Chapter 2394: Bobo Fish to the Rescue
Xu Huo had already decided to go to the sixty-ninth floor, but the players from Fish Feast might be waiting outside the door, just waiting for him to come out. Bringing the Painting Woman was too conspicuous. Having her remain in human form made it difficult for ordinary players to recognize her as an item, unless she transformed into her paper form. However, if she turned back into a painting, without being stored in the luggage compartment or item slot, she would be extremely easy to expose—especially since this building was filled with all kinds of visible and invisible detection instruments. It was simply too risky.
So he decided to let the Painting Woman stay in this room for now, and he would come back for her.
The Painting Woman was unwilling. She pointed at the buzz-cut man beside them.
The last time they had crossed paths, the buzz-cut man had picked a fight with them precisely because he had set his sights on her.
Seeing their gazes, the buzz-cut man showed no sign of guilt. "I've already repaid the favor. Whatever you do, I don't care."
Of course, whatever he did, they couldn't control either. Would the Painting Woman be specifically targeted if she stayed? Why should he guarantee anything?
Let alone strangers who met by chance, even friends or family often couldn't be relied upon in many situations.
"I'm going with you," the Painting Woman insisted.
Xu Huo was worried that if he went too late, he would miss that fish. Without much hesitation, he nodded, then turned to look at the buzz-cut man. "You open the door."
Hearing this, the buzz-cut man's face instantly turned ugly, but he quickly relaxed again. "Fine, you're the one with the bigger fists."
He walked over and opened the door. Originally, Xu Huo had planned to release his Spiritual Realm the moment the door opened, then use the Spiritual Gate to teleport. He had anticipated that the Fish Feast people would set up spatial barriers in the corridor and outside to seal off his spiritual power, so the moment he went out, he used "Seal the Door," breaking through several layers of barriers in the corridor at once, and successfully went upstairs.
The Fish Feast players followed closely behind. Not only were they wearing mental interference devices themselves, but they had also set them up in the building and elevators. Combined with the numerous spatiotemporal items of the same type, the interference was very strong. Spatial items would malfunction at any moment. Once his Spiritual Gate was sealed, it would be difficult for him to use special passages to teleport. In this situation, no matter how fast he was, he couldn't disappear into thin air, nor could he easily teleport upstairs or downstairs.
What was even more infuriating was that the moment he stepped onto the sixtieth floor, the building itself actually changed!
Although the original floors had leisure areas and were quite spacious, most of the area was still occupied by rooms. But the moment he stepped onto the sixtieth floor, he keenly felt a subtle change in the surrounding space. Not only did the open area increase, but several staircases that should have been nearby all disappeared. And as he tried to move forward, the floor, walls, and even the entire space were stretched and enlarged, making the already distant staircases grow farther and farther away. Moreover, due to the spatial changes, this floor had unknowingly become isolated from the floors above and below!
Realizing this was a new space within the Fish Feast building, Xu Huo abruptly stopped. He didn't need to look to know that many players had gathered around. The players working for Fish Feast were not incompetent characters; they were almost all B-grade or A-grade. Their actions were very clean and decisive, and their combat instincts in battle were equally outstanding. This meant that they had either fought their way through games or had been specifically trained by the Fish Feast boss...
The former was more likely. Xu Huo had interacted with staff from the Game Government Base. People who didn't risk their lives in games had a fundamental difference from ordinary players. Although the Game Government Base staff had a high degree of self-discipline, the "work attributes" cultivated in them from a young age far surpassed those of the gray players they absorbed. Work covered their bodies and thoughts, making their personal characteristics less distinct.
Of course, this might be because the people he had seen were all those assigned to ordinary wormhole point districts. But generally speaking, the temperament between the two was easy to distinguish. So the people in front of him should be ordinary players absorbed by Fish Feast. That Miss Zhai was called "Grand Archon," and the job positions at Fish Feast couldn't possibly include "Grand Archon." Therefore, the Fish Feast boss and other core members most likely came from high-level wormhole point districts with strong backgrounds. It wasn't surprising that they could pull strings. Perhaps even the people he saw now were gray players.
"Bang!" Xu Huo was knocked back again, crashing into the wall along with the Painting Woman. The dense barrage of item attacks left him overwhelmed. Although he had items that could temporarily disable other items and traits, they had usage limits and weren't worth wasting here. The result of a head-on collision was that even though he maintained his speed and reactions at a high level, he still couldn't easily shake off these people. Moreover, the enemy had too many members. To avoid mutual interference between items, they took turns attacking. In no time, they had figured out his combat habits and item effects, and even started using targeted items and instruments.
"Blocking his vision and hearing is useless; it only interferes with us. Replace such items and instruments." Among the players besieging him, three were responsible for observation and command, and this order came from one of them.
Similarly, the other two continuously gave observation results:
"The usage limit of the Super Device's defense barrier is unclear, but it's certain that it can't appear continuously. There's at least a 0.1-second reaction time before activation."
"Reaction speed is very fast. Even in high-speed combat, he can quickly summarize the limits of others' items and instruments. Replace any items or instruments used more than three times."
"The Super Device has some impact-dampening effect, but it's not 100% damage-free. Increase the use of large-area, high-impact items and instruments. Also, prepare defenses and use sonic interference."
The sonic interference mentioned here wasn't about creating an overly loud or sharp sound to block his hearing, but to cause instantaneous auditory damage, or use sound waves to create resonance with his body. Both methods could kill, but the protective suits and defense items worn by players in daily life could minimize the damage from sound waves. In other words, it was easy to defend against, unless it was unexpected or the target was unprepared.
Having fought for so long, with someone directing from the sidelines, Xu Huo knew that these people suddenly putting on helmets wasn't just to make him deaf. So at that moment, he stirred the time power within this space, causing the time rays to resonate with each other. After destroying some items this way, he quickly introduced time power from other spaces, intending to kill all the surrounding players in the shortest possible time, without letting a single one escape!
The moment time power enveloped this space, almost everyone around fell into a state of stagnation. Some were truly frozen in place, while others aged rapidly. However, several pre-placed items didn't completely fail, including that sonic instrument. It was only slightly deflected when it flew out of a player's hand, changing its direction. So after the entire space came to a halt, several Fish Feast players who couldn't move in time and failed to protect themselves died standing up, blood oozing from their mouths and noses under the instrument's sonic waves!
Stopping time only slowed down the flow of time on a person; it didn't mean time truly stopped. So attacks entering the range of time power were also delayed. The process of death was slowed down for those within this space, so the dying process should have been very painful.
Xu Huo didn't need to worry about the players covered by the faster-flowing time power. But for the slower ones, he couldn't precisely control the range of his time power coverage. Worried that retracting and reintroducing it might cause unnecessary trouble, he simply kicked the sonic instrument on the ground in front of those few people.
The attack range of the sonic instrument was limited; it couldn't harvest everyone at once. So Xu Huo did it a second time. But just as he was about to turn the instrument's direction for a third time, a voice suddenly appeared out of thin air:
"Young man, we've been going easy on you, but you insist on being so ruthless?"
This sudden voice set off alarm bells in Xu Huo's mind, because he hadn't detected any movement from this person's arrival. Only when the person spoke did he feel a faint spatial fluctuation. Maximizing the release of his Spiritual Realm, he immediately tried to run. But the person simply clapped their hands, and a Blockade Barrier contracted from all directions, trapping him back inside this floor. The barrier was incredibly hard; even the Black Blade could only leave small scratches on it!
Just as "Seal the Door" appeared in his hand again, a middle-aged man in a white casual suit with long brown hair flashed behind him, his index finger thrusting straight at the center of the back of his head!
Instinct made Xu Huo reflexively trigger the Water Cube Barrier. The man's finger actually pressed a half-centimeter dent into the barrier, and the impact clearly wasn't completely blocked by the Water Cube Barrier. Xu Huo felt as if he had been violently struck while trapped under a large bell. Not only did he fly out, but even his brain trembled from the shock!
"Bang!" He slammed solidly into the distant Blockade Barrier, and this impact actually caused cracks to appear in it!
Suppressing the urge to vomit, Xu Huo instinctively turned over and raised "Seal the Door" again. But this seemed to anger the long-haired man. His gaze was as cold as if he were looking at someone about to die. When he flashed next to the barrier again, his finger had changed into a palm strike!
There was no way Xu Huo could dodge this time. He planned to use the Water Cube Barrier to take the hit head-on. But unexpectedly, at that moment, the Painting Woman flew behind him and directly spread her arms to block him!
The Painting Woman was an item, a Super Item at that. She probably wouldn't die. She was clearly different from ordinary items, still able to move freely even in an environment where game channels were blocked. So there was no need to worry about her being destroyed in one hit. But not dying was the biggest flaw. Once her special nature was noticed, the Fish Feast people would be even less likely to let things go!
"Get out of the way!" Xu Huo opened Spiritual Gates in front of her and beneath her feet, and used Materialized Objects for protection. Although it was extremely difficult, buying a moment's time shouldn't be a problem.
Seeing his movements, the long-haired man only gave a contemptuous smile. Without changing his posture or movement, his hand passed through the Spiritual Gate in front, but instead of being teleported elsewhere, it directly caused the gate to shatter and disappear!
Realizing that he intended to deal with both the Painting Woman and himself together, Xu Huo tried to pull the Painting Woman to escape through the Spiritual Gate beneath their feet. But before he could step out, a force grabbed him in place. "Three Seconds of Life" and "Pure Heart" appeared in his left and right hands respectively. In the blink of an eye, the long-haired man was actually stopped!
A fish head wedged itself between them, its eye on Xu Huo's side rolling towards him:
"Bobo bobo!"
My fingers really hurt, couldn't persist in writing two chapters, so here's one big chapter. Everyone get some sleep early.