Chapter 143: The Fight for the Super Item
"Painting Woman" was the codename assigned to Xu Huo by the command room.
"Aside from a call fifteen minutes ago, she hasn't contacted us since."
Fifteen minutes ago, Painting Woman had contacted them to inform them that the renaming effect was better than expected. Jing City had straightforwardly allocated the entire city's land to her, though the property name changes weren't happening as quickly. Still, it had already exceeded the maximum scope Painting Woman had requested and was now expanding throughout Hai City.
At present, advanced players from the outer zones were fighting among themselves. On the outskirts of Hai City, some players were moving toward the amusement park. This was good news for them—it drew the players' attention, giving Painting Woman an opportunity to act. At the same time, it made it easy to identify which players were from the outer zones. With the entire population of Hai City moving outward, those heading inward stood out especially.
"The call is coming." The chief commander perked up, answered, and pressed the speaker button.
"I'm ready," the delicate voice came through the phone again. "I'll start moving in one minute. My destination is the Pearl Hotel. In six minutes, at exactly 7:31 PM, you must blow up the hotel."
"The layout around the hotel is already in place," the chief commander said.
"Good. I have nothing else." Xu Huo was about to hang up when the old man from Jing City spoke: "The nation will remember your contributions. Please return safely."
The call ended.
Xu Huo casually tossed aside the item in his hand and said to Painting Woman, "Do you remember the steps I told you clearly?"
Painting Woman nodded and silently recited his arrangements with her mouth.
After confirming there were no mistakes, Xu Huo took out the Light Gentleman badge and hung it around her neck, giving a slight smile. "I'm giving it to you early."
Though a bit puzzled, Painting Woman happily held it, kissed it twice, and ran out of the coffee shop. As she stood on the street, all the scattered papers on the ground flew into the air. She lightly jumped onto one of them and left, her back to the skyscraper.
This was an unexpected bonus from changing the land ownership. After the land transfer in Hai City was completed, Painting Woman suddenly discovered she could control all paper items within the city limits. This didn't include buildings, of course—those still needed name changes.
So as of now, the entire outdoor area of Hai City, along with a third of the buildings within the Black-and-White Roulette's range, were under her control. She could also use photos or character posters to observe distant situations.
Nie Xuan being surrounded was something she had discovered.
She had seen Nie Xuan before, so she went to help.
She also sneaked a peek at the fight between the wheelchair player and the Eerie Sound Knights.
Among the Eerie Sound Knights, just one Funeral Director was that hard to handle, so it was easy to imagine the other players weren't low-level either. And with five or six of them fighting that wheelchair player, it showed just how formidable the wheelchair player was.
Although Xu Huo had reserved ten seconds for himself, he couldn't guarantee he could successfully enter the station within that time. He needed the witness of advanced players, not to be surrounded by them. So a stalemate in their battle was a very good opportunity for him.
Shouldering the backpack he had prepared in advance, he walked out of the coffee shop and moved closer to the Pearl Hotel.
At the same time, Painting Woman, pretending to flee, used her ability to search for outer-zone players on the largest possible scale. Anyone she could wrap up like a mummy and drag away, she threw into the multi-player life-or-death game to rinse them clean. When there weren't enough players in the roulette, she went looking outside. Thus, within half a minute, a continuous series of human explosions erupted within the roulette's range.
Some died in the multi-player life-or-death game, some died at the edge of the roulette. Players who weren't quick enough to react lost their lives in confusion.
But most players had fought their way out of instances. Their reaction speed to danger was very fast. After escaping the first attack, they quickly noticed the paper pieces becoming as sharp as blades and attacking indiscriminately. They realized that such a large-scale attack couldn't be achieved by lower-level items. An item capable of covering a city with a population of tens of millions could only be a super item!
"The super item has finally appeared!"
In an instant, outer-zone players both inside and outside the roulette erupted. Whether they were hiding for self-preservation or watching from the sidelines, those who had come for the super item began pouring into the roulette one after another!
The flying paper wasn't just killing people—it was also saving them. The outer-zone players quickly tracked down Painting Woman's trail and began to surround and intercept her.
Painting Woman was flying on paper specifically to attract attention. When she noticed more people following her, she increased her altitude to expose herself fully to everyone's view!
Several arrows shot toward her from different directions. Painting Woman dodged sideways, only to be caught by a huge net that appeared out of nowhere in the sky. She flew low and quickly slipped out from under the net, but the two buildings ahead suddenly collapsed inward, crashing together with a roar!
Painting Woman made an emergency stop, avoiding the tragedy of being flattened. However, just as she was about to turn around, the clothes on her body suddenly caught fire. Before she could jump in alarm, a stream of water poured down from above, extinguishing the flames and freezing her into a block of ice!
"Which bastard doesn't have eyes? Didn't you see I was setting fire? How dare you use water!" A shout came from somewhere on the street, but the response was several powerful jets of water like water cannons!
One building was sliced into several pieces and collapsed, crashing toward the multi-player life-or-death game on the ground!
Seeing this, Painting Woman quickly shook off the ice, gathered all the nearby paper, and propped the falling building aside.
The people trapped in the life-or-death game were temporarily saved. Among them, a rescuer fired at nearby players and shouted at her, "Run! Don't let them get the item...!"
But before he could finish, his head flew off—killed by someone unknown.
Painting Woman blinked, rolled all the flying paper into columns, and sent them like a rainstorm toward the players hiding in the buildings!
The hardened paper was as tough as steel, capable of penetrating even reinforced concrete structures. After a barrage of bombardment, some players hiding in the buildings had no choice but to jump out.
And this was exactly what Painting Woman was waiting for. She intercepted some of them midair and directly threw them into the multi-player life-or-death game.
The remaining players weren't much better off. Though they had dodged Painting Woman's attacks, as soon as they showed themselves, they were suppressed by the power of the life-or-death game. New black-and-white roulettes quickly appeared on the ground. Whether they liked it or not, once they entered this game, unless they broke out, they could only leave with a ticket.
This black-and-white life-or-death game, originally meant to cause trouble for Country X, had now become a sharp weapon to restrain outer-zone players!
The vanguard had fallen for the trap. Those who came later learned their lesson and kept their distance, attacking from afar. Painting Woman took several hits. She wanted to run over and drag out the people who attacked her, but just then, the electronic timer Xu Huo had set started beeping "di-di-di." She had no choice but to change direction, pretending to be forced back toward the skyscraper.