Chapter 123: Players from a Foreign Domain
Yu Qingqing glared at him resentfully for a good while before relaxing her expression, pouting as she said, "Cousin, my hand hurts."
Xu Huo released her. "Hand hurts? Eat chicken claws—like cures like."
Yu Qingqing immediately became cheerful again, scrambling up to circle around him. "I knew you said that stuff on purpose, but deep down you still see me as your cousin. Otherwise, you wouldn't have bought my favorite food."
"It's just that the person boiling the hotpot is a bit annoying. Cousin, you boil it for me."
"Eat it or not."
"Then I'll boil it for you."
During the meal, Yu Qingqing shoved the Painting Woman aside, but the Painting Woman didn't care at all. Her eyes were fixed on the bubbling pot. After a while, Yu Qingqing's attention shifted too, and the two of them started fighting over the vegetables in the pot.
While they were locked in battle, Xu Huo received a game notification.
He returned to his own room and opened the game interface:
[Congratulations to player Passerby A for obtaining D-grade item "V. Vanshaw's Arson Tool."]
[The arsonist V. Vanshaw, once a headache for the government, set fires in twenty-eight major cities. Before each crime, he would check into a nearby hotel under the surname "Vanshaw," and after setting the fire, he would leave a "V" shaped burn mark. Despite multiple investigations, the authorities could never uncover his identity, so they could only write down the name "V. Vanshaw" in the files.]
[However, after his twenty-eighth arson, he vanished without a trace, leaving behind only a lighter at the scene.]
[Leaving behind a tool of the crime was undoubtedly a provocation to the government, so this lighter was confiscated and stored away.]
[Note: The natural enemy of combustibles. Within three seconds of lighting it, aim it at the target and say the word "Burn," and it will instantly release a three-square-meter flame, with the flame area ignoring the shape of the object. Note: It can only ignite one item at a time. If the total area of that item is less than three square meters, it will be calculated as three square meters. Additionally, the distance between the player and the target must not exceed one hundred meters, and there must be no obstacles.]
Selecting "V. Vanshaw's Arson Tool," a lighter with a black, stone-like texture and a relief skull on its body fell into Xu Huo's hand. Compared to the "Arsonist's Tool," this lighter's usage conditions added a time limit—it had to be used to set a fire within three seconds of being opened.
He took items of various shapes to the bathroom and tested them one by one. Afterward, he had a thorough understanding of how to use this new item.
The fire-setting now had a time limit, but the lethal range had expanded. The "Arsonist's Tool" could only ignite a single flame at a time, but this lighter could instantly ignite a three-square-meter flame, regardless of shape. If the target were a rope, the fire would burn a full three square meters, ignoring its length.
Moreover, once ignited, the fire would spread almost instantly, no longer as easy to extinguish as before.
Additionally, the target was no longer limited to people, so the word "Burn" could even be mouthed silently.
Compared to these advantages, the time limit flaw was almost negligible.
He already had a rough plan for how to deal with the crisis brought by this Super Item, but he lacked some conditions for its execution. This item came at just the right time.
"Cousin, did you fall into the toilet? Do you need me to save you?" Yu Qingqing knocked on the door from outside.
Xu Huo washed his hands and went out, asking her, "Do you have any plans recently?"
"No, I can play as long as I want," Yu Qingqing said.
"I haven't been back in a few years, so I plan to go home and take a look," Xu Huo said. "My room probably hasn't been cleaned either. You go back first and help me tidy it up—clean the place and buy some daily necessities."
"You can come back with me," Yu Qingqing said, indifferent to where she went.
"I still have a gig as an extra to finish. It'll take a few days," Xu Huo added after a pause. "It's in a pretty remote rural area."
"My high heels would be ruined if they stepped in mud." Yu Qingqing made her choice easily. "Alright then, I'll go back tomorrow. I promise to make your room look beautiful!"
The Painting Woman propped up her phone and came over. "I want to go too."
"Fine," Xu Huo nodded. Since the Painting Woman refused to leave, she might as well stay and help.
The next day, after seeing Yu Qingqing off, he went to a car rental company and rented an off-road vehicle, then took the Painting Woman to find Wang Chaoqing.
This time, Wang Chaoqing didn't run. With a face ashen as if he were attending a funeral, he got into the car. "Brother, where are we going?"
"Hai City."
*
In a certain E-grade Instance in Zone 014, a burly man with strange tattoos covering his upper body threw the last corpse onto a pile of bodies and poured gasoline over them before lighting it.
As the fire surged with black smoke, he grinned, revealing a mouthful of pitch-black teeth, and said with pleasure, "This is the smell I love!"
A blond man sitting under a nearby tree tucked his cleaned dagger into his boot and asked a young man with a head full of small braids beside him, "Is everyone here?"
The young man fiddled with a game console-like device in his hand and said, "Still two missing..."
Before he could finish, two square planes like doors suddenly snapped open on the grass not far away, and two people stepped out from them. The older one said, "What bad luck. I ran into those hypocrites from the Holy Sword Society in the Instance just now. From the sound of it, they sent a few Three-Sword Gold Disciples this time, all A-rank players."
"Forget the Holy Sword Society. Since they sent A-rank players, we have to show some respect," said another man dressed in flashy clothes. "I ran into two C-rank idiots. When I caught them, I found out their leader was only a B-rank member. I don't know where they got their tickets."
"That's a good thing for us," the braided young man said. "Tickets in Zone 014 aren't easy to find. If people like that get them, our chances of winning are even better."
The tattooed burly man laughed loudly. "As long as no S-rank players show up, I'm fearless!"
The others joined in the laughter. Then the blond man asked, "Have you chosen the location?"
The braided young man quickly tapped on his game console. "Based on the distribution of large-scale lethal weapons, the strongest firepower in Zone 014 should be in Y Country, followed by B Country and X Country. But X Country has the largest population, so it's more likely that the Super Item holder comes from there."
"Checking country by country is too troublesome. Let's go where the people are," the flashy-clothed man said.
"There are three mega-population cities. Let me see which one to pick." The braided young man's finger hovered over three cities at different latitudes before finally settling on the middle one.
A circular jade disc appeared in the blond man's hand, with six diamond-shaped slots on it. The braided young man and the others each placed their diamond-shaped jade pieces into the slots. The blond man turned the eye-shaped protrusion in the center, and the jade disc immediately projected a square beam of light into the air. At the end of the beam, a door formed, and beyond that door, across a vast ocean, lay a towering metropolis.
"Let's go. Time to say hello to our new friends in Zone 014." The blond man patted his clothes and walked through, followed by the other six.