Chapter 752: This Beast Is Not That Beast
The sky quickly brightened. After resting for an hour, the group began the second round of attracting the monster.
This time, they first placed the sound prop on the eighth floor. Peng Fengnian and Lin Zhenhuai each took one end—one observing the rooms along the corridor from the end, the other waiting at the stairwell entrance.
The others scattered and hid in different rooms, with two more on the tenth and sixth floors respectively.
After Miss Gao activated the prop, rhythmic "thump thump" knocking sounds echoed through the hallway. Within just a few seconds, a beastly roar came from downstairs!
"How is that possible!"
The faces of those present shifted. The monster had first disappeared on the eighth floor. If there was a passage on the eighth floor or nearby, it should have appeared around there. How could it be below? From the sound, it seemed to be between the third and fourth floors!
Xu Huo was the first to react. He grabbed the string and jumped down, flipping in through a fifth-floor window. By the time he rushed out of the room, he only caught a glimpse of a shadow darting through the stairwell. But that single moment was enough for him to see the monster's appearance—the burned fur seemed to have grown back, the skin that had been electrocuted had fully recovered, not to mention the external injuries.
He didn't chase the monster upward but went down to the fourth floor, opening his spiritual realm to search for possible spatial passages. However, before he could get halfway through, Lin Zhenhuai also came down from above, holding the prop that could detect spatial fluctuations.
Based on the traces left on the ground, Xu Huo had already checked the most likely spot where the monster had emerged. Before Lin Zhenhuai arrived, he closed his spiritual realm.
Lin Zhenhuai found him and frowned, saying, "Strange. The space seemed to ripple just now."
"Where?" Xu Huo asked.
"Right around here." Lin Zhenhuai raised the prop, which resembled a metal detector, adjusting its direction. "Now it's disappeared again."
Xu Huo's heart sank. He hadn't found anything when he came down, so what the prop had sensed was most likely his own spiritual space. In other words, even if a real spatial passage existed, the monster's appearance was only a fleeting moment—not enough time for them to react.
After searching fruitlessly, Lin Zhenhuai looked at him. "Let's go back up and help."
Xu Huo nodded, and the two returned to the eighth floor.
The monster had already torn through several rooms. Yu Guangnan and Gao Xiaoyue had sustained minor injuries. Xiao Ling's toy car had been directly stomped flat, nearly costing her life, but fortunately, Sun Bo had pulled her aside in time.
However, the monster, after its brief rest, seemed to have fully recovered. Its combat style was even more brutal than before. Regardless of what was in front of it—walls, doors, or anything in the room—it destroyed everything without a second thought!
"The difference between us resting for an hour and it resting for an hour is way too big!" Peng Fengnian shouted.
"This isn't the same beast!" Xu Huo tossed aside the remote control in his hand, placed "Hurt Others Not Self" over the doorframe, and nodded at Lin Zhenhuai.
Lin Zhenhuai understood. He threw a heavy punch from a distance at the monster's side face, then ran toward Xu Huo's direction.
The monster, which had just been chasing Xiao Ling and Sun Bo, immediately turned around. Lin Zhenhuai rushed to Xu Huo, sliding backward under the "Hurt Others Not Self," while Xu Huo stepped back, his fingers twitching. The string-like prop instantly turned into a blade—he didn't need to exert force; if the monster put in a bit more effort, it would cut itself in half!
Just as everyone prepared to see it decapitated, the rampaging monster suddenly slammed on the brakes in front of the blade. Its eyes darted to the side, and it clawed through the wall. The taut string instantly went slack, and the monster seized the opportunity to lunge at Xu Huo, who was nearby!
"Ding!" The sound of the lighter rang out again. As Xu Huo retreated, flames erupted on the monster's body. Then an electric net covered it, and several needles shot through the gaps in the net, piercing its body.
Whether it was immune to poison and anesthetics or not, the monster's rear end was nearly turned into a pincushion, yet it still struggled violently within the electric net. It stumbled into the adjacent room, charged headfirst into the bathroom, and then the sound of water flowed—it had torn open the bathroom's water pipe!
A torrent of water surged from the bathroom into the room. The monster, having broken free from the electric net and extinguished the flames, emerged from behind the door, glaring menacingly at all the players surrounding the room!
"Not good... run!" Before Lin Zhenhuai could finish, the monster smashed through the wall beside it. The debris and brick fragments it ripped out shot everywhere like bullets, with larger pieces even capable of punching through a wall!
"Quick, hide in the room!" Peng Fengnian managed to open an intact room, but before he could step inside, the monster burst through the wall from the side, shaking off dust and debris as it pounced on him!
A thin line pierced his back, and with a tug, he was yanked away from the doorway!
Turning to see the line in Xu Huo's hand, Peng Fengnian quickly thanked him. Xu Huo accelerated to the front of the group, set him down, and said, "Didn't you see that thing's hungry? Worry about escaping first!"
With that, he leaped out the window, hovering in midair as he called to the others, "If you can get out, meet at the usual place."
He vanished from the window, but the other players weren't so lucky. D-level players weren't slow, but the monster was faster, especially since every time it moved, it could tear down large sections of walls. The group dodged and weaved, barely escaping with their lives.
"What the hell, why are you running over here?!" Xiao Ling had already retreated into a room, but when she turned around, Gao Xiaoyue had lured the monster her way!
"Don't blame me, I had nowhere else to go!" Gao Xiaoyue leaped from the center of the room, briefly standing upside down on the ceiling before diving out the window like a swimmer, leaving Xiao Ling alone to face the monster.
Even if she jumped out now, she'd become the monster's primary target. One-on-one in an open space offered even less chance of victory. Xiao Ling glanced around, and her climbing rope shot toward Sun Bo, who was just about to leap out another window!
Sun Bo had one foot on the windowsill when the rope yanked him back. This prop rope exerted force from the center, pulling both ends inward, so he and Xiao Ling drew closer together—and naturally, closer to the monster.
"Attention-Grabbing Flying Knife!" Peng Fengnian arrived behind Xiao Ling at that moment, throwing a finger-length dagger at the monster. He had only tried it as a last resort, but surprisingly, the monster's attention was diverted. He quickly turned and shouted to Sun Bo and Xiao Ling, "Hurry up..."
But before he could finish, a gust of foul wind descended over him. At such close range, Peng Fengnian had no time to escape. Fortunately, Lin Zhenhuai acted in time, placing a flying shield firmly in front of him. It not only blocked the monster's claw but, after absorbing the force and rebounding, directly knocked the monster back into the room it had just come from!
Now's the chance!