Chapter 1490: Beat Them Into Submission
The female player smiled. "Isn't it obvious? He can't fight us."
"Can you stop being cryptic and just say it outright?" someone from Grinding Stone Water Shop said impatiently.
"As far as I know, mental interference consumes a lot of energy for players. And since he's targeting so many of us at once, excessive mental exhaustion could lead to weakness or even fainting. That's a considerable risk for him too. But he's still taking that risk, which means he's not in a position to fight us directly. Considering he didn't want to leave after arriving, he's probably injured and has no choice but to stay."
"His all-out effort tonight was likely meant to scare us off, so we wouldn't come looking for trouble again."
That sounded plausible, but the Grinding Stone Water Shop person spoke up again. "And how can you be sure that person is injured?"
"Simple. We test it," the female player said. "I brought a few little things with me in advance."
She took out a glass bottle and tipped it onto the ground. Several young children tumbled out. She picked one up, pressing a blade against the child's throat as she called out to the inn, "Friend, we've come all this way and you won't even show your face? That's a bit unreasonable. You seem to like kids, so tell me—does he live or die…"
Before she could finish, a heavy thud sounded behind her. The female player turned in shock to see that all the people she had brought with her were now headless corpses. Two thin streaks of blood seemed to have cut through the air!
"Fall back!" The Grinding Stone Water Shop player immediately retreated. Golden Jade did the same. After putting distance between themselves and the female player and the remaining member of Swift Stream Water Shop, both sides stared at each other in silence. No one moved, and no one dared to run.
The female player stood frozen for several seconds before releasing the child in her hands. But at that moment, a figure appeared to be half-sitting on the second floor of the inn. Her eyes lit up, and she charged straight toward the shadow. However, the moment she entered the inn, she and another player from Clear Spring Water Shop, who had somehow appeared there, stabbed each other through the chest. Both collapsed to the ground.
The others present had also seen the shadow on the second floor. Judging by its posture, it seemed to be exhausted… But the female player's death proved it was just a trap—possibly another illusion.
No one was foolish enough to charge forward anymore. As for avenging their fallen comrades at any cost? That was completely unnecessary.
Only one person—the player still staring at his cousin's corpse—charged up to the second floor in a blind rage. A second later, he stumbled back down as if he couldn't see, turning his weapon on the remaining players.
It was clear this was meant to force them into killing each other, but with things as they were, the Golden Jade Water Shop and Grinding Stone Water Shop players had no choice but to fight.
It was many against one. The outcome was predictable.
After the two groups had dealt with the maddened player, they hesitated, unsure whether to leave. Then, a figure appeared again on the second floor.
"As I said before, I won't trouble those who don't trouble me. Don't come again. Next time, no one will leave alive."
As the words faded, the oppressive aura that had been pressing down on everyone suddenly vanished. The street was quiet, but no longer eerily silent. The children hiding near the inn, the adults peeking from their houses in the distance, the cool sensation of the acid rain, the faint, hazy lights far away—everything had returned to the normal slums.
...
Except for the bodies on the ground.
The remaining players from the two water shops dared not look toward the second floor of the inn again. Silently, they carried away the corpses. After stepping out of their pre-set ambush zone, they counted their numbers. The four water shops had sent a total of thirty-three players. Only six remained. Swift Stream Water Shop and Clear Spring Water Shop had been completely wiped out.
The most terrified weren't Swift Stream or Clear Spring, but Grinding Stone and Golden Jade, who still had a few survivors. The only reason they were still alive was that Xu Huo wanted to let some witnesses go to spread word about the situation at the inn. Having witnessed firsthand the power of a Super Evolver, they had completely lost any will to resist. Their only wish was to peacefully send this person on his way.
This massacre had claimed many lives, but it hadn't lasted long. Each faction had lost several players, effectively crippling them. For a time, everyone was terrified, and some even considered fleeing.
After all, they were players. Even if they had to swallow their pride and seek a living elsewhere, it wasn't impossible—just not as free as it was in the slums.
"Let's wait and see," someone said. Even if it was just a slum, it was a place they had painstakingly built. Besides, this was a place where anyone with real power couldn't be bothered to look. Staying here was safer than the outside.
The storm had come swiftly and vanished like a bubble in water, leaving no trace. Even the buildings around the inn remained unchanged. If not for the bloodstains on the streets that couldn't be fully washed away, everyone would have thought it was a dream.
The next day, Xu Huo went out for his usual walk, but this time, he didn't head deeper into the slums. Instead, he walked outward.
Quite a few children followed behind him, unwilling to leave. Having tasted the bitterness of the world at such a young age, they barely dared to blink, afraid that if they did, he would disappear.
The slums were roughly divided into two parts. The inner area was controlled by several water shops, all roughly equal in strength, and together they had a considerable number of people.
The outer area had two factions: a casino and a dance hall.
Both places were player territories and served as entertainment spots for other players.
The young boy had escaped from the underground palace beneath the dance hall.
Originally, the underground palace and the casino had arranged for people to keep watch, so they couldn't have missed what happened last night. Naturally, they knew that within the half-hour of the swift battle, the water shops had lost that many players—and all without even seeing Xu Huo's shadow.
These two groups also became much more well-behaved, no longer daring to follow him so openly as they had the day before.
Xu Huo walked all the way to the mountain's exit.
Because he hadn't driven away the children following him, the group grew larger and larger. The adults, worried about their children, stopped them at the entrance of the slums when they saw Xu Huo step out, watching him with a mix of hope and anxiety.
They were both afraid that Xu Huo would leave and hoped that he would.
Children from the slums rarely ever walked out. The players who usually guarded the entrance were also gone. The children held up broken wooden boards or tattered cloth to shield themselves from the rain falling from the sky, peering through the murky air at the faint outline of the city in the distance, letting out soft gasps of wonder.
"That place looks really pretty," one child said.
Xu Huo paused for a moment before turning back. As he passed the entrance, a young man dragging his right leg smiled and approached him. "Sir, it's almost lunchtime. What would you like to eat? We don't have much good stuff to offer here—you must not be used to it. I'm a great cook. How about trying something different?"
Under the young man's nervous and anxious gaze, Xu Huo gave a slight nod. "Is there any fresh fruit for sale?"