# Chapter 2297: Loosening Up
"How do you want to negotiate?" Xu Huo turned around to look at him.
"Calm down, calm down." Old Cai acted as a mediator, pressing his hand toward him, then said to the several players from the City Government: "If you ask me, if the City Government's administrative permissions really are in your hands, then just make it convenient. It'll be good for everyone."
"Why should we make concessions!" A short player said, "What benefits can he give us? Massacre the city? He wouldn't dare! Isn't he afraid of becoming a wanted criminal?"
Old Cai looked at Xu Huo again, "Brother, being a wanted criminal isn't easy."
"You've hit the key point," Xu Huo nodded slightly. "You're right. I'll find a way to make this watertight."
These words made the short man's face turn green, because a Mental Evolver could completely achieve this goal through other people, and the game might not necessarily judge him as a wanted criminal when making its determination.
Besides, being a wanted criminal didn't mean he couldn't continue entering instances anymore—he just couldn't get tickets and good items.
For a powerful player, the wanted criminal status meant nothing at all.
"Brother, I don't think you're someone without principles either. How many people are in Buliucheng? Those are all lives." Old Cai thought for a moment and said, "How about each side takes a step back? Let them not block your wanted application?"
"Peaceful coexistence, back to square one?" Xu Huo gave a cold laugh. "That's impossible now."
As he spoke, the Black Blade had already appeared in his hand. After breaking through the several layers of barriers in front of him, he tapped his foot on the ground, and everyone present uncontrollably sank downward. The momentary sensation was as if they had fallen to the next level, but when they landed, they found themselves still standing on the same spot where they had been before, as if the falling sensation had just been an illusion.
However, the inability to touch the objects around them, which had become ethereal, told them that they had already fallen into Xu Huo's Spiritual Realm.
Then they discovered that most of their items had suddenly become ineffective. Even those held in their hands could slip out. Space Teleportation Devices also failed. Other types of attack instruments could still be used, but after Xu Huo raised his hand and flicked in the air, some of them were directly damaged!
With items and instruments failing one after another, and their traits unable to trap the opponent, the City Government group completely fell into a disadvantage.
Watching people fall one by one, the tattooed woman's eyes turned red with rage. She frantically attacked Xu Huo's figure and roared, "I want you dead!"
"Bang!" A player flew past her, hit the wall, and spat blood heavily. Before he could even land, he was knocked flying again, fell to the center of the room, was hung up, and had his limbs broken one by one.
Missing again and again made the tattooed woman furious. The screams of her companions one after another pained her heart. At first, she could ignore her companions and focus on attacking Xu Huo, but as she herself was severely injured and fell to the ground, watching her companions being tortured and killed up close, her psychological defenses gradually collapsed. With tears and snot streaming down her face, she shouted, "Don't kill them! Don't kill them! I can give you authorization!"
Xu Huo appeared in front of her, "Can you make that decision? Don't you need to ask your companions?"
The tattooed woman choked with sobs. Following his gaze, she looked at Old Cai, who had been staying in the corner and not participating, and her eyes became angry and resentful.
"Can you make the decision?" Xu Huo repeated the question, but this time he was asking Old Cai.
Old Cai relaxed his clenched fists. "You're very strong. All of us together are no match for you. Even our traits can't trap you."
Among a player's trump cards, traits were the hardest to defend against. Items and instruments might not necessarily block them. Sometimes, even high-level players could fall into traps because of low-level players' traits. But Xu Huo was well-prepared in this regard, and he could endlessly raise barriers, increasing the difficulty for traits to take effect—unless the trait's evolution intensity and range were very high... and these people from the City Government clearly didn't fall into that category.
"How did you figure out that I'm a player from Buliucheng?"
"Just a random guess." Xu Huo said lightly, "Can we talk business now?"
"What we told you before wasn't entirely false," Old Cai explained. "We do have a companion trapped in the city center. Originally, quite a few people were trapped inside, but now only one is left."
"The system mainframe of Buliucheng is buried beneath the office building. It's already been interfered with there. As you've seen, the only reason the office system can be restored is because of that programmer still in the city center."
"But the time when the office system can be activated isn't fixed. Sometimes, due to interference, we might not be able to contact them for days or even weeks."
"The flying instruments you gave me—I've taken them all. If you want, you can take them back, but the damaged ones are gone."
"The origin of the One-Third Game," Xu Huo asked.
"It appeared suddenly," Old Cai answered. "It inexplicably appeared here."
"But her expression doesn't quite match that," Xu Huo pointed at the tattooed woman by his feet.
Old Cai sighed. "That's because when it first appeared as the Water Cube, it coexisted peacefully with Buliucheng. It just floated in one position without affecting its surroundings at all."
"We deliberately cleared out space to seal it off, but someone was curious about it and accidentally touched it."
"Your programmer?" Xu Huo said flatly. "That's a Water Cube, not a terminal. Don't tell me you couldn't see the Time Power on the Water Cube."
"So that's why things are unpredictable. High-level encrypted documents can't be seen by subordinates, so they don't know the severity." Old Cai's expression was sorrowful. "Who would have thought such serious consequences would occur?"
"Since you understand what the Water Cube is, what's your real purpose for entering the city center? Don't tell me you really want to destroy it." Xu Huo's voice turned cold.
"After years of close-range research, we've gotten some results. Our companion said that the Water Cube can be put into hibernation, but it needs help." Old Cai said sincerely, "We just want to end the One-Third Game."
"That's why we've been searching everywhere for people who can help. We didn't explain the real situation to you before because we were worried you'd be afraid of what's inside and wouldn't dare to lead the way..."
"Maybe not," Xu Huo interrupted him. "It's also possible that you deliberately spoke ambiguously to make me think there was profit to be gained, to lure me in."
Old Cai quickly said, "That's absolutely not the intention. We know how dangerous the city center is. We're not people without principles either. If it weren't to end all this, why would we be so painstaking?"
"What is the method for putting the Water Cube into hibernation?" Xu Huo pressed. "It can't be that the Water Cube is really some kind of smart terminal."
"That's not it. We've just observed its activity patterns. We'll need to see the Water Cube itself to try." Old Cai paused here and then proposed conditions even more sincerely, "If the Water Cube can really be put into hibernation, as long as you can take it away, we absolutely won't stop you!"
The ambiguous bait had turned into a clear one.