Chapter 2603: Returning to the Darkness
Upon hearing Xu Huo's words, the expressions of those present turned unpleasant. A player standing further away said, "How can you be sure that the missing players will definitely end up in the Night Parade? There's no evidence to prove that yet."
Even if the Night Parade pulls people in, it's entirely possible that it kills them and then adds ghost costumes out of thin air to confuse the players.
Without concrete evidence, the local government cannot rashly make a judgment. The reason the instance site is still relatively stable now is thanks to timely rescues. Since the forbidden zone is continuously sucking people in, if people find out that the local government has abandoned those trapped in the forbidden zone, chaos would surely break out immediately.
"Young people don't know how to adapt," the little old man said. "Why don't you try it out on one or two cities? The first forbidden zone appeared in Xia City, and the first Night Parade also appeared in Xia City. If it's not linked to time, then it's linked to the number of people."
"But the Night Parades are overlapping," another player said. "Since a horror-themed Night Parade can appear in Lan Shui Wu, sealing off cities by city would most likely be useless. Anyone who dies in any city can become a member of any Night Parade."
In other words, even if one or two cities run out of people, they can quickly be replenished from other cities. Unless the populations of all eight cities are completely emptied, the situation won't turn around.
In reality, this isn't too difficult for the current Zone 001. Emptying a few cities isn't the same as emptying an entire district. With a little time, it can absolutely be done. However, the residents of these eight cities cannot be casually sent to other cities, and using space ships to leave the district to cut off the instance would incur astronomical costs.
"Space ships that can cross districts aren't available in every district," the metal badge player said coldly.
This is thanks to the game's technological blockade on instance districts. Even super-large space teleportation items have been made into consumables, let alone space ships that can navigate through different spaces. The technological development of many districts in the game mostly relies on other districts, exchanging local resources for advanced technological products to arm their own districts. But whether they can figure out the core technology depends on luck.
C9-001 excels in making clocks and time calibration, surpassing most game districts, but it can't cover everything.
Currently, the information available is limited, and the general direction still needs to be grasped by the local government.
After pausing for a while, Xu Huo started walking again. As he passed through another space door, he quickly molded the "Metal Plasticine" into a cat's head. Under the disgusted gaze of the Painting Woman, a row of cat heads bulged out from the surrounding metal objects.
During this time, the demon masks had been attacking them almost non-stop. When the sky brightened again, all the players felt extremely exhausted. Yet, opening their eyes, floating masks greeted them, not only tiring them but also driving them crazy and infuriating them!
"Is there no end to this!" a player roared uncontrollably. He charged forward, slashing the mask in front of him, then grabbed it and tore it apart frantically until it was reduced to shreds. But just as he was venting his anger, a silver-white thread suddenly shot up from the ground, pierced through the back of his foot, and quickly stabbed into his calf. In just a few back-and-forths, like sewing stitches, it directly pierced through his body!
With a scream, the man was dragged forward by the silver-white thread hidden underground!
A huge metal plaque stood upright in front of the street, blocking the dragged man while also cutting the silver-white thread buried underground. But before everyone could breathe a sigh of relief, countless silver-white threads emerged in clusters from the ground, like swaying and dancing water plants, or like the sharp point of a blade. They crisscrossed back and forth, indiscriminately cutting everything in this space.
Xu Huo immediately took the little old man and the Painting Woman to avoid the first attack. But the range of this assault exceeded his spiritual realm. When they exited through the spiritual gate, they were greeted by a wall of silver-white threads that almost formed a white curtain!
The space defense barrier stood in front of them. As he opened a second gate, he also activated his time power, freezing all the nearby silver-white threads. It was only an extremely brief pause, because the time power disappeared as soon as they crossed the second gate.
Leaving the coverage of the silver-white threads, Xu Huo looked back at the vast expanse of white. "This scale shouldn't be from an ordinary giant demon."
"It's probably a Ghost God Mask," Old Mr. Xi said, peering into the distance. "Too bad we didn't see the mask appear."
"I wonder if those few managed to escape..." He paused, then turned back to stare at Xu Huo. "You're carrying more than one time item, aren't you?"
"I can't be mistaken. That was time power just now. If you could lend it to me for research, I might consider letting you take care of me in my old age."
Xu Huo glanced at him sideways. "You can say a few more words to completely dissuade me from that idea."
Old Mr. Xi smiled without self-awareness. "I'll trade you with other items. I have so many items in my shop; there must be something you want."
"Let's talk about getting out first," Xu Huo said as he pulled a player who had just escaped to his side, then nodded at the metal badge player who had successfully broken out of the encirclement. After that, he led the Painting Woman and Old Mr. Xi and sped away from the area.
When they passed through the city center, they went through another space door. He didn't waste time and stamped the pre-made dog head onto a nearby metal object. But in an instant, a second space door appeared, and the group had no choice but to pass through it. The next second, the surrounding space returned to darkness.
The masks that had been chasing them were gone. Darkness swallowed every figure, and at the same time, it swallowed all sound.
"Why has the sky turned dark again?" the young man following the metal badge player asked hesitantly. "Are we still in the forbidden zone?"
"Don't make a sound!" the metal badge player hissed. "Something is coming?"
More precisely, it was a sound. A faint sound came from a distance, seemingly like bells. But because it was too far away, mixed with some hoarse, low noises, the bells weren't very clear. However, these sounds came from one direction. Those who had seen the Cultural Street Night Parade and the Lan Shui Wu Night Parade knew that it should be the sound of the Night Parade.
The bells were one of the musical instruments carried by the ghosts. Besides that, the Night Parade's movement was also different from normal. They performed a special dance, moving slowly, taking a few steps forward and then a few steps back. Overall, they moved very slowly. The Lan Shui Wu Night Parade was more like a choppy video, with the entire parade not fully completed but frequently flickering.
"Jingle!" Just as everyone thought the distance was still far, a clear bell sound rang out almost right next to their ears!
A bit stuck on writing, only one chapter today. ^_^