The smoke hadn’t fully cleared, yet the silhouette illuminated by the bright light had vanished. Team Leader Wu’s face changed drastically when he saw this, and he shouted to Sima Xiao Er and the others, “Quick, we’ve been tricked. Back to the hospital, Xu Huo is still there!”
They had been coming for Xu Huo, and when they struck they left no rcy. They clearly didn’t care whether Xu Huo lived or died. If they really intended to level the hospital, they could have simply attacked;
there was no need to waste ti threatening the Special Defense Departnt. Giving a three-minute deadline was nothing more than a ploy to lure Xu Huo out!
The Special Defense Departnt’s bait had failed, and yet the triangle-masked players had walked away on their own. The only plausible explanation was that they had actually found Xu Huo!
This uncertainty gnawed at Team Leader Wu and the others. It was possible that while they were retreating, Xu Huo and his group had returned to the hospital!
But when Special Defense personnel re-entered the hospital, they found that the triangle-masked players had already withdrawn, and there were still no signs of Professor Lan or the others around the warehouse.
“What’s going on?”
“What’s going on?!” At the sa ti, the triangle-masked players were asking the sa question.
After being lured out of the hospital, so Special Defense mbers had scanned the inpatient building with items;
there were no signs of life. In other words, if Xu Huo hadn’t hidden in an ambulance to escape and hadn’t stayed concealed in the hospital, he should no longer be here. What surprised them, though, was that during their retreat they unexpectedly discovered Xu Huo alone less than five hundred ters from the hospital!
Without hesitation they followed. Xu Huo seed injured and moved slowly, which only spurred them on. Several players split up to encircle him and trapped him inside a shopping mall.
Before entering, it had indeed looked like a typical mall. Once inside, it turned into a nest of snakes: countless serpents crowded above and below, frenziedly coiling and biting at their limbs. Screams erupted.
Soone threw a grenade at the snake wall, but the blast failed to create an opening and instead roused an enormous python!
The giant constrictor flicked its tongue and reared its head, swallowing players whole one by one!
Watching their comrades die one after another, the survivors began to crack. They used every item they had, but facing such a massive swarm of snakes, a few items couldn’t turn the tide. With nowhere left to run, two players vanished from where they stood.
“They escaped into a dungeon,” Xu Huo said, standing nearby. His gaze moved from the giant python’s head to the rear. Under his influence, the giant serpent illusions that Zhou Ning’s characteristic had created beca not only more lifelike but also physically larger. Illusions couldn’t kill, though. Players swallowed by the python only lost consciousness briefly before tumbling to the ground, where Shen Xin and two others proceeded to harvest them.
For the triangle-masked players, this battle went extrely smoothly. The fight ended within about ten minutes. Hu Wenhu exclaid to Zhou Ning with delight, “Sister Ning, your characteristic has improved so much!”
“It should be the effect of the ga space,” Zhou Ning said, surprised. “I didn’t expect my characteristic to be doubled here.”
“If this space could be carried with us,” Hu Wenhu said cheerfully, “then going into dungeons would be a piece of cake.”
Xu Huo didn’t speak. This space was indeed anomalous, but it wasn’t targeting Zhou Ning—it was targeting him.
Previously in the Fog Zone hospital, he had been able to manipulate the hospital’s portal to bring players out because everyone’s consciousness was trapped;
the strength of his evolved ntal world had been enough to affect other players, which allowed him to succeed. But that influence was limited to the ntal world. Now, however, he had appeared outside the hospital and affected people in the real world.
This suddenly descending dark space seed custom-made for him, a perfect dium that allowed him to externalize his ntal power.
Without delving into the reasons, he hurried to explore and control this power. Cooperating with Zhou Ning had been a successful experint;
the effect was good, though not as extraordinary as he had imagined.
Xu Huo stood at the mall entrance and looked up toward a building a kiloter away, at its twelfth floor: at least his ntal power’s effective range wasn’t that large.
The hooded man on the twelfth floor hesitated instinctively when his binoculars accidentally t Xu Huo’s eyes, then muttered in disbelief, “How could he possibly spot !”
“Who are you?” a voice called from behind. The hooded man and several companions turned around hurriedly, and saw Xu Huo standing only a few ters away, calm and looking straight at them.
“How could this be…” The hooded man quickly raised his binoculars again to look back, but Xu Huo still stood at the mall entrance in his view, maintaining the posture of looking back at him.
After blinking hard, the image of Xu Huo in his sight finally disappeared.
He turned, removed his mask, revealing an androgynous face, and said, “We an no harm.”
Xu Huo glanced at him once, then dropped his gaze onto the man beside him, “Huang Junjie?”
The scarred man tore off his hat and mask and smiled, “Xu Huo, long ti no see. Let
introduce you—this is our Players Association vice president, Tan Yang, and the others are our companions.”
“A players’ association ford by civilians?” Xu Huo raised an eyebrow.
“Not exactly,” Huang Junjie said. “Aside from the Special Defense Departnt, other player groups are scattered—there are dozens of small teams of ten to twenty, and dozens to hundreds of larger organizations… Let’s sit down and talk.”
Xu Huo and Tan Yang sat facing each other. Huang Junjie sat to one side;
several other players either sat or stood behind Tan Yang.
“Do you mind if I notify the others to co back?” Tan Yang asked.
Xu Huo nodded, and a player behind him took out a phone and left.
“You might not fully understand the current dostic player situation,” Huang Junjie said after the others had walked away. “In just a few months, the number of players has exploded. Most sided with the Special Defense Departnt, but quite a few didn’t want to take governnt-backed jobs. These people spontaneously ford teams.”
“More teams have benefits and drawbacks. You just ran into the Iron Triangle people;
that group has backers and hunts players everywhere, stirring up trouble, and their ranks keep growing. Such infighting does no good for new players with weak foundations…”
“You want to consolidate new players and form an authoritative association, and you ca to see if I would join you,” Xu Huo stated bluntly.
Since his evolution, Xu Huo had spent most of his ti in dungeons, mostly training when he ca out, occasionally checking online news. Player organizations sprang up everywhere;
the wealthy and powerful wanted to recruit more people, which produced negative side effects. There were also so unclear forces at play.
Ting City’s environnt was relatively stable—no player groups were brawling in the streets—so he hadn’t paid those reports much mind. He hadn’t expected his own actions this ti to attract so many players and almost trigger a turf war.
Huang Junjie couldn’t read his reaction, so he turned to Tan Yang.
Tan Yang took the cue. “We’re here to ask you to serve as president of the Players Association.”
“Mr. Xu, you’re formidable and willing to stand up for players. If you beco president, you’ll bring many more players into the association. Once established, the association would be good for both players and ordinary people.”
“Many players don’t want to listen to the Special Defense Departnt, but the Special Defense Departnt has its rules. We must establish order among players too, to protect ourselves and our families.”
He spoke passionately, but Xu Huo’s eyes drifted to the players standing behind him.
They were spread at various distances, forming a solid protective ring around Tan Yang. When facing Xu Huo their posture still had the flavor of a tense negotiation.
“I don’t think you need
as president.” Xu Huo took a cigarette from his pocket and lit it.
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