Chapter 740: Reduction in Numbers
Xu Huo didn't linger long before continuing forward, because people were catching up from behind.
Putting on an invisibility cloak item, he grabbed the strings and moved ahead.
The invisibility cloak couldn't completely conceal his tracks and wasn't very reliable either. He paused briefly up ahead, and when someone showed their face, he released the "Poster of Painful Reform," watching that ugly face crawl along the stone wall toward the players chasing him before speeding away.
The later arrivals discovered his boat. One of them said, "The boat's here, but where did he go?"
"Players have plenty of tricks. He might have noticed us following and abandoned the boat to leave on foot," another said. "Anyway, this Styx only has one path. He has no choice but to go forward—he can't escape."
The group exchanged a few brief words and continued along the waterway. However, as they rounded a bend, the player at the very back drew his sword and slashed backward. "Skulking around like that—come out!"
The player next to him was holding something like a game console. This person said, "There's no one near us."
"Impossible!" the attacking player insisted. "There's definitely someone!"
It was common for item effects to block other item effects. The player at the bow of the boat tossed something like a pebble into the water, and immediately several thin water jets shot up from the channel, splashing several meters high before falling back into the water.
"My item only attacks living beings. No target means no one's nearby," the bow player said. "Could you be mistaking the venue's entertainment effects for a person?"
After failing to find anyone twice in a row, this player began to doubt himself. He hesitated and said, "Maybe I really did see wrong."
The boat continued forward. The group passed through the tombstone area in silence. At the next turn, the players who had been facing forward all turned around at once and indeed saw a shadow flash past the stern!
"There really is someone!" The two players at the back immediately gave chase.
There weren't many of them to begin with. Xu Huo had killed two earlier, two had just left, and now three remained.
In the game, it was best not to be alone. The three of them stopped the boat in the middle of the waterway and were about to turn back when the boat was suddenly flipped over by a powerful force. Several figures leaped out of the water. One of them, with his head wrapped up, lunged ferociously at the nearest player, roaring, "Bullying the few with the many! Here you come again!"
The player sneered upon seeing him, pressed something on his chest, and a large donut-shaped barrier popped up in front of him. Long Aotian was sent flying back a couple of meters, but he grabbed onto the stone wall to stop his momentum and swung his blade back!
The player was prepared and used a defensive item to block the strike. However, while he protected his front, he didn't watch his back. Xiao Ling used a toy car to knock another player aside, then turned and threw a non-discriminate short arrow. The arrow ricocheted back and forth in the narrow waterway, its trajectory unpredictable and thus impossible to preemptively defend against. In chaotic fights, this kind of item often had unexpected effects.
The player fighting Long Aotian, while his companion dodged the arrow, was pierced through the chest by it. Immediately afterward, a mechanism activated, tearing open his stomach!
Unpleasant things spilled from the wound. The player tried to hold them in with one hand, but Long Aotian wouldn't miss such an opportunity. He stepped in with a finishing blow and kicked the body into the water.
One dead. Of the remaining two, one was a puppet. The player controlling it used it to block Xiao Ling's blade while he himself climbed the stone wall like a gecko, crawling along the ceiling toward the entrance of the Styx.
A thin thread shot up after him, piercing the stone wall and tearing down large chunks of rock like ripping cloth. The escaping player lost his grip, flipped over, and fell. Yu Guangnan, who had been running across the water's surface, blocked him and landed a punch to his chest and abdomen.
Yu Guangnan was wearing a special pair of gloves. When he struck, the explosive force from the back of his hand even shattered the clothes on the player's body. As the cracking sound of breaking bones was heard, the player was sent flying several meters before splashing into the water.
Long Aotian could no longer hold back. He flipped his knife, and a cold gleam cut through the water, heading straight for the man. However, the opponent reacted quickly, turning in the water to dodge, then scrambling forward in a desperate escape.
Long Aotian wanted to chase, but the man hadn't run more than a few meters before he suddenly sank underwater, as if something had dragged him down!
Yu Guangnan's trait item was related to water, which was how the three of them had managed to hide underwater and wait for an opportunity. When they had gone down earlier, aside from some bones, they hadn't found anything else.
But to be safe, the three exchanged glances and returned to the boat.
There was no movement underwater for a long time. Just as they suspected the man had escaped, blood mixed with chunks of flesh surged up.
Yu Guangnan poked at it with a stick. "Looks like bites from a large predator. Could there be crocodiles in this water?"
"Crocodiles would have sensed us nearby," Xiao Ling frowned. "Never mind. Let's go."
The three continued toward the Styx entrance. Not far ahead, they encountered another corpse. Long Aotian said, "They were from the same group. Six people, and now only one is left."
"They were chasing someone in. There must be another player ahead. The one who tried to turn back was killed, and someone else came down from behind," Xiao Ling analyzed.
"Be careful," Yu Guangnan warned.
They traveled a bit further along the waterway. When they turned again, they happened to see the last remaining player stumbling against the stone wall—it looked like he was hanging in midair, or perhaps trying to flee.
The light in the waterway was too dim. Yu Guangnan could barely make out the man's shadow and his erratic movements. By the time he used a lighting item, the man had already fallen stiffly into the water as a corpse. At the same time, a ghostly shadow flashed past the corner of the stone wall.
"What was that thing? With an appearance like that, it can't be a living person, right?" Long Aotian had seen it too. "Could it be a venue prop?"
Having gone through the Wax Museum and the Doll Uprising, anything moving in this Natural History Museum wouldn't surprise them anymore. The key was how dangerous it was.
"Maybe it's another player's item."
But since they had come this far, there was no turning back. Just as the three were about to continue, a writhing ribbon of light suddenly swam through the waterway. Before they could react, their small boat was rapidly sucked toward it. Yu Guangnan's nostrils flared, and his expression changed instantly. "It's those people from last night."
Compared to the previous group, the players who had ambushed them last night were the real threats. The only reason they had retreated was because the player fighting Xu Huo had sent a signal.
"Go!" Xiao Ling quickly turned around and attached a small propeller-like item to the stern of the boat. A burst of force sent the boat speeding back, but the winding waterway made the item hard to control, forcing them to use it intermittently.
"There's no way forward either. Aren't we trapped underground?" Long Aotian said.