Chapter 2553: Instance Clear
"I'd say there's a ninety percent chance we won't be able to clear it." Bubble Bean, who had recovered well, stood behind Xu Huo and said, "Even though the time in the instance area doesn't match District 001, we've been in here for a while now. The election in District 001 should be almost over. Before it ends, the Wan family members have to die. It's probably about time."
According to the information Valen had revealed earlier, after the Wan family members died, the outer zone candidates would be eliminated next. Once the outer zone candidates were out, Valen would hang himself. Then came the decisive battle between the district government and the outer zone forces, which would also permanently brand the outer zone forces as conspirators, ensuring that future generations in District 001 would harbor hatred toward them, thus preventing the people of District 001 from unknowingly walking toward death and despair.
Xu Huo stared in the direction of the spatial rift. No matter how much he wanted to clear the instance, he couldn't enter now. If the passage and the exit remained intact after the storm subsided, there might still be a chance. But if the exit was destroyed as well, things would truly be set in stone.
Moreover, the spatial storm had come suddenly. He worried that something new had happened in District 001, and he wondered if it was related to the silver-robed man he had killed.
The First Squad had already received news that the entrance to the chaos space Xu Huo had visited earlier had completely disappeared. Yao Yuan said to Xu Huo, "It's very likely that the outer zone forces sensed something."
Xu Huo frowned. Although he had disguised his identity, the temporal and spatial forces there were chaotic, making it hard to say whether events that had occurred wouldn't be recorded. The silver-robed man had a special status, so it wouldn't be surprising if someone came to investigate his death.
He hadn't tried to disrupt the spatial forces around that rift earlier because he wanted to maintain the passage. If the passage and exit left by the super player were completely destroyed, the people trapped here wouldn't know when they could leave. He just hadn't expected it to happen so quickly. After all, there was a time difference between the portal space and the outside world. As long as the silver-robed man's side didn't send more people in to find him, things shouldn't have reached the worst-case scenario.
Now that the spatial rift had disappeared and the spatial storm had formed, the people in District 001 couldn't get out, and the outer zone forces naturally couldn't get in either. The other side seemed to have sensed the silver-robed man's death but showed no reaction.
He wasn't sure what had gone wrong in the middle, but since things had come to this, there was no choice but to wait.
"Look at this." The Painting Woman had pulled out some props from who knows where. She had pinched several metal mutant beasts she had seen earlier in the metal forest. Upon closer inspection, each mutant beast had a human face painted on its rear end—Bubble Bean, Qiu Xiangming, the middle-aged man who had been stamped, and even members of the First Squad had been honored with inclusion.
"Isn't this a bit rude?" Xu Huo said.
The Painting Woman looked at Yao Yuan and the others. Yao Yuan said kindly, "It's fine. Just kids playing around."
Compared to the A-rank players present, their ages could indeed be considered "kids."
Xu Huo had already learned from Yao Yuan that the District 001 players left behind in that mountain had died, and no useful information had been brought out. The distance between the two locations was too great, and without props or instruments to assist, he couldn't travel back and forth in a short time. Once he left, he might not be able to return in time to find the exit after the spatial storm subsided.
After hesitating for a moment, he made a choice and decided to stay here.
"The storm seems to have weakened a lot!" Qiu Xiangming, who had been observing up ahead, came back and said, "It's much shorter than estimated. It should be because Mr. Xu made arrangements in the chaos space to preserve the passage, preventing it from falling into complete disorder."
"I'll go take a look." Xu Huo called the Painting Woman and told her to stay close.
Although the temporal and spatial forces in the mountain hadn't completely calmed down, there was at least a place where people could pass through. Xu Huo and the First Squad members led the way, going deep into the mountain to confirm there were no issues before signaling the others to come in.
The Holy Sword Society members in the area had been cleaned out several times. The First Squad wasn't new to exploring the passage, but every time, they had been blocked by players hiding at the entrance and exit. They had fought back and forth with the Holy Sword Society over this training ground several times, until the spatial storm just now seemed to have finally wiped out the Holy Sword Society's presence.
They reached the entrance of the spatial passage smoothly. Xu Huo released his spiritual power to probe ahead. Sure enough, the space bodies around the passage had become very stable, and the passage itself showed signs of gradually recovering. To avoid being intercepted by the Holy Sword Society, they didn't wait this time and directly entered the passage.
Unexpectedly, this time went very smoothly. There wasn't even any deliberately stacked space bodies blocking the way. In about ten minutes, the group reached the end of the passage, where the entrance and exit portal was located.
A massive gate made of space bodies reflecting multicolored light stood in a sea of white light. Behind it, several strips of polyhedral space bodies extended outward, deeply connected to the chaos space, as if both bound by it and binding it.
A small amount of bloodstains remained on the gate, and there was no one around.
"Could the Holy Sword Society members guarding the gate have died in that spatial storm?" Qiu Xiangming speculated. "But why hasn't anyone come in again? They couldn't have not known their companions were dead."
"From this gate, there are three rendezvous points: one in the district government's secret laboratory, one in Lady Sheila's manor, and one deep in a mountain outside the United Capital," Yao Yuan said to Xu Huo. "But after we were trapped, all three places were taken over by outer zone forces. Going out will likely mean another tough fight, and the outside is probably sealed off as well. Be careful."
Xu Huo signaled the Painting Woman to hold onto his arm, then raised his hand and touched the now-solid spatial gate. The gate didn't open; instead, the spatial power rippled, allowing him to pass directly through. The moment he passed through the gate, he received a game notification:
[Congratulations to player Passerby A for clearing the instance "Journey of the Cat Whisker Fruit."]
The moment he touched the ground, Xu Huo realized he had been teleported to Lady Sheila's manor. He looked up and came face to face with a blue-eyed person sitting in the room. Their gazes met for only an instant, and then he vanished from the room again, as swift as a ghostly apparition, appearing only briefly before others.
"Running pretty fast." The blue-eyed person stood up and said regretfully, "Looks like we'll have to meet again next time."
As he spoke, he turned around and also disappeared from the room.
Also randomly teleported to Lady Sheila's manor along with Xu Huo were three members of the First Squad, including Yao Yuan. They arrived a step later and only caught a glimpse of the blue-eyed person's back. As they tensed in alert, they saw a player close to Lady Sheila push the door open and smile at them:
"The zone occupation incident has been resolved. Our district, our home, is saved!"