Chapter 660: Free Cross-Border
Yan Jiayu expressed her regret with great emotion before hanging up the phone.
Xu Huo rested for the night and set out the next day for the southern border, where he met Zheng Liang's friend to rendezvous with several people who wanted to leave the country.
Since the gamification began, very few people actually wanted to leave, because compared to other countries, X Country was still relatively peaceful. Especially since the return tickets obtained after each instance were usually tied to the player's permanent residence before entering the game. Unless they didn't plan to return to Zone 014, it wasn't worth the effort to go to another country.
The number of people had increased in recent days entirely due to the incident at the Special Defense Department headquarters. Not only ordinary citizens but even players within the country had become xenophobic.
Ordinary people could still be controlled, but players truly couldn't be restrained. Small conflicts often escalated into irreparable fights. Of course, X Country players living abroad were also having a hard time. At least before the headquarters incident, there hadn't been such strong hostility toward foreign players within X Country.
Under these circumstances, some people wanted to leave through the border, mostly foreigners.
When Xu Huo arrived with Li Chun, the others who were also leaving were somewhat surprised but didn't actively strike up a conversation, instead keeping their distance.
"Brother Sun is here." One of them spotted a man emerging from the woods and immediately waved at him.
This area was close to the border, and people patrolled nearby from time to time. They were all hiding in the grass. The man called Brother Sun had arrived five minutes ago, repeatedly confirmed the surrounding situation before coming out, and signaled everyone to crouch low.
Brother Sun came over and squatted down as well, using a prop before speaking. "Everyone's here. Did you bring the money?"
The few players immediately took out their White Notes. After verifying their authenticity, Brother Sun handed them a white card. On the front of the card was a three-minute clock. "Later, take this card and just walk straight across. But you need to remember two things: first, don't make any noise yourselves; second, the effect only lasts three minutes."
"Can this guarantee a hundred percent success?" Another younger player flipped the card over, expressing doubt.
"If you don't want to trade, you can cancel." Brother Sun reached out to take the card back, and the young player quickly put it away. "I was just joking."
"This is my trait, called Free Cross-Border." Brother Sun added, "It can give you a lucky crossing within a certain time. As long as you don't mess it up yourself, you'll all succeed. I've sent over a dozen people across, and not one has had an accident."
"That's right," the player who had greeted Brother Sun first, clearly an X Country native, rubbed his bald head and said obligingly, "If the Special Defense Department had really found out, would this route still exist now?"
Brother Sun snorted. "You'll definitely get across, but what happens after you cross is none of my business. If you get caught by the people on the other side, that's your own bad luck."
"You make money so easily." Li Chun took out her hand and typed a line. "Just handing out one card per person. That card is so useful, can you give me another one?"
Brother Sun was initially very displeased, but after seeing the Painting Woman's face, his anger subsided slightly. "The trait has a range limit. I have to send you all across before I can leave. Understand? I can't leave during these three minutes either, and I'm taking a risk too. Our country's Special Defense Department is highly efficient. I have to change locations after each job."
Seeing that he wouldn't give her another, the Painting Woman pouted and let it go.
The border was overgrown with weeds, and with the strong wind, crouching low made it hard to be spotted. But with only three minutes to cross, they had to run.
A total of six players lined up to leave, with Xu Huo and the Painting Woman at the back. Just before they left, Brother Sun secretly slipped the Painting Woman a blue card and made a shushing gesture at her.
The blue card had a four-minute clock. The Painting Woman beamed and blew him a kiss before chasing after Xu Huo into the grass.
After they all left, the cards began their countdown from three minutes.
Even with the card's guarantee, the players still used every trick they knew—silencing, speeding up, or hiding their forms—to ensure a safer crossing.
The fences on the border had been reinforced and heightened, and two additional layers had been installed, equipped with special sensing and monitoring systems. This meant that no matter how well they hid, as long as they were alive, they would be detected by the monitors from a long distance away.
If the alarm was triggered, the poison gas devices on the fences would activate automatically first, and then Special Defense Department players would arrive within ten seconds.
In such a short time, safely passing through three fences wasn't guaranteed. And even if they succeeded, the arriving Special Defense Department players could cross the border to enforce the law—the borders between countries weren't stable now, and conflicts occurred from time to time. As long as it was just chasing players, to avoid escalating the situation, everyone turned a blind eye.
So even if they ran out, the Special Defense Department players might still catch them and bring them back.
To get across, they had to successfully climb over without triggering the alarm. Once across, whether the neighboring country would take action was no longer X Country's concern.
Brother Sun's card served this purpose.
The group approached the first fence. After confirming that the alarm hadn't been triggered, they began to climb over.
The young player directly used a prop to dig a large hole under the fence, taking less than three seconds. Jumping in and climbing out allowed them to pass through the fence without attracting attention.
The six went down one by one, crouching in the grass as they moved toward the second fence. Whenever a searchlight swept past, they paused and waited for the light to pass before moving again.
But just as they were about to approach the second fence, Xu Huo caught sight of a moving device on top of the fence sliding toward them from a distance.
"That's a mobile electronic eye, controlled by a player. Dig a hole!" the bald player urged the young player anxiously. "Hiding underground makes it harder to be detected!"
The young player immediately got to work. Once the hole was dug, all six jumped in, pulled some grass over their heads to cover themselves, and waited quietly for the electronic eye to pass.
"Zzzz..." The device made a faint sound. When they felt the sound stop near them, everyone involuntarily tensed up. But a few seconds later, the electronic eye slid away again.
"That was close..." The bald player let out a long breath and turned to the others. "Looks like we're pretty lucky."
"Can we go now?" A burly man looked at the card in his hand. "Time is running out."
"Wait a little longer." The young player peered out. "We can still be spotted at this distance."
But his words didn't carry much weight. After a few more seconds, the burly man led the way out, followed closely by another foreign player.
The young player shrugged helplessly. "There's an X Country saying: 'Haste makes waste.' It wouldn't hurt to wait another ten seconds or so."
"Shut up! Move it!"
(Chapter End)