Chapter 3141: The Hand on the Face
The inviting party was sincere, and the invited party was equally sincere—for a moment, both sides were very satisfied.
The group quickly arrived at the place Fu Kuan and Juno had mentioned. Looking up, there was indeed a gap in the ceiling, but it was only as wide as a finger, not nearly large enough for an arm to reach through.
However, five people present had witnessed it with their own eyes and could confirm that a spatial portal existed there. So whether it looked like it could actually accommodate a person passing through was irrelevant.
"Did you bring a passage device?" Xu Huo asked the young man.
The young man was slightly surprised. "You dare to go in?"
The reason they had rushed to grab the prop Juno and the other had obtained was precisely because they didn't want to touch this gap. If what lay behind it was just an ordinary space—even if empty—that would be the best-case scenario. But if some strange prop had been born inside, they might not be its match. Besides, after being in here so long, they had never seen a statue that would actively reach out its hand.
"We're going in together," Xu Huo said. "Aren't you here for the remains of the super prop too?"
The young man didn't reply. The super prop was only part of it—to be honest, even the individual components of the Battle Angel, when dismantled, were top-tier prop materials, some even containing Primordial Stones. Otherwise, ordinary super props wouldn't be worth such a risk.
Of course, even intact Primordial Stones weren't worth throwing away their lives for. They had come partly to broaden their horizons and partly to get close to the battlefield of super players. Sometimes super evolution happened by chance—it didn't necessarily require a personal epiphany. For example, some players in the game had begun spatial evolution after being pierced by space rays.
So even if they gained nothing, they planned to stay for a while and then leave.
"The device we brought probably can't open this gap," the bodyguard said. "And I think, even if there really are remains of the Battle Angel inside, the risk outweighs the reward. It's not worth it."
Xu Huo turned to look at the three upstairs, silently asking if they had anything.
The three had dared to come in, so they must have their own trump cards. After a moment of hesitation, the upstairs person tore off a button from their clothes. "I can use this, but it's single-use. It can only open a passage once. If we go in, we might not be able to come out."
Juno and Fu Kuan exchanged a glance. The former took out another device. "I was planning to save this for when we leave, but since there are so many of us, we can share one device when the time comes."
Xu Huo didn't stand on ceremony. He accepted both devices, then turned his gaze back to the young man and his two companions. His attitude was clear—not a suggestion, but a demand.
The young man gritted his teeth again and nodded to the two behind him.
One of them pulled a fist-sized ring-shaped device from their backpack. It consisted of three concentric rings nested together, looking far superior in quality to the passage prop from the upstairs person and Juno.
Not knowing which device could open the gap passage, Xu Huo tried the upstairs one first.
When the device activated, a translucent, distorted vortex appeared in the space. The vortex didn't completely block the view—standing in front of it, one could still see objects behind it. Xu Huo tried reaching his hand inside, but it was blocked by a spatial barrier.
"It won't go in," he said.
"It failed," the upstairs person said, disappointed. "This device probably isn't strong enough to penetrate the space within the venue. Even if it opens a spatial passage, it would at most teleport someone from one end of the room to the other."
The vortex quickly disappeared, and a crack split open on the device, rendering it useless.
"My device works best when used very close to the gap," Juno reminded.
Xu Huo nodded slightly and tossed the bead in his hand toward the ceiling. When the bead reached near the gap, it automatically disintegrated into a dozen fragments, forming an ellipse around the gap. With a faint hum, the energy released from the fragments merged together, opening a black passage beneath the gap.
"It should have worked, right?" Juno looked uncertainly.
"Let's take a gamble," Xu Huo said, looking up for a moment before turning back to the group with a smile.
Everyone present felt their scalps go numb at that smile, even though they had already defended themselves. The three from the player family, in particular, had been hoping to separate from Xu Huo's group during this opportunity. But they hadn't expected their device to disintegrate under the spatial power. Together with the three upstairs, they were all swept up by Xu Huo's spatial barrier and dragged into the spatial passage!
Spatial teleportation was usually very brief—from one district to another, it might take only an instant. But the spatial passage they entered was extremely long, so much so that they remained in complete darkness for half a minute before seeing light.
In that short half-minute, everyone experienced a psychological journey from shock to despair, and from despair to hope. When they emerged from the spatial passage, they couldn't help but feel a sense of relief at surviving a disaster. But before they could turn around to confront Xu Huo, a hand suddenly covered their faces—a hand about the size of an adult's, but made of plaster, completely devoid of warmth!
Startled, the group launched attacks, but the hand on their faces held their heads firmly. No matter how they struggled, they couldn't break free. And even more bizarrely, their strength seemed to drain away through that hand...
The plaster hand didn't completely block their vision. As the several A-level players were lifted up like slabs of cured meat, they could still glimpse their companions out of the corner of their eyes. Seeing the others showed them their own state.
The young man watched as his two companions went from violent struggling to losing all strength, their limbs going limp. Panic-stricken, he instinctively tried to tear at the hand on his face, only to find that his arms and legs couldn't move at all!
"Help..." a faint roar escaped from the depths of his throat. He didn't even know who he was calling to. As his physical strength ebbed away, his vision began to blur. Just as he was about to sink completely into darkness, someone suddenly snapped their fingers next to his ear. Then a sharp pain began to churn through his brain, forcing him awake. Another snap, and he felt the hand on his face disappear. His knees gave way, and he collapsed forward onto the ground!
The young man and his two companions, the three upstairs—every single one of them—were all kneeling on the ground, gasping for breath. The upstairs person and the two bodyguards were in slightly better shape, but the young man, Fu Kuan, and Juno were crying and drooling, cold sweat pouring down them like water. They looked as if they had died and come back to life in a gruesome ordeal.
"Cough, cough!" The three choked and coughed as they looked up, only to find Xu Huo standing in front of them, staring upward.
Following his gaze, they saw a colossal statue—so massive it seemed like a mountain—looking down at them. Its body was covered with thousands of hands, but its face had only one open red eye.