# Chapter 445: Death by Carelessness
The battle between Kong Hui, Wu Xiaonan, and Miao Yu wasn't over yet, but Xu Huo didn't go to help. He headed straight for the elevator, because most of the area where Dr. Deng and Tong Jian had left was submerged in swamp, and the best escape route was to go upstairs via the elevator.
The swamp swept through the laboratory like a flood. Xu Huo carried Chu Yuan and leaped into the air. When passing over the highest point of the swamp, he saw Gan Qing and Lou Fu standing bent over on top of it.
The swamp was Lou Fu's trait. He stood on it as if on flat ground without any problem, but Gan Qing also seemed unaffected by the swamp, steady no matter how it churned.
Seeing Xu Huo and the others, Gan Qing's face lit up. "Did you kill Kong Cheng? Come help us!"
"Can't help!" Xu Huo didn't look back. As he was about to leave, seemingly out of goodwill, he tossed a few porcelain dolls toward Lou Fu.
Lou Fu seemed to loathe them deeply, batting several into the swamp. But the last one flying toward him, he reached out and caught.
He caught it quickly enough, but unfortunately, under the interference of the green light flashing around, he couldn't clearly see whether the last one was a porcelain doll or a wooden doll.
"Real Wooden Man" — touching it stiffens a person for three seconds. Whether touched by someone or actively held, the prop's effect was the same. So when Lou Fu caught the wooden doll, Xu Huo, who had been about to leave, had already turned around and swung his sword.
Lou Fu's head flew off, and his body, along with the wooden doll, fell into the swamp.
Gan Qing walked over with a complicated expression, fished out the wooden doll, and tossed it back to Xu Huo.
"Brother Xu is amazing!" Chu Yuan said admiringly. "I was wondering why you kept throwing those useless porcelain dolls. It was a diversion."
It was actually just a small trick to confuse the senses. If Lou Fu had been more careful and serious, instead of assuming it was just a stink attack, he might not have died so miserably.
Xu Huo was just improvising. Whether it worked or not depended entirely on luck.
"Lucky this time," he said.
The swamp was spreading in all directions. The three didn't delay any longer and took the elevator back to the ground floor.
Dr. Deng had been taken away by Tong Jian. Earlier, Chu Yuan and Wan Yunrong had gone after them. Chu Yuan lost track and returned to Xu Huo, so only Wan Yunrong had actually followed.
"She won't fight him alone, will she?" Chu Yuan said.
If she really ran into him, it wasn't easy to just run away. There was still a gap between D-level and C-level players, and Tong Jian was probably a C-level player. Wan Yunrong likely wouldn't get the better of him.
Sure enough, when the three went up, they found Wan Yunrong lying on the ground, eyes wide open and bloodshot, already dead. A transparent plastic bag was over her head — clearly what had killed her.
Seeing Xu Huo and the others, Tong Jian also looked surprised, probably not expecting Xu Huo to survive Kong Cheng. He was about to speak when he noticed Dr. Deng, a few meters away, suddenly being pulled by something around his neck toward Xu Huo!
"Dr. Deng!" Tong Jian lunged forward to grab him, but how could Xu Huo's group give him the chance? Chu Yuan threw a hedgehog toy at him and said, "Relationship Broken."
Tong Jian was moved ten meters away, but at the same time, the hem of his gelatinous coat suddenly grew, wrapping flexibly around Dr. Deng!
Gan Qing leaped out from the side, raised a paper tube like a megaphone, and blew hard. The cloth-like gelatinous coat was blown back onto Tong Jian, wrapping him up instead.
In that brief moment, Xu Huo had already grabbed Dr. Deng.
With the dagger pressed against his throat, Xu Huo didn't look at Tong Jian but turned toward the elevator and slowly backed away.
The elevator that had brought them up was running. A few seconds later, the doors opened, and Kong Cheng walked out with Miao Yu, who was being held by Kong Hui.
"It looks like most of my people are dead," Kong Cheng said darkly, looking at Xu Huo and the others.
Gan Qing and Chu Yuan moved closer to Xu Huo, forming a triangular standoff with the Kong siblings and Tong Jian.
Xu Huo pressed the dagger inward. "Dr. Deng is in my hands now. If you want him alive, you'd better not make any rash moves."
Kong Hui grabbed Miao Yu by the neck. "You have a companion here too. Do you want her dead or alive?"
After all, they had fought side by side, and without Miao Yu's help, they might not have been so successful. Gan Qing and Chu Yuan immediately fell into a moral dilemma.
But Xu Huo didn't even blink. "Do whatever you want. I don't know her well."
As he spoke, he secretly drew an "S" on Dr. Deng's back.
"We met by chance, just happened to be in the same instance, cooperated because of mutual benefit. We're not sworn brothers. You can't threaten me with her."
"Dr. Deng is different. You brought a non-player in here, so there must be something only he can do. If he dies, you're the ones in trouble."
This hit the mark. Kong Hui looked at her brother. "Since this guy is useless anyway, let's just kill him too."
Hearing they weren't going to save him, Dr. Deng quickly said, "I already know where the potion is hidden!"
Kong Cheng's expression changed, and he looked at him sharply. "Truth or lies?"
Dr. Deng glanced down at the dagger he couldn't actually see, swallowed, and said, "I can't leave here anyway. What good would lying do me?"
"So you're looking for potion." Xu Huo interjected at the right moment. "It seems the potion you're looking for is very important to you. How about this — choose between Dr. Deng's life and ours."
Kong Cheng's expression shifted several times. "I can let you go."
Xu Huo laughed, a smug look on his face. "Do I need that? If you want me to release him, you'd better behave."
"Brother, I think Deng is just lying to save his own skin," Kong Hui said darkly, staring at Xu Huo. "The potion isn't going anywhere. We can come back another time."
"Come back another time?" Xu Huo raised an eyebrow. "There were eight players when you came in, but only five came to find us. Where are the other three?"
The player with the vacuum cleaner, the female player whose arm was cut off, the suffocated player who was found, and their other collaborator, Zhu Rumin — Dr. Deng, who should have been under heavy protection, was being brought along by Kong Cheng and the others. It was clear the rest had met with misfortune.
"They're all dead, aren't they?" he continued. "And now you know that besides the ticket players, there are other people in the Deep Blue Laboratory. Can you guarantee you'll have better luck next time?"
Kong Hui's eyes were wild, but Kong Cheng seemed to be thinking it over. "What do you want?"
"Simple. Just guarantee I survive until the instance ends," Xu Huo said. "You can't leave the laboratory, and you can't use the ticket to escape the instance. Otherwise, we'll all go down together!"
(Chapter End)