Chapter 184: Player Chase
"How much?" Xu Huo asked.
"Two White Notes per flower," the girl quickly replied.
There were some loose bills placed in front of Xu Huo's car. He gestured with his chin for her to take them herself.
The girl's expression paused, and she said awkwardly, "Sir, could you hand me the money?"
"If you don't want to sell, forget it." Xu Huo made a move to roll up the window, but the girl hastily threw the flower into the car.
On guard, Xu Huo immediately pulled out the Crimson Sword. With a flash of the blade, the rose was cut in half, landing on the passenger seat as two severed snake segments. The snake head, still alive, shot toward him.
Swinging the sword to deflect the snake head, Xu Huo pushed open the car door and stepped out, using the String to block the fleeing girl.
The string wrapped around her neck, and she was dragged back to the car, her heels scraping the ground. Her strength and combat experience were clearly lacking.
Just as he was about to raise his sword to kill her, a strong gust of wind surged from the side. He reflexively raised the Ox Shield to block, but the next second, a strange force sent him flying. He retracted the String to absorb the impact and stopped ten meters away. However, the moment his feet touched the ground, a beast at least three or four times larger than an adult porcupine appeared before him. Its steel-cone-like back spines struck the Ox Shield, sending him flying a second time!
Xu Huo took the opportunity to leap into the air and cleaved the beast in two with a single stroke. But the bisected monster didn't spill a drop of blood. Instead, with a "bang," it shrank into two pieces of cardboard, flipping through the air with a porcupine pattern printed on them.
By now, the surrounding street scene had changed—he had unknowingly driven into an unfinished construction site. A burly foreigner was dragging the flower girl, running desperately with his back to Xu Huo!
Suddenly, a heavy rain poured down. Xu Huo stared at the "Friend" values floating above their heads, fluctuating between "5" and "6," and followed them all the way to a bustling bar street.
As soon as he pushed open the main door, he saw a room full of people with numbers above their heads, including Gu Yu and her two companions from the cemetery earlier. He turned and left immediately.
Zheng Liang suddenly appeared in front of him from inside the bar, wiping the rain from his face. "Xu Huo, I wasn't looking for you, but you've come to me yourself?"
Xu Huo raised an eyebrow slightly but didn't speak. Then he heard a lion's roar from behind. The two who had run into the bar burst out on a lion, smashing through the door, followed by Gu Yu and other players!
"Don't be afraid!" someone shouted. "You hurt someone and think you can leave?!"
"Move aside!" The lion charged straight at Xu Huo. The flower girl, sitting in front, waved frantically at him.
Xu Huo smoothly stepped aside. Zheng Liang, on the other hand, successfully moved forward to block the two. But unexpectedly, the lion slammed on the brakes, throwing its riders off before colliding with Zheng Liang. Under his fist, it turned into a playing card with a "bang."
"Playing me?" Zheng Liang twisted around to look at the two who had already run over ten meters away. He took two steps after them but stopped, refocusing his attention on Xu Huo.
"Good kid, after all these years, I finally have my chance for revenge..."
Before he could finish, Xu Huo suddenly vanished from his spot. The water splashes hadn't even settled when Xu Huo had already closed in on him!
Zheng Liang instinctively used his trait to dodge, but Xu Huo's move was merely a feint. He simply passed through Zheng Liang's position, speeding toward the fleeing pair.
Zheng Liang's face darkened. He called out to the players gathered in the bar, "Whoever catches him gets ten thousand White Notes!"
A dozen players cheered in response and charged into the rain after him.
"Are you all crazy?" Gu Yu shouted as she ran after them. Another player stopped her. "These people don't listen to anyone. They're using this chance to settle scores and compete for dominance, so they don't cause trouble among themselves."
Gu Yu snorted coldly. "I told you long ago, Xu Huo is the player who was with me in Decibel Town. He saved my life. He's my friend. What do you think you're doing by attacking my friend?"
The player shrugged. "That's Brother Qiao's exact words."
Gu Yu paused, her anger flaring even more. "With them, they're no match for Xu Huo!"
"Whether that's true or not, we'll only know after a fight," the player said. "If he's really as strong as you say, it's not impossible to recruit him into the organization."
With that, he waved dismissively and went back into the bar to drink.
Gu Yu stared at his back, then at the players lounging inside. The anger on her face gradually turned to disappointment.
No longer staying with these players, she drove off to chase after Zheng Liang and his group.
On the other side, Xu Huo was following the flower girl and her companion, with over a dozen people trailing behind him. These pursuers occasionally leaped over low shop roofs or used slow-moving cars in the rain as shortcuts. The three groups chased each other through the city streets, none willing to give up.
Zheng Liang was the fastest among them. He could instantly flash to Xu Huo's side from five or six meters away. Using this ability, he intercepted Xu Huo several times. But Xu Huo initially avoided him, and later seemed to predict his position, accelerating before Zheng Liang could get close, always keeping a gap of two or three meters.
"Xu Huo, stop right there!" he shouted from behind.
Xu Huo didn't look back. He casually kicked a trash can in the road, forcing the flower girl and her companion, who had been about to turn into a side street, back onto the main road. Then he suddenly sped up.
"He's catching up!" The flower girl had long since stopped running, relying entirely on her companion to carry her. She had enough energy to look back and, seeing him approach, frantically slapped her companion's shoulder.
The burly man casually pulled out a playing card and tossed it into the air. A giant cheetah appeared beneath them, carrying them forward at a sprint!
The cheetah was incredibly fast, instantly widening the gap between them and Xu Huo. But Xu Huo also accelerated. Though not enough to catch the cheetah, he was hard to shake off.
"Big brother, I just wanted to sell you a flower. Why are you chasing me?" the flower girl cried, tears of regret streaming down her face.
Xu Huo behind her said nothing, still following through the rain, occasionally toying with Zheng Liang and the others.
As Zheng Liang and his dozen companions ran, they began to mutter among themselves. They had covered nearly half the ring road. The two ahead occasionally used props to catch their breath, while the dozen of them took turns resting—some chasing, others taking shortcuts to block ahead. The only one who had persisted the entire way was Zheng Liang, but he was now exhausted.
Only Xu Huo had run from start to finish without stopping to rest. Despite intermittent bursts of speed and dealing with ambushes, he showed no signs of fatigue.
A player caught up to Zheng Liang, panting heavily. "Could he be a Cannibal Player?"
"You're more likely to be one than him. That kid's too cunning to fall for such a stupid trick!" Zheng Liang's face was pale, his voice trembling.
"Something's off," another player said, as Xu Huo once again blocked two players from a side road back onto the main avenue. Zheng Liang suddenly realized, "He's deliberately leading us in circles!"