Chapter 1969: Falling into a Trap
"Agor is a technology company with multiple subsidiaries that produce weapons, instruments, and research laboratories."
Whether it was potion formulas or weapon manufacturing, these were the foundations of Agor's existence. It made sense that they would arrange for players to provide tight protection. However, ordinary weapons were indeed inconvenient for players—it would be awkward if they fought their way in only to find a pile of weapons.
"There really are some." Qiao Qiao circled a few more places he had filtered out. "These places are relatively normal, with proper names—they're legitimate enterprises registered with the city government."
"There are too many places," Xu Huo said succinctly. "What we're looking for are locations closely related to the East District players, preferably focusing on laboratories and training bases. The East District emphasizes mental health. If they're going to conduct special training or modifications on players, there must be a large number of psychotherapists accompanying them."
"Hospitals," Lin Cao said. "Psychotherapists conduct regular physical check-ups. Other than that, they rarely leave the Agor headquarters. But it's not the time for check-ups recently."
"I do know of one place, though I'm not sure if it counts." The Black Coat spoke up at this point. "A few days ago, a large number of inspectors gathered in the West District. Ostensibly it was for training, but they were actually sent into a trading company."
"Aren't inspectors ordinary people?" someone questioned. "Would Agor Corporation waste potions on ordinary people?"
"Not necessarily," Qiao Qiao said at this point. "Maybe they think using players for experiments is too expensive, so inspectors are just right."
In Jade Spring City, inspectors who took evolution agents and underwent certain training were more obedient and cooperative than ordinary people, making them indeed more suitable experimental subjects.
Everyone was silent for a moment, then quickly made a decision.
"Let's go with this place. If we've got the wrong location, they're just inspectors anyway—it won't be too much trouble."
"But if we hit the right spot, we'll hit the jackpot!"
Of course, not everyone held a "take it or leave it" attitude. Lin Cao said, "Honestly, this is a waste of time. It's clearly a place with a very low hit rate."
However, he had miscalculated one thing: most of the people gathered here were actually here for the excitement. Their real goal was still to clear the instance. As for the special evolution potion that might or might not exist for East District players, it would be great to get it, but no big deal if they didn't. In other words, unlike those who had left, they weren't so determined to have it.
"How about this: those who want to go can go," Old Zhou said. "There's no need to have a disagreement here."
Hearing this, Lin Cao no longer insisted on his own view. The group of twelve headed toward that trading company.
Four directions, three people each. Among them was a player who had evolved an invisibility trait. Under the cover of another player skilled in operating instruments, he entered the trading company first. After stealthily affecting the surveillance equipment and alarms, he notified the others outside to hurry in.
However, just as they entered the building and before they could get their bearings, they were caught by space rays. The moment their bodies were locked in place, everyone realized they might have come to the right place. So the next second, they each took out their items to escape as quickly as possible.
It wasn't just the interior of the company that was sealed off, but also the streets outside. Therefore, items that couldn't exceed this range had very limited effect. Before the twelve of them could break free, twelve semi-transparent, door-like objects appeared in the air. These twelve rectangular prisms covered them respectively, directly pushing them toward the large wall at the center of the trading company.
What looked like a wall was actually hollow. The metal panels used for camouflage on the outside split to both sides, revealing four spacious rooms before their eyes—in fact, this was exactly where they were being pushed.
The twelve people were dispersed into different rooms. The moment they entered, the spatial force pressing around them disappeared, and the rooms quickly descended.
"Is this an elevator?" Qiao Qiao, locked in the same room as Xu Huo, spoke up. "There really is something fishy here!"
Unfortunately, it wasn't as good as they had imagined when they came—it was a blatant trap!
The elevator was going underground. The players weren't about to sit idly by, so before the elevator could settle, they tore apart the ceiling and floor respectively.
When the floor was broken open, light shone through. Xu Huo and the others knew there were people waiting below, so they immediately jumped upward.
However, the East District players lying in ambush around were prepared. They immediately used items to seal off the space above. When a heavy force pressed down on Xu Huo and the others, pushing them back underground, a thin beam of light cut horizontally across the entire elevator shaft, slicing the room in two!
The elevator hadn't reached the bottom. The lower half fell directly, and then a dense swarm of armed robots surged in, blocking the bottom and bombarding them wildly.
Modified metal panels could minimize the damage of explosions to the building. The players trapped in the middle, even under the protection of defense items, were jostled by the frequent explosions and gunfire to the point where they could barely hold onto their items.
"Damn it!" Old Zhou charged out first. He wrapped himself in several layers of defense barriers, then stuck a gravity item on himself, directly smashing his body into the armed robots, sweeping away a large number of them!
The bombardment temporarily stopped. But before Xu Huo and the others could descend, they saw several long shadows flash past below, like dancing whips. When they landed, they saw more than a dozen metal suction cups attached to ropes flying out from the front. Old Zhou, who was in front, had already been entangled. After these things activated their barriers, they directly adhered to them. In just a few seconds, they could dissolve a layer of item barrier. After breaking through the barrier, they either directly adhered to the next layer or directly sucked onto the items worn by the players. With one release and one retraction, they could weaken the players' strength!
In fact, it wasn't just the front—there were also left and right sides. But because Xu Huo's group had many people and used various defense items in a concentrated manner, they hadn't completely fallen into the encirclement.
"Smooth as a ball!" Qiao Qiao threw a spinning flying knife into the middle. The knife flew out and circled around them, immediately cutting off all the retractable suction cups nearby. But before they could catch their breath, more came from behind. At the same time, hundreds of high-intensity bright lights lit up, surrounding them tightly from all sides.
Under the intense light, not only could they not see whether there were players lying in ambush in the distance, but they couldn't even clearly see the retractable suction cups flying close. Forcing their eyes open only stimulated tears to flow.
"I've checked—there's a blockade barrier behind the machines. The East District people aren't inside!" a player said while dodging the retractable suction cups and putting on glasses. But in the moment he was distracted, a bullet flying from a corner pierced through his defense barrier and his head together!
Thanks to readers Zhang Xian and Shen Hui Yi for their tips. The players now have six leaders!
(Chapter End)