Chapter 376: Pursuit
The hotel's car had left the twenty-seventh floor, but somehow, the other party had used some method to track him accurately.
Xu Huo got off in the bustling city center, pretending to shop as he entered a department store. Under the guide's lead, he went into a VIP room. The player tailing him soon walked in with a wine glass, leaning in as he spoke: "One, two, three, wooden man."
Xu Huo's hand, reaching for the wine glass, paused. Instead, he swung a sword in a slash while tossing out the "Fair Wallet."
The player seemed not to have anticipated that he could break free from the trait's power, but after a moment of surprise, he reacted swiftly. A wooden sword covered in blooming flowers appeared in his hand. The two swords clashed, and the flowers on the wooden sword, along with their vines, instantly grew onto the Crimson Sword. As the opponent withdrew, Xu Huo was pulled along. However, at that moment, the "Fair Wallet" took effect, and the wooden sword slipped from the man's hand!
The flower vines binding the Crimson Sword retracted instantly, but the player was incredibly fast. Before the wooden sword hit the ground, he kicked it back into his hand.
Dodging the opponent's strike, Xu Huo retreated while manipulating the strings to loop around his neck. Unexpectedly, before the strings could get close, they were repelled by a transparent force field. As they fell back, the man said "wooden man" to them, and the strings fell uncontrollably to the ground.
Xu Huo frowned. Could traits affect props as well?
"Who are you?" he asked, but the other party clearly had no intention of conversing. His eyes darkened, and he lunged forward!
Noticing the man reaching out as if to touch him, Xu Huo waved his hand to pull out a roll of cloth soaked in alcohol. As he retreated, he set it ablaze repeatedly. With a series of "ding ding ding" sounds, the cloth spat out by the loom was entirely engulfed in flames, hurtling toward the player!
Since Xu Huo had taken the initiative and the distance was close, the cloth wrapped around the player's shoulder. Startled, he stepped back, tearing off the burning cloth only to see Xu Huo, a few meters away, raising a lighter at him!
Admittedly, against an experienced player with formidable combat skills, props sometimes struggled to be effective. The moment the lighter ignited, Xu Huo noticed the figure in his vision vanish, then reappear with lightning speed at his right rear!
A needle-like chill shot up from behind. Without turning around or looking back, Xu Huo tossed the retrieved wallet backward and grabbed the Umbrella of Justice. Pressing the handle while opening the ribs, he only had time to see a wooden figure land and disappear before three gunshots rang out!
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The bullets didn't pierce the Umbrella of Justice. Xu Huo pulled the umbrella down, raised the lit lighter, and set the opposite side ablaze!
This time, the player was caught in the flames. But unexpectedly, just as the fire flared up, a transparent raincoat appeared on him. Once it covered him, the flames were instantly extinguished.
"I hate fire-starters the most!" As the flames died, the man snarled and kicked at Xu Huo.
Xu Huo quickly retracted the umbrella and held it horizontally to block, only to find that vines and flowers had sprouted from the opponent's feet, directly entangling the umbrella and allowing him to follow through.
With a man clinging to his chest that he couldn't shake off, Xu Huo stored the Umbrella of Justice in his prop slot and gripped a pen in his right hand.
The sword aimed at his neck halted. The player's eyes involuntarily fixed on Xu Huo's hand.
Stopping the opponent's movement didn't mean Xu Huo could do as he pleased. His pen had to keep moving, so while writing, he pulled out a hallucinogenic spray and pressed it against the man's face.
As the spray hit, the player snapped out of his daze. Though he inevitably inhaled some of the agent, it wasn't a heavy dose. The effect wasn't as potent as advertised. Not only did he stay conscious, but he also grew enraged, tossing out an amber piece wrapped in dried flowers: "Lament of the Plants!"
The flying amber melted like water but remained suspended in midair, weightless. The dried flower at its center swayed, emitting an unbearably sharp sound!
The sound vanished almost instantly—not because the dried flower stopped lamenting, but because Xu Huo's ears went temporarily deaf. Under the high-pitched stimulus, his vision darkened, and his skull buzzed with numbness.
He swung his sword repeatedly in different directions. After several strikes, he spun around abruptly, but this time, he only managed to guard his chest before a heavy punch landed!
The force sent him airborne. Though blind and deaf, he sensed the player teleporting behind him again!
Adjusting his position slightly midair, Xu Huo threw out the Desert Windmill!
A sandstorm instantly engulfed the sizable VIP room. The player, caught in the brunt, was blasted toward the door. As he hit it, a transparent glass dome appeared over his head, immediately blocking the wind and sand.
But within the sandstorm, visibility was nearly zero, and hearing was severely impaired. He listened intently for a moment, then suddenly shouted, "With this much sand, your fire can't burn, can it? It's just one room—where can you hide? I've used props outside the door. No one's coming in until I leave!"
Silence reigned in the sandstorm. But the next second, a gleaming butcher knife swung out from the sand, shattering the player's protective dome in one blow!
Naturally, Xu Huo could use the sandstorm and the Silent Figure to attack, and the opponent could counter the moment he struck. The player grabbed the butcher knife with one hand while thrusting the other into the swirling sand along the blade's path!
"Unstoppable Straight Ball!"
The effect of "Lament of the Plants" had worn off. Just as Xu Huo regained his sight, a golf-ball-sized black sphere covered in hedgehog-like long needles slammed into his face mask, piercing it with a dense array of holes.
Fortunately, the mask had cost a fortune and could withstand the impact. A fraction of an inch more, and his eyeballs would have been skewered!
The butcher knife vanished and reappeared. Xu Huo swung it at the opponent's throat but cut through empty air. However, the man hadn't disappeared from the room; Xu Huo could track his movement direction.
With the sandstorm blocking vision and hearing, plus a 0.5-second advantage, the two were evenly matched physically. The difference lay in props, and the sandstorm seemed to suppress the opponent's trait. After several exchanges, the player could no longer use the vine-growth technique.
"Knock, knock, knock!" Someone knocked on the door from outside.
Sensing the player moving toward the door, Xu Huo hung "World Within the Painting" on the door handle.
The sandstorm dissipated. Xu Huo picked up the strings, amber, and wooden sword from the floor, then walked to the door. He reached out, retrieved the painting now bearing an extra face, and only then opened the door.
The knocker was the store manager. "Sir, did something happen in the room?"
Xu Huo glanced at the "Do Not Disturb" sign stuck on the door, peeled it off, and said, "I damaged a few things. Take an inventory."
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(Chapter End)