Chapter 643: The Item Inside the Xenomorph's Stomach
The sound of "crack crack crack" was incessant. Code Name B retreated while tossing the explosives he carried outward, but the expected roar never came. He saw the micro-bombs, grenades, and bullets he had thrown all floating in midair as if they had lost gravity.
"Two-Point Exchange!"
"Intermittent Blindness!"
"Suffocation-Level Invisibility!"
"..."
After trying multiple items and traits without success, panic finally appeared on Code Name B's face. He ran blindly forward, missed a step, and plunged into the boundless darkness!
"Ahhhh!"
Over there, Zeng Tai leaned against a tree, glancing at Code Name B, who had been moving in place from the start. He covered his wound with his clothes, then looked at the man standing beside B and called out loudly, "Are you Xu Huo?"
Xu Huo finished off Code Name B with one sword strike. After collecting his belongings and finding no Black Rain item, he was slightly disappointed. He picked up the flash device that had fallen to the ground—it was a high-frequency piece of equipment.
If he hadn't been mistaken, this player had intended to put the device into the water. Could there be something else besides the item placed in the depression?
Just as he was about to call out the Painting Woman to ask, the person leaning against the tree spoke again. "Hey! I'm asking if you're Xu Huo!"
Xu Huo turned his head and glanced at the few small cats silently approaching. With a flick of his hand, a small bottle of "Mind-Blowing Good Stuff" scattered down. The few stray cats that had refused to leave immediately arched their backs and dry-heaved earnestly before fleeing in fright.
Zeng Tai's protective suit was torn, so he naturally smelled the odor. With his keen sense of smell, he was immediately stimulated into tears and snot streaming down his face. He leaned against the tree and began to vomit, pausing between heaves to point at Xu Huo. "Don't... get cocky... my companions will be here soon!"
The scene was too hard to watch. Xu Huo chose to look away.
Just then, Wang Chaoqing and several Special Defense Department players arrived. The former recognized Xu Huo the moment he saw the sword in his hand and immediately called out in surprise, "Brother Xu!"
"He's Xu Huo? He doesn't look like the photo!" another player muttered.
"Walking the martial world, who doesn't have a couple of fake faces!" Wang Chaoqing cheerfully came over to greet him, but before he could say anything, a "gurgle" sound of bubbles emerged from the depression.
Everyone present froze, then saw a second and third bubble. Sensing that something underwater was rushing toward the shore at extreme speed, Xu Huo kicked Wang Chaoqing away while swinging his sword in a slash!
"Tch!" A thing that was half-human, half-not, covered in mud, was cut in two. But even after falling, it didn't die immediately. Its upper half struggled, making strange throat sounds as it writhed toward Xu Huo.
Stepping on its head, Xu Huo pinned it with his sword and saw clearly that this was a xenomorph showing fish-like characteristics. On both sides of its neck were three slit-like gills, constantly opening and closing out of the water.
"Is this a mermaid?" Wang Chaoqing, who had been kicked, rubbed his stomach as he walked over.
Zeng Tai could barely hide his terror. "Could it be that everyone soaked by the Black Rain eventually turns into this?"
Xu Huo kicked the xenomorph away and turned toward the depression. "Here they come again!"
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
This time, more than one xenomorph emerged. Although they had grown gills, their running speed was not slow, and in the blink of an eye, they were closing in on the shore.
"We can't let them escape!" Xu Huo warned loudly. "The Black Rain items might be in their stomachs!"
Wang Chaoqing and the others were shocked. Without time to ask questions, they used their items to kill the xenomorphs, while the helicopter in the air coordinated with gunfire.
Water splashed everywhere in the depression, but only a few were killed. Instead, several Special Defense Department members were seriously injured—these xenomorphs were clearly more ferocious than the ones in the city!
But this fierce clash didn't last long. At a certain moment, the frenzied xenomorphs suddenly stopped, all raising their heads toward a single direction. Then they abandoned their current prey and charged madly in that direction!
"That's the direction of headquarters! They're heading into the city!" Zeng Tai's face changed drastically. Ignoring his injuries, he chased after them.
The Special Defense Department players and the helicopter quickly shifted their focus. Xu Huo didn't rush to leave. Instead, he called out to the Painting Woman by the depression.
After a moment, the Painting Woman slowly emerged from the water, dragging a corpse that had already been disemboweled, with water plants tangled on her head.
"Does it have an item on it?" Xu Huo understood at a glance. The Y Country players had hidden the xenomorphs in the depression beforehand. Of course, these xenomorphs wouldn't obediently obey orders, and transporting so many xenomorphs under the Special Defense Department's nose wasn't easy. So these people had most likely come here before they had fully transformed into xenomorphs.
The earlier player had used the high-frequency device to wake the xenomorphs, but Xu Huo had intercepted the device midway. The reason these xenomorphs were now awake was probably because of the Painting Woman.
The Painting Woman pulled a cube the size of a Rubik's Cube from behind her back and handed it to him, then pointed at the corpse's stomach, indicating she had taken it from inside.
Xu Huo took it and examined it. It looked more like an electronic product. On the front screen was a cloud icon with heavy rain, and the raindrops on it were still flickering.
Since the item holder had not yet died, the item couldn't be stored in the item slot. He tried to put it into the luggage compartment, but that also failed.
"Do you recognize this item?" he asked the Painting Woman. The item itself didn't seem toxic.
The Painting Woman shook her head, then reached out to catch the rain, signaling that it was getting lighter.
Xu Huo also noticed that as soon as the item left the depression, the rainfall decreased. The water droplets flowing backward into the air from the depression also rapidly diminished, but the rain was still Black Rain.
He handed the item back to the Painting Woman and had her take it back under the depression.
Logically, an item was safest when carried by a player, because the ticket could maximize the player's safety. But those players had placed the item inside a xenomorph's stomach.
This indicated two things. First, for this high-level item to work, it needed to be close to a large exposed water source. Second, even if their identities were exposed, they couldn't retrieve the item.
The latter had multiple possibilities. Perhaps the item had usage restrictions and couldn't be recalled under certain circumstances, but this was less likely. Another possibility was that the player holding this high-level item wasn't here.
The other players had gone to Wenshan. The player left to guard and wake the xenomorphs wasn't the item holder. In Xu Huo's view, to protect the item, the holder should have stayed at the depression, or even hidden underwater. Why hadn't they done that, instead choosing to have the xenomorphs carry the item?
Xu Huo's first thought was the item's restriction conditions. But it couldn't be so harsh that the holder couldn't even get close to the item. After the xenomorphs woke up, they were quickly drawn away. The signal must have been pre-arranged. The xenomorphs waking and heading to Jing City was also part of the plan. With headquarters in chaos and xenomorphs everywhere, it wouldn't be strange for the item holder to be mixed in. But using xenomorphs to carry the item was too careless, which was puzzling.
(Chapter End)