Chapter 1765: A-Grade Siege
Before he could finish speaking, the "Life Flashback" intercepted another trait attack. At that moment, the jamming device flickered, and the voice of the old lady, a well-regarded storm factor practitioner, came through. "You didn't get away?"
"The jamming device you gave me is a bit unreliable. The government found me so quickly. Now I'm trapped in this city. The players stationed at the district government will probably be here in less than a minute. It would be really ridiculous to get caught before finishing the job."
The old lady's tone was calm. "Don't worry. They'll be going back soon."
"What?" Xu Huo looked at the players already appearing at the edge of his perception, pondering how to proceed with this situation, when he heard her reply: "I planted a backdoor in the district government's intelligent system."
Xu Huo wasn't familiar with the technical jargon of the storm factor practitioners in Zone 019, so he could only understand that she had tampered with the intelligent system that controlled and maintained the message collection terminal. He simply said, "I hope it's in time..."
Before he finished speaking, two players appeared before him. One brushed aside Old Mr. Yue, who was intentionally blocking him, while the other conjured a black short sword in his palm, which pierced straight through the "Flower Bloom" barrier before finally being stopped by the "Inviolable Domain."
The opponent probably hadn't expected him to block the attack, but that surprise was fleeting. The next moment, black spikes emerged from the space around Xu Huo, attacking the space barrier in rapid succession. The "Inviolable Domain" had a usage interval of three seconds, so such high-frequency attacks were unavoidable.
While dodging the two and retreating toward the corridor, Xu Huo activated the "Goalkeeper." After squeezing through the corridor, the barrier activated, temporarily reflecting the attacks of the pursuing player.
However, the opponent didn't let up. The dense attacks were so fast they were almost impossible to follow. Meanwhile, more players entered the sanatorium. Someone tore up the floor from below, and as Xu Huo fell, the "Goalkeeper" failed along with it.
The "Flower Bloom" barrier blocked the opponent for a moment, but even the best A-grade item couldn't withstand the relentless bombardment of a pile of A-grade items. These were all experienced high-level players. Although Xu Huo had been drawn into this matter because of the C-grade instance "Ember Maiden," they would quickly realize after engaging him that he was definitely not an ordinary C-grade player, and naturally, they wouldn't underestimate him.
This group coordinated closely. Most of them evacuated the sanatorium's residents, while a smaller group besieged Xu Huo. Under this human wave tactic, not only was breaking through the encirclement impossible, but Xu Huo couldn't even take a hostage.
At the same time, half a minute after the first player engaged him, the players preparing to surround him were replaced. They had probably all been swapped from B-grade to A-grade. All available space items and jamming devices targeting super evolution powers were brought into play.
Space items could temporarily fail under the effect of "Three Seconds of Life," but that also meant Xu Huo himself couldn't use lower-grade time-space items. So, when he returned to the sanatorium earlier, he had put away his super items.
There was no breakthrough regarding time-space items. As for the jamming devices targeting space and mental powers, they were installed across the entire city in an instant, especially around the sanatorium. This was probably standard procedure for dealing with outer zone players, but it caused Xu Huo significant trouble. The jamming devices targeting super evolution powers were highly effective. He tried several times to forcibly open his spiritual realm but failed, especially under such high-density attacks.
Without enough A-grade defensive items, Xu Huo probably wouldn't have lasted even two minutes.
After being knocked into the wall along with his defensive barrier yet again, the "Cube Space" finally adapted to the frequency of the surrounding space jamming. The moment he could control the rays, Xu Huo first destroyed all jamming devices within a five-hundred-meter radius of the sanatorium. The instant his spiritual realm was released, he brought the five A-grade players closest to him into the Library Tower.
Uncertain whether these people had mental power enhancements, and since they were all A-grade players, he didn't dare keep the Library Tower open for long. After creating a momentary disruption, he quickly retracted it and used weapons formed from materialized power to destroy three high-grade items.
After that, Xu Huo opened a door and broke out of the first encirclement.
The first encirclement surrounded the sanatorium, covering about a hundred meters. The second encirclement was a concentric circle, sealing off the area a kilometer from the sanatorium.
Since Xu Huo's spiritual realm wasn't fully expanded, he couldn't completely block the vision of other players. So, he tried to forcefully break through the line, slashing open the weapon barrier with the Black Blade before retreating back near the sanatorium.
Under the intense battle, the players who had been in the sanatorium had chased after Xu Huo upon detecting his movements. But they hadn't expected him to double back. Just as they were getting angry, they found him heading straight for the elderly residents who were about to evacuate.
As one of the evacuees, Old Mr. Yue refused to board the aircraft and controlled his security robot to fend off the players, shouting, "What do you think you're doing? Trying to silence us?"
The government players didn't have time to block the surrounding sounds. In fact, the area was too large, and high-grade items were flying around like bullets. Silencing items wouldn't necessarily last long. So, the old man's words were heard not only by the neighbors in the sanatorium and the medical staff taking care of them but also by the other armed robots in the sanatorium.
Over a dozen armed robots rushed out of the sanatorium, surrounding the elderly who were preparing to evacuate. Robot protocols all had priority clauses. The robots in the sanatorium, even the domestic ones, had their priority clause set to protect the elderly residents.
"What are you doing! Shut down the robot protocol!" a player yelled at the hospital director.
The director, still shaken, reflexively replied, "You have no right to interfere with the robot protocol!"
But the players weren't about to give him that courtesy. They immediately moved to seize the message collection terminal. The director hugged it tightly, refusing to let go. An elderly person nearby then controlled an armed robot to help, but a player swiftly decapitated it.
The players had killed an armed robot from their own district. The sanatorium's robots directly judged this as a crime. So, ten of the robots left only two to deploy shields in front of the elderly, while the others began attacking the players near the director.
The armed robots brought by the players, including those on the nearby streets, received new commands. However, armed robots owned by private individuals or companies were not covered by these commands—such as the sanatorium's robots and those purchased by ordinary citizens in the city.
Besides those on the ground, there were also those in the air. At that moment, a considerable number of aircraft had entered the airspace above the sanatorium. One of them, a fighter-shaped aircraft the size of a person, launched a jamming device. A laser beam shot out from the damaged part of the barrier covering the city, and after a few flashes of light, the barrier gradually disintegrated. (End of chapter)