Chapter 273: Killed by Cleaning Agent
This round of fighting for the Rubik's Cube pillars was even more intense than before. Clearly, after some players fell off the cubes, new players had entered, resulting in ten people scrambling for three cubes at the same time.
"Get lost!" The player who had released the mechanical flies earlier knocked another player off a cube and sent a few more mechanical flies toward Xu Huo.
"Burn!" Xu Huo raised his hand and waved, quickly opening and closing the lighter. With a few "ding ding ding" sounds, the mechanical flies were instantly detonated by the gas they themselves emitted!
As the shockwave exploded, Xu Huo grabbed the string and flew above the cube. The lighter in his hand transformed into a long sword, slashing downward.
The sword energy barrier cut through the smoke, colliding with a crisp metallic sound. Then a long shadow shot out from the smoke at high speed, sticking to the sole of his shoe!
"Heh!" The player below laughed. "Never seen a prop like this, have you? My sticky dough can stick to anything, including people. Once you're stuck, unless I take back the prop, there's no way you're getting free!"
With that, he pulled out a huge pink hat to cover himself. "Go ahead, try setting fire again!"
Xu Huo looked down at the man using the dough to hang onto the cube, then kicked off his shoe.
The overly simple move stunned the man below for a moment, but he quickly threw out more dough. This time, however, Xu Huo was prepared and didn't give him a second chance. Then he saw an electric egg beater extend from the edge of the big hat:
"A Chef's Virtue—Toxic Egg Foam!"
The mixing rod spun at high speed, and black foam with a pungent odor flew out from the empty metal prongs.
Unfazed, Xu Huo raised his shield to block the toxic foam, then took out a bottle of cleaning agent and poured it onto the cube. "Cleaning kitchen stains requires the right remedy. Who fights pots and pans with swords and blades anyway?"
Under the stunned gazes of the chef player and the others present, the cleaning agent effortlessly removed the toxic foam splattered on the cube and began dissolving the sticky dough.
"No... that can't be..." The chef player's eyes nearly split, but it didn't change the fact that the dough was coming undone. As he fell, he glared resentfully at Xu Huo and spat out a black mechanical fly with a "puff."
Xu Huo caught it swiftly with a glass bottle, and then his vision went dark.
A new beam of light lit up. Not far from him, the bearded player laughed loudly, speaking toward Xu Huo's position in the darkness. "Who knew cleaning agent could be used like that? Even if that falling chef doesn't die, he'll be furious!"
"So traits and props aren't invincible either," said a teenage boy under another beam of light. "It seems that as long as you find the right method, even many seemingly powerful traits can be easily dealt with."
The effect of the cleaning agent also surprised Xu Huo. It was a game giveaway, and he thought it wouldn't work so quickly, but it ended up directly killing a player—surprisingly effective.
Thirty seconds passed quickly. This time, Xu Huo didn't change positions, but Yan Jiayu ran into a long-haired female player. Unfortunately for them, the cube they chose was a sharp-cornered one, making it impossible to stand on!
"Grab my hand!" Yan Jiayu shouted, reaching out to the female player, who immediately gripped back. The two of them hung onto the cube hand in hand.
Xu Huo retracted his "No Robbery String" and quietly waited for thirty seconds to pass.
After three position changes, the clown's smiling face appeared. The question was: "From the start of the Rubik's Cube Maze Camp to the entrance of the maze itself, based on the nearest cubes on the left and right sides, how many cubes are floating in total?"
"Eleven!" Xu Huo answered immediately. When they entered, Yan Jiayu had knocked down a large number of cubes, so although the camp was large, for them, only the starting point and the section near the giant maze had floating cubes.
"Correct answer!" The clown flew over to Xu Huo and gave him a little pink hat. With a snap of its fingers, Xu Huo appeared outside the maze gate. Yan Jiayu arrived a little later.
"Glad we got out," she sighed in relief. "This Rubik's Cube Maze isn't fun at all—it's like standing around."
"Don't celebrate too early." Xu Huo pointed to the plush toys waiting outside. "They're still waiting here."
Yan Jiayu's smile quickly vanished. She stepped back and tried to negotiate with the plush toys. "Let's get one thing straight—I'm broke!"
"Pay up! Pay up! Pay up!" The plush toys extended their furry paws and chanted in unison. As she stepped back again, they swarmed her, grabbing her clothes and hair and demanding compensation.
The girl's face was squeezed out of shape, but then the sound of rolling candy saved her.
The plush toys all turned their heads in unison.
"I'll give you the candy as a treat. Let's talk about the compensation." Xu Huo shook the glass jar.
The plush toys flowed off Yan Jiayu like water and swarmed in front of Xu Huo, big and small, all staring at him.
Xu Huo handed out candy one by one and paid each of them a hundred White Notes. Only then did the plush toys happily scatter.
"Running an instance isn't easy either." He patted the head of a bunny plush and gave it the whole candy jar. "Go play."
Yan Jiayu, her hair a mess like a chicken nest, straightened her clothes and walked over. "I'll pay you back."
"No need," Xu Huo picked up the hat and handed it to her. "That question wasn't hard. Given a little more time, other players could have figured it out too. We just got lucky by stumbling into the answer."
Yan Jiayu didn't say much. She fumbled in her pocket and pulled out a white cube. "This seems to be a game reward."
[Magnetic Cube: A special metal cube produced in the largest precision instrument production area, Platinum Eye. It automatically floats in magnetic environments and is a tasteful home decoration piece. However, it is usually used as a clothes rack, losing all its elegance.]
Xu Huo took the cube. Just as they were about to leave, the bearded player appeared behind them and called out, "Wait a minute, buddy. How about we be friends?"
"My name is Jin Chao, a D-rank player. My profession is a comedian." He introduced himself proactively and added, "I've passed six game points and two random questions. I hear the later levels are harder than the earlier ones. How about we team up and look out for each other?"
Yan Jiayu looked at him strangely. "How did you get out so fast? We just came out ourselves."
Jin Chao smiled. "You two just recently reached D-rank, right?"
Yan Jiayu nodded. "I just got to D-rank and haven't started any instances yet."
"That explains it," Jin Chao said. "Time isn't consistent between instances, and some districts, due to special geological conditions, never have accurate clocks. When you add in an alternate space like the Rubik's Cube Maze, time is no longer the ordinary concept of time."
"Different spaces have different time flows?" Xu Huo raised an eyebrow. "Is that possible even in places separated by just one wall?"