Chapter 1518: No Matter How Bored You Are, Don't Court Death
Military and armed police units continuously departed from the eastern edge of the city, filling in the positions of their fallen comrades. Everyone prepared for sacrifice, with no energy left to tend to the city's interior. Government personnel had already lost control of the situation, and fear and the will to survive had sparked another wave of disaster. The sounds of crying and pleas for help momentarily drowned out the alarms.
"...How could we possibly be a match for these monsters..." Some players in Dingtan City remained, but facing so many xenomorphs, they couldn't help but feel fear. "This is no longer a situation a few players can turn around. Going there is just suicide..."
Some succumbed to instinct, shedding tears as they witnessed their compatriots die. Others broke through their fear of death, attempting to use their own bodies to buy their families and friends even a sliver of a chance to survive.
"Kill one, and there's one less!" A player rushed to the front of the convoy, shouting, "We can't let these xenomorphs trample and ravage our homeland!"
The xenomorph swarm was already very close to Dingtan City. Neither the military nor the players could make a significant impact. More people became food for the xenomorphs, shattering the courage of those who remained. Some turned their vehicles around and fled toward the city, but they were caught within seconds, torn apart along with their cars.
"A human tragedy, tsk tsk." A black-clad player standing on the rooftop of a nearby building shook his head as he watched the events outside the city. Noticing Xu Huo's gaze, he turned his head and said, "Faced with this situation, even we are powerless."
"How do you know without trying?" Xu Huo countered.
The black-clad player showed a flicker of interest. "Want to make a bet?"
"Sure," Xu Huo accepted his challenge. The next moment, he vanished from the rooftop and reappeared above the moving xenomorph swarm in the blink of an eye.
"Mini Mushroom Cloud" descended, and "All Things Want to Cut Everything" stretched into a straight line at its maximum limit. Like slicing tofu, it cut through from the front of the xenomorph formation to its middle, felling hundreds of xenomorphs in an instant. Before the xenomorphs on either side could flee, the glowing "Mini Mushroom Cloud" emitted a blinding white light and exploded right in the center of the swarm. As a massive mushroom cloud rose into the air, the shattered xenomorph corpses in the center splattered bloodily for over a kilometer!
After these two strikes, the xenomorph swarm visibly shrank by a small patch. The horde charging toward the city also deviated from its course due to the explosion of the "Mini Mushroom Cloud."
The Tangent kept shifting positions and working diligently. Since Xu Huo controlled it remotely, he could change its location at will. Within the range of the Spiritual Realm, any xenomorph that showed its head was promptly harvested, greatly slowing the swarm's advance.
Xenomorphs weren't completely oblivious to danger. They instinctively avoided places they perceived as threatening, so the ones at the front constantly adjusted their direction.
"Impressive!" The black-clad player followed. Like Xu Huo, he hovered in the air and threw a net downward: "Sweep them all up."
The net, which didn't look very large, fell from the air to the ground. Spreading out in front of the xenomorph swarm, it automatically enveloped the nearby xenomorphs. The creatures passed through the net as if they felt no obstruction, but after running about a hundred meters, their bodies split into grid-like chunks of flesh.
That net seemed to possess a peculiar allure. Despite the corpses of their kind ahead, the xenomorphs behind couldn't help but rush toward it, batch after batch falling before the net. The black-clad player only needed to slightly adjust the net's position.
"Creatures without intelligence are both terrifying and pitiful," the black-clad player remarked, finding time to chat with Xu Huo. He sighed, "When they devour people, they're more horrifying than monsters or demons. But when you kill them, it's like slaughtering fattened pigs—completely unchallenging."
Thanks to their intervention, the number of xenomorphs was rapidly decreasing. The armed forces on Dingtan City's side also rallied, intercepting some scattered xenomorphs to prevent them from entering the city.
The cooperation between the two sides was fairly good. So far, not a single xenomorph had breached Dingtan City.
"Zone 017 is full of challenges everywhere," Xu Huo replied. "A ready-made battlefield with enough high-level players. Dingtan City is a bit small, but there are plenty of large safe zones."
The black-clad player laughed. "The point of a challenge is to control the risk while getting a thrill. Throwing your life away isn't a challenge—it's suicide. No matter how bored you are, you don't court death."
With that, he paused, noticing the xenomorph swarm clearly shifting toward Xu Huo's side. He moved first, killing a large batch of xenomorphs ahead of the Tangent, then said with a grin, "There aren't many xenomorphs left. In terms of numbers, I win."
"Congratulations," Xu Huo said sincerely, then turned to deal with the xenomorphs that had broken away from the group. After a moment, he added, "How about another competition somewhere else?"
"How?" the black-clad player asked.
"Have you seen the players who destroyed Dingtan City?" Xu Huo said. "I heard they went to the A7 Safe Zone. How about we see who can find them first?"
"Interesting," the black-clad player said, stroking his chin. "And if we find them, what then? Those two don't seem like easy marks."
Xu Huo smiled slightly. "Let's bet an A-grade item. Whoever manages to injure one of them first wins. The loser gives the winner the item."
The black-clad player didn't ask for the reason, acting purely on impulse. He readily clapped his hand in agreement. "Deal!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he pulled out a teleportation item. "I'll go ahead!"
Sensing the fluctuation of space power, Xu Huo knew the black-clad player had already left Dingtan City. After dealing with the remaining xenomorphs, he returned to the ground and retrieved chips from the bodies of several large-headed xenomorphs.
He then checked the other xenomorphs nearby but found no similar chips. The chips seemed to have been used only on these xenomorphs with specially mutated heads.
Installing chips meant they could be tracked. Whoever released the xenomorphs was monitoring their movements for some purpose. According to the T6 Military Base's data, the xenomorphs in Zone 017 hadn't shown significant mutations since their appearance. The types and characteristics of the initial xenomorphs were the same as now, so it probably wasn't to observe the swarm's evolutionary trends.
Perhaps the large-headed xenomorphs had something special about them...
Xu Huo crouched before the dissected corpse, carefully recording the features of the large-headed xenomorph and uploading the photos to the Under Dimension.
Generally, xenomorphs that survived possessed some form of enhanced ability—speed, strength, or perhaps exceptionally hard claws, teeth, or shells. Some could even evolve the ability to change skin color to match the environment or breathe underwater. Aside from their cannibalistic nature and lack of intelligence, the physical mutations of xenomorphs had reached an ideal state unattainable by humans.
And the increase in a xenomorph's power would be directly visible. Could it be that these large-headed xenomorphs had undergone some special mutation in their brains?
(End of Chapter)