Chapter 2242: Temporary Worker Hires Temporary Worker
"Fine, come over and get it." Xu Huo patted the communicator on his wrist.
The bald burly man didn't move but instead signaled to the player beside him.
Watching the player emerge from behind, Xu Huo added, "I'm now an enforcement officer. You've already seen my work badge. Unauthorized personnel occupying the Enforcement Building is already a violation of the law. After one warning, you not only refuse to leave but also attempt to threaten and rob. There's an enforcement recorder here. Are you sure you want to become wanted criminals?"
The group all laughed. Never mind the laws of Buliucheng—their actions would be illegal in any other district. But so what?
"Just the few of you?" the bald man said rudely.
"That makes things easier." Xu Huo took out two armed robots and issued the order to execute on the spot. He had upgraded the weapons on these robots, replacing them with energy weapons not yet listed in the game's hot weapon registry, all purchased from Platinum Eye. They had high destructive power and weren't too expensive.
Armed robots with super-fast reaction speeds might not match players in speed, but ordinary items and traits that worked on humans had no effect on them. Continuous firing and small-scale explosions could weave a dense network of firepower. With the help of the few players who came with Xu Huo, a chaotic brawl erupted inside the Enforcement Building.
Xu Huo stepped aside and reminded them, "Damaging public property means compensation. Don't say I didn't warn you."
"Go to hell!" A player charged at him furiously, but his item couldn't harm Xu Huo. Before he even got within ten meters, a wall of blades formed by Tangent and Space Ray Blade severed his arm.
This person reacted quickly, retreating as soon as he sensed danger. But there was nowhere to go. Xu Huo had been waiting for him. The newly acquired flying knife item, "during work hours," automatically blocked his escape route. After continuous attacks, it changed form into several small sharp cones, breaking through the opponent's defense barrier from different angles. Finally, this person died from a sneak attack of "pie in the sky," with a bloody hole smashed into the top of his head. First victory achieved.
While the fight on the other side wasn't over yet, Xu Huo dragged the corpse over, took photos, registered it, and uploaded it—all in one smooth motion.
After becoming an internal member of the enforcement agency, his reaction speed was quite fast. The terminal screen in the hall, which had just been connected to power, immediately displayed "Wanted Criminal Identity Confirmed," followed by a "Processed" stamp on the freshly issued wanted notice.
"Come on, come on, don't miss a single one." Xu Huo turned the terminal's electronic eye toward the bald man and his group, quickly issuing wanted notices for them, and called out to the cooperating players, "They're all wanted criminals now. Killing them is absolutely effective and absolutely won't be wrong."
The bald man and his group were still holding the upper hand. While fighting the players and two armed robots, they could still spare attention for Xu Huo. One female player with long hair fought fiercely, wielding a long blade that nearly sliced an armed robot in two diagonally.
Armed robots were extremely expensive for players to purchase, and they weren't easy to carry around since some weapons couldn't be stored in the item slot. Players tended to use tool robots more often. Xu Huo's two robots had been modified at Platinum Eye, making them even more costly. One such robot was worth a decent A-grade item. Now it was nearly chopped into scrap metal—a heavy loss.
"Damaging government property—you're not getting away." Xu Huo used a defense item to seal off the entire building, then teleported the female player in front of him. He drew his Black Blade and clashed with her long sword. After a few exchanges, the female player realized he wasn't an easy opponent and began coordinating with her items.
Both sides had similar tactics. Items could only unexpectedly break through each other's defense barriers without causing major damage. During another close-quarters exchange, the female player whispered a few words like a murmur: "I have a sincere truth."
This trait wasn't blocked by "Life Flashback." Because of those words, Xu Huo involuntarily stopped, as if he really wanted to hear what she had to say.
Seeing his movement stall, the female player swung her blade at his neck!
"Stop!" Face to face, Xu Huo issued a command.
The hand swinging at full force right in front of him actually hesitated, but then snapped back to clarity. In that brief gap, Xu Huo had already kicked her in the chest. After Tangent broke through two layers of defense barrier, the female player spun and attacked the innermost layer of "A Step Away."
"A Step Away" was an item Xu Huo had taken from a player who tried to ambush him. It could create multiple layers of defense barriers, each layer independent. It could open multiple layers, covering up to half a city at most or as little as ten meters at minimum. He had only opened two layers earlier—one sealing the Enforcement Building and one covering the area outside. To escape, one had to break through both barriers.
As an A-grade defense barrier, this item performed quite well. During the fight inside the building, only the first layer was damaged; the outer barrier remained intact.
The female player was trying to escape. Xu Huo stacked mental-type items, focusing on her, and soon she died in a tornado-like surge of twisting Materialized Objects.
Only then did Xu Huo turn back to deal with the others. Their wanted notices had already been approved.
Before long, of the group occupying the Enforcement Building, all except the bald man were killed on the spot.
"One got away. Should we chase him?" The cooperating player Cheng Zhongzhi looked at Xu Huo.
"Forget him," Xu Huo said, staring at the distant fleeing figure. "The more people he brings, the better."
"That's true." Zhu Xiaojin, who seemed carefree, put away his items and grinned. "It would be great if wanted criminals just kept showing up at our doorstep every day."
"There are still two outside," the female player Tang Yu reminded.
The two players guarding the door.
"You're still not leaving?" Xu Huo raised an eyebrow.
They hadn't left even after the fight.
"We don't have anywhere else to go anyway," said the player who had given Xu Huo the manual earlier. "Besides, since you're staying here, you'll need people to guard the door."
The two didn't seem ambitious and hadn't interfered earlier. So Xu Huo, in his capacity as a temporary enforcement officer, issued them two temporary work passes. Including Zhu Xiaojin and the other three, they were now all temporary workers hired by the city government.
"Gotta say, if you don't think about clearing the game, this isn't bad," said Shen Fu, one of the door guards. "Since no one's in charge here anyway, we can just build our own city government."