Chapter 926: Reluctance and Compliance
At such a close distance, Xu Huo naturally couldn't be moved away like before. As he returned to the side of the car, he simultaneously activated his Spiritual Realm.
The moment the Spiritual Interference began, he circled to one side of the vehicle. However, the young girl sitting there remained expressionless. She turned around, precisely locked onto his position, and once again waved her hand to push him away—Spiritual Interference could blur others' senses but couldn't override reality, so the girl's Space Item remained effective against him.
Thus, when he attempted to approach the car a second time, he targeted the player in the front seat.
The thirty-second "Please Sit" duration hadn't passed yet. Although this player could use items, he couldn't leave his seat. A "Light Sandwich" would have been enough to temporarily restrain him, but considering the incompatibility of time-space items, "Light Sandwich" might not work. So Xu Huo used his trait, "Forced Forgetting."
"Forced Forgetting" could make a person forget a brief five-second period—everything about them within those five seconds. Ordinary people required some reaction time to recover their memories, and that reaction time was sufficient to knock someone out with poison.
Xu Huo didn't intend to kill, so instead of using the refined A- or B-grade toxins, he used an anesthetic purchased from Under Dimension—a potion that could induce full-body paralysis while keeping the person conscious. Simply put, it induced a vegetative state, though the upside was that the person remained truly awake.
Dragging the player—who could only move his eyes—out of the car, Xu Huo said to those inside, "Can we have a calm conversation now?"
This time, the young girl didn't wave him away. Instead, she said calmly, "Go ahead and kill him. I won't give you the item."
Xu Huo smiled and replied, "You're not in good health, so you probably have a long-distance movement item. But you're at a disadvantage in close combat, and you need someone to help you move. Without this person, you won't get far."
"That's why you didn't leave immediately—you wanted to negotiate with me?"
The girl, seeing through his intentions, didn't back down at all. "Since you've figured it out, choose for yourself whether to kill him or not. I won't hand over the item. If you kill him, I'll leave immediately with the living sample. I'd rather cooperate with a heinous criminal than someone who killed my friend."
"Are you sure you can cooperate with someone else?" Xu Huo didn't press the issue. "Before me, the living sample behind you only had one bracelet authentication. The two players I killed had their authentication invalidated, so that doesn't count. Among the two of you, only one person is authenticated—you are not."
He stated confidently, "You didn't authenticate yourself to give yourself a chance to survive in dangerous situations while not losing your clearance qualification."
If forced into a dangerous situation where she had to give up the living sample, not being authenticated reduced the risk of the other party needing to kill her. Plus, she had good items and used them skillfully, so she didn't need to bother destroying her bracelet. It was a decent little strategy.
"This isn't a good thing."
Such a detail might seem to increase her chances of survival, but it also highlighted her weakness.
However, the girl remained unfazed. "Then you can verify whether your guess is correct."
Xu Huo also didn't play by the rules. He raised his sword and swung it toward the front player's neck. But at that moment, the girl leaped out of the car with astonishing speed, leaving a faint afterimage behind. Her bony fingers stabbed directly at his throat!
This was also a feint. Xu Huo ignored the shadow in front of him and swung his sword backward. The next second, the girl retreated several steps to a tree nearby. However, after this retreat, her movements became sluggish, as if she had stepped on an item.
"Let's see where you run this time!" Shangguan Xi excitedly crawled out of the snow not far away. Pulling the rope in her hand, the trap clamped onto the girl's leg, causing her to stagger.
But it didn't actually pull her down. The girl used an item to remove the trap from her foot, raised her hand, and pushed Shangguan Xi away. However, this time the effect wasn't as good.
Both sides looked up in surprise, only to see the "Lightning Rod" item placed nearby being bombarded—it was the Baby Face player, who had moved large rocks and broken logs from the surroundings.
"So an unstable item affects performance, huh?" Shangguan Xi didn't hesitate and ran toward the "Lightning Rod." The girl naturally wouldn't let him get close and immediately pushed him away. Feeling her body lose balance, she turned her gaze to the Baby Face player not far away.
The Baby Face player, now wearing clown attire, had gathered enough power during the earlier moment. With a raise of his hand, the girl was flipped upside down and floated in the air. Even though he was sent away by a spatial movement the next second, the girl couldn't immediately escape the state of weightlessness.
Then, Shangguan Xi shouted "Morning Rush Hour" at the sky. The frail girl seemed to be squeezed between something, her hands pressed against her chest and abdomen. She opened her mouth to speak but coughed out a breath instead.
Given her weak state, surviving this long naturally meant she had more than one defensive item. In just two seconds, she freed herself from the trait and corrected her position. She made a heart gesture at Xu Huo from a distance, and Xu Huo, who had been maintaining a certain distance, involuntarily flew toward her. When she released the gesture, he stopped midway—this position wasn't random; it was the dividing line of her Space Item.
Previously, this dividing line was where real space was pushed outward. But now, the ground on both sides was retracting into the seam, as if trying to crush him. At the same time, the girl flashed in front of him. With a phrase "Beat the Couple Apart," the male player slipped from his grasp.
"Dead End" shot up between the two, instantly forming an insurmountable wall. The male player returned to Xu Huo's hands, now free from the Space Item's power. Meanwhile, Shangguan Xi and the Baby Face player approached from the left and right behind him. Only then did the girl, desperately trying to reclaim her companion, show signs of retreat.
At that moment, a wallet fell to the ground. A button from the girl's clothing dropped off. Her face showed surprise, but the next second, her expression turned blank—the Baby Face player had appeared behind her!
A dull thud rang out as the Baby Face player's long blade struck an air barrier!
Xu Huo coldly watched the person trying to snatch the spoils in the chaos. As the other turned around, he used his trait, "Written Intensity"!
The Baby Face player still remembered his previous encounter with Xu Huo and naturally didn't want to fight him up close. As he turned to run, he found his head twisting involuntarily. Before he could use an item to dispel the trait's effect, he saw a shadow sweep past his side. He hurriedly stopped, but the next second, he was slapped to the edge of his own gravitational zone!
"Stop!" Feeling a fierce wind rushing toward his face, he quickly called out, "Brother, let's talk this out!"
(Chapter End)