Chapter 1403: Support and Instance

The Magic Man imitated the combat style of a real magician. Although it only had half of the behavioral patterns, it could still hold its own against a not-weak A-rank player. Moreover, the greatest advantage of the mechanical man was that it could bypass many items, and its tight, efficient one-minute combat was enough to restrain the Gentleman player. During the process, Xu Huo used "Holder's Demise" again. This time, the Gentleman player didn't block it in advance with his staff notation, so the metal bead injured his forehead.

After seeing blood, the Gentleman player could no longer maintain his persona. Enraged and humiliated, his facial features began to twist—literally. For some reason, the mask he wore on his face started to peel off along with his twitching facial muscles, gradually twisting into a mess.

That fake face was no longer recognizable. The Gentleman player ripped off the skin and threw it to the ground. Then, spreading his arms wide, he gathered all the floating lines together, condensing them into a large cylinder, and swung it toward the Magic Man!

"Bang!"

The line cylinder pressed against the Magic Man's chest, pinning him against a metal wall on one side. But an instant later, the line cylinder uncontrollably pushed forward—the Magic Man's time limit had expired, and it automatically disappeared from the air. The Gentleman player, his target lost, turned back to look at Xu Huo.

That face, how to describe it...

"Very distinctive," Xu Huo gave his evaluation.

Although the Gentleman player's original face wasn't exceptionally handsome, it was definitely above average. Under the mask, this face had small eyes, a wide mouth, and particularly developed body hair. At first glance, the entire face looked bluish. Combined with an unfriendly expression, it almost didn't need a vicious look to evoke the word "hideous."

However, this rude comment about his appearance clearly angered the Gentleman player. The look in his eyes toward Xu Huo was filled with killing intent. No longer caring about his image as before, he became like a beast unleashed, using both hands and feet to leap over obstacles in the factory, changing attack positions unpredictably.

Xu Huo's expression turned serious. The Gentleman player had likely undergone Super Evolution himself. When moving in an animalistic form, his speed far surpassed before. He was already a B-rank player, so his speed was definitely not weak. This animal form was more suitable for close-range attacks. Every time there was a gap in the staff notation's attack, he would appear, and from extremely tricky angles—twice, he came from below!

The Gentleman player had been commissioned to come to the New District Government City, likely targeting those clones. Judging by his solo fighting style, he probably wasn't aiming to capture them alive. If the end result was death anyway, the method didn't matter much. He was currently enjoying his performance. If pushed too far, he might detonate all the mechanical men in the city and blow everything up.

But Xu Huo didn't want that to happen. The pharmaceutical factory and the experimental products that couldn't be exposed in the city wouldn't necessarily all be destroyed in the explosion. If highly reproductive toxins leaked out, the disaster wouldn't be limited to just a few cities. And Zone 023 lacked the ability to clean up the aftermath. Even if the aftermath of this attack could be settled, it would come at a huge cost.

While fending off the Gentleman player's attacks, Xu Huo observed his condition. Earlier, to defend against the toxins in the factory, he had not only worn a protective suit but also maintained a defense barrier externally. This was to prepare for a singing performance, in case the outside of the suit was covered in toxins when he wanted to open his mouth. But after the mask fell off, he directly omitted both barriers, moving actively in the toxin-filled air without any defense and yet not getting poisoned.

"Bang!"

The Gentleman player flashed in and interrupted his thoughts. Xu Huo, along with his barrier, was knocked into the wall behind him. Turning to avoid the staff notation shooting directly at him, he used several items in succession, but none took effect. After taking another kick from the opponent, he retreated to a more open area and simultaneously activated "Goalkeeper" and "Snowflakes Falling."

"Snowflakes Falling" was a trap item, while "Goalkeeper" could reflect others' attacks. These two items were very suitable for buying time, especially "Goalkeeper."

But what Xu Huo didn't expect was that the Gentleman player didn't approach at all. Standing at a distance, he sneered and began to move his fingers rhythmically. With his movements, all the staff notation lines floating in the air stuck to the ground and gradually converged into a single line. This line passed through the trap range, reached the edge of "Goalkeeper," and then circled around the ground, wrapping around the barrier.

"Single Forte!" The Gentleman player clapped his hands in the air. The rest symbol on that line emitted a strong vibration, starting from its connection point with the ground, completely shattering the "Goalkeeper" barrier!

The moment the barrier broke, the surrounding staff notation quickly closed in, pressing against the building to form a small cage shape. Although it didn't look dense, every line had an enlarged rest symbol!

Xu Huo sensed danger, but his path forward was blocked, and he couldn't retreat from this encirclement in time. So he could only use the Cube Space to pull up a space barrier as much as possible, while using blades formed by Space Rays to interfere with the staff notation.

"Dong!"

The shockwaves from consecutive vibrations caused the space barrier around Xu Huo to show afterimages. He himself nearly lost consciousness under this impact. Forcing himself to stabilize, he couldn't help but dry heave. The layers of protective barriers and the interference of Space Blades had an effect. Although the impact was strong, he wasn't too seriously injured.

The Gentleman player raised his two short eyebrows high. "Let's see how many more you can take!"

More lines converged, and a sound-amplifying item appeared in his hand.

Xu Huo squinted, weighing whether to escape, when suddenly a large amount of colored paper scattered down from the factory corridor. His expression relaxed slightly, and he activated the random instance "Seventeenth Hospital."

The Seventeenth Hospital, which hadn't been used since its upgrade in Zone 014, descended upon the factory. Starting from the center of the factory, it rapidly spread outward, pulling not only Xu Huo and the Gentleman player into the instance but also all the New District Government players who were originally trying to break into the factory. Except for the mayor, who had retreated to a safe zone to command, and a few elite high-level players like the Gold Badge, almost everyone was caught.

Since the instance space overlapped with real space without interfering with reality, it looked as if the pharmaceutical factory had suddenly been cleared, leaving only the mechanical men that had fallen back into a commandless state and the toxins temporarily sealed within the metal walls.

The sudden change made the Gentleman player alert for a moment, but he relaxed upon hearing the instance notification. Just a low-level random instance.

"Is this the backup you called?" He mistakenly thought the random instance was the possession of the newly arrived player, speaking dismissively. "A D-rank instance?"

(Chapter End)