Chapter 496: Pulling Aggro
[Limited Edition Human Skin Doll, exuding the breath of a living person. It can imitate the appearance of anyone. As long as that person has seen you, the moment they look away, you can use it to replace yourself. No one will ever see through its disguise. Please note, its usage time is only half an hour.]
This was the description of the Humanoid Doll. Xu Huo had never used this item before because it only had one use left when it came into his hands.
This special item could divert an enemy's attention for up to half an hour. Using it in previous situations would have been a waste, but now it was perfect. Not only could it consume the Black Bracelet player's items, but it could also test his traits and methods—as long as the Humanoid Doll could hold out long enough.
Earlier, when Xu Huo fought the Red Bracelet player in the room, he noticed that these seaweed strands had very little aggression toward slow-moving objects. So, as he threw out the Humanoid Doll, he put on his protective suit and activated "Oxygen Supply," then aimed for a strand of seaweed extending from a nearby room and actively grabbed it.
Stimulated, the seaweed wrapped around him, slammed him against the ship's outer hull with a handsome crash, then dragged him roughly into the room and smashed him into a corner!
If Xu Huo hadn't adjusted his position in time, that external blow would have put him at a disadvantage. Once inside, he certainly wouldn't let the seaweed smash him into the wall. Using the Lake of Strings as a buffer, he quickly moved around the room with his "Frequent Movement" trait, avoiding stepping on more seaweed, and hung himself from the ceiling.
The Silent Figure had a six-hour cooldown, so it couldn't be used yet. Therefore, using the Humanoid Doll to lure away the Black Bracelet player and then following up was very risky.
Fortunately, the ship was full of decorations and various high-tech gadgets. Xu Huo placed a micro-monitor he carried on the Humanoid Doll, allowing him to see the environment around the doll through a receiver.
The Black Bracelet player hadn't caught up yet.
Besides the Black Bracelet player, there were many dangerous people on the ship. Xu Huo confirmed that both the Black Bracelet player and the little girl had gone far away before finding an exhibition hall to set up the "101 Emergency Shelter." The room was mostly filled with exhibits, some of which were bizarre objects. Although the shelter took up some space, it didn't look out of place here.
As he stepped inside, he planned to send a message to Bai Kou, but unexpectedly, an explosion came from upstairs. He immediately released a micro-monitor out the window and caught sight of the explosive flames erupting from the ninth floor.
The explosion pierced through the ninth floor, and after engulfing nearly a quarter of the floor area, the raging flames suddenly seemed to hit a pause button, freezing in mid-air. The next second, they retreated back along the trajectory of the eruption. The air scorched by the high heat, the shattered glass from the explosion, and the deformed metal walls all restored to their original state, as if the explosion had never happened.
Time rewind. Xu Huo had experienced this strange phenomenon briefly three times before, but because the duration was so short, not only people but even clocks could easily overlook it. Moreover, the scope of that time rewind might have far exceeded a single instance. So, aside from resurrection from the dead, he didn't have much feeling about time rewind.
But what was happening now vividly demonstrated what time rewind meant. Even the destroyed building could be restored, returning everything to how it was before it happened. And with objects restored, perhaps the people within them would also be restored...
If the Rongxin Group's weapons were really going to be handed over here, then the players staying on the ninth and tenth floors who didn't participate in the ship massacre were the real core figures. After all, Captain Matt and the Black Epaulet Ran Ying hadn't shown up yet.
Ran Ying might not be a core figure, but Matt, who controlled the ship, must know the inside story. His presence here and his refusal to go downstairs carried a certain meaning.
Xu Huo didn't know exactly what level of player Bai Kou was, but since there hadn't been an irreversible catastrophic scene upstairs yet, it meant the real conflict hadn't fully erupted.
Maybe it had erupted, but with time rewind as a trick, everything on the ship might have been restored.
He turned off the communicator, left the door slightly ajar, and released a few more micro-monitors to search the ship inside and out for the players' locations.
The number of Black Bracelet players participating in the hunt wasn't as high as imagined. Many were entertaining themselves in the game rooms. Most of those fighting outside were Red Bracelet players. Quite a few White Bracelet players and ordinary evolved humans were hiding.
Seeing their lazy demeanor, Xu Huo frowned slightly. They weren't in a hurry to kill everyone on the ship, which meant this journey might last a long time.
Having some time was good for him, of course, as it gave him ample opportunity to think of a countermeasure. But the ship showed no sign of turning back; it had been sailing farther and farther along the sea, meaning they were getting farther and farther away from District 011. And in these waters, the ticket couldn't be used.
Unable to leave the ship via ticket, the most likely outcome was being killed by the Red or Black Bracelet players. Surviving until the end by relying on items was almost impossible. This ship itself was an item. Since this voyage happened every year, it meant no survivors had ever made it out in previous years.
"...Raindrops Wear Through Stone!" A faint sound came from the monitor screen. Xu Huo immediately looked down and saw that the Black Bracelet noble had caught up to the Humanoid Doll. The distance between them was no more than five meters. As the female player had said, the Black Bracelet player pointed his finger downward, and a sudden downpour formed a circular rain belt about a meter wide around him. Anyone within this rain belt was a target.
Because of the item's special nature, although the Humanoid Doll was hit in the foot, the wound healed instantly. It jumped out of the rain belt and ran, even turning back to flip off the Black Bracelet player.
Unexpectedly, it had quite a personality.
Of course, this might also be related to the effect of the item used to divert attention. The aggro was pulled high enough to better cover the escape of the item's holder.
In the fleeting image on the screen, the Black Bracelet player's face showed anger. He raised his hand, sweeping up the seaweed on the ground and shooting it like arrows at the Humanoid Doll, while simultaneously throwing out a balloon-like object.
Due to the camera's limitations, Xu Huo couldn't see exactly what the balloon looked like. But soon, a slight popping sound came from near the camera, indicating the balloon wasn't slow. In an instant, the camera's view began to shake and rise.
The Humanoid Doll swayed as it turned around, and the Black Bracelet player's position became lower—because of that balloon, the Humanoid Doll was floating in the air.
Sensing that it struggled but couldn't escape, Xu Huo quickly directed a nearby micro-monitor over. At that moment, the Black Bracelet player walked into the frame, sneering, "How dare you defy me!"
"Pfft!" The Humanoid Doll, using Xu Huo's face, made an extremely insulting gesture at the person in front of it.
(Chapter End)