Chapter 1246: A Person with Principles
Stepping his right foot on Chen Chou, Xu Huo bent over slightly to look at him. "You're pretty unlucky, aren't you?"
From eyes nearly squeezed shut by bruises, a despair almost tangible in its intensity burst forth. Chen Chou whimpered, as if letting out his final lament.
A grown man, especially one who wasn't particularly good-looking, crying really wasn't a pretty sight, let alone when his face resembled a swollen pig's head.
Xu Huo disdainfully moved his foot away. "Is the Flower Card still in your hand?"
Chen Chou's eyes flew open, and he quickly said, "Yes, yes, and the person who kicked me earlier has a black card from the Black Stone Holy Sword!"
"Is that so?" Xu Huo looked up at the three people not far away. Before his words had even faded, he had already moved over.
The man in the jacket was just about to speak to his companion, but when he turned his head, he met Xu Huo's face. Before he could use any prop, a collar was looped around his neck. As the collar tightened, strangling his throat, his face flushed bright red!
At the same time, the other two were hung back-to-back in mid-air by chains, each also receiving a "pants-removing package."
In the span of a single encounter, the three players were left bare-assed, strung up in long strips.
The man in the jacket, after his space teleportation prop failed to work, was nearly choked to death. Rolling his eyes, he couldn't utter a single word. The other two, however, frantically cursed out Xu Huo's entire family.
Retrieving the thrown dagger through the air, Xu Huo turned to the person hanging by the iron chains.
Finding Xu Huo's gaze moving downward, the man was both shocked and enraged. "What do you think you're doing!"
"I want to see if castration can really turn someone into a woman." Xu Huo said with curiosity.
"How could a man ever become a woman!" the player roared furiously. "A warrior would rather die than be humiliated!"
Xu Huo raised an eyebrow, then turned to look at the man in the jacket beside him. "And you?"
The collar loosened slightly. The man in the jacket gasped for air, and after a few seconds said, "I don't have a Flower Card. Even if you kill me..."
Before he could finish, the collar tightened again. The man in the jacket clutched his neck with both hands, his legs kicking wildly!
"Pop quiz," Xu Huo said, pulling over the two men hanging back-to-back. His tone was flat. "How many cards does he have?"
As he spoke, he also pulled Chen Chou over.
After the prop net was torn away, the dagger fell back to the ground with a "clatter." Xu Huo said, "Of you two, whoever lies gets killed. By the way, how many cards do you have?"
"Three, I only have three cards." Chen Chou perked up, struggling to his feet with the help of an auxiliary prop, eyeing the area below the other two's navels with ill intent. "Kill whoever you want!"
How quickly the tables had turned. The player with his back to Xu Huo was the first to surrender. "He only has one card, and it's the Black Stone Holy Sword!"
Xu Huo loosened his grip on the man in the jacket. "Is that the truth?"
The man in the jacket showed hatred on his face, his mouth opening as if to say something... but there was no need for him to speak anymore.
Xu Huo first used the white card 15 he had just obtained to cancel out the trap card, black 19. After freeing up a slot, he directly ended the man's life.
He only had one black Black Stone Holy Sword card.
Having obtained another black Flower Card, Xu Huo now had three black Flower Cards and one white Flower Card.
"Do you know the locations of any other Flower Cards?" he asked, turning back to the two men who were trying their best to curl up. "Providing correct information can earn you a chance to live."
The three people present all looked at him in surprise.
"I don't tell lies." Xu Huo gave a slight smile, as if to say, "Believe it or not."
The two hanging men: Could they afford not to believe?
It seemed only two paths lay before them now: a quick death or being tortured to death.
It was the same man who had spoken earlier. "I don't have a Flower Card myself, but last night we ran into another player. He pulled a black pure gold boot from the maze wall. I don't know where he is now, but he has a big flesh mole on his neck, very easy to recognize."
"That's a lie," Chen Chou interjected at this point. "If you saw someone else get a Flower Card, wouldn't you have gone to snatch it?"
The other player said, "You think we didn't want to? That guy was incredibly fast, we couldn't even catch up..."
"Brother Xu, you can't trust them," Chen Chou turned to stir things up. "They must be making it up, just to save their own skins!"
Xu Huo glanced at him, then let the player down. "You can go."
The man was completely unprepared for Xu Huo to actually let him go. He tentatively took out a prop, and finding that Xu Huo didn't stop him and that the barrier that had previously restricted his prop use had vanished, he quickly used a teleportation prop and disappeared from the corridor.
Chen Chou was filled with regret. "You just let him go like that!"
Xu Huo pointed ahead. "If you're unhappy, you can go after him."
Chen Chou quickly adjusted his expression, putting on a fawning look. "Brother Xu, of course, keeps his word. How could he go back on it? There's still one left."
The remaining one was the man who had first thrown the dagger and had also suggested Chen Chou castrate himself. His eyes wide with rage as he watched Chen Chou approach with the knife, his anger and venom quickly turned into panic and fear. He hurriedly said to Xu Huo, "I can tell you about the whereabouts of a Flower Card too..."
"This person is yours to deal with." Xu Huo took two steps back, signaling for Chen Chou to settle the score.
Chen Chou laughed with satisfaction, twirling the dagger with his one good arm as he walked towards the player. "I still have to thank you for leaving me one hand..."
No one in such a situation wouldn't panic. The player screamed and cursed for a while, but when the dagger pressed against his lower abdomen, he finally couldn't hold back and begged for mercy.
Xu Huo watched Chen Chou from behind. Seeing him put on a show, savoring the other's pathetic state for a moment before driving the dagger straight through his heart, Xu Huo said, "He humiliated you like that. With such a good opportunity, don't you want to repay him in kind?"
Chen Chou shrugged his shoulder with feigned nonchalance. "I'm a human being. I might be ugly and useless, but I still have some basic principles."
"Mr. Xu, thank you for saving me earlier," he said seriously. "Running away before was my fault, but I still want to ask you to let me off."
"Because of your elderly mother and little brother?" Xu Huo said. "Aren't you an orphan?"
"They're the younger siblings I adopted." Chen Chou gave an ugly smile. "If I die, they'll be taken over by the government. They might be picked out by some rich and powerful people before they even come of age. Don't look at how good the welfare is in District 001; children without parents are just kept as pets."
He abandoned his prop, and with his broken leg, he thumped heavily to his knees, a pleading look on his face. "Mr. Xu, killing me now won't do you any good. And since you've come to District 001, you probably don't want to leave empty-handed. Although District 001 is prosperous, powerful props and weapons are strictly controlled for external sales. Ordinary outside players can't buy them."
"I have some connections in District 001. I can introduce you to some places to buy and sell good props and good stuff."