Chapter 2632: Battle Puppet
"It's from the Expedition Canyon side," Gao Ming said. "The sound can travel here, but there's no wind. The explosion was most likely blocked by the canyon."
"That area is heavily polluted, full of toxins and abnormal pathogens. No idea who's fighting in there, but if the scale gets too big, the surrounding area could be affected."
He took out a towel soaked in medicine and covered his face, then said to Xu Huo and the others, "I need to go check it out."
"Let's go together." Xu Huo took out three full-body protective suits. "Wearing these is safer."
Gao Ming didn't refuse. After changing into the protective suit, he reminded them, "Near the canyon, there's a kind of thorn tree. Once something touches it, spikes shoot out from the trunk and branches. Those spikes are poisonous. Be careful not to let them tear your clothes."
Xu Huo and the Painting Woman both nodded.
They were still a considerable distance from the canyon. To survey the surrounding situation, they didn't move quickly, only fast-traveling a few hundred meters at a time, pausing briefly before continuing.
When they were less than a thousand meters from the canyon, Xu Huo's instance activated.
[Detected that player Passerby A has entered the trigger point of B-grade instance "Illusory Spark." Instance successfully initiated. This instance is divided into two factions: offense and defense. Please choose a faction to unlock the instance background.]
Xu Huo thought briefly and chose the "defense" side.
[Instance Background: The Isle Country, Eternal Tower Country, and Moon Horn Duchy are the only three nations remaining in Zone 039. A century of continuous warfare has concentrated the zone's survivors almost entirely within these three countries. However, the consequence of different nations and races living together is endless conflict. Thus, even after the three nations were established, the zone never calmed down.]
[Twenty years ago, the Isle Country experienced internal turmoil and a regime change. The previous Grand Archon fled with the national heirloom treasure. The new Grand Archon issued a wanted notice, offering a sky-high price for the help of all players entering Zone 039.]
[Instance Task: As the defense faction, please find the treasure taken by the previous Grand Archon to maintain the stability of the Isle Country's regime and ensure the legitimacy of the new Archon's rule.]
[Instance Time: Unlimited.]
The instance background was as brief as ever. Considering the situation in Zone 039, Xu Huo initially thought choosing the defense faction would save more effort than the offense faction. He didn't expect he'd still have to run all over the zone.
The previous Grand Archon had fled twenty years ago, yet the instance trigger point was in Eternal Tower Country and Moon Horn Duchy. The new Grand Archon had issued a zone-wide wanted notice. With such a long time span and complex power structures, how difficult would it be to unravel the clues and find that "treasure" that could ensure the ruler's legitimacy?
Xu Huo looked at Gao Ming. He was from the Isle Country, wasn't he...
"Boom!" A sizable sphere flew in from the horizon, rolling across several hundred meters of grassland before stopping near Xu Huo and the others. Flying grass clippings and dust hadn't yet settled when, with a series of mechanical twisting sounds, a figure emerged from inside.
The other party wore a protective face shield, so their face was hidden, but their protective suit had multiple tears. One wound had cut through the inner layer and skin, yet no blood came from the gaping wound—mechanical supports were faintly visible inside the cavity.
Xu Huo narrowed his eyes slightly: The other party had a heartbeat and breathing, but he felt no emotion from them at all.
The person opposite had just lifted a foot to walk toward him when several figures chased over from a distance. The newcomers immediately went all out, sending flying props and cutting lines from space instruments wildly slashing through the woods.
Rows of trees were swept up, and even the ground was continuously plowed. Seeing the area had turned into chaos, Xu Huo turned back, grabbed the Painting Woman and Gao Ming, and sprinted away.
The battle behind them didn't stop. Another massive explosion rocked the ground. As the few players in the sky were sent flying, the blast wave also swept their side. Xu Huo had just manipulated a space instrument for defense when, the next second, the masked figure charged out. As it closed in, a cross-shaped cutting line shot from its chest, instantly shattering the space defense barrier!
While releasing several defense instruments, Xu Huo unleashed his spiritual realm and supplemented it with "Dreamy False Teeth" for a powerful mental control on the incoming figure. Yet even an A-grade player would have to pause under such mental manipulation—but it was completely useless against this opponent.
Blocking the short blade thrust at him, he was about to create distance when several small bombs suddenly appeared and exploded right in front of his face. The shockwave sent him flying several meters. Before he could steady himself, the masked figure slid across the ground in an eerily fast and strange posture!
When the masked figure closed in, Xu Huo had already released five long-range attack props. After being knocked back by the explosion, the masked figure shouldn't have been able to break through the prop line so quickly. But the opponent used the ground-hugging method to minimize the attack angles and times of the props, then used an instrument to instantly shatter three layers of defense barriers. With a spring up from the ground, it pulled a sword as thin as a willow branch from behind its back and slashed down at Xu Huo's face!
That was an instrument. As the sword swung down, it gradually lengthened. The retreat distance was too short to dodge, but Xu Huo didn't want to miss this opportunity. He used a prop to move behind the opponent, pierced through its protective suit, and stuck "Metal Plasticine" onto it.
Neither the traits nor props targeting humans were effective, and mental interference was completely useless. Combined with the opponent's fighting style and exposed metal limbs, the masked figure was most likely a battle prop. Given the instruments it was equipped with and its own durability, a prolonged fight would only be a meaningless drain.
"Metal Plasticine" could cause metal within a certain range of contact with the prop to congeal into shapes similar to plasticine. If the masked figure was pure metal, this was the most suitable prop.
The moment "Metal Plasticine" was attached, Xu Huo used a short-range teleportation prop to retreat several hundred meters. The masked figure first stiffened in place, then its body twisted unnaturally. A few seconds later, it stood there half-bent over. A black rabbit shape bulged out on the back of its "broken skin" hand, and there were other bulges on its body, though they weren't very obvious through the protective suit.
The few players chasing the masked figure landed on the ground. Without even glancing at Xu Huo, they set fire to the masked figure's protective suit from a distance. As the two layers of clothing burned away, gaps appeared in the masked figure's skin, and a strange odor wafted out.
It was actually real human skin.
After the clothes and human skin were burned away, the masked figure's true face was finally exposed to everyone's view:
A metal-made imitation human skeleton, without muscles or internal organs, only a small instrument device in the heart. But now that device, along with the skeleton, had deformed along with the "Metal Plasticine."
Xu Huo moved to take the device, but the other party's people blocked him first. Someone went to retrieve the battle puppet, while another stood in front of him. "This isn't your spoils of war."