Chapter 835: Teleportation Safe House
After flipping through an ordinary magazine, Xu Huo had nothing else to do. He tried opening the door, but the lock wouldn't budge. Without attempting to break through the safe house, he paced around a couple of times before returning inside.
Half an hour later, the safe house door opened automatically.
Sounds came from outside, but the overall environment was different from District 011. His expression shifted slightly as he immediately pushed the door open, only to find himself standing in a desolate, abandoned city. Beneath his feet were slippery moss, and as far as the eye could see, there were claw marks left by large beasts.
"Roar!" The sound of a beast came from not far away. Xu Huo turned around and saw a player standing on top of a giant mutant beast that had been knocked over, blasting open its throat with a single shot!
Blood and flesh splattered everywhere, but the player bent down directly, reached into the mutant's chest cavity, and pulled out a fluorescent stone. At the same time, several players controlling flying vehicles rapidly approached from behind, chased by a large group of mutants. They picked him up and zoomed past Xu Huo's head in an instant!
The safe house behind Xu Huo had already disappeared, but to his right, dust and smoke billowed. Those mutant animals had completely lost any trace of their original species. Their bodies were massive yet incredibly agile, capable of running fast and climbing over obstacles. Some were exceptionally large, covered in thick armor, charging straight through everything!
Seeing a mutant horde, Xu Huo didn't hesitate—he turned and ran.
Within a hundred meters, he activated his speed directly, but even this pace was becoming strenuous here. He had to maintain distance while killing mutants from afar.
However, these grotesque mutants would ambush him from various spots in the abandoned buildings, lunging out unexpectedly. Although Xu Huo could sense them through space, they still slowed him down.
Detouring around a hollow street, Xu Huo had just passed through when several tentacle-like things burst up from the ground, lashing out in all directions. Whatever they touched, they grabbed and dragged back. A player driving a flying vehicle and several mutants were pulled down!
That player must have used a ticket to escape, disappearing as soon as they reached the underground. The mutants, however, became food. Accompanied by loud chewing sounds, only some blood splattered outside.
With a whistling sound, a thin chain flew down from above, wrapping around Xu Huo's waist and pulling him into the air. Just as mutants leaped out from both sides, Xu Huo didn't resist. Instead, he used the momentum to rise, grabbing the chain and soaring upward.
The one who pulled him up was the same player who had killed the mutant earlier. She tossed out a flying vehicle, jumped onto it from behind her companion, and lagged a few steps behind, signaling Xu Huo to get on. She asked, "What's your name? Did you notice the underground man-eating flower earlier?"
Xu Huo didn't answer her question but asked instead, "Where is this place?"
The female player was a bit surprised. "Don't you check the address before using a ticket? This is District 004... But how did you end up here? The mutant-active zone doesn't have instances..."
Great. Without using a ticket, half an hour had sent him to District 004.
"Qing Cai, don't talk too much." A companion beside her warned the female player, but she shrugged it off. "A guest from afar deserves hospitality... Qing Cai is my name. What's yours?"
The last sentence was directed at Xu Huo. Just as he was about to answer, a wave of darkness surged from ahead. Before he could react, he and Qing Cai were both slammed into the safe house. Neither had time to defend themselves, and they crashed against the wall panels. Xu Huo was fine, but Qing Cai's flying vehicle rammed into her sternum, followed by two crisp sounds of breaking bones.
"Are you okay?" Xu Huo didn't rush to help her up but asked first.
Qing Cai looked at him warily. "What happened?"
"I don't know," Xu Huo said. "I was inexplicably sent here, and now I've been inexplicably pulled back."
Qing Cai studied him for two seconds, then relaxed. "Fine, I'll trust you. Since I'm already injured, can this room be opened?"
Xu Huo tried the door again—still no luck.
"Then this is probably a space teleportation item," Qing Cai said. "But directional teleportation space items are usually expensive or single-use consumables. This one might be random."
"Still, I've never heard of something that sends you out and then pulls you back in. Amazing!"
Holding her chest, Qing Cai walked to the table and flipped through the magazine. "This is a magazine published in District 004. The exit of this room probably corresponds to District 004. District 004 is famous for gems... This is last year's magazine."
Xu Huo pinched the bridge of his nose. What he cared about now was whether he could get back to District 011.
Over half an hour had passed. Jin Feixue and the base were probably wrapping things up.
The injured Qing Cai, on the other hand, was quite carefree. "Take things as they come. As long as the item's owner doesn't want to kill us, no matter which district we're thrown into, we'll survive. By the way, which district are you from?"
"District 011," Xu Huo replied, noticing her expression shift dramatically. "What's wrong with District 011?"
"Are you a local from District 011?" Qing Cai asked with a dark face.
Xu Huo paused. "With an attitude like that, even if I were, I'd say I'm not."
"Then you're not." Qing Cai sat down before continuing. "Haven't you heard about the reputation of District 011 players outside? Here in District 004, we call them locusts."
"No matter which district they go to, they travel in swarms. If they can beat you, they rob you blind, not even leaving you a pair of underwear. If they can't, they buy you out—sometimes buying up half a district's supplies."
"Just a few days ago, I heard they nearly destroyed a small district. They dug up the outer wall used to build the safe zone for some kind of ore, causing several cities to be wiped out by mutants in less than a night."
"District 011 is recently celebrating a harvest festival," Xu Huo noted. "What kind of ore is so precious that they'd strip the stones used for walls?"
"It's not a particularly rare ore, just high in hardness," Qing Cai said. "But District 011 players are that ruthless, which is why they're called locusts."
She missed the point. If it were just ordinary ore, District 011 wouldn't be celebrating so grandly. Scavenging a bit of resources doesn't count as a harvest.
There are many precious ores in the game, some used as materials for crafting items and weapons. Could the chaos in District 011 be related to ore?
But then why was the base involved?
Or were these two events purely coincidental?
Seeing that they wouldn't be leaving anytime soon, Qing Cai drank a self-healing agent and then took out the green gem she had just obtained to admire it. "This kind of gem is the best among subclass stones. With this, the trip wasn't a waste!"
Xu Huo glanced at the green translucent gem, nearly the size of a human head. "What are subclass stones?"
"Evolution stones," Qing Cai said. "Simply put, they're stones that have been permeated by a certain substance, changing their properties in a short time. If you're lucky, you might even find one or two subclass stones that can be used to craft items."
(End of Chapter)