's going on?" "No idea. There's no system notice at all!" As the poisonous fog continued to spread, players who sensed something wrong rushed toward the city center. Thora and Lance, who were in the middle of their duel, both stopped at the same time. They were on the outer edge of the city center, and the fog had already swept in from the borders of Rovelle City. "This is ..." Lance frowned deeply, his face turning serious. At that moment, Thora suddenly attacked. She leaped up and delivered a flying kick straight at Lance's head. Lance was distracted for just a moment. The force of the kick sent him flying backward. He flew several yards before flipping in midair and landing steadily.He stared at Thora with cold eyes, wiped the shoe mark off his face with one hand, and then laughed instead of getting angry. "Ash, you really keep surprising people." Thora replied calmly, "To win, I'm willing to try anything." The fog was already spreading toward them, so the fight had to stop for now. Lance clearly sensed how abnormal the fog was. He let out a cold laugh and clicked surrender. In Duel Mode, the only choices were death or surrender, and this time he chose the latter. The two of them exited Duel Mode instantly. The fog was now only about 30 feet away. Thora stared at him. "Now you should tell me the answer." Lance stood up, brushed off the dust, and looked at her. "If I say it wasn't me, would you believe me?" The fog was getting closer, now only a few yards away.Thora answered without hesitation, "I believe you." That instant reply made Lance's heart stir slightly. Before he could react, Thora had already transformed into a wolf. Her white wolf body was sleek and powerful as she turned and sprinted toward the city center. Lance froze for a second. Seeing the fog almost swallow him, he immediately transformed into a wolf as well and chased after her, quickly catching up. This fog was extremely abnormal. The game's background mentioned it briefly, but only in passing. In the settings, the fog was supposed to stay outside the city and never spread inside. Clearly, the virus had altered the program and allowed the fog to move inward. Lance realized this too. The two exchanged a glance and sped up together, charging toward the city center."What's going on?" Valen finally pulled his gaze away from the duel. All player screens showed abnormalities. Everyone was desperately fleeing toward the inner city. The fog was spreading fast. Any NPC it touched turned into Infected instantly, while players died on the spot. The sight shocked everyone. A technician in charge of maintenance jumped to his feet. "This fog system is part of the virus! The original game had fog, but it was never supposed to spread here!" His voice was filled with panic and fear. "If the fog keeps spreading inward, all the candidates will die!"