Chapter 1999: The Limit of Humanity
Advanced players with some skill could already see that Xu Huo was at a disadvantage in terms of evolution rate. His speed and strength were inferior to Zheng Yuci's. The only reasons he had lasted this long were, first, his powerful mental strength, and second, his status as a Spatial Super Evolver, which compensated for his weakness in speed.
However, evolution rate actually represented many things. Both were strong, but the one with the higher evolution rate had likely been in the game longer and possessed greater combat experience. Moreover, looking at the current situation, Zheng Yuci was growing stronger with each exchange. Occasionally, when swept by the green waves, the watching players could see more and more hexagonal barriers forming, densely gathering behind Zheng Yuci, poised to strike.
The Rebel Army was also worried about this issue. They could see clearly that the only reason Zheng Yuci hadn't left yet was entirely because Xu Huo had attracted his attention.
So, during another of Xu Huo's retreats, the Evil Ghost Mask placed a small prop on him and transmitted a voice through the item, "Lure him to the ground! We have a way to kill him! You must make him touch the ground, the longer the better!"
Xu Huo thought of the shadows left beside the collapsed buildings earlier. It seemed highly likely that was the Rebel Army's handiwork.
Under the current circumstances, getting back to the ground was somewhat difficult. His spiritual realm couldn't be closed, and mutant plants were everywhere around him. There wasn't a single spot in the entire East District that wasn't planted with these things...
Leaving the East District wasn't a good option. After a brief pause, he headed towards the Agor Headquarters.
The area around the Agor Headquarters was, of course, also planted with mutant plants, but due to the previous fighting and poison gas, the surroundings had been mostly cleared.
Most of the staff in the underground buildings had already evacuated, with only a few players left behind for cleanup. Xu Huo paid them no mind and landed directly on the ground.
Zheng Yuci came down as well. He had finished materializing all the hexagons and now had time to talk.
"I see the shadow of an acquaintance in you," he said, scrutinizing Xu Huo.
Xu Huo smiled instead. "As far as I know, I'm not an illegitimate child."
Zheng Yuci also smiled. He was inherently a cold person, but this smile appeared very gentle. "You use your mental power exceptionally well. Among the people I know, you could rank in the top three."
"Someone like you is the ultimate goal of my experiments. Not just me, but if my teacher were here, he would certainly be curious about the structure of your brain."
This was a statement delivered without any emotional coloring.
"Putting chips and white blood into the heads of the East District players—was that to make them undergo secondary evolution?" Xu Huo said as if he had heard a joke. "You're a Super Evolver yourself. Don't you understand that's absolutely impossible?"
"How could it be?" Zheng Yuci brushed the long hair blown forward by the wind back behind his shoulders and said calmly, "They are merely experimental subjects for testing the quality of the potion. The human body can secrete hormones that allow it to surpass its limits. Stimulated by these hormones, an ordinary person can accomplish impossible things. What I want to do is create a drug that allows humans to continuously transcend their limits."
"Can poison also be used as medicine?" Xu Huo asked with a hint of sarcasm. "If the truth were made public, how many people do you think would use your drug?"
"A limited and mediocre life, versus a relatively shorter but more brilliant life—smart people know how to choose." Zheng Yuci gave him a strange look. "You don't seem like a very moral person. Otherwise, you wouldn't have made the white blood and chips public. Why are you now using this set of worthless standards to judge someone who has exhausted his heart and mind exploring the limits of humanity?"
"That's not it. I'm just stalling for time." A smile reappeared on Xu Huo's face. "I can also see the shadow of an acquaintance in you."
Upon hearing this, Zheng Yuci didn't care at all about his "stalling for time" excuse. Instead, he happily pulled the conversation to the latter part. "Oh? My parents died very early. The person you're talking about must be my teacher."
Xu Huo's pupils shifted slightly. "Did your teacher ask you to complete this experiment?"
Zheng Yuci's gaze deepened. "You know him."
"Whether I know him or not isn't certain," Xu Huo didn't admit it, but instead said, "But among the people I know, there must be someone who knows you."
Zheng Yuci understood immediately. "So that's how it is."
Xu Huo had obtained the ticket to Jade Spring City by solving Dr. Zhang's puzzle ball. The puzzle ball was given to him by Chang Bei. Dr. Zhang was clearly not here. And once he learned about Zheng Yuci, he would surely not be willing to leave empty-handed. They were bound to clash—this should have been Chang Bei's goal.
But whatever his goal was, it no longer mattered.
"I haven't cleared the instance yet," Xu Huo said with a smile. "Why don't you tell me where the white blood is stored?"
"Alright." Zheng Yuci also smiled and answered directly, "It's in many places. The largest stockpile is in the White Bear Laboratory."
Xu Huo's expression changed slightly, not because some of the watching players had left, but because Zheng Yuci was telling the truth, and he had revealed it so easily.
He was not only going to abandon years of his own hard work, but he was also going to abandon this city!
"As I said before, the ordinary people in this city have nothing to do with me. I'm not interested in what Agor wants to do with them," Zheng Yuci continued at this point. "But I am very eager to see another limit of humanity."
The limit he spoke of referred to the ordinary people of Jade Spring City, the Rebel Army, the East District players, and Xu Huo.
The conversation ended there. Zheng Yuci raised his hand and waved it lightly. The materialized hexagons behind him crashed down towards Xu Huo like massive weapons. These hexagons possessed powerful cutting force, easily slicing through metal. Moreover, they didn't disappear after hitting the ground, instead becoming portals through which people and weapons could travel. When these hexagons covered the ground and air of the Agor Headquarters, they provided unpredictable pathways for subsequent hexagonal barriers. They could vanish from any portal and reappear from any portal the next second. One or two were nothing to fear, but as the flying hexagons multiplied, the space between barriers and pathways turned into an almost non-stop attack field. Standing anywhere within this range made it impossible to avoid a sudden hexagonal attack!
Zheng Yuci hadn't entered this area yet, but he had sealed off the killing ground formed by the materialized objects, making it very difficult to get out once inside!
Xu Huo used all his defense items, but he was still struggling to cope. The portals in the spiritual realm were destroyed only to be regenerated immediately, while the already materialized hexagons were extremely hard to completely destroy.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Within this hive-like arena, Xu Huo was knocked around like a target, flying in all directions. Even with items protecting him, it was hard to endure. Besides, defense items weren't completely unbreakable. Barely stabilizing himself, he used a few more sneak attack items before feeling the timing was right. He used the "City Sand Table" to teleport himself out of Zheng Yuci's blockade, then finally unleashed the mental power he had already materialized.
A black shadow hand covered the surface of Zheng Yuci's shoe.
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