Chapter 1615: The Spear Turns on Him
Whether they were ticket players or non-ticket players, their situations were actually quite similar. The only difference was that ticket players who found the "Midsummer Night Star River" could leave directly, while non-ticket players might not have that option.
But for now, it wasn't yet time for the two groups to fall into disagreement.
"That's not necessarily true either. Think about it—the people from Brown Skin City left intact. Maybe 'Midsummer Night Star River' is actually a kind of antidote. The mental interference isn't fatal. Perhaps it's because this instance's environment is special that people slowly fall asleep to death. If you leave this area or obtain a special antidote, you can cut off the conditions for 'sleeping to death.' When the ten days are up, wouldn't everyone survive?" Tong Qi said slowly.
What truly caused people to panic from the bottom of their hearts was mostly ignorance. Because they were ignorant, they didn't know where to start. But after he said this, things suddenly seemed to become clearer.
"You've thought it through pretty clearly," Liao Xiaorong couldn't help but say.
Tong Qi smugly stuffed a piece of braised meat into his mouth. "Don't set your sights so far. Whether you clear the instance or not is secondary. Survive first, then talk."
"When it comes to clinging to life, I have plenty of experience."
Probably annoyed by his lazy, take-it-as-it-comes attitude, Young Master Mo said, "After reaching B-rank, most fixed instances, like random instances, have no time limit. If you don't clear it, you'll never leave."
Tong Qi was unbothered. "Then I'll just live in the instance long-term. No big deal if I don't level up."
Young Master Mo's face tightened. He opened his mouth as if to say something but ultimately held back.
Chi Xian beside him let out a snort.
After a brief rest, everyone put on their protective suits again and began searching the city.
They didn't find anything useful, but they did find several people who had died in their sleep—all ordinary people from District 013.
Additionally, there were two player corpses with signs of battle around them. All their items had been stripped clean.
"Are these people out of their minds?" Liao Xiaorong found it unbelievable. "Seeing people die in their sleep—don't they feel a chill down their spines?"
Probably because they thought all players in the instance should be like them, they couldn't understand why people would kill each other. With their lives on the line, what was the point of hoarding so many items?
"What if they don't even have an antidote?" Tong Qi, who had "nothing to his name," understood best.
The others fell silent, probably not expecting that there could be high-level players this destitute.
"Why bother figuring it out?" Young Master Mo sneered. "Short-sightedness is the nature of those... people."
It was indeed meaningless.
Casually picking up a nearby bedsheet or towel to cover the dead's faces, the group left the place.
By mid-afternoon, Chi Xian felt something was off. "Is it just me, or is today's fog thicker than yesterday's?"
"It's not your imagination. It really is," Xu Huo said, turning to look at Tong Qi and the others. "Feeling sleepy?"
Those who had slept the night before didn't feel much, but Liao Xiaorong, who had rested during the day, and Tong Qi, who hadn't slept at all, had long lost their earlier energy.
"The fog isn't the problem," Young Master Mo said.
He had been monitoring the fog's composition with his instruments.
"Maybe the entire instance's environment has changed," Chi Xian said, looking at Xu Huo. "Whether it's mental interference or something else, today is worse than the previous two days."
Xu Huo nodded. "Let's head back to the clock tower first."
The group quickly returned to the clock tower. As they had guessed, more players had gathered there. But not all of them came for cooperation. Led by Yi Jun and another B-rank player, the players present were basically split into two factions, occupying the inside and outside of the clock tower. The few Brown Skin City residents who had talked with Xu Huo and the others the night before had already been killed, their bodies discarded like trash a short distance away.
Beside the corpses stood or lay more than a dozen people from District 013, all forcibly brought there. The sleeping ones were unaware, but the awake ones were trembling with fear, not even daring to look up at the players.
Compared to Xu Huo's group of about ten, Yi Jun and the other B-rank player's faction had already grown to twenty people. It seemed some players who hadn't shown up yesterday had come out today, bringing the total of the two groups to forty.
Before Xu Huo and the others returned, these people had been in a standoff. But now, they all turned their attention toward Xu Huo's side.
Young Master Mo frowned. He didn't care about the dead—in his view, the District 013 people and the players who killed them were both inferior genes. The only difference was that the players were more troublesome.
"This has gotten beyond what we imagined," he said.
The next development was easy to predict. Xu Huo was indeed the only Mental Super Evolver, but wielding a sharp blade didn't necessarily make one invincible. It could also make one a target. It seemed the other players would rather coerce Xu Huo into obedience than place their hopes on an unreliable promise of cooperation.
Good. The few players who had returned with Xu Huo quietly stepped aside.
Now, only Young Master Mo and his companion, Chi Xian, and Tong Qi still stood with Xu Huo.
Young Master Mo and his companion chose to stay, first because they were willing to trust Xu Huo's strength, and second because Scarface Glasses believed he might not be able to protect Young Master Mo alone against two B-rank players. Teaming up with Xu Huo was better.
Compared to Yi Jun and his group, Xu Huo clearly had more principles.
Chi Xian, meanwhile, smiled and tapped his head. "I think we have a better chance of clearing the instance."
No matter how they found the "Midsummer Night Star River," anyone who survived would surely confirm one fact: they completed the final step while extremely weakened. This also matched the symptoms of "sleeping." Assuming someone could stay awake, Xu Huo undoubtedly had the greater advantage.
"I don't have any other reason. I just don't like the look of them," Tong Qi said, still stubborn despite not even having a decent escape item on him.
Xu Huo's use of the "Mini Mushroom Cloud" to blow up the street yesterday was meant to unite the players. He hadn't expected that while the players did unite, it was to turn their spears against him.
"I understand how you feel," he said, facing Yi Jun and the others. "It's just that once you become a powerful player, it's hard to bow to others—especially those weaker than you."
"Rather than trust, you prefer intimidation."
"Indeed, you have nothing worth offering that would tempt me, so you think it's better to have my life in your hands."
"But let me tell you all—you can't hold my life."
As his words fell, the entire clock tower, including the surrounding space, seemed to be covered in a transparent barrier. These barriers distorted space. Though they didn't completely block vision, both people and objects appeared slightly warped. And this wasn't just an optical illusion—it was a real barrier.
Earlier, to fully conceal his spiritual realm, Xu Huo had successfully created a "Confusion Barrier" around its perimeter. This "Confusion Barrier" was formed by stacking multiple space barriers, capable of cutting off space and confusing reality. Now, he didn't need to cover an area as large as his entire spiritual realm. A smaller-scale deployment could shorten the "Confusion Barrier's" formation time and split it into several layers to separate these people individually.
Of course, he didn't expect a single barrier to completely block them all. He just needed to buy enough time to deal with the two ringleaders.