Chapter 1131: Testing Within the Safe Zone
"Ah... ah..." The long-haired man let out terrified, muffled cries as he tried to raise his hand. Several of his companions nearby saw his mouth hanging wide open while he stood frozen in place. One of them stepped forward to call out to him, but the moment his hand touched the man's shoulder, a crack was heard—his jaw had dislocated!
With his jaw dislocated, the long-haired man's mouth seemed to open even wider. His eyes were filled with terror, and slowly, tears began to seep from the corners of his eyes.
Anyone with eyes could tell this was not normal. His companions had no intention of sharing his suffering; they immediately stepped back to observe the situation.
Sima Xiao'er and the others also had no idea what was happening, but they weren't foolish enough to rush forward to help.
So, at both ends of the corridor, over a dozen people could only watch as the long-haired man's mouth seemed to be pried open by something, splitting apart to both sides. First, his jaw dislocated, then the corners of his mouth tore open. Accompanied by the ear-piercing sound of flesh ripping, his head was forcibly torn in two starting from the lips—when the upper half of his skull flew off, it nearly horrified everyone present!
This was no instance dungeon; it was a safe zone. Even if they were surrounded, they could still leave through their tickets. That was the confidence these people had to force their way in. But the long-haired man stood right before them, seemingly conscious, yet he just stood there and was torn apart alive?
This was far more shocking than witnessing someone being killed in an extremely brutal manner right in front of them!
"Who is it! Hiding and skulking around! If you've got the guts, come out and fight..." The next person to speak suffered the same fate as the long-haired man. Before he could finish his sentence, his mouth also couldn't close, as if a pair of hands were wedged inside, and in the same manner, his head was torn in two!
This terrified the remaining three players. The more unknown something is, the more frightening it becomes. Now, whether it was someone from the Ting City Special Defense Department or a player from Jing City, they hadn't even shown their face yet had already killed two of them—and both were D-rank players, without any chance to resist. This clearly meant the opponent was on an entirely different level!
"Could be a B-rank player!" The remaining three exchanged glances, seeing the retreat in each other's eyes. But when they reached for their tickets, they found them invalid!
"How can this be...!" The three's faces darkened heavily. Without time to think further, they turned to run, but they only managed to spin around before being frozen in place. Then, like the previous two, they stood stiffly, arms and legs hanging limp, their tightly shut mouths slowly opening...
Two muffled screams rang out in succession. The third player, whose head hadn't yet been split, rolled his eyes and collapsed to the ground.
"I thought they had guts, but they got scared unconscious." Sima Xiao'er quickly stepped forward to take advantage, injecting each of them with a special muscle relaxant—this was currently the cheapest way for District 014 to control players. After the injection, the players would be completely weak, naturally losing the courage to escape into the station.
"Drag them to the lab," Sima Xiao'er assigned a few people and instructed, "Remember to hook them up to the IV drip once inside. Don't let the relaxant wear off, and don't let them escape."
Several colleagues hesitated. "We still don't know what just happened. What if it's also targeting the safe zone?"
"If it were targeting us, we wouldn't still be fine. Two dead, three unconscious—clearly someone came to help." Sima Xiao'er glanced at the detention room door. "Alright, alright, get moving."
Since they couldn't figure it out anyway, they decided to follow the safe zone's instructions.
After the colleagues left, Sima Xiao'er walked to the door and said slyly, "Brother Xu, thanks for earlier. Are you better now? If you are, can you take care of those people outside too?"
There was no response from inside the detention room. Of course, with the door closed, it was generally impossible to hear each other, but since Xu Huo had opened the door earlier when delivering the dumplings, Sima Xiao'er assumed he could hear.
Not disappointed by the lack of response, he sat down by the door and added, "Brother Xu, just say the word if you need anything."
Xu Huo didn't want to talk to anyone for now.
First, the poison on his body hadn't been cleared, and his mental state was indeed poor.
Second, he had released the Cube Space and was testing it.
Earlier in the high-risk instance, he had only made simple attempts using his mental power in conjunction with the Cube Space, without fully unleashing it. So he wasn't clear on the Cube Space's maximum range or the limits of the materials it could manipulate. Conveniently, the walls and floors of the safe zone were made from special metal purchased from the game, so he decided to test it out.
Back in Xiaohe City, Mr. Kang had used special metal outside his own and other players' rooms to counter the chaotic space rays generated by the Cube Space. This method should be effective. So, even though the Cube Space could directly penetrate walls through space power, it didn't mean there were no limits to any barrier.
However, it now appeared that the metal construction of the safe zone's walls and floors couldn't block the Cube Space's power. At the same time, he could clearly see a distinct difference in ray density between the metal walls and empty space. The space channels were still divided, and he couldn't directly punch through multiple materials to form a straight path.
Of course, this was something he had known since the high-risk instance. The slight difference was that the more complex the spatial layout, the more it seemed to hinder the Cube Space's performance. Within a similar range of about five hundred meters, his accurate perception range had shrunk to around three hundred and fifty meters.
He spat out another mouthful of fungal threads, wiped his mouth, and after catching his breath, tried to directly control the rays attached to objects. Unfortunately, while he could alter the ray state of space channels, he couldn't do the same for objects.
In other words, he couldn't directly change an object's state. However, small and light items could be nudged through practice, somewhat like a rudimentary version of telekinesis, but it looked clumsy and slow.
This was similar to using space rays to form a barrier. He was essentially creating a barrier outside an object that allowed him to remotely nudge it, without actually touching the rays within the object itself. This was worlds apart from Bai Kou, who could directly control distant objects through space without relying on any props.
Still, back in the high-risk instance, he had felt that this Cube Space was somewhat peculiar. It had a formed and relatively stable spatial field, yet it didn't affect the incompatibility of other space-time props. At the same time, it could be used in any location without destabilizing structures like buildings, making it seem more suited for overlaying onto an existing field.
But he still hadn't figured out the full extent of the range Mr. Kang could control while holding the Cube Space, and he didn't know if it was related to the time rules under this prop.
Over the past week, there had been no time acceleration within the Cube Space.
(Chapter End)