Chapter 1031: Can't Win Is Can't Win
"You all do as you please." Xu Huo closed his book, no longer rushing to leave as before, though not entirely because of his injuries.
Without his support, Liang Zong and Ding Xiang were quite disappointed, but even with them and Chi Minghong, they couldn't gain an advantage against the local zone player, the injured lip ring player, and Zhou Yuanzhu. The spotty-faced player couldn't even move easily, so he could be disregarded for now.
"Three of us against three of you—we might not necessarily lose," Ding Xiang said. "There's no reason for you to take all the benefits. Since you're not showing sincerity, we might as well both suffer losses!"
"Both suffer losses?" The lip ring player sneered coldly. "With just the two of you?"
Liang Zong and Ding Xiang paused, turning back to see that Chi Minghong had somehow already stepped away from them and was now watching them alongside the lip ring player's group.
"Sorry," Chi Minghong said with a smile. "I want to go upstairs too."
Four against two—Liang Zong and Ding Xiang had very little chance of winning.
Since they couldn't block them, they could only rely on luck. Almost simultaneously, except for the bound Teacher Fan and the immobile spotty-faced player, everyone else rushed upstairs at top speed.
Before long, the spotty-faced player also left, leaving only Xu Huo and Teacher Fan in the first-floor hall.
Teacher Fan persistently tried to remove the prop binding him, working secretly all the while. Xu Huo pretended not to notice, reading his book as if nothing was happening, until he finally succeeded in freeing himself from the prop rope.
"Do you have enemies in Zone 002?" Teacher Fan initiated a conversation with him. "Someone chased you into the instance, so there must be people waiting outside, right?"
Otherwise, he wouldn't have suddenly changed his mind and stopped urging the other players to clear the instance.
Xu Huo switched to another book and wiped his mouth with a handkerchief. "I suggest you talk less."
Teacher Fan laughed. "They all think you're a B-rank player too, but I don't think so. How exactly did you kill that glasses-wearing man?"
"Curious?" Xu Huo looked up at him. "Want to try?"
Teacher Fan couldn't gauge his attitude and probed, "It probably wasn't easy, right? Otherwise, you wouldn't be so badly injured."
"I am quite injured, but dealing with you would still be simple." Xu Huo picked up another book.
Teacher Fan carefully watched his movements, his gaze scrutinizing, as if assessing how severe his injuries really were. But even when someone came down, he didn't make a move.
The first to come down was Chi Minghong. She smiled and said, "I got lucky. Found one as soon as I went up. Not going to crowd with the others anymore."
"What number?" Xu Huo asked.
"Number one." Chi Minghong answered while walking toward the pile of books, but she stopped after just two steps and suddenly lunged toward Teacher Fan across from her!
Teacher Fan, already free, tore off the rope that was still pretending to bind him, raised a large hammer, and met her red sword!
"Boom!" The two props collided with a harsh sound. After a moment of stalemate, both sides retreated and simultaneously threw props at each other.
Chi Minghong threw an attack prop, while Teacher Fan used a restriction prop, but neither had much effect due to the other's defense prop, and they ended up damaging quite a few books in the hall!
"What are you doing!" Liang Zong rushed down and used a distance defense prop to move the two fighters apart. Unfortunately, Xu Huo was sitting nearby, and when the prop activated, he was also shifted to the edge of the hall along with them.
Liang Zong was stunned for a moment, and like the other players who followed him down, his expression carried a hint of disbelief, though he quickly concealed it.
Fighting a B-rank player was no easy task. Xu Huo was so severely injured that he had probably lost a lot of props too, otherwise, he wouldn't have failed to dodge such a simple prop effect.
"I suggest you all be smart," the lip ring player sneered. "Do you really think someone who can kill a B-rank player would end up being killed by an ordinary C-rank player?"
"One or two might not be a match, but with this many of us..." The spotty-faced player's breathing grew rapid.
"I'm not getting involved." The local zone player automatically stepped back.
The spotty-faced player gave him a contemptuous look, then turned his gaze to the others. Aside from the local zone player, the lip ring player, and Chi Minghong who was on Xu Huo's side, everyone else was tempted.
The first to act was Teacher Fan. His fight with Chi Minghong had been a diversion all along, but he hadn't had the chance to test Xu Huo's depth before Liang Zong beat him to it. Now the situation was clear!
"It's mine!" He closed in on Xu Huo at top speed, unable to suppress his laughter. But the laughter lasted less than a second before it abruptly stopped. Then, all seven pairs of eyes saw his head slide off his neck—it really slid off, severed cleanly by a thin thread as smoothly as a hot knife cutting through butter!
A large amount of blood splattered out, but not a single drop landed on Xu Huo, who was barely a meter away. A circular protective shield surrounded his body, and the falling blood flowed along the shield to the ground.
"Thud!" Teacher Fan's body collapsed to the floor. Xu Huo flicked his finger, shaking off a few drops of blood from the thread, then sat back down on the sofa and said to the pale-faced group, "You can continue clearing the instance now."
Not only those who had tried to take advantage, but even the local zone player and the lip ring player, who had initially planned to stay out of it, were intimidated. If they hadn't misjudged, Xu Huo hadn't moved at all just now—the prop thread had been set up in advance. Not to mention when he had arranged it, why hadn't any of them seen it before Teacher Fan ran into it?
With a player's eyesight, spotting a thread as thin as a hair shouldn't have been difficult, but it didn't seem like the prop was hidden either. If it had been concealed, they shouldn't have been able to see the thread after the kill. It felt more like an inconspicuous object placed in a corner—something that, if not paid attention to, seemed to blend into the surrounding scenery. No one had noticed it, and only upon reflection did they realize: there really was something there.
This didn't feel like the completely traceless effect of a prop.
Still, no one dwelled on it for long, because can't win is can't win.
"Have you all found your slips?" Chi Minghong said cheerfully, turning the page on this matter.
"Now each of us has one slip," Zhou Yuanzhu said. "But the numbers don't match."
Number 1, the local zone player, had Chi Minghong's number 5. Number 2, the lip ring player, had the dead Teacher Fan's number 8. Number 4, the spotty-faced player, had the glasses-wearing man's number 14. Number 5, Chi Minghong, had Liang Zong's number 9. Number 9, Liang Zong, had Zhou Yuanzhu's number 12. Number 11, Ding Xiang, had the muscular man's number 7. Number 12, Zhou Yuanzhu, had number 1.
Excluding the dead numbers 7, 8, and 14, the numbers held by the local zone player, Chi Minghong, Liang Zong, and Zhou Yuanzhu were usable, and these four could exchange with each other to clear the instance.
(End of Chapter)