Chapter 1502: People With Leisurely Energy to Meddle
"Seeing how well you two were getting along, I really thought you were going to introduce him to the Mayor." Ji Minzhang leaned against the doorframe. For safety's sake, he used a silencing item when he spoke.
Shaka glanced back at the two people sitting with their backs to him. "Let's talk outside. Don't linger here."
They went out into the hallway. The players who had followed Ji Minzhang out of the city to pick people up were all there. Seeing them fully armed, Shaka couldn't help but frown. "Such a big fuss, are you trying to tear this place down?"
"That 'friend' of yours is no ordinary person," Ji Minzhang said.
Shaka knew that, of course. Otherwise, he wouldn't have risked bringing Xu Huo to see the Mayor. "I'm no match for him. I can only trouble the Mayor to step in."
He reached out and brushed his hand over the walls and door, which were made of special materials that blocked mental power. "Once he's inside, he shouldn't be able to get out for a while. How's the situation outside the city?"
"A lot of people have shown up. They're from Rain City." Ji Minzhang gestured with his chin toward the room. "Let's deal with this Xu first, then take care of them."
"Not yet for now," Shaka said. "He hasn't been under the Mayor's influence for long, and he's wearing defensive items. Acting rashly might wake him up, and then it'll be a mess to clean up."
Ji Minzhang was unimpressed. "Just a C-grade player."
"Trust me on this. Forget that he's a dual-direction super evolution genius—just his mental evolution alone could have you running in circles. The building over there can't block his mental power at all. If we'd turned hostile just now, we'd be the ones dead first," Shaka said.
Ji Minzhang didn't understand. "Since he's so strong, why not just make up a story and send him on his way? Why bring him to see the Mayor? Is it because he's also a mental evolver, and you have other plans?"
Shaka gave him a cold look. "Do you think someone with the leisurely energy to meddle in other people's business in the game is that easy to fool? He won't leave. It's just that time is short, and he hasn't gone to other cities to verify things. The moment he leaves Central City, he'll find the fastest way to confirm whether what I said is true or false."
"Your story... isn't entirely false," Ji Minzhang said. "Central City and the other cities are indeed sworn enemies."
But that was the result of mutual competition for resources. There was never any mutual benefit or cooperation. Zone 01's gathering point had been a place of survival of the fittest since its founding. Central City was just the strongest wolf to emerge from the pack.
An enemy growing stronger would only weaken them.
"First, deal with those two who entered the city. They should be from Rain City as well." Shaka's voice was heavy. "As expected of Mayor Song. She dares to show her face at the slightest whiff of blood. But she's miscalculated. I will never allow anyone to disrupt the current situation in Central City!"
The other players present felt the same way. Ji Minzhang reminded him to be careful, then took half the people and left.
Shaka waited outside the door for a few more minutes before re-entering the room. He stared at Xu Huo's back, slowly circling around to his side. He stopped when he saw Xu Huo blink.
After half a minute of tense vigilance, he finally relaxed his mind. But just then, the person sitting on the sofa suddenly turned his head. "Is it just to restrict the development of other cities that Central City limited the water supply?"
Shaka was startled and instinctively attacked Xu Huo. But to his surprise, the item he used seemed to stretch out its activation time like a slow-motion movie. Moreover, the power of the item, which should have been invisible to the naked eye, now had a concrete trajectory and shape. In an instant, all kinds of colors exploded in the air, blocking his vision and also obscuring Xu Huo's figure.
Unable to see the person on the sofa clearly, Shaka instinctively blocked himself in front of the Mayor. "Xu Zhi, I have no intention of killing you. Just leave Zone 026!"
Before making his move, he had already notified the people outside. But the room where the Mayor was located was heavily affected by mental power. He was worried that his own people might be caught in the crossfire if they came in. So he quickly turned around and said, "Mayor, I'm about to leave. You can rest now."
But the Mayor's mental power did not subside. Instead, it seemed stimulated and became even more vigorous. This change was also clearly visible due to the visualization of the power.
"...This isn't real!" Shaka realized, staring at Xu Huo. "Am I inside your mental world?!"
"That's impossible!" He immediately denied it after speaking. "If I had entered your mental world, I wouldn't have felt nothing at all!"
Xu Huo was still sitting, but his posture was much more relaxed than before. He leaned back against the soft leather. "Do you know what a common misconception among mental evolvers is?"
In Shaka's silence, he continued, "It's thinking that they are less likely than ordinary people to fall into someone else's mental world. When you released your mental power, didn't it occur to you that your own mental world could be enveloped and penetrated?"
Shaka still thought it was impossible. "There's no way a trick like this could fool me!"
As he spoke, he suddenly drew a knife and slashed at his own arm. But to his surprise, the moment the item knife touched his skin, it exploded into a cloud of colorful mist—items were real, tangible things. If even an item could disappear, it only proved that his reality had become completely blurred. He could no longer distinguish whether what he saw and touched was real or fake!
"Impressive!" Shaka materialized the core of his mental world—a giant water sphere—and sent it hurtling toward Xu Huo!
Unfortunately, although he successfully trapped the person inside, the one in the water sphere showed no reaction. Then, a door with a distinctly different ripple appeared on the flowing surface of the water sphere. The door panel was transparent, the handle was transparent. Xu Huo reached out, twisted it, and opened it.
Shaka knew he was absolutely no match for him. His people still hadn't come in. He immediately thought of retreat. But when he turned around again, he found that the person sitting beside him was gone!
"How dare you touch the Mayor!" he roared in anger.
Xu Huo was unmoved. Instead, he asked, "Locking up an old man who has lost his autonomy as a tool here, and you still call him Mayor?"
Xu Huo had known the room was a trap the moment he entered. The old man Shaka had described as eccentric and bad-tempered did have traces of mental power flowing through him. But judging by his expression and basic reactions, he was not a normal person. He only responded to Shaka's words. When the "switch" was flipped, he automatically released mental power, and a massive amount at that.
Combined with what Shaka had said earlier, this Mayor had likely become like this due to overuse of mental power or brain damage. Although he was still the Mayor in name, he had basically been reduced to a puppet, used only to eliminate potential enemies for Central City.
"Does Central City have any B-grade players?" he asked.
Shaka did not answer this question. He waved his hand and exploded the water sphere, letting the flowing water flood the entire room. As the water passed over one corner of the room, he sensed something unusual. He wrapped himself in the water, simultaneously throwing out a jamming item to destroy the mental world, and then charged toward the door!
(Chapter End)