Chapter 1817: Not Quite Understanding His Motives
Insects? Or mutant plants?
Just as Xu Huo was about to take a closer look, Brother Lou up ahead suddenly vanished again. Watching the expanding sandification on the ground, he took out the "Cabin in the Storm" and quickly pulled the players from the small city inside.
Brother Lou had probably gone underground, and the position might be quite deep. Xu Huo couldn't directly sense his exact location, but he could roughly determine it from the flow of the sand. The other party circled around to behind him.
With a series of "puff puff puff" sounds, hidden weapon props continuously shot out from the sand, surrounding Xu Huo in a full 360 degrees and striking the protective barrier without pause. After a few seconds, just as the "Inviolable Domain" barrier failed, Brother Lou suddenly reached out from the sand, grabbed Xu Huo's legs, and pulled him downward.
However, Xu Huo only sank a little before stopping. While still in the clamped embrace, he pried off the "Perfect Assist" ring from the knife handle, released his grip, and let the black blade fall, stabbing into Brother Lou's hand, which was equipped with a defense prop.
Stabbed by the black blade, Brother Lou quickly sank back deep into the sand. Xu Huo was lifted into the air and, after a moment of silence, said, "You can let go now."
The combat robot obediently released him. Xu Huo's arms were free again. He turned to look at this not-so-bright robot. "Next time this happens, you can grab my shoulders."
"According to the safety manual, a bear hug from behind carries lower risk than grabbing the shoulders. It can avoid the possibility of bone injury while fully covering the protected person's back to prevent a secondary attack," the robot replied flatly.
"Makes sense, but my hands were also trapped," Xu Huo said.
"Regarding that, sufficient data shows that during rescue operations, if the protected person's hands are not also controlled, there is a 16% chance they will suffer arm fractures, dislocations, cuts, impacts, and other injuries..."
Before it could finish, Xu Huo interrupted, "Inflexible robots can only be eliminated."
The camera serving as the robot's eyes flickered at him twice. "I'm sorry, I cannot identify whether you are serious or joking."
"If you are serious, I will modify the robot protocol and abandon protecting your arms in the next rescue."
"If you are joking, hahaha."
The emotionless mechanical reading of the laughter was filled with a metallic, cold absurdity. Although Xu Huo knew this was a common flaw in ordinary robots, he thought that since they were cutting costs by removing the brain simulation mode, they might as well get rid of this not-so-smart function too.
He put the robot away and turned to see Brother Lou leap out from beside the "Cabin in the Storm," screaming and tearing at the dense white threads sprouting all over his body.
That's right—when the black blade stabbed him, Xu Huo had also dropped that glass shard down there. The thing melted upon contact with blood... So that's what it was.
He had seen this thing in the Encyclopedia of Mutant Species. Its full name should be "Life and Death Inseparable." It was a mutant plant, non-toxic, but terrifying in that it could quickly parasitize a human body and grow wildly. The parts that grew out wouldn't stay inside the body but would burrow out from under the skin.
The parts that emerged looked somewhat like thickened silk threads. They didn't grow singly but formed clusters automatically, were mobile, and had a certain stickiness. From a distance, they looked like a smooth head of white hair. But if this "white hair" sprouted simultaneously from all parts of the body, no amount of smoothness could offset the fear it instilled.
Besides squeezing out from every part of the body, its greater danger lay in frantically absorbing the host's nutrients to grow. It could quickly induce a feeling of "weakness" in a person, somewhat like the sensation of working nonstop all day and then being forced to stay up all night.
However, it generally wouldn't be fatal, because it matured very quickly. After scattering its seeds, the parent body would rapidly wither and turn into water in a very short time. So to keep it alive, the preservation method was very particular.
People generally wouldn't use this thing to ambush others. The effort of painstakingly preserving it and then going to the trouble of planting it on someone else was hardly more convenient than just using a poisonous insect.
It was hard to understand the motives of someone who would do this.
Watching Brother Lou frantically tearing at the things growing out of him, Xu Huo walked over with his knife.
Brother Lou hadn't completely lost his mind. He turned back, said, "You won't escape," and vanished from the spot.
He had probably run back to the safe zone.
Xu Huo didn't chase him. Instead, he turned back to the cabin to check on the injuries of the small city players.
The female player left behind was Tian Min. Lin Na had already been rescued by others, but the price was that the buzz-cut guy and the others had been left behind here.
B-level players had come to the safe zone. The small city side was at a disadvantage, but ending up like this could only be blamed on their weakness.
Without making any judgments about their actions and choices, Xu Huo released the few people from the cage, gave each of them an injection of self-healing agent, and waited until they were a bit more conscious before asking, "Is anyone coming to pick you up?"
"Uncle Fu will be back soon," said Tian Min. Her limbs were only dislocated, so her injuries were relatively light. She spoke with anger and hatred, "He will definitely avenge us!"
"Two more B-level players have arrived at the safe zone," Xu Huo briefly explained the situation. "Go back and recover first. We'll talk about the rest later."
Tian Min shook her head. "The safe zone has lost so many players. They definitely won't let us go. They'll find every way to force us to submit and work for them. With so many of us injured, this is their chance."
One more B-level player could shift the situation to some extent. Two more would make the small city very dangerous.
"The person with the black snake tattoo on his face that you're looking for—I know where he is," the buzz-cut guy struggled to speak at that moment. "No one in Zone 010 welcomes him. He's been lying low for years. Although Zone 010 doesn't have many people, the area is vast. Finding him won't be easy. If you're willing to help us, I will definitely tell you where he is."
"He's not in the small city," Xu Huo said, staring at him.
"Of course not," the buzz-cut guy said. "Wherever he goes, he stirs up the locals to resist players from other zones. But you've seen the level of Zone 010. Even B-level players are rare. How could they possibly be a match for those outside-zone players? Many safe zones and camps have had their resources drained, and players have been sacrificed on top of that... Although he wants to reclaim control of Zone 010, in the eyes of people like us, he's more like someone using others' lives to gain fame. That's why no one welcomes him, and no one wants to see him."
"He hasn't come out in recent years. Even the locals might not be able to find him."
The buzz-cut guy stared intently at him. "If you help us, I will definitely take you to him."
"I'm willing to believe you're telling the truth." Xu Huo sat down in a chair, wiping the bloodstains off the black blade as he spoke. "But you've forgotten one thing. When it comes to negotiating terms, we are not on equal footing."
Some people die, but not completely...