Chapter 1224: Aren't You Supposed to Be Smart?
After using a defense item, Xu Huo also equipped "Cat's Triple Life Loan" before using his spatial power to move upward. Fortunately, the "well" shaped rays didn't chase after him but instead gathered in midair and dissipated into tiny specks of light.
Seeing the lines disappear, Xu Huo couldn't help but raise an eyebrow before landing back on the ground.
The bespectacled man had confusion in his eyes, but Mu Yan didn't care. She urged, "This place isn't safe. Let's find another spot quickly!"
"If the other party is determined to follow us, and they're in the shadows, it doesn't matter where we go." Xu Huo remained unmoved. "Better to let them come out and have an open confrontation. If I run every time I encounter them, they might actually think I'm afraid of them!"
The bespectacled man caught a hint of the situation. "Is this someone who has a grudge against you?"
"Probably someone with a screw loose," Mu Yan said. "They've been haunting us like a ghost."
She didn't separate herself from Xu Huo in her statement.
The bespectacled man was surprised. "A wise man knows better than to fight when the odds are against him. Since you know someone's tailing you, why not just run far away? Why wait here to be ambushed?"
This time, Mu Yan fell silent. The person hadn't made a move during the day but waited until night to pull these tricks. Although she didn't know their goal, if you said they were strong, they liked using these sneaky methods; if you said they weren't strong, they had indeed followed them without either of them knowing and even set traps. It was hard to figure out what this person really wanted!
"In a maze instance, where would you run?" Xu Huo said calmly at this point. "The other party doesn't dare come out, which means they aren't confident they can defeat us head-on... It looks like caution, but it's actually cowardice. At the same time, it's laughable. People who hide their heads and tails never change their ways, no matter where or when."
"Aren't you afraid of provoking that person?" The bespectacled man glanced nervously around. "What if you really bring them out? Next time, we might not be so lucky to escape those rays!"
"They don't dare." Xu Huo's smile carried a hint of mockery.
Mu Yan and the bespectacled man said nothing but remained on high alert, watching their surroundings.
Under the thick fog, the maze passage was eerily silent. Even the occasional rustle of leaves on the maze walls was clearly audible—nothing happened.
"Don't worry, no one will show up," Xu Huo said again. "If they jumped out now, wouldn't that be admitting they were sneaking around eavesdropping and couldn't handle a little provocation?"
"Compared to losing face, maintaining the status quo is a better way to save their dignity."
The spot they had rested at earlier was no longer usable, so the three had to find another place. As they each took out their resting items, Mu Yan asked Xu Huo behind the bespectacled man's back, "Do you already know who's following us?"
"No." Xu Huo truly didn't know. Although he suspected the other party might recognize him, there were too many such targets, even including elites from Zone 014's Special Defense Department and government military that he had never seen before.
Mu Yan was both puzzled and a little irritated. "Then what exactly is their goal? It doesn't seem like they want to kill people in the instance."
It wasn't that they didn't want to kill; they were just testing for some purpose.
"Before the instance ends, they'll come out eventually." Xu Huo turned to look at the bespectacled man, who had already opened his location item. "I still don't know your name."
"Xue Lang." The bespectacled man adjusted his glasses, seemingly unwilling to continue the conversation, and entered the item first.
"Looks like I won't be sleeping tonight." Mu Yan sat on her sleeping bag, placed some defensive items around her, and took medicine to prevent herself from falling asleep.
But by midnight, she still fell asleep.
In the silent maze passage, someone walked over from the side. Their footsteps paused briefly beside her before turning toward the shelter.
The shelter door was left slightly ajar, deliberately left open to hear any outside movements.
Just as the approaching person reached for the door, Xu Huo, standing on the other side, spoke up. "Is your name really Xue Lang?"
The bespectacled man, Xue Lang, stopped his movement, but the passage beneath him split apart from the front, extending in both directions and continuously widening the distance between him and Xu Huo.
Unfortunately, it was useless. In the blink of an eye, Xu Huo, having put away the shelter, teleported right in front of him.
Naturally, the ground's growth didn't stop, but every time the distance widened slightly, Xu Huo would move again to appear before Xue Lang. After several rounds of this, they finally stopped the tug-of-war, maintaining a certain distance.
Their eyes met. The bespectacled man's gaze was wary, and he had also taken out quite a few items, seemingly very cautious of Xu Huo.
"You put on a good act, but you overlooked one thing," Xu Huo said. "After an attack like that, a normal person would first think of leaving, not take the risk of teaming up with me."
Xue Lang sneered. "You've got it all figured out, huh? Have me leave alone to be the bait?"
"You could say that." Xu Huo slowly pulled out a cigarette and lit it before continuing, "But that reason isn't sufficient."
"At first, I only suspected you recognized me. Now it seems you might also be someone I know." Through the rising smoke, he went on, "As far as I know, no player from my zone has reached this level. Even if they had, they wouldn't waste so much time tailing me... You remind me of some unpleasant memories."
A cold gaze pierced through the smoke as Xu Huo stared at Xue Lang's face. "Maybe I can still recognize you. Why don't you take off that fake face?"
Xue Lang looked at him with an uncertain expression. After a moment, he slowly raised his hand to his face, as if about to remove a mask. But then his hand shifted to cover his lower face, trembling, before turning into uncontrollable laughter—first a soft chuckle, then a loud laugh, and finally an unrestrained cackle. His body shook uncontrollably, and his horizontally placed hand gradually rose to cover most of his face. As the laughter abruptly stopped, through the gap between his index and middle fingers, his wide-open right eye fixed on Xu Huo:
"Aren't you supposed to be smart? Guess."
Xu Huo took a deep drag of his cigarette and exhaled the smoke, his expression icy as he stared at the man across from him. "Sometimes I can't figure it out. A person like Dr. Zhang—why would he bring someone like you along? Having such an idiot hanging around all day, doesn't it annoy him?"
Xue Lang's gaze turned suddenly cold. His hand slid down from his face. "No one can save you today."
Xu Huo flicked off the cigarette butt and stamped it out. "If you had the guts, you wouldn't have come to test me again and again. What's the matter? Think you've figured out my hand now?"