Chapter 2388: Zoo Chase Game
The net that had previously pinned the prop fish was lifted again, and this time it was arranged very densely, completely trapping the tentacle prop inside. After the tentacle prop's earlier outburst, it seemed to have lost the strength to resist. Once its tentacles were separated and restrained, its main body slumped to the ground, with only the fleshy lumps on its body continuously heaving, making it look like a real living creature.
With the experience from before, the people from Fish Feast became more cautious. Aside from the players restraining the tentacle prop, those who arrived later kept a certain distance from it and continuously stacked blockade barriers around it.
The players trapped in the banquet hall had quieted down. Fish Feast had made it clear they wouldn't lift the space blockade at this time. Since Fish Feast didn't care about their lives, they naturally wouldn't just watch the prop be smoothly recovered.
So someone secretly made a move, striking through the space blockade barrier with one blow. A single small crack was enough to waste all the previous efforts of the Fish Feast players. They didn't even have time to track down the perpetrator, as all their attention was focused on the tentacle prop.
Fortunately, the tentacle prop remained calm.
"Is this thing's upgrade a one-time deal?" Shi Shuai muttered. As his words fell, the prop fish appeared again. This time, its size was unprecedented. It descended from above the banquet hall, and its mouth alone covered most of the hall. Not only the tentacle prop and the nets, but the entire banquet hall space was swallowed into its belly!
The people in the banquet hall were no exception. Xu Huo and his group, along with the Fish Feast players and the trapped players, were all squeezed into the same space passage. Although it didn't lead to spatial collapse, the intense fluctuations of spatial power, combined with the props Fish Feast had set up earlier, caused collisions among the group as they were swallowed into the fish's belly. Then the tentacle prop broke free, killing seven people, including the Fish Feast players, in one go!
Immediately after, an unknown airflow appeared inside the fish's belly, sweeping the remaining people and the tentacle prop in different directions!
Xu Huo roughly landed in a zoo—the reason he judged it as a zoo was that from the moment he fell from a height of fifty meters above the ground, he was attacked by no fewer than ten types of animals, including birds, giant monkeys, pythons, lizards, and leopards. These creatures, barely distinguishable by species, cooperated seamlessly, evenly distributed within the fifty-meter range of his descent. If one attack failed, they didn't linger but immediately retreated into the strangely dense and eerie woods. Only the ground-dwelling carnivores were less disciplined, charging forward in waves, large and small, without end. In just a few seconds, he was knocked flying along with his defense barrier and landed in a spider nest.
Human-head-sized young spiders, led by their ten-meter-tall mother, crawled all over his Water Cube barrier, continuously gnawing at it. Seeing their raised, metallic-looking legs, Xu Huo estimated that an ordinary defense barrier wouldn't hold for long. He borrowed momentum to break out of the encirclement and quickly put on an invisibility prop. This item couldn't completely mask his scent, so animals with keen senses could still detect his presence, including some small venomous insects and ants.
However, these mutated animals had their own territories. Xu Huo quickly scanned the surroundings and chose a direction with fewer venomous insects to move forward.
Generally, the fiercer the animal, the larger its territory, with few other small creatures nearby. This indicated that a fierce beast or a group of them must be inhabiting the area. He was about to take this opportunity to look for an exit when he saw the grass and trees ahead rustle, and then Shi Shuai and the Painting Woman burst out side by side, followed by a group of mutated beasts!
The Painting Woman was delighted to see him and kept waving, while Shi Shuai kept shouting, "Run!"
The mutated beasts weren't small; the smallest was at least as tall as an adult human, but these were the young of the group. The adults following behind were mostly three to four meters tall, with massive bodies that charged recklessly through the woods, completely ignoring the trees and thorns in their way.
But they weren't chasing Shi Shuai and the Painting Woman—they were fleeing for their lives.
"Boom!" A huge tentacle shot out from a tree trunk, sweeping flat a patch of forest before slamming the person it had coiled around heavily to the ground!
It was the formalwear player. He had sustained minor injuries, but his high-quality defense prop had blocked the tentacle prop's attack, so he wasn't stiff and helpless like those who had been caught before. After being thrown out, his first move wasn't to escape but to press an instrument on his wrist, attempting to open a space portal!
This was a genuine space portal. Xu Huo immediately brought Shi Shuai and the Painting Woman over through his spiritual realm, intending to follow the formalwear player out. But unexpectedly, that fish appeared again!
It burst out directly from the formalwear player's space portal, not only destroying the teleportation passage but also ramming into the formalwear player!
The formalwear player, already on the verge of rage, lost all his previous elegance. His face twisted as he grabbed the fish, trying to drag it out of the space!
"Why did you pull us back?" Shi Shuai looked at Xu Huo with a helpless expression. "If he could escape, would he have waited until now?"
That was right—this wasn't the formalwear player's first attempt to escape, but each time, the prop fish blocked him, allowing the tentacle prop to catch up. Now, the same thing was happening. The tentacle prop, which had been rampaging and venting its fury just moments ago, lashed out from all directions again!
"Boom!" The prop fish and the formalwear player were both sent flying!
Having already moved aside, Shi Shuai chuckled, "Good thing we ran fast."
The formalwear player and the prop fish drew the main fire. The tentacle prop seemed to be seeking revenge, chasing them relentlessly. Every time the formalwear player tried to escape and use an instrument to leave, the prop fish would interfere, and they'd both get hit by the tentacle prop together. During this process, the formalwear player repeatedly tried to call for help from Fish Feast, but after multiple attacks, several of his instruments were destroyed, leaving him no choice but to struggle with the tentacle prop on the spot.
Xu Huo had no intention of helping. He quickly observed the surroundings. Raising so many large mutated animals meant this was no ordinary zoo. Judging by the scope, it encompassed at least a mountain range. There was a blockade barrier above, indicating they were still within Fish Feast's jurisdiction.
He couldn't use the instruments he'd taken from the formalwear player because they required biometric authentication. But he wasn't in a hurry. He stayed on the sidelines, watching the formalwear player's fierce battle, planning to collect the kill later.
Unexpectedly, there were other players in this jungle. Two groups happened to arrive nearby by chance. When they saw the tentacle prop, they were startled at first. Then they noticed Xu Huo and his group hiding nearby, and that the surrounding fierce beasts and venomous insects had been scared off, so they also crept closer.