Chapter 1279: The Danger Behind Prosperity
Confident in his super-evolved body, the burly man, upon realizing he had been poisoned, did not think to cut off the poisoned part but instead forcibly squeezed the toxin out of the wound. However, this was a super-strong bacterium from Yu Guo's hands, and later Xu Huo had mixed in several other toxins that could coexist with it, creating this A-level pollutant with high reproductive capacity that was not easily neutralized. Therefore, from the moment he chose to keep his foot, he had half a leg on the path to death.
The toxin rapidly eroded his body, manifesting on the skin's surface as raised, blue-black veins that quickly covered his legs, arms, and extended toward his neck and face.
He wanted to take an antidote, but Xu Huo did not give him the chance. During the fight, the tangents laid out in the underground passage suddenly tightened, breaking through three defensive barriers before firmly trapping the burly man—he still had a defensive item on him, also high-level, which the tangents failed to break.
But that was enough. Xu Huo reached out and opened a door, moving himself in front of the burly player. After separating the two with a space barrier, he materialized his spiritual power into objects alongside a space ray blade, plus the "Holder's Demise," stacking two super evolution powers and one item for a triple strike, aiming for a one-hit kill!
The burly man seemed to have no escape, but the next second, these three killing moves crossed paths in the air—he had vanished from his spot!
The tightened tangents missed, the space ray blades stabbed into each other, and the spiritual power materialization, passing through the gap, quickly turned into a pool of black liquid, like a black shadow, falling into the shadow of a person on the ground. Xu Huo raised his hand to catch the metal bead item that had passed through, released his spiritual realm, and without a moment's delay, opened a door and directly left the underground passage.
The burly player had entered the station and might soon return to Fresh Flower City, or contact the district government directly through a communication item. So Xu Huo did not linger in the underground passage and returned to the surface.
But the surface was not peaceful either. The conflict near Yongxing Hotel seemed to have spread throughout the city. Some players who had been scattered around the city or had escaped from the Yongxing Hotel area began looting wildly within the city. Explosions and flames sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain, one after another. The cries and wails of ordinary citizens were occasionally mixed with the arrogant laughter of individual players. The players under the Fresh Flower City government also dispatched in batches, quickly approaching each incident site.
It only took one spark for a super city to fall into chaos in a very short time.
Xu Huo bypassed the already destroyed city center and arrived outside the directly administered district.
The directly administered district usually did not allow ordinary citizens to enter and had a large number of players. The small incidents that had just emerged quickly disappeared. Emergency measures were also comprehensive, sealing off the entire area in a very short time, not allowing anyone in or out.
Xu Huo crouched on a distant building, looking at the rows of large instruments rising from the ground, mentally reviewing the effects of these instruments.
The outermost were detection instruments, covering a length of fifty meters, designed to guard against players using invisibility items or other means to sneak in undetected.
The second row were time-space item restriction instruments. The residents of the directly administered district were clearly not short on money, equipped with jammers targeting A-level and below time-space items. Entering this area, most time-space items would lose their effect or be weakened.
The innermost row were defensive barriers. The large defensive devices would simultaneously release dozens of rhombus-shaped machines, which evenly spaced themselves in the air at intervals. The three-meter small barriers they released automatically joined together, forming a semi-circular defensive barrier that directly covered the entire directly administered district.
Additionally, players guarded both inside and outside. Even if they discovered players who had not entered the supply area, they did not interfere. Similarly, they showed no reaction to the ordinary citizens suffering in dire straits just one or two meters away, let alone offering rescue.
With such tight defenses, even getting close was difficult, and breaking through was even harder.
Outer zone players could usually enter the directly administered district, but now it seemed it would be sealed off for a short time, making entry impossible.
Xu Huo did not go further. He sat down on the spot to rest, opening his message collection terminal to check the latest news.
There were never short of people eager to join in the excitement, and Fresh Flower City was no exception. The dangerous ones were only a minority; more people hid in safe places, transmitting event information from various angles.
Someone used an aircraft to capture the situation at Yongxing Hotel. Although the building had been bombed and burned, the outer walls were still relatively intact. Instead, the players had left some marks on it. The building had not been demolished yet, and the fleeting figure of the sword-wielding player could be seen in the recording.
Fresh Flower City's message collection terminal had not been blocked yet. Information from District 001 was interactive. Amidst the flood of messages, Xu Huo saw a report on the attack on Card City.
It was a report, not unofficial gossip like in Fresh Flower City, which meant the attack on Card City had already come to an end.
Xu Huo watched a few holographic projections. The target of the attack was the Card City government. The building area had been cut into pieces like tofu dregs. However, the buildings near the government building were mostly government-owned, and the attack did not spread everywhere like in Fresh Flower City, so very few ordinary people were affected. Outer zone players also did not seem to join in the excitement.
The report stated that several outer zone players had directly broken into the government building, stealing a batch of advanced instruments the government had recently ordered, including two space teleportation devices that could directly cross districts and three experimental materials. The loss of the teleportation devices was just money, but the report specifically introduced the experimental materials, stating they were very dangerous species—not only ferocious and bloodthirsty but also carrying contamination. Citizens were reminded to always be aware of their surroundings and report to the government if they found similar animals, plants, or items that simply looked dangerous, as they could be derivatives of the experimental materials.
One advantage of advanced technology was that nothing could hide. No matter how fast the action, there was always an angle to capture people. Xu Huo easily recognized Xue Lang among those wearing protective suits. He was the one who cut the government building, and if not for his companions stopping him, he would have extended the destruction further.
"...Technological development and player evolution bring prosperity while accompanied by great danger. Technology, wealth, players, evolution—everything can become a target for outsiders to plunder..."
For District 001, such attacks were common, the difference being in scale. Attacks like the one on Card City, swift and purposeful, were basically over in half an hour. Half an hour later, government players could wrap up and write their summaries, unrelated to the citizens.
Incidents like those in Fresh Flower City took longer, but with a large number of players controlling the situation, they should also end quickly.
Everyone was used to it. If you died, it was just bad luck.
(Chapter End)