Chapter 1644: Chapter 1644: Come Play in the Instance
Liao Jie dared to bring people to Tan-skinned City, he must have figured out the situation there. He knew Cong Yu was a key figure, not the strongest in Tan-skinned City, but the spiritual adhesive for the Tan-skinned City dwellers. Without him, so many players wouldn’t have stayed in Tan-skinned City.
So other people running away doesn’t matter, but he absolutely wouldn’t let Cong Yu go.
Obviously, Cong Yu also understood this, so he told his companions to leave first, while he stayed behind to distract Liao Jie and the others. At least until Liao Jie catches or kills him, they wouldn’t return to the building to deal with those children and injured players; and his companions who entered the game have time to return to Zone 013.
Cong Yu wasn’t seriously injured, but his escape under the attack of several players was very difficult, during which he was wounded many times, twice nearly dying from Liao Jie’s props.
However, with the interference from Tong Qi and Chi Xian who had rushed over, he managed to escape the city safely.
Tong Qi and Chi Xian knew what was happening at the abandoned building. After cursing a couple of times, they communicated with Xu Huo through a prop.
Among the players from Hope City, besides one Rank-B player, there were seven Rank-C players, the rest were Level D and Level E players.
For advanced players, Level D and Level E players might seem lacking, but in a small place like Zone 013, these people gathered together can become a fearsome force.
"It’s easy to deal with these people, but we must consider the aftermath," Chi Xian said. "We only have three people, and we might not be able to rescue the Tan-skinned City dwellers from those players in a short time. Once the Hope City people escape into the game, they’ll surely return, which doesn’t resolve the root problem, especially that Rank-B player."
"I understand," Xu Huo replied, "Temporarily, don’t try to seize those children. Try to lure them outside Tan-skinned City. There’s a giant red tree not far from the city’s entrance. Stop at that spot but try to bring Hope City’s players there."
Chi Xian and Tong Qi exchanged a glance, the former speaking into the prop, "Do you have a way?"
"You’re right, focus on the smaller target, not the larger one. It’s best not to let the advanced players escape," Xu Huo paused and added, "Soon I’ll have Cong Yu contact the players in Tan-skinned City; it’s easier to cooperate with local players."
After saying this, the prop was cut off. Tong Qi curiously asked the person beside him, "A Rank-B player may not necessarily defeat him, but escaping should be possible, right?"
"Think creatively," Chi Xian patted his shoulder, "Old Xu might have some limiting props or instances in his hand."
Tong Qi opened his mouth, momentarily unsure of what to say, then gave a thumbs up two seconds later, "He’s really impressive."
This was just Chi Xian’s guess. They didn’t take it seriously, as the current focus was to draw away the Rank-C players in the abandoned building. However, they didn’t feel much urgency, because saving Tan-skinned City was a whimsical decision, not a life-and-death necessity.
"Do you have any good methods?" Tong Qi asked Chi Xian, "It won’t be easy for the two of us to lure them out, right?"
Chi Xian pulled out a can of fungi collected from Zone 013, grabbed the brown fungi growing inside, and smeared it on Tong Qi’s protective suit. "The players from outer zones might not be interested, but Tan-skinned City players will act for sure."
Tong Qi was startled, "Is this poisonous?"
"Don’t worry, even if ingested, it’s just a matter of taking two antitoxin shots," Chi Xian said confidently.
Tong Qi hesitantly grabbed a handful and smeared it on himself too.
While the two were busy changing their appearances, Xu Huo had already intercepted Cong Yu and Liao Jie, along with two other Rank-C players and four Level D players.
Chi Xian and Tong Qi contacted him once when entering Tan-skinned City. He initially had the idea of using an instance to capture Hope City’s players all at once. But unexpectedly, he ran into Cong Yu and the others before even entering the city.
From ordinary Hope City inhabitants, he learned Hope City only had one Rank-B player. For a subdivision like Zone 013, a Rank-B player could almost determine the entire zone’s direction. So he had Hope City people wait in place and then proactively engaged, gathering them all into "The Seventeenth Hospital."
"The Seventeenth Hospital," affected by the disease on Yuguo’s Severed Hand, upgraded to a Level D random instance. It was last used while tracking Hua City clones to E19-023, with the same purpose as this time — to trap the players and prevent them from using tickets to escape.
Now that Hope City’s Rank-B player has entered the hospital, Xu Huo’s original plan is half completed.
At this moment, he was in the director’s office on the top floor of a building.
Cong Yu was the first to enter the hospital, as the seven people from Liao Jie were chasing, he couldn’t afford to look at the hospital rules posted on the first floor and rushed upstairs without looking back.
The later entrants, Liao Jie and his group, read the instance rules on the first floor.
"This is a spiritual instance," said a Level D player at the back with a grim expression. Meanwhile, another beside him had already seen the hospital rules, and the opening sentence "Not recommended for patients to read" made him immediately withdraw his gaze.
Not every player has entered a spiritual instance, but those who know will find spiritual instances troublesome. Because in other instances, all forces are traceable, only spiritual instances may produce many unexpected variables, as the human brain is hard to control, whether from outside interference or self-control.
In just half a minute, many bizarrely-shaped toxic fungi grew out in the hospital lobby, and a nurse staggered out from the rest room, raising her blue-purple ugly arm with rough sewing marks pointing at the hospital rules, stuttering, "Hospital, no, allow...sharp objects."
She was referring to the prop in Liao Jie’s hand.
Liao Jie remained still, his players behind him stepped forward to cut the nurse in half, intestines spilled all over, she was crawling on the ground, her mouth opened and closed—perhaps she was trying to call for help, but no sound came out.
However, this didn’t stop the hospital staff from running out to help, including nurses and security guards, all resembling the living dead, awkwardly coming up to press Liao Jie and the others.
How could Liao Jie allow himself to be captured? He kicked them away one by one, and after sensing the building’s situation with his prop, he stepped onto the stairs, instructing the others to hold off the hospital staff while he went alone to find Cong Yu.
Logically, the spiritual intensity of a Rank-B player should also strengthen with evolution, but after turning the staircase he could no longer hear the first floor’s sounds, so he couldn’t help but go back to see, yet what he saw was an empty lobby.