Chapter 3050: Suffering from the Disadvantage of Appearance
Xu Huo thought briefly and then agreed quite readily. Although the alliance companions were unreliable, at least for now, it posed no harm to him.
67 was also straightforward and introduced himself: "Call me Old Gao. This is Scarface, Red Peach Fruit, Rick, Ding Xiang, and Big Foot."
These were all their code names—neither their actual player nicknames nor the fake identities they had fabricated before landing on the island. They were just convenient for addressing one another.
Xu Huo also gave his own name.
Old Gao seemed very welcoming to this new friend. As soon as they finished eating, he immediately took him out to accumulate points. He kindly told him some tips, such as that aside from bloodshed and violence, people who were good-looking or had great physiques were also very popular.
"Although the audience is used to seeing golden-ratio simulation humans, real people—especially those like us who have fought our way through games—are still very attractive to them. This is also a relatively low-cost way to gain support."
He jerked his chin toward Red Peach Fruit. "She has an explosive figure. When she first landed on the island and was fighting a mutated sea beast, she accidentally tore her clothes, and she got 150 points in one go."
Xu Huo remained silent.
"Think it's not worth it?" Old Gao said with a grin. "You just don't get it. If even one person takes a liking to her and casually throws some money her way, she can live comfortably without even selling herself. Where else can you find such a good deal?"
Xu Huo glanced at Red Peach Fruit again. She noticed his gaze and coldly stared back.
"But don't overthink it. If your appearance is average, it's best to just kill people honestly. If you annoy the audience, there are also viewers willing to spend money to deduct your points," Old Gao reminded Xu Huo.
Perhaps he had talked too much, as the number above his head dropped from 67 to 64 in an instant.
Old Gao said no more and instead went to look for new players.
With the cooperation of the seven, Xu Huo's points quickly grew. However, after exceeding 50, he began to slowly lose points.
Everyone understood why this was happening. Old Gao and the others had experienced it before. The audience wasn't paying to watch them help each other, so they wouldn't allow them to easily raise their points this way.
Old Gao and the others stopped helping. The group scattered to make their final push for points.
Rick was the first to exceed 100. He teamed up with Big Foot and opened his wristband interface. Just as he was about to say something, before he could speak, he suddenly swayed—an arrow had struck his foot. This was not a serious injury in itself, but when his points dropped by 10 and fell back below 100, a white light descended from the sky and directly blasted him to pieces!
As blood and gore splattered everywhere, notifications of other players gaining points came from afar.
The commotion was significant. Old Gao and Red Peach Fruit, who were nearby, quickly moved to block the area, trapping the player who had ambushed them. That player had just obtained Rick's points and the kill reward points, pushing his total over 150.
In the end, the two of them, along with Big Foot, killed him and split the 150 points and the kill reward among themselves.
All three of them now had points exceeding 100.
Rick's death had already made it clear that once points exceeded 100, they could not drop back below 100, or else the Challenge Island would kill them. So the three immediately headed toward the canyon.
They had communicators and didn't mention the rule about points not being allowed to drop. They only told the others that their points were sufficient and urged the rest to hurry.
Xu Huo was also nearby. He wasn't surprised by this rule, which was never explicitly stated and had to be discovered through someone's death.
He hadn't walked far in another direction when he encountered Ice Shovel and Xiao Deng, who were already fighting each other.
The two, who had claimed to be companions before coming, were now locked in a bloody battle. When they spotted Xu Huo, they didn't hesitate to drag him into the fray.
By now, both of them had acquired some weapons—swords, knives, or hidden weapon sets. They also had trump cards, as both were Super Evolvers to some extent, with explosive power. Despite being injured, they managed to fight Xu Huo at full strength for nearly ten minutes after pulling him in.
It only ended when Ice Shovel was slashed across the face by a Space Ray Blade, forcing a temporary halt.
After the three separated, Ice Shovel wiped the blood from his face, and the number above his head began to rise, while Xu Huo's started to drop.
Having been on the island for nearly a day, they could more or less guess how things worked. Xiao Deng said enviously, "Too bad I didn't get a good face."
Ice Shovel sneered, "Aren't you afraid it'll backfire?"
After landing on the island, props and instruments would fail. How long could a fake face last?
Xiao Deng looked at the numbers above Xu Huo's head, which were dropping one by one, and let out a "Ha."
Xu Huo touched his own face, took two steps back, and said, "We came together. There's no need to fight to the death. Maybe we'll have a chance to cooperate later."
With that, he turned to leave, but Ice Shovel, who had lost 10 points to him, wasn't willing to let it go. He flashed in front of Xu Huo, blocking his path, and locked eyes with him.
There was a faint fluctuation of spiritual power. Xu Huo slowed down slightly, dodged the attack, and quickly distanced himself.
Looking at Ice Shovel now, he suddenly found it interesting.
Because at this moment, Ice Shovel was completely different from before. He had suddenly become charming.
Good-looking people were popular, and that was a key factor in determining one's charm. Xu Huo subjectively felt that Ice Shovel had become more attractive.
"Spiritual Evolution can go in this direction?" he said with some surprise. "I've never encountered that before."
Seeing that his interference hadn't had much effect, Ice Shovel didn't linger and turned to leave.
Xiao Deng wanted to stop him, but then noticed several more players approaching and ran off in the opposite direction.
The ones coming were Scarface and Ding Xiang. They regrouped with Xu Huo, and from another direction, three more appeared—the Cannibal Player Xu Huo had fought before, along with his companions.
They all stared at each other, but no one made a move. The Cannibal Player's group didn't stay either.
Ding Xiang looked at Xu Huo's still-dropping points and asked in surprise, "What did you do?"
"Suffering from the disadvantage of appearance," Xu Huo said lightly.
Scarface had plenty to say on the matter, but he kept quiet and instead said, "Old Gao and the others have already passed 100. Let's hurry up."
The three of them worked together and, over the next six hours, managed to accumulate enough points.
Just as Xu Huo was about to hit 100, he deliberately picked a player with a high point total to attack. But unexpectedly, as soon as his score jumped past 100, it immediately began to drop—very quickly.
They wanted him dead.
So in the next instant, he broke away from the group, found the nearest player, and raised his points to over 200 in one go.
This time, the point drop stopped. He also saw a prompt on his wristband:
"You may remain in the Tooth Snake Zone for 24 hours. Please enter the Bear Hug Zone as soon as possible."
Below that was a countdown.
Scarface and Ding Xiang rushed over and saw Xu Huo remove the earrings from the dead player's body, attach them to his wrist-mounted grappling hook, and then pick a flower to place on the corpse's face, as if in silent mourning.