Chapter 2591: Entering the Forbidden Zone
Enter the forbidden zone for a trip?
The Enforcement Team player thought his ears were playing tricks on him. What did he think the forbidden zone was, a place you could just waltz into?
“Is there?” However, the person before him didn’t care about others’ opinions and repeated the question.
The Enforcement Team player, seeing his attitude, was momentarily uncertain whether he was an ignorant fool without fear or truly skilled and bold. While pressing the emergency button on the instrument, he stalled for time, “Please wait a moment. Our team leader will be here soon. You can discuss matters with him.”
Xu Huo nodded. He could already sense over a dozen players rushing toward him from different directions, while the players in front of him and scattered around were also poised to stop him.
“Forget it. I’ll run into your people inside anyway,” he said calmly, and the next second, he passed through the blockade barrier and vanished.
Nearby instruments blared alarms. The players could see on the monitors that someone had appeared on the ninth floor—exactly where their colleagues trapped inside the building were located.
Those outside immediately sent a warning to those inside, but it was already too late. Xu Huo had already pinned them in place and said calmly, “I want to enter the forbidden zone to find a friend. Can your people get in?”
This vanguard search team wasn’t particularly strong; they were mainly sent out to scout. Scouting also meant they were prepared for sacrifice—taking risks and accepting losses. Experienced A-rank players were valuable resources in any district, and even if they were needed to clear instances, they couldn’t all be thrown into the front lines at once.
A more reasonable combination would be high-level players of various ranks investigating separately.
Four players were crushed by gravity, unable to lift their heads. One of them struggled to speak, “We haven’t found a fixed route yet… Sometimes we can get in… but we have to wait.”
“If you want to enter the forbidden zone… it’s useless to pressure us…”
Xu Huo released them and said flatly, “What’s the point of pressuring you? I’m just giving you a heads-up so you don’t cause me trouble like those outside.”
The group dared not voice their anger. After getting up, they reported to their companions outside, signaling that everything was fine.
“How often does the forbidden zone swallow people?” Xu Huo asked again. “Give me the details.”
“It sucks in a certain number of people every hour—anywhere from a few, to over a dozen, to several dozen. At other times, it’s not completely closed off. Occasionally, a few people go missing in the forbidden zone’s range, but there’s no time pattern during those periods,” a player said truthfully after receiving instructions from his superiors.
Xu Huo glanced at the clock on the building’s floor. “It’s almost time for the next mass absorption.”
“Has the support team entered the forbidden zone from here? How many of your team leaders have gone missing in the building?”
“The support team is at the natural park forbidden zone. We originally split into three groups of four each. Eight people went missing one after another, so the rest regrouped,” the player said. “Every time someone disappears, there’s a fluctuation of power in the space, but it’s always a single person. Even holding hands won’t let you bring a second person in.”
Xu Huo raised an eyebrow slightly. “So you’re saying it’s all up to luck whether you get in or not?”
The four fell silent, clearly meaning exactly that.
“The horror theme isn’t swallowing people as fast as the religious theme,” Xu Huo said slowly, then added, “Wait twenty minutes. If I still can’t get in after twenty minutes, then trouble the Xia City government to open a door and send me to Blue Water Bay. Coordinate with them there. Otherwise, I’ll find my own way over.”
This was a notification, not a negotiation.
The four Enforcement Team members had no choice but to report his request to their superiors.
Of course, for an outer-zone player wanting to enter the forbidden zone, the local government likely wouldn’t stop him. Among them, aside from a few who were just there for the spectacle, most were ticket players, so stopping them was useless. Besides, if ticket players could survive, it would be a good thing for District 001—at least they’d have firsthand experience.
Xu Huo didn’t seem like a ticket player. His attitude made it easier to assume he was looking for trouble.
But priorities mattered. As long as no one was trying to tear the sky down over District 001, they wouldn’t expend much effort dealing with him.
Sure enough, the government quickly responded, agreeing to follow his request but also warning him not to do anything too outrageous, or District 001 would pursue the matter to the end.
Twenty minutes. The old man was an Artificer, so he should be carrying plenty of instruments. He could hold out for a while.
Soon, the forbidden zone’s active period, as calculated by the Enforcement Team, began. People started disappearing around them one after another. Even one of the four Enforcement Team members vanished, but Xu Huo couldn’t seize the opportunity to get in.
That Enforcement Team member disappeared barely two meters away from him. The moment he sensed a spatial shift, he grabbed for the player’s arm, but only brushed the sleeve before grasping empty air. The man vanished right before his eyes, as if sliding into a spatial crevice in some bizarre state, completely impossible to latch onto.
This strange spatial state lasted only an instant. Even with Xu Huo’s quick reflexes, he still failed to follow him in.
It was a peculiar state. Calling it a spatial crevice wasn’t quite accurate. It was like two sheets of paper partially overlapping. From the front or back, the paper appeared flawless, but there was a gap on the side. And this gap couldn’t be actively touched by anyone standing on either side—only when the gap appeared on its own could it swallow someone.
Over ten minutes had passed, and Xu Huo was still in the Yangming Building. Just as he was about to head to Blue Water Bay to try, the entire instance forbidden zone suddenly erupted with violent power fluctuations. Then, the coverage area of the forbidden zone rapidly expanded outward, tripling or quadrupling in size in the blink of an eye, with a trend of continuous spread.
At the same time, people within the expanded forbidden zone began to disappear. This time, it was fiercer than when the forbidden zone first appeared. Screams erupted from many places, and the number of missing easily doubled. Nearby players, including Xu Huo, also realized something—evacuating everyone around the forbidden zone couldn’t prevent being swallowed. The forbidden zone’s coverage wasn’t based on area size but on the number of people. Enough people could slow its expansion.
Perhaps because the forbidden zone was rapidly swallowing people, Xu Huo and the remaining three Enforcement Team players were suddenly enveloped by a force and vanished in an instant!
The slide through the spatial gap was incredibly fast. Xu Huo maintained his walking posture, taking just one step. When his foot landed, he had already changed locations. In the pitch-black space, dust and the smell of blood floated in the air. Before he could even steady himself, a gust of wind came from ahead!