Chapter 2799: Another Reje
The final stop of the journey was to get a set of commemorative stamps at the Tourism Headquarters. Xu Huo had learned about this in advance; it wasn't a mandatory checkpoint for every clearance player. Some players could clear the game without ever dealing with government agencies.
By the time he arrived at the service hall, at least a dozen players were already waiting in line for their numbers. Two of them were particularly irritable, slamming paper documents onto the head of a nearby robot and shouting at the staff, "Yesterday you said the staff had clocked out and told us to come today. Today you say we need an appointment and have to take a number—fine! We took a number, so we should be able to get it done, right? But when it's our turn, you say we're missing documents and need to go to Building 1 to prepare them. Fine, we got the documents, and now the stamping person is gone? Said they went to a meeting?"
"What's the deal? Is there only one person in this entire huge office building who can stamp documents? If you're so busy, why not just use robots instead? There are robots everywhere here with nothing to do!"
As he spoke, he banged the robot's head with a loud clatter.
The staff member maintained a smiling service demeanor and said cheerfully, "Dear visitor, I personally understand your feelings, but the Tourism Department has its own rules and regulations. It wouldn't be right to make an exception for someone. Please bear with us a little longer; the stamping clerk will be back soon."
With that, the staff member walked away, leaving the two players fuming with anger they had to swallow back down. What else could they do but queue up? This was the final checkpoint for clearance. If they caused a scene in a government office building, they could basically kiss their clearance goodbye.
Soon it was Xu Huo's turn. The clerk first checked his travel route map, then glanced at him before stamping it and handing it back, saying, "You need to go to Building 17 to get an overall stamp."
She pointed to a nearby robot. "Just follow it."
Xu Huo said nothing and followed the robot.
The Tourism Headquarters building was quite distinctive. Non-staff were not allowed to use vehicles here, so he had to walk with the robot to Building 17.
Building 17 was at the center of the entire complex. Upon entering, the first thing he saw was a lavish hall. The entire hall had no tables or chairs, with most of the space empty. After crossing a hundred-meter-long hall, there was finally a service counter. When Xu Huo arrived, no one was there. Only after the robot dialed a number did a short figure slowly emerge.
The moment Xu Huo saw the face, he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow—the person looked exactly like Reje Lian. The reason he could tell she wasn't Reje Lian was that her evolution rate could only be achieved by a player, and their demeanors were worlds apart, even though they were the same height.
"Travel map." The person jumped onto a chair and sat down, gesturing for him to hand it over.
Xu Huo handed over his travel map. After receiving it, the girl began spinning in her chair as she looked it over. "Your souvenirs are all very valuable. Even after clearing the game, you could sell them to recoup your costs. Especially that bone relic. Guhuifeng has announced he's resting and recovering, so there won't be any new works anytime soon. Everyone's worried he might die, so the price of bone relics keeps going up and up."
"Most people clear the game at a loss. How come you're clearing it and making a fortune?"
"Maybe I'm just lucky," Xu Huo said.
The girl shook her head and said with an air of authority, "It's not luck. It's because your heart is darker."
"I've had my eye on Reje's Dark Matter for a long time, but she's my sister. I couldn't bring myself to use too cruel methods on her. After all, I'm the older sister, so it's only natural to look out for my younger sister. We agreed that when she was about to die, she'd give me the Dark Matter. I never expected you to beat me to it halfway."
"So you never considered that she might be lying to you?" Xu Huo remained unmoved. "You're Reje Lian's sister, which should also make you the Grand Archon's daughter. Didn't the Dark Matter incident already come to a close?"
"They may have come to terms with you, but I haven't." The girl jumped off the chair and lightly stomped her foot. The entire crystal hall began to contract. The walls folded and compressed as the space shrank, the ceiling descended, and the floor rapidly sank downward.
The girl followed him down. She clapped her hands, and the contracting hall walls spat out multiple items. The items simultaneously released vibrational force. In this confined space, it seemed even the air could be shattered. The defensive barrier that Xu Huo had activated naturally couldn't hold out for long.
Layer after layer of space entities formed, resisting the vibrational force while expanding as much as possible, pushing toward the girl.
The girl was unperturbed. As the space entity barrier approached, she lightly tapped it, and the complete, perfect space entity instantly disintegrated into harmless Space Rays. She stared intently at Xu Huo. "This is the method I specially devised to counter Dark Matter. Don't use Space Evolution to block it—use Dark Matter to block it!"
"Fine!" Xu Huo responded. The next moment, he was swallowed by the surging Dark Matter. One second he vanished, and the next he appeared behind the girl, reaching for her head.
The girl turned and retreated, and behind her appeared a colorful, web-like net of glassy threads. This net filled the entire building space, leaving Xu Huo no room to dodge.
He tried using "Darkened Heart," but found that even when he stretched the distance to its maximum, he couldn't escape the hall. So he stopped running. The moment the net ensnared him, he swiftly moved in front of the girl. But just as he was about to touch her, his vision suddenly blurred. The next instant, the girl, who had been at the center of the net, retreated outside it, leaving him alone trapped inside!
The colorful net tightened instantly, wrapping tightly around his body with such force that it nearly crushed his bones. The girl watched from a distance.
Seeing that he couldn't escape the net, she couldn't help but laugh. "Dark Matter is useful, but its flaw is that it can't discard the items on your body and only take you. This net is a Super A-grade item, and it's been coated with a potent poison... Don't worry. After you die, I'll take good care of your corpse and give you a grand burial."
When the colorful net had tightened, Xu Huo's protective suit had already been damaged, so his vision was genuinely blurry now. His field of view split into many fragments, and in the haze, the girl's figure also split into several.
"Dark Matter cannot be inherited," he reminded her.
The girl sighed, somewhat helplessly. "That's the troublesome part. Your player physique is pretty good; it'll take a while for the poison to kill you. How about this: give me the game item, and I'll give you the antidote and let you go. Deal?"
Xu Huo's posture was unsteady, as if he was barely holding on. "With such thorough preparations, you must have been waiting for someone to obtain this game item from Reje Lian. Does your current action represent the will of the 022 District Government?"