Chapter 2587: Ignoring Spatial Barriers
If a person wearing a hood is killed, the hood will fall onto the killer. Hoods are not easy to dodge, but that applies only to ordinary people. For players, with a bit of effort, they can still be avoided. A hood already in plain sight is nothing to fear; what is frightening are those that appear suddenly.
However, the person who had been hooded should have been a companion of those who chased after him. They only knocked him unconscious and took him away, without killing him directly.
"Can't anyone wearing a hood maintain their sanity?" Liu Jie frowned. "This is a player."
It was normal for ordinary people to be influenced by an instance and commit murder, but in such a short time, even players couldn't avoid it?
"Is this a space instance or a mental-type instance?"
None of those present were instance players, so who could know what was happening inside the instance? For now, they could only wait for official news, or hope that other players on the Message Collection Terminal would discover clues.
The group sat in the living room waiting. After the fire was extinguished, the neighbor living in the villa came to Mr. Wang's place to seek shelter. Unexpectedly, the family left behind was an old man and a child. Although they were protected by five players, all five were C-rank players, and two of them had just escorted a companion who had been hooded to a nearby Enforcement Team patrol point.
The old man and child huddled together, their expressions terrified.
"Here, we can look out for each other. Don't be afraid." Mr. Wang gave a toy to the child and had the robot bring up some hot tea and snacks.
Mr. Wang was a very jovial person. Even in this situation, he could still lighten the mood. But as he was speaking, he suddenly fell silent and pointed in shock toward the window!
The players in the villa looked over simultaneously and barely caught a glimpse of a ghostly face disappearing. The next second, that ghostly face appeared inside the villa. It flew out from behind the sofa and lunged straight at the nearest person, Jing Shi!
"Watch out!" Xiao Wu and Liu Jie had been distracted by the earlier commotion and had unconsciously walked a few meters away. By the time they turned back, they realized it was too late. Even though they used instruments and items immediately, the hood seemed to predict their movements. It flew high twice in a row to dodge their attacks, then shot straight toward Jing Shi's face!
"Slap!" The ghost-faced hood struck two centimeters from Jing Shi's face. A barrier formed by spiritual power not only blocked the hood but also covered Jing Shi's head without any gaps. This caused the hood, which had failed in its first strike and tried to attack from different directions, to fail again.
With this target unsuccessful, the ghost-faced hood quickly changed direction. It bypassed the Painting Woman, who was blocking the front and eager to act, made a turn, and shot straight toward Xu Huo!
Small-scale defensive barriers had already been set up inside and outside the villa. Although they were not top-tier instruments, they were enough to block things. However, when the ghost-faced hood appeared just now, the defensive barriers were not triggered. Of course, they hadn't failed either. It was as if the ghost-faced hood outside the window had appeared out of thin air inside the villa, without passing through the outer barrier at all.
The small defensive barrier inside the villa was, after all, a space instrument. Since it didn't activate, it suggested that the hood could likely shuttle back and forth between different spaces. Space barriers might not be able to stop it, which was why Xu Huo had used spiritual power to save Jing Shi earlier.
Of course, it was also possible that the villa's space defensive barrier wasn't strong enough. So when the hood came toward him, Xu Huo first blocked it with the "Space Sphere" and then put on his mechanical suit.
Regardless, the hood needed to make direct contact with a person's skin. If the space barrier was ineffective, a metal defense couldn't be completely useless either.
Sure enough, just as the ghost-faced hood was about to hit the space barrier, it flickered and disappeared, then instantly reappeared inside the defensive barrier of the "Space Sphere"!
The internal space of the "Space Sphere" wasn't very large, so when the hood "passed through" the barrier, it was almost face-to-face with Xu Huo!
Not letting it actually cover his head, Xu Huo pressed his right hand down. Under the effect of gravity, the ghost-faced hood slapped onto the ground with a "smack." It then sank into the cracked and sunken floor, becoming a flattened ghostly face.
The players from Mr. Wang's side came to help. They used a transparent glass box item to trap the hood. But no sooner had the flattened ghost face mask been placed inside than it suddenly came to life. It shook itself twice and disappeared directly from the box.
The players were on high alert, fearing it might emerge from some unexpected place again. However, after waiting for a long time without another attack, everyone finally relaxed a little.
"What the hell is this thing? Even space items can't stop it!" Liu Jie stood beside Jing Shi, still shaken. "We can't even catch it. Do we have to be on guard against it ambushing us every moment inside the instance?"
"Not necessarily," Xu Huo said. "If you throw it into the luggage compartment the moment you catch it, it might work."
Everyone fell silent for a moment. He was bold enough to test whether a high-level space defense item could really block the hood. The others wouldn't even dare let the hood get close, let alone try to catch it. Throwing it into the luggage compartment? Easier said than done.
Although this attack gave them some insight into the hood's characteristics, it wasn't good news.
"I don't understand," said the short-haired female player beside Mr. Wang. "Why did the hood bypass her?"
She was referring to the Painting Woman.
Everyone had seen what happened. Logically, the hood's target selection should be random. The Painting Woman was right in front of it, yet the hood actively bypassed her to go after Xu Huo behind her. This was clearly abnormal. So far, no reports had mentioned the hood filtering its targets.
The other players were also curious, but out of consideration that Xu Huo and his companion were Outer Zone players, they hadn't pressed the matter. Now that someone had brought it up, they all turned their gazes to Xu Huo and the Painting Woman.
Xu Huo didn't speak. The Painting Woman, however, tapped away rapidly and then played a voice recording: "Of course, it's because it's afraid of me! It doesn't dare to mess with me!"
The Painting Woman was still wearing her defensive item suit, which made her look like a B-rank player. To be honest, just from her aura, she wasn't even as strong as the player beside Jing Shi, let alone Xu Huo. If the hood were really that "intelligent," it should have chosen her over Xu Huo.
The Painting Woman wanted to add more, but Xu Huo pressed her shoulder to stop her. "Stop talking nonsense."
He then looked at the others. "There's no need to dwell on this. My sister is carrying a special item that can evade certain attacks."
"Since the ghost-faced hood can ignore space barriers and move freely, shouldn't you inform the Enforcement Team about this?"
With all the space items and instruments interfering with each other in the city now, it might affect players' judgment of the hood's characteristics.