Chapter 1459: The Most Vengeful Super Player in History
Although the traps in the passage were aimed at players, most of them were not highly destructive. After all, this was a passage at the bottom of the mountain. If it were severely damaged, the entire mountain could collapse.
Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu didn't take long to reach the heart of the mine. Scattered inside were many broken puppets and puppet-human corpses, but a small amount of bloodstains led from the battle site deeper into the mine.
The two exchanged glances and were about to approach the passage when, unexpectedly, a gray dust cloud surged out from within. As the dust covered their field of vision, a figure quickly darted out from it!
Without needing to think about who was running out, Xu Huo was the first to use a Space Barrier to seal the passage. Da Mao, who had deliberately stayed behind, completely ignored the interference of the dust cloud. It pounced from mid-air, directly slamming the person to the ground. A crisp sound of bone cracking was heard, and the next second, the person was sent flying back.
Duan Cheng, who was flying toward Xu Huo and the others, forcibly changed direction in mid-air. However, he had been injured while fighting the puppet-humans, and his arm had been broken by the stone lion. Under this double blow, his speed was greatly reduced. The dust cloud also failed to achieve its expected effect. So when he landed and before he could steady himself, a black blade was already pressed against his neck.
Unable to leave the instance and trapped in such a narrow space, Duan Cheng had no way to escape. He immediately raised both hands in surrender. "Let's talk this out."
Yan Jiayu picked up the knocked-over lamp and deliberately held it up to his face. "So it's you."
Duan Cheng's face darkened. "Since you followed me and Li Kun here, we all know the score. Why pretend to be clueless? This is a mine. There are plenty of ores inside. I can't take them all by myself. You don't need to keep your eyes on me."
"You sought us out for cooperation beforehand. Was it for this mine?" Xu Huo suddenly asked.
Duan Cheng didn't expect him to be so sharp. He said bluntly, "Indeed. Before I came, I knew there was a raw material mine here, but it had already been taken over by others. I found you to share the risk and split the gains. Although I had some selfish motives, it's not unreasonable. I can't possibly take away an entire mine in one go. You'll also get something out of it."
"That sounds nice," Yan Jiayu exposed him. "You didn't know the ins and outs of this place, so you wanted us to take the lead."
"When there are benefits, you have to take risks. Isn't that only natural?" Duan Cheng didn't see anything wrong with his approach. "Besides, I provided the information channel."
The only miscalculation was that the number of puppet-humans here didn't match the number he had learned about. At least half were missing, possibly having left with the ores.
"There's no point in wasting time here," Duan Cheng said. "Soon, more puppet-humans will return, and then it'll be another fierce battle. As long as we can get some ores, it's a win, no matter how many. Besides, we can always come back another time."
He meant to persuade them to take what they could and leave.
While he was speaking, Xu Huo had already used his vertical pupils to inspect the several mine tunnels opened deeper in the passage. There was a considerable amount of black ore stored inside, but he didn't see the most beautiful gem.
"The puppet-humans have a white gem. Hand it over, and I'll let you go," Xu Huo said.
Duan Cheng's expression changed slightly, but his tone remained calm. "I haven't seen any white gem. Go in and look for yourselves..."
Before he could finish, the black blade slit his throat.
After a moment, Yan Jiayu asked, "Is there a most beautiful gem?"
"No," Xu Huo had already checked Duan Cheng's belongings. "Time was short. He didn't even take much black ore."
"Then let's hurry up and search," Yan Jiayu said, turning toward the passage ahead. "He just saved us some time."
The mine tunnels had plenty of ready-made black ore, haphazardly piled in boxes and on the ground. Some of it had been sorted and was clearly of better quality. Beyond that, deeper in the tunnels, there was still unextracted black ore in considerable quantities.
Excavator 114 began working, but there was no way to load all this ore into the luggage compartment. Selling it on the spot was also out of the question. So Yan Jiayu used the bounty platform to first trade the black ore to Tu Xiaoxiao, asking her to find a place to store it. "We'll split it when we get out."
Xu Huo had no objections. His main goal was to find the most beautiful ore.
Nearby was a simple room, likely where the puppet-humans rested. Judging by the number of daily necessities inside, the puppet-humans guarding the mine were probably not just the ones they had encountered. Some must have temporarily left.
The two of them were clearly not enough. Xu Huo brought out both the housekeeping robot and the combat robot to help. The former was mainly responsible for cleaning up the battle traces and corpses inside and outside the passage, including puppet remains and some damaged items.
The passage that had just been buried also needed to be cleared.
"We didn't leave much trace during the fight just now. Do we really need to dig it out again?" Yan Jiayu said carelessly.
"It's better to be careful," Xu Huo said. What he wanted to destroy were the puppets and puppet-humans.
Excavator 114 stopped mining the ore and prioritized clearing the half-collapsed passage. Xu Huo carefully examined the recovered puppets and puppet-human corpses.
Both types had a string of numbers on them. The puppets' numbers were mostly inside their abdominal cavities, while the puppet-humans' were on their arms. The numbers on the puppet-humans' backs indicated that they were indeed players, and all three types of players were represented.
Looking at the puppets on the ground, Xu Huo had a vague sense of foreboding. He photographed the number inside a puppet's abdomen, cropped out the middle part, and posted it on Under Dimension. Soon, he received an anonymous reply.
"If the poster photographed this from a puppet, then congratulations. You've had a close encounter with a possible super player."
"My advice is to destroy the puppet and run away immediately. Because the puppet might have video memory functionality, or at the very least, a tracking device. Although anyone can use this font, under normal circumstances, everyone avoids using it, especially on puppets."
"Because the one who mass-produces these puppets is the super player known as the most vengeful and tirelessly vindictive in the history of the game—the Box Carrier."
"It's said that years later, he might suddenly recall the way someone looked at him and specifically go to massacre that person's entire clan. If you've damaged his puppets, poster, may fortune be with you."
After deleting the post and closing Under Dimension, Xu Huo's expression darkened.
He had dealt with the Box Carrier a few times before.
In the Block Fairy Tale City station, he had used a Smiling Puppet to lure the Box Carrier into dealing with the advanced player who had been tracking him from Zone 014.
The second time was at the Si Fang Palace station. The Si Fang Palace had mechanical men provided by the Box Carrier. At the time, he and the other players in the instance had speculated that the Box Carrier had a trade relationship with the Si Fang Palace boss. So when he left, he deliberately left the Paper Servant Master's tracking paper airplane behind in the instance. Later, the two of them had a fight, just as expected.
(Chapter End)