Players, Please Board the Train

The contaminants in the laboratory building might not take long to grow. If the living specimen was put into the lab beforehand, it might not be able to withstand the contaminants, so its safety had to be considered before going in.

If he broke through the wall directly, he would at least have to reach the living specimen before the contaminant particles in the air did. Of course, Xu Huo himself was now covered in contaminants and was a “Pollution Source” too, so touching the specimen directly could also contaminate it.

After checking the time, Xu Huo melted the metal wall in front of him and crossed space, arriving instantly where the living specimen was in the lab. What appeared before him was a sealed black metal box, about as tall as an adult. A few ventilation holes were set one-third of the way up from the bottom. They were too narrow to see through, but he could hear a low moan that did not sound human.

With one slash of his sword, he cut off the metal box’s lid. He took out the painting from “World Within the Painting” and placed the Mutant, which was impatiently trying to crawl out, inside the Item. Once the frame closed, a hideously contorted face immediately appeared on the blank paper. Its mouth gaped open, but it could not speak, only roar.

“World Within the Painting” was a container Item given to him by the Curator of the Hundred-Person Art Gallery. It could hold two people alive for thirty days at a time. Whether players or ordinary people, entering the painting was equivalent to temporarily leaving the game, and they could not open their game panels either.

Of course, that did not mean there was no danger inside. After thirty days, anyone who had entered the painting would merge with the Item, which meant death. The player who had been put inside last time was already dead. Xu Huo had not yet had a sufficient opportunity to determine whether thirty consecutive days differed from thirty days with interruptions, but there was no need to consider that when using it to contain a human Mutant.

As he put away the Item, a great cloud of black dust poured in, filling every part of the laboratory in the blink of an eye.

He took the already contaminated Mutant specimen out of the cultivation container beside him and put it into the metal box. Just as Xu Huo was about to leave, he suddenly sensed movement ahead. He ducked sharply, and in the next second, a white Light Arc as wide as a palm sliced through the entire laboratory at waist height!

The force came from outside the building. Judging by the commotion, it had probably sliced through the entire building as well. The upper and lower halves did not remain in place; the top half slowly rose. At the same time, two players entered the building from different directions, charging straight toward Xu Huo with pinpoint accuracy.

The Invisibility Cloak could no longer conceal his figure. The contaminants clinging to it outlined his general shape. Without showing his face, he evaded the spatial barrier of the Female Player who had pursued him outside the building, then turned to meet another player, a man with a tattoo on his face.

The man wore a completely transparent Protective Suit. Although contaminants could still cling to it, their rate of reproduction was greatly reduced. Thus Xu Huo could make out not only the tattoo on his face, but also the bullet-like specks of light shooting from his hands.

“Fleeting Meteor Swarm!”

Before his words had even faded, dozens, then hundreds, of burning bullets shot out from beside him and surged toward Xu Huo like a meteor shower!

The Female Player chasing from behind quickly dodged, but she did not withdraw her Item. Instead, she used a spatial barrier to seal off Xu Huo’s escape route!

Caught between attacks from front and back, Xu Huo used “Three Hundred Sixty Defenses.” Dense white diamond-shaped blocks unfolded in the air, intercepting the “bullets” flying toward him with pinpoint precision. Though the diamond-shaped blocks could cancel out the bullets’ impact, each one disappeared after a single use. In the blink of an eye, nearly fifty of the Three Hundred Sixty Defenses had been spent.

Such a powerful attack was not entirely to his disadvantage. The scattered bullets shattered the Female Player’s spatial barrier, clearing the way behind him.

Changing direction, Xu Huo used “Go to Destination” to quickly get away from the building. But the instant he stepped out of the Item, his body began to float against his will. In a flash, his head and feet were reversed, and he fell toward the building ruins suspended high in the air. There, a player dressed as a clown and holding a huge scythe was staring at him upside down.

Being turned upside down felt like gravity had reversed, but Xu Huo could still feel blood rushing to his head. He used piano wire to adjust his direction, then activated “Go to Destination” again.

He should have been able to escape the zone of chaotic gravity with just one use of “Go to Destination.” But he had not traveled a thousand meters last time, and the same thing happened now. After leaving the Item, the distance covered shrank again, leaving him a mere two or three hundred meters away...

“Ehee!” The Clown Player suddenly appeared in front of him and raised the enormous scythe.

A white Light Arc swept horizontally through the air, slicing through all the nearby floating buildings from hundreds of meters away. But it did not hit Xu Huo. Seeing him plunge rapidly toward the ground, the Clown Player gave a strange laugh and dove after him.

In this area of chaotic gravity, the Clown Player was upside down, but moved just as freely as if he were standing normally. Thanks to this strange state, he could effectively fly without using a flying Item, while Xu Huo, unaccustomed to the gravitational pull, needed Items to move from side to side.

But the force controlling this chaotic gravity was not very strong. “Gentleman’s Bearing” could completely cancel out the pull dragging him backward toward the sky. He darted through the air and successfully entered a building on the ground.

With a ceiling overhead, the pull immediately weakened considerably. Xu Huo dodged the white Light Arc that cleaved straight down from above, took out his communicator, and sent a message telling Shangguan Xi and the vehicle to leave first.

“Eheehee!”

In the brief time it took to send the message, the building above him was sliced away again. Using his upside-down posture, Xu Huo rapidly closed in on the Clown Player. “Eye of the Dead” clashed with the man’s huge scythe, and Xu Huo then used “This Road Is Blocked” to force him back.

But the fact that his opponent could not approach him for the moment did not mean Xu Huo could leave. As soon as “This Road Is Blocked” took effect, an invisible force seized him. Although he immediately formed a barrier with “Concentrated Air,” one of his legs was still trapped in place.

“I want a discount!”

Xu Huo shouted the words toward the Clown Player, and his right leg immediately regained its freedom. But when he looked up, the Clown Player had already charged right at him again!

Furrowing his brow, Xu Huo reached out and grasped space, changing position without pause.

The Clown Player could keep up with his pace for the first few times, but the closer Xu Huo got to the edge of the chaotic-gravity zone, the slower his opponent became. By the time Xu Huo left the zone, the Clown Player could only use his scythe to widen the range of his attacks.

Noticing that his opponent did not want to leave the chaotic-gravity zone, Xu Huo went out, then quickly turned back. Sure enough, the instant he approached, the Clown Player retreated. Xu Huo parried the man’s scythe with “Eye of the Dead,” and in the clash of weapons, he raised his index finger and flicked the blade!

A sharp clang rang out, and a large hole appeared in the scythe’s blade. The smile on the Clown’s face, which had been grinning constantly as he let out strange laughter, visibly vanished. He opened his mouth and blurted, “Holy shit!”