Chapter 1118: City Collapse
After the female player left, Xu Huo set a fire in Xiaohe City. After confirming the flames and smoke had risen into the air, he returned to the underground parking lot, took out the "Life Core," and placed his hand on the filter machine.
The "Life Core" could destroy up to one-third of a city's total metal volume. For a city with buildings of varying heights and wide avenues, this was enough to drain all the metal from the entire city.
In the past, he had used the "Life Core" only within a small range. If a city collapsed, it could affect tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people. But in Xiaohe City, there was clearly no such concern—death was the best outcome for everyone here.
The metal filter did not immediately turn to powder under the "Life Core." As a medium, it had already connected through the underground water pipes to the city's vast metal network. From underground pipes to cables, to the metal structures in buildings, to the wiring in houses... a massive web rapidly grew from underground, gradually spreading to the city's limits, and then began to retract from the edges—"Boom!"
Before the players guarding the gate could even turn back to check on the burning commercial building, the metal-cast city wall crumbled into a pile of powder before their eyes. Black ash swept across the city like a sandstorm, blowing from the edges toward the center. The powder particles seemed to carry an strange weight. Wherever they covered, the long-neglected houses collapsed one after another. Sinkholes and depressions appeared frequently in buildings and on main roads. If there were tall buildings on either side, the metal specially used for reinforcing their outer walls quickly turned to dust and merged into the torrent, covering most of the city in an instant.
Witnessing the collapse of the entire city, the few players rushing back gradually slowed down. However, the metal powdering was too fast. In just a moment's pause, from where they stood to the commercial building—even the commercial building itself had collapsed. This city was visibly turning into ruins!
Fear and urgency gradually gave way to bewilderment in the face of this irresistible catastrophe. These people looked at each other:
Without Xiaohe City, where would they go?
Of course, the most worried were not them, but the Xiaohe City players inside the commercial building. Most of them were under Xu Huo's mental interference and failed to leave in time when the building collapsed. Two died, a dozen were injured. Before they could react to what had happened, the scene before them had already changed.
"Xiaohe City... collapsed?" Gong Jiaji and the others stared at the bare wilderness in the distance, instantly realizing what they would face next.
Such a huge commotion would definitely attract mutants. And Zheng Da's group had failed to control the mutant offspring. The unconstrained mutants would soon gather and surge in!
"What the hell is going on?" someone asked.
No one answered, but the next second, Xu Huo flew out from the rubble—he had been knocked out by Mr. Kang.
The two emerged one after another. Seeing the scene before him, Mr. Kang was truly enraged. His expression vicious as he looked at Xu Huo, "Did you do this?!"
Xu Huo's left shoulder had been accidentally sliced off a piece of skin, and blood was flowing profusely. He injected a dose of self-healing agent into his arm before saying, "Can your prop still be used now?"
"Killing you is as easy as turning over my hand!" Mr. Kang's figure seemed to connect across two collapsed piles. When he noticed Xu Huo had activated another defense item, he sneered, "Let's see how long your items can last!"
He raised five fingers, intending to pierce the space barrier again as he had before. But this time, Xu Huo did not let him succeed. Instead, he used spatial evolution to rapidly change positions and create distance.
With two more "bang bang" sounds, Xu Huo saw Uncle Guan, Lin Qiao, and two other B-rank players coming up. He shouted loudly, "We can't stay here long! Find a way to leave!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he turned and fled away from the commercial building without looking back.
With the place they relied on for survival destroyed, Mr. Kang naturally wouldn't let him leave easily. Besides him, more than a dozen players also followed, trying various ways to intercept him.
Although the metal structures inside the city's buildings had been powdered, some buildings still stood without external force. Xu Huo used his mental power and spatial evolution to dart swiftly between buildings, moving as if through an empty space. Those chasing behind, limited by their field of vision, often fell a step behind, giving Xu Huo a chance to escape.
While dodging Mr. Kang's attacks perilously, he said, "After leaving the commercial building, space items seem to work normally again. Your item's restriction ability is weakening."
Even if Mr. Kang were slower to react, he could tell that Xu Huo had undergone super evolution in spatial abilities. So he attacked faster and more urgently, only slowing down after demolishing his way from near the city center to the city's edge.
Xu Huo had nearly died at his hands several times. "Cat's Triple Life Loan" and "Lifelike Wax Figure" had already been used. "Mobile Metal" was completely destroyed. "Three Hundred Sixty Defenses" was exhausted. Not to mention the close-combat items—even the few B-rank items he had just obtained were all used. Additionally, "Holder's Demise" had been used more than once, but just like before, it hadn't yielded good results. Only when they reached the edge of Xiaohe City did he finally succeed in shooting Mr. Kang in the thigh!
Seeing this, he breathed a slight sigh of relief and said to the slowing Mr. Kang, "I really thought your item could be used indefinitely."
Mr. Kang looked at the dark mass of mutant beasts rushing over at the edge of his vision. Only after withdrawing his gaze did he look at Xu Huo, "The mutant beast horde will take at least ten minutes to get here. That's enough time."
"Not necessarily," Xu Huo pointed to the watch on his wrist. "It's been less than five minutes since you came out of the building. From being unable to restrict other space items at first, now your reaction to close-combat items has also become sluggish. At this rate, in less than five minutes, your item won't be able to provide you with speed anymore."
Mr. Kang's face darkened, "You are a spatial evolver, and so am I. Don't think having one extra evolution makes any difference!"
"Don't drag the topic to mental evolution," Xu Huo said. "If you were truly a spatial super evolver, you wouldn't have been unable to even find me in the commercial building."
"I can sense a range of two hundred meters. Can you even reach that range?"
Mr. Kang's chest heaved rapidly for a moment, but he quickly calmed down. He looked at Xu Huo contemptuously, "So what? Even if I have to bleed out, I can slowly drain you to death!"
"Fine," Xu Huo smiled. "Then let's see who ends up dead... Holder's Demise!"
The previous few times he had used "Holder's Demise," he had deliberately called out the name. So when he said those words, Mr. Kang instinctively paused to defend. However, the anticipated attack never came. When he looked up again, he found that the spot where Xu Huo had been standing was completely empty!
"Very well!" Mr. Kang ground his teeth.
(Chapter End)