Chapter 640: The Hiding Game
"Li Chun is asking you if you really have a job to introduce to her." Gu Yu held the Painting Woman's phone, speaking with some helplessness.
Previously, both the Special Defense Department and the National Security Department had contacted the Painting Woman, saying all kinds of nice things, but she refused to leave the hotel where she worked, even though the hotel had no work at all.
Instead, Xu Huo sent a seemingly unimportant message asking if she wanted a part-time job, and the Painting Woman immediately started calling Xu Huo frantically. The calls never went through, but she kept urging, insisting on getting through to ask Xu Huo.
"I do, a legitimate job." Xu Huo smiled. "The reward is a Light Gentleman medal. Are you in?"
"Yes! Yes!" The Painting Woman answered in her electronic voice.
Xu Huo had Gu Yu search for a map and then said, "See the map? Do you feel anything different about it?"
"My house! My land!" The electronic reading voice revealed no emotion, but Xu Huo could hear the Painting Woman happily spinning around on the other end.
"Alright, come over now then." Xu Huo dug through the pile of ashes and pulled out C's "Swift Swallow" item—a pair of thin, swallow-shaped blades. C had detonated the explosives and died along with his two companions. The three of them couldn't be considered killed by Xu Huo, so the only item he could take was the dropped "Swift Swallow."
Better than nothing. He put the item away, and Team Leader Wu called again.
"Thank heavens, I thought you were dead!" Team Leader Wu said with relief. "How is it? Are you okay? The Special Defense Department people have already taken over. They might deploy heavy weapons to bomb Wenshan in twenty minutes. You can leave on your own or follow the helicopter out."
Xu Huo looked up toward Wenshan. "The helicopters are all circling the mountain. Have the Special Defense Department players gone in?"
"Do you remember Wang Chaoqing? He's in today's team too. He scanned and found the players you mentioned entered Wenshan. You need to verify the number—there are eight inside Wenshan."
The thick smoke around made it impossible for Xu Huo to see the situation near the depression, but the rain hadn't stopped, which meant the Special Defense Department's operation hadn't produced any real results yet.
"How many players did the Special Defense Department send?" he asked.
"Twenty-three," Team Leader Wu said. "Aside from three with special professions, all the rest are D-rank players."
Xu Huo paused. "Are these really the Special Defense Department's elites?"
Team Leader Wu froze for a second. "What do you mean?"
"The place those players are guarding is the depression, not Wenshan," Xu Huo said. With over twenty people, none of them noticed the rain in the depression was falling in reverse?
"But all those players entered Wenshan," Team Leader Wu said, already instructing his subordinates to contact the team.
"There's still one missing," Xu Huo said. "Only three players died in the woods. Eight entered Wenshan. At least one more is left by the depression. Didn't Wang Chaoqing find him?"
"Not only did the players not find him, but the aerial detection also didn't spot anyone near the depression," Team Leader Wu said. "I'll pull the people out right away!"
He spoke hurriedly and hung up. Xu Huo grabbed the zither string and passed through the ring of fire in the air, returning to the vicinity of the depression, but he didn't rush out of the woods.
Sure enough, as soon as he approached the depression, he was immediately targeted. The number above the opponent's head kept climbing, radiating fierce killing intent.
Taking out a telescope, he scanned the entire depression area, finally stopping beneath the number—it was just an ordinary tree stump. The trunk had been eaten through by insects and broken in the middle, leaving only a little over a meter of it, and it wasn't very thick either. There was no way it could hide a person.
It seemed the opponent was a player skilled in concealment.
The tree stump was right next to the depression, in a fairly open area. For such a conspicuous spot to go unnoticed by Wang Chaoqing, who was responsible for sentry duty and scanning, meant the opponent's trait or item was extremely powerful—at least, at first glance, it left no trace.
Xu Huo wondered if the opponent could even hide his heartbeat and breathing. He was too far away to verify for now.
He placed the telescope on a tree branch, but unexpectedly, a sniper shot came from the opposite side. The telescope shattered on impact, and a tree trunk as thick as an arm was blown clean through.
The opponent's action seemed to expose his position. The helicopters circling in the air suddenly opened fire on the opposite side of the depression. Bullets shredded the tree stump, and the number that had been on it moved deeper into the woods before being blocked by the trees.
The person was gone, but the helicopter's strafing didn't stop, apparently conducting indiscriminate fire across the area.
It wasn't a bad approach, but Xu Huo couldn't stay nearby either.
He retreated a distance, found another tree to hide behind, and occasionally changed his posture to let the opponent player notice his presence.
Half a minute after the helicopter stopped firing, the jumping number reappeared. This time, it wasn't on the opposite side but to Xu Huo's left, a few hundred meters away, rushing toward him at incredible speed.
Xu Huo climbed down from the tree, casually set up the "Counting Grids" and "Orb of Murmurs," then leaned against the tree root to rest.
Code Name B silently crossed the depression. He recognized Xu Huo as the player with the umbrella from earlier, so he concealed himself upon entering the woods.
His trait allowed him to move without making any sound, but the downside was that he could only walk. So the distance to approach Xu Huo was covered very slowly, and he deliberately circled a bit further in, until he could clearly see the person crouching behind a tree, tending to his wounds.
Xu Huo was badly injured. The wounds on his right arm and right leg were deep enough to show bone. The flesh wouldn't grow back anytime soon. This was the perfect time!
"Pfft!" He pulled the trigger, and the bullet shot toward Xu Huo!
Just then, Xu Huo turned sideways to grab some gauze. The bullet grazed his shoulder and hit the tree behind him. His expression changed, and he immediately turned to hide behind the tree, at the same time pulling out the water blade gun and firing two random shots in the direction of the bullet!
B easily dodged the shots, dropped to the ground, and his transparent, seemingly nonexistent body flattened a patch of grass before quickly mimicking the appearance of the surrounding vegetation. No matter how he moved, the grass swayed with the wind direction in the woods. It was nearly invisible even at night, and it might not be easy to spot during the day either.
Xu Huo peered out from behind the tree, and after seeing no movement, he hesitantly came out from cover, quickly hiding behind another tree, and using the trees for cover, he began retreating away from the depression.
B followed, like a cat playing with a mouse, occasionally taking potshots. Though he couldn't kill Xu Huo, he forced him to constantly change positions like a startled bird, and ahead lay the fire zone, which he couldn't cross.
"I thought he was some formidable player. C died unfairly." B came to this conclusion after a few probes, but the next second, he found his feet stuck to the ground. As he just got up, a cold light flew from a distance. He quickly ducked, and the light grazed his scalp, shaving off all the hair on the back of his head!
(Chapter End)