Chapter 1627: Is There No End to This?
The surrounding players looked at him with some confusion, and one said, "Are you still dreaming? Who are you threatening with that broken knife?"
Hearing this, the Cannibal Player not only showed no doubt but gripped the knife even tighter. "I've seen through your tricks. Don't come near me, get lost!"
As he spoke, he began to run toward the exit of the mall.
Just then, someone kicked a short stool toward him. The Cannibal Player dodged it without looking back and charged straight out, vanishing from everyone's sight in a few flashes, showing no intention of tangling with them.
"Is this guy crazy?" someone couldn't help but ask.
"Isn't this a mental-type Instance? Going crazy is pretty normal." A player yawned and mumbled, "Who knows who'll be next to go mad."
Whether they were crazy or not remained to be seen, but the people around started yawning in twos and threes, a wave of drowsiness sweeping over everyone.
"If this keeps up, we'll all fall asleep eventually. Might as well do something else," someone suggested.
They brought out all kinds of entertainment props and tools. Some played cards, some sang, and a few men and women who had taken a liking to each other found a secluded corner to entwine... But even this deliberate excitement couldn't hold out for long. Within two hours, the noise died down, and they had to start wandering around the mall again—they didn't dare go too far, afraid of being targeted as prey by players who had already left.
A dull and endless day passed. When night came again, more than half of the people in the mall couldn't resist finding a place to sleep. On Xu Huo's side, Tong Qi had already fallen asleep, while Young Master Mo and Scarface Glasses were preparing to take shifts for sleep.
But this shift system didn't last long. When most people entered a sleeping state, those responsible for security found themselves growing exceptionally tired just sitting guard. No matter what methods they used to stimulate themselves, they would soon habitually sit or lean somewhere and doze off. By the late night hours, only five people were still awake.
It seemed that as time went on, the idea of trying to hold out until the end became increasingly impossible.
At three in the morning, the person from Zone 013 beside Xu Huo suddenly disappeared. Even though he tried to grab them the moment he sensed something was wrong, he still came up empty. The ropes tied around the Zone 013 person's hands and feet fell to the ground as empty loops.
Frowning slightly, Xu Huo leaned back, his gaze fixed on the lighting prop hanging from the mall ceiling without moving.
After sitting still for a few seconds, his figure vanished from the spot, reappearing a minute later.
He had already dealt with the player who had sneaked back near the mall during the night.
Scarface Glasses paused his carving of a wooden doll and looked up at him. "Are you going back to sleep? You sleep more than the rest of us. Is that okay?"
"It's fine. Leave the outside to you," Xu Huo said.
Scarface Glasses nodded. "Don't worry, no one will get in."
Taking out the phone booth, Xu Huo returned to the dream once more.
This time, he didn't do anything else. Using the stationmaster's identity, he called the police to arrest the two families. But in the dream, those useless people were incompetent—by the time they arrived, everyone was already dead.
So he had to find a journalist who appeared at the station and reveal his plan to assassinate the stationmaster, hoping they would make the truth public afterward.
The journalist was exceptionally dedicated. Not only did they immediately contact colleagues to find the two families, but they also sent people to stake out the stationmaster's residence.
This time, someone managed to pull the six people off the tracks. Given their special status, there was no interference during the process.
At this point, Xu Huo thought he had succeeded. But to his surprise, forty minutes after the scheduled departure time, he was back on the ticket counter.
With no other choice, he first had someone rescue the two families and made the assassination time public—two hours after he found the journalist.
This time, someone called the police. By the time he reached the stationmaster's residence, the place was surrounded inside and out. The two families had been taken to the police station and were presumably being interrogated.
Getting close to the stationmaster wasn't easy, but it wasn't entirely impossible either.
After spending some time creating chaos, he mixed in with the police and entered the stationmaster's house. But to his surprise, the person inside was a body double. He then enjoyed a "handcuffs-over-the-head" treatment and was taken to the police station.
At this point, the dream still hadn't ended.
The interrogator was an experienced old policeman who pointedly asked if he had been bribed.
Xu Huo looked at the person whose half face was hidden in the shadows and smiled. "He deserved it."
Then he made up a story about trying to bribe the stationmaster only to be stood up. Before the other could slam the table, he was back on the platform.
This time, the beginning followed the same routine. But through the journalist, he learned the stationmaster's transfer route, tracked him down, subdued his protectors with some effort, and threw the stationmaster off the building in front of media cameras. He then scattered pre-printed flyers about the track accident and how the stationmaster had used connections to alter the autopsy results.
However, just as everyone looked down at the flyers on the ground, they suddenly raised their heads in unison and stared straight at him—including the stationmaster, who had already died from the fall.
Looking down at these faces from above, Xu Huo said expressionlessly, "Is there no end to this?"
The next second, darkness consumed his vision. A black corridor appeared before him, the suffocating dustiness making him uncomfortable. He stepped forward, and as his pace quickened, fragmented images gradually emerged from the black walls: someone gambling in a casino, children playing in a park, clouds drifting across the sky, cars speeding through heavy rain—all scenes he seemed to have seen or felt vaguely familiar with.
Xu Huo knew this might be psychological inducement, but he couldn't help his thoughts drifting back to that rainy night years ago. In his memory, Xu Zhi had died from a stray bullet, so the image that appeared was the moment the bullet flew toward him...
The details in his memory were magnified infinitely. Even from a distance, under those conditions, he could still see the anger and disappointment on Xu Zhi's face. But the next second, a bullet pierced his head. The powerful impact made his head shake left and right before tilting to one side...
He shouted and crawled over to pick up the person. The warmth of Xu Zhi's body hadn't faded yet, but he would never open his mouth again...
Xu Huo punched the black wall in fury, but his fist broke through the darkness and hit the phone booth, snapping him back to reality.
"Bang!" The phone booth let out a dull thud. He yanked the door open and rushed out, only to find the mall filled with toxic gas. Spotting a figure in the corner of the mall, he moved over and grabbed their shoulder:
"What are you doing?"
(Chapter End)