Chapter 2578: Joyful Horror Night
Sometimes what frightens people isn't the terrifying object itself, but the atmosphere and the reactions of those around them. Many people's instinct in such situations might be to strike out, but if there are a few timid companions who scream and then pull you along to run, well, in that case, you'll basically spend the whole ordeal just fleeing for your life.
The terrifying scenes had no impact on the Painting Woman, while the You sisters, being locals and having experienced "shocks" multiple times, had gradually adapted. Xu Huo also remained expressionless.
The four of them stared at the dripping "human head" in silence.
More and more water accumulated on the "head." Perhaps feeling a bit awkward, after a few seconds of stalemate, it prepared to drift away. But just then, a few tourists from other zones entered through the door, looked up, and saw the wrinkled "human head." They immediately screamed in terror, turned to run, only to be blocked by staff members lying in wait behind them. In their panic, they fled into the Cultural Street.
A series of screams gradually faded into the distance. Xu Huo looked at the street full of "monsters and demons," then turned back to ask the Painting Woman, "Who are you going to scare later?"
The staff members were generally fully costumed, while tourists mostly wore symbolic masks or headgear. But the atmosphere was excellent. The staff didn't chase tourists endlessly, and from time to time, parade performance troupes would pass through the street, filling the chaotic revelry with laughter and joy.
Until a human head was hoisted on a fork and raised above the parade.
Dripping blood, accompanied by a strong stench, splattered onto the ground. Some tourists were splashed as well, terrifying quite a few people. But when the parade demons cut open the head, revealing green flesh inside, the tourists' fear turned into laughter.
Such gruesome performances happened from time to time. For example, a staff member pretending to be a tourist would suddenly have their head chopped off by a ghost, and then the "headless" staff member would get up and continue performing.
Real blood was used in the performances, so a strong smell would occasionally waft through the street. This was tolerable for ordinary people, but it was hard on players with overly sensitive olfactory senses. Some of them changed their masks.
The Painting Woman and the others had run off and disappeared, but when Xu Huo released his spiritual power to search for them, he sensed several oppressive presences from different directions. He quickly turned to look, but only caught a glimpse of performers dancing bizarre dances. The parade passed by, and they also passed in front of Xu Huo. One of them, dressed as a female ghost, deliberately approached him, shook her head, and handed him a finger.
It was a real finger, not a prop.
Xu Huo's position was quickly overrun by tourists, and the parade was pushed forward by the crowd. He stared at that figure for a few seconds, then withdrew from the crowd and headed toward a nearby alley.
Although the alley was decorated for the celebration, it had few tourists, so it was mostly used for storage. Today, the cleaning robots had temporarily withdrawn, and the trash bins were piled up here.
Xu Huo opened one of them. A sealed transparent bag was stuffed with bloody body parts, making it hard to tell at a glance which part of the body they belonged to.
These weren't props either.
It wasn't surprising that some mentally disturbed individuals might use this chaotic celebration to vent their emotions, but when Xu Huo sensed several players moving in his direction, he realized this should be an unsealed instance area.
To avoid trouble, he left first.
Returning to the parade, Xu Huo searched for the Painting Woman's trail and found that a performer had targeted her. Using the interaction as an opportunity, the performer grabbed her hand and then twisted it behind her back.
The performer stared at the Painting Woman, and she stared back. No one paid attention to her right hand, which was nearly bent backward.
Realizing he had encountered a tough opponent, the performer swayed his body and tried to retreat. But the Painting Woman pressed down on his shoulder and pointed at herself, indicating it was her turn.
The next second, four fingers on the performer's right hand were bent backward toward his own hand under the Painting Woman's force. Good grief, this guy actually managed not to scream. Shaking off the Painting Woman, he quickly melted back into his companions. The costumes they wore were probably props, and after weaving in and out of the group a few times, it became hard to tell which one he was.
However, this gave the Painting Woman an idea. She began actively seeking out performers to play games with.
The other performers seemed to instantly learn that one of their own had suffered a loss. They swayed past her, shaking their heads, completely ignoring her.
Of course, she wasn't the only tough one. Another player directly kicked a provocative performer out of the parade. The parade didn't care about losing one member, and the tourists thought it was part of the show. No one paid attention, except for the player who followed the flying performer away.
A few seconds later, the flying performer returned, holding a human head in his hand.
By then, no one cared.
Xu Huo took a look. The body of the player from earlier had been stuffed into a trash bin again.
The parade was very long. The ones running in front were mostly "monsters" of similar size to humans. In the middle section were low-altitude flying instruments, with performers in massive costumes sitting on modified aircraft, playing important roles in the performance. The monsters beside them were even larger, and they had picked up weapons.
By this point, even the players realized something was wrong. Those who weren't there for the instance mostly planned to withdraw, but somehow, they kept getting swept back into the crowd—it seemed that as long as they hadn't left the Cultural Street, they would be swept along by the parade.
Of course, more players were there to clear the instance. Not only did they not leave, but they actively engaged with the performance. The player who had been lured out and beheaded earlier was one of them.
Even stranger, the remaining bodies that hadn't been used as performance props quickly disappeared.
To be precise, they vanished into thin air. Xu Huo even turned back to check the trash bins. Aside from some bloodstains, the bodies were gone without a trace.
Just as he was about to release the trash bin lid, someone suddenly appeared behind him. A sharp gust of air came straight for his neck. Xu Huo's eyes darkened slightly. He spun around swiftly, grabbed the attacker's throat, and squeezed hard!
A cracking sound rang out as he threw the weightless "body" to the ground.
The moment he exerted force, he sensed something was wrong. This didn't feel like a real person at all. Peeling away the prop and the skin, the performer's interior was nothing but a skeleton.
Just as he was about to destroy the skeleton, the monster costume wrapped itself around it again and slithered along the ground toward the alley's exit.
Unfortunately, Xu Huo didn't give it a chance to escape. Without moving a step, his spiritual power materialization objects flanked from both ends of the alley. The discarded black lines directly sliced the skeleton and the monster costume into pieces!
He frowned slightly: This monster costume prop wasn't very sturdy.