Chapter 2311: Fortune and Misfortune Intertwine
Leaning back in the chair, his gaze once again fell on the flickering chat dialogue, and he typed: "You lied to me. You deliberately opened the Water Cube!"
This programmer had clashed with Old Cai and the others before, mostly blaming the players for dragging ordinary people like them into this mess, but in the end, due to the players' appeasement and his own desire to leave, things gradually calmed down.
The programmer hadn't finished his food, but judging by how he voluntarily handed over everything he knew to Old Cai and the others, he had clearly prepared himself for death. That person was now gone, perhaps dead in some corner.
Old Cai and the others also suspected he was dead, so their frantic attempts to contact him had turned into a half-hearted effort.
Of course, just now, when Xu Huo raised his own permissions and completed the clearance, Old Cai and his group were naturally anxious. But they were probably more worried about an unfamiliar Outer Zone player successfully entering the city center than about a companion's betrayal.
Of course, regarding the origin of the Water Cube, they hadn't completely lied. At least the part about "being brought here" should be true.
"Are you Old Ding or Xu Zhi?"
Xu Huo didn't answer that question but continued typing, "You're all liars! The Water Cube was opened by you! You killed so many people, trapped me here, forced me to live every day with my colleagues' corpses. I'm going crazy! You deserve to die!"
He repeated the last sentence several times.
Faced with such obviously deranged text, Old Cai's side fell silent instead.
"Old Ding is dead. You're Xu Zhi," came the reply after a moment.
"I just finished my last pack of biscuits," Xu Huo typed. "I can't survive, and neither can you. I've recorded everything. The Water Cube will disappear one day, and I'll tell all of this to the District Government!"
"Old Ding, don't be impulsive. This situation isn't what we wanted either. We're trying our best to fix it. Someone has already gone in to find you—the one I mentioned before. Maybe he's already there!"
"You must take care of yourself. We'll come to save you soon!"
Xu Huo paused for a moment before replying, "You can't save me."
"We definitely can!" Old Cai's side replied quickly. "One-Third Game can't stay in Buliucheng forever. Hold on a little longer!"
"No food, no water. How can I hold on?" Xu Huo asked.
There was no reply from the other side.
Xu Huo sneered coldly, turned around, and walked underground.
Returning to the room where the Water Cube was placed, he released his own metal cube. There was no attraction between the two cubes. Holding the ticket, he tried pushing the intact metal cube toward it.
When they touched, the originally suspended block shifted position, but it didn't bring any change—at least no block flew out on its own. It was merely a simple collision.
After a moment, the metal cube automatically flew back in front of Xu Huo.
He stood there for a while before finally giving up.
Coming out of the basement, passing through the workshop, and reaching the second-floor balcony, Xu Huo saw the remaining small portion of the building. The range of these residual structures had shrunk to a radius of five hundred meters, with spatial gaps still appearing at the edges, slowly encroaching.
The space ahead was chaotic. He tried to control the Space Ray but failed again. However, when the barrier appeared, he deliberately placed himself under the squeezing Space Ray Blade...
His entire body was pushed three meters away by the spatial entity, but because he attempted to use space power, the Blockade Barrier covering him never disappeared, nor was it pierced by the external Space Ray Blade.
Raising an eyebrow slightly, he quickly went upstairs, forcibly walked through the compressed spatial forces to the rooftop, leaped onto the railing, leaned forward slightly, and fell toward the ground.
Accompanied by the vibrations of collisions, Xu Huo moved back and forth between the uneven spatial entities like a ball drifting with the current. As long as he tried to use space power, those spatial entities—capable of breaking even the "Never-Dying Passerby A" defense barrier—could not harm him in the slightest!
In the end, he got stuck outside the third-floor balcony.
Looking up at the clear blue sky, he couldn't help but let out a low laugh. "Fortune and misfortune intertwine. I wonder if you even thought of this!"
Even the chaotic space enclosed by One-Third Game couldn't break through this barrier. It seemed that in the short term, he wouldn't be able to restore his Space Evolution ability. After the instance ended, he would have to specifically address this issue.
The surrounding spatial forces began to stir again. He landed on the third-floor balcony, unbuttoned his collar, jumped back into the Government Building, and used the trait "Home Field Perspective."
Unfortunately, during the time the game panel was cut off, the trait hadn't recorded the events, even within the range of Xu Huo's spiritual power.
However, what happened afterward was recorded.
"...Shi Sanjiu's instrument was very similar to the 'Distant Hometown' Xu Huo had once obtained. Both pointed to a fixed range. The difference was that 'Distant Hometown' referred to someone's hometown, while Shi Sanjiu's instrument referred to Shi Sanjiu's hometown."
"Shi Sanjiu is a friend worth making."
...
"...The city center is not a safe place. No normal person would choose to enter it completely ignorant. Xu Huo paid the price for his recklessness and ignorance, temporarily losing his Space Evolution ability, only able to console himself with an extra defense barrier that could be used at any time."
"Perhaps he hopes that staying away from the One-Third Game field will grant him freedom, but the cause of all this is clearly related to the small power aggregate that entered his body. No matter where he goes, it will follow him like a shadow."
"If Xu Huo is smart enough, he will seek help from the Super Players he has encountered before."
"...Full of anger and frustration that cannot be vented is hard to bear, but the city center is not a place to stay for long..."
After reading the trait's records and noticing that spatial gaps were appearing more frequently nearby, Xu Huo returned to the first floor, replaced his own permissions in the system with Shi Sanjiu's, and then walked outside.
He didn't directly leave Buliucheng. Instead, taking advantage of the Water Cube's blockade, he simply charged outward. As long as he avoided spatial gaps and time forces, the spatial entities and Space Ray Blades that couldn't be blocked by items were now no problem for him.
Though every step was fraught with danger, the exhilaration of charging recklessly through death somewhat dissipated the anger within him. By the time he approached the edge of the city center blockade, he had completely calmed down.
Outside, many people were waiting for him.