Chapter 2995 "Xu Huo"
"You are?" Sutton studied her, surprised that she could escape unscathed after fighting the reflection person.
"Friend," the Painting Woman typed two words, then repeated her question, "Have you seen him?"
"He went that way." Sutton casually pointed down the hallway.
The Painting Woman didn't doubt him. She picked up her bag and walked off in that direction.
The female player shot Sutton a questioning look, but he shook his head slightly. Only after the Painting Woman was far away did he say, "No matter what their relationship is, if the reflection people end up fighting each other like dogs, that's good for us."
The others found this reasonable and headed in the opposite direction.
However, just a few minutes after leaving the restaurant, they ran into the Painting Woman again.
Startled to see someone leaning against the doorframe, Sutton and his group stopped in their tracks, cautiously on guard.
But then, she raised her communicator, "You lied to me."
So far, the reflection people the players had encountered were clearly distinct from humans. Since the Painting Woman could use a communicator, that meant she wasn't a reflection person.
Sutton smiled, "We really did see him go toward the hallway just now. Whether he entered the reflection space or was dragged away by a reflection person, we can't know. You can't blame us just because you can't find him, can you?"
The Painting Woman squinted. The bag behind her back began to tremble, as if something was about to break free. Sutton and the others had already gripped their instruments, but the next second, their attention was forcibly diverted from the Painting Woman—because a person stepped out from behind a nearby pillar.
How to describe that person? He had the same face as Xu Huo, but his aura was completely different.
Xu Huo himself made people feel his strength, but that strength didn't carry too much aggression. It didn't make him seem like an uncontrollable bomb, but rather a reasonable normal person.
But the person now standing before them was like a mass of gloomy water. Though he maintained a human form, he exuded a terrifying sensation akin to a bottomless abyss. The moment he appeared, even the Painting Woman's expression shifted slightly. Her eyes locked onto "Xu Huo," but her feet moved toward Sutton.
This reflection person was far more lifelike than any Sutton and his group had encountered before. Even the earlier "Wang Chengren" and "Ms. Yao" had a kind of distorted mechanical feel, but Xu Huo's reflection person made people feel it truly had thoughts and could think. Its gaze swept over everyone present, and each person equally felt the breath of death brush past their face!
"Run!" Sutton was the first to bolt out the door. The other players also followed their instincts, fleeing in different directions. But the instruments that should have worked were now useless. Though they gambled on luck by splitting up, they were all equally sucked into the reflection worlds of nearby reflective surfaces. As they sank into the reflection world, they saw Xu Huo's shadow suddenly split into several parts, following them like smoke into different reflection worlds!
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Someone fell into a restaurant, someone into a room, someone appeared in a lake, someone in a garden. But the moment they passed through the reflection world, they felt the reflection person's presence clinging to them like a shadow!
His vision suddenly flipped. Sutton was grabbed by the ankle and hoisted upside down toward the sky. Before he even cleared the height of the courtyard wall, he was abruptly plunged into another space. Gravity reversed instantly, and he fell in another direction. But below him wasn't some part of the estate—it was a seemingly bottomless deep well. The estate had wells, quite a few in fact, but they were all fenced off. When checking earlier, the players had even actively avoided this place, never expecting to fall into one now!
Faint light reflected off the water's surface. Sutton plunged into the water again and again, each fall accelerating. He tried to stabilize himself, but the well wall, which should have been rough, was now incredibly smooth, offering no foothold. After multiple falls, his consciousness suddenly separated from his body, as if sinking into a boundless darkness.
Only then did his falling speed slow down. But in this vast, endless darkness, he floated, unsure where to drift, his thoughts momentarily frozen.
Before he could recover from this series of ordeals, he sensed a faint light ahead, as if some force had broken through the shell of this dark space from outside. His survival instinct drove him to desperately swim toward the light. But the next second, what pierced through the light wasn't salvation—it was an invisible hand. That hand gripped his body...
Sutton felt his consciousness and body being squeezed and twisted together, on the verge of being crushed to dust. But then, his face suddenly stung, as if he had been solidly slapped. Immediately after, white light spread before his eyes, rapidly encroaching on the original black space. His eyes slowly focused, and he gradually saw things clearly again...
"Snap! Snap! Snap!" The sound of a lighter opening and closing repeated. Sutton sat by the well, slowly making out the man leaning against the green bamboo ahead. He felt he knew this person, but his stalled brain couldn't process it or react, so he just stared blankly.
Xu Huo's profile flickered with the dancing flame. With a crisp "ding," the lighter stayed lit. He turned his head, revealing a smile full of living warmth, "Still not awake? Want two more slaps?"
Sutton snapped awake. There was a faint pain on his face, but that was nothing compared to the drill-like pain churning in his brain. He wiped his ear and nose—both were bleeding.
Was this the power of an A-class mental instance?
His eyes were filled with fear and complexity as he looked at Xu Huo, because he realized that the reflection person had been so strong not just because of the instance!
Although he had clearly recognized before that Xu Huo was outstanding in mental evolution, he never imagined the other party could be this powerful. He was an A-class player who had been through countless instances. How could he dare enter a mental instance without some confidence? He himself was a mental evolver, just not very well evolved, so he came to try his luck at breaking through the barrier. Who would have thought he'd be utterly crushed the moment he entered? So there really were geniuses above geniuses in this world!
He didn't dare ask or guess about Xu Huo's identity. He just looked around, "What about the others?"
"Only you and one female player were lucky enough to survive." Xu Huo pointed to several other corpses floating in the lake.
Sutton understood his meaning and said, "Thank you for saving me. Earlier, a woman who couldn't speak was looking for you."
Xu Huo nodded slightly. He had already figured out the basic situation when he came over. He had been chasing the reflection person, but he hadn't expected his own reflection person to evolve so quickly. Not only could it use the instance's power, but it could even split itself to kill people. With a suitable venue, overly flexible application, and fast movement, it was really hard to catch.