Chapter 2253: Cooperation Rules
Xu Huo did not comfort Shi Meng, whose nerves were already stretched to the breaking point. Instead, Qiao Jieping lightly patted his shoulder. "Don't be so tense."
Shi Meng wasn't comforted. He gave a bitter smile. "You don't understand the feeling of coming out and forgetting everything clean. I'm afraid that next time I come out, I'll forget how to talk or eat... or maybe there won't be a next time."
His voice grew agitated as he spoke, then he turned his gaze to Xu Huo and the others, his expression intense, as if he wanted to say something. But after looking around the room, he didn't open his mouth again.
Everyone present actually understood what he meant, but the clearance progress was tied to each person's life or death. They couldn't be so generous as to hand over all the people they had captured to let him clear the instance.
Seeing this, Shi Meng's expression dimmed. He didn't say anything more and left the room.
"We still need to be careful." Zhu Xiaojin, who was walking behind, used a silencing item before speaking to Xu Huo. "What if he gets desperate and tries something drastic? Then all our work these past few days would be for nothing."
He didn't need to say it; the other players were already keeping an eye on Shi Meng.
Sure enough, in the dead of night, Shi Meng silently got up. After looking around the room, he headed straight for the opposite side.
Xu Huo and the others immediately moved closer to check, only to find that he had left an explosive item in his original spot.
"Damn it!" By the time they thought to relocate the item, it was too late. Seeing that even their hiding place was about to be blown up, Zhu Xiaojin and the others didn't hesitate to teleport across the street. Meanwhile, Xu Huo shrank the range of his defense item, retrieved "Pleasant Journey," and instantly moved a thousand meters away.
The power of this explosion was almost comparable to a "Mini Mushroom Cloud." It was only because the barriers released by many players blocked part of the impact that the nearby streets and buildings weren't leveled. But the previous Enforcement Building was completely gone, leaving only a giant crater in the ground. The temporary workers who were just ten meters away were also forced to relocate during the explosion. Even though they reacted quickly enough, some were still thrown outside the buildings.
Going out at night was one of the ways to trigger a one-third game, which infuriated the players who had been carefully avoiding games. They immediately turned their anger on Zhu Xiaojin and the others.
Zhu Xiaojin's group wasn't in much better shape. Tang Yu, who had been slower to run, was quite seriously injured. She glared furiously at Shi Meng's retreating back. "Even if you get everyone killed today, don't think you'll clear the instance!"
Shi Meng suddenly realized something and paused in his escape. That moment of hesitation allowed them to catch up. Facing their anger, he instead let out a cold laugh. "Who doesn't want to live? It's every man for himself. I failed today because I'm not skilled enough, but do you think you're any better off? Do you really believe that Xu guy will eventually share the wanted criminals?"
"We're all B-rank players... No, forget B-rank players, even if an A-rank player were here, they wouldn't be his match. Dual Super Evolution in Mental and Spatial—which one of you can get the better of him?"
Using the city government's channels to clear the instance was the premise for player cooperation. Breaking this cooperation was actually very simple. Players couldn't trust each other, and when it came to effort and distribution, someone would always be dissatisfied. Collapse was inevitable. Xu Huo held the application authority for eight districts. He had the most advantage and was the strongest. He could easily monopolize all the benefits.
"He's already out of sync with ordinary B-rank players. Don't you want to know how many people he has to kill to clear the instance?"
Although everyone's clearance number was different, after being here for a while, they could more or less sense it. The task number and the initial unlocked area were tied to personal strength. Xu Huo had never revealed his clearance task.
"Who says we have to cooperate with him?" Shi Meng continued to incite the others. "We can pool our money to apply for a temporary Archon."
"Hah!" Zhu Xiaojin sneered. "You've been with us this whole time. Don't tell me you don't know how much it costs to apply for a temporary Archon. Even if we could scrape together the money, who would be the temporary Archon? You, who just tried to kill everyone?"
Some of the temporary workers were actually tempted and couldn't help asking, "How much does it cost exactly?"
Zhu Xiaojin rolled his eyes. "Don't even think about it without tens of millions in cash. And the city government doesn't even accept cash."
"Sorry, but we're all broke," Qiao Jieping said flatly. "Even if we had that much money, we wouldn't be willing to just hand it over to the city government."
There was no escape. Spatial items interfered with each other, making teleportation items useless. Shi Meng had just put on a show of preparing for a bloody battle when, in the next second, a black, thread-like thing sliced him in half from head to toe.
After his body fell to the ground, the nearby players all turned to look at the source of that power.
Xu Huo stood in a nearby building that was on the verge of collapse, looking down at everyone from above. "What Shi Meng said makes a lot of sense. If anyone is uneasy about cooperating with me, you can leave now. Next time, if anyone who stays pulls a stunt like this, I won't send them off so easily."
His calm tone and expression didn't feel like a threat to the twenty or so B-rank players present, but the pervasive mental pressure stimulated everyone's nerves.
"As a sign of good faith, can you tell us your clearance number?" a player asked.
"It's better if you don't know." Having said that, Xu Huo went ahead and clarified the distribution of wanted criminals. "For every wanted criminal you submit, I'll take one-fifth. Consider it a fee for using my channels."
This wasn't too harsh, after all, they hadn't paid to use the city government's connections.
The problem was whether Xu Huo would keep his promise.
"Aside from the wanted criminals you hand over, the rest are your own responsibility." This was the same as the temporary workers scattered in other districts.
What Shi Meng said was true. Xu Huo's strength was a threat to them, but it was also a guarantee. As long as he didn't cause any trouble, the other players could search for wanted criminals in a relatively safe environment. At the very least, with the recorders on, incidents of players attacking each other had decreased significantly.
"I have no problem with that." Zhu Xiaojin was the first to agree. Due to the game's rules, Xu Huo couldn't just kill someone who hadn't committed a crime. This was a layer of protection for all players, even the stranded ones.
In the end, everyone present chose to cooperate. But surprisingly, in the next second, Xu Huo disappeared from the building!
"Did he leave... or enter a game?" Tang Yu asked uncertainly.
"He probably entered a game," Zhu Xiaojin guessed, not entirely sure either. He added, "Good thing we made a video backup. If he comes out with amnesia, wouldn't all the people we gathered belong to him?"
"No, wait. Did he take the people locked in the room with him?" Tang Yu asked. "Can he still come out?"
(End of chapter)