Chapter 876: White Ball and Free Win
Xu Huo had already been teleported into the aquarium via the entry-exit pod. Just like the raincoat man before him, he was thrown directly into the sea without any protective measures.
Being in the dark seawater was almost no different from being in the pitch-black night, but the external projection was less restricted by light and could clearly show Xu Huo soaking in the water.
He seemed to be luckier than the raincoat man, as he didn't encounter a school of piranhas upon exiting. However, as the host rotated the projection angle, a semi-transparent giant shark appeared not far from him.
From its appearance, it did somewhat resemble a shark before evolution.
"As everyone knows, animals living in the deep sea often exhibit some obvious degenerative traits, such as having no color in their bodies. Usually, such characteristics are related to the animal's living environment—evolution occurs only when there's a need. But after the world began evolving, fish in the ocean also underwent some mutations."
"For example, this kind of semi-transparent man-eating shark. Although they don't live in the deep sea, their bodies developed this trait after mutation. They are the only fish at the same depth to undergo such a change. However, after the mutation, the bone hardness of the man-eating shark increased several times, and they became more ferocious and aggressive. Sea World once compiled statistics on marine creature attacks, and over fifty-three percent of the incidents involved man-eating sharks."
"Mutated man-eating sharks are not only tough and fast but also tend to appear in groups, making them difficult to catch and hunt... What we're seeing now is a scout shark responsible for patrolling the area. Based on the information width released by this shark, there are at least ten man-eating sharks following it!"
"The only weakness of this kind of man-eating shark is its degenerated sensory system, so it has to get very close to detect its prey. Ah, it's already spotted Guest 313!"
Sharks don't rely primarily on vision to assess their environment; they mostly use nerves on their flanks and their sense of smell to judge prey from a distance. A degenerated sensory system means their search range for prey is greatly reduced, making vision more useful.
Soaking in the seawater, Xu Huo could already sense it. He had seen the shark's lightbulb-like eyes, but it hesitated at a certain distance before swimming toward him.
Vision was limited underwater, but Xu Huo could feel twelve sharks ahead, rapidly closing the distance in a staggered formation. Additionally, there was a large fish behind him, about the size of a beluga whale, moving slowly.
Xu Huo had the "Oxygen Supply" and was wearing a protective suit that could withstand underwater pressure, but that didn't mean he could fight twelve mutated sharks underwater. However, solving the problem didn't necessarily require him to act personally.
He floated in place, estimating the distance between himself and the man-eating sharks.
The one in front was relatively close, while the ones behind were a bit farther away. Of course, that distance wasn't very long from a human perspective, but for seawater permeated with a large amount of toxic bacterial fluid, it was a considerable stretch.
The strength of the bacteria on the raincoat man's hand lay in their ability to reproduce rapidly even under harsh conditions. Last time, when Xu Huo opened the "Seventeenth Hospital" instance, he collected many samples and made some ready-made potions. Some were diluted, while others were mixed with different bacteria for experimental purposes.
It was an enhanced version, but he had tested it and found that the toxin level hadn't increased. The King Fungus could still detoxify it, though he wasn't sure how effective it would be.
The first man-eating shark charging at him visibly slowed down. Xu Huo had only counted five seconds when the shark reached him and opened its mouth. Then he saw the massive creature slowly turn over, a faint black liquid seeping from its teeth, followed by its head turning black.
Next came the shark group behind it. Eleven man-eating sharks formed a hunting formation, swimming in from different directions, but they all flipped over like their companion when they got close to Xu Huo, floating peacefully in the water.
Xu Huo looked back.
The large black fish that was farther away flicked its tail and swiftly swam off.
Xu Huo returned to Friendship Garden Square. When he came out of the pod, his protective suit and items had been put away. He patted his sleeves cleanly and nodded from a distance to Player 64.
But seeing that he had gone to the aquarium and come back without even wetting his hair, not only Player 64 but also the other players present were somewhat wary.
The host, as always, remained calm and said with a smile, "Painting it black still counts as coloring. Guest 313 is very powerful, and the strong never lack friends. But the other guests still need to keep working hard on the path of friendship. Next up is Guest 124 versus Guest 75!"
The three-color competition had started again. Zhuang Mengtian, who had had no interaction with them since entering Friendship Garden, took the initiative to walk over. Her watch was still playing music softly. Unlike her previous arrogance, she now wore a smile with a clear signal, "Are you still going to pick 64 in the next round?"
Xu Huo glanced at her, "What about it?"
"If you still pick the white ball, won't he just coast to the end?" Zhuang Mengtian brushed her hair, "I don't understand why you're doing this, but letting a petty person get a free ride... even I'm a bit jealous."
Ignoring the surrounding gazes, Xu Huo said flatly, "Unless I've discussed it with a teammate, I'll only pick the white ball."
Zhuang Mengtian gave him a deep look, "Can this clear the instance?"
In reality, none of the players present had a clear direction for clearing the instance. Whether equating the clearing task with the final score of the show, or saving someone or being saved, all could be possible clearing methods, or incomplete ones. That is to say, even if Xu Huo's speculation to Xiao Xianglin yesterday hadn't resulted in a successful clear, it couldn't be entirely dismissed.
Because everyone knew that pure friendship couldn't be obtained here. All related methods had to be tried.
"Even if you ask me, I don't know," Xu Huo said. "If I knew, I might have cleared it and left long ago."
Whether or not friendship could be gained, at least one had to show an attitude of making friends.
Zhuang Mengtian lowered her head and fiddled with her watch, seemingly lost in thought.
At that moment, Xu Huo warned, "I think you'd better stop fiddling with your watch."
Zhuang Mengtian looked up.
"If you were strong enough, would you need to strike while someone's asleep?"
Zhuang Mengtian's expression shifted slightly, then she raised her hand again, "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Stop playing dumb," You Si interjected, "We came on the same train. Do you think everyone else is stupid?"
Xu Huo hadn't been entirely sure before that Zhuang Mengtian had done something on the train, since the entire train had been affected, and she didn't have the strength for it.
But it was certain that she likely had a hypnosis-type item or trait, and it was quite effective—at least it had worked on him.