Chapter 981: Instance Clearance Rewards
Xu Huo made a "please" gesture. "I still want to take your items."
Gao Xiaoyan was also straightforward, placing the "City Sand Table" and the two agreed-upon B-grade items on the table, and said, "The person is outside the door."
Xu Huo nodded and immediately pulled Ren Man into his spiritual realm.
Unlike his previous spirited resistance, Ren Man now exuded a sense of gloom and dejection. He looked up at Xu Huo, as if wanting to ask something.
Xu Huo asked him to show his spiritual realm.
Ren Man didn't resist, revealing a corner of his successfully opened spiritual realm before saying, "You actually didn't set any traps in my spiritual realm, did you?"
"What makes you think that?" Xu Huo asked with interest.
Ren Man was self-aware. "My spiritual realm is so small, what's there worth scheming over?"
"Besides, you didn't interfere with me when I was evolving. Even though I just got a spiritual realm, I can still feel that."
"Since you're so sure, you should explain that to Gao Xiaoyan," Xu Huo said.
Ren Man looked like a teenager whose rose-tinted glasses had shattered, facing the real world with endless disappointment. The upward energy he once had seemed to sink all at once.
"I want to keep the agreement," he said. "And I don't want so many people to die."
"When I returned to Base City, I saw many infected children, kids around ten years old. Every time we went back to the city, they would run after the vehicles. I don't understand, if they die too, what future does Base City have?"
"Do you know when people are willing to listen to reason?" Xu Huo pointed to the table beside him, sitting down before continuing, "When force has decided the outcome."
"Thought determines a person's actions, but strength determines whether a person can put those thoughts into practice."
"Before you speak, you need to consider whether anyone will listen to what you say."
"I understand what you mean. Even if I pity those children now, I can't save them." Ren Man said gloomily, "You saved them."
Xu Huo shook his head. "I didn't really save them. If the current situation in W37 doesn't change, sooner or later today's events will repeat themselves, and perhaps the situation will be even more tragic."
Seeing the sudden change in the other's expression, he placed his hands on the table, looking directly at him, "Do you feel that what you said yesterday about restoring the station's past prosperity is now out of reach?"
Ren Man remained silent.
"Don't be so desperate. This is a game world. A single player can even decide the life or death of a district. Compared to that, your thoughts aren't much." Xu Huo smiled. "Look on the bright side."
Ren Man barely managed to twitch the corner of his mouth.
"Time's almost up." Xu Huo stood up, withdrawing his spiritual power while also taking the items from the table, waving to the people inside and outside the shop, "Farewell."
A flash of light, and Xu Huo appeared in the station.
Compared to the D-grade station, the C-grade station was larger in scale, with more built-in facilities—at least there was a place to sit.
He briefly scanned the station, ignoring the player eating in the corner, and found a seat by the edge to organize his rewards from this instance clearance.
From the team rewards, he received an A-grade item, "Holder's Demise," a special item, "Lifelike Wax Figure," one major trait upgrade opportunity, and two cubic meters of luggage compartment space.
**[Holder's Demise: A stylish and tasteful assassination tool. It usually only assassinates players of a higher grade than its holder, with an ultra-high success rate of 90%. It is an excellent item that can turn the holder's fortunes around. Its only drawback is that before assassinating anyone else, it will first assassinate its own holder.]**
**[According to incomplete statistics, among the hundreds of players killed by this item's assassinations, more than a dozen were former holders. Of course, if killing others and killing its holder were equally effective, it wouldn't be called an excellent item. According to game usage records, when it attacks its holder, there is a 90% chance it will target the throat.]**
**[Note: Guess what the remaining 10% chooses?]**
Xu Huo touched his throat. He currently only had one A-grade item, which he had taken from someone else. The effect range of "Life Core" was enough to cover an entire city, and melting metal structures brought lethality far beyond the item's base effect. In comparison, "Holder's Demise" could be called small but refined. Although it could only attack one target at a time, its 90% success rate in cross-grade kills was a value almost impossible to achieve in actual combat. Facing a 90% assassination success rate against high-grade players was equivalent to having the strength to fight head-on.
For example, when facing the Lou family at the Bird Tower earlier, he had almost no item that could directly counter their attacks. In just a few seconds of defensive combat, he had sacrificed two items, "Chair Facing Up" and "Compressed Air," and "Three Hundred and Sixty Defenses" had also suffered damage.
If he had used "Holder's Demise," at the very least, he could have bought himself a chance to escape.
Of course, having to assassinate the holder once before each use was a bit troublesome, but being able to precisely guard against it wasn't a major problem. A 10% uncertain probability wasn't high.
The special item, "Lifelike Wax Figure," was what Xu Huo considered the most valuable reward from this team reward. It was an attack-transfer item, similar in effect to the "Humanoid Doll" he had used before, which could replace the holder in bearing the risk of being killed once. While the "Humanoid Doll" mainly worked by disguising and diverting attention until it was completely destroyed or its time limit expired, the "Lifelike Wax Figure" genuinely bore the attack for the holder.
Simply worn on the body, it could predict the degree of damage an attack would cause to the holder. When the predicted value exceeded 50%, meaning the holder might be crippled, it would actively take the damage. Unless there was a specifically destructive attack, under normal circumstances, it could replace the holder in being "crippled" once a day.
And it was only the size of a keychain.
The biggest advantage of this item was that it could block attacks and damage that the holder couldn't detect. This was also the hardest thing to guard against when facing high-grade players' items and traits. Sometimes, the two sides didn't even need to confront each other; a subtle move in the shadows could end the battle.
Spiritual evolution allowed Xu Huo to avoid most of these risks, but it was for those moments when he couldn't react in time.
The two cubic meters of luggage compartment space was simple—just adding two cubic meters to the original, making the compartment a bit larger and less cramped.
The major trait upgrade could wait for now.
Xu Huo then looked at his personal rewards:
**[Due to your outstanding performance in this instance, you will receive one A-grade item, one B-grade item, five C-grade items, one new major trait, one item upgrade at no cost, one polar-capable aircraft, one tool robot, one Subclass Stone, 2 million White Notes in property, 50 high-grade potions, and 7 tickets.]**
(Chapter End)