Chapter 1218: Perhaps an Old Acquaintance
The slender blade emitted a cold, eerie light, tracing a brief horizontal arc in the air before the bald player's head parted from his body.
After the man died, Xu Huo frowned instead, his gaze falling on the buzz-cut player who had already emerged from the maze wall. "That person actually didn't save you all."
The buzz-cut player knew he was a troublesome opponent and sneered, "You said it yourself—we're under someone else's control. When have you ever seen a kidnapper feel sorry for the family paying the ransom?"
Xu Huo suddenly found it dull. Stepping into a spatial passage, he walked directly in front of the buzz-cut player. "It seems you have no reason to live either."
"A heartfelt and moving farewell!" the buzz-cut player suddenly shouted. The moment his trait took effect and Xu Huo's movements stalled, a whirlwind curled around his feet, and he vanished from the spot!
"Running pretty fast." Xu Huo's expression remained calm. He sheathed his blade and returned to the maze passage from earlier.
The battle there was far more intense. The entire passage floor and parts of the maze wall had been destroyed beyond recognition. Of the three remaining players, the female player responsible for long-range support was already dead. The other two were locked in a struggle with Jiang Zifeng, all three bearing injuries, though none were severe.
Noticing Xu Huo's return, Jiang Zifeng wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and said without looking back, "Old Xu, don't help. I'm going to beat these two bastards to death with my own hands today!"
Hearing his words, the two opponents' expressions turned grim. They had completely lost their earlier confidence and no longer attacked recklessly, clearly having tasted defeat.
One Jiang Zifeng was already troublesome enough, and now Xu Huo had returned unscathed...
The two exchanged a glance. One simply said, "Let's go," and they used teleportation items to flee without hesitation.
"The monk can run, but the temple can't. As long as you haven't cleared the instance, I'll find you sooner or later!" Jiang Zifeng roared.
"They can't hear you even if you shout." Xu Huo said. "They're no longer nearby."
"I know. It's mainly to express my feelings." Jiang Zifeng said nonchalantly. After a pause, he added, "These people were clearly targeting us. They're probably in cahoots with that guy from last night, right?"
"Most likely." Xu Huo found it a bit strange.
Jiang Zifeng, who appeared careless but was actually meticulous, noticed his expression and asked, "What's wrong?"
"It's just that I don't think that player from last night had any motive to target us." Xu Huo said.
Collisions in an instance are normal. It's not like there are only a dozen people who have to fight to the death. The maze is full of players. The other party didn't show themselves and had no lingering worries. Based on just one indirect encounter, why would they fixate on us and even send people to intercept us?
"I find that abnormal too." Jiang Zifeng said. "But under normal circumstances, there are two possibilities: one is that the other party knows one of us; the other is that they're a complete lunatic who just doesn't like the look of us."
"Since they deliberately lured us into fighting their companions, it should be to probe our strength. I think the second possibility is more likely. Maybe next time, they'll make a move themselves."
"Don't worry. People like that won't stop until they achieve their goal. They'll come to us sooner or later."
Xu Huo nodded slightly, then looked at him seriously. "Could it be someone you've offended before?"
Jiang Zifeng choked, then after a second of silence said, "Then there's no helping it... I've offended too many people. But no one should recognize me—I'm wearing a mask."
Xu Huo wasn't wearing a mask this time.
Since they didn't recognize Jiang Zifeng, that meant they recognized him.
The second possibility was already ruled out in his mind.
Recognizing him. Xu Huo quickly filtered through the living people he had fought since entering the game. There weren't many such people, so it was easy to narrow down, and he soon eliminated them all.
Perhaps it was an old acquaintance from before, or someone from District 014.
This thought flashed through his mind, and Xu Huo didn't dwell on it. As Jiang Zifeng said, as long as they were in this instance, the other party would come again sooner or later. They'd deal with it then.
Comparing their direction, he said, "We've strayed a bit far."
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's hurry." Jiang Zifeng said. "What a waste of time."
The two wandered through the maze for a while before getting back on the right path. But just as they started moving again, Jiang Zifeng triggered a maze wall with a special effect. With a series of "bang bang bang" explosions from confetti cannons, the maze wall quickly opened a door, and while playing "Congratulations! You've drawn a random teleportation portal," it directly swallowed him up—Jiang Zifeng blurted out a "Holy shit!" but before the echo faded, he had completely disappeared.
He wouldn't be found anytime soon.
Xu Huo was back to solo mode.
After walking for another ten-plus minutes, he turned back and said to the rear, "How long are you going to follow me?"
The female player he had encountered last night slowly emerged from the corner of the passage, explaining awkwardly, "I'm not deliberately following you. I just happened to run into you, and we're going in the same direction."
Earlier, when Xu Huo and Jiang Zifeng chased after the fleeing player, the female player couldn't keep up and gave up. She continued on her own way and coincidentally ran into the two when they returned. In fact, she had already been there when Jiang Zifeng disappeared.
"It's inconvenient to move alone. How about we team up?" Xu Huo proactively suggested. "You can use plants to identify the correct passages."
The female player quickened her pace to catch up and said gratefully, "You can ask me anything about mutant plants. I know a fair bit."
"My name is Mu Yan. I heard that other guy call you Old Xu. How about I call you Brother Xu? Thanks for helping me earlier."
The two hadn't gone far when they opened another clue on the wall:
"Cancellation cards can cancel a player's first card."
"Cancel the first card?" Mu Yan found it strange. "Isn't the first card the faction card? Why can it be canceled?"
"This clue should be false." Xu Huo said. He had already obtained a cancellation card, and the card's effect clearly stated it could cancel any card except the first one.
However, "Faction cards might not be unchangeable either."
A faction's suit cards happened to be six in number, and the maximum cards a player could hold was also six. This shouldn't be a mere coincidence.
If the first card was a number card and couldn't be replaced at all, then it would be forever impossible to obtain six suit cards—this would eliminate a challenging way to clear the instance. Other methods, like Jiang Zifeng's idea of getting a straight flush, were interesting, but suit cards were more difficult.
Additionally, it seemed there was still one card missing in this maze.
Mu Yan understood his implication and said, "Collecting six suit cards is probably harder than reaching the sky. Forget same color—even different-colored suit cards might not all appear in the latter half of the maze at the same time. There are players both ahead and behind."
"Nothing is absolute. Who knows, someone might have already grabbed six suit cards and is waiting to get them all the same color."