Chapter 1113: Induced Confession
The ground, which looked as hard as stone, rapidly melted under the effect of the prop, like wax being lit from below, falling away piece by piece, quickly extending to Xu Huo's feet.
As the ground sank, he also fell with it. At the same time, the surrounding soil quickly retracted, wrapping around him from the neck down—trapping him solidly!
Then another buzz-cut player used a hovering prop to lift him up and stopped the one who had acted first. "Chang Sheng, the person has to be handed over to Mr. Kang for disposal!"
The player named Chang Sheng seemed furious, swinging his blade to cut off one of Xu Huo's ears, but the other two joined forces to hold him back. The buzz-cut player said, "We haven't even figured out what happened. How are you going to explain to Mr. Kang if you kill him?"
"Then we can't let him off easy. Eleven of us went out this time, and not one came back!" Chang Sheng roared angrily.
The buzz-cut player and the other both frowned, pushing him away together. The former said, "We still have to wait for Mr. Kang's orders. That's the rule Mr. Kang set. Are you going to break it?"
Mentioning the rules calmed Chang Sheng down a bit. He shot a vicious glare at Xu Huo before saying, "Fine! Let's go see Mr. Kang first! Then I'll ask Mr. Kang to hand him over to me for handling... We'll see how I deal with you then!"
The last sentence was directed at Xu Huo.
Trapped in the mud, Xu Huo said nothing, offering no resistance at all as he waited for them to deliver him to Mr. Kang.
Meanwhile, Mr. Kang seemed to have already learned about what happened at the entrance and sent two players over.
Seeing that Xu Huo had already been captured, the two didn't say much and prepared to take him away. Of the three guards at the door, only Chang Sheng insisted on following.
In the end, the three of them took Xu Huo back to the commercial building. As they passed through the streets, the people who had been lazily hiding in their houses came out one by one. Just like the day Xu Huo and his group had arrived, they looked at him with hungry, fervent eyes, swallowing their saliva more frequently.
"...I wonder if we can get a taste..." voices like this came from the crowd. Xu Huo looked back, seeing the same numbness in every pair of eyes.
Xu Huo was quickly brought into the building. In the first-floor lobby, Uncle Guan and the others were there. It looked like they were having a banquet. Three long tables in the center of the hall were piled high with all kinds of meat. The strong smell of spices stimulated people's appetites, but Uncle Guan and the nine ordinary people from District 002 all had grim expressions on their faces—that's right, including the biting girl, Tan Qi, and the infant, only nine people from District 002 remained. Of these nine, only two were adult males.
At this point, no one from District 002 was as relaxed as they had been on the day they arrived. Faced with the table full of food, they repeatedly swallowed their saliva, but their faces showed disgust and nausea.
Uncle Guan and the others had new wounds on them. Ruan Qiyan, in particular, had splints on both legs and was now sitting in a wheelchair alongside Chi Minghong.
Tan Qi and the biting girl stood among them, while the infant Xu Huo had brought out was being held by Lin Qiao.
People surrounded them, and several even stared openly at the child in Lin Qiao's arms.
After Xu Huo entered, few of the Xiaohe City players bothered to pay him any attention. Their gazes lingered more on the ordinary people. The women from District 002 were almost huddled together, trembling, but to the Xiaohe City players, they were lambs waiting to be slaughtered.
Of course, Xu Huo, who had been sealed and brought in, was in the same situation.
"Old Xu!" Chi Minghong looked at him in shock.
Xu Huo nodded slightly at her, then looked up at Mr. Kang, who was seated at the head of the table. This white-haired old man was sniffing the fragrance in his wine glass, but what was inside was no longer wine—it was a liquid suspected to be blood, with a fishy smell.
Of course, the food on the table was visibly abnormal too. It was easy to tell that the ingredients used in the dishes were different from alien species. In the center of the table, something was being slow-roasted, giving off a faint burnt smell and the sizzling sound of oil splattering.
The hall was very quiet, except for the increasingly rapid breathing of the people from District 002.
After a few seconds, Mr. Kang put down his wine glass and lifted his eyelids to look at Xu Huo. "Did you kill Jiang Wenzhang and the others?"
"That has nothing to do with me," Xu Huo said. "They insisted on going into the stone forest to catch alien species cubs. That place is full of alien species. What's so strange about an accident? I was just lucky enough to escape."
How could Mr. Kang believe him? He looked at Xu Huo with an indescribable expression, as if he both couldn't believe Xu Huo could kill Jiang Wenzhang and his men, and also found it equally unbelievable that he dared to come back.
Xu Huo still had that indifferent look, adding with a hint of forced calmness, "I came back to report the news out of the goodness of my heart. If you send people out now, you might still be able to save a few."
Mr. Kang nodded to another tall player beside him. The latter walked up to Xu Huo and waved his right hand in front of Xu Huo's face.
Uncontrollably, Xu Huo closed his eyes. In an instant, he seemed to sink into chaos, only hearing a distant voice ask, "Are Jiang Wenzhang and the others dead?"
"Not all of them..." Xu Huo answered subconsciously.
"Where are they?" the other asked again.
Xu Huo's eyelids twitched, and he answered blankly, "Stone forest... Wang Mo used a bomb... everyone was buried..."
The tall man turned back and nodded to Mr. Kang, then continued, "Did you escape alone? Where is the little girl surnamed Zhou?"
"Yes... she was killed by Yuan Kai..."
...
Then, as if to corroborate his answers, the tall player asked many more detailed questions. These questions also induced him to sink deeper into his own consciousness. During this time, Ruan Qiyan got a bit agitated when he heard about Zhou Yuanzhu, but he was quickly subdued.
After ten minutes, Xu Huo instinctively didn't want to speak anymore. He obeyed this instinct and stood there silently.
Ruan Qiyan's mouth was sealed by a prop, unable to speak. Uncle Guan and Lin Qiao could only watch. In just one day and night, the Xiaohe City players had gradually stopped hiding in front of them, even actively provoking them. After a conflict, they had directly crippled Ruan Qiyan!
Their attitude was becoming more and more blatant, as if they were just waiting for Mr. Kang's order to rush over and devour them all—tonight's banquet looked like the last supper. The missing people from District 002 were now portioned out on the table... Under these circumstances, they had almost no chance of turning things around, so they had no time to dwell on Zhou Yuanzhu's death.
"I told you, there's no way he could have outsmarted Jiang Wenzhang on his own," Qian Zi said after a while. "Cao Zheng and the others are buried under the stone forest. They might not be dead yet. How about I take a few people to rescue them?"
(End of Chapter)