Chapter 631: Night Rain
Bentley didn’t reveal the real mining location, but that didn’t matter—there were still eight people left.
Xu Huo visited each of these players confined in the isolation wards one by one. Half an hour later, he walked out, removed his bloodstained gloves, and took out his phone. On the last page of their medical records, he wrote “accidental death during treatment,” then made several marks on the map.
The ore in the New Energy Zone must be an extremely important mineral resource. The unrest in Zone 014 wasn’t over yet, and to trade for advanced items, it certainly wasn’t just Country Y dealing with the Artificers.
Although the number of advanced items traded was limited, the effects of any single advanced item couldn’t be underestimated. And given how big the incident in Jing City had become, it was possible these advanced items had been brought in.
It was unclear whether the Special Defense Department had received the news.
Xu Huo paused, then turned and walked back into the room. David Pierce, who had been tied to the bed, had already been released and was sitting to the side. Seeing him enter, he immediately greeted him politely.
Xu Huo picked up the medical record, flipped to the last page, and smiled at him. “Congratulations, your condition is completely under control. You can be discharged now. If you experience auditory hallucinations again, make sure to come to the hospital for treatment in time.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Pierce vanished from the instance, and Xu Huo pulled open the door to go to Building One.
The successful escape of Gu Yu and the others gave hope to the other players, who rushed to the front entrance to clean the gate. Not a few had died there.
The hospital gate was fixed, and before entering, all these players knew its location. If a fake door were created in the midst of the crowd, it would draw more attention. So Xu Huo simply shifted the original door’s position one door to the left.
That meant that out of two doors, only one was real. Those who died in front of the door were just unlucky—they hadn’t picked the right one.
However, this wasn’t entirely unsolvable. The hospital’s layout was precisely scaled, and he hadn’t tampered with the hospital’s size. So if a player measured and compared the layout, they could find the correct door’s location.
Of course, there were also lucky ones. Those who had left earlier didn’t count, but from now on, Xu Huo began harvesting the cannibal players.
About a hundred people had entered in total, and more than half were cannibal players, though not many belonged to the Twin Serpents.
These people were probably a bit simple-minded, thinking they could take the opportunity to cause a big ruckus at the Special Defense Department headquarters, and like the Twin Serpents, establish an underground organization of cannibal players. But the Twin Serpents were built on connections, with backing from high-level government officials. No matter how strong the scattered cannibal players were, they couldn’t match that organizational power. Coming to the Special Defense Department headquarters was pure suicide. Even if they were given the chance to set up shop, it wouldn’t be long before the Special Defense Department wiped them out.
Under his control, in less than ten minutes, the hospital turned into a venue overrun with ghosts and viruses. After letting a few ordinary players escape appropriately, the doors and windows were sealed, leaving all players struggling for their lives inside the hospital.
After Building One was taken over, the players with nowhere to flee rushed to Buildings Two and Three, only to encounter escaped experimental samples. Some infected mutants and patients, like zombies, bit anyone they saw, quickly spreading and assimilating the fleeing players.
Thus, players died or went mad. The surviving players eventually charged into the director’s office, then jumped from the rooftop one by one, all crashing to their deaths on the first floor.
With the hospital’s occupants mostly cleared, Xu Huo gathered the items left behind by the starship players and ended the instance.
To divert attention, he deliberately left a few players. The moment he exited the instance, he used his trait “Straight-Line Distance” and charged in a different direction from them.
At that moment, the instance had just ended. Special Defense Department personnel had surrounded the pile of corpses, waiting to deal with them later, and didn’t intercept the players who had just come out.
However, Xu Huo did notice several newly installed large surveillance devices.
Smoothly escaping the Special Defense Department’s encirclement—he ducked into a building and began browsing what had happened outside during the hours he was away.
There were three key points.
First, the crackdown on cannibal players. In this regard, the Special Defense Department had deliberately released some videos to showcase national strength. It was clear that a large portion of cannibal players had been intercepted by the Special Defense Department. Although many had escaped, quite a few had been killed.
The Special Defense Department moved swiftly.
Second, intervention with ordinary players. Many players had come to watch the excitement tonight. As long as players caught in the melee didn’t attack the Special Defense Department, they wouldn’t be arrested. But causing trouble or fighting wasn’t allowed. If such situations were encountered, mandatory measures would be taken. If innocent bystanders were accidentally harmed, the Special Defense Department would not be responsible.
Third, foreign players.
Whether players near the headquarters or netizens noticed that after the chaos began, there were an unusually large number of foreign players. Everyone quickly realized that this melee wasn’t just about cannibal players versus ordinary players—it also involved foreign players. Coupled with the earlier incident of foreign players using themselves as human bombs to breach the border, it was obvious even with a toe that they came with ill intent, especially after several special prisons housing players were targeted.
However, the Special Defense Department showed thunderous force against these people.
Earlier, when dealing with cannibal players, some had questioned the Special Defense Department’s capabilities. But after the prison videos were leaked, everyone understood that the Special Defense Department had deployed its main elite forces to the external battlefield today. It had to be said, those foreign players were truly strong.
“Let these foreign bastards see the strength of our Special Defense Department!” The internet erupted in cheers.
Xu Huo’s fingers paused. David Pierce had probably been taken away by the Special Defense Department. Bentley and the others only knew about the advanced items but not their specific effects. Only by finding the people could the items be found. If someone was lurking around Jing City with the items, only the Special Defense Department could track them down.
“Drip drop!” A faint sound of rain came from outside.
Xu Huo immediately walked to the window. A sour, rotten smell, different from ordinary rain, spread through the air. He looked down at the street.
“Why is this rain black?” A Special Defense Department member wiped his face and spat, “Stinks like rot!”
At that moment, a team leader received a message and immediately changed expression, commanding the others, “Find shelter from the rain immediately. Don’t get caught in it—this rain isn’t normal!”
The Special Defense Department members and some players gathered around the building scattered into nearby structures, cleaning themselves. After waiting a few minutes without anything unusual happening, they resumed activity, though no one dared to go out in the rain.
Xu Huo’s gaze fell on the raindrops on the windowsill. The surface of each drop had a layer of black oil—similar to something, but he couldn’t identify it exactly. It also carried an abnormal iridescence, more like the dull, dirty rainbow sheen on water that had been left to rot and accumulate for a long time.
He cut a small wound on his palm and released a few strands of King Fungus mycelium toward the raindrops.
(Chapter End)