Chapter 2322: Mostly Just Trying Their Luck
"It should be three..." At this point, Team Leader Wu didn't dare to be too absolute. If only three of the players who came along had scattered out, they probably wouldn't have come to Ting City to cause trouble so quickly. After all, their previous actions were clearly meant to cover up a more important goal. Why would they fall short at this critical juncture, unless they had already finished what they needed to do.
"This still needs to be reported upward." Team Leader Wu looked at the chaotic street and contacted the branch to arrange for rescue personnel.
"Aren't there plenty of people here already?" Xu Huo pointed at the players who hadn't left yet. "Since you're all here anyway."
Tan Yang and the others naturally had no objections and voluntarily started helping. Among the players who were originally planning to leave, some chose to stay and silently joined the rescue efforts.
The gap in strength made everyone learn to keep their mouths shut.
Xu Huo didn't need to handle the follow-up matters, so he took the legacy of the outer zone player and returned to his residence.
What he was most interested in was that set of hammer and nails. It was a complete set called "Door Seal," usable four times within twenty-four hours. The game described it as "a cross-dimensional tool capable of breaking through space."
Xu Huo tested it. The hammer's striking range could cover over a thousand meters, and it was almost impossible for the targeted object to evade—only requiring visual aim. The immense force generated at the moment the hammer and nail collided could smoothly penetrate the space barriers produced by ordinary props, even A-grade props were no exception. It also had destructive power against the props themselves, so once hit, whether the target was protected by a prop barrier or the prop itself, it was very difficult to truly stop it.
However, there was a problem: it could only create a very small hole-like wound, like a bullet that instantly passed through the body. The speed was too fast to cause secondary damage directly inside the human body.
Of course, the purpose of creating this prop wasn't primarily for killing. It was designed to destroy space teleportation channels.
Once cross-zone or cross-space teleportation props were successfully activated, they were very difficult to restrict, especially space portals between different zones or even wormhole points. Ordinary attacks couldn't destroy space portals, and when similar props and instruments were ineffective, this set of props could easily break the structure of the teleportation portal. Simply put, it was specifically developed to counter space teleportation tools—using it for killing would be overkill.
"Come help me test it." Xu Huo called over the Painting Woman.
"This is a prop, can I use it?" the Painting Woman asked.
"It doesn't discriminate." Xu Huo handed her the hammer and nails. "Aim at my hand and strike."
The Painting Woman was quite interested. After weighing the hammer and nails, she gently tapped his hand from half a meter away.
That was enough. An invisible force directly knocked Xu Huo's hand back. Although the power wasn't as great as when a player used it, the space barrier of the Water Cube still fluctuated, like fish scales rippling from the palm of his hand gradually surging toward his arm.
Since this was a tool specifically designed to destroy space teleportation portals, capable of even destroying cross-space portals, yet it couldn't break the Water Cube's space barrier, it only showed that its direction was correct, but its destructive power was insufficient.
"Nail!" The Painting Woman struck him again with the hammer. Xu Huo was caught off guard as his own hand pulled him and sent him flying into the wall behind him.
The Painting Woman ran over and took away the chair and objects that had fallen on him, smiling cheerfully. "That's really fun. Hit me once."
"This isn't for playing." Xu Huo popped his dislocated arm back into place. "I told you before, after returning to Zone 014, you should use instruments more and paper less."
The Painting Woman dropped the hammer and nails. "Instruments are inconvenient, and I didn't bring any when I was shopping."
Being able to control paper on a large scale had already become a characteristic of the super prop that once appeared in Zone 014. Although the Painting Woman now had Ting City, it wasn't the time to expose her abilities. On one hand, she didn't have absolute self-protection capabilities yet; on the other, it might bring trouble to Zone 014. Even if the super prop incident couldn't be repeated, dealing with players specifically coming for this wouldn't be pleasant.
Xu Huo put away the prop and asked seriously, "Do you think you can beat me now?"
The Painting Woman hesitated for a moment before answering, "As long as you don't freeze me, I can take ten of you."
Xu Huo nodded. "So if I freeze you, you're helpless. Do you still want to be trapped in a dungeon and unable to come out?"
The Painting Woman showed no such concern and laughed. "I can slip away. A dungeon can't trap me."
"That makes sense." Xu Huo was convinced by her, but still emphasized, "You can't do that in Ting City. If someone comes to cause trouble like today..."
"No way!" The Painting Woman slammed the table. "If they smash all the shops, I won't be able to buy anything! And this is my territory—everything here is mine! What right do they have to cause destruction!"
"You're right." Xu Huo said, "So next time, you need to be more careful. If houses get torn down every few days, this place won't be of much use."
The Painting Woman weighed it for a moment before reluctantly agreeing. "Fine."
Then she immediately put the matter behind her and happily went to pick up the delivered takeout.
Xu Huo, meanwhile, checked the outer zone player's luggage compartment.
Aside from Subclass Stones and some instruments, most of the items were of little value. But inside, there was a map of Zone 014. Based on the markings on the map, it seemed to be about measuring the evolution level of different zones—wormhole flowers could show the approximate evolution level of a zone, while this map appeared to have been measured locally, specifically in places that had already undergone intense evolutionary reactions before fully merging with the game.
For example, some rapidly mutating mineral veins and land.
Besides resources, the rapid evolution itself in these places was also worth studying.
"No wonder they went to so much trouble to come here." Xu Huo carefully read the map. Six locations in Zone 014 were marked, two of which were within the country, while the other four were more scattered.
The two marked locations within the country were a desert and a lake, suspected of having experienced explosive energy surges.
The detection instruments also contained recorded data. Although it couldn't directly quantify the evolution level, the energy fluctuations it detected were enough to represent the intensity of evolution. In such cases, either some rare substance had been born, or the area was about to become a dungeon. Considering these two locations, the possibility of becoming a dungeon was relatively small, so they were most likely rare resources.
The highest value of a "Time Origin" was to exchange it for a decent game zone. Such a profitable deal, no one wouldn't want to make, so it was normal for people to rush to the new zone for exploration.
Of course, primordial stones like "Time Origin" were extremely rare. There might not even be one in a single wormhole point. These people were mostly just trying their luck.