Chapter 71: Your Face Is Black
"The poison has been neutralized. Now will you let me go?" Cao Yan glared at Xu Huo with bloodshot eyes.
After confirming that Huang Junjie's condition had improved, Xu Huo turned around. "Information about the Holy Sword Society."
"Can you at least put me down first?"
Xu Huo looked at her silently.
Cao Yan was secretly furious but didn't show it on her face. She said, "I only joined the Holy Sword Society recently. Don't expect me to reveal any important secrets."
"Start talking first."
"The Holy Sword Society has sixteen players in Ting City, most of them cannibal players. The leader is a man called Eagle. He recruited all the players in the Holy Sword Society and gave them their items."
"Is he an advanced player?" Xu Huo asked.
"I don't know about that. I've never seen him fight. Everyone else listens to him because he has backing. We're just a branch; there must be bigger figures above. Otherwise, where would he get so many items?" Cao Yan said with a hint of sarcasm. "Maybe someone is grooming him from behind."
"What channel did he use to find these players?" If this were before, Xu Huo might have suspected the organization had the backing of a national power, but now his first suspicion was that this Eagle had players from other worlds behind him.
"Posting online." Cao Yan curled her lips. "Hard to believe, right? He just posted saying he had game items for sale and welcomed players to buy. So many people actually believed it."
"It's not that they believed it," Xu Huo interrupted her pretentious tone. "They wanted to steal the items, just like the bait post that hooked Zhou Xiao."
"Besides the cannibal players, how many ordinary players are among you?"
"Just a few." Cao Yan said, "Some ordinary players have pockets cleaner than their faces. Even if they came looking, they'd just be walking to their deaths. At least six ordinary players were eaten by them. Zhou Xiao was supposed to die too, but I said the Holy Sword Society should cultivate some ordinary players—they have great future potential and are much more useful than cannibal players who are all brawn and no brains. That's how he survived."
"At least you have a bit of cleverness." Xu Huo nodded slightly. "But your brain isn't too sharp."
Cao Yan was about to retort when she heard him say, "You became a cannibal player on the preliminary train, didn't you? The venom is your trait."
Cao Yan immediately fell silent, clamping her mouth shut, regret and hatred churning in her eyes.
"She wasn't originally a cannibal player?" Huang Junjie was more shocked than anyone. "Then why did she start eating people? Anyone who's eaten the food provided by the train wouldn't want to eat people anymore."
And she clearly didn't seem short of money.
"That's why I said her brain isn't sharp." Xu Huo said flatly. "Maybe she was tricked, or maybe she discovered that cannibal players are stronger and wanted to take a gamble to survive."
Whether he guessed correctly or not, Cao Yan said expressionlessly, "I'm very strong now too. In terms of physical ability, ordinary players can't compare to cannibal players. Once you enter the game, you'll see that the ones who survive the most are still cannibal players."
Xu Huo let out a laugh.
"What's so funny!" Cao Yan grew agitated. "Don't think I haven't noticed—you're a cannibal player too. A normal player should be like the guy behind you!"
Xu Huo looked at her with pity. "Then why did you spare Zhou Xiao?"
Cao Yan's voice cut off abruptly, her eyes nearly bleeding with hatred. "Don't get cocky!"
Unfazed by her hostility, Xu Huo rubbed his chin and said, "After you got off the preliminary train, did you ever try fasting?"
Cao Yan looked at him suspiciously.
"I want to see if someone like you can still be saved."
Cao Yan swallowed. "I tried, but I couldn't last more than three days."
"When you catch ordinary players, your first choice is to eat them. Are players more nutritious for you than ordinary people?"
"Yes." Cao Yan hesitated as if she wanted to say more.
"Have you tried other types of meat?"
"Neither red meat nor white meat works."
"What about xenomorphs?" Xu Huo said. "On the preliminary train, there's a kind of monster mutated from cannibal players. They've eaten people, have stronger physical abilities than players, and still retain human features. Logically speaking, they're still human, just without reason or the ability to think."
Cao Yan was stunned. She had only heard rumors about the monsters on the preliminary train, since most who witnessed them firsthand were dead.
If what Xu Huo said was true, this kind of xenomorph had evolved even beyond ordinary players, and would certainly be more beneficial for their evolution than regular players. It was just eating meat—who cared if it had consciousness or not? And if it could replace living humans, she wouldn't have to suffer the torment of her conscience anymore!
Seeing the glimmer of hope in her eyes, Xu Huo continued, "I speculate that cannibal players replenish the energy needed for evolution through eating. Eating people might be even more effective than potions. Since ordinary players are superior to normal humans, what cannibal players probably need are certain genetic elements produced by the bodies of evolvers after evolution. Mutated humans and mutated animals in the game world should all possess these elements."
He smiled as he spoke, and with a flick of his fingers, the strings that had bound Cao Yan flew back into his hand before disappearing.
"It seems heaven hasn't completely blocked the path for cannibal players."
Cao Yan knelt on one knee, looking at Xu Huo with a complex expression. "You're not a cannibal player."
Xu Huo didn't speak but instead handed her his clothes.
The oversized short-sleeved shirt was just enough to cover her vital areas. Cao Yan slowly stood up, kicked off her high heels, and lightly leaped onto the balcony. She paused for a moment before turning back to say, "Eagle is on the third floor of Guangde Mall. He has a trait that allows him to turn invisible."
Having said her piece, Cao Yan brushed her singed hair aside, pulled the clothes around her, and slowly revealed a smile. "Whether what you said is true or not, I'll come back to find you."
The lighter's flame flickered. Xu Huo stared at her for two seconds before saying, "Your face is black."
Cao Yan's face fell, and she flipped herself up to the third floor.
"She's gone." Liu Jia's voice came through the earpiece.
Huang Junjie's face was covered in a layer of white frost. He walked over to Xu Huo. "If I remember correctly, xenomorphs carry an unknown toxin. Are you not afraid she'll come back for revenge if you trick her like that?"
"It's just a possibility—fifty-fifty success or failure. What does it have to do with me?" Xu Huo paused briefly, then added, "She carries toxins herself. Maybe there will be unexpected gains."
"Impressive." Huang Junjie genuinely admired him. Whether his reasoning held up or not, at least one cannibal player had been fooled into leaving.
And to be honest, among the cannibal players he'd seen, aside from the most vicious ones, the rest were teetering on the edge of madness—physically craving, mentally resisting. They would eventually go insane.
He could clearly sense that the woman's state had improved significantly when she left. At least in the short term, she would be freed from her madness.
"Next," Xu Huo pressed his earpiece, "Liu Jia, where did the player from the second floor go?"