Chapter 854: There's More to Come
In that moment of passing, the middle-aged woman had already collected all the items from the desk. She began to clash with the Black Epaulets who arrived shortly after. Xu Huo retreated to the outer edge of the fight, occasionally providing support.
The Black Epaulets reacted quickly. Two groups arrived in rapid succession after the signal was sent out. However, the now-exposed middle-aged woman did not immediately leave District 011. Instead, she chose to engage the Black Epaulets in a prolonged struggle.
The commotion soon attracted several Black Epaulet team leaders, including the pair of robots that had been following Ran Ying.
The Black Epaulets deployed jamming devices targeting specific items, which could disable some props. This imposed restrictions on both sides, but the Black Epaulets had battle strategies and handled the situation with ease. The middle-aged woman, on the other hand, found herself constantly hampered.
Soon, however, several more players appeared from different directions, successively destroying two jamming devices and opening a gap in the encirclement. Together with the middle-aged woman, they rushed toward the courthouse building.
Xu Huo broke away from the Black Epaulet ranks, shed his disguise, and assumed a new face to blend into the crowd. Moving with the flow of people, he observed the courthouse building's movements from a distance.
The trial had likely been suspended the moment he escaped the building. Now, the entire interior of the structure was filled with something resembling black smoke. Based on the reports exchanged among the Black Epaulets from afar, the black smoke blocked visibility between the inside and outside. Low-level Black Epaulets had been ordered not to enter the building, and news of a prisoner's escape had also leaked.
Xu Huo confirmed that the other party had obtained the ticket. But if they had the ticket and still hadn't left, with other Holy Sword Society members providing support from the sidelines, it meant the Holy Sword Society's objective in District 011 had not been achieved. Perhaps even the arrest and trial stages had been heavily staged.
"Boom!"
Just then, the ground beneath his feet suddenly shook, followed by a loud explosion in the distance. The entire city fell silent for a moment.
Limited by their line of sight, the crowd looked around but couldn't locate the source of the incident. However, someone soon learned what had happened from their communicator. "The Night Orchid Laboratory exploded!"
The Night Orchid Laboratory was located in a nearby mid-level city—the same Tier 3 laboratory that Qing Cai had mentioned earlier.
Sure enough, the box left by Director Sanyang had been a decoy.
After the explosion, the Black Epaulets surrounding the building visibly shifted their focus. Led by Ran Ying, she withdrew half of the team leaders and a third of the Black Epaulets from the battle, heading immediately toward the city where the explosion occurred.
No sooner had they left than Ashis Werner emerged from the building with his companions. Their expressions were grim. Once outside, they immediately ordered their own players and government players to cooperate in pursuing the fleeing Holy Sword Society players.
But as soon as this group came out, the previous scene repeated itself—players in different positions and states fell to the ground and died one after another. The range was vast, the distances great, and some players were even separated by an entire building!
Normally, no prop would have such a lethal range. Even if it did, passing through solid objects would render it ineffective or greatly diminish its power. The scene before them was clearly abnormal!
"Any Holy Sword Society player, or anyone suspected of being a Holy Sword Society player, is to be executed on sight!" Ashis reacted quickly. Since this prop couldn't be limited by space or distance, hiding or retreating would be futile. The best course of action was to kill the prop's holder!
Xu Huo had already left the crowd.
The method used to kill the Black Epaulets earlier and now the government players was identical—and it was also a method Xu Huo recognized.
He had seen this method once in the classified files of District 014, once in District 009, and today marked the third time.
During the Super Item incident, the Special Defense Department only knew that such an item existed and that a personnel list had been leaked, but they didn't understand exactly how the item killed people.
In District 009, Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu had witnessed several players using a piece of paper with names written on it, crossing them off one by one. This method killed players in District 009. However, the player who was killed afterward didn't have that item on them—though this might not have been the truth. Still, Xu Huo obtained another clue: the player who used the paper to cross off names was suspected to be connected to the Holy Sword Society.
Now, in District 011, it was confirmed to be the Holy Sword Society without a doubt. But this item had fallen into the hands of a female player.
In District 014, a Holy Sword Society gold disciple had appeared, and the Special Defense Department naturally assumed the killing was done by a high-level prop. In District 009, the same item appeared in the hands of several mediocre players. Just a few days after leaving District 009, the same item showed up in District 011.
When the middle-aged woman was destroying the items in the secret room, Xu Huo caught a glimpse of what was on the desk.
An opened blood sample obtained from the Black Epaulets.
Scattered Black Epaulet ID cards.
An ordinary, freshly used palette.
A bottle of purified water.
An ordinary pen.
These were the things he could see in a single glance. Although he never saw the same piece of paper, the combination of these items revealed the killing method of that paper prop.
First, one needed to know the victim's real name, and possibly their appearance.
Second, they needed the victim's blood, perhaps mixed with some special substance to create an "ink" suitable for writing.
Finally, they would use this special "ink" to write down the real name.
This was the preparation before the killing.
In other words, back when the Special Defense Department thought they had only leaked a list of names, the blood samples of those elite players had likely also been taken.
Only then could the conditions for killing be met.
But since this item appeared in the hands of players of different levels and required considerable preparation time, it would be difficult for it to appear in District 009 and then again in District 011 within such a short period. While transferring items wasn't hard, this clearly involved extensive preliminary work. If the item wasn't delivered in time, the plan could be delayed, making it unreliable.
Moreover, it was impractical for such a lethal item to be passed between different players.
Given these conditions, combined with the situation of the killed player in District 009, it was easy to draw a conclusion—this paper that killed players by crossing out names was a single-use item.
That was why it appeared in different players' hands, surfaced in different game districts within a very short time, and vanished after the holder was killed.
Speaking of killing with paper, Xu Huo immediately thought of the Paper Servant Master. That person was a super player capable of creating props like paper phones. A paper killing prop wasn't impossible. However, the game backend had recently announced the conflict between the Paper Servant Master and the Holy Sword Society, suggesting there was no friendship between them. It was unlikely that the Paper Servant Master's props would be so easily taken by the Holy Sword Society.
Aside from loss, the remaining possibility was sale.
Unless this item didn't belong to the Paper Servant Master.
But now that he knew how the item worked, there was no need to trace its origin. Knowing how to defend against it was enough.
Xu Huo found a killed Black Epaulet and took his communicator.