Chapter 2684: Crazy Circus
Those weren't ordinary materials, but highly flexible props. With so many strands of hair hanging down, anyone who failed to block them in time with a defense barrier would easily get entangled. Although Xu Huo used a defense device immediately, he and Qi Cong were still caught in the middle of the hair, and the defense barrier instead became a box trapping them.
These hairs weren't just meant to trap them; they dragged them deeper into the game tent.
"Let's fight our way out!" Qi Cong said. "There's definitely nothing good inside the tent!"
No sooner had he spoken than the two were violently thrown into the air, caught mid-fall, and then spun around like tops on the spot, surrounded by continuous cheers.
Once the hair gradually receded, they had been moved from the tent entrance to a sizable performance arena—from the outside, this game tent didn't seem large, but the performance venue was several times bigger than the tent itself, making it clear they had entered a location prop.
And now, what trapped them was no longer the space barrier generated by the defense device, but the translucent palm of a giant gaping-mouthed doll that was holding them and playing with them!
The space barrier had disappeared, but the doll's palm formed a square cavity, holding the two inside, simply gripping them.
"What do they want..." Qi Cong looked at the audience and instinctively asked, but when he saw the person beside him staring behind, he followed his gaze and discovered the massive body of the gaping-mouthed doll slowly approaching. The next second, a huge eyeball met their gaze!
"Wh-why..." Qi Cong couldn't even speak properly. He was at least a C-level player; even without super spatial perception, he should have sensed his surroundings. Although he and Xu Huo were held in the doll's hand, the gaping-mouthed doll wasn't actually that big—its hand had been enlarged separately. But the eyeball now approaching them clearly exceeded the doll's own body size. If one eyeball was as big as an adult human, how massive would its true body be?!
But as if to confirm his thoughts, the gaping-mouthed doll slowly straightened up. Its head moved farther and farther away from them, but the shadow it cast grew larger and larger. At the same time, the tent ceiling rose higher, and the colorful lights became increasingly blurry...
Just as Qi Cong's mind trembled under the intimidation of the instance prop, a cold light streaked across from above, slicing through the doll's palm and then charging toward its eye!
Qi Cong was dropped. The gaping-mouthed doll quickly brought its hands together in front of its chest. With a dull thud, Xu Huo was caught mid-air, and the several layers of defense barriers covering him shattered one after another!
Watching the defense barriers deform under the immense pressure, Xu Huo didn't wait for the last layer to break. Instead, he grabbed his black blade, spun around, and slashed—cutting through the doll's palm along with it—then leaped to the ground!
Although the gaping-mouthed doll was enormous, it wasn't slow. It spread its arms and swept down, uprooting the entire performance area along with the doll-like audience members watching the show. Amid laughter and screams, the doll's giant hand began madly smashing around inside the tent. With booming vibrations, Xu Huo used his spiritual gate to brush past its hands and dash toward the exit. Fortunately, the tent wasn't sealed, and he managed to rush out with Qi Cong.
Despite the chaos inside the tent, there was no sound outside, and the gaping-mouthed doll didn't chase after them.
Qi Cong was nearly scared out of his wits. Even if the doll didn't pursue them, he urged Xu Huo to leave. But before they could take a few steps, a magician twice their height approached from the front. He flipped up his inverted funnel-shaped robe and directly wrapped it around them.
Xu Huo had no intention of entering any more bizarre instance venues. He opened his spiritual gate and instantly distanced himself from the magician. Like the gaping-mouthed doll, the magician didn't chase them, letting them leave and continuing to wander the streets.
"Boom! Boom!" Two mutated lizards were performing fire-breathing on the street, setting several doll-like people ablaze. The doll-like audience members, who had been laughing moments before, twisted their expressions and ran wildly. They seemed unable to pat out the flames on themselves, just running and shouting "Fire!" while no one on the street came to rescue them—this scene itself seemed to be part of the performance.
Not long after, they ran into several combat dolls carrying shredded cloth. A whole box of colorful cloth scraps spilled out and easily caught fire. As the flames spread, many doll-like people gathered to watch, only to be mercilessly thrown into the fire by the combat dolls. Once enough people were piled up, the fire gradually went out...
Anyone witnessing this process would find it absurd. The people in the doll costumes were real, and there was water nearby, yet the combat dolls chose to use the doll-like people to put out the fire—it was neither effective nor anything but foolish.
Of course, this might be the operating mode of the Circus City, since most of the "animal performances" here were done by humans.
The instance props not relentlessly pursuing them didn't mean they had a chance to catch their breath. Having witnessed the entire "fire" process, Xu Huo and Qi Cong, after teleporting two thousand meters through the spiritual gate, fell without pause into a cylindrical slide.
Randomly extending and retracting metal blades could chill the blood of anyone with normal reasoning. Under the protection of his device, Xu Huo stopped himself in the slide by stepping on two blade edges. Just as he turned his head, Qi Cong behind him accelerated and crashed into him. The slide was oiled, making it hard to keep steady. Even with the defense barrier absorbing the impact, the collision dragged Xu Huo downward.
These metal blades couldn't break through the defense barrier. Xu Huo stabbed his black blade into the slide and used a materialized object to grab Qi Cong, who was spinning wildly from the acceleration. Together, they plowed several meters before finally coming to a stop.
After cutting open the slide, the two fell out.
No wonder they had been suddenly teleported into the slide—the street in this area was actually a giant whack-a-mole device, and the cylindrical slides continuously flying out of opening and closing holes were like springs, darting from one hole into another, with shredded doll-like people occasionally falling out.
"All my defense devices are broken!" Qi Cong clutched his bleeding thigh, complaining bitterly. "One more hit and I'm done for. Bro, give me a couple of devices!"
Xu Huo didn't say much and handed him a few defense devices. "If we get separated, find a place to hide and wait until dawn."
Qi Cong was so moved that tears streamed down his face. "You're the best person to me besides Xiao Yuer. We're both men, so I can't offer my body..."
"Shut up." Xu Huo gave him a cold glance. "If you have time to talk nonsense, find a way to locate the person faster."