Chapter 1881: Who Told You Your Luck Was Bad

Chapter 1881: Who Told You Your Luck Was Bad

That player naturally also had instruments, but just as he took them out, Xu Huo used his new trait "Memory Flashback," causing the other's expression and movements to freeze for an instant. In that instant of pause, Xu Huo brought him away from the Player Tower to an abandoned building a kilometer away, and while trapping him in a tangent line, used "Harmonious Atmosphere" to disable his items. At the same time, he raised Space Ray Blades that pressed against his throat and chest, piercing into his body everywhere except the throat, ensuring that as long as the man moved, these blades would instantly puncture his internal organs.

However, Xu Huo was somewhat surprised to find that this player was a Super Evolver. His skin was rapidly repairing itself even as it was injured, showing a tendency to grow around and encase the Ray Blades.

This caused the player unbearable pain, as the newly grown skin was repeatedly cut by the blades. Though the wounds were small, the blood loss multiplied exponentially.

The man stared at Xu Huo with hatred in his eyes. "What exactly do you want?"

"The numbered xenomorphs that first appeared in Zone 010—where are they being raised now?" Xu Huo repeated his question.

Hearing this, the player was startled and suspicious. "Why are you looking for those xenomorphs?"

"What do you think?" Xu Huo said. "By now, those xenomorphs only have one value left, don't they?"

"You want to find the person who released the xenomorphs into Zone 010." The player said with certainty, then paused before adding, "I advise you not to bother with this idea. That xenomorph has been locked up here for many years, and to this day, I haven't found any leads. It's absolutely an experiment unknown to anyone. If you were the one releasing xenomorphs for experiments, would you let others find clues?"

The man's voice lowered. "Besides, so many years have passed. Who knows what stage the experiment has reached? The xenomorph might have undergone significant changes in appearance, making it impossible to trace."

"Do you have any leads?" Xu Huo walked up to him.

Hope flickered in the other's eyes. "I'll tell you what I've found. Let me go."

Xu Huo glanced back. "That's hard to say. I promised Zone 010 I'd help them. Since you're a core member of Sand Sea, keeping you here would definitely cause them trouble..."

Before he could finish, the man interrupted urgently, "I actually want to clear the game too, even if it means entering a high-risk instance. This place—you have to think twice just to drink a sip of water. It's not fit for human habitation. Not just me, but Brother Xia and the others all want to leave. We just can't. We were forced to join the Sand Sea Safe Zone just to live a little better... If Zone 010 wants to take back the safe zone, there's no need to fight us to the death. Honestly, who owns the safe zone doesn't matter much to us. If Zone 010's people take it back and don't target us, I absolutely won't interfere!"

Xu Huo just smiled. "If all outer zone players were as reasonable as you say, the Sand Sea Safe Zone wouldn't have been in outer zone hands for so many years."

"I believe you have no goodwill toward those cannibal players, but the moment someone dies, you immediately target Zone 010 to consolidate your power. It's hard to believe you'd risk leaving or being replaced."

"I don't know about the others, but I really want to leave," the man said. "Since I can't break away from this district anyway, why not let me go first, and we can talk about the xenomorph matter clearly."

His clothes were almost completely soaked in blood, and his demeanor seemed weak.

Xu Huo frowned slightly, as if considering his words. But just as he stepped closer, the man suddenly spat out a fine needle from his mouth. The needle shot straight toward Xu Huo's brow, passed through a suddenly appearing barrier, was intercepted by a square-shaped item, and then fell to the ground and disappeared.

The sound of blades piercing flesh rang out in succession. Xu Huo looked down at the ground before saying, "That item of yours isn't bad. It can even penetrate an A-grade defense barrier."

The player, now pierced all over, stared at him with wide, furious eyes. His body kept convulsing, and as he fell, the tangent lines nearby severed his hands and feet.

"Do you feel wronged?" Xu Huo crouched down to look at him. "You think your item could break through an A-grade defense item, so it should have killed me, right?"

"Who told you your luck was bad? If it had been someone else, you might have succeeded."

Only after the man died with hatred did Xu Huo retrieve a notebook on xenomorph investigation from his luggage compartment. As the man had said, he had done extensive research on xenomorphs, including but not limited to: cross-referencing xenomorph genetic traits across different zones to narrow down the search range, posting photos or purchasing information from Under Dimension to pinpoint where this type of xenomorph had appeared, publicly selling live xenomorphs and screening the list of bidders one by one...

Although they couldn't leave Zone 010, buying information from Under Dimension was very convenient. With some money and time, most of this information—except for the bidder list—wasn't hard to verify.

But as the man himself had said, these numbered xenomorphs had appeared too long ago. Over twenty years, in many zones, through many sales channels, and even on train tracks, people had seen similar xenomorphs. Some looked alike, some didn't. The similarities might indicate a common origin, while the differences could be due to the general similarities and differences between different types of xenomorphs. It was impossible to trace the specific source, let alone find the person who released them.

However, the notebook did record several laboratories under the name of Stellar Pharmaceuticals Group. These had all been screened, and their security measures were indeed very tight. But they were often located in relatively prosperous zones, where the environment wouldn't allow xenomorph experiments.

The environment wouldn't allow it? Xu Huo raised an eyebrow at this part. The game had long-range teleportation instruments, but this technology was still blocked by the game. Even if some zones could purchase cross-zone or cross-wormhole teleportation instruments, they all had usage restrictions. But these things could indeed be mass-produced. Would Stellar Pharmaceuticals Group lack a place to conduct xenomorph experiments?

The best places to openly conduct xenomorph experiments would be those abandoned zones, wouldn't they? High-risk instance teleportation points often saw groups of xenomorphs appearing. That couldn't be a coincidence.

But that raised another problem: abandoned zones might not have generated instances, meaning there was no way to reach them by ticket. To go there, one would have to go through Stellar Pharmaceuticals Group's channels.

Glancing at the circled laboratory locations on the page, Xu Huo put away the notebook and left the building. He went to the southeastern corner of the city and found the xenomorph that had been deliberately moved due to the increasing number of outer zone players.

Good, it was still alive and kicking. (Chapter End)