Perhaps the poison hadn't had the desired effect, because no players came to test them for the rest of the day. Instead, the painted woman went out and picked a fight with the players who had been monitoring them.
The people sent to tail them weren't top players. They were mainly skilled at tracking and concealment. The painted woman found them and gave them a beating, but they still refused to leave—truly dedicated to their work.
The painted woman had eaten the poisonous things without reacting, but normal people couldn't. So when she tried to stuff the little trinkets into the monitors' mouths, Xu Huo stepped in just in time to stop her.
The painted woman already knew there was poison in her wares. She just hadn't found the person who sold them, so she'd come after these people instead. And she was quite insistent. "I can eat them, so they can too."
Xu Huo couldn't let her make enemies of everyone. "Wait until we've been through the Ruins."
Unable to feed them the poisonous things, the painted woman grabbed a handful of dirt and stuffed it into someone's mouth. She even threatened, "If you poison me again, I'll throw poisonous mushrooms into your water supply next time."
Xu Huo hauled the player upright, and the one who'd been pinned down hurriedly ran off. The other players nearby who'd been monitoring them also withdrew without a trace.
"There don't seem to be many players around anymore." The painted woman looked around.
It wasn't that there were no players around, just that there weren't many left. Not only the more perceptive players, but also ordinary people living and working nearby had gradually moved away. They had probably received a notice from the government. When Xu Huo had come out earlier, even