Chapter 1834: Mixed Blessings
The person wasn’t dead.
The opponent probably also had a few decent high-level items. At the same time they were teleported to the underground ruins, empty cavities appeared out of thin air around them. That player took the opportunity to hide inside one of the cavities, avoiding the tangent lines, then punched through the building and returned to the surface.
The moment they emerged, they clenched their hand in the direction they had just come from. The floor they had been on was crushed and compressed by an invisible force, collapsing the entire level along with it.
Amidst the billowing dust, Xu Huo, whose sight and hearing had recovered, returned to the street between the two buildings. As he appeared, two attacks also came from the ground.
"Boom! Boom!" The "Inviolable Domain" barrier blocked the assault. When Xu Huo turned around, that player had risen from the ground into the air, right behind him. The item bound to their arm swung, and two enormous air blades, like guillotines, materialized out of thin air, each over ten meters long.
If a player reacted quickly enough, this wasn't considered too powerful an item, so that player had also used one item and one trait beforehand to lock down Xu Huo's movements.
Ordinary items weren't too hard to defend against; it was the bizarre traits that were difficult to prevent. So, when the first building was sliced apart, Xu Huo had already used "Dimensional Mist." When "Dimensional Mist" was activated, a mist-like substance would appear around the user. This mist had no physical defense or attack capabilities, but it could block traits and some item effects applied from a distance. Even if it wasn't one hundred percent effective, it was enough.
So, when the opponent tried to restrict his movements with a trait, Xu Huo only felt a slight resistance before smoothly escaping the range of the air blades. He circled behind that player through the Spiritual Gate and used several sneak-attack items like "Holder's Demise" all at once.
At B-rank, players would have at least one or two items for self-preservation in critical moments. Therefore, several of the sneak-attack items were blocked, at the cost of that player losing four items—the two sides were locked in a direct item clash. Xu Huo's sneak attack hadn't succeeded, but that didn't mean the opponent could escape unscathed.
That player also realized Xu Huo was a troublesome opponent. The moment their eyes met, the scenery around them suddenly changed.
Finding himself inexplicably moved to a nearby building, the man's expression shifted. The next second, he heard Xu Huo say, "Please sit."
Affected by the trait, that player involuntarily moved toward a chair that had suddenly appeared in the room. But just as he was about to sit down, the chair under him automatically sprang away, smashing through the wall and flying outward.
Seeing the person uncontrollably sitting on the ground, Xu Huo released the "Cube Space." With the instrument's assistance, he enhanced his control over spatial power, pulling up dense Space Ray Blades both inside and outside the entire building, surrounding the opponent from all 360 degrees.
When that player stood up from the ground, countless Space Ray Blades shot toward him like a volley of ten thousand arrows.
B-rank players' senses could already detect unusual changes in space, but since they couldn't see them and the range was vast, the man used several defensive items. Some defense barriers were destroyed, while others successfully blocked the attacks. But this didn't alleviate any pressure. So, after glancing at Xu Huo, the man used a Space Teleportation Item to escape from there.
Feeling the trajectories of the Ray Blades that had been broken or bent by the forcibly opened teleportation channel, Xu Huo once again experienced the wondrous sensation of upgraded Spatial Super Evolution power. With the assistance of the "Cube Space," he could easily capture the trajectory of the Space Teleportation Item. Similarly, the space teleportation channel also opened a space barrier to protect the user, ensuring their safe and rapid passage through space. In other words, the space teleportation channel was somewhat similar to a space barrier, so the protection formed by the teleportation item also had its own level.
However, the teleportation item was too fast; even if detected, it was difficult to intercept. Unless two time-space items interfered with each other.
Putting away the "Cube Space," Xu Huo walked to the window. Following the tracking chain formed by "Target Lock," he looked into the sky. From the arc of the chain, the opponent hadn't left the CK22 Safe Zone.
"Are you okay!" Gao Dawei and Ye Xiaoshan and the others caught up. Looking around and seeing no one else, they asked whether the person was dead or had escaped.
Before Xu Huo could answer, Deng Xiahei returned from a distance, looking disgusted. "They sure run fast."
"Was their feint just to get rid of Brother Wu and the others?"
"They were probably trying to split us up, but we didn't fall for it." Xu Huo said, taking out his communicator. Sure enough, he immediately received a message from Juan Er. The four of them had been teleported to the other side of the city. After one person died, the enemy had withdrawn.
"Looks like there are quite a few players hiding in CK22." Deng Xiahei looked at Xu Huo. "All B-rank players."
"From the current situation, the other side has at least five people. From the fight, they're all B-rank strength. Finding them isn't hard, but killing them all won't be easy either." Xu Huo said. "As long as they can't break us apart, they're out of options."
The enemy had come with the intention to kill, but they were slippery in a fight. As soon as things went wrong, they immediately fled. This was a mixed blessing. The downside was that tracking them down would be troublesome, and if the enemy didn't want a fight to the death, it would likely drag on for a long time. The upside was that they were extremely cautious about their own lives, backing off at the slightest hint of significant risk. As long as the two sides were evenly matched, the enemy probably wouldn't keep coming to provoke them.
Xu Huo told Juan Er and the other two to come and regroup. This time, Brother Wu used his prop pen to draw a circle around them. "This can block attacks from space items. At least they won't be able to teleport people away as easily as before."
The large circle surrounded them like a shadow, moving with them, and could expand or contract, so they didn't have to huddle together.
Based on the city map provided by Ye Xiaoshan, they quickly found an underground laboratory. Because the area was so large, to save time, Gao Dawei, Deng Xiahei, and Brother Wu followed Xu Huo into the laboratory, while the others waited outside and kept watch.
What Xu Huo was looking for was simple: any recorded paper or data materials. No need to distinguish what was useful; just take everything with writing or numbers.
This wasn't a tedious task, because the laboratory had been repeatedly looted—by people and by Xenomorphs. Coupled with the passage of time, not much remained. Deng Xiahei was more meticulous, simply taking photos or videos of things that couldn't be pieced together.
There was definitely no information about Xenomorphs, but there were dead Xenomorph remains in the underground laboratory. (Chapter End)