Chapter 1205: Congratulations on Obtaining a "Mutant Plant Friendliness" Card
The fine needle-like darts struck the barrier and rebounded back along their original path, forcing the white-clothed man who had turned back from the wrong passage to scramble in panic. He sidestepped to dodge, but was then caught up from behind by Big Tiger, who landed a sword strike on his waist.
Although this strike didn't cause severe injury, it broke through the white-clothed man's protective barrier and suit. His eyes blazing with anger, he turned back and threw out a giant door item. The upright metal door, though unable to block the passage entirely, formed a solid barrier that couldn't be bypassed from the left, right, or above. After Big Tiger tried several items without breaking through the defense, he grew somewhat frustrated and called out to Xu Huo and Lin Qian, who hadn't gone far ahead: "He must have a flower card in his hand! Don't let anyone else get it!"
This statement dragged the two who had been watching from a distance into the conflict.
It wasn't hard to guess that the white-clothed man had obtained a flower card—this was at the very beginning of the instance, and the game rules clearly stated that only the cardholder could pass through maze walls corresponding to their card.
The white-clothed man had arrived first, and three others could follow behind. The rule "the first card being a flower card allows direct entry into the nearest correct passage" matched perfectly.
The game rules didn't provide further explanation about flower cards, but with fifty-four total cards and only twelve flower cards, even without knowing what traits the cards possessed, one could guess their importance.
Clearly, Big Tiger understood this as well, which was why he had followed the white-clothed man without a second thought.
When his attempt to kill and steal the card failed, he tried to drag Xu Huo and the other into the mess—but this move also didn't succeed, because the white-clothed man was suddenly pierced through the heart by a vine that grew out of the maze wall!
As the white-clothed man's body slid to the ground, the two pursuing players who had created the barrier withdrew and left.
"It seems the instance won't reveal the second card someone else has obtained to outsiders." Facing the two charging toward him, Xu Huo first created several spatial barriers within the passage, blocking any hidden weapons that might grow from the maze walls, then used "Heavy Life" to add gravity to the entire passage.
In the same environment, Xu Huo, with his spatial evolution ability, could move more easily than others. He took a step to position himself between the two, used "Dead End" to separate them, then used "Grasping Gloves" to grab one of them from a distance and slam him into the maze wall.
This precisely triggered the maze wall's mechanism. A massive flower suddenly burst from the foliage, opened its mouth, and bit off the man's head!
Strictly speaking, this player wasn't killed by Xu Huo, so after his death, his cards became ownerless and dispersed back into the maze walls.
However, that giant man-eating flower, having tasted blood, grew even more frenzied. It extended several vines toward Xu Huo while its flower head plummeted straight down from above, trying to eat his head in the same manner!
Xu Huo pulled out "Cake Slice," adjusted his angle slightly, and split the giant flower and its stem in two... As the man-eating flower fell, two cards appeared before him: a white card 9 and a black card Flower Scepter.
The black card Flower Scepter was likely the first card the white-clothed man had obtained. Having gotten consecutive cards, the flower card's content didn't change, but the flower-shaped pattern beneath the white card's number "9" began to flash.
He didn't rush to examine the number card but turned around to deal with the other player, only to find that Lin Qian had already killed him.
While he was dealing with the mutant plant, Lin Qian had used a sticky ball to adhere the remaining player to the maze wall—since Xu Huo had already triggered the maze wall's mechanism, she encountered no trouble. That sticky ball happened to counter the other's plant growth, causing the vigorous vines to tangle into a ball and then trap the player.
With a loud shout of "Poke out your own eyes!", the player involuntarily raised both fingers toward his eyes. Even though he managed to control himself and use items for protection, preventing himself from actually blinding his eyes, he left a significant opening.
Lin Qian took this opportunity to kill him.
Big Tiger had already freed himself when the white-clothed man died, but he wasn't as quick as Xu Huo and Lin Qian, so he could only watch them take the cards.
Seeing both their gazes fixed on her, Lin Qian immediately said, "I got a black card, number 14."
"Did the card change?" Big Tiger asked.
Lin Qian tapped on her personal panel, and then she vanished from her spot, not even stopped by the barrier created by the cube space!
Xu Huo quickly followed, but she stopped in an instant.
Seeing the person who had landed almost simultaneously with her, Lin Qian frowned slightly and said, "Black card 14 means correct forward movement of two hundred meters."
Big Tiger arrived as well. He turned his gaze to Xu Huo and asked, "What effect does the flower card have?"
Xu Huo opened his personal panel, found the box for placing playing cards below the instance introduction, selected the black box in front, and brought up the Flower Scepter card. He tried clicking on it, but nothing happened.
Then he looked at the white card 9. Clicking on the flashing flower beneath it brought up a line of text:
"Congratulations, player! You have obtained a 'Mutant Plant Friendliness' card. For the next twelve hours, you will receive a warm welcome from mutant plants!"
Xu Huo read out the content of the white card 9 as if it were the flower card's content. After hearing it, Lin Qian and Big Tiger fell silent. The former said, "I have a bad feeling about this."
No sooner had she spoken than the maze walls on both sides of the passage they were in began to bloom like flowers, one after another exploding with giant flower buds. Blooms covered in long thorns, as if they had mouths, opened and closed eagerly, spraying mucus like splashing water!
Run!
Without any hesitation, the three charged forward. But even using items, they couldn't withstand so many obstacles ahead. And after they passed through this passage, mutant plants in the next passage surged out as well. Not only man-eating flowers, but also a type of vine with half-arm-length thorns stretched across both walls, blocking from the ground all the way up to dozens of meters in the air!
Dozens of meters in height wasn't difficult for players, but once they went up, small flowers that could spray poisonous mist emerged from the higher walls. The thick black mist not only interfered with vision but also concealed other mutant plants. Caught off guard, Lin Qian was covered by a net-like mutant plant dropping from above, which even enveloped her defense barrier and lifted her up!
Seeing that countless mutant plants were preparing to "welcome" him before he even got there, Xu Huo pulled several bottles of alcohol from his luggage compartment and smashed them ahead, then took out a lighter:
"Ding!"
Scorching flames instantly ignited within the passage, returning the warmth to both maze walls and causing the mutant plants to sizzle and crackle!