Chapter 2952: Walking the Entire Zone
To boost morale, Country Y had specially arranged for people to track and film the players on the rankings. Hans and Lena were both top ten players on the leaderboard, so their popularity was naturally high, and their battles were livestreamed from start to finish.
Originally, the difficult fight between a team and those three outer zone players had the viewers breaking out in cold sweats. Coupled with the corpses suspended in midair visible everywhere on the screen, it was even more despairing. Were such outer zone players not isolated cases? Could their country really be preserved?
But before this sentiment could spread, who would have thought the situation would suddenly take a turn? Out of nowhere, such a powerful person appeared. The camera immediately followed his movements, watching him walk through the streets, watching him harvest outer zone players, and then watching him effortlessly kill those players who had just caused a massive explosion and were acting extremely arrogant. The crowd couldn't help but realize: So this is what a true strong person looks like...
What followed was the real counterattack. Xu Huo had already received the list of combat zones from the Special Defense Department. Just like in his own country before, he entered the combat zones one by one in order according to the list. To make it easier for him to distinguish friend from foe, the local governments of Country Y had already instructed their players to tie on marked scarves, which saved a lot of time.
Naturally, wherever Xu Huo passed, the battles with outer zone players quickly ended. While Country Y cheered from top to bottom, the outer zone players who got wind of this began to lie low.
In less than an hour, all the first-level combat zones within Country Y disappeared, and even some second-level combat zones were downgraded due to the active retreat of outer zone players.
This amount of time was enough for the people of Country Y to investigate Xu Huo's identity. Although he didn't show his real face, he had used the same face when walking through Country X before, so it was naturally easy to identify. By this point in the battle with outer zone players, the citizens of Country Y no longer cared which country he was from. They shouted the word "hero" and continuously demanded that the government must invite Xu Huo to stay in Country Y, even offering to make him president.
As for the original president, a useless waste could go cool off wherever they pleased.
If the position of president alone could make Xu Huo stay, the Country Y government would certainly be more than happy. But the current situation was clear—not to mention Zone 014, after this battle, there would probably be many zones willing to pour all their resources into inviting him to settle there. A Temporal Super Evolver, even if he couldn't become a Super Player in the future, could still lead a zone toward prosperity.
However, the Country Y government didn't dare to bring this up. Previously, they and Country X might have been evenly matched, but now, unless they also produced a Temporal Super Evolver, they could no longer surpass Country X. Moreover, after this fusion ended, the zone government would likely be established in Country X.
"How enviable," the president of Country Y couldn't help but sigh in the general command room.
Everyone else present remained silent. The zone government had the authority to directly interface with the Game Government, purchase some ultra-large instruments, gray player permissions, paused player identity permissions, and the purchase of Non-Player Tickets—all of which were mainly handled through the zone government.
Moreover, as far as they knew, the zone government could propose certain transaction conditions to the Game Government, such as special potions not circulated externally, targeted technical support, and if they were more proactive, they could even establish dedicated communication channels. If all these powers were concentrated in the hands of the Country X government, then Country X would basically have the final say in Zone 014 from now on.
"It's still possible to negotiate," someone said. "We're all in the same boat. Since someone has come to help, they can't just look out for themselves."
Facing the outer zones, Zone 014 was a whole. If Country X monopolized resources, would they let all other countries drag them down?
Besides, Country Y's overall strength was also considerable, and their number of players was quite impressive.
The president nodded. "Quickly send people to Country X for negotiations. Also, they mentioned the Eerie Sound Knights. Have our players be cautious and watch out—don't let anyone plant landmines in our own backyard."
Country Y acted quickly. Not only did they arrange for people to negotiate with the Country X government, but they also sent all the top-ranked players from their own country to follow Xu Huo. With a ready-made three-way Super Evolver right in front of them, maybe they could learn something?
What if they got lucky?
Xu Huo didn't mind the people following him. After finishing matters in Country Y, he went to other countries.
Large countries had divided combat zones based on the war situation. Although some small countries didn't have first-level combat zones, a few unlucky ones might have even had their entire country occupied by outsiders. Based on distress signals sent from different countries, he successively dealt with three groups of outer zone players who had occupied countries before refocusing his attention on the first-level combat zones.
"I don't believe he's going to stay in Zone 014 forever!" Xu Huo traveled across Zone 014, and even brushing past outer zone players was enough to make their hearts pound with fear. When they realized he wasn't coming for them and clearly didn't consider them a threat, some outer zone players couldn't help but mutter hatefully.
But that was just talk. After all the first-level combat zones in Zone 014 disappeared, the entire zone entered a relatively peaceful phase.
There was no choice—the most prominent troublemakers had already been killed. Now that Xu Huo had freed up his hands, if he happened to take a dislike to someone and directly charged over to kill them, that would be a truly unjust death.
Of course, even with Xu Huo around, it was impossible to make all outer zone players quiet down. Small-scale conflicts still occurred from time to time, but they were within the government's control.
After that, Xu Huo made two more trips to areas where mutant animals and plants were particularly rampant, resolving the most pressing troubles before returning to Ting City.
Ting City was still cut off by the instance, with the entire city existing in a separate space. Outsiders couldn't enter, and those inside couldn't get out.
"Did any news come out of Ting City before the lockdown?" Xu Huo asked the Xiang siblings.
"All normal communication reports," Xiang Yao said. "Reports came every ten minutes. We noticed something was wrong when the first report was interrupted, but by the time we tried to enter Ting City, it was already sealed off. The players inside also didn't send any messages through the game platform."
Xu Huo's panel also had no messages from Yan Jiayu, Zhou Ning, or the others.
"What about Nie Xuan?" he asked again.
"Team Leader Nie hasn't come out yet, and there's no news either."
Xiang Yao knew that what he was most concerned about now was probably the Eerie Sound Knights, so she added more information about them. According to intelligence from other countries, Jin Feixue had once appeared in a small country. That country had multiple volcanoes, which had erupted several times since the fusion began. Someone had witnessed Jin Feixue near one of the volcanoes, but afterward, when they checked the area, they found nothing unusual. That volcano had erupted several more times since then, making it difficult for any tools or instruments deployed there to remain stable under such force.