Chapter 1992: City Lockdown
Jade Spring City was, after all, just a small city under a district, not a place of high productivity. The number and quality of players were average. Many of the players now working for Agor Corporation came from elsewhere. Thus, under the pincer attack from outer zone players and players from the same district, holding their ground until now was already a sign of considerable strength.
Therefore, after the defense line of the headquarters building was breached, aside from some elite players, the other advanced players had begun to gradually shift their positions.
Many outer zone players believed the East District players were showing weakness. This meant they could enter the underground facilities of Agor Headquarters and loot freely, so their offensive intensified.
It was at this moment that battles erupted from other directions in the city. Coming from three different directions, all roughly the same distance from Agor Headquarters, they formed a triangle when viewed from above, perfectly enclosing the headquarters at the center.
The timing was so coincidental that it inevitably aroused suspicion that outer zone or same-district players were taking advantage of the chaos to loot. However, the players at Agor Headquarters did not retreat because of this; they continued their fierce battle inside and outside the building. They would only shift their target once they were certain there was nothing more to gain here.
The onlooker sees the game best; the player is lost in the heat of battle. Most people only focused on what was right in front of them. If one surveyed the entire battlefield, they would notice that some East District players had shifted their combat focus after the previous explosion. Players on the periphery even directly disengaged and headed towards the direction of the explosion.
Furthermore, the Rebel Army had yet to show their faces. Regardless of whether they participated in the battle or not, most outer zone players were drawn to Agor Headquarters, and the same went for same-district players. So who was it that created the explosions, and what was the reason for creating such large explosions?
The answer was obvious. Explosions occurring simultaneously at three locations were most likely the work of the Rebel Army.
Xu Huo did not leave the main reservoir. Instead, he used videos voluntarily uploaded by citizens to capture information about the other explosion sites.
Earlier, when the outer zone players were fighting the East District players, the Rebel Army had already been operating in secret, destroying some of Agor's important facilities. But compared to these strictly timed and larger-scale explosions, those earlier actions seemed like mere distractions.
The reason for saying "seemed" was that, up to now, the Rebel Army had successfully confused the issue, making it impossible for a third party to guess their true intentions.
They had initially leaked information about the "White Blood," aiming to lure outer zone players to Agor Headquarters. Agor, in turn, had prepared many baits. The Rebel Army not only stepped into the trap but also launched multiple attacks over the following two days, never revealing their true goal. Perhaps the explosions that just occurred were not the final objective either. The repeated surprise attacks led outsiders to unconsciously believe that this wasn't over, that there were still more moves to come.
Of course, one couldn't say that things were entirely under the control of either the Rebel Army or Agor. Once the brain chips were exposed, neither side could salvage the situation.
The spread of information takes time, and there was a lag for many places in the same district. Regardless of whether Agor or the Rebel Army won today, it couldn't change the fact that Jade Spring City would become a key target for players from the same district for a long time to come.
Therefore, the Rebel Army's public disclosure of the chips was somewhat like a desperate act of smashing the pot.
If you said Agor had developed some advanced potion that could trigger a secondary evolution of a player's brain, maybe half would believe it and half wouldn't. But if you said it was a cutting-edge biochip, anyone, whether they understood it or not, would want to come and see the fuss.
Players were familiar with evolution potions and various other drugs. They roughly knew the upper limits of these potions. Chips were different. Most people didn't understand them and wouldn't specifically study them. But this kind of thing was not lacking in super-cities that developed weapons. The upper limit of weapons produced in the game was unattainable for players. For example, instruments that could directly cross districts, or starships that navigated through space. Although many districts had various space-time instruments, the technology was actually in the hands of the Game Government. What could be sold in bulk were consumables. Players didn't understand the principles, but they knew these were absolutely good things.
Now, even if someone explained that the chip was merely a carrier for a toxic potion, no one would believe it. Unless Jade Spring City was completely destroyed, this matter wouldn't end.
Unless someone could turn the tide.
In a battle of this scale, individual power could hardly change the balance of strength. But Agor had installed instruments throughout the city's underground. If that wasn't just the master switch for the jamming devices...
Just as this thought crossed his mind, Xu Huo felt a slight tremor in the ground. He climbed out of the reservoir facility and saw a pale blue, semi-transparent beam of light shooting into the sky through the window.
That beam was at least fifty meters long. After rushing into the high sky, its two ends began to extend horizontally, spreading and merging like water or light.
"Look! So many blockade barriers!" People near and far were shouting.
Xu Huo arrived at the top of the building. Looking up, he saw barrier after barrier of pale blue light rising from the ground. Like walls, they gradually connected around the entire city, forming rings that completely cut the city apart!
Furthermore, after these walls connected, a blue-white floating light began to flow across the sky and ground like ripples on water. Although they appeared more transparent than the ring walls and didn't obstruct vision, they were presumably not easily destroyed.
"Boom! Boom!" Players trapped between two ring walls, just like Xu Huo, couldn't hold back and emerged. Some attacked the ring walls, others tried to find a way through the upper and lower barriers, but all were unsuccessful.
Not knowing if this blockade barrier had other functions, the trapped players lost their previous spectator mentality. Those who could come out, did.
Xu Huo returned to the reservoir to retrieve the Nuwa Stone. He leaped from the rooftop to the ground, and upon landing, casually touched the barrier below. The "Cube Space" began to assimilate the space rays. He used his communicator to contact the Masked Youth, "What's your situation?"
The Masked Youth had been near Agor Headquarters. He was trapped precisely within the innermost ring wall, the area that encircled the entire Agor Headquarters and the surrounding open space. This area also happened to blockade the vast majority of those attacking Agor Headquarters.
On his wrist was a cartoonish watch. The watch face only had four directions and four symbols. Up and down were both simple smiling faces, the left was an angel, and the right was a skull with an "X" over it. At this moment, the watch's only hand was fixed, pointing unwaveringly at the skull.
Sweat dripped from his chin. The Masked Youth replied in a deep voice, "I don't know about others, but I might be about to die."