Chapter 2681: The Combat Power of the Puppets
"It's about the same." Xu Huo looked at the several combat puppets that had already appeared nearby and said, "These puppets will self-destruct. Don't hold back. Kill as many as you can."
The Painting Woman nodded excitedly, turned her head, and flew toward the two combat puppets on the left, while he turned to face the combat puppets on the other side.
The combat power of the combat puppets was beyond doubt. They themselves could not use items, their bodies operated through instruments, and they mostly used instruments in battle. So, compared to outside the Circus City, the players' combat power was greatly weakened, but they remained the same as before.
Of course, Xu Huo also had quite a few instruments on him, and not every combat puppet was equipped with sophisticated B-grade or A-grade instruments. Just from the equipment alone, Xu Huo still had the advantage.
After continuously killing more than a dozen combat puppets, he confirmed that there was a difference in level between the combat puppets that moved outside and those that stayed in the Circus City. However, although not every one was equipped with top-tier instruments, the number of instruments on these combat puppets was still considerable.
Especially as the scale of the battle increased, the instruments on the puppets that were later attracted became more sophisticated, their combat patterns became more varied, and they no longer self-destructed upon taking damage—from this, it could be seen that the combat puppets, like the Doll People, were divided into activity zones. It was likely that the closer they got to the Box Carrier's castle, the combat puppets, as well as the Doll People, would all have greatly increased combat power, and this was still under the condition that the Instance had not been activated.
However, this wasn't entirely bad news. The large number of combat puppets, divided into levels and zones, meant that the Box Carrier definitely wouldn't return to the Instance site to check just because some puppets were lost. This was their opportunity.
"Whoosh!" Accompanied by a dull whistling sound, the arms of the combat puppet that Xu Huo had just decapitated automatically detached and separated, turning into two several-meter-long whips. As the whips flew in from both sides, five other combat puppets attacked from above, below, left, right, and behind.
An arc-shaped Defense Barrier covered Xu Huo entirely. After a series of explosions, the two metal chain whips wrapped around the barrier. As the whips tightened, several finger-sized spider-shaped instruments clung tightly to the barrier. With a few creaking sounds, the Defense Barrier was breached. Then, several bursts of cold wind exploded around him. Under the rapid cooling, his shoulders and arms began to freeze. The bone-chilling cold penetrated through the metal suit to his skin, and at the same time, several miniature Spider Locks latched onto his back and legs.
And this wasn't the end. Before he could clear the Spider Locks from his body, several sharp sounds rang out around him, almost instantly causing him to lose his hearing, and his body began to sway.
The combat puppets were unaffected and, of course, did not miss this attack opportunity. Under the cover of the instrument attacks, the two previously crippled combat puppets flew to his side one after another and self-destructed without hesitation...
"Boom! Boom!"
Protected by the Defense Barrier, Xu Huo followed the impact of the explosion, broke through the encirclement of the combat puppets from one side, lured them into a restaurant, and immediately activated a Jamming Device. Taking advantage of the jamming effect, he disposed of a few more puppets. Before more puppets could reinforce, he changed his disguise, slipped out through the back door, took the Painting Woman, and used the Spiritual Gate to travel several thousand meters away.
The frog suit on the Painting Woman was already tattered from the explosions. She wiped her soot-blackened face and mouthed, "Your ears are bleeding."
Xu Huo wiped it, looked at the bright red blood on his fingers, and frowned slightly.
With items restricted, it was too easy for those combat puppets to find openings. The accumulation of a Super Player was certainly not to be underestimated. For however many combat puppets there were, one had to consider that there must be at least ten times that amount of instrument reserves.
No wonder he had to go around robbing people. Compared to other Super Players' Instances, this Instance required a heavy investment.
"Are we still going to fight those puppets now?" the Painting Woman asked again.
"Those puppets are not the ones that entered and exited Zone 039. Tracking them any further is meaningless." Xu Huo thought for a moment and said, "You go find Qi Cong and Dai He and the others. Don't let them die. I'll go ahead and take a look at those people from the Eternal Tower Nation. They tracked the combat puppets here, so they might know some information that Dai He and the others don't."
The Painting Woman nodded, put on a new doll suit, and went out.
Once they got rid of the combat puppets, finding people was simple. Xu Huo maximized the release of his Spiritual Realm and, after advancing toward the castle direction continuously for only five or six times, he discovered the traces of the Eternal Tower Nation group.
Unfortunately, they had suffered casualties on their side. The Middle-aged Man and his three remaining companions were wearing doll suits, hiding among the Doll People on the street, avoiding the combat puppets and dolls that were constantly searching for them.
That's right, unlike Xu Huo and his group's experience, after the Eternal Tower Nation players caused a commotion, dolls joined the search.
Unlike the unactivated Doll People, the dolls that moved together with the combat puppets had a very high degree of freedom. The combat puppets occupied the high ground, conducting checks through instruments, while the dolls patrolled the streets, inspecting every Doll Person they found suspicious.
And the method of inspecting the Doll People was also simple. They seemed to be able to determine the authenticity of a Doll Person just through physical contact.
The Eternal Tower group had been moving along the streets mixed in with the crowd, but their movement trajectory was limited to a certain area, roughly within the range of ten streets. Whenever they tried to approach the boundary line, it would attract the attention of the surrounding Doll People, so they could only continuously move back and forth within this area.
The combat puppets and dolls were also only checking within this area, indicating they were sure the group hadn't escaped far.
"Beep! Beep! Beep!" An instrument on a combat puppet suddenly sounded. All the surrounding puppets, Doll People, and dolls turned their direction, looking toward the position of the Eternal Tower group.
"Damn it, let's fight them to the death!" The Middle-aged Man tore off his hood, grabbed at the air with both hands, and the gathered Space Power formed two walls of Space Ray Blades. The jumping Doll People were successively impaled on them. But this didn't last long, because as the combat puppets approached, the power of the Space Jamming Device began to fluctuate, and the Space Ray Blades became unstable. After losing their lethality, the Doll People easily broke through the line of defense.
"Buzz! Buzz!" Another player activated several items, forming six Defense Barriers around them. But this didn't last long either, because the two rabbit dolls, after pushing aside the Doll People, charged fiercely at the barriers from different directions. Their sharp claws tore wildly left and right, breaking through one barrier in just a few swipes. Meanwhile, the combat puppets cooperated by sealing off the entire street. Ten layers of Blockade Barriers gradually shrank the range, finally trapping the Middle-aged Man and his group within a ten-meter radius.
"Bastards!" When the last layer of Defense Barrier was breached, the watch on the Middle-aged Man's wrist shot out two streams of Space Power, pinning the two rabbits to the ground. Then he pulled towards the sky, causing the corresponding ten layers of Blockade Barriers to distort on a small scale. As several micro-bombs flew out, the Blockade Barriers broke one after another, allowing the group to escape.
But there were more and more combat puppets around, so they could only flee in the direction away from the castle.
However, the combat puppets were not so easy to shake off. After another round of sonic attacks, the four's speed was slowed down. Two small Spider Locks accurately hit one of them in the back.
Spider Locks could seal a player's movements. With their companion frozen in place and the remaining three scattered, the combat puppets swarmed in. It was too late to attempt a rescue...
"Enter!" Several Spiritual Gates abruptly appeared before them.