Chapter 1522: A Sense of Deja Vu
The immense oppressive force drove the old man toward the ground. The black trench coat woman who had launched the attack raised her hand and drew a circle in the air. Two arcs of light formed spatial passages, appearing before her and beside the old man respectively. She didn't step through the spatial passage herself—she merely extended one hand into it, which also greatly reduced the time required. As her fingers pierced through to the other side of the circle, a tiny speck of light shot from her fingertips and punched straight through the old man's throat!
Whether in the eyes of the participants or the onlookers, the speck of light had indeed passed through the old man's throat, and blood even splattered out. But what happened next defied everyone's expectations. The old man, bleeding from his neck, turned his head to look at the black trench coat woman not far away... more precisely, he looked behind her.
A shocking scene unfolded. Behind the black trench coat woman, another old man had appeared, likewise staring at his counterpart from the other side. But this time, the five fingers that had just displayed such formidable power stabbed without any gap toward the woman who was only inches away!
The black trench coat woman's expression finally changed. A prop remedy forcibly pulled her away from the old man's side, teleporting her hundreds of meters away. Before she could even catch her breath, the skin on her neck began to shrivel!
She raised a hand and touched it, her face darkening. But unlike Li Li, she didn't have the chance to replenish with a self-healing agent, because the old man wasn't letting her off. The old man who had attacked her vanished, while the injured one appeared right before her eyes. With a single motion, he stripped off all the props she was wearing, then formed a pistol shape with his fingers and aimed it through the air. Several invisible bullets struck her heart, throat, and forehead in succession.
Despite using prop remedies immediately, the black trench coat woman's throat was still pierced through. However, like the previously shriveled skin on her neck, it began to heal in an extremely short time. At the same time, she lifted her left hand and slammed her right hand down heavily. The oppressive force that had previously pinned the old man once again crushed him toward the ground!
This couldn't completely suppress the old man—it only created a height difference between them. The old man looked up slightly, then suddenly turned around and grabbed fiercely at the air!
Li Li, who had been sneaking up from behind, was yanked out of thin air. His neck was caught, and his skin began to shrivel even faster than before. Yet he gripped the old man's arm, smiled faintly, and then slipped free.
The old man lowered his gaze and saw black mottled patterns appearing where he had been grabbed. This was a sign of bacterial infection, and because of his special constitution, the bacteria multiplied far faster than in a normal environment. In the blink of an eye, his entire arm had turned black.
Li Li had already retreated to a distance. "I've studied poisons my whole life. Dying from this would be letting you off easy!"
"Young man, you should listen to your elders' advice." The old man's expression was wooden. He raised his left hand and clawed five bloody gashes into his blackened right arm. As the flesh split open, his right arm began to shrivel just like Li Li's and the black trench coat woman's had before, quickly becoming as ugly as a withered branch. But astonishingly, as the arm shriveled, the spread of the bacteria slowed down.
Then he used the same trick again. A second figure appeared behind Li Li.
Having already seen this attack method once, Li Li was prepared. A beam of light in the form of a wind wheel immediately sliced the figure in half at the waist. Then the game console in his hand transformed into a toy shadow puppet stage.
Dozens or even hundreds of fine threads descended from the high sky, autonomously seeking targets below. The first to be targeted was naturally the old man, followed by the nearby black trench coat woman, and then the surrounding players watching the fight.
The exchange between the three had actually occurred in a very short time, so much so that some players caught in the crossfire had just crawled out of the rubble when they found themselves facing the threads descending from the sky. A few who weren't on guard were struck by the threads and instantly hung in the air. They stiffened like shadow puppets in a play, their limbs frozen, only able to sway with the threads as they were pulled upward.
There was nothing at the high point of the sky. The threads seemed to grow out of thin air. But when the first player was pulled to the end, he vanished along with the threads!
The players within the attack range were alarmed and uncertain. They hadn't seen any spatial entrance or the like above, but people couldn't just disappear for no reason. The unknown and the incomprehensible amplified the fear brought by this prop item. Everyone struggled desperately to break free from the threads, afraid of being controlled.
"Could he have escaped into the game?" someone speculated.
But several other players who had been hoisted up disappeared before the threads were fully retracted—that should have been the sign of using a ticket.
"Could it be a container prop?" another suggested.
Container props were not good news for players. Few people possessed them, but once trapped inside one, you'd basically stay there until you died. If you were lucky, death came quickly; if unlucky, you might endure a very long period of being neither human nor ghost. Even if you managed to escape by some miracle, you might miss the ticket instance and be teleported to a high-risk instance—high-risk instances for advanced players were upwardly compatible.
Fortunately, these threads weren't completely unavoidable. Though they had some penetrative power, they couldn't compare to the super prop in the city center.
Super prop. The white-haired old man had publicly declared it was a super prop. That alone was enough to tempt many. In fact, while the three had been talking, some had already headed for the city center, only to be met with a few faint gunshots echoing back.
Now the spectacle was over. The three, locked in a bloody battle, would inevitably fight to the death. To avoid being caught in the crossfire, leaving was the wisest choice. Even if they couldn't get out of the A7 Safe Zone, it was worth testing the super prop. Maybe while the three were busy fighting, there would be an opportunity.
The players gradually withdrew. The few players who had come out of the dessert shop with Xu Huo also planned to check out the city center. The female player with glasses wanted to call out to Xu Huo, but when she turned back, she saw him staring intently at the black trench coat woman. She paused briefly, then chased after the other players.
Xu Huo didn't leave, nor did he intend to. He adjusted his position, moving to one side of the black trench coat woman, observing her from a certain distance.
It seemed she was indeed the person who had shown half her face in the earlier video. A trace that shouldn't have appeared had appeared, indicating it was intentional. Perhaps it was a trap aimed at someone unknown, but coincidentally, he had stepped right into it.
The black trench coat woman also noticed him. Her wounds had mostly healed. Sensing the gaze of someone watching from behind, her eyes flickered, and she immediately activated a barrier prop!
Xu Huo was already moving. Using the power of "Cube Space," he opened a door directly on the barrier, moving without obstruction to behind her. There was still some distance between them when "Inviolable Domain" was struck with a heavy blow, and he was forced downward!
(Chapter End)