Chapter 2156: The Strength of Dou Shengnan
The Lichuan City government dared to activate the Non-Game Area Simulator without evacuating ordinary people. Does this mean the city government is leading this operation against Dou Shengnan?
"Neither the military district nor the city government's enforcement team is involved." Nie Xuan observed the situation. "Indeed, capturing a member of a wanted criminal organization isn't enough to make a district go to such lengths. But this operation must have received support from the city government, otherwise this Blockade Barrier couldn't have been activated."
"Isn't District 008's attitude a bit strange?" White Eagle said. "Since someone has made a move, why not take this opportunity to simply kill Dou Shengnan and be done with it? Going through all this trouble, watching their own people get killed—what's the point?"
Although they didn't know what the local military district and city government were planning, the city center was now enveloped in the Blockade Barrier. All players within this range could no longer use items, and tickets were also unusable. What remained were Super Evolution powers, instruments, and personal physical abilities.
Of course, the Lichuan City player organization had a significant advantage because they had prepared in advance. They must have brought some large instruments that couldn't be carried by individuals alone, and using poison wasn't impossible—though that was the worst-case scenario. Poison was hard to control, and a slight carelessness could affect the surrounding ordinary people.
As for mental interference instruments, they might not be able to completely destroy Dou Shengnan's Spiritual Realm. On the contrary, they could affect other players' performance, so instruments with too strong interference might not appear.
Catching sight of players continuously gathering toward the hotel from a distance, though none seemed exceptionally powerful, honestly, normal people couldn't understand this situation. Didn't District 008 have Super Players? Even if Super Players weren't available, there should at least be Super A-level players. A large district like this could easily assemble a ten-person team, more than enough to deal with Dou Shengnan!
In fact, there were two factors at play. First, the planning of the local military district and city government. The player forces of the military district and city government were the stabilizing anchors. As Nie Xuan said, dealing with a wanted criminal wasn't worth District 008 mobilizing such forces. Besides, District 008 wasn't obligated to uphold justice. As long as the wanted criminal didn't cause trouble in District 008, their actions had nothing to do with them.
This incident was spearheaded by the player organization Spring Thunder. The city government's cooperation was already generous, because for the sake of their personal vendetta, many ordinary people in Lichuan City had to take risks.
Second, this "Non-Game Area Simulator" likely had significant loopholes. They couldn't truly trap Dou Shengnan. Dou Shengnan wouldn't fall for the bait and enter a sealed Instance, so they couldn't actually confine her. No matter how many people came, it would be practically useless, even somewhat ridiculous.
"The Personal Panel can't be opened. The ticket can't be used either," White Eagle said.
"The city government hasn't evacuated ordinary people yet," Red Fox added. "Even if Lichuan City residents are equipped with Defense Instruments, they can't completely avoid mental interference. Isn't the city government afraid they'll become Dou Shengnan's hostages?"
With such a major incident, the city government couldn't possibly watch these people die.
"It's a bit strange," Xu Huo finally spoke up.
"What's the problem?" Nie Xuan immediately asked.
"Since the Spring Thunder members surrounded the hotel, Dou Shengnan has rarely engaged them directly," Xu Huo said. "The ones killing for her are Materialized Objects."
In fact, Spring Thunder had already used quite a few mental interference instruments. The effects were there, but not obvious. Moreover, Dou Shengnan appeared and disappeared unpredictably, and many of the instruments Spring Thunder members brought out were destroyed by her.
Instruments could attack, but whether they were spatial instruments or ordinary gun-type energy instruments, they always hit Dou Shengnan's shadow, never catching her real body.
"She escaped in advance using a Spiritual Gate?" Nie Xuan speculated.
Xu Huo had fought Dou Shengnan before, but back in District 017, she was also helping Jin Feixue and hadn't gone all out. Based on Xu Huo's current understanding of the Spiritual Realm, for a person to move freely within the Spiritual Realm, they still relied on gates. Mental Evolvers couldn't split their bodies into pieces or squeeze them into balls to pass through narrow spaces. The power of Spiritual Power lay in making certain obstacles no longer obstacles, but a person was still a person, hence the action of "opening a door."
But every time Dou Shengnan fought with Spring Thunder members, she seemed to disappear into thin air, without the action of opening a door.
There were only two possibilities for this situation. First, her Spiritual Power was so strong that even A-level players couldn't distinguish between reality and illusion face to face. Second, she had replaced her Spiritual Gate with something else.
The former was still conceivable, but the latter was hard to fathom. After the Blockade Barrier was activated, Dou Shengnan's Spiritual Realm expanded, completely covering Xu Huo's location. Under this premise, Xu Huo was also subject to mental interference. The difference was that he could more easily maintain clarity of mind. Even so, he still found Dou Shengnan's unpredictable disappearance puzzling.
Nie Xuan wasn't a Mental Super Evolver, but he had access to a wealth of information and a sharp mind. "Don't jump to the conclusion that she can completely overwhelm you. Could she be wearing some special instruments or items that still work even after cutting off contact with the game?"
"Could it be Super Items?" White Eagle added. "Can District 008's simulator control Super Items?"
The Non-Game Area Simulator was District 008's technological secret. How it achieved this effect was unknown, and whether there were other loopholes couldn't be tested one by one. But if Super Items were immune, their plan to use the simulator to limit Dou Shengnan's items would be greatly compromised.
In this situation, Xu Huo couldn't take out "Three Seconds of Life" to test. For the current situation, they still had to prepare for the worst.
First, Dou Shengnan's Mental Evolution far surpassed his, to the point where even face to face, he couldn't distinguish reality from illusion.
Second, Dou Shengnan's Spiritual Gate was different from other Mental Evolvers, making it difficult to capture.
Third, the Non-Game Area Simulator couldn't completely restrict Dou Shengnan, nor the Super Items she carried.
The current cooperation between Spring Thunder and the city government was essentially a rehearsal of their plan. Even if the city government and military district hadn't intervened, the Spring Thunder members were in much better shape than their group. Under these circumstances, Dou Shengnan was still completely unfazed. If it were them, it would be hard to say if they could last three minutes.
Realizing this, Nie Xuan and his group's hearts sank. If they had held three or four parts of hope before, now they didn't even have one.
"I'll go take a look." Xu Huo left them with that and headed toward the hotel.