Chapter 1488: Inn Night
After finishing the account book, Xu Huo began his mental power training again.
Through attempts in the past few days, he had already expanded his precise control range from five hundred meters to six hundred meters. Within this range, as long as there were no special seals or obstructions, he could move freely and accurately perceive the situation within it. The barrier that had previously blocked his hearing also seemed to have loosened somewhat. In relatively close areas, he could capture sounds while observing.
Moreover, within this range, his mental burden was not too great.
With this consolidation, he could continue to expand the scope of his spiritual realm today.
The rain outside gradually intensified before nightfall. Some of the children gathered outside the inn left, while others remained in the small alleys, using broken wooden boards as shelter. The innkeeper, who had been kind enough to offer a meal, locked up and left after driving them away once, but when that failed, he simply went on his way.
Nights in the slums were inherently dangerous, especially with an outsider staying at the inn. Players wouldn't care whether there were bystanders nearby when they fought.
After nightfall, the light on the street grew even dimmer. Whether due to age or disrepair, the streetlights near the inn suddenly went out. Then the small light on the second floor of the inn flickered twice before gradually dimming as well. With the light source gone, this entire stretch of street was plunged into deep darkness.
The children in the alleys shrank their bodies, not daring to move or make a sound, not even daring to breathe heavily. They didn't know that someone had arrived near the inn, but they instinctively felt fear.
Players came and went, one after another. Some took the lead, others provided mid-range support, and still others kept a greater distance, not only to observe the situation but mainly to guard against other factions taking advantage of the chaos to strike at them.
About four factions had arrived. Spread out, each side didn't have many people, and those taking the lead were even fewer—each side only sent one or two.
The first to sneak into the inn was a man with a lightning bolt tattooed on his head. He silently opened the door to a second-floor room, only to find it completely empty. Just as he was puzzled, his companion behind him fired a shot at the doorway. "Are you blind? The guy's standing right in front of you, and you can't see him?"
The lightning-tattooed man was stunned as he watched his companion charge into the room, firing wildly at empty air, then break through the second-floor floorboards and roll down to the first floor. Bewildered, he said, "What are you doing? There's no one here!"
The man on the first floor was furious that his companion wasn't helping and was pretending to be clueless. He turned around, only to find that the person who had been right in front of him moments ago had vanished!
"Hurry up and find him!" he shouted upward before leaping out of the inn.
The lightning-tattooed man found it all absurd but followed him out anyway. To his shock, in the span of a few steps, there wasn't even a shadow of a person outside!
At the same time, he realized with horror that the people who had been lurking nearby had all disappeared without making a single sound. A chill ran down his spine. Not daring to call out, he quietly slipped into a street alley to hide.
"Why isn't there any movement?" The two who had taken the lead went in, but the inn remained completely silent. This puzzled the other three groups. Worried that someone might be hogging the spoils, four more players rushed toward the second floor—two through the windows and two through the door. They entered at the same time, but the two sides never encountered each other.
Those who entered through the door searched from the first floor to the second, while those who entered through the windows searched from the second floor to the first. Neither side saw the other!
The two groups, having swapped positions, couldn't help but feel a chill of fear. Their instinct was to run out, but after they had gone only a short distance, the people beside them had also disappeared!
Two of these four were together. When their companion vanished silently, the remaining one called out the other's name in a low voice.
Whether it was an illusion or not, the bald middle-aged man now felt that the streets and alleys around him were especially deep and long. Even with night-vision goggles, they seemed to stretch endlessly. Similarly, the companions who should have been supporting them from behind were no longer in their original positions.
"What's happening..." The bald man grew frantic. Just as he was about to continue searching, he suddenly heard a faint sound from a corner not far away. Holding his breath, he approached. Only after using a defensive item did he dare to reveal himself. But what appeared in his field of vision was the back of a child.
Seeing it was just a child, the bald man relaxed slightly. But then he realized that a child shouldn't be out this late. In that moment of hesitation, the child turned around, his mouth full of blood, grinning at him...
The bald man was shaken. Seeing the child walking toward him, he instinctively turned and bolted out of the alley. But to his surprise, the child followed him like a shadow—a child keeping pace with a player was abnormal enough, let alone appearing out of nowhere every time he thought he had shaken him off!
Running wherever the path led, the bald man had no idea where he ended up. But as he turned out of one alley, he saw his companion being killed by the combined attack of two players!
"Grindstone! Dash! How dare you break the pact and kill!"
With that, he charged at the two with his item, and they clashed.
The other two were baffled. They had only come after hearing sounds while searching for their own companions. Who would have thought that the bald man would attack them on sight? Seeing blood on him and what seemed to be a corpse in the alley, and with their other companions missing, the two players from Grindstone Water Shop and Dash Water Shop didn't hold back. They joined forces to take him down.
Not only that, but after the bald man was killed, the Grindstone Water Shop player also took the opportunity to kill another Dash Water Shop player. Pulling the dagger from the victim's heart, the Grindstone Water Shop man sneered, "Since no one wants to keep the agreement, don't blame me for striking first!"
"Drip!" A large raindrop hit his face, followed by an even denser downpour. The man wiped his face, only to find his hand covered in blood. Stunned, a thick, nauseating smell of blood invaded his nostrils. He looked up and realized this wasn't blood rain at all—it was the players from the water shops, along with slum dwellers, all hanging in midair, being drained of blood like funnels!
This shocking image filled the man with terror. Fearing he would be next, he fled without looking back. But after running blindly, he found himself back in front of the inn. Just then, the lightning-tattooed man emerged from nearby and approached him. "Have you seen the others..."
Before he could finish, a line of blood sprayed from his throat, and he collapsed to the ground.
The Grindstone Water Shop player gasped for breath, shifting his gaze from the body on the ground to the one in midair. Two identical faces briefly drove him to the edge of madness. He tore off his night-vision goggles, closed his eyes, and relied solely on his sense of direction to navigate.
It was the right choice, but he lacked the strength. His sense of direction and tactile perception were equally distorted. Within seconds, he found himself back in front of the inn.
(Chapter End)