Chapter 946: Reflect on Your Own Incompetence
"The virus leaked?" Shangguan Xi immediately put on a protective suit and urged the others to do the same. "I don't know if the protective suits will work. Gao Xiaoyan and his group didn't even want the corpse anymore. It's probably not a simple alarm. Could it be that kind of virus from the lab in W19?"
"No," Xu Huo said calmly. "It's just a false alarm."
"You tampered with it?" Kuang Wenjun looked at him in slight surprise. "Did you already know the living sample was dead?"
"I knew when we got to the rest area." Xu Huo glanced at their expressions through the rearview mirror.
"So they had bad intentions from the start," Shangguan Xi said, as if suddenly realizing, with anger in his voice. "They wanted to lure us out and deal with us. Good thing we ran fast, otherwise we'd have been blown to bits!"
"Why would Gao Xiaoyan want to harm us?" Zhu Feiyun asked in confusion. "We agreed to go to the base city together. Couldn't they handle the xenomorph anywhere? Why do it now?"
"It might not necessarily be Gao Xiaoyan," Kuang Wenjun said. "That man with the lightning-shaped shaved head wanted to kill the sample the moment he saw it, didn't he?"
"Could we have gotten caught up in a factional struggle?" Shangguan Xi's eyes widened slightly. "This is killing our own people without any hesitation."
"But I saw those people were very obedient to Gao Xiaoyan. Besides, there are only a few of us. How much impact would a fight with us have on Gao Xiaoyan and his group? A factional struggle wouldn't risk the hard-built training base. A third party is more likely to make a move!" Pan Qiao analyzed.
"That's even less realistic," Zhu Feiyun disagreed. "The W37 base city specially built this training base, with new weapon research and secret player training content. The chances of players from other base cities infiltrating are low. Even if they could, there's no need to expose themselves just to sow discord between a few foreign players and W37."
"It couldn't be you guys, could it?" Shangguan Xi turned his suspicious gaze on the others.
"Use your brain. We're also players. We're about to clear the instance. Why would we kill the sample?" Zhu Feiyun was unhappy with him deliberately picking a fight.
"Who knows? You can know a person's face but not their heart. It's hard to say if you're really instance players." Shangguan Xi squinted, leaving a slit to size them up.
Zhu Feiyun and the others had unpleasant expressions. At that moment, Xu Huo suddenly spoke up, "The sample was still alive when it arrived at the training base. Someone made a move right in front of you. Shouldn't you first reflect on your own incompetence?"
The group was speechless. From entering the building to the rest area, the training base players had kept at least three meters away from the sample, except for the ten or so seconds in the elevator. But during that time, they had all been gathered around the cage and shouldn't have been completely unaware—killing a xenomorph might have many methods, but to also fake the illusion that it was still alive, someone would have had to get close enough to place a prop inside.
The car was silent for a few seconds before Shangguan Xi said, "I wish we'd just given them the corpse. Since we can't clear the instance anyway, it would have been better to get some props out of them!"
Zhu Feiyun sneered, "That's not what you said earlier."
"That was a negotiation tactic. Not being able to rank is a huge loss. I had to make them bleed a little!" Shangguan Xi said it as if it were only natural, then added regretfully, "Too bad we got nothing now."
He paused and looked at Xu Huo. "Brother Xu, what's the use of grabbing this corpse? Is there something wrong with it?"
"There's nothing wrong with the corpse," Xu Huo said expressionlessly. "I just didn't want to give it to them."
Zhu Feiyun and the others had complicated expressions. If that was the case, they really might as well have traded it for props.
But they couldn't beat Xu Huo, so even if they disagreed, they had to swallow it.
Shangguan Xi, being very perceptive, grinned and said, "Brother Xu is right. We'd rather throw it away than give it to them. They made us fail the instance, and letting them off with just a few props would be letting them off easy!"
"Since we can't leave anyway and we're heading to the base city, why don't we go big? Kidnap the old mayor and make them ransom him!"
The car fell silent again. Teacher Ai was the first to speak. "Are you okay?"
"I'm joking. You guys have absolutely no sense of humor." Shangguan Xi waved his hand. "I'm not that stupid. Who wants to go die?"
At this point, whether it was investigating who killed the living sample or seeking revenge on Gao Xiaoyan and his group, it was largely meaningless. Without a third living sample, this instance was definitely going to fail. The question now was where to spend the remaining time. At the very least, they needed to find a place with food and drink. Their stored supplies of food and water had been heavily depleted over the past few days in W37 base city.
"I'm going to enter W37 base city as planned," Xu Huo said. "What are your plans?"
Shangguan Xi leaned forward. "Brother Xu, what are you up to? How about I tag along? I've got nothing better to do anyway."
Before Xu Huo could answer, he said to Zhu Feiyun and the other two, "You guys better not come."
Zhu Feiyun also found him annoying and said directly, "Once we reach the base city, we go our separate ways!"
Running into Xu Huo was his bad luck. The sample from the W19 base city lab had died for no reason, and now that the second sample had been delivered, it all fell apart at the last moment. This whole trip had been a complete loss, and he couldn't even ask Xu Huo to compensate for the props he'd lost.
Of the three samples, two were gone. The third hadn't been encountered at all along the way and might have already arrived at W37 base city. Without any hope of clearing the instance, he really had no reason to continue traveling with Xu Huo and the others.
Kuang Wenjun and Pan Qiao felt the same. Initially, they had formed the team out of mutual compromise, but now Xu Huo had gradually taken the upper hand. Since the instance was essentially a failure, there was little point in looking for branch missions. Besides, Xu Huo wasn't revealing anything about his plans, and no one knew what he intended to do once he reached W37 base city. Splitting up would be safer.
Of course, not yet. They didn't know if Gao Xiaoyan and his people would pursue them. So until they actually reached the base city, traveling together was the best option.
"We'll talk about it when we get to the base city," Kuang Wenjun said. "Even if we're going to another base city, we need to replenish water and food first."
"So we're all going to W37. But base cities are usually sealed off. How do we get in?" Shangguan Xi pulled Teacher Ai out of the front seat and sat down in the passenger seat himself.
"Didn't they say W37 is accepting infected people from other places?" Pan Qiao asked. "Can we blend in?"
"After what just happened, it might not work. They might even seal the city gates," Zhu Feiyun said. "At the very least, it's a city controlled by players. They should have instruments that restrict space-time props. We probably can't just teleport in."
"We'll figure it out when we get there." Xu Huo had Teacher Ai take the wheel while he went to the back to deal with the xenomorph corpse.
The corpse, which had been dead for a while, was giving off a stench, with green liquid oozing from its mouth and nose. He used a prop to collect a sample, confirming that the virus carried by the xenomorph was the same as the one he'd seen on the original inhabitants in W18. He then sealed it in an airtight body bag and stored it in the Umbrella of Justice.
Thanks to reader friend "Wallet is Dead Again" for the Alliance Leader tip. This is the book's second Alliance Leader, thank you.
(This chapter ends)