Chapter 2806: Origins
"A just cause gains abundant support, while an unjust one finds little. Do you think it's so easy for players from so many different zones to gather together?" The pale man sneered. "Why should I bother convincing you? Even if you don't know about the sins 022 Zone once committed, you were accomplices and beneficiaries. What's happening today is what you deserve."
"You think shouting revenge can justify this attack?" The middle-aged man barked. "No one's leaving today!"
As his words fell, both sides clashed again. The Yongxing Hotel building, which had barely held steady under the support of a space barrier, quickly began to collapse. Nearby enforcement team members split into two groups—one followed the middle-aged man to besiege the pale man, while the other stayed to move the building away. Unfortunately, the teleportation item activated only to fail immediately; the severed half of the building was teleported less than two thousand meters before suddenly plummeting from midair!
Amid a fresh round of screams, several Super Evolvers appeared swiftly, cutting the building into smaller pieces and teleporting them to a nearby open area.
Flames of battle raged everywhere. The failure of teleportation instruments made escape from the capital city a distant hope. Even outer zone players doing instances had to be careful not to get caught up, let alone ordinary people.
Xu Huo knocked away several chunks of debris flying from a distance, then turned to Bu Chunfeng and said, "I'll take you to a safe place."
Bu Chunfeng and the others had already recognized Xu Huo, but under these circumstances, they couldn't confirm whether he was allied with the attackers. Given that the current crisis was triggered by outer zone players, they were naturally opposed by identity, so they didn't trust him much.
The two families' adults held their children, not daring to speak, and looked to Bu Chunfeng. He hesitated for a moment, then said, "You're a new friend I've made, and I'm willing to trust you. If the capital city is doomed to fall, saving just a few of us won't help. I know my request is a bit excessive, but could you, for the sake of the convenience I gave you, save the children nearby?"
Afraid Xu Huo would refuse, he rushed on, "I don't know if there's any safe place left in 022 Zone now. Moving somewhere else might also be dangerous. The best thing would be to take them along until 022 Zone stabilizes."
Xiao Qing's father gently tugged at his clothes. "Isn't this request too much?"
But Bu Chunfeng was adamant. He adhered to his beliefs and pleaded with Xu Huo with the utmost sincerity to save people.
"022 Zone isn't that bad off," Xu Huo said. "At least for now, the zone government seems to have things under control, and the player battles haven't reached a fever pitch. The capital city probably isn't the attackers' main focus. Still, it's best to leave here. If things spiral out of control, being in a combat zone will be very dangerous."
Zhou Juanjuan and Levi were not far away and moved closer upon hearing this. The former said, "Right now, only the safe zones where high-ranking government officials are hiding are relatively secure, but we probably can't get into those places."
Her implication was to use container items to send these people away.
"Brother Xu, there are too many people," she added.
Wanting to save people wasn't wrong, but the capital city itself had a population of over ten million, and the festival had drawn in even more. Even using a starship to transport them would take a day or two at best, let alone container items. Besides, it wasn't their responsibility.
Xu Huo nodded slightly and said to Bu Chunfeng, "I can only send away a limited number of people. Sending only the children away, as you suggested, isn't realistic either. If you want to leave, I'll find a way to get you to a safe zone."
He absolutely couldn't move these people on a large scale. First, he hadn't locked down a safe receiving location. Second, acting rashly might make the zone government see him as an enemy, and a confrontation would create new crises—unnecessary.
Bu Chunfeng immediately said he wouldn't leave, then asked the two families beside him for their opinions. The parents of both families didn't dare pin their hopes on a stranger. After hesitating, they also decided to stay and wait for government rescue.
Understandable. Xu Huo nodded slightly and said to Zhou Juanjuan and Levi, "Let's find another spot."
The three moved through the city, trying to avoid combat zones as much as possible. But from what they saw along the way, it was pretty much as the pale man had said—the attackers had gathered from different places, with clear differences in their physical features.
"How much bad stuff has 022 Zone done?" Levi couldn't help but remark.
Zhou Juanjuan hesitated before saying, "I'm not sure if this information is accurate, but I've heard that 022 Zone was once involved in the human trafficking trade for a period of time."
"This zone has a long history of using people for experiments. Sometimes they bought them, sometimes they looted during chaos in other zones... Actually, it's quite common. Some zones that became breeding grounds didn't really go extinct—people are a very important resource."
Zones that became breeding grounds right after evolution began were often just unlucky. It could be because of a single item, or because they were chosen as an experimental zone, or because another zone had its eye on them. In short, many reasons could lead to a zone's disappearance.
At the start of evolution, some evolutionary resources in a zone hadn't appeared yet. At that time, minerals, wealth, and people were the most important resources. Xu Huo had once speculated about the origin of those hordes of xenomorphs that occasionally appeared in groups along the train tracks. Most xenomorphs in a zone would be killed by players from the same zone, and players wouldn't degenerate into xenomorphs in large batches all at once. So those incredibly numerous and distinct xenomorphs were most likely Stellar Corporation's experimental subjects—failed experiments dumped into zones unreachable by tickets, like high-risk instance sites.
Of course, looting populations wasn't the only reason, but it usually didn't end well.
If 022 Zone had done these things, being retaliated against was only to be expected.
"Boom!" A loud noise came from not far away. Xu Huo and the others turned around, only to see limbs flying everywhere. Amid the dust, a severely injured attacker was captured by enforcement team members and shouted, "Even if I die, I'm taking you all down with me!"
Before the enforcement team members could react, the attacker's body swelled and exploded. The overwhelming force shattered all their defense items. Except for one who was thrown clear and survived, the rest died on the spot.
"Kill them! Kill them!" The nearby enforcement team members, seeing this, had bloodshot eyes. They launched a new wave of fierce attacks, not even sparing passersby!
Seeing several people charging at them, Xu Huo used his trait "Forced Flashback." While a few of them were stunned, he teleported the two players unaffected by the trait to a distance, then left the area.
Without a direct confrontation, the enforcement team didn't spare any manpower to chase them. After changing locations several times, he noticed that the large instruments the capital city had placed throughout the city had been destroyed. This meant that no matter what attacks came next, the capital city could no longer raise a defense line capable of protecting a population of over ten million.