Chapter 923: Encountering a Living Sample
Taking advantage of the time before the blizzard hit, Xu Huo and the other two rushed forward at top speed. However, before they had even covered a third of the forest, the snowstorm had already obscured their vision, making it nearly impossible to continue walking.
Xu Huo first took out the "Rolling Pulley." The four separate wheels automatically adjusted their distance when placed on the ground. By putting a board on top, they could barely serve as a flatbed cart. It could definitely carry people, though the load capacity was unknown.
He tried placing the "No. 101 Shelter" on top. Unexpectedly, the wheels only sank slightly before quickly lifting the shelter up.
"You can come in now." Xu Huo took something from Shangguan Xi and Teacher Ai.
"This item is badass," Shangguan Xi said. "We can travel even while we sleep."
The pulleys could move, but they couldn't maintain direction. After hearing this, Shangguan Xi added, "That's not hard."
He then took out a remote control. "As long as I preset the route, it can guide us. It's like a tow line, and it even has an auto-correction function."
He directly sketched the route on the screen, then stuck the remote control against the wall. With a slight pull of force, the pulleys under the shelter began to turn.
Xu Huo watched for a while while holding an umbrella. The remote control item could indeed correct the route, but the line Shangguan Xi had drawn by hand could hardly be called a map. It barely looked like an arc.
"Trust me, no problem." Shangguan Xi took full responsibility. "I've used this item many times, and it's never failed once. If it encounters a steep slope, it will automatically stop. It will never lead us into a ditch."
Xu Huo put away his umbrella and closed the door. "There probably won't be any mutants coming out tonight."
"Finally, I can get a good night's sleep." Shangguan Xi took out a sleeping bag and said to Xu Huo, "I'll sleep first. Wake me up in the middle of the night."
Xu Huo nodded and said to Teacher Ai, "There's a bed over there."
Teacher Ai sat in a chair and didn't plan to move. "I'll just rest my head for a bit. You don't need to treat me like an ordinary person."
Xu Huo said no more and closed his eyes, leaning against the window.
Inside the shelter, almost no sound from outside could be heard. The pulleys moved fairly steadily. However, as the snow fell heavier and heavier, the pulleys became buried, and the shelter gradually came to a stop.
"Bang! Bang!" Suddenly, someone started pounding on the door from outside.
Shangguan Xi, who had just been snoring, sat up instantly. Alert, he hung a "No Entry" item on the door handle.
The pounding outside didn't stop; instead, it grew more intense, as if they wouldn't give up until the door was opened.
"Could it be those players who took the living samples?" Shangguan Xi asked.
"If they were players, they should have backed off by now," Teacher Ai said. "It might be mutants."
The other two in the room simultaneously turned to look at him.
Teacher Ai continued, "Don't think mutants are completely brainless. Even animals know how to imitate humans, let alone mutants. Anyway, they can't open this door. They'll leave on their own soon."
As he predicted, the pounding stopped shortly after. In its place, the shelter began to move again, and it had clearly deviated from its original path.
"Damn it! These mutants aren't trying to push us into their nest, are they!" Shangguan Xi stood up. "Brother Xu, should we go out first?"
Xu Huo had the same intention, but before he could act, the shelter stopped again, and there was no further sound.
The three waited in silence for half a minute. Xu Huo gestured to Shangguan Xi. Only after he moved to the side of the door did he remove the item and open it.
The moment the door opened, a normal-looking human hand grabbed the edge, and then the door was yanked open forcefully. Two figures appeared one after the other in the doorway!
At the same time, the player standing in front activated a rubber pad that popped out, propping the door frame open to prevent the door from closing. He chuckled and tried to squeeze through the gap in the rubber pad into the shelter.
Xu Huo didn't act immediately. Instead, he used his newly acquired item, "Seal Wrap," to seal the door. This item could automatically wrap around objects, but its weakness was that it wasn't very durable. So when the player took out a short dagger, the wrap broke with a sound. However, the player still couldn't rush into the shelter—non-holders had to pay materials to enter.
This caught Xu Huo slightly off guard, but in the next second, he used "Same-Sex Repulsion" to knock the person back. He slashed off the rubber pad on the door with his sword, then stepped out of the shelter. Shangguan Xi followed behind and closed the door. The two of them had now reversed the situation, surrounding the two players from the front and back.
"The living sample must be over there!" Shangguan Xi pointed at the tent and shouted. He moved faster than Xu Huo, bypassing the two players in front of him and charging forward.
But the two players weren't worried. They didn't even bother to go after him. Instead, they both chose to attack Xu Huo at the same time!
"Accelerated Freeze!" One of them threw an ice ball at the ground. The ground around the ice ball quickly froze solid. The other player cooperated by pouring a bottle of lubricant potion on the ground. At the same time, the thick boots on their feet extended spikes, ensuring they could still move on this extremely slippery surface.
Although "Gentleman's Poise" wasn't yet at the level of walking on flat ground, standing was no problem. Xu Huo directly crossed through space and arrived beside the tent, just in time to catch Shangguan Xi, who had been thrown back.
"I didn't even touch the edge of the tent!" Shangguan Xi said. "That tent is an item!"
Xu Huo held the "Eye of the Dead." With one swing of his sword, a crack instantly appeared on the tent, but it quickly healed and restored itself at a speed far beyond human capability.
"Do you think your crappy items can break this tent?" The two players were extremely confident in their item. One of them raised a gun—a real gun—and opened fire on the two standing in front of the tent!
Xu Huo slid to avoid the bullets. Circling to the back of the tent, he saw that a layer of ripples had formed on the tent's surface. The bullets hadn't directly hit the tent itself but were blocked outside. The ripples also absorbed the impact, causing the bullets to slide smoothly to the ground from the front of the tent.
Raising an eyebrow, he tried to directly break through the item's barrier. However, his hands felt like they were sinking into soft silicone. The elastic texture dissipated some of the force, and it felt like a thin film was blocking him from breaking through.
"Rebound!" Shangguan Xi threw a frisbee-like item. This auto-spinning item could not only catch bullets but also ricochet them back. As a result, the two players standing side by side were forced apart by their own weapons.
Their reactions were also fast. As they holstered their guns, they split up and flanked the tent from both sides. One of them clasped his hands together and shouted at Xu Huo and Shangguan Xi, "Friends, Don't Separate!"
Shangguan Xi, who had already taken out an item, was uncontrollably turned around by the effect of the opponent's trait. He lunged towards Xu Huo, shouting, "Brother Xu, get out of the way!"
Xu Huo didn't stand on ceremony. With a turn of his foot, he vanished from the spot. His departure wasn't a problem, but this trait was clearly aimed at two people. The other player, who had circled around from behind the tent, became the substitute and was forced to embrace Shangguan Xi!
(End of Chapter)