Chapter 2604: Danger
Everyone's vision changed. Normally, when an object is too close to the eyes, it takes a moment for a person to adjust to that distance, and they cannot see the full picture of the object. But when the group turned their heads or looked up following the bell, a ghostly face magnified several times over completely occupied their field of vision. They could feel something pressed against their faces, yet the ghostly face in their sight twisted and warped like a reflection in a curved mirror, as if dragging their very vision along with it!
The five present—Xu Huo, the Painting Woman, Old Sir Xi, the Metal Token player, and another player from Zone 001—immediately reacted by retreating. But their hands, feet, and bodies suddenly seemed to lose connection, no longer able to move as they willed. Then darkness fell before their eyes, something stuck to their faces, and at the same time, it felt like something was burrowing into their heads—they had been fitted with hoods without even realizing it!
However, knowing their predicament didn't mean they could escape it. Now they understood what it felt like to wear a hood. Not only was something drilling into their heads, but the seemingly loose and oversized hood clung tightly to their skin, making breathing less smooth.
This wasn't the end. Through the blurred vision of the hood mask, they saw their own hands flailing wildly. Looking down, their feet were doing the same. As their bodies began to sway, countless feet suddenly appeared around them—front, back, left, and right—all dancing as well, wearing the ghostly costumes of the night parade and donning ghost masks.
The jingling bells, accompanied by the unique rhythm of the dance and an indistinct chant emanating from somewhere, combined with these performers in ghost costumes, formed a complete night parade procession.
When Xu Huo involuntarily stepped into the night parade, he was separated from the Painting Woman and the others. Although he could sense they were at different positions in the procession, with his hands and feet out of control and unable to speak, his thoughts seemed to stagnate. The amplified chanting filled his ears, and other thoughts in his mind were cleared away. In a blank state, he could only be manipulated by the hood, dancing ceaselessly and moving forward.
At this moment, players and props seemed as distant as memories about to be erased. Space and time became less important, as if his entire life had been reduced to a single task...
"Beep, beep, beep. Hourly smart reminder system at your service. It's time to take your medication..."
The cold electronic voice struck like lightning, shattering the blankness in Xu Huo's mind. All memories instantly came flooding back. Taking advantage of the dance's arm-raising motion, he reached for the ghost hood on his head. But although his mind was clear, he hadn't fully regained control of his body. He was noticeably slower, only just touching the hood...
At that very instant, dozens of white root tendrils shot in from different directions, moving so fast he had no chance to react. Even though he mobilized his mental power immediately, he could only block some of them, and some root tendrils even pierced through the barrier formed by his materialized objects!
"Bang!" As his leg was yanked by a strange force, Xu Huo slammed onto his knees. His stiff body tilted just in time to avoid the root tendril aimed at the center of his forehead. Then his body twisted twice more, protecting his throat and heart. Though several root tendrils pierced through his chest, abdomen, hands, and feet, he evaded this fatal strike!
"Cat's Triple Life Loan" and "Realistic Wax Figure" were both consumed in an instant, but they bought him enough time to catch his breath. Looking up at the ghosts that had suddenly stopped and turned toward him, Xu Huo moved his fingers. The spinning prop blade automatically severed the white root tendrils piercing his hands and feet. Once his arms could move, he pressed down with one hand, and the suddenly tilted gravity crushed all the ghosts surrounding him to the ground.
Of course, this also affected the white root tendrils that hadn't been completely severed. Xu Huo was dragged two meters by his pinned left leg before the timely return of the blade prop freed him.
Gravity suppression was only temporary. Soon, a few ghosts slowly stood up against the weight. At the same time, the costumes of all the ghost performers began to fall off. They burrowed into the ground under the gravity suppression and instantly gathered beneath Xu Huo!
As the "Water Cube Barrier" enveloped his entire body, the ghost costumes burst out of the ground like a flock of birds, layer after layer pressing onto him. Countless white root tendrils wrapped around him in an instant, cocooning him in a large white chrysalis. Then, from behind the ghosts, a half-human, half-ghost deity emerged. It raised a massive axe far exceeding its height and swung it down with one hand toward the chrysalis!
"Scram!" A sudden roar erupted from within the chrysalis. The axe-wielding ghost deity froze for a moment before quickly recovering. But the next second, a time power precisely landed on it. In an instant, the ghost deity collapsed inward, hollowed out. The falling axe swept across, sending a small pile of incompletely decomposed white bones scattering into fragments.
A black blade pierced through the chrysalis and sliced upward from bottom to top. Xu Huo leaped out, tore off the broken hood, and fully regained control of his body. Without pausing, he immediately jumped out of the night parade procession, taking with him the Painting Woman and the others who hadn't yet been dressed in ghost costumes, as well as the ghosts that had frozen like the axe-wielding deity under his earlier "Scram!"
After running a good half of the city, the Painting Woman and the others kept falling through the spiritual gate in his mind until he was sure it was safe before stopping.
Once separated from the night parade, the players' awareness seemed to return. During the journey, the Metal Token player had already woken up and helped remove the hoods from the Painting Woman and Old Sir Xi. The Zone 001 player with them, having entered the night parade not long ago, gradually regained consciousness after breaking free.
But the other three brought out remained sluggish, stiff as if frozen. Even after stopping, they stood rigidly upright.
Only after the Metal Token player used props to cut open their hoods and costumes did they discover that two of them were already dead. The surviving one, aside from his head, was riddled with white root tendrils, suggesting no internal organs had been spared.
Old Sir Xi examined the two corpses. "Just died. Very fresh. Probably killed by the hoods and costumes right after leaving the night parade."
His instrument scanned the living one. "This one has undergone twelve evolutions. Strong recovery ability. His head is tough too. The root tendrils on the hood never fully penetrated his brain."
In fact, the reason the Metal Token player and the others had managed to escape safely was entirely due to their own props and instruments protecting their heads in time, preventing the hood's root tendrils from directly piercing their brains. But this harrowing ordeal left them deeply shaken.
"Even mental-type props can't maintain long-term control over high-level players while taking immediate effect. What kind of instance is this?" the Metal Token player frowned.
I've rewritten this two or three times, and I'm starting to forget the characters... o(╥﹏╥)o