Chapter 1121: Claimed Item
Xu Huo didn't rush to deal with the sneak attackers, because the belated mutant horde had already charged into Xiaohe City. They rampaged through the city, causing the buildings whose internal metal had already been powdered and could barely maintain their original shape to collapse entirely—although he and Mr. Kang had already demolished quite a few earlier, this trampling visibly leveled the entire city.
Players caught in the middle naturally had to prioritize self-preservation first.
The "Cube Space" itself couldn't prevent buildings from collapsing, but under his control, it could form a temporary space barrier, making it easy to block falling debris. Additionally, this space inherently contained multiple rays of varying densities. These rays didn't require manual control and could automatically form a passageway—the reason Mr. Kang had been unstoppable in Xiaohe City was likely because he used these ready-made space channels. Of course, besides allowing passage, the rays were also easier to manipulate. At Xu Huo's current evolution level, he could already control a point to influence a surface, changing the density of an entire channel in an extremely short time, essentially making it passable even for non-holders.
He first experimented on the two black wolves. Within this spatial area, he remotely manipulated the rays, altering the nature of an entire same-density ray channel to form a tunnel-type space barrier. The two black wolves, charging in blindly, could only run forward along the channel's trajectory. Although no overlapping shadows formed behind them, their speed did increase.
Unfortunately, this kind of channel couldn't last long, and Xu Huo's control ability was limited. Although the black wolves couldn't break through the channel, a super-large mutant beast that suddenly charged from the side smashed straight through it.
However, this effect already exceeded Xu Huo's expectations. Being able to trap one mutant beast meant he could briefly trap some players, or hold ordinary people for longer periods. Both long-range attack and defense were achievable—he only needed to cut off the channel midway. Mr. Kang clearly hadn't developed this ability.
Another thing Xu Huo found interesting was that this Cube Space could quickly adapt to spatial items. All his spatial items, regardless of their level, when placed inside, formed a peculiar force field, becoming part of this chaotic space like rays of different densities, without interfering with the interactions between other temporal-spatial items.
In other words, the Cube Space could adapt to the "rays" of any temporal-spatial item in an extremely short time. However, within its range, the suppression of lower-level temporal-spatial items by higher-level ones still held true. Simply put, it could accommodate things coming in, but it didn't interfere with outsiders fighting each other.
Naturally, compared to the Cube Space, higher-level temporal-spatial items typically had a larger range of power.
Xu Huo guessed that the previous suppression of spatial items was likely the effect of Mr. Kang using other high-level items.
However, this struck him as strange and contradictory.
Temporal-spatial items had the characteristic of mutual incompatibility. There was no reason for this item to be an exception. Setting aside its adaptability and immunity to interference from other items, the Cube Space didn't resemble a spatial item at all.
As for spatial chaos and temporal chaos, those were much easier to understand. Although the principle was unclear, since the interior of the Cube Space could automatically adapt to various temporal-spatial items, its interior must be relatively stable. Different spatial rays colliding would inevitably create irreconcilable zones. These areas had mixed rays and seemed to be connected to the external space.
However, Xu Huo didn't rashly touch this area. Since he couldn't even manipulate the rays at the edges, there was no need to take risks before figuring out what kind of item this was.
He wondered if there was any difference in using this item indoors versus outdoors—it was worth noting that the Cube Space couldn't be stored in the item slot, which meant this item had an owner. Mr. Kang was clearly just a proxy holder, and even his self-destruction didn't take the item with him.
It was evident that without this item, Mr. Kang was just an ordinary B-rank player, definitely not among the top tier. Xu Huo wondered if he had been holed up here to avoid the item's original owner... However, this raised a new problem: the item could be used, but its power was always leaking out.
He couldn't follow Mr. Kang's example of locking himself in a house and using high-risk instances to mask the item's threat. Xu Huo thought for a moment and tried to pull the outermost rays of the item's coverage area inward, but gave up after half a minute. Spreading them out was easy; pulling them back was difficult. At most, he could stabilize the range to about three hundred meters.
With this item, the other small items he had scattered were no longer impressive. He only retrieved three from nearby areas before Zhou Yuanzhu flew in from outside the city in her aircraft.
"Brother Xu!" Zhou Yuanzhu saw him from afar, leaning against a rock with his hand over his chest, his clothes and limbs covered in blood. She quickly used an item to bring him into the air, gently catching him before asking, "Are you okay?"
The blood from the wound in Xu Huo's lung hadn't completely stopped. He said softly, "I can't move much for now. Take me back to the commercial building first."
Zhou Yuanzhu quickly nodded. "Uncle Guan and the others have already hidden inside the item. We should get in too!"
Under the mutant horde, most players had hidden themselves for self-preservation, but some, confident in their skills, saw Xu Huo appear and chased after him.
A B-rank player and six C-rank players, including Gong Jiaji with his head covered in blood.
"You killed Mr. Kang!" he said through gritted teeth, staring at Xu Huo as if he wanted to devour him alive.
Xu Huo couldn't muster much energy, so he took out a small amplification item and pointed the little speaker at him. "Didn't he commit suicide? He wasn't even afraid of being shattered to pieces just to keep the item from me. With that kind of courage, I wonder what he was hiding here for."
"How dare you insult Mr. Kang!" Gong Jiaji's eyes were bloodshot.
Xu Huo managed a smile. "Instead of causing trouble for me here, why not go kill some of those mutants down below? Your Mr. Kang has already been eaten by them."
Seeing Gong Jiaji's forehead veins bulging with rage, Zhou Yuanzhu couldn't help but whisper, "Brother Xu, maybe you should say a little less..."
Before she could finish, Xu Huo spoke again, but this time to the other players. "Time in Xiaohe City is four times faster than outside. Mr. Kang single-handedly created this situation and tricked you into waiting here to die. Now that I've exposed him, you should be thanking me."
"There's no point wasting items here. Why not save your strength and return to the instance?"
"Since things have come to this, leaving is the plan," the tall B-rank player said with amusement. "But you destroyed the paradise we worked so hard to find. You'll have to pay some price."
A peaceful resolution was impossible. These people weren't saints to begin with. Those who refused to leave even with mutants besieging the city were all waiting to be the final ambushers.
Xu Huo signaled Zhou Yuanzhu to help him sit up on the aircraft, then slightly beckoned with his hand toward the people in front.
(Chapter End)