Chapter 838: The Eerie Sound Knights and the Holy Sword Society
"Where are you right now?" Xu Huo immediately asked.
"Let me check..." Wan Tingfang's voice drifted for a moment before she continued, "Head toward the Yongxing Hotel."
She gave him an address and reminded Xu Huo to avoid the severely weathered blocks.
Xu Huo ended the communication and confirmed with Mr. Dong that the Painting Woman had taken Xiao Yuan back before heading toward the place Wan Tingfang had mentioned. He also left a message for Shi Youzhi along the way.
When he arrived, he found only Wan Tingfang still there.
"Director Sanyang went inside that place." Wan Tingfang raised a prop telescope to observe the dark space. "No good, I can't see anything."
Xu Huo expressed that he couldn't help and asked, "What's the situation at the base?"
Wan Tingfang shrugged. "Who knows? It's pitch black and nothing's clear. I can't tell who's fighting whom, but I figure the people in the base will definitely hide in the station."
"I just checked—apparently the Holy Sword Society attacked quite a few places in District 011," Xu Huo said. "This should be the work of their high-level players. I don't know what they're trying to accomplish, but if this darkness can kill people, the casualty count will be huge."
"Not necessarily," Wan Tingfang said. "Didn't we walk out safely? And I circled around inside a few times—it didn't seem dangerous, just couldn't see or hear anything."
"They're probably being held back by the District 011 players," Xu Huo said, pulling up news from his contacts. "Look at this, just uploaded. The Holy Sword Society is massacring ordinary people."
Wan Tingfang quickly scrolled through the news. Aside from pages full of insults against the Holy Sword Society, there was no more valuable information. She shook her head. "Could be other players too. There are plenty of people taking advantage of the chaos. If you ask me, it's definitely the Eerie Sound Knights. Didn't they come to avenge their comrades? If they can't beat the District 011 players, they take it out on ordinary people."
"Do you think the Eerie Sound Knights might be cooperating with the Holy Sword Society?" Xu Huo added. "It's like the two sides agreed on this."
Wan Tingfang paused. "I've never heard of that... Don't the Eerie Sound Knights usually operate alone?"
"How long has Director Sanyang been inside?" Xu Huo changed the subject.
Before Wan Tingfang could answer, she suddenly stared into the distance, eyes wide. "Look!"
Xu Huo turned around and saw something like ash floating up from the distant part of the city—the severely weathered buildings seemed to have completely decayed, fragile as paper, gradually dissolving in the direction of the wind.
"What kind of prop is that? Does it work on people?" Wan Tingfang's voice was tense.
Xu Huo had spent nearly an hour in the safe house and didn't know what had happened in between, so he asked, "Where did the city's residents go?"
"They've already been evacuated," Wan Tingfang said while searching for a place to hide. "Most buildings in District 011 have emergency evacuation devices inside. A few trips back and forth and they loaded everyone up. The bodies you see on the streets are either people wandering around outside or poor folks without identities... Let's find somewhere to hide!"
The metal used in District 011's buildings wasn't ordinary. If this power could corrode even metal, it might also damage props. Moreover, this was different from the effect of the "Life Core"—it was very likely a time-space prop.
If it really was a time-space prop, this accelerated weathering effect could also work on people.
"Hiding anywhere isn't reliable." Xu Huo estimated the distance left and right and the speed of the weathering ahead, then moved left. "Head right, avoid the weathering zone."
"Flying vehicles can't be used," Wan Tingfang added. "All machinery in the city has been affected."
Xu Huo landed first and moved toward the left side of the city at maximum speed. Wan Tingfang was slightly faster and walked ahead of him.
Just as they were about to escape the weathering zone, two people unexpectedly rushed out of the dark area one after the other. The one in front wore a hat and mask, with a sword-shaped badge pinned to his chest—he should be from the Holy Sword Society. The one behind was a Black Epaulet. The two fought right in front of Xu Huo and Wan Tingfang. Suddenly, the masked player threw out a toy door. The thing landed in the middle of the road, and both the Black Epaulet chasing him and Xu Huo's group involuntarily stopped in front of the door!
It was only three inches tall, but none of the three could step over it. An invisible barrier appeared in the air with the small door as the boundary, and even prop attacks were ineffective!
"This door was opened by me!" Ran Ying's voice came from behind. A plastic key was thrown to the ground, and the toy door immediately opened automatically.
Once the door opened, the barrier in the air disappeared. Xu Huo accelerated and completely left the range the weathering might affect within a few seconds. But when he turned around, he was trapped by the masked player using a transparent sphere.
Also trapped were Ran Ying and Wan Tingfang—all three of them were locked inside such spheres. Their feet were isolated from the ground, and with the slightest movement, the sphere would roll rapidly as if frictionless.
The rapidly spinning spheres were hard to control. Touching other objects would increase their rotation speed. However, breaking this prop wasn't difficult. The moment it started rolling, Xu Huo pulled out the "Crimson Sword," slashed the sphere open in one strike, then reached out to grab the "String" to counteract the inertial force before flying into the air.
Ran Ying and the other two also escaped one after another, but unexpectedly, the masked player had also sealed himself in a sphere and was stomping it into high-speed rolling.
"Stop him!" Ran Ying and the other Black Epaulet immediately split to both sides. Just as they were about to use their props, the masked player bounced the sphere again—it was a bounce, not a jump. The sphere flew into the air as if hitting something, then quickly slammed back toward the ground, though the direction was hard to predict.
Xu Huo couldn't get far either, because he was also trapped within the sphere's range of activity.
Coming down from midair, the masked player had already reached very high speed after several bounces.
"The Grudge of the Banana Peel!" That Black Epaulet threw a piece of paper onto the ground. The paper with a banana pattern automatically chased the direction where the sphere landed, but the masked player, controlling the sphere to change direction, dodged it.
"Share and share alike!" Ran Ying observed the sphere's movement trajectory and stood near the edge. When the sphere landed near her again, she used a prop. The next second, the rebounding sphere was intercepted mid-path—again by an invisible barrier, but judging from the trajectory, the sphere's movement space was split in half from the middle.
With the range reduced, Ran Ying could catch up to the sphere's speed. After several close approaches, the masked player failed to dodge the banana paper on the ground in time and slid across the ground, crashing into a nearby car.
The other Black Epaulet was waiting for this opportunity. He placed one hand on the car body, and the metal vehicle melted like mud, wrapping around the masked player!