Chapter 641: The Backlash of a Broken Spiritual Realm
"Forced escape!" B slammed a fist-sized plastic sphere onto the ground. The item popped out and quickly transformed into an inflatable mattress, forcefully launching him out of the "counting squares."
"Bang! Bang! Bang!" Before B could even land, a barrage of shots came his way. He tucked his arms under his armpits, and when he spread them open, they had turned into a barrier resembling a bat's wing. Not only did it block the water jets, but three short arrows also shot out from it!
"Ding! Ding! Tss!" Only one of the three arrows hit its mark. A pained grunt came from not far away. B's face lit up with joy, but he didn't rush to check personally. Instead, he laid a rope on the ground.
The rope, once released, slithered through the grass on its own, moving like a snake swiftly toward the direction where Xu Huo was hiding. After a slight struggle, a bound figure fell from behind a tree.
B raised his gun, but stopped abruptly when he saw the face of the person. The one who had fallen from behind the tree had a face identical to his own!
After a moment of extreme confusion, he still fired, blasting two large holes in the other's chest!
Blood and flesh splattered everywhere, but before the smell of blood could spread, the things scattered in the grass flowed back into the body on the ground as if time were reversing. The person who had just died came back to life, now with a different face staring at him. "Are you going to kill me again?"
B's expression twisted violently. He pulled out a smoke bomb, threw it, and turned to flee without hesitation. But just as he took a step, a ray of light suddenly appeared before him...
"Waiter, lean back!" His body, which had been leaning forward, arched backward in a way that defied human inertia. B used the momentum to do a backflip, but when his feet landed, they didn't touch grass—they hit a few steps of a staircase.
He stumbled a couple of steps on the stairs to steady himself. Turning around, he saw the steps rotating and moving, gradually extending into the darkness ahead. As the steps grew narrower, the walls around him began to close in rapidly!
"Emergency exit!" A green arrow-shaped evacuation sign suddenly appeared in B's hand. As he grabbed the tail end of the sign, it shot forward like a rocket, dragging him out of the woods, across the entire depression, and all the way to the opposite bank!
It took less than a blink of an eye!
When Xu Huo turned around, the man was already on the other side!
The more stable and stronger a person's mental state, the harder it is for them to be influenced by another's mental power. So even when pulled into a spiritual realm, there is a process of immersion.
Against a player, the first step is to make them believe their items have failed, or make them think they've used an item when they actually haven't. Before this process is complete, the player can forcibly break free—if they have the right item.
That foreign player chose to escape the moment he entered the spiritual realm. Coincidentally, he had a long-distance movement item on hand. Although Xu Huo could barely open his own spiritual realm in reality, the range he could control was limited, and the intensity wasn't great. Especially against players with strong mental fortitude, it carried certain risks.
Rubbing his throbbing temples, he walked to the edge of the woods. Leaning on a tree with one hand, he stared at the opposite bank. This was the first time he had experienced the backlash from having his spiritual realm forcibly broken.
"It seems the spiritual realm isn't that hard to crack," he muttered, his expression dark as he watched the ever-changing numbers on the other side. "A fast movement item is all it takes."
While he was thinking about how to deal with the man across the way, that man was also figuring out how to counter him.
B, seeing the person reappear at the edge of the woods, thought this was a deliberate bait set by the Special Defense Department. He believed there were many players hidden in the woods, but they couldn't form an absolute advantage, so they were using this method to lure them over one by one.
"Beware of Special Defense Department ambush. Items not yet exposed."
A message was sent through his communicator to the other players in Wenshan. At the same time, the helicopter over the depression began a second round of indiscriminate strafing.
Using the gunfire as cover, A dashed out from the tree where he was hiding. In one second, he charged behind the tall, thin player. With a wave of his hand, a giant scythe appeared, sweeping forward!
"I've been waiting for you!" The tall, thin player spun around, spreading his ten fingers like he was playing a piano and pressing down. From each finger, a guiding thread extended, connected to a huge mechanical puppet standing behind him. As he moved his index finger, the puppet quickly swung its hand, blocking the black scythe while reaching out with its other hand to smash down on A's head!
"Weight-reduction foam!" The scythe vanished. A leaped back, a man-sized plush toy appearing in his hand. He pulled the zipper on the toy's backside, and foam gushed out, sticking to anything it touched. The mechanical puppet, caught in the accumulating foam, began to lighten and rise.
"Slap!" The puppet disappeared. The foam, now without anything to cling to, scattered everywhere. The tall, thin player, covered in a thin, paper-like layer, ran out from under the foam, circling around from the outside.
At the same time, Code A predicted the tall, thin player's movement trajectory and intercepted him ahead of time. The two engaged in close combat, their movements fierce, sparks flying from their weapons. Occasionally, the use of item traits caused brief pauses in the fight, but as the speed increased, neither had the spare energy to pull out new items.
This high-speed battle lasted nearly a minute. Suddenly, a black shadow emerged from Code A's side. He reflexively retreated, but a long blade thrust up from the ground slashed his calf!
"Whoosh!" Another mechanical puppet climbed out of the dirt. It swung a chain-linked iron hammer at A's scythe. The two objects collided, and electricity arced from the puppet. The scythe, along with A, began to shake violently!
Just then, the female player appeared behind A. She was about to use a tranquilizer net to capture him when a grenade suddenly dropped at A's feet!
"Watch out!" the female player shouted loudly, then ducked behind the mechanical puppet. A deafening explosion followed, shaking half the mountain forest. The blast wave flipped the puppet over, not only pinning the female player to the ground but also scattering Wang Chaoqing's shadow!
When the explosion's wind subsided, A was nowhere to be seen on the slope.
The tall, thin player pulled the female player to her feet and frowned as he contacted Wang Chaoqing. "Where is he?"
"I don't know where he ran off to," Wang Chaoqing complained. "Can you be more reliable? You knew he might have lethal weapons, so why didn't you prepare earlier? And your puppet nearly knocked me out!"
"Then find him," the tall, thin player said curtly.
"Wait," Wang Chaoqing quickly added. "I saw something green fly across the depression just now. It might have been an item, but I looked around and still couldn't see anyone. Be careful—it might be some kind of invisibility item."
The tall, thin player hung up and was about to request backup from the Special Defense Department when he received a message: Backup has arrived.
The tall, thin player breathed a sigh of relief and continued searching the mountain with the female player.
The backup the Special Defense Department referred to was actually the Painting Woman. She had sped all the way from the headquarters into the mountain road, then turned into a piece of paper and flew through the woods, effortlessly landing behind Xu Huo.
(Chapter End)