Chapter 2164: Successful Interference
After Nie Xuan turned and left, Xu Huo was intercepted by players from Zone 008. Several invisible spatial barriers descended from all directions, seemingly trying to trap him. At the same time, his feet suddenly felt as if they had turned to stone, frozen in place—though he understood this wasn't true petrification, but a sense of restraint caused by spatial power. It wasn't too difficult to break free, because the "Cube Space" was still usable. Although different spatial rays couldn't merge rapidly, as the instrument's control range expanded, he had gradually grown accustomed to the spatial rays released by Zone 008's instruments.
After freeing himself from the rays beneath his feet, Xu Huo created a massive spatial barrier in front of him to block the converging barriers. However, the effect was poor; the barriers generated by the instruments were clearly harder and more solid than his own.
Opening a door through the gaps in the barriers, he teleported five hundred meters to the right of the Double-Bright Bird Pharmaceuticals building, where he suddenly felt a subtle change.
With his connection to the game severed, items and traits requiring player status had become invalid, including his "Protagonist Halo" and the super item "Time Tower." He hadn't retrieved "Three Seconds of Life" before entering the blockade barrier, partly because he worried that incompatibility between temporal items might affect their performance, and partly to avoid drawing the attention of Zone 008 players. A super item appearing in a subsidiary of Stellar Pharmaceuticals was vastly different from it appearing on an outer-zone player.
Logically, since the game channel was cut off, the "Time Tower" had lost its medium function—meaning he could no longer use it to draw on temporal power from other spaces. But only when he got near this area did he realize that, although the "Time Tower" had "lost connection," its interference with similar items and instruments hadn't diminished. This was likely due to the super item's inherent properties. Because it contained different temporal-spatial power, the "Time Tower" and "Three Seconds of Life" could still interfere with similar items even when not in use—an effect other comparable items couldn't achieve.
Under these circumstances, though Xu Huo couldn't use the "Time Tower" to introduce time flowing at different speeds from other spaces, his heightened sensitivity to temporal power allowed him to manipulate the temporal rays of Zone 008's space on a larger scale.
Whether items or instruments, especially man-made devices, many had their usage time restricted—either to weaken their effects or to save materials and avoid wear. These restriction mechanisms were easily influenced by temporal power.
Unsure if it would succeed, Xu Huo still exerted all his strength to pluck at the temporal rays around him, then quickly retreated before the rays could resonate.
After Zone 008 players arrived in this area, their instruments occasionally malfunctioned or lost power. But with so many instruments in play, such minor incidents could be completely ignored. Besides, with so many similar instruments, mutual interference wasn't a problem, and no one cared—it wasn't like temporal items that could fail entirely. So no one realized there was an interference source nearby.
But when Xu Huo withdrew again, at least half of the instruments carried by the dozen or so pursuing players suddenly failed!
What was going on?
The Double-Bright Bird players, who had repeatedly swapped instruments, realized it wasn't just interference causing sudden failure—the instruments were damaged!
Instruments had fewer usage restrictions than items but higher wear rates. Similarly, most instruments couldn't operate for extended periods, especially mass-produced ones. Although they knew entering with instruments meant some wear was inevitable, it shouldn't happen this fast!
Double-Bright Bird players immediately realized their opponent had done something, but instead of focusing on Xu Huo, they turned to look behind at Dou Shengnan, because the same thing was happening on her side.
And that wasn't the worst part. The worst was that, unclear what Dou Shengnan had done, a Double-Bright Bird player suddenly committed suicide!
"How is this possible!" Not just the Double-Bright Bird players, but Xu Huo was equally stunned. Those who entered the blockade barrier weren't ordinary advanced players; they had rich combat experience. Moreover, they were all wearing instruments to block spiritual power. If they had been influenced to kill each other, that might be plausible. But suicide? This was absolutely horrifying!
Clearly, the Double-Bright Bird players were severely shaken. The six Mental Super Evolvers responsible for restraining Dou Shengnan's spiritual power immediately ordered the others to keep their distance. However, Dou Shengnan was like a combat machine. With a sweep of black water, the spatial rays that had previously cut through the first layer of the blockade barrier multiplied from one to three, interweaving through the entire sealed space, slicing everything they touched.
Not everyone on the Double-Bright Bird side was a Spatial Super Evolver. Instruments could only amplify their senses, not let them truly perceive spatial power—especially such fine, thread-like spatial rays. Instantly, five people were killed on the spot!
The six Mental Super Evolvers immediately released their spiritual power, making the spatial rays visible to everyone so they could dodge. But in that moment of distraction, two of them were suddenly pulled in front of Dou Shengnan, where her materialized object cut them in half. Not only that, black water descended from above, crashing through the spiritual worlds of the other four!
The four Double-Bright Bird Super Evolvers suffered severe spiritual damage, nearly all bleeding from their noses and mouths. Dou Shengnan was also heavily drained, her figure swaying in the air...
At that moment, Nie Xuan suddenly appeared behind her, both hands controlling spatial power as he grabbed at her!
Dou Shengnan didn't need to turn around to know someone was behind her. She used spiritual power to interfere, but Nie Xuan, who had re-equipped his interference instrument, only trembled in place. His eyes briefly lost focus, but his movements didn't slow at all. He changed his grab into a palm strike, hitting Dou Shengnan in the back from a distance!
Despite the protective instruments, Dou Shengnan was still sent flying by the force. The attack was too unexpected, nearly causing her to crash into the spatial rays she had released. Forcing herself to turn in midair and retract her instruments, she raised her right hand, and Nie Xuan sank like a person falling into water, rapidly and uncontrollably descending toward the ground!
Two doors appearing out of thin air interrupted this process. Nie Xuan was redirected to another direction, reappearing behind Dou Shengnan. At the same time, the Shadow Personality came up behind her, raising a hand to chop at her neck!
The materialized object blocked the Shadow Personality's hand, then surged forward, wrapping around his hand and spreading upward, quickly encasing half his body.
"I knew you'd come out," Dou Shengnan said slowly as she turned. Using the materialized object to bind the Shadow Personality's other arm, she began pulling from both sides, intending to tear him apart alive!