Chapter 664: Utter Disregard for Their Lives
Xu Huo successively used two B-grade items, four C-grade items, and one special item.
"Moving Metal," "Extreme Fatigue," and "Progress Bar Disappearance" served as foundational defense. Then he used "Important Phone Call" and "Danger Makes People Blind" to control one of the opponent's hands and both eyes, supplemented by "Crimson Sword," and finally stacked "Happy Invisibility" to blend in with the surrounding environment.
His true goal was not to kill the player before him—if he saw an opportunity to escape, he would certainly run. Of course, Nyx was not so easy to kill either, because before the electric light had even faded, the opponent had used multiple items in a very short time.
First, Xu Huo felt a momentary dizziness, then a random item he was wearing dropped off. Next, his legs felt weak and unable to walk, and immediately after, the plaza floor tiles automatically fused into sharp cones two to three meters long, stabbing diagonally toward him!
"Clang! Clang!" The flying metal blocked two of the long spikes. After the effect of the opponent's items shortened, Xu Huo quickly escaped from his position. Taking advantage of the Painting Woman's entanglement with Nyx, he swiftly ran toward a store near the plaza.
The "Similarity Detector" indicated that many players were approaching the area and would all arrive at the plaza within ten seconds. He glanced at the store's cashier, then walked straight into the back break room and closed the door.
Footsteps hurried past outside. Xu Huo released his Spiritual Realm, pulling the narrow break room and the warehouse together. He opened a door in the break room, stepped into the warehouse, smashed the light switch, and pulled out the electrical wires inside.
At that moment, a large number of players arrived at the plaza. Seeing Nyx and the Painting Woman locked in combat, they immediately activated their items and traits. However, due to the sheer number of people, collisions were inevitable. Even Nyx, who was in the thick of it, was affected. He glanced again at the Painting Woman, who was completely unaffected by the items, then retreated and said, "Use weapons!"
The players quickly split into two groups: one to surround and capture the Painting Woman, and the other to surround the store. Because there were many people inside and outside the store, these players didn't dare to blow up the building directly. Instead, they chose to send people to break into the shop.
Guided by the cashier, the players surged into the break room, but it was empty.
"Did he escape?" They then went to the adjacent warehouse, but found nothing there either.
"Boom!" An especially piercing loud noise came from the plaza outside. The group of players immediately rushed out and saw the Painting Woman lifting a huge stone ball created by a player's item into the air, then smashing it like a billiard ball toward the nearby stores!
Chaos quickly erupted. The crowd pushed and shoved against the players, and the Painting Woman only needed to float in the air for most players to be helpless against her.
"Bring her down!" Nyx grabbed a submachine gun from his subordinate and fired into the air.
This tactic had little effect on the Painting Woman, but she disliked being hit by bullets, so she voluntarily flew away from the plaza, heading toward a nearby glittering high-rise building.
"Sssss!" Just then, a large net suddenly flashed in the air. The Painting Woman crashed into it, and with a flash of abnormally colored electric current, she fell straight down.
"Got her!" Several players were stationed nearby. Before she hit the ground, they rushed forward one after another, armed with tranquilizer guns and electric nets, while someone in the distance used a sniper rifle.
The Painting Woman, falling headfirst, used her downward momentum to dodge a sniper bullet. She closed her eyes, pretending to be unconscious. When she got close to those players, she suddenly opened her eyes. Small sword-shaped paper cuts flew out from her sleeves, cleanly severing the throats of several people.
"Why..." one of them clutched his throat, unable to form a coherent sentence.
He probably wanted to ask why their items had no effect on the Painting Woman. Even if she used items to circumvent them, she shouldn't have been completely unaffected.
The Painting Woman had no interest in the dead. Seeing more players rushing over ahead, she giggled and ran into the nearby building.
There were quite a few people in the building, and they hadn't had time to evacuate. Once inside, the players simply fired their guns and ordered everyone to get down.
Most people complied, leaving only a few crying children standing in place, and some hiding in corners with their heads in their hands.
The players searched the area without results, then used items to check again. They found that aside from themselves, there were no other players in the building!
"Damn it! She got away just like that!"
A team was furious at failing to catch the culprit. Just then, a little girl pointed at the ceiling and said, "There's dust up there!"
Everyone turned around and saw a huge crystal chandelier shedding dust. A player with sharp eyes noticed that the metal on its base was powdering. He immediately shouted and lunged forward to pull the people under the chandelier away.
"Fall back! Fall back!" News of the previous safe zone's destruction hadn't spread here so quickly. The players didn't fully understand the situation, but to minimize casualties, they began evacuating everyone outside.
However, when they got out, they found that the players who had arrived had all joined the evacuation effort. Someone shouted, "The intruder has the ability to powder all the metal in a city! Everyone stay away from the buildings!"
Amid these shouts, objects around them were constantly powdering, and buildings were collapsing. Looking around, the safe zone was already shrouded in a cloud of dust.
This safe zone was finished!
Without metal supports, all the buildings in this city would become dangerous structures. Fortunately, this safe zone hadn't moved in that many people yet, so many buildings wouldn't collapse immediately, buying at least some time for evacuation.
But when rescue convoys began arriving from all directions, the underground structures, lacking metal support, suffered multiple collapses. This accelerated the collapse of surrounding buildings, with one building toppling another in a continuous chain of tragedy.
"Everyone out of the vehicles!" government personnel issued orders. But in this situation, even players were powerless—what could ordinary people change?
"Another safe zone destroyed." Nyx entered the empty store. But when he stood outside the break room door, the aura emanating from within instinctively made him stop. He sensed that Xu Huo hadn't left, so he asked, "Why did you do this? So many innocent people died tragically. They were also someone's parents, siblings, and children. Becoming ordinary people in the player era is already tragic enough. Can you truly have no compassion?"
"Ordinary people are not inherently tragic. Compared to players, they are indeed weaker, but players are finite, while ordinary people are infinite. Otherwise, who made those high-lethality weapons in the game?" Xu Huo's voice came from behind the door, seeming to come from left and right, elusive and unfixed.
"The tragedy of ordinary people is that they have to pay for the mistakes of their own country's government and players."
"You seem to sympathize with others, yet you show utter disregard for their lives."
(Chapter End)