Chapter 3098: Congratulations to All Players
Despite their speed, the weapons deployed at high altitude easily locked onto them, killing strikes brushing past their shoulders time and again. Forced to keep moving, Ding Xiang even had half her hair burned off, but she couldn't afford to care about that—she could only activate her protective instruments as much as possible, repeatedly experiencing the heart-pounding thrill of dancing on the edge of life and death.
"Can we really make it out alive?" she couldn't help shouting. "We're still far from the Snake Fang District. I'm worried Challenge Island will use hyperdimensional weapons!"
"It's fine, we're fast enough," Xu Huo said lightly, but in truth, his full attention was focused on the sky above. His perception range didn't detect any hyperdimensional instruments, which meant they were likely hidden much farther away. For single-target kills within a small range, he estimated this weapon was probably closer to an energy gun that could instantly gather hyperdimensional space power—meaning, as long as they were fast enough, they had a chance to dodge.
And after his evolution rate had increased to 90%, his speed had improved further. Of course, it might not be faster than a hyperdimensional instrument, but he only needed enough time to duck into "Darkened Heart"!
What surprised him, however, was that the hyperdimensional instrument never activated. Only bullets continuously rained down from above, chasing them relentlessly. Soon, they entered the Chaos Space.
The aerial killing stopped, and Xu Huo and Ding Xiang were trapped by space walls.
Ding Xiang let out a huge sigh of relief. "Challenge Island can't monitor us in here."
But before she could even catch her breath, Xu Huo started walking into the space wall.
To Ding Xiang, the space wall seemed endless, yet within just a few minutes, he had passed through to the other side. They went through several small space walls in succession, then another large one—the seemingly endless Chaos Space actually disappeared in a very short time!
Chaos Space normally appeared at irregular intervals and in unknown ways, but one this stable would typically last at least a day or two before vanishing. Yet in this short span, they had actually walked out!
Emerging from Chaos Space, Ding Xiang hadn't even had time to express her shock when she realized the points above both her and Xu Huo's heads had directly dropped to zero!
The gruesome death of that player boiled alive in Central City was still fresh in her mind. Ding Xiang's scalp went numb as she immediately activated every defensive instrument on her body—but instantly, her instruments were jammed and rendered useless, her defense barrier completely disappearing!
As if sensing a wave of heat rushing toward her, Ding Xiang reached for the medicine on her arm, but then her body lurched—she was pulled away from her original position by a transparent space barrier. The moment she was out of danger, the scenery around her began moving rapidly again.
This time, they weren't using a teleportation instrument. Xu Huo was relying on his spatial evolution power to directly open space channels for rapid movement. The Wasteland Zone had no reference points, so Ding Xiang couldn't tell how far they moved each time, but being chased like this, they soon spotted the Bear Hug District!
She instinctively reached for the stolen terminal, but Xu Huo showed no sign of stopping. From a great distance, he used Space Ray Blades to assault the barrier—though invisible to the naked eye, the sheer scale of the attack was hardly inferior to the earlier space tsunami!
Actually, it was far inferior, but Xu Huo's spatial control range far exceeded her perception, making it seem massive. Still, it was enough to deal with the barrier before them.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
As the space barrier was forcibly breached, continuous sonic booms from killing strikes echoed nearby. But that was no longer Xu Huo's concern. Without hyperdimensional weapons, bullets like these couldn't possibly hurt them, let alone blast them into bloody mist.
As they charged out of the city, many players preparing to cross zones saw them. Seeing the "0" above their heads and Challenge Island chasing them to kill, they hastily gave way. Amid their astonishment, they couldn't help wondering what had happened in the Wasteland Zone.
Of course, some quick-witted individuals chose to follow them out of the city to investigate, but unfortunately, their speed couldn't keep up. Once outside the city, they couldn't even determine which direction the two had gone.
After the Bear Hug District came the Snake Fang District. Together, these two areas were roughly the size of the Wasteland Zone, but without the obstruction of Chaos Space, they didn't seem as vast.
Xu Huo led Ding Xiang smoothly to the sea, heading straight from the sky toward the deployment site of the hyperdimensional instrument.
"What are you planning to do?" Ding Xiang worried about encountering a hyperdimensional space barrier ahead, but she also felt he wouldn't be foolish enough to charge straight into death. Despite her panic, she couldn't help asking.
"Hold steady." He dropped her onto a reef and vanished in an instant.
Ding Xiang instinctively looked toward the sea below. The hyperdimensional instrument was hidden in the water—he must have gone down there. What did he intend to do... The thought had barely formed when she felt a churning beneath the sea, followed by the sound of metal exploding, then a massive surge of blood!
"He wouldn't...!" Ding Xiang blurted out but cut herself off, realizing Xu Huo certainly wouldn't be reckless enough to directly destroy the hyperdimensional instrument. And since no hyperdimensional power was being released from below, it meant his actions hadn't triggered disaster...
Ordinary hyperdimensional instruments were themselves deadly weapons. No one dared gamble on whether directly destroying the instrument itself would cause hyperdimensional space power to run rampant. Yet he actually dared...
Thought after thought raced through her mind, each one cut off before completion, as if her brain couldn't keep up, or events were coming too fast for her to process. Just like now—Ding Xiang stared at the man suddenly standing beside her again, her face frozen in numbness.
From landing on the island to reaching Central City, the players' journey had been incredibly difficult. For her especially, she had never imagined making it out alive, let alone enduring countless trials to escape Central City again. Yet here she was, already off the island and free once more.
Because the Non-Game Area Simulator's blockade had also disappeared.
Xu Huo pulled the terminal from his wrist and tossed it into the sea. At the same time, Ding Xiang's terminal chimed, and a light screen automatically popped up:
"Challenge Island Degraded Player Observation concluded. Congratulations to all players—none have been selected as experimental subjects. You cannot become research objects. Please leave freely."
Ding Xiang, still somewhat numb and dazed, suddenly straightened her back, staring at Xu Huo in shock. "You knew!"
Xu Huo wrung out his jacket, which had gotten wet when he came up. "It wasn't hard to guess."
Taking the opportunity to retrieve fresh clothes from his luggage compartment, he changed without any pretense of modesty, asking, "Where are your people from the Inspection Department?"
Ding Xiang's gaze swept across his chest before returning to his face. Same face, water droplets at the tips of his hair refracting the sunlight from over the sea, faint glimmers seeming to illuminate his entire being...
Emotions surged within her—excitement, sorrow, a hundred feelings intertwining—but in the end, they all settled into helplessness at her own powerlessness and admiration for such a formidable person.
If only there were more people like him in the world.