Chapter 1841: Reasonable and Normal
Aside from Chang Shoujie and the others, the pink-haired and black-coated individuals present were unclear about Xu Huo's true intentions. The black-coated group had used props to create a sandstorm in order to shake off Deng Xiahei and his team and kill Xu Huo. Clearly, this trip had not gone as they had hoped, and Xu Huo, who had gone along with the flow, seemed to have held back his strength.
When their eyes met, the black-coated group decided to retreat.
However, the long-distance teleportation prop that had been unusable earlier was still unusable now. Xu Huo lightly spun the black blade in his hand and said with a faint smile, "Don't be in such a hurry to leave. Now we can really get started."
As he spoke, several waves of sand rose from the ground, not only swallowing up Chang Shoujie and his companion but also scattering the black-coated group.
"Don't trust what your eyes see—this is mental interference!" the black-coated man shouted to warn his companions, simultaneously pulling out a jamming device. But at that moment, a thin beam of light swept down from above. He reflexively ducked, only to be tightly surrounded by a combination of trap props, sneak attack props, and direct frontal assaults. The props he wore were all used up within ten seconds, including two life-saving items.
Life-saving props generally had limited uses, so after exhausting them, he tried to use his trait to interfere with Xu Huo. However, amidst the still-falling dust and rain, a layer of mist suddenly appeared. His trait was intercepted in various ways and almost completely failed to take effect.
With his trait ineffective, the prop confrontation seemed to be a losing battle both in terms of level and quantity. Moreover, his advantage in evolution rate became negligible as Xu Huo deliberately kept his distance. Unable to even get close, he was left standing in the distance like a target dummy.
At first, the black-coated man frequently changed positions, hoping to wait until Xu Huo's props were exhausted before closing in for an attack. Unfortunately, after running several circles around the man without seeing him stop, he realized that Xu Huo wasn't simply reusing high-level props—because prop usage might last for a short period, requiring one use to end before the next could begin. But Xu Huo's prop usage frequency was so dense that he could use two or three items within a single second, and sometimes the effects of the props would even collide.
Thanks to him, the black-coated man, serving as a moving target, seemed to have become the subject of a machine gun.
Seeing that Xu Huo showed no sign of stopping, the black-coated man felt both hatred and envy. He also realized that this couldn't continue, so he decided to retreat and regroup with his companions. However, just as he reached them, the "young player" turned around and stabbed him directly in the heart.
Injured, exhausted, and distracted, the black-coated man never expected his companion to turn on him. But when he looked up, the face before him had transformed into Xu Huo's.
His body felt as if it were being suppressed inside a container, unable to move. The black-coated man couldn't help but say, "Don't kill me—I can tell you the clearance clues..."
Xu Huo smiled. "I treated you kindly, yet you wanted to kill me. You have no sense of trust. I have nothing to say to someone like you."
"Didn't you say there are no eternal enemies?" the black-coated man tried to persuade him. "My life isn't worth much... I can give you props, and all the clearance clues I know..."
"There are no eternal enemies because dead people can't become enemies." Xu Huo withdrew the black blade.
The black-coated man fell to the ground dead. After smoothly collecting his belongings, Xu Huo turned to look at the other side.
The pink-haired woman had also successfully dealt with the young player. Deng Xiahei, Wu Ge, and the others were done as well. Of the six in the black-coated group, only one survivor remained.
This person was smart enough—he hadn't revealed his ability to move beneath the sand earlier. When his companions were mostly dead, he dove headfirst into the sand. Ordinary attack props couldn't deal with him easily because it was hard to pinpoint his position from the surface. Even if props could strike dozens of meters deep, they might not necessarily hit him.
"He's digging pretty fast," the pink-haired woman said, finding it amusing. She pulled out a mechanical rat and set it down, grinning. "Let's have a race."
The mechanical rat was half an arm's length long. As soon as it hit the ground, it quickly burrowed into the sand and vanished from sight.
"Will it work?" Deng Xiahei asked.
"Absolutely no problem," the pink-haired woman said with malicious glee. "This mechanical rat loves biting people's butts—and I mean really biting."
Recalling the two rows of metal spikes on the mechanical rat's mouth they had seen earlier, Deng Xiahei and the others couldn't help but feel a sense of physical discomfort.
Xu Huo looked at Gao Dawei and Chang Shoujie, who were standing nervously to the side.
"This wasn't us deliberately deceiving you. Who knows what you wanted Dr. Joyce for? What if it was harmful to Zone 010?" Gao Dawei shielded Chang Shoujie, insisting that Chang Shoujie's lie was justified.
Xu Huo naturally didn't blame them. If Chang Shoujie regarded Dr. Joyce's research as his only hope, how could he have revealed it just to save his own and Gao Dawei's lives?
Chang Shoujie sighed. "I underestimated the young people of today."
He had been locked alone inside the painting frame, not even coming out for meals, so he had no idea how much time had passed. After being released, he was thrown into the midst of battle and had already missed the Polar Safe Zone. Given the dangerous situation and his miscalculation of Xu Huo's strength, he had been forced to reveal the instrument's information to Gao Dawei.
"If I still refused to speak in that situation, what would you have done?" he asked Xu Huo.
"Mental interference might not be very effective on someone like you. If you really refused to talk, then so be it," Xu Huo said.
Chang Shoujie frowned, and Gao Dawei was even more skeptical. "Really?"
"Of course it's true," Xu Huo said. "Even if you couldn't help me, you're still a respectable person. Since I could predict that you would rather die than speak, why would I kill you for an answer I couldn't get?"
Not only Chang Shoujie and Gao Dawei, but even Wu Ge and the others fell silent.
"It's been a long time since I've heard such reasonable and normal words in the game," the pink-haired woman said, shaking the sand off her head with a beaming smile. "If it were me, I would definitely kill someone to vent my anger."
"So this was all a setup," Deng Xiahei said with some emotion. "Going through all this trouble just for Dr. Joyce's whereabouts?"
Xu Huo fixed his gaze on Chang Shoujie. "Dr. Joyce should have been working on reproduction experiments. What did he say in his last message to you? Did he succeed with the degenerated xenomorphs?"
Chang Shoujie was slightly surprised but quickly calmed down. "So you know quite a bit."
Hearing about reproduction experiments, Deng Xiahei and the others roughly understood that Xu Huo's instance wasn't directly related to Dr. Joyce but rather to the results of his experiments.
"Has a newborn appeared in Zone 010?" Juan Er couldn't help but ask. "From what Old Xu means, was the newborn born from a xenomorph? Was it xenomorph and xenomorph, or... could it be human and xenomorph? Would that make it a xenomorph or a human?"
(Chapter End)