Chapter 896: Death from Fear
The cannibal player was caught. Shangguan Xi was delighted and was about to move closer, but at that moment, the barrier sealing the opponent suddenly broke. What came out before the cannibal player were several dart-like props shaped like water columns, but they were intercepted half a meter away from Xu Huo. However, surprisingly, those water columns hit the air barrier and directly attached to it, spreading rapidly like ice, "freezing" several cracks on the barrier.
Only then did the cannibal player let out a strange laugh, leaning forward to break through the air barrier and pounce at Xu Huo—whether it was a trait effect or a prop effect, at least in Xu Huo's view, the moment the cannibal player closed in on him, every gap in sight seemed to be filled, like a huge blanket.
Of course, a human body couldn't have such a large area, but he was suppressed by the effect and couldn't move.
Xu Huo first used "Same-Sex Repulsion," a prop that could repel two people of the same gender within a three-meter range, but the prop failed, so he used "Dead End" to draw a line between them.
"Dead End" was an upgraded version of "Beautiful Ray." The laser ray's range had expanded from the original three square meters to the current fifty square meters. A ray range ten meters long and five meters wide could form a sufficiently wide barrier in front of him. To cross this barrier, one first had to withstand the ray's cutting—some tables and chairs within the ray range were unsurprisingly cut in half. Although it didn't burn through the car roof, it was enough to threaten the cannibal player.
The opponent retreated without hesitation, pressing against the door of the opposite room, but he didn't intend to stop there; he was waiting for the prop to wear off.
"Dead End" only had a ten-second effective time. Xu Huo activated "Heartbeat Discount" and "Thick Protective Coloration." When the ten seconds passed, he took the initiative to meet the cannibal player and swung his sword at the opponent's head!
The cannibal player was surprised by his speed, threw a handful of powdery substance into the air, and then repeated his tactic of spreading his arms to fly at him.
But Xu Huo, who stood still after the failed strike, smiled and said, "Lucky me."
The opponent's arm-spreading and sticking move was clearly a trait—player classification was determined on the initial train. If someone had eaten people before boarding and didn't want to degenerate into a xenomorph, they would still have to eat people on the train, marking them as a cannibal player. Conversely, if an evolver who hadn't eaten people before boarding ate people on the train, they would also be classified as a cannibal player. The difference was that the latter had a trait when boarding.
"Thick Protective Coloration" could randomly immunize against traits. He hadn't expected it to work on the first use.
Without the restrictive feeling stuck in the air, Xu Huo feigned a move and used "Orb of Murmurs."
The cannibal player didn't care about mental interference at all. He grabbed a top-like object in his hand, and its sharp screech seemed to overpower the whispers of the "Orb of Murmurs." He then threw a lock that bound Xu Huo's right hand holding the sword together with his right leg.
"Watch out!" Shangguan Xi threw a firecracker-like prop. The small steel balls that exploded with a crackling sound shot toward the cannibal player!
The prop hit the cannibal player's body with a "thump thump" metallic sound. After the clothes he wore were torn, it could be seen that his hands, feet, and neck were all covered tightly by prop protective gear. The steel ball prop didn't even leave a scratch on it!
The cannibal player casually swept his hand, and Xu Huo's room door automatically closed, trapping Shangguan Xi inside. He stared directly at Xu Huo and said, "In this car, you smell the best. You must be delicious."
Xu Huo frowned in displeasure. "Do cannibal players have to disgust people before making a move?"
The opponent's face darkened. "Once I drain your blood, your mouth won't be so tough!"
But as the two closed the distance, a hand plunged unimpeded into his heart!
Their eyes met. Xu Huo gave the cannibal player a slight smile. The latter, barely concealing his shock, raised his hand again—any large movement on his part could tear his own heart out. So he moved his mouth and said, "Memory..."
Before he could finish, Xu Huo kicked the person hanging in midair away!
The beating heart was pulled out of the chest cavity as the body moved backward, and the cannibal player had already passed through the automatic door, landing in the transition car.
The car's sensor door silently closed again.
Xu Huo walked over and casually threw the bloody thing on the ground.
It was only about two meters away, but the cannibal player no longer had the strength to crawl back and retrieve his heart. He lay on the ground, gasping for air, on the verge of death at any moment.
The sensor door opened again. Xu Huo stood at the entrance, washing his hands with cleaning agent, and said, "You won't die that fast. You can hold on for at least two minutes."
"Although your corpse has no value to me, the two people in the car behind are still waiting."
Hearing this, the two cannibal players lurking behind the door silently retreated.
The person lying on the ground had no mind to care about that. He glared at Xu Huo with bloodshot eyes full of hatred and tried to use a prop, but at that moment, Xu Huo made a pulling motion near his mouth with his clean hand. The cannibal player's lips seemed to melt and stick together. Not just his mouth, but his hands and feet also began to dissolve like wax, gradually becoming flat and weak, until finally, like stagnant water, they stuck to the train floor...
After the person died in the illusion with infinite fear, Xu Huo briefly checked the items obtained from his personal panel, took the prop from the corpse, and stared fixedly at the two people peeping from the seventeenth car before returning to the sixteenth car.
Both inside and outside the car were calm.
By then, Shangguan Xi had opened the room door. The short-haired female player and the player with the mechanical dog had both come out. The three watched Xu Huo return, naturally also seeing the corpse.
Meeting their gazes, Xu Huo asked, "Do you want to eat?"
The three showed varying degrees of disgust. Shangguan Xi said, "We're not cannibal players. Who would eat that thing? But leaving the corpse there—isn't that just giving it to the cannibal players behind?"
Xu Huo sat down in the car. "You can go get it."
Shangguan Xi quickly shook his head. "Forget it, forget it. If they have something to eat, at least they won't kill more people."
"They won't dare come out," the short-haired female player spoke up. "If they dared, they would have acted as soon as the person rolled out."
Shangguan Xi hesitated at first but soon became cheerful. "They really didn't come out! Those two cowards must be afraid of Brother Xu!"
The short-haired female player looked at him with a meaningful expression.
Shangguan Xi seemed to guess her thoughts and reasoned logically, "They're afraid of Brother Xu, and Brother Xu is my good friend. By extension, they're afraid of me. Who knows how many more days this train will run? At least they won't dare come looking for trouble!"
The rear cars couldn't come in, and the only cannibal player in the sixteenth car was dead. As long as they guarded against the fifteenth car ahead, they could spend the remaining time safely. That was much better than being on edge every day.
"So we got lucky," the short-haired female player laughed and voluntarily sat across from Xu Huo. "You just advanced to C, right? Which station are you heading to this time? Maybe we can team up!"
(Chapter End)